Mrs Wicken at Sydney Technical College

The new Sydney Technical College building at Ultimo from the Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890.

Mrs Anne Fawcett Story began her tenure as teacher of domestic economy and cookery at Sydney Technical College in 1884.[1] When she resigned 1888 Miss Mary Stewart Gill, yet another graduate of the National Training School for Cookery, took over the position. Gill’s tenure was short lived. She married in December 1888, the position was readvertised, and Harriet Wicken was appointed to the post in January 1889.[2]

Sydney Technical College had begun in 1878 as an adjunct to the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts. In 1883 the government assumed full financial responsibility for the college and appointed a Board of Technical Education. In 1889 the Board was dissolved, and responsibilities transferred to the Technical Education Branch of the Department of Public Instruction. Until purpose-built accommodation opened in Ultimo (in March 1891) the classes run by the Department of Public Instruction operated from various venues scattered throughout the city.[3] Wicken began teaching cookery in the new premises set up for the purpose at 301 Pitt Street, next to the Temperance Hall.[4]

Both Wicken’s schedule of classes and her remuneration were dependent on enrolments, and numbers in the classes were initially restricted by the temporary accommodation which she considered ‘not at all satisfactory’.[5] She was paid by the lesson at the rate of 10s per one hour lesson or 15s per two hour lesson, in addition to which she received a portion of the fees paid by her students.[6] Her overall salary then was dependent on how many students she could attract. It is perhaps also no surprise that her earnings were very much less than the fixed salary paid to some of the male instructors, who were also entitled to fees from students and, in some cases travelling expenses and reimbursement for cost of materials.[7]

An advertisement for Wicken’s classes in The Cook’s Compass indicates the basic schedule, although the details varied from term to term. On Tuesday she might give a practical lesson in the morning and a demonstration lesson in the afternoon, on Wednesday a demonstration in the morning and on Friday morning another practical class. If there were sufficient numbers another afternoon practice class could be arranged. In addition, special lessons in household management and private lessons in advanced cookery could be given on Wednesday afternoons.[8] Classes ran for around 90 minutes while demonstrations lasted two hours which resulted in somewhere between seven and eleven hours of face-to-face time per week.[9]

Wicken based her instruction on the course of study laid down by the National Training School in London, and the recipes were chiefly those from the Kingswood Cookery Book ‘carefully adapted to the needs of the Australian housekeeper’.[10] Her workload also involved giving free lectures under the auspices of the Technical College in order to promote interest in the classes.[11] In between times she organized all the raw materials for the classes and supervised the preparation and cleaning required.

By 1891 the cookery classes had moved into accommodation at the newly opened college in Ultimo, where the course of study comprised plain and advanced cookery and household management. Conditions were still not perfect:

Considering that there has been no opportunity for the students to make such dishes as require long preparation and are difficult to carry away, the progress has been satisfactory, and the difficulty of teaching them practically soups, gravies, stews, &c., will be overcome when a daily luncheon is served. The number of students has been large, and there is every reason to expect an increase in the coming year.[12]

Selling the products of the cooking classes to the students at the college for lunch was one way of recouping some of the costs associated with materials required. 

Unfortunately for Harriett her years at Sydney Technical College coincided with a nation-wide economic Depression, at its worst between 1892 and 1894, strikes by workers (1890-1894) and severe drought in 1894. In 1893 funding for technical education was cut to almost half that allocated in 1892 and the Department of Public Instruction was forced to instigate retrenchment and reduction in salaries to make ends meet.[13] Twelve branch schools were closed, some subjects were discontinued altogether and others allowed to continue but without government funding:

The teachers of the following subjects were allowed to continue teaching, to be remunerated only by the fees of the students, and to defray all expenses of lighting, cleaning, &c. Short-hand, Book-keeping, Mathematics, Calligraphy and Correspondence, Tailors' Cutting, Design, Cookery, Dresscutting, and Dressmaking.[14]

Understandably there were teachers who declined to accept these conditions and their classes lapsed. Those who continued had to raise their fees, which naturally resulted in fewer students. Harriet Wicken was one of those who soldiered on but numbers in her classes fell dramatically, and she needed to find other sources of income to cover her costs.[15] She no doubt received some revenue from sales of her books and must have had some financial arrangement regarding the recipes she provided for Muskett’s Art of Living in Australia, published in 1893. In April she requested time off during the week to conduct private classes for Mrs R. Bowman of Parramatta, given that ‘money is so hard to get just now’ and the numbers in her classes were much smaller than they had been.[16] Later in the year she gave a series of classes in Maitland and was paid by the local council to give a demonstration of cooking on a gas stove.[17]

Harriett was far from idle offering courses over six to eight lessons for a variety of causes in different venues– for the wives and daughters of railway employees at the Railway Institute, for factory girls at their club rooms, for the Newtown Presbyterian Church Ladies’ Guild in the Newtown Town Hall, at Miss Shiel’s College in Manly and in Ashfield Town Hall – along with a weekly cookery lecture at the School of Arts in Sydney.[18]

