What did the French ever do for us? The reply; put little statues of cats round Camberwell and Brixton.
They’re simply missed, however for those who take a stroll round Myatt’s Fields Park, you possibly can see some whiskered characters peering out from the beautiful Georgian homes that line the park.
These feline statues and engravings have been the work of the Minets, a French Huguenot household that migrated to England within the late seventeenth century.
They arrived as grocers however achieved large success and finally left an indelible mark on Camberwell, building a public library and church. They even donated Myatt’s Fields to the London County Council so Londoners may benefit from the inexperienced house freed from cost.
Despite these grand schemes, this philanthropic household additionally had an eye fixed for element. ‘Minet’ is French for ‘kitty’ so the household determined to carve moggies into the buildings they constructed.
From Calais to Camberwell
French Huguenots have been a non secular group of French Protestants who adopted the Calvinist custom.
From the sixteenth to seventeenth century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots fled France to flee persecution by the French Catholic authorities. 50,000 are believed to have settled in England.
Among these refugees – a time period first coined to explain the Huguenots – was Isaac Minet the son of a Calais grocer. After a spell in jail, he organised for his brother to ship a vessel to French coasts to smuggle him to England.
He and his mom made it previous the coastguard and patrol boats round Calais and arrived on the shores of England in 1686. Continuing his father’s commerce, he arrange a grocers on Newport Street, in what’s now Vauxhall.
Prosperous Streets
The Minets have been regularly in a position to set up themselves of their new home nation and had acquired property in Hayes by 1731.
In 1770, Hughes Minet, the grandson of Isaac, purchased 118 acres in Camberwell from the Tory politician Sir Edward Knatchbull.
The low, flat terrain of Myatt’s Field struggled to draw affluent home patrons all through the primary half of the nineteenth century. But when railways have been constructed into Camberwell within the 1860s, it stimulated a requirement for housing.
By 1871, beneath James Lewis Minet, homes on Paulet Road, Knatchbull Road, and the connecting streets, have been being constructed.
Purrfectly Preserved
At least one home on Cormont Road has a cat engraving above the door, accompanied with the yr 1893 engraved above his head.
Calais Gate is a grand set of condo buildings on Myatt’s Field Park’s north-western facet. A pair of self-important tabbies perch on both facet of the building, gazing out throughout the park.
Continue clockwise, and onto Calais Street, no less than two of the buildings there even have cat markings. One is a venerable-looking soul, carved above a doorway. The different is a led-down tom, which seems as if it’s simply been woken up.
It doesn’t appear that any extra cats have been constructed after the Minet’s spree within the late nineteenth century. But the the park’s aptly named Little Cat Cafe demonstrates that no less than a couple of persons are eager to maintain the standard alive.
The Minets’ Gifts to Camberwell
The Minets have been real philanthropists and, some say, proof of how conscientious Georgian landlords may bestow essential services on London’s poor.
The Gothic-style Minet Library was inbuilt 1890. Bar a quick interruption when it was partially destroyed through the Blitz in 1940, it’s served the individuals of south London for over 130 years. It’s been the home of the Lambeth Archives since 1956.
St James’s Church, Knatchbull Road, was constructed by the Minets in 1870 and Longfield Hall was accomplished in 1880.
In 1889, William Minet donated 14.5 acres, now often called Myatt’s Field Park, to the London Country Council. This compact however picturesque house, with its rigorously designed path community, roundhouse and gardens, is at the moment thought to be a glowing instance of Victorian design.
