‘They Shall Not Pass!’

Strolling round Stepney, wandering through Wapping

East London

Detail from Cable Street Mural

I’ve just signed up to The London Mural Preservation Society, recently set up by some lovely friends to record, protect, preserve and celebrate murals in the Capital. Having undertaken to research the Cable Street Mural, and as the sun was shining, it seemed a good idea to combine a visit to the mural with a walk around the East End. Along the way some wonderful local history, industrial heritage and a great part of London I was not too familiar with were to be found.

Start/Finish: London Bridge Station TQ330801

Length: 5¼ miles/3 hours

How to get there: This being London, as far as public transport is concerned, the world is your Oyster. Or your paper Travelcard if you prefer. London Bridge is served by numerous buses, trains, (Southern, Southeastern and First Capital Connect), and the tube. And you can join or leave the route at any point, using DLR, tube or bus.

Crossing the Thames by London Bridge (which is here according to Streetmap, or here according to Google Maps, but don’t let that confuse you), turning right off King William Street into Monument Street (where can be found a plaque commemorating King William Street tube station, the original terminus of the City & South London Railway (now part of the Northern Line) and the first city terminus of the Underground) takes me past the Monument, the golden globe at its summit shining brightly in the sunshine.

Plaque on the side of Regis House (on the corner of King William Street and Monument Street) commemorating the terminus of the City & South London Railway

Then on past city workers jogging on their lunch break/drinking outside pubs/buying pretentiously-named, overpriced coffees (delete as appropriate) and onto the Tower of London, where groups of schoolchildren of all nationalities pose for photographs in front of one of London’s most iconic landmarks. What they seemingly fail to notice (and, I have to admit, is of more interest to me) and continuing the theme of London’s underground history is the entrance kiosk to the Tower Subway, the world’s first tube railway opened in 1869. By all accounts the tunnel was a financial disaster, and ‘trains’ only ran for 3 months after opening, but its legacy lives on, as the techniques used (the Greathead Shield and cast-iron lining) are still commonplace today. The entrance is not the original structure but one built in 1926 by the London Hydraulic Power Company who used the tunnel for part of their network of hydraulic tubes (used to supply high pressure water to power factories, cranes, lifts and even Tower Bridge, before being superseded by electric power), which in turn have now been replaced by telecomms cables. Further components of the LHPC’s extensive network will feature again later on this walk.

The entrance to the not-very-successful Tower Subway; the more popular Subway today is the one behind.

Leaving the City, along Royal Mint Street, to my left is the London Tilbury & Southend Railway, and in what is now a car park, a building that at first glance seems to be a semi-derelict London Midland & Scottish railway goods shed (“Goods Station and Bonded Stores”, according to the faded lettering on the side of the building) but turns out to be an LHPC accumulator tower (a 1975 picture of which can be found here).

There’s an immediate contrast between the concrete and steel office buildings of the City and the low rise housing estates of Tower Hamlets, the London Borough probably most synonymous with immigration, firstly of Huguenots in the 17th Century, followed by the Irish, Ashkenazi Jews and most recently Bangladeshis. And this explains why I’ve come here: to take a first look at the mural that celebrates the 1936 Battle Of Cable Street. Then, as now, immigrants were easy scapegoats for the country’s problems, and with the rise of anti-Semitism in much of Europe at the time, Cable Street’s Jewish population were an obvious target for a demonstration by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. An estimated 300,000 Jews, Irish Dockers, Communists, Labour Party Members, Trade Unionists and residents of the East End came together to oppose the Blackshirts of the BUF, united by a common call: ¡No Pasarán! – They Shall Not Pass! In reality the Battle was with the Police who tried to remove the barricades erected by the anti-Fascists to allow the march to go ahead, but Mosley’s troops had already scuttled off to Hyde Park, tails between their legs.

Cable Street Mural (click to enlarge)

The approach to the mural is along a very pleasant tree-lined Georgian street (formerly home to Hannah Billig MBE) and the anticipation I feel is justified when I reach St. George’s Town Hall, on the side of which the mural is painted. The mural is colossal in size, yet the detail and depth to the characters portrayed is extraordinary. Here’s a quote from Professor Bill Fishman, an eyewitness to the Battle at the age of 15:

Suddenly a barricade was erected there and they put an old lorry in the middle of the road and old mattresses. The people up the top of the flats, mainly Irish Catholic women, were throwing rubbish on to the police. We were all side by side. I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley. I shall never forget that as long as I live, how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of racism.

I feel similar emotions looking at the mural, with its stunning depiction of a disparate group of people coming together for a common cause. I can’t help thinking, though, that if another Cable Street were to happen today, those manning the barricades would be vilified by the tabloids as anarchists and rioters – would they be seen as folk-heroes in 75 years?

Daffodils in the churchyard of St. George-In-The-East

The Hawksmoor-designed church of St. George-In-The-East is very attractive in the spring sunshine, and worth a quick exploration – the derelict Mortuary-cum-Nature Study Museum is of interest, although in a sad state of disrepair – a restoration project is planned.

Heading on down Cable Street, passing archetypal solidly-built LCC interwar housing. This is a really pleasant inner-city area: well maintained, very little in the way of dereliction, graffiti and fly-tipping, and there seems to be a strong community: posters advertise clubs and meetings for the more elderly locals.

Turning south, past the site of Captain James Cook‘s residence from 1763 to 1765 (although he wouldn’t recognise it now, dual carriageways being quite uncommon in the 18th century), and into King Edward Memorial Park, managed jointly by Tower Hamlets Council and Trees for Cities. It’s a very pleasant spot, a typical but nonetheless attractive Victorian urban park, proudly displaying its Green Flag, and there are plenty of people taking advantage of a glorious day to relax in the fresh air and take in the fantastic views across the Thames to Canary Wharf.

The view from King Edward Memorial Park to Canary Wharf

Heading west along the Thames Path, there’s time for a quick pint in the Prospect of Whitby, possibly London’s oldest pub. Then on through the streets of Wapping, passing fascinating and historically important features on the way: opposite the Prospect, the LHPC’s Wapping Hydraulic Power Station (now an arts centre and restaurant); the Metropolitan Police’s Marine Policing Unit; the Town of Ramsgate pub where Judge Jeffreys was nearly lynched; two terraces of extremely fine Georgian townhouses at Wapping Pier Head, the entrance to the old docks; and historic docklands warehouses and wharves, now converted into expensive flats, but the character rightly retained and legally protected by Conservation Area status.

Once a severely deprived area, the present day affluence of this part of London is clearly evident, not just in the estate agents’ windows but in the way the Thames Path is something of an intruder, mostly confined to the cobbled streets with the view of the river blocked by modern apartment blocks overlooking the foreshore, but occasionally allowed to follow sacrosanct private footways, access controlled by gates that close at dusk.

In fact, despite the historic character of this area, it now seems rather soulless, lacking in humanity, the lives of its former residents now largely forgotten (something of a contrast with Cable Street). It almost feels like a theme park: history preserved for those who can afford to pay to enjoy it, much like St Katherine’s Dock, Tower Bridge and the many other tourist honeypots I pass on the way back to London Bridge. I’m sincerely hoping that by investigating the inspiration behind the murals, the London Mural Preservation Society will help to record and keep alive the history of a London off the tourist trail.