Harriett also proved herself enterprising when faced with the challenge of finding rewarding employment. Possibly the most lucrative of all her ventures was a series of well-publicised lectures and demonstrations for the Fresh Food and Ice Company in 1894, promoting fish cookery and the use of the ice chest.[19] The following year, with the assistance of Miss Keagan, one of her former pupils, she took a room at the School of Arts where she was to give demonstrations, afternoon teas were to be served and Miss Keagan would take orders for cakes and pastries. There is nothing to indicate the success or longevity of this venture.[20] Although her Technical College salary was reinstated in 1895, Harriett also tried her hand at journalism with a column in the Australian Home Journal which lasted from May 1895 until June 1896.[21]

Perhaps Wicken’s most strategic move was to extend her cooking classes to Queensland. In January 1896 she gave classes in Toowoomba attended by large groups of women as reported in the Darling Downs Gazette and the Toowoomba Chronicle.[22] In May Wicken provided the Brisbane Technical College with her proposals for conducting classes for them (it is not clear from the extant correspondence who initiated this move) which were accepted.[23] The grounds on which Joseph Maiden, the Superintendent of Technical Education recommended Wicken be allowed to teach in Brisbane indicate how advanced technical instruction was in New South Wales:

In various ways during the last few years most of the Australian colonies (including NZ) have appealed to this branch for information to help them start technical classes, advice in the selection of a teacher or examiner, and in the choice of apparatus etc. We have also been asked to recommend teachers who have passed through the college. It is readily granted that we take the lead in the broad subject of technical education and I think it is a very desirable and friendly act to the educational authorities of another colony to help them wherever we reasonably can.[24]

Wicken’s leave of absence was duly approved but there was a sting in the tail. At the Brisbane Technical College she was to conduct classes in cookery, for which she would receive £25 plus all fees above that amount, and ideally, for an addition 5s, also provide instruction in clear starching.[25] This was a generous offer for only one month’s work but Wicken was required to cover the expense of providing a substitute teacher in Sydney and take full responsibility for the teaching of her ‘locum tenens’.[26] Wicken left her classes in Sydney in the hands of her assistant, Mrs Arthur (Jane) Small, and two of her students who had passed with honours, and proceed by train to Brisbane for one month.[27]

Her arrival had been much anticipated, and her classes were well attended but Wicken worked hard for her £25, offering a busy schedule, commencing on 24 June.[28] At her last class on 17 July, Mr McConnel, the Secretary of the Brisbane Technical College, thanked her for the ‘thorough and ungrudging way’ in which she had ‘carried out the onerous work which had been pressed into so short a time’ and announced she would soon become a resident of Brisbane and take charge of the Ladies’ Department of the Brisbane Courier and The Queenslander.[29]

So ended Mrs Wicken’s association with Sydney Technical College. Applications were sought from ‘people competent to teach cookery’ with experience in teaching both plain and advanced cooking and the ability to give instruction in fruit preserving, jam making, pickling, etc and, ironically given their earlier fractious relationship, Fanny Fawcett Story was appointed to fill Harriett’s place in August 1896.[30] The salary was now £100 per year plus a portion of the fees paid by students.

Whether Wicken had gone to Brisbane with the intention of finding long-term employment there it seems she preferred the offer of a stable role as journalist to the more arduous one of teacher. Harriett and her son Arthur relocated to Brisbane in August 1896.[31] Part of her decision to move to Queensland must have been prompted by Arthur’s deteriorating health. She eventually purchased a small cottage in the centre of the town of Dalby, 200 kilometres or so inland form Brisbane, and opened The Kingswood Sanatorium, with separate bedrooms for four male residents, one of whom was Arthur.[32] Their time in Queensland was short. Both Harriet and Arthur had returned to Sydney by the time Arthur died on 5 July 1898.[33]

---

[1] Mrs Fawcett Story’s appointment was announced in Evening News, 21 May 1884, p. 6 ‘Board of Technical Education’.

[2] A position for a teacher of domestic economy was advertised in April 1888 (Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 30 April 1888, p. 14, ‘Advertising’. For Gill see The Australian Star, 26 May 1888, p. 7, ‘Board of Technical Education’. Marriage of Gill, SMH, 15 January 1889, p. 1, ‘Family Notices’ (marriage to Hugh Patterson). Miss Gill’s marriage was equally short-lived, see Evening News (Syd.), 7 November 1895, p. 6 ‘Divorce court’ and Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 9 November 1895, p. 2, ‘A matrimonial disagreement.’ Position advertised Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1888, p. 8, ‘Advertising’; announcing Wicken’s appointment SMH, 26 January 1889, p. 12.

[3] See Alan Barcan, Two Centuries of Education in New South Wales (Sydney: University of NSW Press, 1988), pp. 146, 157–8.

[4] Australian Star, 15 December 1888, p. 7, ‘Board of Technical Education’.

[5] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890, Appendix XIX Report on Technical Education, with annexes, p. 285. SMH 27 November 1890, p. 9. ‘Technical college cooking class’.

