Alphons Eder-Street Musician

Alphons Eder was born in Laibach in 1837, the son of Franz Anton Eder a master tailor in that town and his wife Elizabeth. Alphons was baptised Joseph Alphons on 12th February 1837 in the church of St. Jakob, the day after he was born. The Baptismal certificate shows that the family were living at 109 Rosengasse, in the parish of St. Jakob and his Godparents were Joseph Kattauer, a tailor and Joseph Hudzelmann, a master cutter. The religion of Franz Eder as shown as Evangelisch.

Laibach, the capital of Slovenia, and at that time part of the Hapsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary, later reverted to its former name of Ljubljana. Settlement in the areas around the Ljubljana Gap dates back thousands of years. Legend has it the beginnings of the ancient settlement of Emona (Ljubljana) date back to the occasion when Jason and his Argonauts were returning home with the Golden Fleece. It is believed that they sailed up the Danube and Sava rivers and along the Ljubljanca, then took the Argo overland through the Postojnan Gap and down to the Adriatic Sea. On top of the Ljubljana’s Castle Hill the remains of a permanent settlement from the period of the Urnfield cultures (circa 1200 BC) have been discovered.

SLOVENIA

Whilst in the modern sense, Slovenia is one of the newest nation states, having been established in 1991 when it broke away from the Yugoslav federation, the people, language and culture date back more than two thousand years.

Other nations and empires have dominated the Slovene people for much of its history, but in most recent times the long four hundred-year domination by the Hapsburg dynasty of Austria-Hungary has been the most significant.

Whilst the Slovene language has survived as a separate ethnic entity, despite the fact that for most of the Hapsburg years, the official language was German. The national language and culture was oppressed in an attempt to curb latent nationalism. As is normal in these circumstances, the oppression for the most part fanned the flames of nationalism.

THE EDER FAMILY IN LAIBACH

Franz Eder was a master tailor living in Rose Street, in the parish of St Jakob in Laibach. He was presumably a reasonably prosperous man and has a relatively large family. The Eders had been established in the town for a number of years, and a bearer of that name Gabriel Eder had been burgermeister or Chief Magistrate there in 1676. Earlier there are records of Henrik Eder, a saddler by trade who owned property in a fashionable part of the town, and again in 1631 Janez Eder, also a saddler is recorded as having bequeathed several properties in the town to his widow.

Although it would appear that Franz Eder was a native of Ljubljana, we do not know when or where Franz married his wife Elizabeth Bader. The ceremony did not take place in Ljubljana, as there is no trace of a marriage for them in any of the city’s churches. Their first child also named Franz was born in 1830. Their next child was Jacob Maximilian born in 1832. Joseph Alphons was next in 1837, followed by Maria in 1839, Mathilde in 1841 and Augusta in 1844. All of these children were baptised in the parish church of Saint Jacob.

CENSUS ENTRIES

The census taken in Ljubljana in 1837 did not show the name of the street that the family was living in, however they were in the parish of St. Jakob.

The census showed that Franz was born in 1810 and Maria in 1809, however their places of birth is not shown.

Also listed were their children Alphons, Augusta, Franz, Jacob, Maximillian, Maria and Mathilda.

The next census available was that taken on the 31st October 1857.

By this time, Franz appears to have been widowed, as Maria is not shown.
However there is a Rosina Eder shown as his spouse, she was born in 1827, which makes her some 17 years younger than Franz. WE have not been able to identify a marriage for Franz to Rosina in any of the Laibach parishes.

Also still at home were the children Max, Alphons, Maria and Augusta, all noted as being children of the first marriage. Mathilde is not listed, and it may well be that she was married by that time and therefor not living at home.

Also living in the house was Anton Danelow, an assistant tailor and Francesca Suntiger a housemaid.

The census taken on 31st December 1869 carried a few more details.

Franz Anton is shown as having been born in Laibach.
His wife is listed as Rosina Eder and she had been born in Oudenborg, Hungary.
The son Maximilian is listed as having been away from home since 1864, with a comment that appears to mean that he is travelling as an apprentice.

