Background
When little more than four he was brought by his father to Southwark in a trader from Fowey, taking six weeks on the passage.
When little more than four he was brought by his father to Southwark in a trader from Fowey, taking six weeks on the passage.
He was educated at the British and Foreign training school, Borough Road, Southwark, and afterwards became its honorary surgeon. When he determined upon a medical career, he was sent to Guy"s Hospital, and to the medical school of Edward Grainger in Webb Street, Maze Pond, Southwark. Rendle passed as Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1832 and Member Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1838, and in 1873 he became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Foreign nearly fifty years he practised in Southwark, and from 1856 to 1859 he was Medical Officer of Health for the parish of Saint George the Martyr, Southwark.
Rendle was deeply interested in the borough of Southwark, and engaged in laborious researches into its history.
His chief works are: Old Southwark and its People (1878), and The Inns of Old Southwark and Their Associations (1888), the last volume being the joint labour of Rendle and Philip Norman, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, who revised and rearranged the manuscript materials, drew the more important illustrations, and superintended the publication. Both works contain much original information.
Rendle contributed historical sketches to Etchings of Old Southwark, and a paper on the Bankside, Southwark, and the Globe playhouse to Harrison"s Description of England for the New Shakspere Society (1877). The last essay was expanded by him in articles in the Antiquarian Magazine.
He contributed to the Antiquary papers of Reminiscences chiefly on Southwark, Early Hospitals of Southwark, and Records of Saint Thomas"s Hospital.