Paul Hendrich Memorial

A date has now been confirmed for a memorial for Paul Hendrich, the New Cross activist, Goldsmiths College anthropologist and all round good bloke who died recently. It will take place on Saturday 9th February in the Great Hall at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, starting at 10:30 am. All who want to remember and celebrate Paul's life are welcome to attend. Afterwards there will be a reception at Lansdowne Youth Centre (278-280 South Lambeth Road) from 3 to 6 pm, where Paul used to work.

There was a story about Paul in the Western Gazette this week - Paul came from the West Country:

'The family and friends of a Yeovil man who "lived his life to the full" have paid tribute to him following his death last week. Youth worker Paul Hendrich, aged 36, was travelling home from work at Goldsmiths College in South London on his bicycle when he was involved in a collision with a lorry in Battersea Road just before noon last Wednesday. Mr Hendrich suffered internal injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. While preparations are made for a memorial service in London on Saturday 9 February to celebrate his life with up to 400 people expected, those closest to him have described him as a "happy, smiling and caring man".

Born in Yeovil to Christine Hilborne and Peter Hendrich, he attended Huish primary and Preston community school before studying at Yeovil College. He was the first in his family to go to university and went to Alsager in Cheshire. He had two sisters, Fiona and Nichola, and a brother Stuart. Ms Hilborne, aged 55, of Westland Road, who works at Tesco, said: "He had such a good life. In 36 years he did 90 years worth of living."

Deptford Town Hall: commoning and history

I enjoyed the New Cross Commoners event at Deptford Town Hall last month (14 November) as part of the Being Human Festival. The aim was to host an  'an evening of open reading and discussions on the possibilities of commoning in New Cross, organised around the preparation and eating of food' with 'Bread and spreads... prepared and eaten by community groups, historians, academics and local people to explore the politics of access, place and eating together'.

The format was very simple - there was lots of delicious food cooked at the Field in Queens Road, or donated by sympathetic bakers, and people just sat around at tables eating, chatting and taking turns in saying a few words from the front.  People talked about commoning, plans for a New Cross food co-op, community energy, and about living as local residents in the streets around Goldsmiths. It was the night after the terror attacks in Paris, and a speaker from Kenya (a country no stranger to Islamist terror) pondered on how the simple fact of people from different backgrounds eating and sharing together represented the 'opposite of terror'.

I gave a quick overview of the history of Deptford Town Hall; here's my notes:

- The Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was formed in 1900 - the area having formerly been divided between the old counties of Kent and Surrey (a boundary marker survives on the green at the back of Goldsmiths).

- The Town Hall for the new Council was built between 1903 and 1905, and for much of the 20th century was at the centre of local political and social life. The building housed the Council Chamber where the Council met to make decisions, as well as offices where people would have gone to sort out housing and other issues. Many of the great and terrible events of the century echoed through this building.

- In the First World War, the Town Hall was used as an enlistment centre. In a one week period in 1915, 750 men joined up there, forming a Deptford  Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery that established its HQ at a disused Thames Ironworks site in Blackheath Road. Many of these men never came home from the war.

'From Deptford, Brockley and New Cross they came : recruits of an excellent stamp : mechanics, shopmen, clerks and labourers' - Lt.-Col. H. W. Wiebkin (1923), A  Short History of the 39th (Deptford) Divisional Artillery: 1915-1918/

 - During the mass unemployment of the 1930s, the Town Hall (then with a Labour Council) welcomed marches of the unemployed. In 1932 two thousand unemployed workers met at  Woolwich, and marched with band playing to Deptford Town Hall. The marchers ‘all wearing red rosettes in their caps’ were put up at the Borough Hall, Laurie Grove, being given dinner, a mattress for the night and free use of the public baths. 

- On 29 November 1944 the Town Hall was damaged in the V2 rocket attack which killed 168 people on the site of the Woolworths store opposite.

