RIP Colin Jerwood - SE London punk legend

Colin Jerwood, lead singer with South London anarcho-punk band Conflict, has died.  At their 1980s peak they were very influential in the punk scene and famously once played a huge gig at Brixton Academy in 1987 ('The gathering of the 5000') which ended with 52 arrests and fighting with the police in the streets outside.

I believe that Colin was born in 1962 in Nettleton Road in New Cross, but was living in the Coldharbour Estate in  Eltham in the early days of the band and as an anarchist punk having to deal with violent racist skinheads. The band played out across South London and beyond - I saw them in mid-1980s at Thames Poly and at the Old Kent Road ambulance station squat - and put on a regular punk night in the crypt of St Pauls Church in Deptford. Later in the 1980s Colin was involved with putting on acid house parties at the Harp Club in New Cross, and in 1994 at the same location (now called the Venue) recorded their live album 'Conflict in the Venue'. Through their Mortarhate record label they put out stuff by other punk bands including New Cross favourites Hagar the Womb.

Conflict announce the start of 'The Centre' on Mondays at St Pauls Church SE8 (think this must have been late 1985/early 1986)

1986 gig at the Crypt with Potential Threat, Unknown Colours, Mentacide and Under the Gun

Colin played one of his last gigs with Conflict at the New Cross Inn in November 2024

According to Mark Wallis from Liberty (another SE London anarcho-punk band) "In the early days, Colin was an anarchist living on an estate in Eltham [the estate] with John and Paco, surrounded by NF skinheads

Music Monday: RIP Paco (Conflict and Inner Terrestials drummer)

Punk drummer Francisco 'Paco' Carreno died last week, at the age of 49. Paco was a key figure in the 1980s anarcho-punk scene as drummer with Conflict, and later in the New Cross music scene.

Picture of Paco from Conflict facebook page

Conflict hailed from Eltham, specifically the Coldharbour Estate. Paco started drumming at the age of 12 with a band called Strontium Dog, and was still only 15 when he joined Conflict in 1981, playing his first gig with them at the Red Lion in Gravesend and shortly after going into Crass's Southern Studios to record the band's first 'House that Man Built' EP (see 'The Day the Country Died' by Ian Glasper).

I saw Conflict many times at their mid-1980s peak, including gigs at the Ambulance Station (Old Kent Road), Thames Poly in Woolwich and the Clarendon Ballroom in Hammersmith. After Crass split up they were the biggest band in the anarcho-punk scene - not many other bands were able to translate the sense of urgency/righteous anger in that scene into a convincingly urgent/angry sound. A key part of that was Paco's skilled and powerful drumming. Of course much of this righteous anger was in the service of animal liberation and hunt sabbing, even though Paco himself wasn't vegetarian!

In the 1990s, Paco was very involved with the Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross (now the New Cross House) in its wild GMT Lager Daleks phase. He helped put on numerous gigs there, and Inner Terrestials (who Paco joined as drummer in 1996), recorded their 'Escape from New Cross' album in the pub.

Colin Jerwood from Conflict is planning to put on a memorial/benefit gig for Paco's family. Get in touch with him via Conflict on facebook.

Launch of WAVES Lewisham (Women Against Violence Expressing Solidarity)

Women Against Violence Expressing Solidarity (WAVES)  is a new 'grassroots organisation promoting a community based response to violence against women & girls in Lewisham... Each year across the UK up to 3 million women and girls experience violence, and there are many more living with the legacies of abuse experienced in the past. In the UK it includes: domestic violence, rape and sexual violence, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, crimes in the name of honour, trafficking, sexual exploitation and sometime murder. It is mostly committed by men that women know or are in a close relationship with... Set up in 2014, WAVES is a group of local women campaigning in the borough of Lewisham to end all forms of violence against women and girls. We believe that bottom-up community led change can complement the work of bodies like the police and council to tackle violence in the borough.We think Lewisham is a great place with a strong tradition of communities coming together for social justice. Led by women, we welcome male supporters who endorse our call for better prevention, protection and provision to address violence against women and girls'.

As a launch event on Saturday 26 April (2 pm), they are visting Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery to  commemorate a young woman who died 140 years ago:

'We will be placing flowers on the grave of Jane Maria Clouson, a pregnant Lewisham teenager who was murdered in April 1871. The people of South East London lined the streets from Deptford to Brockley for her funeral procession and, unusually for time, the coffin was carried by women, dressed as maids. The memorial, was paid for by public subscription and there was a great outcry when the murder suspect, her employer's son, was acquitted.  We are asking women who join us to wear black, if possible, and bring purple flowers to place on the grave.

Unfortunately, Jane's death is not just an interesting piece of social history. Today, nationally on average, two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner. And domestic workers, often migrant women, are regularly subject to physical, sexual and other forms of abuse.

We want to build on the tradition of local community solidarity with women and girls harmed by male violence. We would be delighted to welcome new women who are interested in talking to us about what we can do locally about violence against women and girls today. However, please remember this a cemetery which is still used and there may be people in the vicinity visiting the graves of loved ones who have died more recently so we want our presence at the grave to be quiet and dignified.

Our graveside event will followed by a short meeting at 2.30pm in Huxbear Hall, Huxbear Street, SE4 1EA which is opposite the Brockley Grove gate on the P4 bus route'.

