What did the French ever do for us? The answer; put little statues of cats around Camberwell and Brixton.
They’re easily missed, but if you take a stroll around Myatt’s Fields Park, you can see some whiskered characters peering out from the pretty Georgian houses that line the park.
These feline statues and engravings were the work of the Minets, a French Huguenot family that migrated to England in the late 17th century.
They arrived as grocers but achieved huge success and ultimately left an indelible mark on Camberwell, building a public library and church. They even donated Myatt’s Fields to the London County Council so Londoners could enjoy the green space free of charge.
Despite these grand schemes, this philanthropic family also had an eye for detail. ‘Minet’ is French for ‘kitty’ so the family decided to carve moggies into the buildings they constructed.
From Calais to Camberwell
French Huguenots were a religious group of French Protestants who followed the Calvinist tradition.
From the sixteenth to seventeenth century, roughly 200,000 Huguenots fled France to escape persecution by the French Catholic government. 50,000 are believed to have settled in England.
Among those refugees – a term first coined to describe the Huguenots – was Isaac Minet the son of a Calais grocer. After a spell in prison, he organised for his brother to send a vessel to French coasts to smuggle him to England.
He and his mother made it past the coastguard and patrol boats around Calais and arrived on the shores of England in 1686. Continuing his father’s trade, he set up a grocers on Newport Street, in what is now Vauxhall.
Prosperous Streets
The Minets were gradually able to establish themselves in their new home country and had acquired property in Hayes by 1731.
In 1770, Hughes Minet, the grandson of Isaac, bought 118 acres in Camberwell from the Tory politician Sir Edward Knatchbull.
The low, flat terrain of Myatt’s Field struggled to attract prosperous house buyers throughout the first half of the 19th century. But when railways were built into Camberwell in the 1860s, it stimulated a demand for housing.
By 1871, under James Lewis Minet, houses on Paulet Road, Knatchbull Road, and the connecting streets, were being built.
Purrfectly Preserved
At least one house on Cormont Road has a cat engraving above the door, accompanied with the year 1893 engraved above his head.
Calais Gate is a grand set of apartment buildings on Myatt’s Field Park’s north-western side. A pair of self-important tabbies perch on either side of the building, gazing out across the park.
Continue clockwise, and onto Calais Street, at least two of the buildings there also have cat markings. One is a venerable-looking soul, carved above a doorway. The other is a led-down tom, which looks as if it’s just been woken up.
It doesn’t seem that any more cats were constructed after the Minet’s spree in the late 19th century. But the the park’s aptly named Little Cat Cafe demonstrates that at least a few people are keen to keep the traditional alive.
The Minets’ Gifts to Camberwell
The Minets were genuine philanthropists and, some say, evidence of how conscientious Georgian landlords could bestow important facilities on London’s poor.
The Gothic-style Minet Library was built in 1890. Bar a brief interruption when it was partially destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, it’s served the people of south London for over 130 years. It’s been the home of the Lambeth Archives since 1956.
St James’s Church, Knatchbull Road, was built by the Minets in 1870 and Longfield Hall was completed in 1880.
In 1889, William Minet donated 14.5 acres, now known as Myatt’s Field Park, to the London Country Council. This compact but picturesque space, with its carefully designed path network, roundhouse and gardens, is today regarded as a sparkling example of Victorian design.