London Characters - The Old Commodore of Tottenham Court Road
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Title
London Characters - The Old Commodore of Tottenham Court Road
London Characters - The Old Commodore of Tottenham Court Road
Reference
p7502236 (Collage 27422)
Date
Collection
London Metropolitan Archives: Wakefield Collection
Description
Illustration of "The Old Commodore of Tottenham Court Road". This person, holding a broom in one hand and his hat in the other, and wearing a prosthetic leg, is likely to be Billy Waters. He is believed to have either served in the British Navy and or fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War. He became so well-known as a street musician he gained the title ‘The King of Beggars’. Waters was one of the London characters depicted in William Thomas Moncrieff's ‘Tom and Jerry, or Life in London’, an unauthorised stage adaptation of Pierce Egan's ‘Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom’ in 1821. His popularity ensured he was immortalised as a Staffordshire Potteries figurine. Often depicted in his naval uniform, a ‘peg leg’ prosthetic, his violin and a feathered hat, he is possibly also depicted in image 18252.
Illustration of "The Old Commodore of Tottenham Court Road". This person, holding a broom in one hand and his hat in the other, and wearing a prosthetic leg, is likely to be Billy Waters. He is believed to have either served in the British Navy and or fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War. He became so well-known as a street musician he gained the title ‘The King of Beggars’.
Waters was one of the London characters depicted in William Thomas Moncrieff's ‘Tom and Jerry, or Life in London’, an unauthorised stage adaptation of Pierce Egan's ‘Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom’ in 1821. His popularity ensured he was immortalised as a Staffordshire Potteries figurine. Often depicted in his naval uniform, a ‘peg leg’ prosthetic, his violin and a feathered hat, he is possibly also depicted in image 18252.
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