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, 6th 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 24th 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.
[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 26th). 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.
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