Deptford-born Clouson was found mortally injured in Kidbrooke Lane and died soon afterwards in Guys Hospital. For the full story of what became known as 'the Eltham murder', see this article by Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.

Terry Liddle (1948-2012): SE London Socialist & Secularist

There's a memorial event next month (20th April) at Conway Hall for Terry Liddle, the veteran SE London radical who died in November 2012.

Terry grew up in Eltham, and lived for many years up until his death at 23 Sowerby Close on the Mottingham Estate. He died from a stroke at the age of 64 on 17 November 2012, with his funeral taking place at Eltham Crematorium on 10th December.

His first political involvement seems to have been in the Young Communist League in Woolwich in the early 1960s when he was a school boy at Bloomfield Secondary Modern School in Plumstead. According to his old friend Scott Reeve,  'he went to public speaking sessions led by Joe Bent, an old Stalinist who had a Communist Party speaking pitch in the East Lane market'. This was the start of an idiosyncratic political odyssey that seems to have taken him along the many highways and byways of the English left and libertarian scenes. At various times he was involved with the trotskyist Socialist Labour League,  the Labour Party, the Green party, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Social Revolution, The Workers League, the Movement for Workers Councils, the Republican Communist Network and for a while in the late 1960s an exotically named anarchist group called the Eltham Sons of Durruti. Evidentally a serial joiner more than a stayer! He was also very involved in secularism, including the South East London Humanists and the Freethought History Research Group.

I came across Terry a few times through my local radical history interests. Liddle wrote a number of texts on South East London, including a pamphlet on Deptford-born Chartist George Julian Harney, another pamphlet 'A radical history of Greenwich and Deptford' and 'Deptford Infidels', an article for Journal of Freethought History on late 19th century secularism in the local area.

In July 2004 he gave a talk based on his Deptford Infidels research to South London Radical History Group (which I was involved in) at the Use Your Loaf Centre for Social Solidarity (227 Deptford High Street). I also heard him give a similar talk for Lewisham Humanist Group at the Unitarian Meeting House in Bromley Road SE6.

The Memorial Event

The Freethought History Research Group in conjunction with the Conway Hall Ethical Society is organising a memorial meeting for Terry Liddle in Holborn. The event will take place on Saturday 20th April 2013, 2pm to 5pm, in the Brockway Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.

They say ' All welcome to come and enjoy a few nibbles, a bit to drink and good comradeship in honour of Terry Liddle 1948-2012 In wild, but considered celebration of Terry Liddle’s maverick life of activism, Atheism, Socialism, Animal Rights, Republicanism, Trades Unionism, Temperance (sometimes), Deptford and the World. Bookstall on the day. A couple of speeches, with contributions from the floor and the Workers Music Association: Joe Hill; The Land it is the Landlords’; William Brown; Solidarity Forever; The Internationale'.

Among his poems, Liddle wrote his own 'Death Song':

DEATH SONG
Terry Liddle

Comrades when I’m dead and gone, no more than dust on the breeze
I beg you grant me one last wish, comrades do this for me please
Raise a glass of the blood red wine or a mug of the barley brew
Bid farewell to your comrade one of the foolish few
Who thought we could rearrange the world, dreamed we could make all things new

Kiss goodbye to my lovers, whose bodies I warmed with lust
My body once warm it is no more, naught but a whiff of dust
Remember how we fought the fight, lost and fought again
How we bound our bloody wounds, how we endured the pain
For we knew that like the phoenix our cause would rise again

The banners are tattered and faded, a paler shade of red
The devices writ upon them now can be hardly read
But we know every one of the words of hope, words of struggle and fight
A dream of a new and brighter dawn after the long dark night
A world reborn in liberty, a world we have put to right

Toilers of field and factory, workers of hand and brain
Will ye not rise like lions, sever the slaver’s chain
Will ye not cast down priests and kings and the money power crew
Remember we are millions and the tyrants but a few
Destroy their rule of exploitation and rebuild the world anew.

So sup your ale my comrades, drink deep of the heady wine
Cherish the sprouting barley, the grapes clustered on the vine
Say farewell to the old world, a world of grasp and greed
A world where poor folk hungered, a world of want and need
Raise a glass to your fallen comrade, who planted freedom’s seed

Other obituaries:
http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/terry-liddle-rip/
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2012/11/28/terry-liddle-1948-2012-fighter-freedom
http://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/terry-liddle-1948-2012-comrade/

Lausanne Road SE15 in the 1950s

Andrew Simpson grew up in Lausanne Road, SE15 but has been living in Manchester for many years where he now runs the Chorlton History site. He has though been writing a bit recently on his time in South London, including a series of reflections on his time at Crown Woods School in Eltham in the 1960s, with some evocative 1968 school photos. He also reflects on his less than happy time at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern in Sprules Road SE4 (previously Brockley Central School, then later Hatcham Wood, Telegraph Hill and lately but not for much longer Crossways Sixth Form - soon to be taken over by Christ the King) - and the failings of the 11+ system which consigned many children to second best education.

I particularly liked his tales from Lausanne Road in the 1950s, when his parents let out rooms to a range of interesting characters including 'Millie the Mole'  and her  boyfriend Boy Boy Jones, a getaway driver for a Peckham smash and grab gang and 'a couple who met in Lausanne Road. She was single and German and he was Polish. Their romance began with midnight trysts and ended with the two getting married... Both had been victims of the displacement of millions of ordinary people who had been in the wrong place when the war broke out and found themselves part of that tide of homeless refugees in 1945'.

