These drawings were done in the 1880s when some Romany folk came to rest temporarily on Hackney Marshes; the man top left is a knife-grinder, at work at his portable lathe.
In the late 19th century, certain parts of London and its surrounds were known for their gypsy encampments – including Wandsworth, Notting Dale and Epping. In the extract below, from his 1874 book Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany; or English Gypsy Language, George Henry Borrow claims that many travelling people began to settle down in houses, abandoning life on the road. He identified the eastern part of the Old Nichol as one spot where this forsaking of canvas and caravans for bricks and mortar was taking place.
Borrow is mistaken, however, in thinking there was ever a friary on the spot (the area had been monastery land once, but “Friars Mount” actually refers to the fact that a farmer called Fryer had tilled the land in the 18th century). And he over-emphasises the criminality of the Nichol residents. Plus his anti-Catholicism is at full volume here.
“Not far from Shoreditch Church, and at a short distance from the street called Church Street [now Redchurch Street], on the left hand, is a locality called Friars Mount, but generally for shortness called The Mount. It derives its name from a friary built upon a small hillock in the time of Popery, where a set of fellows lived in laziness and luxury on the offerings of foolish and superstitious people, who resorted thither to kiss and worship an ugly wooden image of the Virgin, said to be a first-rate stick at performing miraculous cures. The neighbourhood, of course, soon became a resort for vagabonds of every description, for wherever friars are found, rogues and thieves are sure to abound; and about Friars Mount, highwaymen, coiners and gypsies dwelt in safety under the protection of the ministers of the miraculous image.
“The friary has long since disappeared, the Mount has been levelled, and the locality built over. The vice and villainy, however, which the friary called forth still cling to the district. It is one of the vilest dens of London, a grand resort for housebreakers, garotters, passers of bad money and other disreputable people, though not for Gypsies; for however favourite a place it may have been for the Romany in the old time, it no longer finds much favour in their sight, from its not affording open spaces where they can pitch their tents. One very small street, however, is certainly entitled to the name of a Gypsy street, in which a few Gypsy families have always found it convenient to reside, and who are in the habit of receiving and lodging their brethren passing through London to and from Essex and other counties east of the metropolis.
“There is something peculiar in the aspect of this street, not observable in that of any of the others, which one who visits it, should he have been in Triana of Seville, would at once recognise as having seen in the aspect of the lanes and courts of that grand location of the Gypsies of the Andalusian capital.
“The Gypsies of the Mount live much in the same manner as their brethren in the other Gypsyries of London. They chin the cost [make clothes pegs], make skewers, baskets, and let out donkeys for hire. The chief difference consists in their living in squalid houses, whilst the others inhabit dirty tents and caravans. The last Gypsy of any note who resided in this quarter was Joseph Lee; here he lived for a great many years, and here he died, having attained the age of ninety. During his latter years he was generally called Old Joe Lee, from his great age. His wife or partner, who was also exceedingly old, only survived him a few days. They were buried in the same grave, with much Gypsy pomp, in the neighbouring churchyard. They were both of pure Gypsy blood, and were generally known as the Gypsy king and queen of Shoreditch. They left a numerous family of children and grandchildren, some of whom are still to be found at the Mount.
“This Old Joe Lee in his day was a celebrated horse and donkey witch – that is, he professed secrets which enabled him to make any wretched animal of either species exhibit for a little time the spirit and speed of ‘a flying drummedary.’ ”
There is more on Hackney Marshes and travellers in the 19th century, plus a fab photo, here: