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THE CAMDEN TOWN MURDER

Camden Town a century ago was a seedy, noisy, smoky railway and transport centre. It was dark, of course, that fateful night of 11/12 September 1907 in Camden Town, and its demi-monde was about to be exposed in the red tops of the day.

In early 1907 Bert Shaw, a railway cook, and domestic servant Phyllis (christened Emily) Dimmock, had moved in to lodgings in Great College Street. Months later they moved to two rooms at 29 St Paul’s Road (now Agar Grove). They got by, but there was rather less income than when Phyllis had been ‘working the streets’. She again sought men that earned her money. Bert’s night shifts, and the landlady’s early-to-bed, late-to-rise routine, contrived to allow covert ‘business’ in her lodgings.

Phyllis liked the Eagle, a public house opposite Camden Road Station, especially its automatic gramophone. On 6 September, she was there with Robert Wood, an artist, and both were seen by a friend. In the coming days Phyllis, Robert and other ‘friends,’ again met in the Eagle. Robert liked to visit pubs and consort with prostitutes.

After noon on Thursday 12 September, Bert Shaw arrived home and found their rooms in a mess. Naked on the bed was the body of Phyllis, her throat cut.

For a fortnight there was no suspect in The Camden Town Murder mystery. On 7 October, at Clerkenwell Magistrates’ Court, Robert Wood was charged with murder. Marshall Hall KC was given the case and Wood’s trial excited great public interest.

The Daily Mirror front page of 13 December 1907 depicted “…the third act of the Camden Town murder drama … Robert Wood … in the dock at the Central Criminal Court …” (see page 120 of John Richardson’s book). A great crowd was outside and the court was full.

Wood pleaded not guilty. Marshall Hall conducted a brilliant and successful defence, in which the accused became the first man in England to be acquitted of murder after giving evidence on his own behalf. It was the making of Marshall Hall KC and the saving of Robert Wood.

Walter Sickert has perpetuated the Camden Town Murder in a large group of drawings and paintings. “What Shall We Do for the Rent?” and other works are suggestive of prostitution and seedy Camden Town. The male model used by Sickert is said to have been the accused, Robert Wood. Sir David Napley recreates the story in The Camden Town Murder (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987). The same title was given to an episode of the television drama series “Shadow of the Noose” (BBC, 1989).

Some idea of 1907 Camden Town is gained from the postcard of Great College Street in John Richardson’s Camden Town and Primrose Hill Past (Historical Publications, 1991) (also in Camden Town 1791-1991: A Pictorial Record (Camden Council, 1991)).

The landmark public house, the Eagle survives, the pub now called the Grand Union, opposite the North London Line's Camden Road station.