When Lisson Grove was mistaken for the Garden of Eden

While we all enjoy or endure the current heat wave, spare a thought for Edith Armitage, a young dress maker who bared all – well, almost all – in public, in 1899. Not once but twice!

The papers noted August 1899 was the driest August since 1866. Early September, like now, enjoyed some fine weather and around midnight on the 5th, passersby were surprised to see a young woman on Lisson Street close to Lisson Grove, ‘with nothing whatever on save an under garment’. They called a policeman, who took some time before he could catch the girl, ‘promenading between lamp-posts, which she evidently mistook for trees’.

The tongue in cheek reporter said that Edith had clearly been struck by ‘the strange hallucination that Lisson Grove was the Garden of Eden’, and that she had been found ‘in a state of attire closely resembling that worn by her famous ancestress’, in other words, Eve.

‘It was a delightfully cool costume, but at the same time, she carried her other garments under her arm’. The policeman tried to persuade Edith to put her clothes on, but she refused, saying it was too hot. He took the decision to dress her himself, and his skill as a ‘lady’s maid’ was loudly applauded by the large crowd that had assembled to watch.

Edith appeared before the magistrate at Marylebone Police Court, accused of behaving in a disorderly manner. There was much laughter when the policeman described what had happened. She freely admitted that the policeman’s account was true. Having promised not to do it again Edith was bound over for the sum of £5, to keep the peace for three months.

Unfortunately, she didn’t keep her word. Less than a week later she was back in the dock on a similar charge. She had been arrested in Hereford Street near Marble Arch, around midnight, but this time the weather had been much cooler.
Magistrate to Edith: why do you rush about so scantily clothed? – I don’t know.
Magistrate: But this is the second time. I should really like to know why you do it? – I don’t know, but I know I did do it.

The magistrate concluded that Edith must be out of her senses to do it again, especially as it had been a cold morning. He remanded her for a week, so she could be examined by a doctor.

Unfortunately, the story ends here. We failed to find out who Edith was, and what happened to her.

But it seems likely she didn’t offend again.

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