Hop Picking Photographs
Follwing my profile of Roy Wild, Hop Picker, it is my pleasure to publish this selection of favourite Hop Picking photographs from the archive of Tower Hamlets Community Housing. Traditionally, this was the time when East Enders headed down to the Hop Farms, embracing the opportunity of a breath of country air and earning a few bob too.
Bill Brownlow, Margie Brownlow, Terry Brownlow & Kate Milchard, with Keith Brownlow & Kevin Locke in front, at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam, Sussex, in 1958. Guinness bought land at Bodiam in 1905 and eight hundred acres were devoted to hop growing at its peak.
Julie Mason, Ted Hart, Edward Hart & friends at Hoathleys Farm, Hook Green, near Lamberhurst, Kent
Lou Osbourn, Derek Protheroe & Kate Day at Goudhurst Farm
Margie Brownlow & Charlie Brownlow with Keith Brownlow, Kate Milchard & Terry Brownlow in front at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam, Sussex, in 1950
Mr & Mrs Gallagher with Kitty Adams & Jackie Gallagher from Westport St, Stepney, in the hop gardens at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1959
Jackie Harrop, Joan Day & George Rogers at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1949
Mag Day (on the left at the back) in the hop gardens with others at Highwood’s Farm, Collier St, in 1938
Pop Harrop at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1949
Sarah Watt, Mrs Hopkins, Steven Allen, Ann Allen, Tom, Albert Allen & Sally Watt in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in 1943
Harry Watt, Tom Shuffle, Mary Shuffle, Sally Watt, Julie Callagher, Ada Watt & Sarah Watt in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in the fifties
Harry Watt, Sally Watt, Sarah Watt holding Terry Ellames in the hop gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in 1957
Harry Ayres, a pole puller, in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Emmie Rist, Theresa Webber, Kit Webber & Eileen Ayres in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Kit Webber with her Aunt Mary, her Dad Sam Webber and her Mum, Emmie Ris,t in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent
Harry Ayres with his wife Kit Webber in the hop gardens at Diamond Place Farm, Nettlestead, Kent.
Richard Pyburn, Mag Day, Patty Seach and Kitty Gray from Kirks Place, Limehouse, in the hop gardens at Highwoods Farm, Collier St, Kent
The Gorst and Webber families at Jack Thompsett’s Farm, Fowle Hall, Kent in the forties
Kitty Waters with sons Terry & John outside the huts at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1952
Mr & Mrs Gallagher from Westport St, Stepney, with their grandchildren in the hop gardens at Pembles Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1958
Sybil Ogden, Doris Cossey, Danny Tyrrell & Sally Hawes near Yalding, Kent
John Doree, Alice Thomas, Celia Doree & Mavis Doree in the hop gardens near Cranbrook, Kent
Bill Thomas & his wife Annie, in the hop gardens near Cranbrook, Kent
The Castleman Family from Poplar hop picking in the twenties
Terry & Margie Brownlow at Guinness’ Northland’s Farm at Bodiam in Sussex in 1949
Alfie Raines, Johnny Raines, Charlie Cushway, Les Benjamin & Tommy Webber in the Hop Gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall near Paddock Wood in Kent
Lal Outram, Wag Outram & Mary Day on the common at Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall near Paddock Wood in Kent in 1955
Taken in September 1958 at Moat Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent. Sitting on the bin is Miss Whitby with Patrick Mahoney, young John Mahoney and Sheila Tarling (now Mahoney) – Sheila & Patrick were picking to save up for their engagement party in October
Maryann Lowry’s Nan, Maggie ,on the left with her Great-Grandmother, Maryann, in the check shirt in the hop gardens, c.1910
Having a rest in hop gardens at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1966. In the back row are Mary Brownlow, Sean Locke, Linda Locke, Kate Milchard, Chris Locke & Margie Brownlow with Kevin Locke and Terry Locke in front.
Margie Brownlow & her Mum Kate Milchard at Whitbreads Farm in Beltring, Kent in 1967. These huts were two stories high. The children playing outside are – Timmy Kaylor, Chrissy Locke, Terry Locke, Sean Locke, Linda Locke & Kevin Locke.
Chris Locke, Sally Brownlow, Linda Brownlow, Kate Milchard, Margie Brownlow, Terry Locke & Mary Brownlow at Whitbread’s Farm, Beltring, Kent in 1962
Johnno Mahoney, Superintendant of the Caretakers on the Bancroft Estate in Stepney, driving the “Mahoney Special” at Five Oak Green in 1947
The Clarkson family in the hop gardens in Staplehurst. Gladys Clarkson , Edith Clarkson, William Clarkson, Rose Clarkson & Henry Norris.
John Moore, Ross, Janet Ambler, Maureen Irish & Dennis Mortimer in 1950 at Luck’s Farm, East Peckham, Kent
Kate Fairclough, Mrs Callaghan, Mary Fairclough & Iris Fairclough at Moat Farm, Five Oak Green, Kent in 1972
A gang of Hoppers from Wapping outside the brick huts at Stilstead Farm, Tonbridge, Kent with Jim Tuck & John James in the back. In the middle row the first person on the left is unknown, but the others are Rose Tuck, holding Terry Tuck, Rose Tuck, Danny Tuck & Nell Jenkins. In the front are Alan Jenkins, Brian Tuck, Pat Tuck, Jean Tuck, Terry Taylor & Brian Taylor.
