Old Mother Red Cap… when the Devil came to Camden.

Whilst writing last week on Camden Town Underground station, I remembered one of the most notorious residents of Camden who happened to live almost on top of where the Underground station is today.

The Old Mother Red Cap, Camden. since renamed ‘The World’s End’ in 1985. There has been an inn on this site since at least the early 1400’s.

As with many old accounts in history, especially involving the supernatural, it can be a lttle hard to separate the established facts from the more fanciful tales.

It seems Old Mother Red Cap was born as Jenny Bingham and her life seems to have been sad from the start. By the age of 16 she was living with a man named Colter who she lived with until the authorities executed him at Tyburn for sheep stealing,

Following the execution, Jenny shacked up with a drunkard named Darby. He suddenly disappeared and no one ever found out what happened to him.

At this point, her parents were arrested for witchcraft, accused of causing a girl’s death. They were hung for the crime. Unfortunately, the accusation of witchcraft could and did often ‘stick’ to family members as well. If people didn’t like Jenny before, this gave them a reason to dislike her now.

At a crossroads – on the site of what’s now Camden Town Tube Station – stood a ramshackle cottage, a dwelling infamous amongst those who lived nearby. The cottage was the home of an old woman locals called Mother Red Cap: a witch, most claimed, also a murderer and poisoner, many asserted.

This woman was so thoroughly wicked that – according to ‘an old pamphlet’ – one day in the late 15th century: ‘Hundreds of men, women and children were witnesses of the Devil entering her house in his very appearance and state, and that although his return was narrowly watched for, he was not seen again, and that Mother Red Cap was found dead on the following morning sitting before the fireplace holding a crutch over it with a teapot full of drugs, herbs and liquid.’

For some unknown reason, they gave some tea to the black cat. Two hours later, the cat’s fur began to shed, and it died soon after. This, as far as they were concerned, was proof that Mother Red Cap was up to no good. The brew is described as both a potion and poison, so one way or another, the story seems to confirm her status as either a witch or a poisoner.

Following her death, which is sometimes cited as being in 1676, her cottage became a sort of tourist attraction. People walked up to see it on Sundays from London. Eventually, someone realised there was money to be made, and started selling refreshments for those who’d made the journey. A sign appeared outside, featuring a portrait of Mother Red Cap in her infamous headwear.

Whatever the intricacies of her life, she was obviously notorious in the years that followed and at one point the junction outside her home was earmarked to be a place of execution.

The original old building was destroyed in Victorian times before which it is said that even Charles Dickens visited it though a pub remains at the site.

One encounters all sorts of counter-culture people in Camden but I must admit, I’ve never bumped into the Devil there. I did though bump into Boris Johnson which is pretty much the same thing… I let him know too with some rather uncharacteristically shouted working class Anglo-Saxon language!