User:Ray3055/Sweeny Todd

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"New Light on Sweeney Todd, Thomas Peckett Prest, James Malcolm Rymer and Elizabeth Caroline Grey" by Helen R. Smith (Paperback - 15 Sep 2002)

London tours?

"Sweeney Todd the demon barber of Fleet Street, had his shop at number 186 Fleet Street, which is now the Dundee Courier building with a Kwick copier shop below as pictured here. On this site he is believed to have robbed and murdered over 150 customers, thereby making him the number one serial killer in British history.

Sweeney was born on 16th October 1756, at number 85 Brick Lane in London's East End. In those times Brick Lane was almost a rural country lane that led out to the brickfields of Bethnal Green. Todd's mother Elizabeth, was a silk-winder and his father Samuel Todd a silk weaver, working for the French Huguenots in nearby Norton Folgate, Spitalfields. In February 1770 aged only 14 years Sweeney Todd was sentenced to a five year term in Newgate Prison wrongly accused of stealing a pocket watch. While in prison he met up with an old barber named Elmer Plummer, who was serving ten years for fraud. Plummer took a liking to young Sweeney and taught him how to cut hair and shave, and how to pick pockets of the customers, Sweeney was a keen learner and soon became Plummer's apprentice boy, lathering-up and shaving some of the prisoners who could afford their services.

After his release in 1775, with a few pounds he had stolen at work in the jail, and with the little knowledge of haircuts he gained, Sweeney Todd opened his Barber Shop at 186 Fleet Street, next door to St Dunstan's Church, just a few blocks away from the Royal Courts of Justice. The shop stood at the side of the narrow alleyway named Hen and Chicken Court, at the corner of Fetter Lane.

Hen and Chicken Court the alley way beside Sweeney's barbers shop.

Going west along Fleet Street towards the Strand and opposite the Temple Bar is Bell Yard, a narrow alleyway where Mrs. Lovett a widow and long time girl friend of Sweeney’s had her meat pie shop.

The first murder account in the Daily Courant, London’s first newspaper, that had by this time merged with the Daily Gazetteer, described a murder that could well have been the work of Todd. It recalls on 14th of April 1785 a murder was committed near to Fleet Street on a gentleman from the country who was on a visit to London. The gentleman was seen arguing with a barber when the barber took from his white coat a razor and slit the throat of the man, the barber then ran towards White Friars Street, disappearing into the fog.

The story of the barbers shop tells of when customers were seated in the revolving chair, that stood in the centre of the small shop and over a trapdoor that led to a disused cellar. The chair if swung over would reveal an identical empty chair that would take its place. Sweeney when committing his murderous act, would exit through the rear door and down a flight of creaky stairs to where the customer would by now be lying unconscious after their fall. Sweeney would then take out his razor and slit their throats (through Sweeney Todd's act this type of razor became known as a cut throat razor).

With his lover the pie maker Margery Lovett, they discovered a disused underground tunnel leading from the cellar of Sweeney’s shop, that ran beneath St Dunstan's Church and the burial crypt, finishing up under Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, that would make an ideal business partnership for them both.

The story for Sweeney Todd ended at the end of a rope on January 25th 1802. He was strung up outside Newgate Prison; it is said before a crowd of thousands, who had been waiting throughout the night to see Sweeney’s demise. After his execution, his body given over for medical research by a group of hospital surgeons. Sweeney Todd ended up, like so many of his victims, with his entrails on a plate. And as for Mrs. Margery Lovett, she was to cheat death by the hangman, she was found by prison warders poisoned in her cell at Newgate prison.

If you had been looking for a hair cut and had been walking along Fleet Street in the year of 1785, heading westwards towards the Temple bar, a large gateway in the centre of the road, and heading for the fresh air of Covent Gardens, you would have crossed over Fetter Lane on your right and then immediately afterwards you would have noticed Hen and Chicken court, a dark narrow passageway. Perhaps you may have paused, and if a young woman asked you to go down the alleyway with her for some sport, you would have felt the danger of walking down such a dark alleyway alone. You would not have been aware of the horror lurking inside the old brown wooden barber shop at the side of the alley would be a great deal more of a danger than the girl beckoning in the alley, and if you decided not to have a haircut or shave you would have passed by Todd's barber shop with a lucky escape.

This old brown wooden barber shop would not have taken any of your attention whatsoever, as there was no window display, and the windows were misty with steam and dirt, and hard to see through. You may have noticed the red and white striped pole projecting out from the shop front, denoting its dual role as a barber surgeon. If curiosity had got the better of you and you stuck your nose against the window, you may have seen some dusty wigs on wood blocks the shape of heads. You may have become alarmed by the number of jars containing rotten teeth. These displays were to advertise the skills of pulling out teeth as barbers of the day acted as dentists too. Had you looked at the sign above the shop you would have seen the worn out hand painted yellow sign proclaiming 'Sweeney Todd, barbers'. If you had opened the barber’s door, a rusty old bell would ting to alert the barber who may have been away from his chair. Once inside the shop you would have noticed the bare wood floor creaking. Heavy brown wooden beams run across the low ceiling, meeting up with the dark wooden walls that made it appear dark even on a sunny day. Flickering oil lamps at either side of the shop would only be lit when a customer would arrive. There was an old wooden bench near the chair where there were arranged; razors, combs, brushes, shaving bowls, . By the side of the chair was a leather strap that was used to sharpen a blunt razor or knife. On the left side of the shop was a small open fire, with bits of coal and some smoldering burnt hair, that Sweeney would throw on from time to time. The chair it is said was made of oak wood with ornate legs, with a small step to rest your feet when in the chair.

The barber himself was even more off putting than his shop; a sullen figure with heavy eyebrows, a long hard mouth, and an awkward stance. Every day a few people would gather outside the barbers shop, to witness Gog and Magog, being the name given to the two statues above the church who every hour would hit their clubs at the large bell of St Dunstan's Church. The figures were installed in 1671, and are carved in wood, each holding a club; they would swing from side to side, with two hits each quarter. The crowd themselves would not have known of the underground tunnels that were beneath the church. They were part of the priory of white friars monastery, that stood opposite in what is today's Bouverie Street. Whereas, our barber surgeon was most certainly aware of the tunnels, it may have been one of the reasons why he took the shop in the first place, as the tunnels were of course full of rats. So from his small shop on Fleet Street with living accommodation for himself up stairs, Sweeney set about making his fame and fortune. "

Daily Courant article

• "By this time, Sweeney Todd was clearly an accomplished murderer. The Daily Courant, a Fleet Street-published broadsheet, reported a killing in 1785 that almost certainly was committed by Sweeney Todd. "A Cut-Throat Barber," goes the headline in the April 14, 1785 Courant. "A horrid murder has been committed in Fleet Street on the person of a young gentleman from the country while on a visit to relatives in London." Crimestory.com wich is a fag website

Newgate Prison

Feb 1770 - 1775

Bell Yard pie shop

Mrs Margery Lovett - Newgate poisoning

His date of birth etc

No Baptism records

1785 approx

His date of death etc

25th Jan 1802