Nanny Barnes, Harriet Hefflin, “Minie” Mahoney & Patsy Mahoney at Ploggs Hall Farm
In the Hop Gardens at Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall, near Paddock Wood in Kent in the late forties. Alfie Raines, Edie Cooper, Margie Gorst & Lizzie Raines
The Day family from Kirks Place, Limehouse, at Highwoods Farm in Collier St, Kent in the fifties
Annie Smith, Bill Daniels, Pearl Brown & Nell Daniels waiting for the measurer in the Hop Garden at Hoathley’s Farm, Hook Green, Kent
On the common outside the huts at at Hoathley’s Farm, Hook Green, Kent – you can see the oasthouses in the distance. Rita Daniels, Colleen Brown, Maureen Brown, Marie Brown, Billy Daniels, Gerald Brown & Teddy Hart , with Sylvie Mason & Pearlie Brown standing.
The Outram family from Arbour Sq outside their huts at Hubbles Farm, Hunton, Kent. Unusually these were detached huts but, like all the others, they made of corrugated tin and all had one small window – simply basic rooms, roughly eleven feet square
Janis Randall being held by her mother Joyce Lee andalongside her is her father, Alfred Lee in a hop garden, near Faversham in September 1950
David & Vivian Lee sitting on a log on the common outside Nissen huts used to house hop pickers
Gerald Brown, Billy Daniels & Dennis Woodham in the hop gardens at Gatehouse Farm near Brenchley, Kent, in the fifties
Nelly Jones from St Paul’s Way with Eileen Mahoney, and in the background is Eileen’s mum, “Minie” Mahoney. Taken in the fifties in the Hop Gardens at Ploggs Hall Farm, between Paddock Wood and Five Oak Green.
At Jack Thompsett’s Farm at Fowl Hall, near Paddock Wood in Kent
Ploggs Hall Farm Ladies Football Team. Back Row – Fred Archer, Lil Callaghan, Harriet Jones, Unknown, Unknown, Nanny Barnes, Liz Weeks, Harriet Hefflin, Johnno Mahoney. Front Row – Doris Hurst Eileen Mahoney & Nellie Jones
John Moore, Ross, Janet Ambler, Maureen Irish & Dennis Mortimer in 1950 at Luck’s Farm, East Peckham, Kent
The Outram and Pyburn families outside a Kent pub in 1957, showing clockwise Kitty Tyrrell, Mary Pyburn, Charlie Protheroe, Rene Protheroe, Wag Outram, Derek Protheroe in the pram, Annie Lazel, Tom Pyburn, Bill Dignum & Nancy Wright.
Sally Watt’s Hop Picker’s account book from Jack Thompsett’s Den Farm, Collier St, Kent in the fifties
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Roy Wild, Hop Picker
Yesterday, I returned to visit my pal Roy Wild from Hoxton who formerly worked in the Bishopsgate Good Yard and he told me about his days hopping in Kent, more than half a century ago
There is Roy on the right with his left hand stuck in his pocket, to indicate the appropriate air of nonchalance befitting a street-wise man of the world of around twelve years old, on a hopping expedition with his family from Hoxton.
Roy went hop picking each year with this relations until he reached the age of eighteen and, at this season, he always recalls his days in Kent. Still in touch with many of those who were there with him in the hop fields in the fifties, Roy was more than happy to get out his photographs and settle down with a cup of tea with a drop of whisky in it, and tell me all about it.
“I first went hopping with my family in 1948 when I was ten or eleven. We went to Selling near Faversham in Kent. The fields were owned by Alan Bruce Neame of Shepherd Neame, and he would employ people to pick the hops which he sold to breweries. We all lined up on the last day and he would pay each of us in person.
Some Londoners went by train from London Bridge St, all waiting on the station and carrying all their stuff with them. We were very fortunate, dad’s brother Ernie, he had an asphalt company and had an open backed lorry, for which he made a frame for a rain canopy, and we all went down to hopping together – our family, Ernie’s family, also Renee’s sister Mary and her family. Ernie would drive down to Hoxton and pick us up at Northport St, with all our bits and pieces, our bags and suitcases with bed linen and that type of thing, and away we’d all go down to Faversham. We’d go at the weekend, so we could spend a day unpacking and be ready to start picking on Monday.
There was us hop pickers from London but Neame would also employ ‘home-dwellers,’ these were Kentish people. The accommodation they lived in was far superior to what we were subjected to. We were given no more than Nissen huts, square huts made of corrugated iron with a door and that was about all, no windows. It was very, very primitive. We washed in a bowl of water and the toilet was a hole dug in a field. My mother would take old palliasses down with us from Hoxton and they would be stuffed with straw or hay from the barn, and that would our mattresses. The beds were made of planks, very basic and supported upon four logs to prop them up off the floor. You’d put the palliasses on top of the planks and the blankets on top of that. The huts were always running alive with creepy-crawlies, so anyone that had a phobia of that wasn’t really suited to hop picking.
There was another room next to it which was half the size, this was our kitchen. My dad would take down an old primus stove for cooking. It was fuelled by paraffin and the more you pumped it up the fiercer the flame, the quicker the cooking. It was only a small thing that sat on a box. The alternative to that was cooking outside. The farmer would provide bundles of twigs known as ‘faggots,’ to fuel the fire and we would rig up a few bricks with a grill where we’d put the kettle and a frying pan. They’d literally get pot-black in the smoke.
We usually went from three weeks to a month hop picking, sometimes the whole of September, and you could stay on for fruit picking. When we first started, we picked into a big long troughs of sacking hanging down inside a wooden frame. They were replaced by six bushel baskets. The tally man would come round with a cart to collect the six bushel baskets and mark your card with how much you had picked, before carrying the hops away to the oasthouses for drying.
At the time, we were paid one shilling and sixpence a bushel. You’d pick into a bushel basket while you were sitting with it between your legs and when it was full, you’d walk over to the six bushel basket and tip it in. My dad was a fast picker, he’d say ‘Come on Roy, do it a bit quicker!’ All your fingers got stained black by the the hops, we called it ‘hoppy hands.’
