Changes evident in1891 Marylebone

Sometime between 1881 and 1891, the Parker family moved from Huntsworth Mews to Earl Street. Perhaps this was because the family had shrunk with the older children leaving home and Ann Watson no longer staying with them. The 1891 census records just 5 people in the household, as opposed to the 12 listed ten years earlier.

Actually, I struggled to find Earl Street in the pages cataloguing London streets. Unlike Hunstworth Mews, it didn't pop up on property websites offering centrally-located residential accommodation. I wondered whether it had been bombed in the war and had to be cleared, but that wasn't the case. It turns out that the name of the street was changed in the early 19th century to Broadley Street, and that it is, in fact, very close to huntsworth Mews. The only difference is that Huntsworth Mews comprises terrace houses while Broadley Street consists mostly of flats.

As before, while researching the history of the area, I was astonished at what I found. What is today a bustling area of London, alive with night life and exhibitions, was once overrun with rats and rampant with disease. Just down the road in Lisson Grove, a veritable rabbit warren of hovels was built on ground poisoned by cess-pits, and thieves and murderers were said to be lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on anyone who could relieve their grinding poverty and hunger. Maude would have been familiar with the nearby Marylebone Workhouse and the foundlings who ended up there. I doubt she could have harboured any sentimentality amidst such deprivation. On the contrary, I wouldn't be surprised if, at age 11, she was a tough pre-teen herself.

It isn't clear how many times Jane Parker, her mother, gave birth after Maude arrived in the world. What the 1891 census tells us is that young Alfred Parker was born in 1884, bringing the number of children in the family up to ten. Perhaps there was another child between him and Maude, say in 1882, who succumbed to illness, but I will have to search for a birth record to check that. At any rate, Maude must have been exposed to some pretty gruesome sights, smells and sounds in her formative years.