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SOUTHWARK TALES 2

DULWICH : the Good, the Bad and the Arty

Tollgate

Acacia Grove

THE BAD

Among the quiet suburban streets of Dulwich lurk memories of the infamous wartime traitor, William Joyce. Lord Haw Haw left for Germany in 1938. His house (1923-27) at No 7 Allison Grove was said to be the first to be bombed in Dulwich. After the war he was tried for treason and hung on 3rd January 1946 - wrongly, many assert, for he was never a British citizen and the case rested on his possessing a fraudulently acquired British passport.

Belair Park and House

Allison Grove

THE ARTY

Dulwich Picture Gallery , the first in the country and designed by Sir John Soane, was opened in 1814. It was founded as a bequest to Dulwich College in the will of Sir Francis Bourgeois who, with Noel Desenfans, had assembled a great collection substantially inherited from the King of Poland. The founders are buried in the mausoleum under a white cupola said to have provided the inspiration for the design of the red telephone box (Sir Giles Gilbert Scott c.1926).

THE GOOD (or well intentioned)

Edward Alleyn, the greatest actor of the Shakesperian era, did well from the stage and his many dubious business interests in Southwark, including his role as keeper of the king's bull mastiffs and bears. In 1605 he invested his wealth in the Manor of Dulwich and in 1619 a Charter from King James enabled him to establish his College of God's Gift at Dulwich to benefit education and the poor.

His charity is now administered by the Dulwich Estate. Beneficiaries include some of the well known schools of Dulwich, schools within the state sector at Elephant and Castle and in the East End, and Almshouses in Dulwich Village housing elderly brethren and systeren from Parishes with which the great man was connected.

Offices of the Dulwich Estate and Christ's Chapel, burial place of Edward Alleyn

Dulwich College, by Sir Charles Barry (1870)

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