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City of London Burials Index
Among the records within our new City of London Burials Index are those for St Botolph’s Church, Aldersgate, which stands at the north-east corner of a remarkable London curiosity: Postman’s Park. This small park is named for the employees of the former principal Post Office, who used to frequent it during their lunch breaks. The Post Office no longer stands but the name has endured; the notion of endurance is in fact an essential element of the Park’s story.
George Frederic Watts
Postman’s Park is noteworthy because of the philanthropy at its core: a philanthropy inherited from its progenitor George Frederic Watts. Watts was a painter and sculptor whose work largely focused on the allegorical and symbolic, particularly an eschewing of money-worship. The son of a poor piano-worker, Watts harboured a degree of antipathy towards the upper classes and refused a baronetcy on two separate occasions.
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee
As well as sponsoring the Home Crafts and Industries Association, which taught art to the working classes, Watts also regularly donated his paintings to galleries such as the Tate which didn’t charge for admission. To mark the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Watts wrote to the The Times suggesting a memorial commemorating unsung heroes. The idea was entirely ignored by the relevant authorities.
The Tiles of Postman’s Park
Undeterred, Watts decided to take it upon himself to create this memorial, using Postman’s Park as his site. Watts commissioned and erected tiles in a public gallery; 13 in his lifetime with a further 30 erected by his wife Mary after his death. The tiles were made at first by William De Morgan, the later ones by Royal Doulton. The total number of tiles in the park now stands at 53.
The People of Postman’s Park
The example that Watts drew upon in his open letter was that of Alice Ayres, a young woman who died saving the lives of three children who were trapped in a burning house. Her story is a perfect illustration of the people commemorated by Watts’s tiles, as below:
Birth, Marriage and Death Records
Her record in the BMD index for 1885 shows that she was only 25 when she died.
Whilst Alice Ayres was herself a young woman, a number of the tiles refer to children who performed similar acts of selfless courage. For example, John Clinton drowned trying to save an even younger child from drowning:
His entry in the BMD indexes is below:
1891 Census
And his entry in the 1891 census
The wording of the tiles has a deeply affecting simplicity and economy of style. The acts of sacrifice picked out to be lionised have a resonance on their own, but a deeper one as a collection, illustrating a quiet nobility and courage present in the usually uncelebrated masses. William Freer Lucas was poisoned in saving a child’s life:
A search in the BMD records shows that he was himself only 23 years old at the time.
As well as the tiles, the memorial also houses a tribute to Watts himself.
The inscription reads:
In Memoriam George Frederick Watts who desiring to honour heroic self sacrifice
placed these records here
Online tour
An online panorama of the park can be viewed here.
Search for your ancestors
To see if your ancestors are buried in the grounds surrounding Postman’s Park, or any of the other burial grounds in the Square Mile, search the City of London Burial Indexes.
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