- As migrants from the Carribean settled in the area from the 1950s they faced racist bans from some local pubs. The Anglo-Carribean Association was established to organise inclusive social evenings and they held events in Deptford Town Hall and elsewhere.

- Deptford Council was merged with Lewisham Council in 1965, so the building was no longer used as the Council HQ although it continued to be used for Lewisham Council offices and for various events. For instance, Lewisham Irish in Britain Representation Group held events there in the 1980s, such as a meeting in October 1987 where Annie Maguire spoke, a couple of years before her nephew Gerry Conlon and the rest of the ‘Guildford Four’ had their convictions quashed.

- Alex James from Blur recalls that on his 21st birthday in 1989, when he and other band members were squatting in a semi-derelict flat at 302A New Cross Road,  Damon Albarn 'climbed on to the roof of Deptford Town Hall next door and changed the time on the big clock, which stayed at the wrong time for several years' (Bit of a Blur: the Autobiography, 2010).

- The Town Hall came under Goldsmiths management from 1998. Of course, its history didn't stop at that point - since then it has hosted many interesting conferences, meetings and cultural events as well as being periodically occupied by students.

- In 2007, on the 200th anniversary of the slavery Abolition Act, Paul Hendrich initiated a discussion on the links between Deptford and slavery as embodied in the Town Hall building – statues outside include Francis Drake (who accompanied John Hawkins in 1568 to ‘obtain’ between 400-500 West Africans and sell them in the West Indies), Robert Blake (the head of Cromwell’s navy) and Nelson (who opposed the abolition of slavery). An event at the Town Hall in June 2007 on 'Repairing the Trauma of History: What does an apology of substance look like?' featured a group of people on the Sankofa Reconciliation Walk wearing yokes and chains attempting to make reparation for the acts of the seamen carved in stone on the front of the building.

I was pleased to see that on each of the tables at the New Cross Commoners event there was a Menu with a quote from my late friend Paul Hendrich, who wrote about the history of Deptford Town Hall and the relationship of Goldsmiths to New Cross in his article 'Charting a New Course for Deptford Town Hall' (Anthropology Matters, 2008).  Today (28 December) would have been Paul's 44th birthday, but sadly he was killed while riding his bike to Goldsmiths in January 2008. Paul called for us 'to overwrite the building with a new set of memories and meanings' and it felt like the New Cross Commoners were continuing that project.

'The work we need to do, then, is to overwrite the building with a new set of memories and meanings. The Town Hall retains its original jingoistic overtones, but these serve only for us to reject the imperialist nostalgia and to create a better-informed relationship with the building. The work of generating new meanings is already being done. One local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, supplied me with an alternative narrative for the figures on the front of Deptford Town Hall that plays on the legacy of sadness and regret. The resident said that, as penance for their past misdeeds, the souls of these noble seamen are trapped for eternity inside the statues. They are forced to watch the multi-culturalisation of New Cross and rue their past actions' (Paul Hendrich, 2008)

Deptford Town Hall

Paul Hendrich, who died tragically this week, was passionate about Deptford Town Hall (a part of Goldsmiths College since 1998) and its relationship to the slave trade. The following is an extract from the draft of an article he wrote about it, the full version of which is due to be published in Anthropology Matters:

'Deptford Town Hall is “a memorable ensemble” in the Baroque style (English Heritage 2006). The souvenir brochure of the Town Hall’s 1905 opening boasts, “it will hardly be denied that in the whole of South London no more artistic and tasteful piece of architecture could be found” (Borough of Deptford 1905). It has an overhanging first floor supported by Doric columns. In the centre, above a cave-like entrance, is an oriel window in the first floor supported by atlantes, carved mermen or tritons. Four intricately carved statues of famous naval figures are set between the windows of the first floor. Each is complete with details of dress and a small wreath set below each shows variously their nautical tools, the accoutrements of faith and the spoils of war, piracy and trade. Sitting upon the main structure is an imposing attic pediment complete with a naval battle carved into it. A large four-sided clock turret further tops this. Sailing above the whole of this marvellous spectacle is a golden galleon serving as a weathervane.