If you had children with you, they would mess about. Their parents would be rebuking them and telling them to get picking because the more you picked, the more you earned. Some people could get hold of a bine, pull the leaves off and, in one sweep, take all the hops off into the basket. Other people, to bulk up their baskets would put all kinds of things in there. they would put the bines at the bottom of the six bushel basket and nobody would know, but if you got caught then you was in trouble. My dad showed me how to fill a six bushel basket up to the five bushel level and then put your arms down inside to lift up the hops to the top just before the tally man came round.
The adults were dedicated pickers because you had to buy food all the time and being there could cost more money than you made. There was a little store near us called ‘Clinges’ and further up, just past the graveyard, was another store which was more modern called ‘Blythes’, and next door to that was a pub called the ‘White Swan’ and that was the release for all the hop pickers. They all used to go there on Saturday and Sunday nights and there’d be sing-songs and dancing, before going back to work on Monday morning. It was the only enjoyment you had down there, except – if you didn’t go up to the pub – you’d get all the familes sitting round of a weekend and reminiscing and singing songs, round a big open fire made up of the faggots
We worked from nine o’clock until about four, Monday to Friday. The owner of the hop fields employed guys to work for him who were called ‘Pole Pullers,’ they had big long poles with a sharp knife on the end and when you pulled a bine, if it didn’t come down, you’d call out for a pole puller and with his big long pole he’d cut the top of it and the rest if it would fall down. When it was nearing four o’clock, they’d call out ‘Pull no more bines!’ which was what all the kids were waiting for because by this time they’d all had just about enough. A hop field can be one muddy place and if you’re in among all that with wellingtons on it can get pretty sticky. If it was ready to rain, the pole pullers would also go round and call ‘Pull no more bines.’ Nobody was expected to work outside in the rain. We dreaded the rain but we welcomed the pole pullers when they called out, because that was the day’s work done until the following morning.
We looked forward to going hop picking because it was the chance of an adventure in the country. It was just after the war and we’d had it rough in Hoxton. I was born in 1937 and I’d grown up through the war, and we still had ration books for a long time afterwards. I was a young man in the fabulous fifties and the swinging sixties. In the fifties, we had American music and Elvis Presley, and in the sixties the Beatles and British music. Hop picking was being mechanised, they had invented machines that could do it. So we grew away from it, and young men and young women had better things to do with their time.”
Roy stands in the centre of this family group
Renee Wild and Rosie Wild
Picking into a six bushel basket
Roy’s father Andy Wild rides in the cart with his brother Ernie
Roy’s grandfather Andrew Wild is on the far left of this photo
Roy is on the far right of this group
Roy sits in the left in the front of this picture
Rosie, Mary & Renee
Roy’s father Andy Wild with Roy’s mother Rosie at the washing up and Pearl
Roy’s mother, Rosie Wild
Renee, Mary & Pearl
Roy’s father Andy stands on the left and his Uncle Ernie on the right
Roy
Roy (with Trixie) and Tony sit beside their mother Rosie
Roy’s mother and father with his younger brother Tony
Roy stands on the right of this group of his pals
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King Of The Bottletops At The Farm
For a second summer, Robson Cezar, widely known as King of the Bottletops has been artist-in-residence at Spitalfields City Farm, and so Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie & I went along to see what he has been up to this year.
In recent weeks, visitors of all ages to the farm have been sorting bottle caps collected from the pubs of Spitalfields into all their separate colours, which Robson has supplemented by using a stick with a magnet on the end to harvest those left behind by the weekend revellers in Allen Gardens.
This summer, Robson has made a large house like those in Spitalfields, using six thousand bottle caps, which has been installed on the fence overlooking the children’s play area in Allen Gardens and twenty-six panels comprising the letters of the alphabet. All these works are currently on display at the farm and you are encouraged to make a visit and take a look for yourself.
Installing the bottletop house at the far
A Spitalfields house made of six thousand bottletops
The playground on Allen Gardens with the bottle top house in the background
Robson Cezar’s studio at the farm
Collecting discarded bottletops with a magnetic stick on Allen Gardens
Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie
Spitalfields City Farm, Buxton St, E1 5AR
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Robson Cezar, King of the Bottletops
Barge Racing On The Thames Estuary
Barge racing season on the Thames Estuary
Crossing the marshes beyond Faversham at night, heading towards Oare Creek, my heart leapt in anticipation to see the mast of the Thames Sailing Barge Repertor outlined against the last fading light in a sky of gathering clouds. They were harbingers of a storm that woke me in my cabin with thunder and lightning, though when I woke next morning as the engine started up and the barge slid off down the creek towards the open sea, a shaft of sunlight descended through the skylight. Yet even this was short lived, with soft rain descending as we skirted the Kent Marshes towards the starting line of the Swale Sailing Barge Match.
Originally established by Henry Dodds in 1863, the annual Sailing Barge races that take place each summer around the Thames Estuary were once opportunities for commercial rivalry in the days when arriving first to pick up cargo meant winning the business. Their continuation in the present day manifests the persistence of the maritime culture that once defined these riverside communities. On Repertor, skipper David Pollock was assisted by three local gentlemen in his crew – Dennis Pennell, Brian Weaver and Doug Powell – who I believe would not be averse to being described as ‘sea dogs.’ Dennis and Brian went to school together in Faversham and all began their long nautical careers working on these Sailing Barges when they ran commercially – and today David enjoys the benefit of their collective knowledge.
An experienced skipper in his own right, David is a veteran of this race with several notable success and was eager to distinguish himself again this year. Picking up speed upon approaching the starting line, we were surrounded by a scattering of other brown-sailed Thames Sailing Barges and attended by a variety of traditional Thames sailing vessels including Smacks and Bawleys that have their own classes within the race. The sun broke through again, dismissing the tail-end of the rain and, even as we set out upon the green ocean, there was a line of Sailing Barges that extended ahead and behind us upon the sparkling water.
