As you may have read previously, a number of my posts will refer to the history of my local area, South Norwood, as it has such a rich tapestry of people and events but they are not highlighted.
Margaret Finch was the most famous of the Norwood gypsies, who lived in the area now known as Gypsy Hill. A report published a few years after her death states that the ‘oddness of her figure and ye fame of her fortune-telling drew a vast concourse of spectators from ye highest rank of quality, even to those of ye lower class of life’. She lived in a hut built of branches, at the base of an ancient tree, and it was there that great numbers of people visited her. The Norwood Gypsies were so famous that a play, written about them, was performed in Covent Garden in 1777.
Jason E Cooper 