The ship on top of Deptford Town Hall does not reveal its cargo. The four figures on the front of the Town Hall provide an answer. Sir Francis Drake is credited as the first captain to circumnavigate the world. However, it is remembered as only a footnote in most histories that in 1568 John Hawkins, accompanied by his young nephew and protégé Francis Drake and bankrolled by Elizabeth I, was able to ‘obtain’ between 400-500 West Africans and sell them in the West Indies . Such were the profits from this arrangement that they were soon repeated with Deptford and its renowned shipyards producing many of the vessels that were used in this commerce.

The second figure is not so well known outside of naval circles. Robert Blake was an Admiral who served under Cromwell, and this may be why, post-restoration, his achievements were not so well-reported in popular history books. In a series of naval battles in 1653 he defeated the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp to secure England’s monopoly over the Atlantic trade triangle between Europe, West Africa and the Americas. Blake was also the author of the Fighting Instructions, a textbook of naval tactics which were the blueprint for the English Navy’s supremacy during the age of sail. Cromwell went on to impose the plantation system on Jamaica, after ensuring its utility in Ireland.

The third figure, Horatio Nelson, is England’s most celebrated naval hero. He commanded the Victory at Trafalgar, seeing off Napoleon’s navy and losing his life in the process. There was much civic pride in Deptford for its association with Nelson. What is less well known is his extreme opposition to the abolition of the slave trade. In reference to William Wilberforce, chief amongst the abolitionists, he is alleged to have written from the Victory, that as long as he would speak and fight he would resist "the damnable doctrines of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies".




The Royal Naval Dockyards were closed in 1869 ending Deptford’s 356-year association as “the cradle of the navy”. With the building of Deptford Town Hall the planners tried to capture the celebrity associated with Deptford’s past glories. They were also keen to maintain a link with the present. The final figure on the front of the Town Hall is the admiral. There is nothing to pin on the composite but we can see that at the apex of Pax Britannica in the early part of the 20th Century, the British navy was crucial in the subjugation of numerous peoples and ensured that the atlas was largely pink and blue'.

In a Whitstable charity shop yesterday I came across a copy of Arthur Mee's 'London: Heart of the Empire and Wonder of the World, published in 1937 as the capital city volume of his 41 volume The King's England'. Mee's description of Deptford Town Hall, set out below, shows exactly the uncritical delight in Empire that Paul Hendrich wanted to criticise - no mention of slavery here:

'Near by is the beautiful town hall richly decorated with symbols of the river and the sea, and with an elaborate oriel over the door. The pediment has a stirring relief of an old naval battle, and above is a balustraded clock turret with a weathervane model of the Golden Hind. Francis Drake is among the fine statues of British admirals on the front of the building, standing with a globe and loot from a Spanish galleon. Next to him is Admiral Blake carrying his broad brimmed hat, the figure 1652 marking the year he met Van Tromp. Nelson's statue bears the date of Traflagar. The last statue shows a modern admiral, with sextant and binoculars'.

See also Written in Stone: Black British Writing and Goldsmiths College by Les Back.

Remembering Paul Hendrich

I can't believe that my friend Paul Hendrich is dead, but he is. He was apparently cycling from his home in Battersea to Goldsmiths in New Cross when he was hit by a lorry on Wednesday. He was just 36 years old, and leaves behind his wife Sasha and their one-year old daughter, Agatha.

I first met Paul a couple of years ago when he got in touch to interview me for a project he was doing about the former Deptford Town Hall, taken over by Goldsmiths College in 1998. Like me he had drawn the connections between its maritime statues and Deptford's links with slavery and colonialism. Unlike me he decided to do something about it, not only making it the focus of his Masters dissertation - the basis of an article to be published in the April issue of Anthropology Matters - but launching a campaign for Goldsmiths to publicly acknowledge this history in the context of debates about marking the abolition of slavery and the appropriateness of apologies and reparations. He was instrumental in organising an event at the Town Hall in June 2007 on 'Repairing the Trauma of History: What does an apology of substance look like?' which featured a group of people on the Sankofa Reconciliation Walk wearing yokes and chains attempting to make reparation for the acts of the seamen carved in stone on the front of the building.