[6] Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1888, p. 8, ‘Advertising’. Undated correspondence at Museums of History NSW-State Archives (hereafter MHNSW-St. Ac.), NRS 3830, Education Department Files, 20/12605, Cookery 1882-1892, indicates that Wicken received 50% of the fees collected from students. The other 50% went towards recovering some of the costs of provisions.

[7] Undated schedules of salaries at MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12605, listing amounts to October 1889.

[8]. Mrs. H. Wicken, The Cook’s Compass (Sydney: J.G. Hanks Co., 1890), advertising for the Technical College, p. 98.

[9] SMH, 18 May 1889, p. 3 ‘Advertising’.

[10] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890, p. 285.

[11] For example, SMH, 24 May 1889, p. 3, ‘lecture’; 23 August 1889, p. 8 ‘lectures’

[12] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1891, Appendix XVIII Report on Technical Education with annexes, p. 183.

[13] Barcan, pp. 157, 158. 

[14] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1893, Appendix XX Report on Technical Education with annexes, p. 127. See also SMH, 19 January 1893, p. 5, ‘Technical Education Department. The proposed reduction in classes’; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 5 August 1893, p. 288, ‘Hausfrau’s Lucky Bag. A visit to a kitchen.’

[15] For wrangling over the cost of gas consumed in the cookery classes see MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12606, Bridges to Undersecretary, 28 March 1893; Wicken to Johnson 11 April 1893; Wicken to Johnson, 21 August 1893; John Bruce to Bridges 11 September 1893; Wicken to Suttor, 3 January 1894.

[16] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12606, Wicken to Bridges, 21 April 1893. See also Cumberland Mercury, 22 April 1893, ‘Local and general’ p. 4. Classes began in the first week of May, Cumberland Mercury, 6 May 1893, p. 4 ‘Local and general’

[17] The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 28 October 1893, p. 4, ‘Local news’; 7 November 1893, p. 4, ‘Local news’; 11 November 1893, p. 4, ‘East Maitland Borough Council.’

[18] Railway Institute, Evening News, 3 April 1894, p. 6 ‘Brevities’; Factory girls, Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1894, p. 4 ‘Working girl’s club’; Newtown, SMH, 24 May 1894, p. 7 ‘Popular cookery’; Miss Sheil’s, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 1894, p. 2 ‘Cookery class’; Ashfield Town Hall, Evening News, 28 August 1894, p. 3; Sunday Times, 28 April 1895, p. 2, ‘The factory girl’s club’.

[19] Evening News, 11 May 1894, p. 5, ‘Fish dinner lectures,’ and Australian Star, 17 May 1894, p. 2, ‘How to cook fish’.

[20] Freeman’s Journal, 6 April 1895, p. 9, ‘Woman’s column’.

[21] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1894, Appendix XX Report of Technical Education with annexes, p. 111, the teaching of classes for which no salaries were paid was continued, but in the final term of 1894 the teachers no longer paid for lighting and cleaning. Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1895, Appendix XIX Technical Education with annexes, p. 109, Wicken’s salary reinstated. Wicken’s column in Australian Home Journal ran from 1 May 1895 until June 1896. Noted in ‘Women’s Column,’ Freeman’s Journal, 8 June 1895, p. 9.

[22] Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser, 7 January 1896, p. 2, ‘Local and general news’; Darling Downs Gazette, 11 January 1896, p. 43 ‘Mrs Wicken’s cooking class’.

[23] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, D. R. McConnel to Maiden, 7 May 1896, ‘Mrs Wicken has written to us in regard to proposed cookery lessons to be held here in the winter’; McConnel to Maiden, 11 May 1896; McConnel to Undersecretary for Public Instruction, 29 May 1896. David Rose McConnel was the secretary of the Brisbane Technical College. Joseph Henry Maiden was Superintendent of Technical Education in New South Wales, having taken over from Frederick Bridges in 1894. Bridges was now the Chief Inspector.

[24] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Maiden to Chief Inspector, 18 May 1896.

[25] Clear starching was a process of using a transparent starch solution to stiffen fine, loosely woven fabrics like muslin without clogging the loose weave or thickening the fabric with visible traces of starch. MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, McConnel to Maiden, 11 May 1896. 

[26] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Maiden to Chief Inspector, 18 May 1896.

[27] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Wicken to Maiden, 14 May 1896; Wicken to Morris, 19 June 1896. Dr. R. N. Morris had been appointed Superintendent of Technical Education, replacing Maiden, in June 1896, see Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 13 June 1896, p. 1247 ‘Grading the Education Department’, and Evening News, 20 June 1896, p. 9 ‘Technical College.’ Arrival in Brisbane, Brisbane Courier, 23 June 1896, p. 5, ‘Overland passengers.’

[28] Brisbane Courier, 3 June 1896, p. 1 ‘Classified advertising’ and p. 4, ‘Technical college cookery classes’; 20 July 1896, p. 3 ‘Woman’s World.’

[29] Brisbane Courier, 20 July 1896, p. 3, ‘Woman’s World’. The Queenslander was the weekly summary and literary edition of the Brisbane Courier, published on Saturday. ‘Woman’s World’ appeared daily in Brisbane Courier and was a column of social gossip. The ‘Ladies’ Column’ in the Queenslander was more comprehensive with recipes, fashion advice, housekeeping tips etc. Harriett’s ‘Ladies Column, writing as ‘Hafra’, ran from 15 August 1896 to 6 November 1897, see Queenslander, 15 August 1896, p. 316 and 6 November 1897 p. 901.