Alphons is described as a musician, married and having left Ljubljana in 1854.

The daughters, 30 year old Maria and twenty-five year old Augusta are shown as still unmarried, living at home, and occupied in helping in the house. Also in the household is nine year old Maria Theresa Romer from Trieste, who is listed as Pflegetochter (perhaps Foster daughter). The relationship here is not clear.

JOURNEY FROM LAIBACH TO LONDON.

Joseph Alphons arrived in London between 1857, when he was still at home with his family and 1862 when he married. Obviously having been known as Alphons all his life this is how he appears in all British records.

Alphons left no record of his journey to London, so that we can only surmise at the route he may have taken. However, on the 1861 English census he is listed as being on board the British warship HMS Ganges as a Bandsman. Presumably he was serving in the Royal Marines although we have been unable to confirm this, nor have we been able to establish how long he served.

The railway line between Laibach and Trieste had recently been completed and this may have facilitated the start of his journey in that direction. From Trieste there were regular ferry services to Italy and he could then have continued overland from there.

However the railway also established a link to Vienna, and from there most of the major European cities could be reached either by rail or by road. So it is likely that this journey would have been accomplished with a combination of rail and road travel.

The distance from Laibach to London is something over 950 miles (over 1500 km) depending on the route and a journey of that length, at that time would have taken many weeks.

It is fanciful to suppose that Alphons took a route, which included Salzburg and then on to Frankfurt and possibly nearby Marburg where he may well have met his future bride, Elizabeth Dietz who had gone to Germany in 1854. However she was only twelve years of age when Alphons is said to have left Laibach in 1856.

It may also be, that as Alphons spent the whole of his working life as a travelling musician, his journey from home to London may well have taken some years instead of weeks, if he was travelling with a band or other group of itinerant musicians, working as they went.

ARRIVAL IN LONDON

We are not sure when Alphons arrived in London, although the first firm date is his marriage in 1862 to Elizabeth, but we have not been able to trace either of them in the East London area on the 1861 census.

At this time there was a regular steam packet service from London to Rotterdam which had connections to vessels travelling up the Rhine, and this was a route regularly used by those going to and from central Germany.

CONTRAST WITH SLOVENIA

It is natural to think of those migrating to foreign parts from their homelands to be seeking a better life for themselves. And whilst the economic prospects for the inhabitants of Slovenia, as in many other parts of central Europe in the mid nineteenth century was not good, nonetheless to go to the overcrowded east end of London, where the prospects were not better, seems a strange decision for anyone to make. And one can only ponder on the motivation, which brought this about. It has been estimated that due to the agricultural depression in the middle years of the century, over 50% or the populated of Slovenia left the country between 1850 and 1900

Consider the contrast between Laibach and London. The former containing less than 300,000, inhabitants, the later over one million souls, crammed into overcrowded streets and alleyways. A short climb up the hill to the castle which overlooked Laibach, would provide a view to the Julian Alps, 50 miles or so away gleaming in the summer sunshine or snowcapped in winter; a climb to the parapet surrounding the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, on most days would provide no country views. Though there was countryside in the near vicinity of London, this was rarely visible being mostly concealed behind a pall of smoke from the numberless chimneys, atop grates burning the dirtiest of fuels- coal. Even Sydenham Hill, the site of the Crystal Palace from the Great Exhibition of 1851, a bare eight miles distances was rarely visible through the smoke haze.

GERMANS BANDS

From the English records available, it would appear that Alphons spent all his life as a musician, but what instrument or instruments he played we do not know. It is reasonable to suppose that he had received some musical education in his hometown and possibly attended the Laibach conservatoire of Music.

Most family recollections of Alphons activity as a musician, was as a player in a German Band. His occupation was shown as “Musician” or “Street Musician” in all the records that we have seen. German Bands were a part of the East End street scene for decades prior to the First World War. Apparently not all the members were of German descent, but all would no doubt have been native German speakers.