Paul also organised a Town Hall Pirate society at Goldsmiths to have fun playing around with piracy while raising serious questions about an alternative maritime narrative from below. The photo of Paul here doing his Captain Hook pose was taken on a visit by the Pirates to the Island, where I met them to talk about the history and wonders of this New X traffic island.

In September 2007 he was involved in organising the Migrating University/No Borders events at Goldsmiths. We then worked closely together on the Lewisham '77 events, including a walk and a conference to mark the 30th anniversary of the anti-fascist demonstrations in New Cross and Lewisham. Paul's active opposition to racism carried over into his job, where he worked with young refugees. At the time of his death, he was preparing to sail to Arizona, USA to research the various forms of activism that have taken shape around undocumented cross-border migration of Mexicans into the US.

Sophie Day from Goldsmiths Anthropology department is right to say that 'Paul's enthusiasm, generosity, kindness and inclusiveness drew everyone he met into the broader issues that he was thinking about and working on'. He made many things happen, and everyone who knew him will also be mourning all the other numerous things he never got to make happen - he was always bubbling over with ideas. We never did find time to have those conversations about Brighton raves back in the day, the Yeovil music scene or contemporary americana (I believe Paul was learning to play the banjo) - we were always too busy planning and scheming.

Neil

Here's some of Paul's writing about Deptford Town Hall.

See also John Hutnyk's post on Paul

Details of memorial here

Seven Songs

I have been tagged twice to take part in this (by Andrew and Richard):

'List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to'. A bit slow off the mark, but here we go:

1. M.I.A. – Paper Planes – ‘If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name’ – Clash sampling (Straight to Hell) classic from Kala album. There’s a remix featuring Woolwich’s Afrikan Boy on his myspace.

2. Jonathan Richman – Buzz Buzz Buzz (go the honey bees) – this is an old song that I’d forgotten about until I heard it earlier in the year at the memorial for Paul Hendrich. Despite this sad association this is a spring/summer twee classic.

3. Shortwave Set –No Social – from their new Replica Sun Machine album, they’ve upped the ante since the first album with strings on some tracks arranged by Van Dyke Parks and production by Dangermouse (of Gnarls Barkeley fame) – perhaps they reminisced about South East London with the latter, as they hail from Deptford and he used to live in New Cross. John Cale’s on some tracks too and he also went to Goldsmiths in New Cross. They are playing at Massive Attack’s Meltdown on the South Bank next month.

4. Kode9 and Spaceape– Konfusion – caught some of Kode9’s set at The Amersham Arms in New Cross last Friday. What I like about the stuff he does with Spaceape is the languid MCing, it puts me in mind of the first Massive Attack album, particularly the tracks with Tricky on. Of course both the early 1990s ‘Bristol sound’ and dubstep have in common that sonic collision between reggae sound system culture and other dance musics.

5. Portishead – The Rip – no longer sounding like early 1990s Bristol, this track of the new Portishead album starts off as folky but dark-sounding ditty about horses before driving minimalist synth riff kicks in.

6. Laura Gibson – All the Pretty Horses – more gee gee action, not nearly as creepy as Current93’s version of the same song – well she was growing up in a logging town in Oregon when the latter’s David Tibet was squatting in Vauxhall. Laura’s playing in London next month.

7. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – Seafarin’ Song – from their new Sunday at Devil Dirt album. I still miss Isobel from Belle and Sebastian, but her two albums with Mark Lanegan more than make up for her absence from Glasgow’s finest.

See also Baggage Reclaim and Bob's selections. Most people I know seem to already have been tagged for this one, but I will throw it open to the following in case they want to play (no obligation of course): Uncarved, Ruinist, Last Bus Home, Pecknam, Grievous Angel, Dub and Sonic Truth.