[30] Advertisement, Evening News, 21 July 1896, p. 8. Evening News 25 August 1896, p. 6, ‘Cooking and domestic economy’. Confirmation of appointment MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Bridges to Undersecretary, 23 March 1897. For the relationship between Harriet Wicken and Fanny Fawcett Story see ‘Cooking Up a Storm, part two’, 1 May 2024.

[31] Brisbane Courier, 3 August 1896, p. 5 ‘Overland Passengers’. 

[32] Kingswood Sanitorium was officially opened on 16^th September 1897. For opening of Sanatorium Queenslander, 18 September 1897, p. 578, ‘Sanatorium at Dalby’.

[33] ’ SMH, 6 July 1898, p. 1, ‘Family notices’; Brisbane Courier, 11 July 1898, p. 4, ‘Family Notices’. SMH, 7 July 1898, p. 10 ‘Family Notices’, Arthur Smith Wicken members of the guild of St. Lawrence requested to attend the funeral of their brother and then to Waverley cemetery. For details of Harriet Wicken’s subsequent activities see ‘Mrs Wicken: her career as a cookery teacher in Australia’.

Mrs Wicken in England

 Harriett Frances Wicken was a graduate of the National Training School for Cookery, South Kensington, London, and subsequently head of the Department of Domestic Economy at Sydney Technical College in the late 1880s. She made a significant contribution to the progress of cookery in Australia through the publication of books on cooking and household management and the classes she conducted. This is the first of a series of posts concentrating on Harriett's life and career.

While Wicken’s books are well known to food scholars little if any attention has been given to their author. All that has been written to date about Harriett Wicken’s life before she came to Australia is historian Beverley Kingston’s necessarily brief entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography first published in 2005.[1] Recent advances in the material available to researchers, notably digitised census records and newspapers, make it possible to flesh out a more detailed background of the author of the Kingswood Cookery Book. 

 

The known facts of Harriett’s life in England.

Harriett Frances was born at 29 Broad Street, Lambeth on 31 December 1847, the daughter of Joseph Smith, an iron monger, and his wife Harriett, née Pugh.[2] By 1851 the family have moved to 68 Vauxhall Walk, essentially just around the corner.[3] The map, Figure 1, shows 29 Broad Street (renumbered 25), situated between the River Thames and Lambeth Walk and opposite the intersection with Vauxhall Walk. This map also shows the Albert Embankment, constructed in the 1860s along what was, when Harriett was living in this area, Lower Fore Street. Today Broad Street has been renamed Black Prince Road.

 

Figure 1: Renumbering plan for Broad Street, Lambeth, 20 January 1882. 

Source: Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/broad-street-lambeth-2/

 

Figure 2 : Broad Street, looking towards the River Thames. Photographer William Strudwick, c. 1865. The road to the left in the foreground is Princes Street. The Fore Street intersection is at Crowley’s Alton Ale Wharf. Source: Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/broad-street-lambeth/

 

Until a proper sewerage system was constructed in the 1860s, the Thames served that purpose. Nonetheless many Londoners sourced their water from the river, either directly or indirectly, and consequently cholera outbreaks were not uncommon. Living conditions were generally unhealthy and crowded along the river in Lambeth, many houses were poorly constructed and damp and those adjacent to the Thames were subject to flooding. This area of Lambeth was also heavily industrialised, having been associated with pottery production since the sixteenth century. The Doulton family had been involved in manufacturing there since 1815 (in Vauxhall Walk) and Henry Doulton built his factory in Lambeth High Street in 1845. 

 

Not surprisingly the Smith family moved away from this area adjoining the river (the area marked in yellow in Figure 3) to a healthier environment. By the time Harriett was 13 she was living with her parents and four siblings at 5 Acre Lane, Lambeth.[4] Acre Lane, approximately 4.5 km from Broad Street, is highlighted in blue on Figure 3. This map dates from 1824 and the area was already more closely settled by 1861, however it is useful to demonstrate the relative positions of the places mentioned later.

 

 

Figure 3: Map of the parish of St Mary, Lambeth, 1824. 

Source: Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/parish-of-st-mary-lambeth-map/

 

Meanwhile George Wicken was living with his family at 23 St. Matthews Place, which was on Water Lane, marked in green on Figure 3.[5] His father, also called George, was a builder, employing 18 men and 2 boys. 

 

On 24 November 1865, just five weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, Harriett married George Wicken at St Mary’s parish church, Lambeth. Witnesses to the marriage were Harriett’s father Joseph Henry Smith, her sister Annie Isabel Smith and George’s sister Caroline Annie Wicken. 

 

 

Figure 4: View of St Mary’s church tower from the top end of Fore Street. The church is immediately adjacent to Lambeth Palace (London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury), which can be seen in the background, and is now the Museum of Garden History. Photographer William Strudwick, c. 1865.

