The House By the Thames, and the People Who Lived There

by Gillian Tindall

Just across the River Thames from St Paul’s Cathedral stands an old and elegant house. Over the course of almost 450 years the dwelling on this site has witnessed many changes. From its windows, people have watched the ferrymen carry Londoners to and from Shakespeare’s Globe; they have gazed on the Great Fire; they have seen the countrified lanes of London’s marshy south bank give way to a network of wharves, workshops and tenements—and then seen these, too, become dust and empty air.

Rich with anecdote and colour, this fascinating book breathes life into the forgotten inhabitants of the house—the prosperous traders; an early film star; even some of London’s numberless poor. In so doing it makes them stand for legions of others and for a whole world that we have lost through hundreds of years of London’s history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, London, British Literature, Historical, Microhistory, Book Club

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Gillian Tindall began her career as a prize-winning novelist. She has continued to publish fiction but has also staked out an impressive territory in idiosyncratic non-fiction that is brilliantly evocative of place.

Her The Fields Beneath: The History of One London Village which first appeared thirty years ago, has rarely been out of print; nor has Celestine: Voices from a French Village, published in the mid 1990s and translated into several languages, for which she was decorated by the French government.

Well known for the quality of her writing and the meticulous nature of her research, Gillian is a master of miniaturist history. She lives with her husband in London.

Reviews

[Karen Wellsbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing I love more than a London history, and although this book is written from such a narrow perspective on one hand, on another it's not. Reading this is like sitting down and gossiping with the most historically knowledgeable person you know, and its funny in places as well as sad.
Far less pompous than some of the other history of London books I've read, also thee were people in here that I would read whole novels about !

[Steve Kimmins]

I finished it but I skipped some sections. I won’t rate it as I discovered that such detailed historical books are not really ‘my thing’. I discovered the same from a recent read on medieval superstition and witchcraft. Lesson now learnt!
The book focuses on a very specific house and location, on the South Bank of the Thames in central London, built in the early 1700’s and still there though almost isolated as a house. It’s opposite St Paul’s Cathedral, and squeezed nowadays between the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and what is now a modern art gallery (Tate Modern) but which was once a 1940’s Power Station. I like this area of London, not far from where I was brought up, and now more accessible than in my youth with a continuous walk along the river’s south bank possible from London Bridge to Westminster, past many interesting landmarks.

The first 20% of the book, looking at the late Medieval period, up to about 1700, was the most interesting to me, with the background to the development of this unfashionable location, opposite the main action in the city of London. Where bear baiting and theatre entertainments (often in the same venue) and brothels were located, out of the more respectable city. A fairly broad sweep though the author has gone to pains to check original documents and infer much from them.

However, once the book reaches the stage where the house has been built in the early 18th century the author really goes into the details of life in that house and adjacent locations, exhaustively. Of course, good historians go to their source material, as here, but I’ve now truly discovered that this sort of fine detail on life in the periods covered isn’t my idea of a relaxing or interesting read.
I also bumped into some statements I was unsure of, which I’m sure are broad generalisations, such as how 18th century English parents treated their children ‘better’ than those in continental Europe (someone historical remarked that was the case), and something also sweeping about the relative levels of meat consumption in both locations in the 18th century. I just think that such things are much more individualistic than suggested here and not useful as facts.

In summary, this is probably an excellent history book for those interested in the detailed everyday life of 18th-20th century central London but too much for butterflies like me.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you geek out on intense history of very small neighborhoods, this is a book for you! It's Bankside at its most interesting. (If 400 years of history about one small block is eyebrow raising, then skip it.)

[Cece · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was surely a labor of love for history, a city and a house. I have had it in my to read list for many years and I happened upon a second hand copy while visiting in London! I almost wished I had read before my trip as I would have loved to find the location of this history filled house. I will say as fascinating as it was to read , it does not read easily as fiction. So know that going into it. But I honestly wished for half stars on Goodreads as this one would easily be 3.5. Almost rounded up just for the amount of research this author put into this. Extraordinary and fascinating read!

[Kinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting history about 49 Bankside and the whole of Southwark and the surrounds. There was a lot of information in the book and I enjoyed the descriptions of the different families moving in and out of the house.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who lived near the South Bank of London for a time, I found this a really interesting read and a chance to rediscover a place I thought I had memorized forwards and backwards. I never would have thought twice about the house next to the Globe. And yes, the amount of detail and research that must have gone into this book is incredible. I'd highly recommend to anyone interested in London's lesser known South Bank history. It's also fascinating to learn that the plaque outside the house is incorrect...makes you think about how much of history is exaggerated or romanticized.

Not exactly what I'd call a page-turner, but fascinating for me, as someone who has come to love the art/theatre hub of modern Southwark.

[Leigh McCabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting book which takes you on a walk along Bankside and retells it's history through the streets, houses and churches with a particular focus on one house, which is still standing. Fascinating.

[Rachel England-Brassy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generally too bogged down in minutiae to tell a story.