The German bands for the most part played in the street, outside public houses and so on, but were also in demand for weddings and similar functions for the substantial German community living in East London. Bands were also regular parts of the interval entertainment at the various Music Halls. There was a well established Music Hall, Wiltons, in Wellclose Square, based at the rear of the Prince of Denmark Public House, which later became known as the Old Mahogany Bar. A local musician would no doubt have found at least occasional work there, however Wiltons closed in 1880 and the building later became a Wesleyan Mission Hall.

We do not know what part Alphons played in the band, the instrument that he played, or the type of music that was the repertoire. Presumably they would play the old folk songs from the homeland when engaged in a German speaking function, but would have to be conversant with the popular music of the time when playing at more general functions and in the street.

MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

Alphons married Elizabeth Dietz, the daughter of a deceased German émigré, Balthasar Dietz at the Anglican Church of St. Phillips Stepney on 16th March 1862. The witnesses to the marriage were Sarah Dietz and Christopher Mallet, Elizabeth’s stepmother and stepbrother.

Elizabeth Dietz was born in York Street, Mile End Old Town in May 1844, and was therefor a little short of her 18th birthday at the time of her marriage. Her mother had died when she was two years old. Her father, Balthasar Dietz remarried in 1851 when he was the proprietor of a Beer House. In 1854, Balthasar left London for a journey to visit his parents in his home village of Nordeck in Hesse, taking the ten year old Elizabeth with him. The pair did not reach Nordeck, Balthasar dying in unknown circumstances in Cologne. Elizabeth continued the journey to the home of her Grandparents and remained there for some time. The exact length of her stay in Germany is not clear. There are records of guardianship proceedings in Nordeck, but the details are not clear and the last entry is dated 1866, which is after the marriage of Elizabeth to Alphons.

Although Alphons had been baptised in the Catholic Church of St. Jacob in Ljubljana, it would appear that he was not a practicing catholic. The baptism of the Eder children in the catholic church even though their father was a protestant, may have been because Elizabeth Bader, their mother, was a catholic.

Alphons and Elizabeth had ten children of which we are aware.

Alphonso who was always known as Edward was born on Monday 20 July 1863 in 3 Upper Berner Street, St. George in the East

Elizabeth was born on Wednesday 12 Jul 1865 in City of London Lying in Hospital, City Road, Finsbury. We do not know where the family was living at that time.

Augusta was born on Saturday 4 Jan 1868 also at City of London Lying in Hospital. Sadly she only survived for less than three months, dying at the family home at 4 Mary Ann Street.

Francis was born in December 1870 in St. George in the East. He was the second child to bear this name, an earlier Francis, born on 12th March 1869, in the Lying in Hospital had died at the age of one.

Augusta Mary was born on Tuesday 13th May 1873, again in City of London Lying in Hospital. By this time the family had moved to 114 Pennington Street.

Louisa was born on Friday 7th May 1875 in the London Lying in Hospital

Rosina was born 1877 in Pennington Street, St George in the East

Lucy was born on Sunday 5th Oct 1879 in 114 Pennington Street St George in the East, however she died 19th February 1880. The cause of death is given as Tabes mesenterica, bronchitis.

The last child, Mary was born on 4th February 1881 and lived for only two weeks. The cause of deaths was shown as convulsions.

City of London Lying in Hospital.

Elizabeth Eder had five confinements at the City of London Lying in Hospital in City Road Finsbury. There were four lying-in hospitals established in mid-18th century London.
These hospitals were principally intended for the "wives of poor Industrious Tradesmen or distressed House-keepers" and the wives of Soldiers and sailors. The large teaching hospitals did not usually admit women for childbirth before the late 19th century, though their medical students and staff delivered women in their own homes.

The City of London Lying In Hospital, City Road, Finsbury was founded in 1750 for married women only. It was moved to Old Street in 1773 and was renamed the City of London Maternity Hospital in 1918.

In order to qualify for admission to the hospital, women needed to be nominated or recommended by someone of standing with the hospital, usually a clergyman. The nomination entry against Elizabeth was mostly “Barnet”. This was probably Father Samuel Barnet, the vicar of St. Judes, Commercial Street, Whitechapel. Samuel Barnet and his wife Henrietta were well known in the east end, Samuel founding Toynbee Hall and his wife prominent in the setting up of the rather more up-market Hampstead Garden Suburb. The Eders never appear to have actually lived in the parish of St. Jude, however there may have been some other connection with the church.

