Gaslight in Page Street by Harry Bowling Read Free Book Online Page B

although it stood just behind the noisy Jamaica Road.
     
    Tyburn Square had originally been built to accommodate the shippers and businessmen who owned the Bermondsey wharves and warehouses, men who had earned their fortunes trading along from Greenwich Reach to the Pool of London. As industry moved into the area, many of the original occupants of the houses moved away to escape the ever-increasing danger of contracting illnesses spread by the yellow, sulphurous fogs or the fevers which were constantly breaking out in the riverside hovels. Now Tyburn Square had a second wave of prosperous tenants, like George Galloway who had built his business up from trading with one horse and cart. The square now boasted solicitors and ship-chandlers, cordwainers and wheelwrights among its community, as well as a few retired businessmen who were loath to leave Bermondsey despite the growing dangers and the constant noise and bustle.
     
    George Galloway lived at number 22. His two-storeyed house was tastefully furnished. Thick draperies covered the windows, and the furniture was of rosewood and oak. Heavy carpets covered the floors, and the downstairs and first-floor rooms were kept warm with open fires.
     
    Galloway employed a housekeeper who lived in a room on the top floor of the house. Mrs Flynn had come to work for the cartage contractor soon after his wife Martha died. She was herself a widow who had lost her two children while they were still babies. Mrs Flynn’s husband had been the first carman to work for Galloway. He had died under the hooves of a team of horses which had bolted when they were frightened by the exploding boiler of a steam tram in the Old Kent Road. Nora Flynn was still only thirty-five, although her thin frame and gaunt face made her seem much older. She looked stern with her tightly swept-up black hair and her piercing dark eyes, but beneath the surface she was a kindhearted woman who had borne the tragedy in her life with fortitude. She had taken care of George Galloway’s young daughter Josephine from birth, and had been a restraining and calming influence on her employer’s two lively sons who had taken their mother’s death very badly. The Galloway children all loved her, although the boys were very careful not to anger her. As far as Josephine was concerned, Nora was her mother, although she had always been taught to call her by name. It was something George Galloway had insisted upon.
     
    Most of the top floor of the house was used for storage. Nora occupied only the front room which looked down on to the square. It was simply furnished, containing a wardrobe and dressing table, a bed in one corner and a table beneath the wide window. The floor was carpeted, and the small open fire provided enough warmth for Nora’s needs. The housekeeper lived a spartan life, rising early and washing in cold water from the washstand bowl. She prepared the food in the large ground-floor kitchen at the back of the house and spent a considerable time each day keeping the whole house in spotless condition. Her only relaxation was to take long, leisurely walks in the early evening after her day’s work was done. Sometimes she called on old friends and often visited nearby St James’s Church to hear the evening services, but when it was very cold or when she was feeling too tired to take her walk, she would sit in her room and take up her embroidery, although the poor light afforded by the flickering gas-mantle made it rather difficult for her. Nora lived her life the way she wanted to and had grown used to her employer’s ways and increasingly black moods. She could understand and sympathise with him over the sad loss of his wife but would confront and remonstrate with him when he came down too heavily on his children, for which they were grateful.
     
    George Galloway owned a pony-and-trap which he entrusted to a livery stable just behind the square, where the ostler kept both animal and contraption in good