For an inexperienced sailor like myself, this was an overwhelming experience – deafened by the roar and crash of the waves and the relentless slap that the wind makes upon the sail, dazzled by the reflected sunlight and buffeted by the wind which became the decisive factor of the day. The immense force of the air propelled the vast iron hull, skimming forward through the swell at an exhilarating speed, yet required immense dexterity from the crew to keep the sail trimmed and manage the switch of the mainsail from one side to the other, accompanied by the raising and lifting of the great iron ‘leeboards’ – which serve as keels to prevent the flat bottomed barge capsizing while sailing upwind.
Thus, a routine was quickly established whenever David Pollock turned the vessel into the wind, calling “Ready about!” – the instruction to wind up the leeward leeboard and switch the mainsail from one side to the other. As soon as this was accomplished, David yelled “Let draw!” – the order to drop the leeboard on the opposite side and release the foresail. This ritual demanded a furious hauling of ropes and winding of the windlass, accompanied by the loud clanging of the iron tether as it slid along a pole that traversed the deck, known as the ‘horse.’ Meanwhile, wary passengers ducked their heads as the sail swung from one side to the other, accompanied by the sudden tilting of the entire deck in the reverse direction.
Before long, we were weaving our course among other Sailing Barges, running in parallel along the waves and slowly edging forward of our rivals, while in front of us some larger vessels were already pulling ahead in the strong wind. Running downwind, these vessels gained an advantage of speed and once we passed the buoy at the turning point of the five hour race, we gained the counter-advantage of manoeuvrability, tacking upwind. Yet by then it was too late to overtake those ahead, but it did not stop David and his crew working tirelessly as we zig-zagged back through the afternoon towards the Swale Estuary, taking sustenance of fruit cake and permitting distraction only from a dozen seals basking upon a sand bank.
Observing these historic vessels in action, and witnessing the combination of skill and physical exertion of a crew of more than eight, left me wondering at those men who once worked upon them, sailing with just a skipper, a mate and a boy.
On two past occasions when less wind prevailed, David and Repertor won the Swale Match, yet no-one was disappointed, making their way up Faversham Creek to the prize-giving on Saturday night at The Shipwrights’ Arms. With more matches to come before the end of the season, and after a strong performance in the Swale match, David Pollock and the crew of Repertor still had the opportunity of winning the Barge Championship – though, after my day on board, I can assure you that the joy of sailing such a majestic vessel was more than reward enough.
David Pollock, Skipper of Sailing Barge Repertor
Lady of the Lea, a smaller river barge designed for a tributary
Dennis Pennell – “I worked on the barges when I was still a boy….”
Brian Weaver – “I’m seventy-five and I started at nine, in the days when the Thames Barges still worked out of Faversham.”
Doug Powell – “I’ve been a sailor since I was thirteen.”
Return to Oare Creek
The day ended with prize-giving at The Shipwrights’ Arms, Faversham
Click here if you would like to take a trip on Thames Sailing Barge ‘Repertor’
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Beano Season In The East End
A beano from Stepney in the twenties (courtesy Irene Sheath)
We have reached that time of year when a certain clamminess prevails in the city and East Enders turn restless, yearning for a trip to the sea or at the very least an excursion to glimpse some green fields. In the last century, pubs, workplaces and clubs organised annual summer beanos, which gave everyone the opportunity to pile into a coach and enjoy a day out, usually with liberal opportunity for refreshment and sing-songs on the way home.
Ladies’ beano from The Globe in Hartley St, Bethnal Green, in the fifties. Chris Dixon, who submitted the picture, recognises his grandmother, Flo Beazley, furthest left in the front row beside her next door neighbour Flo Wheeler, who had a fruit and vegetable stall on Green St. (courtesy Chris Dixon)
Another beano from the fifties – eighth from the left is Jim Tyrrell (1908-1991) who worked at Stepney Power Station in Limehouse and drank at the Rainbow on the Highway in Ratcliff.
Mid-twentieth century beano from the archive of Britton’s Coaches in Cable St. (courtesy Martin Harris)
Beano from the Rhodeswell Stores, Rhodeswell Rd, Limehouse in the mid-twenties.
Taken on the way to Southend, this is a ladies’ beano from The Beehive in the Roman Rd during the fifties or sixties in a coach from Empress Coaches. The only men in the photo are the driver and the accordionist. Joan Lord (née Collins) who submitted the photo is the daughter of the publicans of The Beehive. (Courtesy Joan Lord)
Terrie Conway Driver, who submitted this picture of a beano from The Duke of Gloucester, Seabright St, Bethnal Green, points out that her grandfather is seventh from the left in the back row. (Courtesy Terrie Conway Driver)
Taken on the way to Southend, this is a men’s beano from The Beehive in the Roman Rd in the fifties or sixties in a coach from Empress Coaches. (Courtesy Joan Lord)
Beano in the twenties from the Victory Public House in Ben Jonson Rd, on the corner with Carr St. Note the charabanc – the name derives from the French char à bancs (“carriage with wooden benches”) and they were originally horse-drawn.
A crowd gathers before a beano from The Queens’ Head in Chicksand St in the early fifties. John Charlton who submitted the photograph pointed out his grandfather George standing in the flat cap holding a bottle of beer on the right with John’s father Bill on the left of him, while John stands directly in front of the man in the straw hat. (Courtesy John Charlton)
Beano for Stepney Borough Council workers in the mid-twentieth century. (Courtesy Susan Armstrong)
Martin Harris, who submitted this picture, indicated that the driver, standing second from the left, is Teddy Britton, his second cousin. (Courtesy Martin Harris)
In the Panama hat is Ted Marks who owned the fish place at the side of the Martin Frobisher School, and is seen here taking his staff out on their annual beano.
