Temperance, tanneries and a working class hero: the story behind Southwark Park’s old water fountain

How many times have you walked past that old drinking fountain in Southwark Park? Sadly it is currently not working, yet it tells a remarkable story of an ordinary working man and his courageous efforts to improve the lives of Bermondsey people. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Jabez West, writes Debra Gosling…

It is a sunny June day in 1810 that our story begins. Newborn Jabez opened his eyes in his family home in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, the son of Ann and blacksmith William West.

As he grew to school age Jabez attended a "Dame school”, run by an older lady who kept a small shop. A Dame School was a small primary school, often run by women in their own home and teaching basic education. Jabez was to remark later that she “thought more about teaching the children to suck lollipops than she did of teaching them the ABC.” A bit harsh but he was that kind of man!

He later went to work, labouring on the land until 1824, when he was apprenticed and then employed as a fellmonger to a Mr. Hughes in Leighton Buzzard. And so began his link to Bermondsey. By 1884 he had settled in Southwark, married twice and had seven children. Phew!

Southwark Park's Jabez West Memorial (c) Gary Magold

He was prominent in the Teetotallers of Southwark and helped establish headquarters at various addresses in the area, including Fair Street, Horsleydown; Arnold’s Place, Dockhead and Station Road, Bermondsey. Alcohol has always had a link to violence, especially the domestic kind - did he witness this during his early years?

In Victorian times most working class people drank - it was still a time where drinking water was a gamble so even children supped ale! But of course this led to all sorts of health problems.

In 1838 Jabez engaged in open-air speaking, with the corner of Shad Thames and Millpond Bridge among his favourite pitches. But you must remember Bermondsey at that time was full of heavy industry and docks - after work going to the pub for a few pints was the norm. He must have had an awful lot of courage attempting to dissuade pub regulars to go home and drink tea.

In 1861 the landlord of The Queen Charlotte public house took legal action to have him removed as a public nuisance, but at his trial – at the Old Bailey no less – he was discharged and encouraged by the judge to persist with his temperance work, albeit in a different location. He organised petitions to Parliament calling for the closure of pubs on Sundays. I bet that went down well with the locals...

A temperance poster copyright Debra Gosling

His dedication to the temperance cause was immense. He often delivered three speeches an hour long on Sundays, and once five! Although he was a working man in the Bermondsey tanneries, he travelled all over the Home Counties to different organisations such as mothers’ meetings, Band of Hope children’s meetings, church parades and demonstrations. He often walked to and from his assignments and received no payment or expenses.

But working in the tanneries took its toll on Jabez. In 1872 he suffered from a poisoned face, which nearly killed him. This was time when such unpleasantries as anthrax lurked in the nooks and crannies from imported animal skins. He maintained that the lack of alcohol in his system had saved him. A result of his illness was the loss of all his teeth, so in 1879 a testimonial raised money for a false set. A surplus of £76 saw him through the lean employment of his later years. His final work place was at Mr Walker’s yard in St. James’ Road.

In 1884 Jabez West died, aged 73, from natural causes. He was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery. A large procession departed from his home at 51, Frean Street and a vast crowd, over half a mile in length, wended its way through Bermondsey, Old Kent Road and Peckham, before reaching the cemetery.

Later the Metropolitan Board of Works approved an application from George Oliver and others to honour the memory of Jabez West through a drinking fountain in Southwark Park. The Southwark Recorder commented: “It has been urged that our public parks ought not to be made receptacles for every deceased person’s monument whose friends may be able to pay to erect one. We quite admit the force of the argument as applied to “private” individuals, but Mr. West was, in the strictest sense of the word, a “public” man, and the case before us is altogether exceptional - singular in almost every respect. We doubt if a more remarkable career than this can be found in the social history of London during the present century. It is exceptional in respect of his being a “bona fide” working man, who toiled at the bench till the day of his death; and we doubt if it is possible to find another who has devoted more hours to the elevation of his class.”

On 3rd April 1885 the Jabez West drinking fountain was formally unveiled at a large temperance demonstration. Benjamin Whitworth, M.P., performed the ceremony of unveiling, and drank a draught of water from the fountain. In 1915 the London County Council regilded the drinking fountain inscription after a request from the Southwark Band of Hope Union.