The Red Ensign Club
Following the destruction of the "Royal Berwick Theatre" Rev George Smith of the Methodist Mariners church on Dock Street decided to build a sailors' home on the site. It was founded in 1830 and opened in 1835, with accommodation for 100 sailors. This was later expanded to 500. The main entrance was originally on Well Street, but later changed to be on Dock Street. The London Nautical School opened here in 1893. In 1955 it was modernised and renamed the "Red Ensign Club". Following the decline of the British Merchant Fleet, it closed in 1974. It is now a youth club. Well Street was renamed Ensign Street in honour of the hostel. According to John Stape's biography "The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad", Conrad first lived in this sailor's home at the age of 21, and returned several times. There was a sugar refinery at the bottom of Dock Street and Well Street. It is mentioned by Charles Dickens in "The Uncommercial Traveller". According to Roy Palmer, one version of the sea shanty "Tiger Bay" makes reference to "Well Street", and suggests it was the one by Wellclose Square. (see "The Oxford Book of Sea Songs" 1986).
Read more about this topic: Wellclose Square
Famous quotes containing the words the red, red, ensign and/or club:
“This is the end, the redemption from Wilderness, way for the Wonderer, House sought for All, black handkerchief washed clean by weepingpage beyond PsalmLast change of mine and Naomito Gods perfect Darkness Death, stay thy phantoms!”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“their red cloaks
wrapped tight to the bone”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894)
“Mi advise tu them who are about tu begin, in arnest, the jurney ov life, is tu take their harte in one hand and a club in the other.”
—Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (18181885)