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  1. Another Look
  2. Another Look
  3. The Kennington Chartist Projectwas initiated in 2018 by local residents, to celebrate the legacy of the 1848 Chartist rally on Kennington Common.The first volume of Kennington 1848 is called Our Story. In that book, we gave an introduction to what happened in Kennington in 1848, and an account of our project in 2018. This second volume of Kennington 1848is called Another Look. Here, we explore in greater depth the people and place that contributed to this significant event. The Kennington Chartist Project is supported by the Friends of Kennington Park, the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Lipman-Miliband Trust.
  4. ContentsWho was William Cuffay?by S I MartinBack to the LandFindings of the Kennington Chartist Project research group by Marietta Crichton StuartWho was there? by Vic ClarkeFurther reading Acknowledgements Chartist Women and the Vote by Marietta Crichton StuartKennington Common, Protest and Public Space by Katrina NavickasHow many were in the Crowd? 1by Dave Steele24563page 1019232934414647
  6. 11figures are always contentious (there is no consensus about attendance at the 2003 Stop the War demonstration in London or the 2017 Trump inauguration in Washington). So figures for an event 170 years ago must also be speculative at best. Who was right? I attempt to revisit this debate using a simple evidence-based technique – counting.The power of pictures As well as in power politics, the Kennington event is also significant in technological terms. The government used the railway network to move large number of troops into the capital and requisitioned the new Electric Telegraph to communicate orders. But most significantly, the Great Chartist Meeting was one of the first outdoor political crowds to be photographed. Two daguerreotypes by photographer William Kilburn show the crowd in stunning detail. For historians these images represent hard evidence of attendance numbers [Fig. 1, on previous page].Kilburn could command high fees for daguerreotype portraits in his Regent Street studio. So it is reasonable to assume that he was commissioned, and there are three candidates for this patronage:3 Possibly the Illustrated London News which published an engraving of one image in their April 15th edition. Or perhaps the Metropolitan Police. Were these images an early form of police crowd-surveillance – the forerunner of police use of CCTV? There is no record of daguerreotypes in Metropolitan Police archives; and in surveillance terms they would have had limited value as the crowd is looking away from the camera. The surprising prime candidate as Kilburn’s commissioner is Prince Albert, a keen photographer, who engaged Kilburn to take portraits of the Royal Family.4The originals of Kilburn’s plates are in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle and the frames even bear Queen Victoria’s handwriting. On a pair of accompanying calotype prints, Albert wrote: “Photograph View taken How many were in the Crowd?4 The Prince had an interest in social issues and expressed concern for the working man. On 18 May 1848, against the advice of the Prime Minister, he addressed a meeting of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes of which he was the President. The society engaged architect Henry Roberts, a pioneer in the improvement of working-class housing, to design the Prince Consort’s Model Lodge for the Great Exhibition of 1851. After the exhibition, in 1852, the Lodge was moved to Kennington Park. Since 2003, it has been the HQ of national tree charity, Trees for CitiesPrevious page: The Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, daguerreotype by William Kilburn. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019spril 10th 1848 represented a power struggle between a powerful elite and a disempowered population, acted out in a very public way in Kennington. Argument about whether April 10th represents the high or low point of this struggle revolves around the attendance figures on that damp Common. From the minute the crowd dispersed, arguments erupted over attendance figures. Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor claimed up to 400,000 while The Times reported a crowd as low as 20,000:“We were told that 200,000 men were to march through London and take up their station on the new Runnymede. Every attempt was made to procure that number... the sum of all the processions that closed the bridges towards Kennington Common yesterday was not more than seven thousand. We doubt whether more than three thousand are added from south of the Thames. At the crisis of the meeting, the total number on the Common, including the most incurious and indifferent of the spectators and bystanders, was not 20,000.”1In 1854, the first Chartist historian, Robert Gammage, assigned a figure of 150-170,000 – largely upheld by recent historians.2 Political crowd How many were in the Crowd? “The procession is now filing on to the common ... but not the slightest appearance of arms or bludgeons”by Dave SteeleA1 The Times, 11 April 18482 R G Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement 1837-1854 (London, 1969), p.314; David Goodway, London Chartism, (Cambridge, 1982), p.50; Malcolm Chase, Chartism: a New History, (Manchester, 2007), p.3023 Francis Dimond and Roger Taylor, Crown and Camera, (Harmondsworth, 1987), p.217