WHERE THEY LIVED

From the various documents we have examined, the family moved frequently in the early days of the marriage as was fairly normal in those days, however most of the places that they lived were within the proverbial stones throw of each other.

In 1863, they were living at Upper Berner Street, just off the Commercial Road. The family address is not shown on the birth certificate of Elizabeth born in 1865, but by 1869 they had moved to 4, Mary Ann Street, Stepney, a short distance away from Berner Street. By the following March they had moved to 7 Thomas Place, Thomas Street, Stepney, which is just off Pell Street. On the 1871 census they were at 1 Pinchin Street, quite close to the former address in Mary Ann Street, but two years later, when Augusta May was born, the address was shown as 114 Pennington Street, Stepney.

They appeared to have stayed there for a number of years, but on the 1891 census they are listed at St. George’s Court, off St. George’s Street, Stepney, the former notorious Ratcliffe Highway. On the 1901 census, Alphons is shown as living with his daughter Elizabeth and her family at 13 Mayfield buildings, where he was still residing at the time of his death in 1914.

Although we know these addresses, with the exception of Mayfield Buildings, it is very difficult to establish what kind of accommodation they had. Very few descriptions of the streets of Whitechapel and Stepney have survived, and in any case, being spread over a thirty odd year period, the streets could have changed during that time.

Housing for the most part in the East End was of a poor standard, even by the standards of the time, and rents were relatively high. Rooms were small but nevertheless, it was not common for a family, no matter how large, to occupy a whole house to themselves. Mostly two or three rooms were all they could afford. Working class families often had very few belongings, so moving from one set of rooms to another presented no great difficulty. A borrowed costermongers handcart or horsedrawn van easily accommodated the meagre possessions of the average East End family. "Moonlight flits" were the norm for those behind with the rent.

Because of the itinerant nature of Alphons’ occupation, one must suppose that they could move at will, without this affecting his earning capacity. Most of their addresses were in what could vaguely be called the Whitechapel area. A cosmopolitan district, containing many nationalities.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, horsedrawn vehicles abounded, and there was still a hay market in Whitechapel every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday until 1928

The Harrington brothers, Albert and Bob, were both hay carters and had a regular route from their home in Epping, bringing hay up to the Whitechapel Hay market. No doubt this was where they met the two Eder sisters, whom they subsequently married and who were probably working in the vicinity.

DEATH OF ELIZABETH

In addition to the death of the infant, Mary, 1881 also saw the death of Elizabeth. She died at the age of 37 on Tuesday 16th Aug 1881 in the German Hospital, Hackney of ptithisis pulmonum. This form of Tuberculosis was very common in those days and was sadly similar to the disease, which caused the premature death of her own mother at the age of 23. Presumably Elizabeth qualified for treatment in this hospital because of her German descent.

The fifteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth was then left to cope with being ”mother” to her two brothers and three younger sisters. It is likely that this would have required her to giver up her job as a matting weaver, as the two youngest siblings were under five years old. But then again they may have been able to make other arrangements to enable Elizabeth to continue working. Next door, the widowed Catherine Keefe, mother in law of the Henry Worsfold may well have been able to look after the youngsters during the day. The Worsfold family included the twenty-four year old William, also a matting weaver, whom Elizabeth would go on to marry four years later.

DEATH OF ALPHONS

Alphons died on 2nd June 1914 in the St. George’s Infirmary. An inquest was held and the verdict was that the cause of death was Bronchitis accelerated by fall off a stool in his yard. Unfortunately no record remains of the proceedings of the inquest so we have no knowledge of the circumstances of his fall. At the time of his death, Alphons was living at 13 Mayfield Buildings, presumably with is eldest daughter, Elizabeth and her family.

