Dr Salter’s Daydream

By lunchtime yesterday I felt in need of a break from staring at the computer screen, so decided to go for a little stroll. The clouds threatened rain, but it didn’t materialise - just as well, as my little stroll turned into a six mile walk! I headed east from London Bridge station and followed the river until the Rotherhithe tunnel, at which point I planned to catch a bus home. I didn’t have any luck finding a bus, and in the end I walked home from there.

Anyway, along the way I happened upon Dr. Salter’s Daydream, a sculpture to commemorate local doctor, politician, reformer and peace campaigner Dr. Alfred Salter. I don’t think I’d ever heard of him before, but he sounds like quite a remarkable man - among his achievements was setting up a community health centre 20 years before the National Health Service was founded.

The plaque next to his statue gave a short biography, which I thought was worth reproducing here in full:

Dr. Alfred Salter was born in 1873 in Greenwich and started at the Guys Hospital in 1889. He visited homes in Bermondsey and was deeply impressed by the poverty and appalling housing conditions.

He took up residence at the Bermondsey Settlement in 1898, established a dividing insurance society which gave allowance to members during ill health and started a men’s adult school on Sunday mornings. He upset his professional colleagues by charging only sixpence for medical consultations. Shortly afterwards he met Ada Brown and they married.

His daughter Joyce was born in June 1902, and Dr. Salter was elected to Bermondsey Borough Council as a Liberal Whip and became a JP. By way of further proof of the sincerity of their commitment to the people of Bermondsey, Joyce was educated locally, and not elsewhere. Later he resigned from the Liberals and joined the independent Labour Party and formed, with fourteen others, the Socialist Movement of Bermondsey. At this point the Salter’s only child, Joyce, caught scarlet fever for the third time and died aged 8 in June 1910. This personal tragedy which might have been averted had Joyce been educated elsewhere, increased their commitment to the area and its people.

The Salters bought Fairby Grange in Kent, and turned it into a convalescent home for Bermondsey patients. Dr. Salter became MP for Bermondsey in 1922, the result being announced by London’s first woman mayor, Ada Salter. Mrs Salter aimed to have trees in every street and in two years 9000 trees were planted. The Daily Telegraph at the time described “an object lesson in what can be done to beautify even the pooerest neighbourhood”. Through Dr. Salter’s efforts play facilities were established at Long Lane, at Tooley Street and at Tanner Street (on the site if the old Bermondsey Workhouse).

He prepared ambitious plans to replace 180 year old tenements with lower density developments, such as Wilson Grove (formerly Salisbury Street) which can still be seen today. At Salisbury Street 1035 people lived in only 155 homes, but after the Labour victory in the election of 1924, rapid progress was made. It was set back by the incoming Conservative administration later in 1924. The new Minister of Health refused permission for the Salisbury Street plan for the second time, saying that some of the land must be sold for commercial purposes.

Salter successfully campaigned for a solarium to treat tuberculosis sufferers of which there were hundreds in Bermondsey. Children were even sent to recuperate in Switzerland, as the fresh mountain air aided their recovery. The results speak for themselves. Between 1911 and 1935 the infant mortality rate fell from 160 to 69 and in 1935 when 1487 babies were born not one mother died in childbirth.

Diane Gorvin’s sculpture shows the kindly Dr. Salter waving to his daughter Joyce who is leaning against Thames wall, with her cat nearby. It represents the daydream of an old man remembering happier times when his ’sunshine’ was still alive.

About a hundred metres away from Dr. Salter’s Daydream is an historic inn called The Angel, the oldest public house in Rotherhithe. This building dates back to the early 19th century, but there has been an inn and travellers’ rest house at this spot since the fifteenth century.

The captain of the Mayflower is said to have hired his crew here, and Captain Cook prepared for his voyage to Australia at the old inn. Samuel Pepys and Judge Jeffries were also visitors, along with pirates and smugglers (part of the pub is built over the water, and there are trap doors in the floor which may have been used by local smugglers). Turner was inspired to paint his favourite painting - The Fighting Temeraire - after watching the ship being towed to the breakers yard from here. Across the road are the ruins of Edward III’s manor house, built in 1361.

If you fancy visiting Dr. Salter’s Daydream or enjoying a pint at The Angel, they’re at Bermondsey Wall East, SE1, roughly halfway between Bermondsey and Rotherhithe tube stations on the Jubilee Line. For more information on the history of London’s docks, the Port Cities site (by the National Maritime Museum and London librares) is an excellent resource. Diane Gorvin - the artist who created the sculpture - also has a web site.

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