George, the father of Colin Watson who submitted this photo, is among those who went on this beano from the Taylor Walker brewery in Limehouse. (Courtesy Colin Watson)
Pub beano setting out for Margate or Southend. (Courtesy John McCarthy)
Men’s beano from c. 1960 (courtesy Cathy Cocline)
Late sixties or early seventies ladies’ beano organised by the Locksley Estate Tenants Association in Limehouse, leaving from outside The Prince Alfred in Locksley St.
The father of John McCarthy, who submitted this photo, is on the far right squatting down with a beer in his hand, in this beano photo taken in the early sixties, which may be from his local, The Shakespeare in Bethnal Green Rd. Equally, it could be a works’ outing, as he was a dustman working for Bethnal Green Council. Typically, the men are wearing button holes and an accordionist accompanies them. Accordionists earned a fortune every summer weekend, playing at beanos. (courtesy John McCarthy)
John Sheehan, who submitted this picture, remembers it was taken on a beano to Clacton in the sixties. From left to right, you can seee John Driscoll who lived in Grosvenor Buildings, Dan Daley of Constant House, outsider Johnny Gamm from Hackney, alongside his cousin, John Sheehan from Constant House and Bill Britton from Holmsdale House. (Courtesy John Sheehan)
Photographs reproduced courtesy of Tower Hamlet Community Housing’s Collection
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So Long, Lennie Saunders
I publish my profile of Lennie Saunders today as a tribute to a celebrated East Ender, native of Padbury Court and lifelong member of the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club who died last week on 6th August at the fine age of ninety-four
If you were regularly around Arnold Circus on a Sunday morning in recent years, you may very likely have seen Lennie Sanders upon his regular pilgrimage, coming on the 67 bus from Stamford Hill to sit upon the first bench on the left beneath the bandstand, the one donated by the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club. He was born ninety-four years ago in Padbury Court nearby, close to where his wife Annie grew up on the Boundary Estate, and, when they first married, they lived in Cookham Buildings where their son Roy was born. Lennie confided to me that it consoled him – once Annie and Roy were no longer alive – to return to Arnold Circus on Sunday and sit in quiet contemplation of those years which brought him so much happiness.
“My mother was a very religious woman and she used to bring her friends back from church for sandwiches on a Sunday evening,” Lennie informed me, introducing his story, “But my father was quite the opposite, he used to come home when the pub shut on Sunday night and say, ‘You lot, out!”
As we walked over to Padbury Court (known as Princes Court when Lennie was growing up as the youngest of nine) he paused constantly to point out all the things that existed for him but which were no longer there. “I used to know everybody but now I am a foreigner here,” he declared to me, breaking from his reverie,“Everyone I knew has moved to Stamford Hill.”
“I’m always happy when I’m here, because I feel as if I am back home.” Lennie continued, regaining his absorption as we turned the corner from Brick Lane into Padbury Court, halting for a moment of devotion at the site of the terrace on the north side where he grew up, demolished half a century ago. Further along, where the road becomes Gibraltar Walk, and passing the old furniture workshops, we came to the junction with the Bethnal Green Rd where the event took place which Lennie considered to be the turning point in his childhood.
“We were skylarking at the water fountain and someone pushed me and my arm went underneath me and broke. They carried me to the Mildmay Mission who said they couldn’t do anything, so my father took me in a taxi to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where they were going to cut it off,” Lennie related, rolling his eyes for effect and twisting his arm to demonstrate what happened, “but my father asked his governor, Mr Jackson at the compositing works,”They’re talking about cutting my son’s arm off!” And Mr Jackson sent his surgeon, he said, ‘He’ll patch it up.'”
“To be honest, I never knew my mother because she died when I was eight,” Lennie revealed with a shrug – moving on unexpectedly – and outlining the lengthy rehabilitation that preoccupied his attention in those years. A process compounded by the subsequent discovery that the accident had affected his hearing, which kept Lennie out of school for four years. “When my mother died, my father had a bad heart attack and couldn’t work no more,” Lennie added under his breath, amplifying the nature of the circumstances and lowering his eyelids in regret.
Then, one night in 1932, everything changed for Lennie when met his pal, Willy Greenhough, in the street and he said, “Where are you going? There’s this Jewish boys’ club, but they don’t bar anyone so we could go along there and get some cocoa.” It was a highly significant cup of cocoa because it led to membership of the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club and a circle of friendships that Lennie enjoyed for the rest of his life. “The only reason they dropped the word ‘Jewish’ from the name was because Mosley and his fellows used to come along and smash their windows – so they took it off,” Lennie explained to me wryly before asserting gravely, “The Jew and the Gentile were always very close in Bethnal Green.”
As it turned out, Lennie’s rehabilitation encouraged a love of sport and very soon he was leading the boys of the club in nightly runs down to Trafalgar Sq and back. “If they wasn’t very fit, I would let them wait at St Paul’s and join us again on the way back,” he confessed with an indulgent grin, “I was always a very fit boy.” Leaving school, Lennie went to work as one of more than a hundred Western Union messenger boys based in Great Winchester St in the City of London, which further exercised his athletic ability. “Mostly we delivered round the Stock Exchange, but sometimes we had to cycle to Shepherd’s Bush,” he recalled gleefully. In fact, Lennie played football and cricket at professional level for Clapton Orient, the club that became Leyton Orient. “My doctor kept going on about having my arm straightened, but I refused – I never made it a handicap.” he confirmed.
