An anti-Jewish/pro-Nazi doctor from New Cross: 1943

On Holocaust Memorial Day 2015, the presence of elderly survivors at events at the Imperial War Museum and elsewhere is a reminder that the terrible time of the Shoah is still within living memory for some. Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz, others would like us to forget it, or to relativise away the systematic mass murder of millions by reducing it to the status of just another atrocity amongst many.

Holocaust Memorial Day at Imperial War Museum SE1 today
(photo by Barbara Miller on twitter )

Meanwhile anti-semitism certainly hasn't gone away. Only two weeks ago, four people were killed in an attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris, and this week the neo-nazi Golden Dawn won more seats in the Greek general election. At the 'softer' end, old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories get recycled all over the place and tolerated on the left as well as the right. Last summer in Lewisham, a supposed radical community activist took to twitter to denounce the 'Jewish Lobby' that 'controls [the] media' and 'UK government'. Was he disowned by his political party? Nope.

The role of Britain, along with Russia, USA and other allies, in helping to defeat the Nazi regime in the Second World War shouldn't obscure the fact that there has been a strong current of anti-semitism in Britain for the best part of a thousand years (witness the infamous pogrom in York in the 12th century).

I recently came across a story from the Second World War of a doctor from New Cross being court martialled for pro-Nazi outbursts:

"MOSLEY THE MAN FOR THE JOB" R.A.M.C. OFFICER'S ANTI-JEW TALK IN "PUBS"

 Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 02 April 1943

'Captain William John Mitchell, R.A.M.C. (29), formerly in practice as a doctor in the New Cross area, London, appeared at a court martial at Broadstairs, Kent, to-day, on three charges alleging conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline. It was alleged that in a public house the man said. "I give you a toast. We will drink to the health of Sir Oswald Mosley." When the licensee's wife declined, it was alleged he said, "Why not? He's a wonderful man. If you have cancer, a doctor would cut it out. That is what the Germans are doing to the Jews in Germany. Germany is a most cultured nation." 

The second charge alleged that in another public house, accused said, "Hitler is doing the right thing having the Jews put out of the way. Churchill is hand in glove with the Jews, and not fit to be Prime Minister. Mosley is the man for that job." 

In court, Mitchell said, "I am convinced I am the victim of Jewish persecution. No punishment in the world can erase those views from my mind".

Mitchell also claimed that the Beveridge health proposals - that became the National Health Service - were a Jewish plot: "I know in this country the Jews are trying to get control of the medical profession. The system outlined in the Beveridge Report is merely a system to make the medical profession this country safe for Jewry."

The court martial dismissed Mitchell from the service (Hartlepool Mail - Friday 07 May 1943) and I am not sure what became of him,  other than a press report I found from 1949 of Dr. William John Mitchell of Queens Road, New Cross being charged with a motoring offence (Kent & Sussex Courier - Friday 09 September 1949).

Intriguingly another New Cross doctor of a similar name stood for election for the National Front in 1979, as discussed at Transpontine previously: 'Dr Robert Mitchell, who has a surgery in Queens Road, said yesterday he would advise his patients against mixed marriages only if asked for advice. He also believed in repatriating black people. Dr Mitchell polled 1,490 votes when he stood as National Front's Parliamentary candidate in Deptford last year'. Lewisham Labour Councillor David Townsend said 'We must take an urgent look at how a doctor with such appalling views can be allowed to practice in such a racially sensitive area as New Cross' (South London Press 22 April 1980).  Captain Mitchell referred to above would have been 65 years old by 1979, so could have still been around. He has a different first name, but could these two Mitchell nazi doctors from Queens Road be related?

Isle of Sheppey talk at Goldsmiths

I know there's a few Isle of Sheppey enthusiasts out there, so thought I would share this poster I spotted at Goldsmiths in New Cross for a talk by Professor Len Platt on 'The Isle of Sheppey: culture, identity and the representation of place'.

The free event on Tuesday 10th February, 4:30 to 6:00pm will feature Len Platt reading from his new work 'drawing on literary, historical and sociological cultures' with a focus on 'the cultural representation of the Isle of Sheppey from the late sixteenth-century to the present'. It takes place on the top floor of the Education Building, which is just up from the library on Dixon Road SE14. Members of the public are welcome - contact m.felix@gold.ac.uk

Hobgoblin to re-open as Rose Inn

The Hobgoblin pub opposite New Cross Gate station has been closed for refurbishment, and it looks like it will be reverting back to its former name of The Rose Inn. I believe the pub owners had to pay an annual fee to the owners of the Hobgoblin brand, Marston's, for the use of the name - and let's face it the Hobgoblin name is a bit 1990s isn't it?