Source: Lambeth Archives,  https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/lower-fore-street-lambeth-4/

 

George and Harriett lived at 22 Water Lane and George continued in business as a builder, employing 25 men.[6] Their neighbours included a master shoemaker, a fruiterer and a white smith, all solid members of the rising middle classes. 

 

 

Figure 5: Street renaming and renumbering map, Water Lane, Brixton, 6^th August 1880. Names abolished include St. Matthews Place. Number 22 St Matthews Place/Water Lane is almost opposite the intersection with Josephine Avenue, renumbered 51.

Source: Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/water-lane-brixton-2/

 

On 24^th May 1873 George died.

 

Married for less than eight years, Harriett had given birth to seven children, five boys and two girls, of whom only Percy George (born 1866) and Arthur Smith (born 1868) survived. George’s father (now living close by but further along Water Lane in the direction of Dulwich, to the east), is still listed as a builder in the 1871 census but he no longer claims to be an employer, which might indicate that he has passed his business over to his son. George Charles’s phithis or tuberculosis may have rendered him unfit for heavy manual work for some time before his eventual death, and it is possible that his father was still involved with managing the building work. Harriett’s parents no longer live in the immediate neighbourhood.[7]

 

The next glimpse of Harriett comes from the 1881 census where she is listed as a ‘boarding house keeper’ of 3 Bedford Gardens, Bedford Road, Lambeth. The pink dot on the map in Figure 3 is the approximate location of Bedford Gardens. From Figure 6 it was possible to locate 3 Bedford Gardens (renumbered 57) on a modern map of the area, and Figure 7 shows the row of terraces at 53–63 Bedford Road. These houses were built c. 1870 and each has four storeys and a basement.

 

 

Figure 6: Renumbering plan for Bedford Road, Clapham. Bedford Gardens was one of the subsidiary names abolished. Dated 18 January 1884. 

Source: Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/bedford-road-clapham-4/.

 

Figure 7: 53–63 Bedford Road, Lambeth SW4. Built c. 1870. The house run by Harriett is the first on the right, obscured by tree. 

Source: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101263676-53-63-bedford-road-sw4-ferndale-ward

 

Here Harriett employed a domestic cook, Ellen Chaplin 25, and a housemaid, Ellen Leach 18, to help her look after her tenants – Vincent Nesbit, a railway clerk, Emily Johnstone, a young woman with her own means (an annuitant) and Henry (Heinrich) Debus, a professor of chemistry from Germany.[8] The occupations of her three boarders taken together suggest that hers was a respectable and perhaps superior establishment while the occupations of her neighbours–a solicitor, a lieutenant colonel, an accountant and a principal of a kindergarten–indicate that Bedford Gardens was a solid and prosperous middle-class community. There is no indication of how long she had operated the boarding house. 

 

Neither of her two sons were living with her. Percy, 14, was at the London Orphan Asylum, Watford, while Arthur was living at the British Orphan Asylum in Slough, both some distance from Bedford Gardens.[9] These orphan schools were established to house children whose parents had fallen into ‘necessitous circumstances’ with the aim of providing board, clothing and education. The British Orphan Asylum took in children of middle-class parents who were ‘really or virtually orphans’ or children of ‘other persons who in their lifetime were in a position to provide a liberal education for their children’, likewise the London Asylum gave preference to children whose parents had at one time been in respectable circumstances.

 

No child could be admitted to the British Asylum ‘whose father is not dead, paralytic, totally blind, or insane, or whose mother, if living, is able to provide for it.’ To gain admission a child had to be between the ages of 7 and 12 and ‘recommended by two subscribers or Governors and the indigent circumstances of the relations must be proved to the Board of Directors.’ Another option was to make a lump sum payment, determined according to the child’s age, which bypassed the election process. Places at the London Asylum were awarded on a similar basis.

 

Both institutions discharged inmates once they reached the age of 15, so by 1881 both Percy and Arthur were close to completing their education and having to seek employment, Percy in 1882, Arthur in 1883. [10] Just when Percy and Arthur finished their education is uncertain, but Percy left London on 6 December 1884 aboard the Australasian bound for Sydney and arrived on 26 January 1885.[11]

 

Harriett published the Kingswood Cookery Book early in 1885 and at the end of the year was appearing at the Cookery and Food Exhibition held at the London Aquarium. On the afternoon of December 16, she presented a lecture on ‘Cheap dishes for the artisan classes’ and demonstrated the making of several dishes - Toad in the hole, Cornish pasties, Bedford puddings, Potato soup, Rock cakes and omelette. The Morning Post commented:

 

A gas stove was used for the cooking, and while all the dishes, when handed round for tasting, were pronounced good, the impression among those present seemed to be that with such fireplaces as the poor find in the average tenements they can hire it would require much time and attention to attain such good results.[12]

 

She also competed for the prize offered for ‘a nourishing soup for the artisan classes’ receiving an honourable mention for ‘a nice thick soup of carrots.’[13]

 