LIFE IN 19TH CENTURY LONDON

The east end in the latter half of he nineteenth century has been very fully documented from J Hollinghead’s “ Ragged London in 1861” through to Jack London’s “People of the Abyss’ of 1902, with “Children of the Jago” by Arthur Morrison and numerous reports and newspaper series and Social histories in between. In addition, the literally thousands of books about the Whitechapel murders of “Jack the Ripper’, most of which contained graphic illustrations of living conditions in the area. Of course not all the murders took place in Whitechapel.

Hollingshead commenced his chapter on the area by sneeringly referring to “Blackchapel” and “St. George in the dirt”. This totally ignored the fact that at that time, dirt was a fact of life for rich and poor alike. Even the wealthiest then washed less frequently than the most water shy schoolboy of today. Writers preferred to dwell on the dark, ill-lit alleyways and courtyards, swarming with dirty, semi- naked street urchins. The in-habitants of these ghettos were generally portrayed as thieves and prostitutes or those not a great deal better. Here and there arc brief mentions of “respectable families” and in some instances “respectable streets’’, but the implication always is that they are in a very small minority.

These observations are also coloured by the racial and other prejudices of the time. The Irish cockneys were invariably drunken, the Jews sly and the German evil looking. Local police were often quoted with scant recognition of the built in bias of the profession, which saw crime and criminals everywhere.

Little notice is taken, of what should have been patent fact, borne out by the information gained in the ten yearly censuses. Street af-ter street of families where the adult members of the household had jobs or followed a trade. Admittedly the burglar is not going to tell the census taker that he is a thief, but it is fanciful to suppose that the average burglar was a family man, as patently the vast majority of male adults were.

However, all these contain for the most part, generalisations coupled with specific instances of particularly horrific circumstances in which some families lived which were often written in order to postulate a particular point of view of the time. Hollingshead and London were both reporters and therefor their writings were aimed at a particular audience. Other writers, social reformers, clergymen working in the area, and the like, all had their particular axe to grind.

So all these generalised writings are of little help in trying to establish how and in what circumstances our own families lived and thrived in the overcrowded poverty and destitution that was the lot of most of the inhabitants of the east end.
Yes, there was darkness. Gas street lamps, where they existed, provided little illumination in narrow streets. alleyways and courtyards. In many streets, the only light was provided by the flaring lamps in the doorways and rooms of the public houses, beacons to the only places of cheer and warmth in a miserable and cold world.

Oil lamps and candles lighted most households. Few houses had an internal water supply, even by the end of the century. For the most part water came from standpipes and pumps shared by the whole street.

The lack of a regular supply of wholesome water, was a problem for everyone. The last great cholera outbreak had been in 1856 but it was not until two years later that John Snow was able to prove the connection between the disease and infected water supplies

Foods for most part sold loose and in “penny packets” was sold from open shops and street stalls in an unhygienic way that are al-most unbelievable today.

Clothing was generally rough and poorly made in ‘sweated’ workshops, and many, because of poor wages, could only afford secondhand clothes purchased from the pawnshops or the stalls in Petticoat Lane or Rosemary Lane. Barefoot children were common even in the coldest winters.

The only real evidence as far as our own families are concerned, lies in the accommodation shown on the various censuses. In I 891. Alphons, his son Edward and the three unmarried daughters shared 2 rooms in a 4-roomed house in St. George’s Court, off St. George’s Street. The occupiers of the other two rooms were a Cheshire born dock labourer and his Irish wife in one, and a sin-gle twenty-nine year old Carman from Wapping and his three un-married sisters in the other.

In 1881, however, Alphons, his wife and six children had occupied the whole of a four-bedroomed house at 114 Pennington Street. His neighbours were the Worsfolds on one side and a Norwegian dock labourer and his family on the other.

Prior to this they lived in various four roomed houses at the addresses we have mentioned, but we have no means of knowing how many rooms they occupied at any one time.

The occupation of the whole of the house in Pennington Street in 1881 implies that at this time at least, the family was in receipt of a reasonable income, albeit the older children were employed, and could thus contribute to the household. There is no evidence of the income that Alphons would have enjoyed as a musician. In one of the surveys carried out at this time, a street musician told a researcher that it was not uncommon for members of German bands to earn in the region of three pounds a week. That was a substantial income for this time, and well above that being earned by Dockers and the like. Whether the reduction to two rooms in 1891 indicated a lessening in circumstances, we do no know.

