In 1904 the disused parish mortuary building, built around 1870 and standing in what had become a public garden, was converted by the newly-created Borough of Stepney into a Nature Study Centre and Museum, a branch of the Whitechapel Museum. Over the door (still visible) are the words Metropolitan Borough of Stepney Nature Study Centre. This picture is from 1910. The cost, met by an anonymous benefactor, was £253 1s 2d.
The vision came from the Curator of the Stepney Borough Museum, Miss Kate Marion Hall and the then-curate of the parish, Claude Hinscliffe, who became the first secretary of the School Nature Study Union, founded in 1902/3. Its journal was School Nature Study. It was was an influential group in the London area, though perhaps not nationally, and paved the way for rural and environmental studies (see further E.W. Jenkins & B.J. Swinnterton 'The School Nature Study Union 1903-94' in the journal History of Education 1996, vol 25 no 2 pp181-98).
The Union's motto was to see and to admire, not harm
or destroy; they described the Stepney project as a Temple of Nature, in the least
romantic centre of the Metropolis.
The intention was to give city children and adults, who might otherwise never have encountered live animals, an experience of the natural world. The live exhibits included tanks of sea anemones, tropical and fresh water fish and amphibians (frogs, toads, newts and salamanders). So the Museum was unique in London in two respects: it was the only one to major on live exhibits, and Stepney was the first borough to support municipal museums from the rates. The Linnaean Society's obituary of Miss Hall in 1919 described it as a fairy house in an oasis.
The
live specimens caused a few problems. The moth-eaten cockerel (is it alive? asked
the children) was washed in benzol, despite the curator's protests. In
1937 the Borough Librarian wrote to complain that the monkey had from time to time bitten and
attempted to bite not only members of the museum staff, but the general
public as well.
There were stuffed birds, butterflies and moths. Outside there were wild flower gardens (which, taking into account the unfavourable local conditions of soil and atmosphere, is surprisingly successful), an ant-hive, an aviary, and a beehive, with glass walls, which could be viewed from within the Centre. The bees became famous: they fed on honey from the garden flowers, syrup from shops, and spoil from the sugar ships at the docks, and people came from far and wide to see them. Sadly, they were removed during or after the First World War. Various specimen trees were planted in the Gardens at the time of its opening. A meteorological station, with regular records, was kept.
One of the children who visited wrote about 'Tom the borough toad'....
The Italian toad sits in a little pot of water and hardly moves.
When we look at it, it makes a snap at us,
as if it wants to eat us.
The Nature Study Museum managed to keep going during the First World War, but closed during the Second World War, since it proved impossible to acquire new live specimens, and many children had been evacuated. It never re-opened: the remaining specimens were transferred to the Whitechapel Museum, and the Centre fell into increasing disrepair and was subject to vandalism.
Now
that the Gardens
have been restored (they were formally re-opened on 31 May 2009), there
is an urgency about saving this building.
The story of why it was not included as part of this major restoration
project is a complex one! However, the parish and diocese, in
partnership with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, has recently
submitted a funding bid to bring it back into use as the base for an
environmental educational charity and a base for the Park Ranger. If
you have fond memories of the building in its former glory and would
like to contribute, you can do so by following this link, or by sending a donation to the church address at the head of this page, marked 'Nature Study Centre'.
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