In the 19th century Camberwell housed one of the largest German communities in Britain. One of the families was the Benekes, related to Mendelssohn's wife Cecile.
Johann Beneke had come from Hamburg in 1815 to found a verdigris factory in Deptford. In 1824 Johann had returned to the Continent, where he had introduced new processes. The Benekes ran the Deptford Chemical Works (and were doing work there in the 1820s) which Frederick Beneke, a chemist, rented to Frank Hills in the early 1830s. Beneke lived in Denmark Hill, Camberwell. Otto Benecke was the treasurer of the Camberwell Provident Dispensary, a charity that provided poor people with medical care and medicine in return for a small monthly subscription.
Frederick William Beneke married Cecile Mendelssohn's aunt, Henriette. They and their six children lived in Dane House Denmark Hill. They were a musical family who held frequent soirées. The Mendelssohns stayed with them in 1942.
Mendelssohn's daughter Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. His son Paul was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye.
In 1910 donated the sundial to Ruskin Park.
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