People Before Profit Occupations

People Before Profit are continuing their occupations of empty council housing, with their first action of this kind in Greenwich. They say:

'Supporters of Greenwich People Before Profit have occupied a huge house that has been left empty and neglected by Greenwich Council for two years. All the families living in the house – at 88 Eltham Road near the western border of the borough – were evicted by the council. As far as we know, the evictions took place after the leaseholder couldn’t afford to renew or extend the lease. The building had been half-heartedly secured, so it was not difficult for campaigners to gain access. We found that the overall condition of the house was good – although there is work to do, with wires and copper piping severed, floorboards lifted and a section of ceiling down. Previously the house was divided into seven flats and we will try to make as much of it as possible habitable.

If anyone would like to help work at the house, or give support in other ways, please come to our next meeting on Saturday 14 April at 2.00 p.m., at 88 Eltham Road, or email greenwichhousing@peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk

Greenwich People Before Profit is following the example of our counterparts in Lewisham, who occupied five long-term empty council houses in February. They are refurbishing them for homeless families to live in. Given the need for social housing in the borough, and the particularly serious housing problems for young people, it is scandalous that this property has been empty for two years. We want to make it habitable.

Homelessness is rising again. Government figures show that in the last quarter of 2011, homeless applications were up by 18% across England and 36% in London. London rents are unaffordable. We hope everyone in Greenwich, including the council, will support our action. The Empty Homes research group says that Greenwich has 3416 empty homes: 362 belong to the local council, the rest to housing associations and private landlords. Why can’t these properties be put back to use?'

Lewisham

Meanwhile Lewisham People Before Profit have extended their campaign to target empty social housing belonging to other landlords:

'tipped off that London & Quadrant Housing Association was selling off houses at auction we decided to investigate. We visited 34 Hazeldon Road, Crofton Park, at viewing times and found two purpose built flats in need of redecoration but in perfectly good structural condition. The auctioneers' catalogue showed a guide price of £275,000 to £300,000 for the whole building, not giving first time buyers the option of buying just one of the flats.

We occupied the flats on Tuesday 27th March, shortly after the last viewing had been held and have cleaned the flats thoroughly, changed the locks and had the steel security doors removed. We have written to L & Q asking them to make the flats available to families from Lewisham's housing waiting list and are awaiting a response. We have had several enquiries and the first family is moving in this weekend'.

Five Council homes put up for auction by Lewisham Council remain occupied (see previous report at Transpontine), as well as a vacant garage on Hart's Lane, New Cross (next to Sainsburys). The latter was originally offered up for auction with the five houses - there are plans to convert into a temporary community/arts space.

Music Monday: Eternal

A retro turn in this week's Music Monday, as we recall SE London's greatest ever girl group (at least in the soul category - we can talk about Shampoo another time).

Eternal was conceived of by manager Denis Ingoldsby in 1992 as a UK version of En Vogue. He put together sisters Easther and Verna Bennett, with Kelle Bryan and Louise Nurding (the latter of whom Ingoldsby had met in London club The Milk Bar).

Three of the four were from South London - the  Bennett sisters were from Croydon, and were steeped in gospel music via their family's church. Nurding was born in Lewisham Hospital and grew up in Eltham - she went to St.Thomas More RC Primary School in Appleton Road. In fact her grandad had a stall on Lewisham market where she sometimes helped out.

The original line up of the band only lasted until 1995 when Nurding left the band to go solo (she later became known of course as Louise Redknapp); Bryan left in 1998 after a split with the Bennett sisters.

Just a Step from Heaven is one of their better earlier tracks, nice slice of soulful pop plus the slightly surreal sight of the band cavorting to Black Panther Party/Public Enemy imagery (dancers in berets and combats, clenched fists etc):

s

"I Wanna Be the Only One", a duet with BeBe Winans, was a UK number one in 1997 and a bona fide 1990s soul classic:

Racist Murder in SE London

Everybody now agrees that the killing of Stephen Lawrence in Eltham  on 22 April 1993 was a terrible racist crime and two men have been jailed for his murder. Back in 1993 it was very different - Government and media indifference (with some exceptions) and police hostility to those campaigning against racist attacks.

It was a terrible time in South East London, when the borough of Greenwich was named by some as 'Britain's racist murder capital' (Independent, 12 June 1993).  In February 1991, 15-year-old Rolan Adams was killed on the way home from a vist to the Hawksmoor youth club in Bentham Road, Thamesmead.

The Rolan Adams banner on a march to the BNP HQ in February 1992

In July 1992, 15 year old Rohit Duggal was stabbed to death outside the kebab shop in Tudor Parade, Well Hall Road. A white youth named Peter Thompson was later jailed for his murder.

Relatives of Rohit Duggal on a November 1992
demonstration to the BNP HQ in Welling

Then came the murder of  18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in April 1993, also in Well Hall Road in Eltham. As with the Adams and the Duggal cases, the police and Crown Prosecution Service tried to deny the racist aspects of the murder.

Stephen Lawrence's parents at a vigil in May 1993

There were other murders too elsewhere in South London. Ruhullah Aramesh, a 24 year old Afghan refugee, was beaten to death in Thornton Heath by a gang armed with iron bars in July 1992. In October of that year Sher Singh Sagoo, a Deptford market trader, was attacked and killed. And murder was just the tip of the iceberg - between August 1990 and May 1991, 863 incidents of racist attacks and harassment were reported to the Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks alone.