Pete Pope

Well-known Deptford community activist Pete Pope died last Friday. He had been ill for some time with cancer. I met Pete a few years ago when he and I were involved with others (including the also departed Paul Hendrich) in planning the Lewisham '77 events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the anti-National Front protests in the area. Various meetings took place in the Marquis of Granby.

Others who knew him well will doubtless have lots of stories to tell. He was particularly active around housing and regeneration issues in the Deptford area, including the campaign against Lewisham Council evicting tenants and selling off the Aragon Tower on the Pepys Estate to private developers (the sale went ahead, with the tower later featured in the BBC documentary The Tower). In fact Pete's face is one of those staring out to the Thames from the Wall of Ancestors sculpture at the base of the Aragon Tower. 

Pete Pope

The sculpture by Martin Bond was first unveiled in 1997, but was recast and repositioned in 2006. It features local  community faces from the time as well as historical figures associated with Deptford. Pete is the face in the top left,  with Tony O'Leary to his right. Below Pete is Shirley Steward and next to her is Grinling Gibbons. The other panel (not pictured) also includes Olaudah Equiano and Catehrine of Aragon, among others.

  

 Pete was also involved with Convoys Opportunity (along with Deptford Misc blogger Bill Ellson and others), campaigning against turning the Convoys Wharf site into a luxury housing development. While their specific proposal for a cruise liner terminal on the site came to nothing (though something similar is now planned for Greenwich peninsula), the questions they raised about using that site for the benefit of the community and acknowledging its maritime history are still very pertinent.

As part of the campaign, Pete dressed up as Nelson on a barge sailing by the site  in May 2005: 'No more Penthouses... Convoys Opportunity unveiled its new charter for the former Convoys Wharf deep water moorings at Deptford on Monday. Sailing past on Thames barge Lady Daphne, campaigners invoked the area's maritime history and were accompanied by Henry VIII, Lord Nelson and Cardinal Wolsey.The protesters are calling on Lewisham Council to reject plans to build 3,500 new homes in three tower blocks up to 40 storeys high on the site' (Newshopper, 17 May 2005 includes blurry photo of Pete as Nelson).

I found this old Deptford TV film of him at the weekend and stuck it up on youtube. It was made in 2007 by Gopi Sastri, Ellie Walton and Salim A. Syed and features Pete talking about regeneration -  'this so-called regeneration process has been grinding across Deptford for the last 20 years'. 

Update: - funeral details: Pete Pope will be cremated on Friday 15th June at 10:45 am in Hither Green Cemetery. There will be a bike ride from there back to the Dog and Bell in Deptford in his honour where there will be  a wake.

On Sunday the 24th June friends will be gathering in the Birds Nest Deptford from mid afternoon to process with his ASHES  to Halfpenny Hatch bridge astride Deptford Creek around 4 30 pm to sprinkle him over the out going high tide , and then returning to the pub to celebrate one of Deptfords finest. All welcome' .

Long live the White Hart SE14

I've fallen back in love again with the White Hart in New Cross Gate recently. This iconic pub has been overlooking the historic junction on the old Watling Street/New Cross Road for 150 years or more, in fact I gave a whole talk about this spot in Telegraph Hill Festival a couple of years ago that is far too invovled to go into here.

I think the first time I went in the pub itself was back in the mid-noughties in the company of the late Paul Hendrich and others. In those days the pub was under the management of local character Ken Linwood, there followed a few years in which he tried to turn it into a strip club etc. I didn't agree with all that, but hey keeping a pub going in the middle of a busy road in SE London is difficult so it was easier to criticise than to see a way forward.

Since then pub has been refurbished but without losing its soul. Most recently it has faced an apparent threat from the people who own the bulding - the Wellington Pub Group have wanted to redevelop the upper floors of The White Hart into residential flats. Experience elsewhere has shown that when this happens new residents soon start complaining about noise and late nights and restrictions on the licence threaten the viability of the pub. Back in August though Lewisham Council turned down the planning application after more than 3,000 people signed a petition against the plans. Hopefully Patrick and Joseph Ryan, who currently run the pub, can keep it going for the foreseeable future.

