Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for DULWICH

DULWICH, a village, a suburban tract, and three chapelries in St. Giles-Camberwell parish, Surrey. The village stands at the southern outskirts of London, adjacent to several railways, 4½ miles S of St. Paul's; and has r. stations of Dulwich and North Dulwich, and a post office‡ under London S. The suburban tract or hamlet includes the village, together with a plentiful sprinkling of fine villas; and comprises 1, 423 acres. The manor belonged to the monks of Bermondsey; was given, by Henry VIII., to the Caltons; and passed, by purchase, in 1606, to Edward Alleyn, the player, a contemporary of Shakspeare, and eulogized as "Proteus for shape, and Roscius -for tongue. " A college was founded and endowed by Alleyn, for certain beneficiaries; was reconstituted by act of parliament, in 1858, to be mainly educational; stands now on a plot of about 45 acres; comprises an upper school for 230 boys, a lower school for 200 boys, a chapel, a lecture-theatre, a laboratory, a library, a board-room, play-fields, and reserved ground for boarding - houses; and has an income of about £11, 500. The buildings were re-erected in 1865-9, at a cost of about £72, 000; comprise a centre and two wings, with connecting cloisters; and are in the Northern Italian style of the 13th century, and highly ornate. A picture gallery, erected in 1812, after designs by Sir John Soane, is attached to the college; contains nearly 400 pictures by the old masters, mostly collected by Mr. Desenfans for King Stanislaus of Poland, and bequeathed by him to Sir Francis Bourgeois, and by Sir Francis to the college; and is open to visitors, bringing gratis tickets, attainable at booksellers' shops in London. A charity school for girls also is here, and has an endowed income of £202.-The three chapelries are Dulwich College, East Dulwich, and Dulwich-St. Stephen, -the last one constituted in 1868; and all are p curacies in the diocese of Winchester. Value of Dulwich College living, £300; of East Dulwich, £600: of Dulwich-St. Stephen, not reported. Patron of D.and D-St. S., Dulwich College; of East D., Trustees. There is a Wesleyan chapel.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a suburban tract, and three chapelries"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Camberwell Vest/AP/CP       Surrey AncC
Place: Dulwich

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