Richard Goldsack – Photo: Courtesy Brian Wimsett – Editor Alkham Newsletter
By Brian Wimsett – In an area of London south of Buckingham Palace is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia.
Affluent Pimlico, is a very well-known area, but did you know it has remote links with the small little known hamlet of Pimlico nestled above South Alkham between Hawkinge and Dover?
In the 17th century a man named Ben Pimlico was born in that particular area near Dover and it is considered likely that the hamlet was named after him, his family or even other relatives.
During his working, life Ben Pimlico acquired several public houses in what was then called Five Fields, a market garden by the River Thames, which supplied Londoners with fresh food.
One of these inns was named ‘Olde Ben’s Pimlico Tavern’ which may have later given its name to the area now called Pimlico in London.
The hamlet of Pimlico in Alkham survived until the 1970s when the local council refused planning permission to restore the last remaining building, judged to be ‘in a poor state of repair’.
The image above shows Richard Goldsack who lived at Pimlico hamlet in the 1870s. He is photographed with his Harvest Festival contribution.
It’s recorded that in 1914 Richard sadly died at the workhouse in Dover, which later became the Buckland Hospital.
Story courtesy Alkham Newsletter