  7. 1213How many were in the Crowd?8 http://suncalc.net/#/51.4835,-0.1088,17/1848.04.10/12:009 The National Archives, HO45/2410 Fig. 3Possible camera locations in Horns Tavern and Watkins’ Italian Warehouse, 1842. Note St Mark’s Church in the background. Engraving Image Courtesy of Mark Crailwith a 30° elevation of midday sun, suggesting an exposure time between 11.30am and 12.30pm.8 A police memo, timed at 11.15, states: “The procession is now filing on to the Common... but not the slightest appearance of arms or bludgeons. They have formed from 7 to 8 deep and at the time the procession arrived there were then present on the Common above 5,000 persons and the approaches crowded with spectators.”9 This seems to confirm the time as after 11.15am.Where was the camera? The photographs indicate an elevated position for the camera facing south-east with a vantage point above the crowd. The central location of the Oil of Vitriol Factory chimney (now the site of St Agnes Church) confirms this. Processions can be seen arriving from the south-east. So I assume the entire east-west depth of the Common is visible. A first or second floor window would have provided Kilburn with a superb vantage point. Horns Tavern [Fig. 3], at the junction of what is now Kennington Park Road and Kennington Road, is the main candidate. of the Kennington Meeting by Mr Kilburn.” Whether these images are reportage, surveillance or royal memento, they provide historians with a rich source from which to interpret the event. They have been cited as evidence that the event was a success but also to denigrate it as a failure.5How did I count the crowd? I combined the daguerreotypes into a single panorama which shows the uneven density of the crowd with denser squares near the stages and gaps in the distance and to the left [Fig. 2]. Then I superimposed a grid to make counting easier, which revealed a surprisingly small total of just 3,445 people in the frame. This flies in the face of accepted figures so I considered other factors: Crucially, the time of day and position of the camera. How much of the Common can we see? I knew the procession carrying the Chartist leaders left Fitzroy Square at 10am. A two hour trip including a stop to collect the petition indicates an arrival time of 11.30-12.30. It rained heavily from around 2pm on the 10th.6 It is not raining in the pictures, so I assume the image was taken before 2pm when the site had cleared.7 Shadows on the horizon show strong sun – compatible How many were in the Crowd?5 Jo Briggs, Novelty Fair – British Visual Culture between Chartism and the Great Exhibition, (Manchester, 2016), p.406 Goodway, London Chartism, p.1407 Illustrated London News, 15 April 1848Fig. 2 Panoramic sectional grid used to count the Kennington crowd
  8. 1415of the event in the Illustrated London News[Fig. 6)]. Large areas of the common are empty with clustering around the speakers, presumably in order to stand any chance of hearing them. The empty patch to the north-east of the common was a wet area, still badly drained today. The fall-off in density was more marked towards the edges. So the average density for the whole How many were in the Crowd? Fig. 6 Engraving based on the daguerreotype published in the Illustrated London News,April 15 1848s Fig. 5Area calculation of Kennington Common in 1848. © calcmaps.comsHowever the two visualisations in Fig. 4 show the angle from the Horns Tavern is slightly wrong. A first or second floor window in Watkin’s Italian Warehouse across the road is an equally strong contender.I projected the camera field of view for each building. Then I matched the buildings on the horizon to a street map indicating that almost the entire east side of the Common is visible [Fig. 4]. How many were in the Crowd?Fig. 4Visualisations of perspective frame superimposed on Greenwood’s 1830 map10 https://www.calcmaps.com/map-area11 http://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-density/100sm/Density1.html12 Time Magazine, 7 April 1967, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/ 0,9171,843533,00.html (16 January 2011)What was the capacity of the Common? The area of Kennington Park today is around 86,502m2. However a Greenwood’s 1830 map shows the Common was smaller before enclosure with an area of just 57,000m2 [Fig. 5].10Taking an average of 1.5 people per square metre11 the theoretical capacity of Kennington Common in 1848 was around 85,500 people.12However Kilburn only captured 40 percent of the common and the crowd density is far from even. We can see this in an artist’s impression