Update 26 January 2015:

The Rose Pub & Kitchen (to give it its full name) opens on Thursday 29 January 2015 at 6 pm, complete with 'pizza from the wood burning oven'. They're also advertising for kitchen porters. It's under the new management of Urban Pubs and Bars, a company set up in 2013 by the founders of Realpubs, Malcolm Heap and Nick Pring.  They also run the Whippet Inn in Kensal Rise and the Old Ship Inn in Hackney.

London Bus Strike- South London Picket Scenes

Thousands of bus workers went on strike for 24 hours last Tuesday (13 January) as part of a campaign to end pay inequality across the company's bus network. 18 bus operators across London pay different rates for the same jobs, with a disparity of over £3 an hour.

There were pickets at all 70 bus garages, including across South London.

Pickets at Norwood garage

Pickets on New Cross Road (photo from @Joe_Dromey)

But the liveliest picket seems to have been in Camberwell, where the presence of a mobile sound system helped create a party atmosphere:

Peckham 33-45-78 RPM

'Peckham 33-45-78 RPM' is an exhibition celebrating the history of record shops in Peckham presented by The British Record Shop Archive. It is open at 91 Peckham High Street (next to the Peckham Space) and runs until January 29th, 11 am to 6 pm, including weekends - free entry. 

I had a look in yesterday and they've got some great material, with photographs, bags and other memorabilia from some of the 25 or so record shops that have been based in the area at some point over the last 50 years.

Red Records (86 Rye Lane), Reed records (Parkstone Road, off Rye Lane, Maestro Records, 61 Rye Lane)

Advert from Black Music magazine, May 1975 including on right 'Intone Records & Tapes', 48 Rye Lane:
'Rockers dub King Tubby's style. Pre-release and Import Soul'. Intone was run by sound system operator Lloyd Coxsone. DJ John Peel made regular visits to Intone to source reggae tracks for his radio show. The British Record Shop Archive say that reggae 'DJ David Rodigan (MBE) is known to have sold records out of the railway arches in Peckham' and the famous reggae store Dub Vendor, later situated at Clapham Junction, was briefly based in Peckham. Earlier, in the 1950s, Harry Tipple's newsagent in Peckham Park Road had a sideline in Jamaican 45s which you had to make an appointment to see.

Woolworths - the Rye Lane store was one of many across the country where people bought chart hits

Sound Ville Records, Rye Lane Market - reggae singer Winston Groovy once worked there, going on to manage the Muzik City shop in Lewisham Model Market

 If you've got any memories, photographs, flyers or anything else relating to Peckham record shops or related music scenes, the (Peckham-based) British Record Shop Archive would like to hear from you.

Folk on the Water

Folk on the Water is a night of music coming up this weekend on the Minesweeper boat moored at Deptford Creek. They say:

'After the wonderful event we had in November at the Minesweeper in Deptford Creek we thought we would have another! For your pleasure, on the evening of Saturday 17th January 2015 starting at 8pm, we have a lovely line up of talent.

To kick things off we have the wonderful Gemma Khawaja, Norfolk based singer of traditional folk songs.

We shall then proceed to Garry "The Slide Guy" Smith, one of the best slide guitarists you will ever hear. He is that good. We're not laying it on too thick: he is amazing.

The 1st headline artist of the evening is Robin Grey. Robin is a great folk singer who draws from traditional & contemporary influences to make genuinely likeable original pieces & reworkings of traditional favourites. We are delighted to have him and his band join us on the boat. He is a rising star so catch him now!

The 2nd headline artist of the evening is local hero Andy Hankdog. Andy has run nights in pubs in South London for many a moon: his Easycome is a staple of the Nunhead & Peckham scene. He is a great singer & performer in his own right & we would like for you to hear him.

This party will be held on the Minesweeper on Deptford Creek. There is a suggested donation of £5 to pay the artists & contribute to the upkeep of the boat. If you want to come but feel you can't run to a fiver we don't mind: just give what you feel like is a fair concessionary rate'.

Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods

Coming up at South East London Folklore Society next month, a talk by writer Thomas Bolton - 'Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods':

'London is in a state of constant transformation, layer upon layer built up over centuries of destruction and reconstruction. There is so much change all around us that we scarcely notice it, but among the areas now vanished and forgotten are some of the city’s most famous, and infamous, neighbourhoods.