CHILDREN

Alphonso (Edward) Eder
The first child of Alphons and Elizabeth was born in 1863 and as far as we know he did not marry. He died in 1922 in St. Gorge in the East. Although Edward was not a musician, his nieces recall that he played the violin well. It is also recalled that he once visited Trieste some time in the 1920s or perhaps during his military service and there met with members of his father’s family who had a business there. On the 1881 census, at the age of 17, his occupation is shown as a coconut matting weaver. On the 1901 census there is an Edward Eder, aged 37 as a Private in the army, stationed in Southampton.

Elizabeth Eder the eldest daughter born in 1865, married William Worsfold at the age of 20 and lived to the age of 91. Elizabeth was also shown as a matting weaver in 1881 at the age of 15. The couple married in 1885 and had nine children. In 1891 they were living at 112 Pennington Street and in 1901 at Mayfield Buildings.

Augusta Eder, born in January 1868 lived for less than three months

Francis Eder born in March 1869 died before he was two years old

Francis Eder born in 1871, the second child to bear this name married Elizabeth Walsh in 1898
They had two children, John who died at the age of 16, and Catherine who lived until she was just under three years of age. In 1891 the 20 year old Francis was shown as a cork packer on the census. On the 1901 census, Francis, whose occupation was then a warehouseman, and his wife were living in St. George in the East with two year old John. Francis died in 1950.

Augusta Mary Eder (Aunt Gus) was born in 1873 and married Albert Isaac Harrington in 1898. They had six children. As a young woman Augusta also went into a mat weaving shop. On the 1901 census the couple were living in St. George in the East and Albert was shown as a horse dealer.

Louisa Eder born in 1875 married Robert Harrington (the brother of Albert) in 1902. They had three children. Louisa at the age of 16 was working as a shop girl. We do not know where she was living in 1901.

Robert and Louisa spent most of their lives in High Beeches, Loughton, and the East End families were obviously pleased to have these country cousins, as they received regular visitors. As an old man, “Uncle Bob” operated a coconut shy at the annual fair at Loughton.

Rosina Eder always known as Rose was born in 1877. She married James Mahoney in 1899
Great aunt Rose became a midwife, and the story is that she supervised the births of a great number of her nephews and nieces.
In 1901 the couple were living at St. Giles in the Fields, where James Mahoney’s occupation is shown as a flower seller.

Lucy Eder was born in 1879 and died in the following year.

Mary Eder, born in 1881, lived for two weeks

THE RIPPER CONNECTION

Everyone who does family history research in and around the Whitechapel and Stepney areas, will no doubt find a connection with some street, alley, pub or what have you that features in the Jack the Ripper events of 1887/1889

We however have perhaps more “connections” than most, even though some thirty years or so separate the events. Nonetheless it is an interesting sidelight.

The “Ripper” story is too familiar to require repeating, except to say that between 26th December 1887 and 13th February 1891, the bodies of twelve women were found in the Whitechapel, Aldgate, Stepney area, most of whom had been horribly mutilated.

To work backwards. The coroner who presided over the inquest of Alphons Eden was Wynne E. Baxter, who has also carried out the inquests on five of the Ripper victims in 1888 and 1889,

Elizabeth Stride the third Ripper victim was found dead in the yard at the rear of the international Workingmen’s Educational Club in Berner Street, in September 1888. The Eders had lived in Berner Street, and as this club catered in the main for German speaking migrants since its establishment in 1885, it is not un-likely that Alphons had visited, or even played there.

Pinchin Street, where the Eders resided in 1871, was the location of the finding of a woman’s headless torso, without limbs or head in September 1888. This was speculated as being the work of Jack the Ripper, but the police tended to dismiss that theory, although the body was never identified.

In August 1888. Martha Tabram was found murdered in George Yard Buildings which lie behind St. Judes Church, where the in-cumbent was Samuel Barnet previously mentioned in connection with Elizabeth Eder’s confinements at the Lying in Hospital.