  9. 1617number of protestors were perceived by the government as representing a serious and imminent threat. Clearly the Chartists were successful in the projection of power – punching way above their weight in terms of numbers.Dave Steele is a PhD candidate in the University of Warwick History department. His research explores the size and dynamics of 19th Century British political crowds. (warwick.ac.uk/davesteele)How many were in the Crowd?common could be as low as 0.5ppsm which would reduce the expected capacity to just 25,500. So how many attended? 25,500 exceeds the crowd I counted from the pictures by a factor of five. There are several explanations for this [see Fig. 7]. An allowance can be made for a miscount by doubling the visible number at 12.30pm to 7,000. We can add a further 3,500 for people on the common outside the field of view. A further 3,500 people may have arrived after Kilburn took the pictures. We might also allow an additional 3,500 to cover curious spectators who refrained from entering the common for fear of being caught up in any affray. Tentative supporters like artists John Millais and William Holman Hunt joined the procession from Russell Square but observed proceedings from outside the rails.13 If we add a further 2,000 for people observing the event from upstairs windows this brings the total to 20,000 – within reasonable range of the theoretical capacity of 25,000.Despite these adjustments, the total is well short of the more extravagant claims of O’Connor and many historians.Calculation/estimateVisible crowd within the common around midday7,000Estimated crowd outside the field of view3,500Arrived later (say by 1pm peak)3,500Spectators observing from outside railings3,500Spectators observing from buildings around the common2,500Total 20,000Fig. 7 Kennington Crowd CalculationsThere is evidence to support the argument for an attendance on April 10th of under 25,000. Does this downplay the significance of the Great Chartist Meeting? Or in reality, does it do the opposite? The state perceived the crowds to be massive and seriously powerful as evidenced by their disproportionate martial response. If our modest estimates are correct, the Chartists were outnumbered several times over by the 8,000 troops, 4,000 police and 80,000 special constables listed as being on duty in the capital according to the Home Office Archives. A relatively small 13 Goodway, London Chartism, p.140How many were in the Crowd?
  10. 18sPart of the procession at Blackfriars. Detail, Illustrated London News, 15 April 1848here are many conflicting accounts of Kennington Common on 10th April 1848. We know why the event was held, and we even know why people were there, but one question remains: who was there? The Chartist movement grew from many small communities all over Britain into one very large one, communicating through lecture tours and the major newspaper of the movement, the Northern Star, with its eight broadsheet pages. I’ve examined the rich pages of the Northern Star to find out who was there at the Kennington 1848 rally, and what kind of people considered themselves to be a Chartist.Chartist leader, Feargus O’Connor, originally founded the Northern Star in Leeds in 1837 then moved it to London in 1844. What is significant about the Star, is the way it crossed boundaries: it sat between local and national news, it was both a newspaper and an activist newsletter; it employed its own journalists and yet depended heavily on reports sent by its own readers – it had a full and lively ‘Readers and Correspondents’ column. The anonymity of most of the letters does not help us, but their self-chosen pen names give us hints: take ‘Two Ultra Radical Ladies,’ who sent a poem in 1839.1 ‘Ladies’ suggests a level above working class women, and not just radical but ‘ultra’ radical, a reference to the radical tradition of eighteenth-century revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine. In the nineteenth century, the ‘identity politics’ of gender, race, class and sexuality, was expressed more subtly. The Chartist movement was made up, in the majority, of working class people: Feargus O’Connor, in Who was there? “the fustian jackets, blistered hands, and unshorn chins ...”by Vic ClarkeT1 ‘Readers and Correspondents’, Northern Star, 6 July 1839
  11. 2021Who was there?incompetency, &c., but as a working man, a tailor, and a Chartist, he would not shrink from any performance of any public duty that his fellow-tradesmen and brother-slaves elected him to perform. (Cheers.)” Cuffay asserts his right to belong and indeed, to lead this group. He aligns himself with his audience using the group pronouns “fellow-tradesmen and brother-slaves,” – all the more pertinent considering his own heritage. The use of familial and fraternal ties is common in the rhetoric of Chartism, as Mrs Leek’s address to her ‘sisters’ demonstrates. This fits in with the tradition of the ‘patriotic band’ fighting for their rights, and implies a sense of community and camaraderie. So while Chartists used identity politics – identifying with their trades, as temperance advocates, as women or men – they also manipulated their identity to establish togetherness.Cuffay continues his lecture, “in beautiful and manly language,” and “urged them not to desert their father land, but to stay in it, and make it worthy of them. If any must emigrate let it be the aristocracy.” He concludes