These include the most feared neighbourhood in the Western world, London’s first Olympic Park, its first port, the original Grub Street, a high society spa resort, an occult square, a landscape of ancient, mythical kings, a notorious slum, and the streets stalked by the first London serial killer. Through these streets crowd the Earl of Essex, Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens, Alexander Pope, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Aleister Crowley, Greta Garbo, Fu Manchu, the Ancients of Norton Folgate and the possessors of 8,000 unidentified corpses'.

Tom Bolton is the author of London's Lost Rivers, A Walker's Guide (2011).

The talk is on Thursday, February 12 at 8:00pm upstairs in the Old King’s Head Pub, The King’s Yard, 45 Borough High Street SE1 1NA.  Entrance is £3/1.50 concs. To avoid disappointment you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book in advance.

(facebook details here)

Crisis Book Sale at Telegraph Hill Centre

There's a book sale this Saturday 10 January, 2 pm to 5 pm, at the Telegraph Hill Centre, Kitto Road SE14 5TY. Lots of books at bargain prices in aid of homeless charity Crisis

A school trip to Lewisham Arcadia (1905)

Just over a hundred years ago, children from the 'dingy streets' of Southwark went on country outings to 'the Londoner's idea of Arcadia' - Lewisham!. This report from Gloucester Citizen - (Saturday 8 July 1905) describes a trip from Lant Street County Council School, Borough (now Charles Dickens Primary School) to meet their counterparts at Plassy-Road School, Catford, for 'cricket and other sports' at Ladywell Recreation Ground.

Anti-fascists in Walworth Road and Lewisham in the 1930s

A couple of examples of 1930s militant anti-fascism found searching at British Newspaper Archive:

Fascist Offices Attacked in Walworth Road, 1933

'A crowd of 200 men, some of whom asserted they were Communists, attacked the Fascist local head-quarters in Walworth Road, London, SE, today. Stones were thrown, upper windows in the building were broken, and after a pitched battle in the doorway with Fascist defenders the men were scattered by a charge of mounted police' (Sunderland Echo, 27 March 1933)

Fascist Meeting in Lewisham, 1935

'A scene at a Fascist meeting at Ringstead Road, Lewisham, on Saturday night was described at Greenwich Police Court yesterday. Richard Henry Holmes (19), labourer, of Bishops Buildings, Thames Street, Greenwich, and Henry Charles Wallace (24), foundry hand, described as a Blackshirt, of Westerdale Road, East Greenwich, were each fined 20s for insulting behaviour.

Constable Southam said that the meeting was orderly until question time. Then a lot of heckling broke out. The crowd, numbering about 250, began to surge forward. In the centre he saw two men fighting. Wallace, who pleaded guilty, said that he was trying to quell the disturbance when he struck. Seeing Holmes standing behind with his fists raised he lost his temper and hit him' (Western Daily Press, 13 August 1935)

See previously:

South London Anti-Fascists at Olympia, 1934
Fighting Fascists in Peckham, 1937
Fighting Fascists in Deptford Broadway, 1933

The Korean Wonder Juggler of Ladywell (1889)

Sometimes when you're browsing in the archive for something, you stumble across something else entirely. This advert for 'Draterson Okaro, the Corean Wonder' of '43 Ladywell Park, Lewisham' was published in The Era, 29 June 1889. Only a few lines, and I haven't been able to find anything else about them, but you can't help but feel that there's a whole untold story there of how a self-styled Korean 'Marvellous Equilibrist and Balancer, Stick and Ball Manipulator, Juggler', with 'Splendid Costumes' and 'Two Year Engagement with the Celebrated Japanese Troupe' came to be living in Ladywell.

The Era - Saturday 29 June 1889

Two Minutes Left

Richard Sanderson of  experimental/improvised music label Linear Obsessional Recordings put out a call recently for tracks for a compilation album with only two rules: 'that the works had to be exactly two minutes long, and that at some point in the recording process a microphone should have been used'.

The outcome is 'Two Minutes Left', a collection of 87 tracks from all over the world, released this week. The tracks, as Richard says, 'are as diverse as it's possible to imagine- from full, immaculately produced studio works to hissy smartphone recordings- and throughout there are things to remind you that you're listening to real people in real places - birdsong, pets, breathing, conversation, and the location recordings run from the electrobabble of a Shanghai cab ride to the near silence of night on the Argentinian Pampas, to the sounds of the pub or a football match. In between are some gloriously recorded musical vignettes by some of the most extraordinary musicians around... it seems to me to be ultimately a celebration of being human, and a celebration of friendship and collaboration'.

