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Virginia Woolf |
Virginia’s paper round in the park
Virginia Woolf and her siblings wrote their own newspaper as children called the Hyde Park Gate News which gives a fascinating insight into the writer’s development, says Dan Carrier
IT is easy to forget that Virginia Woolf, the writer seen as one of the lynchpins of the Bloomsbury set and a standard-bearer for the modernist movement of the 20th century, grew up during the reign of Queen Victoria.
She has come to epitomise, both in cultural and social movements, the bright new age of mass media and mechanisation. But a recent publication, taken from documents found in the archives of the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library, has shed light on Woolf’s childhood and what emerges is a detailed account of a typical upper-class Victorian experience.
The files contained a newspaper Virginia and her siblings Vanessa Bell and Thoby Stephen produced, called ‘Hyde Park Gate News’, after the address of the house they were living in.
Virginia lived in the house until 1904, when her father Leslie died – from there she moved to Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, and her long standing connection with the area started.
Hyde Park Gate News mimics the papers of the day, and was written to impress their parents and showcases their writing skills. It makes for a valuable document for any one wanting to consider the roots of Woolf’s later work.
And although her childhood had its fair share of tragedies – such as the death of her mother Julia Stephen from the flu, when she was just 13, which led to a nervous breakdown – the Hyde Park Gate News paints a sunnier picture of her juvenile years. It was not until she considered her past with the benefit of hindsight that the angst which was to kill her emerged.
Julia had married Virginia’s father Sir Leslie Stephen after being widowed. And Hyde Park Gate was home to nine children from their previous liaisons. Throw in the varying numbers of servants – on top of cooks, nannies and butlers and the opportunity for subject matters for the young Woolf’s pen was expansive.
The papers document the comings and goings of the great and the good – politicians, artists and professors came regularly for dinner and provided copy for the youngsters – but they are no more prominent than the numerous cats and dogs that were part of the household.
The house was heavily Victorian in style, and was described by Vanessa Bell as ‘suffocating’.
She wrote: “Darkness and silence seemed to have been the chief characteristics of the house in Hyde Park Gate.”
It was not until the 20th century had long dawned that electric lights were installed throughout. The décor was heavy and grand, with red velvet upholstery, black paint with gold gilt, marble busts, polished silverware, the monotonous ticking of grandfather clocks and brooding family portraits overlooking every thing the young members of the family did.
All of these aspects are shown in the newspaper, and makes it easier to understand Wolf’s later wish to shake off the morals both personal and artistic of the times that she was born into.
Woolf’s later works revisited her childhood in her autobiographical writing and they paint a picture of the tragedy. But Hyde Park Gate news is full of fun. Topics covered include holidays in Cornwall, ice-skating, trips to the zoo, walks in Kensington Gardens, theatre shows and many descriptions of the comings and goings of the household pets.
Items from the Hyde Park Gate News
Vol. II No. 16, Monday April 25, 1892.
‘Looking for birds’ nests has formed one of the Stephens’ amusements. We do not mean looking for birds nests and then taking their eggs but simply finding a nest with some eggs in it and then day by day coming to look at it and see if the ‘callow young’ are hatched.’
Monday February 18, 1895.
‘The ice carnival: a florid sketch… The night of Wednesday last was fine and clear, but the stars themselves were outshone by the myriads of fairy lights around the banks. Red, green and yellow commingled in dancing, dazzling lines.
Along the middle of the ice were reared beacons of flaming naptha, fluttering in the small breeze. Around them and among them circled the interminable mazes of skates.
Some were fat and some were thin, some were tall and some were short, but all were graceful.”
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