May I enlist your help?
On the 20th November 1895 Oscar Wilde was transferred from Wandsworth Prison to Reading. According to the usual account this involved a half hour
wait at Clapham Junction, during which time he was recognised and reviled by other passengers descending from 'train after train'.
To the best of my knowledge this has never been subjected to scrutiny.
Can any one help answer these questions:
1. Would Clapham Junction have been the preferred railway station for this journey?
2. When prisoners were transferred by rail, did they and the warders usually wait on the open platform?
3. Can a possible train be suggested?
4. How many other trains would have stopped at this platform during this period?
5. Would the station staff have let even prisoners be molested?
6. What would have been the evential route to Reading, and the stops (for Wilde syas he was jeered at whenever the train stopped)?
D.C. Rose
Editor, THE OSCHOLARS
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/oscholars
Department of English
Goldsmiths College
University of London
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