A Dulwich-based newspaper owner, who founded the South London Press over 150 years ago, has been nominated for a Southwark Blue Plaque.
James Henderson (1823-1906) started working for his local paper and became a key figure in developing the popular press and comics in Britain.
Despite being from Scotland, half of his life was spent in East Dulwich, where he lived from 1864 until shortly before he died. He and his family had lived in a large ‘villa’ named Adon Mount.
His first newspaper gig was covering his local beat, at the Montrose Standard. He then moved to Glasgow where he worked for the North British Daily Mail and a publishing company, before setting up his own business.
In 1855, he launched the Glasgow Daily News, the UK’s first daily penny newspaper, as well as The Weekly News and General Advertiser.
Perhaps too bold of a move for the time, neither took off and his company collapsed. Having dipped his toe in the water and ironed out the kinks, his success truly began when he left Scotland.
After arriving in England he was appointed manager of the Leeds Express, followed by the Manchester Guardian, and in 1861, he set up The Weekly Budget. This paper was the first to combine stories with daily news.
It was so popular that he transferred his offices from Manchester to Fleet Street in London, and by 1865 the Budget claimed to have the largest provincial circulation of any newspaper in the UK.
The same year he founded the weekly South London Press and in 1868 he launched The Evening Mercury, London’s first ever halfpenny evening paper.
In 1871, came the illustrated magazine Young Folks, which first published three of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novels in serial form before they became books – Treasure Island, The Black Arrow and Kidnapped.
Then in 1874, he published Funny Folks, the world’s first modern comic.
Many future great newspapermen had been employed by Henderson in their youth, including Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe), founder of The Daily Mail and owner of The Times, and Sir Arthur Pearson, founder of The Daily Express.
Who has been nominated for a Southwark Blue Plaque and how to vote
Dr Mark Bryant, a historian who lives on the former site of Henderson’s mansion, told us why he nominated him.
“When my wife and I moved to East Dulwich twelve years ago we were intrigued to discover that our house was built on the site of the home of the pioneering newspaperman James Henderson.”
Dr Bryant explained that as a writer himself and former Secretary both of the London Press Club and the British Cartoonists’ Association, he was fascinated and immediately began to research the then-largely forgotten press magnate.
He managed to track down some of Henderson’s relatives and was inspired by his ‘remarkable’ life story – prompting him to write several articles detailing it for the local press and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Dr Bryant continued: “Often when I stand in our hilltop garden looking south across London, I can imagine the outline of Adon Mount behind me and the great bearded Fleet Street figure looking out of his window at the same view.
“It is very appropriate that he should be commemorated with a Southwark Heritage Blue Plaque and I urge readers to vote for him.”
He added that Henderson was ‘very involved’ in the local community, chairing several charitable organisations serving the people of Southwark.
As if he didn’t have enough strings to his bow already, Henderson was also a noted horticulturist (his gardens were open to the public), property developer and even stood as Liberal MP for Dulwich, though he lost to the Tory candidate, John Blundell Maple.
His time as a property developer began on his own street – one he built in fact, named Mount Adon Park. As well as his villa, he developed the neighbouring ten houses.
Henderson retired to Worthing in Sussex, in about 1900. He died there in 1906, aged 82 – but was buried in East Dulwich, on the Wood Vale side of Camberwell Old Cemetery.
His most famous venture, The South London Press, was sold to outside interests just after he passed (1907) and in 1910 the Weekly Budget was sold to American publisher Randolph Hearst.
To vote for James Henderson for a Southwark Blue Plaque please email isabel@southwarknews.co.uk