The Exhibition, intended to be ‘of interest alike to the epicure and the economist’ comprised fifteen classes covering everything from food in the process of preparation to the literature of the kitchen and included cigar and cigarette making along the way.[14] How Harriett, billed in advertising as ‘diplomée and authoress of the Kingswood Cookery Book’, became involved is curious since the majority of exhibitors had established reputations and were either professional chefs/caterers, or had some other commercial connection. For example, on the afternoon of December 17 Mrs A. B. Marshall gave a demonstration on high-class entrées to ‘a crowded audience’ and her School of Cookery won several of the prizes offered for the preparation of food and for utensils and machinery used in food preparation. Chef Charles Herman Senn was also one of the exhibitors. [15]

To date the only evidence of Harriett teaching cookery is a series of advertisements placed in the Kentish Mercury in January and February 1886 where Mrs Wicken advises she is hoping to commence a course of lessons to be held at St Peter’s Court, Lee Green, commencing on 29 January, which will include demonstrations of ‘new entrées’ and breakfast and supper dishes.[16] Harriett’s parents and her aunt Jane were living at 14 Upwood Terrace, Burnt Ash Lane, Lee/Lee Green in 1881.

 

This is the last sighting of Harriett before she and Arthur leave for Sydney, Arthur on the Chimborazo sailing from London on 22 July and Harriett on the Carthage which left on 13 August, 1886.[17]

 

Unanswered questions.

Harriett’s subsequent career confirms that she had been given a good education and the bare facts of her family suggest that she lived in comfortable circumstances both before and after her marriage. Nonetheless the years of her marriage must have been difficult for Harriett. Even in an era when infant mortality was high the loss of five babies must have taken a toll. If nothing else, it meant that she was pregnant for almost all her married life. Widowed and having to fend for herself, but still only 25, remarriage was an option but perhaps not one that Harriett found attractive. Nothing is known of the state of George’s business at the time of his death, what, if anything, Harriett inherited, what debts she may have had to shoulder or what help she could expect from her own or George’s family. However, since both her sons went on to be educated it seems likely that, while her circumstances were such that her boys may have met the general entrance requirements for the asylums they attended, she was, or her family connections were, in a position to contribute financially to secure their admission. When she took over the boarding house in Bedford Road and how she supported herself until then remains a mystery. 

 

There is nothing to indicate that Harriett had any training to fall back on before she attended the National Training School but why she should choose to pursue a career as a cookery teacher is intriguing. Obviously, it allowed her to capitalise on skills and knowledge that she had already gained but perhaps more importantly, as Dena Attar argues in her survey of the history and politics of home economics, this was one form of employment which would enable her to support herself without losing her class status and without incurring ‘too much masculine wrath’.[18] There were a number of role models who may have been inspiration – Eliza Warren, author of How I managed my house on two hundred pounds a year (1864), was one who had turned her housekeeping knowledge into paid work and advocated that others should follow in her footsteps. Mrs Marshall was another who demonstrated the possibilities for women to use their domestic skills to good effect.

 

Kingston suggests that Harriett was an early graduate of the National School of Cookery, South Kensington, but exactly when Harriett enrolled is not known. The National Training School opened in 1874 but catered for ladies only until 1875 when it broadened its enrolment under Mrs Charles Clarke to include a range of income groups.[19] Harriett met the criteria for intending teachers in as much as she was over the age of 21 and sufficiently well-educated to be able to perform the duties of a teacher.[20] Correspondence in the archives of the NSW Education Department confirms that she did complete a course but did not receive a first class certificate. Harriett explained that:

 

at the time I obtained it I had a large household on my hands and the superintendent informed me that I had lost a large number of marks through my inability to attend before 10.15 instead of 9.30. Mrs Clarke however was confident of my ability to teach as she left me in charge of the demonstration kitchen when they were short of teachers. There were several staff teachers Mrs Watson and Mrs Gibbs were the two from whom I received the greater part of my instructions. The course lasts for 5 months and the exams are held twice a year. I attended the whole course and received my diploma. I then commenced to teach and have been teaching ever since.[21]

 

The ‘busy household’ she mentions could be the boarding house in Bedford Road. According to the preface to the first edition of the Kingswood the book was written ‘at the request of the many ladies who have attended my demonstrations’ which may refer to the demonstrations at South Kensington.[22] All that can be assumed with any confidence is that she had definitely completed her training at the National by the time she is demonstrating at the National Aquarium at the end of 1885, and probably earlier, before 20 January 1885 the date of the preface to the first edition of the Kingswood. 

 

If she was too busy to get to school on time, how does she find the space to write a cookery book and get it published? It is easy to underestimate the time involved in compiling any cookery book even one of only 96 pages (the Kingswood contains 171 recipes). The available evidence suggests that she was at Bedford Road from at least 1881 (census) until December 1885 (the newspaper announcement of her entry into the soup competition describes her as ‘of Bedford Road’).[23] The preface to her book is dated January 1885, so it seems that managing the boarding house did allow Harriett time to spend at her desk, selecting, writing out and collating her recipes and instructions.