Much to Lennie’s regret, his poor hearing prevented him joining the Navy when the War came along and so, unable to enlist, he worked as glazier and then in demolition upon bomb sites, staying in London throughout the blitz. Memorably, he took his wife-to-be Annie Hiller up to the West End to see a film only to return to Shoreditch to discover an unexploded bomb was stuck in the chimney of the wash house on the Boundary Estate. “Annie couldn’t go home, so I took her back to Princes Court to meet my father for the first time,” Lennie confessed. In 1942, they were married and moved into Cookham Buildings where their son Roy was born two years later.
“I started cab-driving in 1946. My brother-in-law said ‘You already have the Knowledge from when you were a messenger boy.’ When I began, the cab was open, so you had to wear a hat and a big coat in winter. I did it for fifty-five years until I retired in 2000.” Lennie told me. It was in 1951, when Roy was ten, that the family moved to a two bedroom flat in Stamford Hill, where Lennie lived alone after Roy left home and Annie died, yet where seventy people attended his ninetieth birthday party.
Throughout our walk, Lennie cradled a bag of two cheese beigels which he had bought that morning in Brick Lane. Completing his story, he revealed that an old friend had recognised him in the crowd and called out to him, a recurring event on those Sunday visits to the market. “I get off the bus at Shoreditch High St, and I walk through Brick Lane and then back up towards Bethnal Green, and I go down my street, Padbury Court,” he recounted – as much to himself as to me – recapping our journey that morning.
Lennie & I shook hands at the top of Brick Lane before he went to catch the 67 bus for his return journey. “I’ll be alright, I’ll take it slowly,” he reassured me, taking one last affectionate look around, “I’ll go home and eat my beigels.”
Lennie Sanders
Lennie’s father Basil (he called himself George) with his dog Nobby in the garden of 7 Padbury Court.
Lennie’s mother Ellen wore an apron of sacking but put on a white one for this picture.
The north side of Padbury Court (known as Princes Court then) where Lennie was born in 1922.
Lennie in Padbury Court – the northern side was demolished over fifty years ago.
Lennie was the youngest, here aged four in 1926 photographed with (clockwise) Bunny, Eddie, George & Jess in the back garden of 7 Princes Court.
The family in 1928, Lennie stands at the centre aged six.
Lennie (in the white shirt) camping with the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club, 1936.
Lenny is number 87 in the club cross-country team.
Lennie at Cookham Buildings where he lived when he was first married and his son Roy was born.
Lennie and Annie with their son Roy in 1944.
Lennie Sanders, Cab Driver (1922-2015)
Read my other Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys Club Stories
Maxie Lea MBE, Football Referee
At the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys Club 86th Annual Reunion
Closed House Weekend
Stop The Blocks is staging a Closed House Weekend as a means to draw attention to the catalogue of contested sites in the East End. The aim is to highlight how public space is being closed for private profit, how new housing is excluding the majority of people, and the devastating effect this is having. If you would like to know more, join tomorrow’s walking tour meeting on Saturday 8th August at Whitechapel Station at 11am.
Click on this map to enlarge and print it out
Arnold Circus & The Boundary Estate
The Boundary Estate was the first Council housing estate in England and is Grade II listed. As well as being beautiful, it was designed so that every flat would receive sunlight at forty-five degrees to its windows, and the spaces between blocks are generous and the rooms are light. This contrasts with much of today’s high-density housing with its dark, single aspect apartments and poor standard of outside space. The Estate’s residents were behind the recent major improvements to the Circus, its gardens and bandstand.
The Balfron Tower
Built as Council housing, designed by Erno Goldfinger in 1963 and made a Grade II listed building in 1996, Balfron Tower is now being sold off by Poplar Housing & Regeneration Association. Current long-term residents are being forced to sell and moved out while the famous block is being fetishised in a sixties-style marketing campaign to attract private owners. The circumstances at Balfron Tower are a prime example of how social restructuring is devastating London’s working-class communities. Another layer of social division was added when artists renting emptied properties were co-opted tacitly into PR for the sell-off – a process that has become known as ‘art wash.’ For more information – Balfron Social Club
Bethnal Green Gas Holders
Soon nothing will stand on the banks of the canals and waterways to connect us with the East End’s industrial past as luxury apartments gain hold. Tower Hamlets and English Heritage have refused to protect and list the historic No.2 and No.5 Gas holders designed with classical detailing by Joseph Clark in 1886 and 1889, giving this part of the canal its strong character. For more information – East End Waterways Group
Bishopsgate Goodsyard
The proposed development is a faceless mega-complex of luxury residential towers that will cast giant shadows over the surrounding communities, stealing their light and giving nothing back to Shoreditch, Spitalfields & Brick Lane. Since 2002, the public has been excluded from the big plans for this public land, leased by Hammerson & Ballymore from owners Railtrack. ‘More Light More Power’ seeks to regain control, to promote inspirational and innovative development of the Goodsyard, with well-designed mid-rise buildings that offer liveable, affordable housing and small business workspace. It needs to be commercially viable, yet integrated with the surrounding neighbourhoods. For more information – More Light More Power
Chapman House, Bigland St, Shadwell
After he reported dangerous conditions at the nineteen-apartment block in Shadwell where he has lived for twenty-five years, Michael James’ landlord tried to evict him twice. After consulting a solicitor, it transpired Michael was an assured tenant but his landlord responded by increasing his rent by 70% – presumably to force him out by alternative means. In a desperate bid to stay in his home, Michael James contacted the Rent Assessment Committee, who, after inspecting the dilapidated flat, ruled only a 0.4% increase was merited. The landlord, a charity that owns around seventy properties and pays no tax, faces a six-figure repair bill following council inspections. Michael James now speaks out to encourage others to stand up to rogue landlords. For more information – Tower Hamlets Renters
Chrisp St Market, Poplar
‘Save Chrisp St Market’ is campaigning to inform local residents and traders about the proposed ‘regeneration’ of Chrisp St Market by Poplar Housing & Regeneration Association (HARCA). The plans include ‘luxury’ housing and stores, at the expense of shops and accommodation affordable for local people. Traders will be booted out for the period of redevelopment, or longer – if they cannot afford the increased rents. Traders say they have been left in the dark about the future of the market. Save Chrisp St intends to do their own consultation in parallel with Poplar HARCA’s, by going door-to-door asking people about what they would like to see for the area. So far, many people have said they want the market to be improved, but not at the cost of their ability to live there. Save Chrisp St are working to make sure that the community has a proper voice. For more information – Save Chrisp St Market
Cremer St Studios, Hoxton
In May, more than one hundred and thirty artists artists in Cremer St Studios were told by their studio provider, ACAVA, to sign a letter stating “I confirm my full support for the proposed redevelopment of the property” or be forced out of the building in months. The owners are D & J Simons of Hackney Rd and the developers are Regal Homes who have submitted a pre-planning application to Hackney Council to demolish all existing buildings on the site for a mixed-use development – including a twenty-storey tower block.