I love the Irish music session there on Sundays (2 pm to 4 pm),  last week there were five fiddles, two flutes, a whistle, a guitar, a bodhran and an accordion and there were sublime moments when all of these meshed together perfectly. Irish sessions are one of the great gifts of London pubs to the world (see a bit of history and my limited involvement in scene here), so everywhere that these are still happening needs to be appreciated and nourished.

Another great London pub tradition is the Sunday roast, and the White Hart certainly delivers there. The vegetarian option is a very reasonably priced nut roast in filo pastry served with potatoes, carrots, kale and a massive yorkshire pudding.

The pub now gets pretty busy on a Sunday, with the session at 2 pm followed by the pub quiz round 5 pm - so they do eventually run out of food, but thankfully not beer.

The only improvement I would like to see is a reinstatement of the stag statue on top of the building, shown here in 1912. Then nobody would have any excuse for not finding this fine pub.

Strike and occupation at Goldsmiths

Lecturers at Goldsmiths College in New Cross have been on strike today as part of a national strike against changes to their pension scheme. Last night students occupied the Deptford Town Hall building, where Goldsmiths management offices are based. The occupation is in support of the striking lecturers, as well as to build momentum for this Saturday's anti-cuts demonstration in London.

Nelson looks down on David Cameron - everyone to Trafalgar Square this Saturday!

Some lecturers who didn't joint the strike attempted to hold tutorials in the nearby Cafe Crema instead. They were asked to desist by the Cafe, who wanted to show their support for the strike.

More on the dispute, including photos of the picket line, at the Goldsmiths UCU site.

The redecoration of Deptford Town Hall put me in mind of my late friend Paul Hendrich, who researched the links between Deptford and slavery, as represented in the Town Hall statues.

Deptford Fun City Revisited

A very good turn out (50+) at my 'Sounds of SE14' New Cross and Deptford musical history talk last night at St.Catherines, thanks for everyone for coming. For me it was great to have a mixture of some of the people who make the area interesting in one place, and in some cases ‘networking’ in the pub afterwards – those present included Caffy from Music Tourist Board, Mark Sampson (whose ‘New Cross Sympony’ was played), Ceri James (whose 'Deptford Broadway' was also played), Catherine from Cartridge, our very own Scott from South East London Folklore Society, Andrew from Ragged School Blog, Paul from Deptford Free Radio (who recorded the talk for a future podcast) and Paul Hendrich from Goldsmiths' Town Hall Pirate, the latter a new initiative looking to contest Deptford's colonial legacy as seen on the old Town Hall (now a Goldsmiths building) with its statue of the slaver Francis Drake. If you want to find out more sign up here and select 'Town Hall Pirate'.

Here's the music I played last night. If you want to know more about the connections between them and SE London, you'll just have to come along to my next event, likely to be in May during the Made in Deptford festival.


Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – The Only Living Boy in New Cross
Roy Harris – Ratcliffe Highway
Robert Wyatt – The Red Flag
Marie Lloyd – A Little of what you fancy does you good
Fats Waller – The joint is jumpin’
Spike Milligan – The Q5 Piano Tune
Bonzo Dog Band – Monster Mash
Velvet Underground – Black Angel’s Death Song
Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel – Come up and see me make me smile
Dire Straits –Sultans of Swing
Squeeze - Cool for Cats
Alternative TV - Action Time and Vision
This Heat – SPQR
Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
The Flying Pickets – Only You
The Fabulous Poodles – Mirror Star
… and the Native Hispters – There goes Concorde again
The Chords – Maybe Tomorrow
The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet
Japan – The Art of Parties
Homosexuals – My night out
Johnny Osbourne – 13 Dead
Linton Kwesi Johnson – New Craas Massahkah
Test Department – New World Order
Band of Holy Joy – Mad Dot
Ozric Tentacles – Sploosh!
The June Brides – Every Conversation
Blur – Girls and Boys
Placebo – Nancy Boy
Blak Twang – Trixsta
The Violets – Laxteen
The Swear – Ch ch eh!
Shortwave Set – Is it any wonder?
Mark Sampson – New Cross Symphony
Zen – Deptford Broadway.