I went on many demonstrations at that time, usually led by the families of murder victims. There was the Anti Racist Alliance demo in June 1993 from Norbury Park to the scene of Ruhullah Aramesh's murder.

There was the march against the British National Party's 'Rights for Whites' demo in Thamesmead in May 1991, provocatively called a few months after the murder of Rolan Adams in the same area where he was killed. The police mobilised their forces included mounted police to stop the anti-racists who outnumbered the BNP ten to one (roughly 1200 to 120).

I remember seeing riot police baton people's heads out of sight of the cameras in a car park between housing blocks on the estate. I took a friend with a head wound to Kings hospital in Camberwell as we didn't think the local casualty department would be a safe place to go.  Incidentally Stephen Lawrence (then at Blackheath Bluecoats School),  took part on the anti-BNP demo that day too.

'Horseback police in riot gear charged hundreds of screaming demonstrators as a protest ended in violence. Policy carrying batons and wearing protective visors waded into demonstrators in Thamesmead on Saturday. About 20 protesters were arrested and one PC injured as campaigners tried to block a march by the right-wing British National Party. More than 150 BNP members had intended to march from the Hawksmoor Youth Club to Bentham Road – just a few feet from where 15 year old Rolan Adams was stabbed to death in February. But police changed the route after discovering more than 3000 anti-racists were to stage a counter demonstration. The anti-BNP marchers, led by the Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks, became angered when they realized they would not be allowed anywhere near the right-wingers… as a breakaway group ran down a cul-de-sac guarded by  police horse riders, trouble flared. Police reports claim bricks and missiles were thrown at officers… An eyewitness saw three members of the crowd trampled underfoot by horses’ (Erith and Crayford Times, 30 May 1991).

Welling demonstration, October 1993

Increasingly the headquarters of the BNP in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, became the focus of demonstrations. The point wasn't that the racist murders were being explicitly organised by them, but that they were spewing out racist poison that was legitimising these attacks.

The biggest demonstration took place on 16th October 1993.  Anti-fascist magazine Searchlight estimated 40,000 people attended, the Independent 25,000 and Socialist Worker 60,000. Either way it must have been one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in South East London. The Unity demo against the BNP started off with a massive rally on Winns Common, before heading off towards Welling.

Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman leads the march

According to Searchlight (November 1993), 'the marchers arrived at the crossroads where one road went to the nazi headquarters and the other [Lodge Hill] was the route imposed by the police. At this point the Unity banner at the head of the march was facing into the road leading to the BNP headquarters. The stewards and Leon Greenman, an 82 year old survivor of the Nazi death camps, tried to negotiate passage through the police line. When it was refused, some of the marchers sat down'. Riot police, including some on horseback, charged the crowd and there were riotous scenes with smoke bombs,  flying bricks, snatch squads and 3,000+ police. At least 56 demonstrators were injured and 31 people were arrested on the day' (Sunday Times, 17 October 1993). Personally I didn't even see any of this until I got home on TV as I had been trapped in the crowd by Plumstead cemetery - like much of the crowd unable to move because the police had blocked both Upper Wickham Lane (towards the BNP HQ) and Lodge Hill (the route the police had earlier said the march would have to take).

One woman reported at the time 'I was sitting on a wall, just trying to avoid the police. A policeman pushed me off. The police charged from a side street. I tripped over a bush and four police just laid into me with truncheons.  I was on the floor and one of them was kneeling on me, just hitting me. Later I saw a man in a wheelchair. The police charged again and again and just knocked him over. He fell out of his chair. My friend - she's 16 - tried to help him up and the police started hiting her' (Socialist Worker, 23 October 1993) 



Anti-Nazi League chief steward Julie Waterson
bleeding after being batoned by police in October 1993

The BNP HQ finally closed in 1995, following action by Bexley Council.

See also: Bob from Brockley, pretty much summing up what I think about the whole affair; 853 - thoughts of a SE London contemporary of Stephen Lawerence, and a reminder  'that it was the community in Eltham who gave up the names of Dobson and Norris in the first place. It was the local Metropolitan Police who decided that the death of a black man wasn’t worth investigating properly, not the people of Eltham'; Ian Bone points out that one of the police officers who mismanaged the original Lawrence investigation became a Croydon Conservative councillor - David Osland wrote to his superiors in September 1993 that 'Our patience is wearing thin on 3 Area (south-east London)... with the Lawrence family and their representatives'.

[update 11 January 2012 : 'The dad of Stephen Lawrence has passed potentially crucial new evidence on his son's murder to cops, he revealed yesterday. Neville Lawrence, 69, was told a suspect had now confessed to being at the scene of the murder.The development comes after two men were jailed for life last week for the gang murder of Stephen in 1993. Mr Lawrence said: "After the verdict, I met two people in Brockley, London, on Saturday who knew one of the guys that was part of the gang. They mentioned the boy confessed that he was there on the night. They gave me their names and addresses and I passed them on to the police." Mr Lawrence called on the racist pair to tell cops where the knife used to stab his son is hidden. He added: "There is forensic evidence on that knife to convict somebody else.". His plea came as a burger bar worker claimed Norris was involved in a brutal attack on him six weeks BEFORE Stephen was murdered. Gurdeep Bhangal, 41, said he confronted the yob after he banged on the window of the Eltham branch of Wimpy. He said: "I got hold of him and was stabbed by another person." No one was arrested, [The Sun, 10 January 2012]

As Bob from Brockley reminds us in the comments, while failing to find evidence against the killers the police were deploying resources in infiltrating anti-racist groups - and indeed a former police spy has admitted to taking part in attacks on police lines in Welling (see Bob's post on this affair).