Finally, the public houses of the area featured prominently in the stories of the various Ripper Victims. The German Bands spent most Sunday mornings at these venues and the nearby street markets entertaining the crowds of customers and onlookers.

One can only speculate on how Alphons Eden considered these events at the comfortable distance that they lived when they occurred as to how close they had been twenty years previously.

FACT AND PERHAPS FICTION

In 189I Charles Booth published the results of his survey into the life of the poor of London, Researchers visiting every street in London had carried out this survey and assessing its level of poverty which was then copied onto a colour-coded map. Local policemen who provided background material usually accompanied the researchers.

The exercise was repeated in 1896 in the same way. Whilst in South London, the researchers for the most part were accompanied by the local police sergeant, in our part of the East End it was a local Police Inspector who did the honours. Rather more jaundiced comments are in evidence from this man than those from his south London juniors.

The notebooks of the researchers have survived and the comment against Mayfield Buildings goes thus:

"The worst place in the subdivision, not a male in the street above school age that has not been convicted. Thieves, prostitutes, rough Cockney Irish. Broken dirty windows, bareheaded women. Doors open, black shiny doorposts, has been the bain of Princes Square, a quiet country like place “

This somewhat begs the question that if there were so many thieves about, would folk leave their front doors open and even in those days it was not a crime for a woman not to wear a hat!

In 1891 the occupants of Mayfield Buildings included:

At Number 14 was John Wiegold a Labourer in a Tea Warehouse with his wife Kate, six children and his mother in law, occupying four rooms and Henry Aster, a dock Labourer, his wife Louise and four young children occupying one room.

At Number 13 John Cauley and his wife in one room. An American seaman William Clifford and his wife and four teenage daughters in three rooms and William Lister a labourer and his wife and daughter in one room

Number 12 a four roomed house contained William Groom and his wife Hannah and two children, together with Hannah’s widowed sister Rebecca Bragg, and her two unmarried brothers Charles and Thomas Worsfold

Number 11 housed John Snow a general labourer, his wife Emily and three children with a young nephew in one room. Charles Brown, a meat cutter and his wife and daughter in another room. Seventy-year-old widow Emma Collins and her unmarried son, a stevedore occupied the third room and Johanna Sullivan, a sackmaker from Ireland, and her daughter had the fourth.

Number 10 had only two rooms occupied these by Audrey Marakiam, a boot finisher from Finland and Mary Jordan a widow and her boarder Erie Mihahel a Finnish seaman.

Number 9 also had only two rooms occupied, wherein resided Bridget Brise from Ireland, together with her son and a male visitor from Ireland.

Number 8 was a six roomed house each room being occupied by a separate family. These included. Thomas Smith, a dock la-bourer and his tailoress wife and working daughter, Joseph Cummings a shoeblack, his tailoress wife and school age daughter, Frederick Arnold a labourer with wife and two children, and James Carney a Carpenter and his wife. The other two rooms were occupied individually by Mary Lay, a matmaker and Mary Budd a 60 year old tailoress.

Number 7 also had single rooms occupied families: the widow Alice Techniss a sack maker and her three children. Patrick Seeley, a general labourer and his wife, Richard White who
worked in the docks his wife Ann and four young children and Catherine Braine a widowed canvas worker and her son and daughter.

This is not the whole court— but does this sound like the place described by the Police Inspector only six years later?

St George and the Dragon

In his later years, Alphons would no doubt have sat on his stool, either in the yard or in the occasional sunshine at the front door of the house watching the comings and goings in the court. His mind would inevitably have gone back to the days of his youth and he would have remembered the good times in his old home. After 1895, it would not have bee the same place that he had left, and he was no doubt aware of that. In that year, an earthquake devastated Ljubljana (still Laibach) and much of the present day city is the result of the subsequent rebuilding.

The symbol of Ljubljana is the dragon and as Alphons sat on his step in the parish of St George one would hope that whatever dragons had driven him from his homeland had finally been defeated.

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