London Urban Legends by Scott Wood Read Free Book Online Page B

Restaurant, No. 21 Park Road, Crouch End, she spotted a mural on the side of the building showing Bob Dylan asking, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ Inside, Emma was shown a brass plaque declaring that ‘Bob Dylan sat at this table, August 1993’. Apparently, after his ill-fated trip to a possibly non-existent house on Crouch End Hill, Dylan went to console himself with a drink. At the time, however, Banner’s alcohol licence did not allow people to have a drink without food, so Bob Dylan was turned down. He asked them ‘Do you know who I am?’ just so the restaurant staff were sure of who they were denying booze. The response is not recorded, but it seems like Bob Dylan just can’t get a break in Crouch End.

6
NEW LEGENDS AS OLD
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    They were not history, but legends …

    Steve Roud, London Lore
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The Deptford Jolly Roger
    Tucked down a street that’s off another street that comes off Creek Road in Deptford is St Nicholas Church. The churchyard is dense and old, and Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlow is buried somewhere in its grounds. On the gateposts leading into the churchyard is another of the church’s famous features: two large decaying, yet still grinning, stone skulls crossed with bones underneath. This striking feature has acquired a legend to suit its visual impact, because these skulls and crossbones are the inspiration for the pirate flag, the Jolly Roger.
    Deptford’s maritime history is mostly obliterated, save a couple of warehouses and watergates by the river, but it was once the ‘King’s Yard’, having been founded by Henry VIII, remaining a naval and shipping hub until after the Napoleonic Wars. Captain James Cook’s ship the HMS Resolution set off from and was refitted at the dockyard, and Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind at Deptford. By the 1840s ships had become larger, and the shallow, narrow bed of the river made getting to Deptford difficult, closing the area to major shipping.
    With over 300 years of naval history, Deptford must have had its fair share of pirates, or would-be pirates, passing St Nicholas Church on their way to their ship, the tavern or even to their execution. Many of them who looked up were inspired by these blood-curdling sculptures enough to incorporate their likeness into their flag and spread the terror of it across the seas.
    London bloggers, ever on the lookout for an eye-opening and quirky fact, love the story. An undated ‘Summer Strolls’ walk around Deptford published by Time Out mentions the legend; even the website of St Nicholas and St Luke’s churches repeats the story, although keeps its factual possibility at fingertips’ length. The site describes the skull and crossbones flag as a means for British privateer sailors (‘freelance’ sailors who were paid on commission, working for the British Navy, fighting against the French, Spanish and Dutch ships for the control of the world’s trade routes) to hide their nationality by flying the Jolly Roger rather than the English or Union Flag. The Information Britain website even names Henry Morgan, a former British admiral turned privateer who must have been familiar with Deptford, as the St Nicholas parishioner who first got the idea.
    The difference between a privateer and a pirate is who benefits from the loot you steal. Henry Morgan was privateering for England and would have flown the English flag as he raided and looted innocent (or enemy) ships.
    Historically, the Jolly Roger was not a ubiquitous symbol of piracy and was not adopted as a universal symbol of the pirate’s outlaw status. Pirate flags were more in keeping with naval rules of engagement than the attitude of criminals. When one ship attacked another, a red flag was flown to indicate that they were in conflict. If the attacking ship was victorious, it would take the ship and its cargo and take the surviving crew prisoner, or ‘give quarter’. To fly a black flag meant to give no