Low Lie the Fields of Peckham Rye: Liam MacCarthy and the Gaelic Athletics Association

One of the many untold stories of South East London is its contribution to the development of Irish sports, with playing fields from Peckham to New Eltham resounding to the sounds of hurling, Gaelic football and camogie.

London's oldest Gaelic Athletics Association club, the Bros Pearse GAA was founded by Jack Shalloe and others at Bolgers Hall, 3 Queens Road, Peckham, as Brothers Pearse Hurling and Football Club back in 1920. Today it is based in north west London, but the Dulwich Harps gaelic football teams still play at Peckham Rye.

For many years, the headquarters of the London GAA was in the borough of Bexley (then Greenwich following boundary changes), at Avery Hill Road in New Eltham, though it moved to Ruislip in 1992 and the old New Eltham ground has been built on (Holland Gardens).

Liam MacCarthy

In hurling, the trophy awarded to the winning team in the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is actually named after a Peckham resident. Liam MacCarthy of Liam MacCarthy Cup fame was born in London to parents from County Cork, who were living on the South Bank when Liam was born in 1853. By the age of 14 he was playing hurling on Clapham Common. He was working on the railways as a signals fitter and living in Peckham (1 Derwent Street) when in 1875 he married Alice Padbury at St. George's Cathedral, Southwark. The family regularly attended mass at the Friary in Peckham.  They moved to 12 Union Road in Camberwell  (recorded on 1891 census) and then to 48a Forest Hill Road in East Dulwich.

Alice's father William Padbury owned a Fancy Box factory at 176 Blackfriars Road, Southwark. Liam joined the firm, but then broke away to start his own cardboard box making business, called St. Brigid Works and based at 48 Haymerle Road, Peckham. There was a large Irish community in the area at the time, and MacCarthy became the ward councillor for Peckham North Ward (1900-1912). 

MacCarthy played a key role in sports, as President of the London County Board of the GAA from 1898 to 1907, and 1909-1911. Other members of the board during his time were Michael Collins and Sam Maguire (after whom the Gaelic Football cup is named) and later Irish republican leader Michael Collins. MacCarthy himself joined the nationalist Irish Volunteers and the clandestine Irish Republican Brotherhood which fought for Irish independence. He was also at one point Vice-President in London of the Gaelic League which promoted the Irish language.

MacCarthy purchased the silver cup and donated it to the GAA in Dublin who agreed to make it the trophy for the national Hurling championship. The Liam MacCarthy cup was first awarded in 1921 and every year since - albeit replaced by a replica in 1992.

MacCarthy (sometimes spelt McCarthy in records) died in East Dulwich in 1928. He is buried in Camberwell Old Cemetery

The carboard packaging business he founded is still going (as at 2024) and is based in Woolwich: W. MacCarthy and Sons.

[post last updated November 2024]

Henry Cooper RIP

Boxer Henry Cooper died today, two days short of his 77th birthday.

Cooper grew up on Farmstead Road on the Bellingham council estate. He went to Athelney Road School in Lewisham, and when he left school he worked as a roofer in Evelyn Street, Deptford and as a sheet metal worker in Sydenham. He later recalled: 'In my day, if you came from a working class area, there were two ways out – football and boxing’. After amateur boxing with Eltham Amateur Boxing Club, he turned professional under the management of Jim Wicks.

Wicks opened a boxing gym above the Thomas a Becket pub on the Old Kent Road. Cooper returned there in 2008 to open a Southwark Council blue plaque and recalled that for 14 years from 1954 he trained there up to 5 or 6 times a week. He is also remembered in the name Henry Cooper Way, a road in Eltham.



At the time the blue plaque was unveiled, the pub was closed and functioning as an art gallery. Good news is that the Thomas a Becket has just re-opened as a pub - a pretty historic one, as mentioned here before it has connections with David Bowie, Burl Ives and the film Performance as well as Henry Cooper.

Eltham Police

Not a great couple of weeks for the police in Eltham. On Monday an unarmed man sitting in a car was shot in the throat by an armed police officer during a 'suspected robbery' at Boots in Eltham High Street (seems he wasn't critically injured, surprizingly). A policeman has been taken off firearms duties pending an investigation.

Last week, Pc Sean Smith from Eltham Police Station was found guilty in Manchester of nine charges of indecent assault against three young girls (although the offences date back ten years from a time before he was in the police).

Oh Moll she lives in Deptford Town

Jeffery Farnol (1878-1952) was an immensely popular novelist in the first half of the 20th century, famous for his swashbuckling romantic tales set in Regency England. Though born in Birmingham, he grew up in Lee at 6 Dorville Road. His brother recalls him flying kites on Blackheath, and later enrolling 'at the Goldsmiths Institute at New Cross, London S.E., to study in the "Life Classes" of the Painting School, three nights a week'. As he found success he bought a house of his own in Lee, in 1912, at 71 Eltham Road. Later he moved to the South Coast.

