Sir Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was probably the most famous comic actor of all

time – and almost certainly therefore Kennington’s most famous resident. He

made his reputation dressed as a tramp, with smudge moustache, frock coat,

bowler hat, cane and outsized shoes in silent films from the mid-1910s, mixing

buffoonery with pathos and eventually combining dialogue with music.

He said that he was born in East Street – site of a still flourishing street

market just off the Walworth Road – to two music hall performers, Charles

and Hannah Chaplin. But it was suggested in 2012 that he may have come

from a gypsy family, and was born “in a caravan [that] belonged to the Gypsy

Queen … on the Black Patch near Smethwick near Birmingham”. Either way,

he certainly had a rough early life, much of it spent in and around Kennington.

His parents separated before he was 5 years old. His mother then struggled

to make a living - Charlie first appeared on stage at the age of 5 when his

mother was unable to complete her act – and she had a mental breakdown

when he was 9, eventually ending up in an asylum. Charlie’s father was an

alcoholic and, although he became a successful businessman, eventually

owning a number of public houses, he died when Charlie was 12.

The result was that Charlie spent much of his time on the streets of North

Lambeth, hanging around outside his dad’s pubs, and staying overnight in

workhouses or with his father and his new partner. But he closely observed

the local characters in an area which was both very poor and dominated by

the theatre – which had yet to move to respectability north of the river. The

streets of Lambeth were in effect a large open air theatre and this early

experience fed much of Charlie’s later comic genius. It is not too difficult to

imagine the scene in the above photo in the streets of Lambeth at the end of

the 1900s.

Whenever Charlie’s mother did not even have

enough money to rent a room, they stayed in

the Lambeth Workhouse between Brook

Drive and Renfrew Road, behind the Imperial

War Museum.

This 1914 map on the left shows that the

workhouse was fairly large. Its Master’s

House is still standing and now houses the

excellent Cinema Museum (

www.cinemamuseum.org.uk ).

The street running across the top of this map

is Brook Drive, and Kennington Lane runs

across the bottom of the map.

Charlie went to schools in Kennington Road, Hercules Road and Sancroft

Street, and is said to have lived in the following premises in the Kennington

and Walworth areas:-

• 39 West Square,

• 92 Barlow Street

• 39 Methley Street – said to be the inspiration for the setting of The

Kid as well as the home of the blind girl in City Lights,

• a one room garret at 3 Pownall Terrace, Kennington Road, and

• 287 Kennington Road, where there is a plaque remembering him.

It is also said that Charlie last saw his alcoholic father at:

• the Three Stags pub on the corner of Lambeth Road and

Kennington Road,

that the inspiration for his “tramp” character was gained outside:

• the Queen’s Head pub on Black Prince Road, opposite the end of

Vauxhall Walk,

and that Charlie met his first date outside:

• the railings of St Mark’s Church, the Oval – which became the

inspiration for the place in City Lights where a blind girl sells

flowers.

Charlie’s memoirs record his memories of West Square, just off Brook Drive:-

“West Square! At the back of the Bedlam Lunatic Asylum. This is as far

back as I can remember as a child. It was there, somewhere around

the age of three, we lived in a large house.

It was there I almost died through swallowing a halfpenny. I had taken

my money box to bed with me. My brother had been impressing me

with conjuring tricks, pretending to swallow the coin and bringing it

back through his nose. Of course I did it realistically with the awful

consequences. What a rumpus it caused! I have a vague memory of

being held upside down, shaken , slapped and probed and brought into

the glaring light of the sitting-room. Then for some reason everything

subsided and I slept.

As I walk around West Square, I come upon a stationer's shop where

they sell toys, sweets and tobacco. The store has an odor that

awakens memories. It smells Christmasy. In the window I see a Noah's

ark with painted wooden animals. I can't resist it. I go in and buy it just

to get a whiff of the paint and the feel of the excelsior that's packed

inside. “

Charlie’s stage career began in earnest at the age of 7 when he appeared as

one of a team of urchins billed as The Eight Lancashire Lads. He then joined

Fred Karno’s Fun Factory, based in Coldhabour Lane, Brixton, where he

worked with Stan Laurel, another English comic who also eventually

emigrated to Holywood. The Karno troup went out to the United States in

1910 … and the rest, as they say, is history.

Charlie was in fact rather an unpleasant individual – perhaps because of his

upbringing. He was extremely mercenary and he was also a womaniser. His

close women friends were appalled to learn that he publicly and tastelessly

described their physical attributes in detail. Chaplin's political

pronouncements also caused outrage. During the Second World War, he

followed the Communist propaganda line calling for a second front in the East

against Germany which led to later allegations that he was pro-Red. In the

1962 witch-hunt conducted by Senator McCarthy and the American Legion,

Chaplin fled to Switzerland announcing that he was "a citizen of the world".

And "I have no further use for America. I would not go back there even if

Jesus Christ was the president". But this also produced the revelation that he

had always been British and had never become an American citizen.

Chaplin married four times. His first two divorces produced sensational

newspaper headlines as did allegations of taking a minor across state

boundaries for the purposes of sex, and a paternity suit in 1944.

The movie industry awarded Charlie two special Oscars, in 1928 and 1972,

and he was knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1975.