Haberdashers, Hatcham and Slavery

[UPDATE - September 2021 - Haberdashers schools have now confirmed that they are removing the Aske part of their name, as well as dropping their archaic motto of 'serve and obey'. The New Cross school will 'seek to re-purpose the statue of Aske at Hatcham College... and aim to contextualise it in a way that ensures alignment with the Trust’s values and longer-term educational objectives' - see Haberdashers schools statement on outcome of consultation. As Reclaim EC1 notes, it is unclear whether masonic lodges historically associated with the schools will be making similar changes and it appears that the Aske charity administered by the Haberdashers Company will also be retaining its name. See also Sanjit Chudha's post on this - Sanjit did some of the early work on this, including researching and editing Aske's wikipedia entry and lobbying the school] 

The Haberdashers' Aske's school in New Cross is reported to be considering the implications of the links between Robert Aske (after whom the school is named) and slavery, with press coverage suggesting that a change of name is being considered. A statement issued by the school's sponsor, the Haberdashers Company, states:

'The Haberdashers’ Company and its Schools in Elstree and South London have become aware that Robert Aske was a shareholder in the Royal African Company (RAC).  All are clear that the role of the RAC in the slave trade was deplorable and sits in stark contrast with the values which underpin the activities and philosophy of the Company, its schools and beneficiaries today.  The schools are already engaged in comprehensive reviews of culture, values and their brands and this matter will be included.  The outcome of these fully consultative deliberations, including the future use of the Aske name, will be communicated when conclusions are reached and decisions made.  The Haberdashers’ Company is proud of its ethos of benevolence, fellowship and inclusion, and the diverse nature of its membership'.

I have been looking into slavery and the New Cross area for a while,  now seems a good time to summarise some of what we know - or ought to know.

Haberdashers and slavery

The Haberdashers' schools in South London and elsewhere have their origins in the Haberdashers' Aske's charity, established with funds bequeathed by Robert Aske (1619-1689) and managed by the Haberdashers company, one of the City of London livery companies.

The current Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College (as it is now known) was built on Pepys Road in New Cross in 1875 expanding on to a second site in Jerningham Road in 1889. The Haberdashers Company owned most of the land in the New Cross area at this point. A 19th century statue of Robert Aske stands in the forecourt of the school's Pepys Road site.

It is now well established that Robert Aske was one of the early investors in the Royal African Company, holding £500 of stock. According to historian William Pettigrew, the RAC 'shipped more enslaved African women, men and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade' (Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752, 2013) including more than 150,000 slaves forcibly transported to the British Caribbean.

Aske was neither the first nor last member of the Haberdashers' Company to invest in slaving. For instance William Garrard (1507-1571), sometime Lord Mayor of London, helped develop the slave trade by funding the early slaving voyages of John Hawkins.

A contemporary of Aske's, Jeremy Sambrooke (died 1704) was a director of the Royal African Company as well as a member of the Haberdashers Company. In the same period at least two masters of the Haberdashers Company were also directors of the RAC:  John Lawrence (died 1692) holding £1,600 of stock and Arthur Ingram (1617-1681) holding £1500 of stock.  Both were also directors of the East India Company which was likewise involved in slavery in this period as well as beginning its colonial expansion in India which the Company was eventually to rule (see more at Reclaim EC1 on slavery and the City of London).

The Haberdashers' Company was also involved with the early 17th century Ulster Plantation, whereby land confiscated by the Crown from its Irish owners was given to City Livery Companies. Their mission was to clear Irish catholic tenants and replace them with English and Scottish protestant settlers who it was hoped could be relied upon to be loyal to the Crown - paving the way for centuries of sectarian conflict.

