Frank Thomas Bullen in Melbourne Grove, south east London - the 1890's
from Confessions of a Tradesman , page 163:
In the course of business we had made the acquaintance of a French lady, said to be a countess, and through her we became intimate with her son and a lady from Sweden reputed to be his wife. He was a pupil of Schubert, and an exquisite violinist, and as I was always a great lover of music, and he was exceedingly hospitable, we often went to his house, which was close at hand in Melbourne Grove.
Frank T. Bullen, Confessions of a Tradesman (London, 1908), p. 163. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1663678906204 accessed: 29 November, 2024
Listeners
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Author, carver gilder, picture frame maker, clerk civil service, merchant seaman […] Listening to
hide composers| unspecified violin music | performed by unnamed pupil of Schubert |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | the 1890's |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, in private, indoors |
Notes
Frank Bullen and his (unnamed) wife struggled to run a haberdashery shop from 1890, for about ten years, in East Dulwich. Concurrently he gilded and made picture frames and worked as a clerk in the Meteorological Office, still barely managing to earn a living for his family of five children. It is likely that ‘we’ is Frank and his wife. They had a wide network of friends, most of them were very poor like the Bullens. He mentions selling the family piano when desperate for money but his account makes few references to hearing or making music.