|
|
|
We then proceeded down Horseferry Road towards the Westminster Baptist Church where Gertrude attended Sunday School, perhaps other brothers and sisters as well - their mother Clara became a staunch Baptist. The present building was constructed in 1934 after the original chapel in Romney Street was destroyed |
|
|
|
|
Site of old Chapel | |
|
|
|
|
The new young Minister went into the vaults and showed us the old ledgers which were used during the time that Gertrude attended Sunday School. At present the church has a congregation of only 20 for services and there aren't enough children in the area to warrant holding a Sunday School. |
|
|
|
|
We then walked down Wood Street (now Great Peter Street) and stopped outside no 12 where Gertrude's four brothers lodged with a Mr and Mrs Poulter in 1901. Only the girls remained at 23 Millbank Street with their parents. From "Victorian London" We must not omit to mention an admirable establishment set on foot by the Earl of Ellesmere, Lord Kinnaird, and others, in Peter Street, where, in three houses, are 117 beds, the charge made for each of which is 3d. per night. At the back of these houses are a series of cottages for families, which, having been recently erected, are not yet fully inhabited. In this establishment is a sitting-room for the lodgers- an excellent kitchen, washing-place, &c., and all the rooms are well aired and ventilated. Perhaps this is the type of establishment where the Goldsmith boys were boarded out? |
|
|
|
|
|
We then stood and admired the magnificent St Johns Church in Smith Square where the older Goldsmith children were christened and tried to visualise how it looked around 1890 |
|
|
|
|
We then found ourselves facing the Thames and Millbank Street and the exact spot where the Goldsmiths lived between 1881 to around 1910 |
|
|
|
We tried to imagine how Millbank Street must have looked being dominated by the tower of the Houses of Parliament. See the Booth Surveys in greater detail click |
|
|
|
|
We turned the corner onto Westminster Bridge just as dusk was falling and looked back at the area we had just visited, we felt the walk had made our family history come to life! |
|
|
According to the current Goldsmith generation no members of the family live in Westminster anymore and no Birds that we know of. Possibly some descendants of Arthur who settled in Lambeth in the 1880's |
|
|
|
|