In my search for South London folk songs, I came across this section of his 1921 novel Martin Conisby's Vengeance. The scene, which features a politically dubious battle aboard ship with a 'vile blackamor', includes what appears to be a sailors song about Deptford:

'presently I heard the scrape of a viol somewhere beyond the bulkheads that shut me in and therewith a voice that sang, the words very clear and distinct:

Oh, Moll she lives in Deptford town,
In Deptford town lives she;
Let maid be white or black or brown.
Still Moll's the lass for me;
Sweet Moll as lives in Deptford town,
Yo-ho, shipmates, for Deptford town,
Tis there as I would be.

With this singing I thought to hear the heavy thud of an unshod foot on the planking above my head, and setting my teeth I gripped my knife in sweating palm. now (and to my despair) came the singing again to drown all else, hearken how I would:

Come whistle, messmates all.
For a breeze, for a breeze
Come pipe up, messmates all, For a breeze.
When to Deptford town we've rolled
Wi' our pockets full o' gold;
Then our lasses we will hold
On our knees, on our knees.

In the dark was the sudden, thin complaint of a rusty and unwilling bolt, though if this were to my right or left, above or below me, I could not discover and my passionate listening was once more vain by reason of this accursed rant:

Who will not drink a glass,
Let him drown, let him drown;
Who will not drink a glass, Let him drown.
Who will not drink a glass
For to toast a pretty lass,
Is no more than fool and ass;
So let him drown, let him drown!

...Who will not kiss a maid
Let him hang, let him hang;
Who fears to kiss a maid, Let him hang.
Who will not kiss a maid
Who of woman is afraid,
Is no better than a shade;
So let him hang, let him hang!"

Is this a genuine folk song? In fact it looks like parts of two songs with the 'Moll she lives in Deptford town' verse scanning very differently to the rest. The remaining three verses do sound like a coherent song, even if they are a pastiche. Although I haven't found any trace of this song elsewhere, it has an authentic structure. Whether invented by Farnol or not, it works as a song - for instance it pretty much fits with the tune to the old gallows song Sam Hall.

Folk in South East London

Folk clubs are like dog fighting clubs, they're often little known about and in more places than you think. Hither Green, Eltham, Blackheath, Borough, Woolwich, the Union Tavern in Camberwell and Deptford have, or have had, regular folk sessions.

Greenwich has the institution that is the tuesday night Greenwich Traditional Musicians Co-op  and there is the gig-based One World Club who have gigs every Thursday night.

Playing tonight are Lewisham and Greenwich (via Essex mudflats and Norwegian coast) band The Kittiwakes, a well-executed trio performing traditional English folk with a Scandinavian tickle. It's a free night at The Mitre tavern, 291 Greenwich High Road, from 8pm. The reviews of their album all seem rather positive.

November the 5th 1888

From the Daily News, 6 November 1888:

'Some attempt to keep up Guy Fawkes' Day was made in London; but the original object was completely lost sight of. Such effigies as were carried about were those of persons who have recently made themselves popular or notorious. Amongst a few political "guys" there was a large sprinkling of stuffed figures labelled "Jack the Ripper" or "Leather Apron." Sir Charles Warren also came in for some attention. At Hampstead the usual bonfire was lighted on the heath, in the presence of a crowd of visitors. There was also a procession of masqueraders. The annual carnival of the "bonfire boys" was held at Lewisham amid a good display of coloured lights, but the bonfire was dispensed with. At Eltham Mr. Parnell and other Irish members of Parliament were "guyed."...

Unfortunately some accidents are reported in connection with the celebration. At Swanley a set piece was accidentally ignited, and a youth had one of his hands blown off. At Crayford a young man was discharging a pistol when it burst in his hand and injured it. A rocket was let off at Bexley with the result that it put out the eye of a young lady named Jephson'.

This took place at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders, hence the reference to the subdued celebrations. Interesting reference to the Lewisham 'bonfire boys' carnival would like to know more.

Kate Bush in Brockley

This house in Wickham Road (number 44) was the launchpad for the career of arguably England's greatest singer songwriter: Kate Bush.

She actually grew up in a farmhouse in the similarly named Wickham Lane in Welling, where she famously wrote some of her later hit songs while still a child. She went to St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School (later the St Joseph's Campus of Bexley College).

In her late teens, having already been signed by EMI, she moved to Brockley where she lived in the middle flat at no.44 Wickham Road, sandwiched between her two brothers' flats.

In 1977 she fronted the KT Bush Band in local pubs, particularly the Rose of Lee in Lewisham (now Dirty South), as well as the Royal Albert in New Cross Road (later the Paradise Bar, now back to being the Royal Albert). The following year she released her first album, The Kick Inside, with her first single (Wuthering Heights) going to number one. That was the end of her playing down the pub, and in fact after a tour in 1979 she pretty much gave up live gigs altogether apart from the occasional appearance. Later she lived for many years in Court Road, between Mottingham and Eltham.

Thanks to Fred Vermorel for confirming the address; there are some references elsewhere (e.g. on Wikipedia) to Kate Bush living in Tressillian Road in Brockley - I don't think this is right, unless somebody is clear that she lived there as well as Wickham Road - the latter is definitely correct. By the way, I have heard that another well known musician lived in the same flat after Kate Bush, but not sure who - anybody know?

