Charlie Chan in North London…Boris Karloff’s Enfield

Posted: December 28th, 2010 | 7 Comments »

OK, here’s a slightly odd post but recently I had cause to ponder both Boris Karloff (Frankenstein yes, but he also played the Chinese detective Mr Wong several times as well as Charlie Chan). Boris, born William Henry Pratt, was the youngest of nine children. As well as being interested in Boris’s (sort of) Chinoiserie film career I’ve always also been interested in his older brother, Sir John Thomas Pratt, who became a distinguished British diplomat in China.

Karloff’s paternal grandparents were Edward John Pratt, an Anglo-Indian and Eliza Julia (Edwards) Pratt, a sister of Anna Leonowens (of the King and I…). Boris was born in 1887 and died in 1969 – his film career is very well known, his face instantly recognisable. His brother’s distinguished diplomatic career is less well known so deserves a para here:

John Thomas Pratt was born on 13th January 1876, sixth son of Edward Pratt who worked for the Indian Salt Revenue Service. He was educated at Dulwich College. In 1905 he was called to the Bar, Middle Temple. Between 1898 and 1924, he served with the British Consular Service in China, holding various posts including Student Interpreter from 1898; British Assessor in Mixed Court at Shanghai Consul from 1909; Vice-Consul in China from 1910; Consul at Tsinan from 1913 and Consul-General from 1919; Nanking 1922 and Shanghai 1924. In 1925 he was transferred to the Foreign Office, acting as Adviser on Far Eastern Affairs. He remained in this post until 1938. From 1939 to 1941 he served as Head of Far Eastern Section of the Ministry of Information. For twenty years he served as the Foreign Secretary’s representative on the Universities China Committee. He was also Chairman of the British and Chinese Corporation, Member of the Scarborough Commission and Vice-Chairman of the Governing Body of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Karloff was born in East Dulwich but the Pratt family moved to the North London town of Enfield where he grew up in a succession of three houses close to each other on the smarter side of the town and attended Enfield Grammar School. Stuck in London this Christmas waiting for Heathrow Airport to reopen I retreated to my dad’s house which happens to be in Enfield and so, with nothing else to do, visited the three local streets and school that gave us Boris Karloff and his distinguished diplomat in China brother. There’s no blue plaques that I could see so if any worthies of Enfield Borough Council happen to read this you might want to action some sort of campaign – I don’t think Enfield has turned out that many major Hollywood movie stars.

In 1892 the Pratt Family moved to Chase Green Avenue in Enfield:

I don’t know which house exactly, or if their home still stands, but here are two shots of a couple of typically larger premises along the street (with nine kids one assumes they had a largish house!)

Chase Green Avenue also runs into Enfield Town and borders a rather nice common that would have been open land too when the Pratts lived there.

The family subsequently moved round the corner to Slades Hill

Though, again, I don’t know which house was the Pratt family’s there are some larger properties along the street

Finally the family moved, once again around the corner, to Uplands Park Road

When I got back to Shanghai I found out that the Pratt’s lived at No.38 – but I didn’t know this when I was in Enfield so these are just random houses on the street – if anyone reading this happens to live in No.38 then you should get a blue plaque put up on your property shaprish as I’m sure it adds a bit to the value!

And finally Karloff’s old school – Enfield Grammar. I know this school quite well as for some time I went to Edmonton County School nearby, but not as good (at least it wasn’t when I attended in the late 70s/early 80s) and played sports against Enfield Grammar (invariably losing). It’s one of the nicer, and older, schools in Enfield, especially in the snow it seems:

And the playing fields looked good the day I visited…

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