In short an honest assessment of the links between the Haberdashers Company, slavery and colonialism would have to look a lot wider than the technical details of Robert Aske's share holding in the Royal African Company.

Jonathan Lucas

A more recent local slaver was Jonathan Lucas II, who owned slave plantations and hundreds of slaves in South Carolina, where his father (also Jonathan Lucas) had become wealthy through his rice mill business.  'Lucas and his family were at the centre of Charleston's cosmopolitan society'  but following the suppression of a planned slave uprising there in 1822, 'Jonathan II settled his family at Hatcham Grove House in New Cross, where the family lived from 1824 to 1834' (R. Williams III & A.L. Lofton, Rice to Ruin: The Jonathan Lucas Family in South Carolina, 1783-1929). This was a mansion in its own grounds situated between what is now Erlanger Road and Pepys Road at the bottom of Telegraph Hill.  

Hatcham Grove House, sometime home of the Charleston slave plantation owner Jonathan Lucas. In the 1850s it became a school for the children of Warehousemen and Clerks 

Anti-slavery 

It is sometimes argued that it is anachronistic to criticise those involved in slavery in the past, on the grounds that we are applying modern moral standards to different times. The implication is that nobody knew that slavery was wrong at the time.

In fact there were opponents of slavery from very early on - not least the slaves themselves of course! Deptford's John Evelyn, also connected to the slave trade, mentions a planned slave revolt in Barbados in his diary for 1692. He also discusses the ethical question of whether slaves should be baptised, something opposed by many slave masters as they feared even this recognition of their captives' humanity.

The long opposition to slavery is documented in a book largely written in New Cross more than 200 years ago. The History of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (1808) was written by the slavery abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), much of it while staying as a guest of the Hardcastle family at  Hatcham House in New Cross (grounds bordered by what is now Hatcham Park Road). Clarkson was one of the founders of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, and among other things had travelled to Paris after the French Revolution in an effort to persuade France to abolish slavery. Clarkson is unsparing in documenting the cruelties of slavery and denouncing 'the oppressors of the African race'. He also traces the history of opposition to slavery right back to the start of the slave trade in the 16th century. Among the arguments he quotes is an 18th century text by Humphry Primatt: 'It has pleased God to cover some men with white skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit nor demerit in complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of his colour to enslave and tyrannize over the black man'. Anti-racism was not invented in the 20th century!

There is a plaque on the Haberdashers' school site in Jerningham Road to the poet Robert Browning, whose family home was on the grounds of what later became the school. Browning's father, who lived there, had once been sent to St Kitts to manage a family owned plantation with slaves, though apparently he returned home unhappy with the cruelty of the plantation system (see Browning and Slavery).

The 'Black Lives Matter' movement has highlighted some of these historic connections and its supporters have been accused of wanting to rewrite history. But much of the history of slavery and its role in British society has never been written in the first place. 

Still at least in New Cross the statue of Olaudah Equiano - once forced back into slavery in Deptford - stares across Telegraph Hill Park on the other side of which stands the statue of Robert Aske. As to which of these two should be honoured by children in a 21st century multi-cultural South London school I leave that to you to judge.

Of course there's a whole lot more to be said about slavery and South London, here's a few previous pieces: 

Paul Hendrich on the statues on Deptford Town Hall in New Cross

Deptford's Runaway Slaves

'South London and Negro Emancipation' - 1863 anti-Slavery meeting at the Elephant & Castle

Edit September 2021 - an earlier version of this post suggested that the Jonathan Lucas named above was connected to the Lucas family who developed the Deptford New Town/St John's area of Lewisham and after whom Lucas Street SE8 and Lucas Vale Primary School are named. This claim is repeated in a number of publications and online sources, but further research has not substantiated this connection. Unless further evidence is found it would appear that there were two separate wealthy Lucas families living locally in the 19th century. However it does get very confusing trying to separate them in the historical record!