Bruce Calvert
2008-09-14 14:18:09 UTC
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055554/Charlie-Chaplin-child-pauper-website-proves.html
Charlie Chaplin was a child pauper, website proves
By Daniel Cochlin
Last updated at 10:51 PM on 13th September 2008
Fascinating details of Charlie Chaplin's early years growing up in a
grim Victorian workhouse can be revealed for the first time.
Fans of the legendary silent film star can now see the stark scrap of
paper that details his incarceration in the squalid building.
Chaplin was admitted to the workhouse in London at the age of seven,
along with his older brother Sydney, after his alcoholic father
abandoned him when his mother was committed to an asylum in 1896.
There, the future Hollywood legend would have been exposed to
appalling conditions and forced to survive on the most basic diet of
gruel. Along with 11-year-old Sydney, he was made to work and would
have been housed with unemployed men.
It had previously been believed that Chaplin spent time in a workhouse
but no evidence existed to prove it. Now the newly released page of
the workhouse notebook can be seen as the London Metropolitan Archives
(LMA) upload 500 years of history on to the web.
LMA bosses say the document is ‘concrete proof’ that Chaplin started
life as a pauper, although he spent only a few weeks in the Newington
Workhouse in Walworth, South London.
The hand-ruled page – dated ‘9th week Midsummer 1896’ shows Chaplin’s
date of birth and reveals he was placed on a ‘number four’ diet, the
worst available to workhouse youths. Chaplin later said his tough
upbringing formed the basis for one of his best-known characters, The
Tramp.
The actor won three Oscars for his acting achievements before he died
on Christmas Day 1977, aged 88.
Chris Blackwood, a spokesman for the LMA said: ‘People have been
speaking of Charlie’s time in a workhouse for a long time but this is
the first actual concrete proof. As the record shows, he was put on a
diet for very young children and it would have been the worst diet.
‘He would have had the bare minimum to keep him alive – gruel,
porridge or basic cereals.
‘Workhouses were desperate places, where those needing to rely on
benefits were made to work for their survival.’
The boys were eventually placed in the Central London District School
for Paupers in Hanwell, West London, and Chaplin went on to find fame
in the United States after touring there with theatre impresario Fred
Karno.
The Newington Workhouse was shut after the Local Government Act of
1929 abolished poor houses. It was demolished in 1969 and replaced by
a housing estate.
The release of the fascinating page coincides with the uploading early
next year of more than 77million records that detail the capital’s
history on to www.ancestry.co.uk.
Mr Blackwood said: ‘We are allowing anyone to access any record taken
in any part of London in the past 500 years.’
--
Bruce Calvert
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com
Charlie Chaplin was a child pauper, website proves
By Daniel Cochlin
Last updated at 10:51 PM on 13th September 2008
Fascinating details of Charlie Chaplin's early years growing up in a
grim Victorian workhouse can be revealed for the first time.
Fans of the legendary silent film star can now see the stark scrap of
paper that details his incarceration in the squalid building.
Chaplin was admitted to the workhouse in London at the age of seven,
along with his older brother Sydney, after his alcoholic father
abandoned him when his mother was committed to an asylum in 1896.
There, the future Hollywood legend would have been exposed to
appalling conditions and forced to survive on the most basic diet of
gruel. Along with 11-year-old Sydney, he was made to work and would
have been housed with unemployed men.
It had previously been believed that Chaplin spent time in a workhouse
but no evidence existed to prove it. Now the newly released page of
the workhouse notebook can be seen as the London Metropolitan Archives
(LMA) upload 500 years of history on to the web.
LMA bosses say the document is ‘concrete proof’ that Chaplin started
life as a pauper, although he spent only a few weeks in the Newington
Workhouse in Walworth, South London.
The hand-ruled page – dated ‘9th week Midsummer 1896’ shows Chaplin’s
date of birth and reveals he was placed on a ‘number four’ diet, the
worst available to workhouse youths. Chaplin later said his tough
upbringing formed the basis for one of his best-known characters, The
Tramp.
The actor won three Oscars for his acting achievements before he died
on Christmas Day 1977, aged 88.
Chris Blackwood, a spokesman for the LMA said: ‘People have been
speaking of Charlie’s time in a workhouse for a long time but this is
the first actual concrete proof. As the record shows, he was put on a
diet for very young children and it would have been the worst diet.
‘He would have had the bare minimum to keep him alive – gruel,
porridge or basic cereals.
‘Workhouses were desperate places, where those needing to rely on
benefits were made to work for their survival.’
The boys were eventually placed in the Central London District School
for Paupers in Hanwell, West London, and Chaplin went on to find fame
in the United States after touring there with theatre impresario Fred
Karno.
The Newington Workhouse was shut after the Local Government Act of
1929 abolished poor houses. It was demolished in 1969 and replaced by
a housing estate.
The release of the fascinating page coincides with the uploading early
next year of more than 77million records that detail the capital’s
history on to www.ancestry.co.uk.
Mr Blackwood said: ‘We are allowing anyone to access any record taken
in any part of London in the past 500 years.’
--
Bruce Calvert
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com