The George Tavern, Commercial Rd
The George Tavern is an historic public house, and celebrated art and music venue. The Halfway House tavern upon this site is mentioned in the writing of Dickens, Pepys & Chaucer. Owner, Pauline Forster, has been shortlisted for an Historic England Angel Award in recognition of her achievement in restoring the building. Meanwhile, Tower Hamlets Council put the future of The George in jeopardy by granting permission to Swan Housing to build six flats adjoining the pub. Save the George Tavern is mounting a legal challenge. For information contact – The George Tavern
The Holland Estate, Spitalfields
The Holland Estate is a nineteen-twenties brick-built estate in Spitalfields. The registered social landlord, EastEnd Homes, propose to demolish it and destroy a thriving diverse community of over six hundred people to make way for primarily-private, high-rise development. Residents do not want this and a petition signed by over 70% of residents, a motion passed by the resident-led Estate Management Board and a unanimous motion passed by Tower Hamlets Council have all been against the demolition. But EastEnd Homes are ploughing on with their redevelopment plans regardless. Residents have decided to take things into their own hands to make it clear that demolition of these blocks is unwanted. Instead, they are campaigning for EastEnd Homes to refurbish their buildings, as originally agreed when the estate was handed over by Tower Hamlets Council in 2006 — a promise they have repeatedly broken. For more information – Bernard, Brune & Carter Residents
The Joiners Arms, Shoreditch
The Joiners Arms opened as a queer pub in 1997 and swiftly established a reputation as a welcoming, diverse and at times hedonistic venue. The property owners closed it in January 2015 and it remains shuttered and empty, awaiting unspecified development (strongly rumoured to involve demolition and a luxury apartment tower block). The Friends of the Joiners Arms is campaigning to re-open the venue – transforming it into London’s only cooperatively-owned-and-managed Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer/Intersex/Asexual Community Centre, keeping the late-license pub at its heart. They have already won Asset of Community Value status (which gives them a chance to bid if the owners decide to sell) but the fight continues to demand that the Joiners Arms be given back to the queer community to run, providing space for life, love and liberty. For more information – The Joiners Arms
The London Chest Hospital, Bethnal Green
The London Chest Hospital opened in 1855 to treat tuberculosis sufferers. As well as gaining an international reputation for the treatment of heart and lung disease, the hospital has cared for servicemen exposed to poison gas in the First World War and air raid victims in the Second World War. In April 2015, Barts & the London NHS Trust shut the hospital, moved its services to Bart’s Hospital and put the site up for sale. The Trust is currently in negotiations with a buyer. No planning permission has been granted but the site has been earmarked as offering “significant potential for residential development.” You can see the marketing brochure here www.essentia.uk.com (search “chest” and click on brochure). Tower Hamlets Green Party is launching a campaign to prevent this historic site becoming another soulless development of luxury homes. They want to ensure that whatever happens to the hospital, the site continues to be used for a purpose that has the needs of the borough’s residents at its heart.
The London Fruit & Wool Exchange, Spitalfields
The Fruit & Wool Exchange was formerly home to two hundred small businesses, for which office space is sorely lacking in the capital. Developers Exemplar are demolishing it, including the Gun pub, and the entire office development has already been leased to a single international law firm. Mayor of London Boris Johnson forced this on Tower Hamlets, overruling the unanimous vote of the planning committee twice. He claimed it would “regenerate the area with thousands of new jobs and contribute to the wider economy of London” yet the soulless corporate architecture will deaden the lively streetscape of Spitalfields for decades to come.