 

In her preface Harriett notes that there are already a ‘vast number’ of other titles available, but she nonetheless felt there was room for one more. Perhaps she intended that she would make copies available at her demonstrations. The only mention of her giving classes under her own authority dates from early 1886. Given that the venue for these classes is Lee Green in Kent which is where her parents were living in 1881, it is possible that Harriett has given up the boarding house and may be living with her parents in early 1886.

 

Why then does she decide to emigrate? Harriett appears to have fared well enough since George’s death. Her sons have had a good education and are at an age when they can earn their own living. She was able to pay for her attendance at the National, and it is likely that she ‘self-published’ the first version of the Kingswood negotiating with Chapman and Hall for some sort of royalty payment, and perhaps paying some of the cost of publication herself. In addition, she and her sons all travel to Australia as unassisted passengers paying for their fare. There is also nothing to suggest that the move to Australia was precipitate or necessarily prompted by financial hardship.

One explanation is that Harriett had decided on a life in Australia before she attended the National Training School, calculating that as a ‘diplomée’, an experienced demonstrator, and an author she would have the perfect credentials to guarantee her success in Australia. Percy had already been in Sydney for the best part of two years before Harriett and Arthur arrived, ample time for him to have provided reports about the status of cookery education in Australia and to assess the lay of the land. Perhaps he had been sent ahead for just that purpose. The Kingswood Cookery Book was available in Australia, through George Robertson in Melbourne, months before Harriett arrived. [24]

 

There is no direct evidence that this was the case, although it does suggest itself as a logical interpretation of the facts. There are several other plausible scenarios. Percy may have had the offer of employment and Harriett and Arthur simply decided to join him. There may have already been some family connection in the colony which encouraged the move. Or perhaps favourable reports of one of the boarders who passed through Bedford Gardens prompted thoughts of greater opportunities and a new start. Perhaps Arthur already showed signs of the tuberculosis that would kill him, as it had his father, and the family was simply encouraged to seek a warmer climate. Whatever the motivation to leave London, training at the National gave Harriett the skills she needed to support herself in Australia

 

Another lingering question surrounds the title of Harriett’s most well-known cookbook. The preface to the first edition of the Kingswood Cookery Book indicates that it was written at Kingswood, that is the book is named for a place. It would have been more usual and certainly more commercially advantageous to have chosen a title which emphasised the name of the author. All the same after Harriett revises the book in Australia she persists with the original title. Kingswood then must have had some special significance for Harriett. Recipes in the first and subsequent editions are also labelled Kingswood – Kingswood soup, Kingswood pudding, Kingswood cakes, Kingswood pie.[25] Are these dishes she learnt to cook at Kingswood or so named simply to complement the book’s title?

 

Extensive searching and much speculation has failed to determine exactly where this Kingswood may have been. One thought is that, since the book was published, and, it might be assumed, was written, while Harriett was at Bedford Road, Kingswood may have been the name she gave her boarding house. There is no evidence to date that this was the case.

The name could have something to do with Kingswood Place in Lee (about 15 kilometres east of Bedford Road), close to Burnt Ash Road where her parents are living in 1881 and where she is proposing to give lessons in early 1886, although this connection seems unlikely.

Another possibility comes from a link to Kingswood near Tadworth in Surrey (about 25 km south of Bedford Road). William Pugh, Harriett’s uncle, moved from Lambeth before the 1871 census which has him living with his wife and his sister Jane, his mother-in-law, a nephew and two nieces at Heath House, in the ecclesiastical district of Kingswood, not far from Tadworth. William remains in the area until at least 1891.[26] Another uncle, Richard Pugh, a miller and coal merchant, is living at Fern Villa situated closer to Tadworth and adjacent to Walton Flour mills. Harriett may have spent time with either uncle in the years after George’s death, or she may have simply stayed with her relatives at some stage while she compiled her recipe book. Although how she was able to continue running the boarding house in London and spend time in the country is problematic. It is also possible that William, who appears to have had no children of his own, assisted Harriett financially. Just what relationship Harriett had with her mother’s family is not known.

 

In the nineteenth century authors of cookbooks revealed little of themselves in their writing, the unremitting emphasis on cleanliness and thrift sounding much the same from author to author, and book to book. Harriett Wicken was no exception. We can only guess at her personality and catch the odd fleeting glance of her personal life. Kingston sees Harriett as brisk, confident, and practical. To that could also be added intelligent, resourceful, independent, determined, and shrewd. These were all qualities which stood her in good stead in her later career.

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[1] See https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wicken-harriett-frances-13247. Kingston notes that ‘Harriett’ is spelt in various ways in official documents. I have used Harriett throughout as this is the form she used herself in signed correspondence with her Australian publishers Angus and Robertson.

[2] Unless otherwise noted, birth, death and marriage details are taken from the original documents copies of which are available in the file on Harriet Wicken held at the Noel Butlin Archives, Australian National University.

[3] All census data was accessed via Ancestry.com. In 1851 the household comprised Joseph, 33, and Harriett, 38; their children Arthur, 6, Harriett Frances 3, Anne 11 months; and a house servant Annie King, 19. Robson’s Directory for 1842 lists Joseph Smith, iron merchant in Broad Street, https://londonwiki.co.uk/streets1832/BroadstreetLambeth.shtml.