See Also: Kate Bush - The Brockley Demos - yes, she wrote Wuthering Heights in Wickham Road

Twelfth Night 1414

Tonight is Twelfth Night - with tomorrow being the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas (the Feast of Epiphany). Unfortunately, unlike in medieval times, most of us will be back at work already rather than waiting until after the Twelve Days are over.

The Christmas period in medieval times - and indeed later - was associated with the custom of Mumming, with people dressing up in masks and disguises, visiting neighbours, parading, and performing plays.

In January 1414, a plan was put in place to use mumming as a means of overthrowing the state with a focus on Eltham Palace, where the royal family was spending Christmas. The abortive insurrection was associated with John Oldcastle, a former friend of King Henry V, who had embraced the doctrines of the Lollard movement and been imprisoned as a heretic in the Tower of London before escaping. The Lollards criticised the wealth and corruption of the Church, anticipating the later Reformation.

In 1414, it was proposed to use a Twelfth Night Mumming as a cover to seize the King and his brothers at Eltham Palace. However the King was tipped off and returned to London. When the Lollard supporters gathered in the following week in St Giles Fields (near to the current Soho area) they were routed and many were exectued.

BNP in South East London Update

Last night's post about the BNP membership list underestimated the number of members across South East London - the original version of the list was in lots of different sections and I missed some. Various other versions are out there now which are easier to search.

It now seems that there are 102 BNP members in the SE postcodes areas, a worrying number but my earlier point about their lack of significant presence in London remains. Yes Deptford is a BNP free zone, and there is only 1 each in New Cross and Walworth. Further out there are larger clusters though - particularly in Eltham. Complete breakdown is as folows:

SE1 (Bermondsey) - 5
SE2 (Abbey Wood) – 1
SE3 (Blackheath) - 6
SE4 (Brockley) -4
SE5 (Camberwell) – 6
SE6 (Catford) - 3
SE7 (Charlton) -2
SE8 (Deptford) – 0
SE9 (Eltham) – 17
SE10 (Greenwich) - 2
SE11 (Kennington) – 0
SE12 (Lee) – 1
SE13 (Lewisham) – 2
SE14 (New Cross) -1
SE15 (Peckham) – 5
SE16 (Rotherhithe) - 5
SE17 (Walworth) -1
SE18 (Woolwich/Plumstead) - 7
SE19 (Upper Norwood/Crystal Palace) - 4
SE20 (Anerley/Penge) - 6
SE21 (Dulwich) – 1
SE22 (East Dulwich) -2
SE23 (Forest Hill) – 6

SE24 (Herne Hill) – 3

SE25 (South Norwood) -5

SE26 (Sydenham) – 3

SE27 (West Norwood) -1

SE28 (Thamesmead) - 4

Not a lot of interesting detail in the list of local members, other than the fact that one SE18 member is Sean Pearson, who stood for the Conservatives in a 2006 local election in Greenwich Glyndon Ward and was until last year chair of the Swinton Circle - a group on the far right of the Tory Party (Malcolm Redfellow has more on this as well as some hilarious extracts from the list).

Some interesting as well as dubious comments to earlier post and also over at Brockley Central. One suggestion is that after the initial turmoil, the BNP might benefit from the fuss if they can present themselves as victims - there was a member on the news complaining about living in a 'fascist state' (oh my aching sides - read some history) - never mind the fact that it seems likely that the list was originally published by one of their own in a faction fight between wannabe fuhrers. The BNP are also getting lots of publicity, and will try and use the stories about teachers, police officers etc. to show that they are full of upright members of the community (actually there are only a handful of members named for any particular job).

There is some risk of this, and we certainly can't rely on the BNP continually shooting themselves in the foot. Still at least their opponents now know where to look out for them.

Racists in the area

A number of bloggers have discussed the far right's performance in the recent London elections. Studio living notes that the National Front 'got 8,509 Assembly votes in Greenwich and Lewisham, and 11,288 in Bexley and Bromley'. The larger British National Party didn't stand in these constituencies. As discussed here before, the NF are organisationally miniscule - failing to muster more than 25 people for a recent Eltham 'march' - but they clearly have some brand recognition for racists from the period when they, rather than the BNP, were the main far right party in Britain. As Tom Royal puts it: 'we’re left with the prospect that thousands of people in this city genuinely want a political party that actually wants to deport non-white people from the UK (or “repatriation of all coloured people currently resident here” as it puts it). And that - however it might be caused - is both a terrifying and depressing prospect'.

Still overall the vote for the far right was not as big as they had hoped and minute in some areas. Brockley Central has done a detailed analysis of Mayoral election votes in four local wards - Brockley, Ladywell, Telegraph Hill and Crofton Park. The numbers voting for the far right here were very small. In Telegraph Hill ward for instance, the BNP candidate for Mayor only received 47 first preference votes out of 3642 votes cast and it was a similar proportion in the others.

Let's not imagine that there is any chance of the BNP coming to power. The real risks as I see it are (1) that a bigger vote for the far right can increase the confidence of racist thugs and spill over into more racist attacks and (2) that their success shifts the wider political spectrum to the right, with other parties putting in place increasingly more hysterical anti-immigrant policies on the premise that they have to stop people drifting off to vote BNP (see for instance Labour plans to build new detention centre places, including at Yarl's Wood where children and families are locked up). People who want to seriously challenge racism (including its institutional forms) need to consider this this rather than imagine that all racism in London is embodied in the laughable figure of BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.