with the following sarcastic lines: “If bugs molest me, as in bed I lie,I’ll not quit my bed for them, not I;But rout the vermin – every bug destroy,New make my bed, and all its sweets enjoy.”3The workers have made their bed; they can change the sheets; they are the majority. His poem, proud, provocative and suggestive, roused the crowd to cheers.The community of Chartists was a widespread one. The way that individuals affirmed their identities allowed them to distinguish themselves and build towards a ‘Chartist’ identity. Long before discussions about gender, sexuality, race, and privilege entered the mainstream, the Chartists were already showing us how to discuss and negotiate identity politics.Vic Clarke is a PhD Researcher Reading and Writing the Northern Star in Britain, 1837-1848 at the University of Leeds, sponsored by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities3 ‘Chartist Intelligence,’ Northern Star, 5 March 1842his weekly editorial, addressed his letters to “the fustian jackets, blistered hands, and unshorn chins...” This clearly indicates gender, and invites a contrast between his rough and ready audiences, and the silken coats and clean shaven chins of the upper classes. Interestingly, the William Kilburn daguerreotype photograph of the 1848 rally shows men in dark top hats and longer coats, and women in large bonnets. Was this closer to Sunday best than work clothes? If it was, it suggests the significance and the reverence these kinds of events held in the hearts and minds of Chartists, and that 10th April 1848 was, indeed, a special day.The daguerreotype features crowds comprised mostly of men, and the Star suggests that the majority of Chartists were white, working class men of working age. While several women did write in to the Star, they were mostly portrayed as wives and mothers of Chartists, and it was in this domestic, traditionally and explicitly feminine role that they served the movement. At an 1847 ‘soirée’ in Bradford, the lecturer, a Mrs Leek, addressed her ‘sisters and friends’:“Sisters, you who have thought, politics belonged to men only, say to your husbands, ‘Is there no way whereby this brand of slavery can be removed?’ ... If the law is to blame, up and aid to the removal of such law ... Work with them, and I implore you as a Christian, as a man, husband, father, never to cease until you ... are politically free. (Cheers.)”2Early in the movement there were many women’s suffrage groups, most notably in Birmingham and London, though later the strategy of women activists changed to agitation in the home and challenging their husbands. The challenge to white working masculinity is a recurrent theme throughout Chartism. Another theme in the Star is ‘slavery’. There are references to ‘white slavery’ or ‘wage slavery,’ which to a 21st century reader, uncomfortably equates their experience with the horrors experienced by African slaves. William Cuffay, a black tailor whose parents were held in chattel slavery in St Kitt’s, was a prominent London Chartist. He addressed a crowd of tailors at a National Charter Association meeting. He “commenced by informing them that he should not make the usual apologies of Who was there?2 ‘Chartist Intelligence,’ Northern Star, 4 Sept 1847
  12. he only reliable portrait of William Cuffay shows him standing in a cell in London’s Newgate prison. He’s standing before a small window which is barred yet open to the elements. His convict transport record described him as “rather bald, with thin bones and spine deformed,” yet here Cuffay’s posture is upright, at ease and composed. The quality and cleanliness of his clothes belie the fact that he had been in a series of jails for over a year and testify, perhaps, to some pride in his profession as a tailor. What we can’t tell from the picture is that Cuffay is only four feet eleven inches tall. He is a man of mixed race with obvious African ancestry who confidently returns the viewer’s gaze with an open, wry expression. He is 61 years old and is awaiting his transportation: a journey of 103 days on a filthy, crammed, prison ship to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) where he expects to be incarcerated for the ‘term of his natural life.’In 1772, a ‘negro man’ and a ‘negro woman’ named as Chatham Cuffay and Lynda Myra Cuffay were baptised at Chatham in Kent. We can probably link the name Cuffay to the day-name Kofi, from the Akan people of Ghana and one of the few African names enslaved people carried with them across the Atlantic. Lynda and Chatham might have been siblings, mother and son or indeed, unrelated enslaved people bearing a forced family name from a common slave master. Could they have been freed persons? We don’t yet know, nor how they came to be in south east England. Chatham Cuffay, recorded as 17 at the time of his baptism, appears to have worked as a cook and a docker. Who was William Cuffay?“This clapping of hands is all very fine, but will you fight for it?”by S I MartinTWilliam Cuffay, lithograph from sketch by William Paul Dowling, 1848 © National Portrait Gallery, Londons
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