East End Review

Tag: Cable Street

They shall not pass! Commemorating the Battle of Cable Street

Protesters fought running battles with the police. Photograph: Cable Street Group

Eighty years ago, on 4 October 1936, thousands of East Londoners stood together to oppose fascists who wanted to march through the then predominantly Jewish neighbourhood of Stepney.

The Battle of Cable Street, as it became known, is now regarded as a defining moment in East London’s history.

To mark its 80th anniversary this month residents and local organisations will be holding a series of commemorative events.

The Tower Hamlets’ Grand Union Orchestra is hosting a week of concerts aiming to encapsulate the mood and memory of the Battle of Cable Street and explore the influence it has today – particularly on those communities still facing racial prejudice.

“Our intention is to give a voice to as many strands in the local community as possible, whether recalling the events of 1936, or recounting experiences of similar events since,” said the orchestra’s director and composer Tony Haynes.

Other commemorative events include a photography exhibition at Watney Market Idea Store (part of Photomonth) and a historical walking tour of the East End led by author David Rosenberg, who will also be hosting a panel discussion about the events of October 1936 and the subsequent story of the mural depicting the battle on the wall of St George’s Town Hall in Cable Street.

‘They Shall Not Pass’. Protesters on the barricades at the Battle of Cable Street. Photograph: Tower Hamlets History Library

Then on 9 October a commemorative march will get underway in Altab Ali Park before proceeding to the Cable Street mural for a rally, where local MP Rushanara Ali and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are expected to speak.

During the 1930s economic instability and unemployment created a climate of ideological conflict all over Europe, allowing Hitler to come to power in Germany.

Britain was not immune from this climate of intolerance, with the Jewish community in Stepney becoming a target.

The Blackshirts of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists party used militant tactics similar to Hitler’s Brownshirts in Nazi Germany.

The party drew huge crowds at their rallies and planned to march through Stepney to mark their fourth anniversary.

Nearly 100,000 East Londoners, both Jews and non-Jews, petitioned home secretary John Simon to stop the march going ahead.

He refused, and instead deployed record numbers of police to secure the Blackshirts’ route.

But on the day of the march, a coalition of anti-fascist protesters, Jews, dockers, Irish labourers and communists, vastly outnumbered the police and Blackshirt marchers.

As many as 250,000 people are thought to have assembled to oppose the march. Barricades were set up, bricks were thrown, and women are said to have tipped the contents of their chamber pots on the police from upstairs windows.

The police retreated and cancelled the march to prevent bloodshed although around 200 people were injured and many arrests made.

Marie Joseph, aged 94, remembers first hand the Battle of Cable Street.

“I was 14 at the time and my brother was 12 and we both went along to see what was going to unfold,” she said.

“Word quickly got around that Mosley was going to march through the streets, the whole neighbourhood knew.

“We saw the Blackshirts approaching and they were pelted with eggs straight away.

“The police and their enormous horses tried to disperse the crowds, I couldn’t see Mosley, just a line of people, but I believe he was carefully escorted away by the police.

“I now live in Loughton, but I still go up to Stepney every Tuesday and Thursday because I volunteer in the Jewish Community Centre. The area’s changed a lot, but the memories still remain.”

See cablestreet80.org.uk for more details of the events taking place for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.

Today: the Cable Street mural on St George’s Town Hall. Photograph: Max Eckersley

September 26, 2016
Opening of ‘misleading’ Jack the Ripper museum sparks outrage

‘Disappointing’: Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs says he will be boycotting the exhibition

Protest groups are to picket the opening night of a controversial museum in Tower Hamlets this evening.

The Cable Street attraction sparked outrage when it was revealed it would not be a celebration of historical women of the East End as promised, but a show focusing on the notorious East End murderer and rapist Jack the Ripper.

The museum’s website states the show looks at the history of women in the East End in the Victorian era and explores “why so many women had little choice in their lives other that to turn to prostitution.”

Critics say the show glorifies violence against women and silences the voices of the Ripper’s victims.

Tower Hamlets Council’s suggestion that they were ‘misled’ by the original planning application has provoked a tidal wave of anger in the local area.

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs has announced he will be boycotting the museum and a protest has been planned ahead of the opening.

Groups such as the National Assembly of Women, the Women’s Assembly Against Austerity and the Emily Wilding Davison Memorial Campaign plan to protest outside the museum dressed as suffragettes.

A petition calling on Tower Hamlets to revoke the museum’s planning permission, or force it to re-open as a women’s museum as originally promised has gathered over 3,000 signatures.

‘Victim-blaming’

Becky Warnock, who started the petition, said that when she read about the museum “something clicked into action.” She told the East End Review: “I felt anger at the deceit involved, of the silencing of women’s voices in favour of a well trodden celebration of a famous murderer.”

“How can we expect to stop the violent crimes against women in today’s society if we continue to celebrate their killers and only remember women as victims? Let’s celebrate all the incredible women that have paved the path before for all of us!”

Warnock said accused the museum of being a cultural organisation that “glorifies the horrific violence the women were subjected to.”

“This victim blaming attitude is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated,” she added.

Tower Hamlets’ Mayor Biggs described the decision to open a Jack the Ripper museum instead of one celebrating the history of women in the borough as “extremely disappointing”.

“It has become clear that the council’s planning department was misled by the applicant. We completely understand the concerns of the local community and elsewhere,” he said.

The Jack the Ripper museum, founded by former Head of Diversity at Google Mark Palmer Edgecumbe, has not responded to the East End Review’s request for comment.

The telephone number on the museum’s website connects to the office of a stockbrokers in the city.

August 4, 2015
Jamboree: Cable Street’s best kept secret

Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

If you don’t know the area, walking down Cable Street at night might feel like stepping into a no man’s land. You’ll soon realise though that behind the seemingly derelict factories lies a strong artistic community.

Cable Studios is an example. Situated in what used to be a sweet factory that was hit by a bomb during the Blitz, the building turned into a centre for small businesses and artists as early as the 1970s. Numerous squatters took over and the corridors of the factory were filled with the smell of fresh paint and turpentine.

Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

By the early 1990s, loud music replaced the smell of paint, as ravers turned the area into one of the most decadent parts of London. By 2000, musicians were setting up recording studios and rehearsal spaces in Cable Studios.

Like many before, Rena Beck and her partner Alastair Clark moved to Cable Studios to find cheap accommodation whilst trying to make a living from their art.
In 2007, a room in the courtyard of what used to be the factory’s canteen and then a prop making company became available. They rented it and opened the space twice a week for open mic and jam nights. Jamboree was born.

Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

With no heating in the main building, a local band started using Jamboree as an open rehearsal space. The musicians would busk at Limehouse station to attract audience members. Other musicians joined in and since then the dance floor is packed more often than not. Jamboree is now open seven nights a week.

Most likely a remnant of Beck and Clark’s time as squatters, there often is a bohemian feel to Jamboree. The music is eclectic, ranging from French musette to Americana, bluegrass or rock. Gypsy is at the heart of this world music venue, with many Klezmer bands and Eastern-European style nights.

Beck goes through a very particular selection process to choose artists from the 10– 30 emails she receives each day. She doesn’t listen to recordings but instead watches the artists perform on YouTube. “For me the quality of the musicians is one factor. Another one is the musicianship they have, their energy and charisma on stage. I always say they are a great band if they make the audience want to be a musician as well.”

jamboreevenue.co.uk

Jamboree manager Rena Beck. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

February 18, 2015