[Simon Collis]

A very interesting book. How did a single house, built in the early 1700s, survive to the present day, despite the rest of the street being swept away by time and neglect? Nestling as it does between the new Globe and the Tate Modern, it has some fascinating stories to tell.

This is a very interesting book that for me really came alive towards the end. She debunks the supposed direct connections with Wren, with Shakespeare and Johnson, and many others, but then adds more fascinating modern ones. It has connections to the business of the Thames for hundreds of year, to the British film industry and to Hollywood, and to some remarkable characters.

A fascinating read.

[Sarah Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading The House by the Thames by Gillian Tindall, especially as it was my choice for my book club. I was hoping that it would be like Mudlarking. Unfortunately it was not. It is an extremely well researched book, the author obviously has done her research. However, I felt that the book was so bogged down with detail and minutia that the story of the house did not shine through. It was flat writing I am afraid for me which never drew me totally in. Such a shame as I was wanting the house and the past characters who lived there to be brought to life, unfortunately this never happened.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual with Gillian Tindall's works, this book is replete with details but never becomes overwhelming or dull. She has the ability to bring to life the people she includes in these histories, which makes them very engaging.

Incidentally, and quite by chance, the first time I ever took a digital photograph, it was of this house - or rather the row of houses it is part of, as I was attracted to the way they now sit amongst the every-changing Thames-side landscape. So to learn more about the house and surrounds has been an added pleasure.

[Chrissy Sneddon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love social history books like this, where a central object is a vehicle for exploring changes in society over a period. In this case we see the fortunes of London's south side over the past few centuries from the viewpoint of this house (and what was there before). Absolutely fascinating, I learned so much.
And as usual I love a book that leads me to further investigation - through Google Earth, IMDB and other searches.
Makes me want to visit, now and in the past.
I would love to see an update on the early 20th century, where we don't have all the details.

[Loonywoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed dipping in and out of this rich and detailed history of a house on the South bank of the Thames opposite St Paul's Cathedral. The research was rich and detailed and covered the social, industrial, architectural and many other aspects of the of history of that corner of London over the centuries from before the house was built up to the end of the 20th century. Highly recommend this book.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn’t what I was expecting when I bought it but I honestly couldn’t put it down! It sweeps you through London’s history and gives you random facts and details that I found myself boring all my non-history loving friends and family with and I just flipping loved it! Gillian is a fantastic writer, highly recommend

[Mike Pinter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this unexpected history of London as seen through the lives of the various residents of a particular building and its environs over three centuries and more. A very recommendable read, and an inspiration to look into the past of our own lesser-known buildings' "past lives".

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book starts with two maps of the relevant area of the Thames yet neither marks the location of the house in question! How stupid is that?
It then went into a lot of history of the area, again without these places mostly not being on the map so I abandoned.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - found the early chapters interesting in terms of the location and its development in earlier periods, but then when it started to dive into individual family histories from the 18th century onwards I lost interest.

[Martin Willoughby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for research, but a dull read.

[Philip Carman · Rating 4 out of 5]

V interesting book as covers area near where work in London and go for lunchtime walks. Well, before lockdown happened ...

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, love these books about London's history

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[2006] An interesting and informative read.

[Tony Pooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who loves history.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

The house of the title was built on an earlier foundation in 1710 at Bankside, Southwark, just across the Thames from St. Paul's Cathedral and today a stone's throw from both the Tate Modern gallery and the new Globe Theater. The author has traced, through meticulous archival research, the history of this tiny piece of London real estate and its neighborhood since Roman times, bringing evolving London alive in the process of doing so. A model history of place, although the wealth of historical detail presented meant that the narrative occasionally moved a little slowly for a casual reader like me.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually, I only read half of it. It turns out GillianTindall was the author who wrote the book about Celestine that I also didn't finish, and the story of Martin Nadaud, likewise. For me her titles aren't reflected in what she writes - up to page 66 and still nothing about the house. I read on to about page 122 and had started to learn a bit about it but not much. She did the same with Celestine - it was hardly about her at all.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Microhistory of Bankside in Southwark, mostly from the early eighteenth century to the present but with a look backwards to the Tudor heyday of the area, focussing on a single house that has, unlike pretty much every building around it, survived since it was first built under George I. Lots of little nuggets of urban and social history.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and fascinating book about the history of the house near the new Shakespeare's Globe and Bankside generally. I probably would have given it five stars but I wasn't concentrating properly.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressive painstaking research into the area beside Tate Modern, and specifically the inhabitants of one cottage. Fascinating to see how the fortunes of the area have gone up and down through the centuries, and the differing occupations - from lighter men to film stars that have come and gone.

[Joe Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

A single surviving house on Bankside is the connective thread used to describe the history of that part of London. Good if you know or care about that part of London (hence only 3 stars!)

[Peg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous! This is our London neighborhood, and the house is a block away. I will have to re-read this one.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book about the history of a house in London. It was well researched, but written in a non-historical style.