[4] The household included Joseph 43, still in business as an ironmonger, and his wife Harriett 48; Harriett Frances and her siblings Arthur 16, Anne 11, Caroline 8, and Ernest 6; a nephew, Thomas Green, 18; and a servant, Emma Dodson, 21.

[5] The Wicken household comprised George 43, his wife Caroline 48; their children George Charles 19, Caroline 9 and Edward H. 5; plus Eliza Punter 18, house servant. 

[6] In the 1871 Census the household comprises George and Harriett, their two sons Percy 4 and Arthur 3, and a general servant, Mary Ann Cheal, 19. 23 St Matthews Place/Water Lane is the address of George’s parents in 1861. By 1871 the senior Wickens have moved to Arundel Villa, Spenser Road, Lambeth, subsequently renumbered 14 Spenser Road (in 1875), where they remain through to 1891. 

[7] In 1871 census, Joseph Smith is operating as a corn merchant. The family live at 4 Lynton Terrace, Lewisham, and Harriett’s two sisters and her brother Ernest are still living at home.

[8] Debus was lecturer in chemistry at Guy’s Hospital and professor of chemistry of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich as well as occasional examiner at the University of London. How did he come to be at Harriett Wicken’s boarding house? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Debus. 

[9] For the London Orphan Asylum see http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/LondonOrphan/?LMCL=MVH1Bh); http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/places/places-w/watford/watford-london-orphan-asylum.htm. For the British Orphan Asylum see  http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/BritishOrphan/?LMCL=Ik9_d_.

[10] In the 1881 census none of the boys listed at the London Orphan Asylum are more than 14 years old.

[11] For arrival and account of voyage see Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January 1885, p. 6. For manifest see https://www.marinersandships.com.au/1885/01/138aus.htm. Australian Town and Country Journal, 31 January 1885, confirms date of arrival in Sydney as 28 January 1885 (Melbourne on 26^th). The entry for Percy Wicken in the Cyclopoedia of Western Australia confirms that he was born in 1866. It claims he received his education in London and was then ‘engaged for a time in commercial life’. Unsurprisingly there is no mention of the London Orphan Asylum. The entry states that he came to New South Wales in 1884 and that he ‘joined the Government Agricultural Department’.

[12] Morning Post (London), 18 December 1885, p. 2.

[13] South London Press, 12 December 1885, p. 1; Shields Daily News (Northumberland), 18 December 1885, p. 4.

[14] South London Press, 12 December 1885, p. 1.

[15] Sportsman, 16 December 1885, p. 1. Mrs Marshall founded her cookery school in 1883 and published her first book The Book of Ices in 1885. See Terry Jenkins, ‘The truth about Mrs Marshall,’ Petits Propos Culinaires, 112, November 2018, pp. 100–112. Charles Hermann Senn trained under Francatelli at the Reform Club, became consulting chef to the national Training School of Cookery in 1892 and went on to edit the 1906 edition of Beeton’s Book of Household Management as well as publishing numerous titles in his own right. 

[16] Kentish Mercury, 5 February 1886, p. 8. Advertisements ran 22 January, 29 January and 5 February. Saint Peter’s, Lee was consecrated 1871, the parish rooms were in St Peter’s Court, Lee Green behind the New Tiger’s Head.

[17] The Chimborazo arrived in Sydney on 9 September, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 September 1886, p. 6, and the Carthage on 30 September, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October 1886, p. 6.

[18] Dena Attar, Wasting Girls’ Time (London: Virago, 1990), 43.

[19] Anne Clendinning, Demons of domesticity: women and the English gas industry, 1889–1939 (Ashgate: Aldershot, 2004), 29. Attar, 43–44. The national initially patronised by fashionable and wealthy women. From 1875 onwards it gave more emphasis to its teacher training courses which were originally only three months long.

[20] Dorothy Stone, The National. The story of a pioneering college (Robert Hale: London, 1976), 14 intending teachers should be at least twenty-one years of age, sufficiently educated to be able to perform the duties of a teacher. After the training they should be able to speak aloud, to write form dictation and keep accounts.

[21] Museums of History NSW–State Archives Collection, Education Department Files, NRS-3830-2-[20/12605], Wicken to E. Johnson Eyre, 16 August 1892.

[22] H. F. Wicken, The Kingswood Cookery Book (London: Chapman & Hall, 1885). In the letter to the NSW Education Department cited above she claims to have taught for the English government but does not explain in what capacity, where or when.

[23] The census date in 1881 was 3 April. South London Press, 12 December 1885, p. 1.

[24] See Sydney Morning Herald, 20 February 1886, p. 9 and Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 18 February 1886, p. 12.

[25] Bedford pudding, the dish she demonstrated at the Royal Aquarium, also appears in later editions. This appears to have been one of Harriett’s own creations and is presumably named after Bedford Road.

[26] All the information about William Pugh is taken from the 1871 census.  Heath House was in the civil parish of Banstead, ecclesiastical district of Kingswood. The Ordinance survey map dated 1869 (Surrey sheet xxvi https://maps.nls.uk/view/102347484) shows Heath House as a substantial residence.