These scraps of paper were found hidden in a door in Charlton House, left by the man who built the door in 1834. He recorded his name – John Davies – and that it took one day to build and cost five pounds. He also left the name of his employer, the building company George Graham & Son of Woolwich. On a second scrap of paper was written:
The Queen of the Whores was drowned last October 10th.
Woolwich Celia Baker.
Despite our research, we haven’t been able to find out any more about the mysterious Celia Baker. Scraps like these remind us that the history of places such as Charlton House are not only about the wealthy people who owned them, but those who helped build them and worked in them too.
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