'Two Minutes Left' is very much an international collaboration, but it also has its roots in South London, with Richard and the label based in Hither Green, and several of the tracks featuring local sound recordings. Richard's own Hither Green track, recorded in his back garden, is a reminder of the ubiquitous South London aircraft noise as well as capturing bird song. Birds - this time parakeets - also feature in Neil Gordon Orr's '120 Seconds Over Ladywell Fields', based on recordings of running round Ladywell athletics track. A music session in the Ladywell Tavern, with the Mixed Porter band playing Officers' Polka, was recorded by Kayleigh Shepherd on her

phone.

There's a recording of Blackheath Morris Men practicing at St Marks Church Hall in Greenwich, and a track from Brockley-based minimalist guitar ensemble the Broca Ensemble.

You can listen/download the whole thing here

Postman's Park

Postman's Park in the City of London (north of St Paul's Cathedral) is famous for its 'Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice', opened in 1900 with plaques commemorating people who died saving the lives of others. I was there recently and spotted several South Londoners:

Alexander Stewart Brown of Brockley, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
Though suffering from severe spinal injury the result of a recent accident died from his brave efforts to rescue a drowning man and to restore his life, October 9, 1900
(seemingly he had been injured when thrown from his horse and carriage at junction of Brockley Road and Ivy Road, and then while recovering had rescued a man at Boulogne, only to contract pneumonia and die)

David Selves aged 12
Off Woolwich supported his drowning playfellow and sank with him clasped in his arms.
September 12, 1886

Mrs Yarman wife of George Yarman, Labourer at Bermondsey
Refusing to be deterred from making three attempts to climb a burning staircase to save her aged mother
Died of the effects, March 26, 1900

William Fisher, Aged 9,
Lost his life on Rodney Road Walworth while trying to save his little brother from being run over
July 12, 1886

Richard Farris, Labourer
Was drowned in attempting to save a poor girl who had thrown herself into the canal at Globe Bridge Peckham
May 20, 1878

Leigh Pitt, Reprographic operator
Aged 30, saved a drowning boy from the canal at Thamesmead, but sadly was unable to save himself
June 7, 2007 - the only recent addition to the memorial

The Memorial  is a significant location in Closer (2004), the Mike Nichols film which  stars Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.  The latter two visit it, and it's not giving too much away that Portman's character shares a name with one of the women featured - Alice Ayres, who died in Union Street, Borough, SE1 in 1885.

Alice Ayres,  Daughter of a bricklayer's labourer
Who by intrepid conduct saved 3 children from a burning house in Union Street Borough at the cost of her own young life, April 24, 1885

The Everyday Heroes app/website has lots more information 

about the people commemorated in Postman's Park

Caroline's Miscellany did a whole series of posts about the Memorial

Brixton Socialist Club at Canterbury Arms (1978)

The Canterbury Arms in Brixton is facing demolition, to be replaced with flats. Its great back room has seen some amazing nights, in particular in recent years the legendary indie pop club How Does it Feel?.

Found in a copy of the Leveller magazine (December 1977?) here's listings for the Brixton Socialist Club at said pub in January/February 1978. Acts performing there included folk singer Leon Rosselson, socialist feminist writer/historian Sheila Rowbotham and 7:84 Band (from the theatre company named from the statistic that 7% of the population owned 84% of the wealth). There was also a benefit for the club at Lambeth Town Hall featuring radical avant-rock band Henry Cow.

Radical posters and stickers in New Cross

I reckon New Cross must be the epicentre of radical postering/stickering in London. Yesterday I noticed this audacious piece of subvertising at the bus stop opposite the Marquis of Granby, in the style of a Metropolitan police ad:

'We've pointlessly targeted cannabis users in Lewisham, while other people legally drink their drugs.
Enforcing Westminster's crime concerns in Lewisham #ACAB'

Other examples I've spotted this year include:

Greek anti-fascist sticker in New Cross House

German antifa/anti-Deutsch sticker by Marquis of Granby

Solfed

London Antifascists

'Good night Loyalist Pride'

'Stop EDL' and Polish anarchist sticker in Fordham Park

Pogo Cafe
(Hackney vegan cafe, closed last year)

Ishiguro in Sydenham

There was an article in the Guardian last week about the author Kazuo Ishiguro in which he recalled writing his 1989 novel The Remains of the Day (later filmed starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson) while living in Sydenham.

