3 Portugal Place (7-8 Clement Lane)

History of 3 Portugal Place

Lots 44-45 in the 1825 sale of the corner plot including the Salutation pub and related buildings had become nos 7 and 8 Clement Lane by 1841, later no. 3 Portugal Place.

Lot 45 had previously been a laundry; lot 44, together with lots 42-43 had been part of the garden of Mr Scott.

Three Views of Clement Hostel

1861 Clement Lane

(7)

Timothy Loker, 48, college servant, b Cherry Hinton

Caroline, 49, college bedmaker, b Cambridge

Caroline, 23, b Cambridge

The following note was sent to us in 2024: Timothy was born in Cherry Hinton and worked at St. John’s College.  He was a poet in his spare time and in 1861 published a book of ‘Poems and Ballads’, which was reviewed in the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. ‘Mr Loker, the author of this little volume of poems is in the humble position of a college servant in Cambridge. He tells us in a modest preface that he is a self-taught working man and that before he was ten years old he was set to work to assist in bringing up a large family. Happily he has a cheerful and contented spirit and he had the good sense to make the best of his position, and endeavour to improve his mind’. Through his book Timothy hoped to inspire other working class families to ‘work on, and despair not, that by industry and perseverance they are covercome, although at first they might appear almost insurmountable.  I do not mean that they may all become authors, but that they may not only instruct themselves in the art of reading and writing, but may also acquire considerable useful and practical knowledge, which will serve to raise them in the estimation of their employers and fellow-workmen, and, consequently must have its weight upon society generally’.  The Cambridge Chronicle and Journal rather uncharitably reviewed the book by writing ‘we are not going to aver that the poetry in this volume is first-rate, but it is undoubtedly very creditable to the writer, who has not gone unrewarded.  Many of the pieces appeared in the Family Herald, the late proprietor of which not only paid for them substantially at the time, but left Mr. Loker a legacy of £100 at his death’. In 1881 Timothy was living at Clement Place with his granddaughter Alice before moving to 37 Grafton Street. He died at Grafton Street aged 77 years old.

The poems were also reviewed in Macphail’s Edinburgh ecclesiastical and literary review Volumes 31-32:

Macphail’s Edinburgh review of Timothy Loker

The poem ‘The Soldier’s Orphan’s Christmas Lay’ (1854, references the Battle of the Alma, 20th September 1854. Another poem is titled ‘ Inkerman’, battle of 5th November 1854.

In 1851 the Loker family were at 13 Clement Place

In 1871 the Lokers were living at 6 St Clement Passage.

(8) Henry Taylor, 29, labourer, b Cambridge

1871

1913

James Hedge

1962

George Thomas Collier