National Barge Travellers Association
NBTA is a volunteer organisation providing support and advice for boat dwellers without permanent moorings. The boater population is increasing, in part caused by the housing crisis, as more people are forced to find survival alternatives. Despite having the money needed to provide sufficient facilities, the Canal & River Trust (CART) is removing facilities in some areas and creating permanent moorings that are unaffordable to the majority. The boater community is under threat as CART makes it more difficult to live on the water. Every year, NBTA supports boat dwellers who are unfairly evicted and their boats seized, including people that are disabled, elderly or ill. For more information – National Barge Travellers’ Association
Norton Folgate
On 21st July, Tower Hamlets’ planning committee unanimously refused permission for British Land to demolish more than 70% of buildings they hold in the Elder St Conservation Area in Spitalfields primarily to build offices on a site owned by the Corporation of London. Led by the Spitalfields Trust, the campaign has gained support London-wide and five hundred people held hands around the buildings on 19th July to demand re-use not demolition. Although the result shows people-power in action, the battle for Norton Folgate is not over yet. For more information – Save Norton Folgate
no.w.here, 316-318 Bethnal Green Rd
For ten years no.w.here has worked in Tower Hamlets as a community project, open artist platform and film laboratory built on the historical legacy of the London Filmmakers Co-operative. Run by cultural workers who place value on education, resistance, collaboration and free expression, no.w.here’s long standing work and projects are under threat from property developers. Vital in its community, no.w.here does not view displacement by billionaires or the destruction of communities as a natural evolution. For Closed House Weekend, you are invited to visit no.w.here’s lab and community project space where they seek to exchange know-how, experience, support and possibility. For more information – no.w.here
Olympic Legacy Land
The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) now makes all the planning decisions inside this new Mayoral boundary, part of the four ‘legacy’ boroughs. This ex-Tower Hamlets land includes waterways and areas of industrial heritage in Fish Island near Hackney Wick, where affordable workspace and historic buildings are under threat. Very few people are aware that ‘Olympic Legacy’ planning decisions take place in LLDC offices in Stratford. Developers were allowed to stake out their territory early on in the Olympic process and the LLDC is allowing pitifully-low levels of affordable housing in the new developments. For more information – East End Waterways Group
One Commercial St, Aldgate
One Commercial St has been a focus of the ‘poor doors’ protests which highlight new developments built with two entrances, one for private owners and another for occupants of social housing. Thus property agents can reassure prospective buyers that their doors will not be shared by lesser mortals. In Stratford, a development by Galliard was proudly marketed as “fully private – no social housing.” Now Galliard proposes 0% social housing in their new development on the former West Ham Ground in Newham.
Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital, Bethnal Green
On the developer’s hoardings, ‘bagel lady’ brandishes a signifier of East End authenticity to her glossed lips. Invented by the marketing department, she is an idealised future tenant of the Tower Hamlets/Hackney border. Campaigns to save the old hospital failed and demolition has left only one façade, one brick deep. Recently in Hackney, the Haggerston Estate, Tony’s Café, Spirit’s Shop, The Four Aces & Dalston Lane, have all gone, even though successful activism reinvigorated some housing associations. Doubtless, these areas needed help and change, but who is benefitting from the changes which are been enacted? Why must residents buy, not rent? What is a true definition of ‘affordable housing’? Can we preserve historic buildings and communities? Is bagel lady the heir apparent in the property-owning monocultural future of East London? For further information – I Am Not A Village
Robin Hood Gardens
Tower Hamlets Council failed to maintain this unique sixties estate and allowed Swan Housing to plan its demolition for a faceless new scheme called Blackwall Regeneration. Consultation with the residents was weighted in favour of that aim, but an independent survey of residents found 80% of people wanted refurbishment, not demolition. The estate of 231 homes comprising Robin Hood Gardens was built by Alison & Peter Smithson and notable present-day architects including Lord Rogers are asking for it to be listed.
The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel
The Royal London is the largest hospital in Europe, costing £1.1bn to build, but thanks to the Private Finance Initiative agreement that funded it, will cost the taxpayer £7.1 billon over the next forty years. The repayment terms are so crippling the Royal London is currently running a £93m deficit, which explains why the lights on the top floors are never lit – Barts cannot afford to fit them out and use them. Meanwhile, staff shortages are pushing overworked doctors and nurses to walk out and waiting lists to increase, but Innisfree and construction firm Skanska will continue to collect fat profits for another thirty-five years – unless the hospital goes bankrupt, which technically it already is. Then it would pass into their private hands.
Sainsbury’s Tower/ Collingwood Estate, Whitechapel
Whitechapel Masterplan was pushed through by Tower Hamlets Council in 2013 with little public awareness. Crossrail is central to the suburbanisation of the area and Sainsbury’s wants to double the size of the supermarket and build six hundred new homes on its roof with a thirty-three-storey tower. While the area desperately needs more genuinely affordable housing, Sainsbury’s – owner of the land – is offering a pathetic 10%, despite Tower Hamlets’ target of 35%. For more information – Whitechapel Masterplan
Shoreditch Towers
Many are unaware there are three giant towers looming over the southern tip of Hackney, two with planning permission already.
1. Fifty-storey ‘Principal Place’ is being built on Bishopsgate, north of Liverpool St Station and next to the former Light Bar. For more information – Principal Place
2. Forty-storey residential skyscraper, ‘Bard Tower’ has planning permission on Curtain Rd upon the site of the Curtain Theatre where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first presented.
3. Thirty-storey tower proposed by a New York hotel chain at 201-207 Shoreditch High St on the site of Majestic Wine and Chariots Sauna is currently in planning. For more information search application no. 2015/2403 in planning pages at www.hackney.gov.uk
Spitalfields Market
In 2002, campaigners warned that the Corporation of London’s demolition of half the Market to construct offices was the start of an incursion beyond the City’s boundary, into places that the Corporation began to call the ‘City Fringe.’ Following the Market’s redevelopment, large increases in shop rents severed its connection with the local community and developers Hammerson sold it off, moving on to the Bishopsgate Goodsyard. 35,000 people signed a petition opposing demolition of Spitalfields Market during a long campaign.
Weavers Fields, Bethnal Green
In 2003, a residents’ campaign stopped a tower being built on Weavers Fields, preventing encroachment and damage to the public park.
Drawings copyright © Lucinda Rogers
Click here for further information about CLOSED HOUSE WEEKEND organised by STOP THE BLOCKS
Copies of the map may be bought for £1 from the following outlets
Oxford House, Derbyshire St, Bethnal Green
Professional Development Centre, 229 Bethnal Green Rd
Jonestown Coffee, 215 Bethnal Green Rd
St Hilda’s East Community Centre, 18 Club Row
Leila’s Cafe, Arnold Circus
Rinkoffs Bakery, Vallance Rd
Fresh Cafe, 275 Whitechapel Rd
Broadway Books, Broadway Market