 

 

 

Kazuo Ishiguro: how I wrote The Remains of the Day

 

'I was then 32 years old, and we’d recently moved into a house in Sydenham, south London, where for the first time in my life I had a dedicated study. (I’d written my first two novels at the dining table.) It was actually a kind of large cupboard on the half-landing and lacked a door, but I was thrilled to have a space where I could spread my papers around as I wished and not have to clear them away at the end of each day. I stuck up charts and notes all over the peeling walls and got down to writing...

On my first Sunday off I ventured outdoors, on to Sydenham high street, and persistently giggled – so Lorna told me – at the fact that the street was built on a slope, so that people coming down it were stumbling over themselves, while those going up were panting and staggering effortfully. Lorna was concerned I had another three weeks of this to go, but I explained I was very well, and that the first week had been a success...

I'd consumed a substantial amount of “research”: books by and about British servants, about politics and foreign policy between the wars, many pamphlets and essays from the time, including one by Harold Laski on “The Dangers of Being a Gentleman”. I’d raided the second-hand shelves of the local bookshop (Kirkdale Books, still a thriving independent) for guides to the English countryside from the 1930s and 50s'

 

 

 

'When Ishiguro  first became a public figure he suffered greatly from  stereotyping by critics and reviewers, who.... nicknamed him the "Shogun of Sydenham" (Kazuo Ishiguro by Barry Lewis, Manchester University Press, 2000)

New Cross Speedway Programmes

 The New Cross Stadium stood next to the old Millwall FC ground in New Cross on the land now known as Bridgehouse Meadows. As covered here before, it featured greyhound racing, stock car racing  and speedway. Here's a selection of New Cross speedway programme covers

1948

1949

1950

1953

July 1963

The stadium closed in 1969 and was demolished in 1975.

Programmes from the huge collection of speedway memorabilia on sale at ebay by G.Williams Sporting Memorabilia. Click images to enlarge.

Gramsci Way SE6

There aren't too many streets in London named after Italian communists, but in Bellingham SE6 there is a little slice of Lewisham dedicated to Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), who died following eight years in jail as a prisoner of Mussolini. Gramsci Way is a cul-de-sac off Randlesdown Road.

I understand that 'Red Rector' Father Paul Butler, now of St Pauls Church in Deptford, was instrumental in getting the road so-named when he was Vicar at St Dunstans in Bellingham - the vicarage of which is in Gramsci Way.

Antonio Gramsci

Any other ideas for Italian communist street names - Malatesta Mansions perhaps, or Bordiga Boulevard?

Ian McEwan - 'the boundless shabby tangle of London south of the river'

I enjoyed Ian McEwan's latest novel, The Children Act (2014), continuing his close observations of the life of the higher reaches of the urban middle class. While Saturday (2005) was centred around a neuro-surgeon living in Fitzrovia, this book's central character is a judge living not too far away in Gray's Inn.

If McEwan is a London novelist though, he is certainly a north London one (I believe he lives near to the Post Office Tower). And The Children Act features a terrible diss of South London - whether the character's view reflects the author's perspective, you can judge for yourself:

'She had a north Londoner's ignorance of and disdain for the boundless shabby tangle of London south of the river. Not a Tube stop to give meaning and relation to a wilderness of villages swallowed up long ago, to sad shops, to dodgy garages interspersed with dusty Edwardian houses and brutalist apartment towers, the dedicated lairs of drug gangs. The pavement crowds, adrift in alien concerns, belonged to some other, remote city, not her own. How would she know they were passing through Clapham Junction without the faded jokey sign above a boarded-up electrical store? Why make a life here?'

In defence of Clapham Junction

Obviously this description could just as easily - and probably just as unfairly - be applied to many parts of north London. As for Clapham Junction, I found myself at the station there for the first time in years last week, and thought it was a vibrant convergence point of all the currents of London life on a late Saturday afternoon. There were football fans, wedding parties, shoppers returning from the West End, people heading home from doing sports (I'd been running  cross country). I was up the junction, and it was great.

A South London Street Art Bestiary

Fox in Burgess Park (New Church Road, SE5)

Kingfisher in East Dulwich (Frogley Road, SE22)

Lemur in Sydenham Road, SE26

The other Lemur in Sydenham Road.

Lion in the car park of the Golden Lion, Sydenham (Daniel Morgan RIP)

Panther off Sydenham Road.

Ram in Sydenham Road (opposte Golden Lion)

Seahorses in Forest Hill (Devonshire Road, SE23)

Squirrel on Bellingham Green SE6