Anyway there's a National March Against Fascism and Racism starting in South London next month: 'On Saturday 21st June there will be a national demonstration and carnival parade against fascism and racism in London celebrating the diversity of our society and making it clear that racism and fascist organisations like the BNP will not be tolerated. There will be a march and carnival parade, with floats, marching bands, speakers and banners from every organisation opposed the BNP's racist hate... Saturday 21st June 2008, Assemble: 12 noon, Tooley Street, London SE1(behind Greater London Assembly building, near Tower Bridge, nearest underground station London Bridge).March to Trafalgar Square, W1... Called by Love Music Hate Racism and Unite Against Fascism, supported by trade unions and other organisations'.

Stop the BNP

Just got back from the Love Music, Hate Racism festival in a rainy Victoria Park. In a week's time it is possible that the British National Party will have a member of the Greater London Assembly.

The paradox is that the far right remain organisationally very weak in London. The BNP couldn't even put forward a candiate for the Lewisham consituency. Its candidates are a laughing stock - Richard Barnbrook shagging immigrants in a flat in Blackheath, and its second choice on its London list being dropped for his comments on rape (more South London shame here - Nick Eriksen used to be a Conservative councillor in Southwark). As for the National Front, when they 'marched' in Eltham last week - an area they might have thought of as a far right heartland - a mere 22 people turned up, a number of whom were later 'acquainted with the pavement' by Antifa when they went on to another fascist gathering in Victoria later the same day.

Nevertheless it is possible that the BNP will secure 5% of the London-wide vote and secure an official foothold in London politics - for information check out the Hope not Hate London website.

Charles Parnell, the Irish National League and South London

The Irish National League was established by Charles Stewart Parnell (pictured) in 1882 and became a major movement for Irish home rule, with branches not only across Ireland but in England - including in South London.

In Deptford, support for Irish Home Rule pre-dated the formation of the League. On 2 October 1876 a public meeting in Deptford was attached by anti-Home Rulers, recalled in the memoirs of T.D. Sullivan : 'They invaded a hall where a Home Rule meeting was being-held; they "stormed" the platform, and made a determined endeavour to capture the Home Rule banner which was there displayed. But the flag was bravely defended, and after some fierce fighting, the attacking party were ejected from the building'.

In the 1880s, the Irish National League rallied at Sayes Court in Deptford and the Post Office Directory lists a United Irish National League and Club at 35 Albury Street, Deptford in 1911 (secretary Jas. Heirhly).

The Peckham club seems to have its own grounds judging by this report from the South London Observer (Camberwell and Peckham Times), 14 September 1889:

Garden Party of the Peckham Irish National League

On Monday last glorious weather favoured the promoters of the garden party held in the grounds of the League in Downs-street, Peckham Park-road. Too much praise cannot be accorded to the worthy president, the stewards and others for the energy displayed to make the occasion worthy of success and judging from the large numbers present, nearly 300, their efforts to meet the comfort and pleasure of the company were themes of conversation… The grounds were beautifully illuminated with Chinese lanterns, and around the walls were arranged coloured oil lamps, and at the extreme end of the garden a platform was erected, bunting giving the scene a pleasant aspect. An excellent band, under the conductorship of Mr. T. Rayman, efficiently discoursed sweet music, to which a large number of the guests , who were fond of the ‘light fantastic’, indulged to their hearts’ content to a late hour. During the course of the evening, Mr Neale gave some excellent impersonations of ventriloquism and was much applauded. Mr Mildinhall, of the North Camberwell Progressive Club, seemed to be quite at home with his audience, and at the conclusion of his song was greeted with well-merited applause.

Refreshments were provided for the visitors in the grounds, and at the conclusion of the evening’s amusement, Mr Harris, the president, proposed a vote of thanks to the stewards and officials who had worked hard to administer to the wants of those present, and who had contributed to the pleasure of the evening. Mr Blake briefly seconded the proposition, and the vote having been put to the meeting, was unanimously carried with acclamation.

A novel feature of the party was a ‘Strikers’ Fund’ box [this was at the time of the 1889 Dock Strike] , displayed to the majority of the visitors, and judging form the jingling of the money, must have been well-patronised. The following is the programme fo the music – Waltx, ‘Sweetest and Dearest’; quadrilles, ‘Paddy’s Wedding’; schottische, ‘Enchantment’; lancers, ‘Pelican’; polka. ‘Love Light’; waltz, ‘Song of Ireland’; Irish jig, ‘National’; Caledonians., ‘Marie Stuart’; waltz, ‘Rescue’. The following gentlemen were the stewards – Messrs. Corby, Bryant, McAuliffe, Jeffery, Grannell, and Beare, Mr R. Cavilla efficiently acting as MC’.

There is another South London connection to Parnell. In 1890, Parnell was cited in a divorce case having been in a relationship with Katherine O’Shea since 1880, and indeed having children with her. She had been separated from her husband - another MP - all along, but the scandal was enough to split the movement, and Parnell died in 1891 shortly after marrying Katherine in the wake of the divorce.

At some point during the relationship, they lived at 112 Tressillian Road, Brockley, he under the name Clement Preston in an attempt to conceal his identity. They also lived in Eltham in a house called Wonersh Lodge.