32 Woolwich Road
This article is going to be about a modest little shop in a down
market parade in working class East Greenwich.
The reason is that it has been in the same use for over 90 years and has
just had a major makeover.
In the 1890s the parade of shops 22-46 Woolwich Road was almost the
last addition to an area which was rapidly changing. The land which once belonged to Coombe Farm
near Westcombe Park Station was rapidly being covered with houses and Tunnel
Avenue would soon open up as a huge new road through the area. There was a new
police station, a Baptist Church and a
mission room soon to be joined by a library and a police station. To the west
in Woolwich Road were the workhouse and a complex of a complex of schools and
to the south of these new shops was the Royal Hospital Cemetery - now East
Greenwich Pleasance. William Booth's
survey, apparently written following a walk in 1899, says that the road was
'unbuilt' as far as the Baptist Chapel at the bottom of Kemsing Road - apart
from an 'old farmhouse occupied by a market gardener'. This must have been the last market garden in
East Greenwich – as “Westcombe Cottage” it appears on older maps.
So the row of shops dates from around the 1890s and hoped no doubt to
serve new residents moving into the houses in Chevening and Halstow Roads and
Fingal Street. An early street directory
has two confectioners, a butcher, a fishmonger as well as, sadly, a pawnbroker
and also an ‘incandescent shop’ - whatever was that? No 32, in the middle of the terrace was the
business of Alfred Rees, corn dealer.
Ten years later in the 1911 census no.32 has become a draper’s shop run
by Sydney and Florence Burns, a couple in their late 20s. What happened next we don’t know – the Great
War came to disrupt everyone’s lives.
Did Sydney and Florence survive it – a draper doesn’t seem the most
vital business for the war effort.
In 1926 the shop was taken over by Greenwich Labour Party. Now – before we get any further – we need
quite a bit of explanation, because that was something very different in 1926
than it is now. Today the building
belongs to Greenwich and Woolwich Labour Party – now that didn’t exist in
1926. There was Greenwich Labour Party
and there was Woolwich Labour Party.
This article is not going to be about Woolwich Labour Party – in 1926
that was a body which was unique and amazing and lots and lots of articles and
theses and even some books have been written about it.
Greenwich Labour Party was set up, along with most other local Labour
Parties, in 1918 following a decision made nationally to inaugurate a network
of local organisations. Labour Parties
were set up in most Parliamentary
Constituencies and they took their rules and procedures from the existing rule
book of Woolwich Labour Party – and most importantly, Woolwich’s ideas of
individual party membership. There had been,
of course, as in most industrial towns, labour movement activity for some time
before 1918. In the 1895 General Election
Gas Workers Union organizer, Pete Curran, had stood as the candidate for the
Greenwich and Deptford Labour Electoral Committee with support from such
luminaries of the trade union movement as Will Thorne, and Tom Mann. His candidacy was also endorsed by the then
vicar of Christ Church, East Greenwich. Bottom
of the poll he got 391 votes –but it was a start. By 1919 they were doing well
in local elections with a number of wards – Deptford, Marsh (Peninsula), West,
electing Labour councillors with big majorities. In 1919 came overall control and the first
Labour Mayor of Greenwich –Benjamin Lemmon – after whom Lemmon Road is named.
The Labour Party was then and henceforth in charge of the Borough.
So what do we mean by ‘Greenwich’ in 1919?? Certainly nothing to do with Woolwich. In 1899 a new Act of Parliament set up the
Metropolitan London Boroughs. Greenwich was made up, I think, of the parishes
of St. Alfege, Greenwich, St.Luke, Charlton, and St Nicholas Deptford – roughly
the same area as the west part of the current Royal Borough. There was a town
hall – the old St.Alfege vestry hall in Greenwich High Road, now West Greenwich
House. So – Greenwich Borough was up and
running– leftish labour, a bit 'arty', a bit sort of clever- ‘posh’ as has been
described to me lately. It built baths,
and clinics and libraries, and eventually the first ever local government
computer centre – and its ground breaking architecturally important art deco
town hall. There was also a lot of help for blind people – you may remember the
blind workshops. This was because Arthur
Chrisp, a leading councillor, was blind – and hopefully the residents of
today’s Chrisp House in Maze Hill are aware of him and his work.
In 1963 Greenwich was required
to join Woolwich in the London Borough of Greenwich, as a very junior partner –
the atmosphere in Greenwich at the merger described in the Mercury newspaper as
‘plain unadulterated gloom’. Neither
the posh town hall, nor the revolutionary computer centre survived the transfer
to Woolwich for very long
This was not, I hope, what was foreseen in 1927 when the Greenwich
Labour Party took over the little shop in Woolwich Road – they called it the
‘Labour Hall’ although cat swinging is not a Labour Party activity. Greenwich
has always been a 'mass membership' party - for instance in 1929 it had 2,435
members and this office and a meeting room were very necessary. The previous
office had been on Blackheath Hill – but this is hearsay and anyone with any on
this detail would be very welcome
The shop was opened on 22nd December 1927 by Parliamentary Candidate
Edward Palmer who said "It was not a large place but it was a good
beginning". From then on Committee
meetings were held there while large meetings were at Three Cups Hall in
Trafalgar Road – as now when they tend to be held at Charlton House. The work of the Party and routine election
work has continued at Woolwich Road. Despite success on Greenwich Council the
London County Council seats were not won by Labour until 1934. The Parliamentary seat was also less secure. Edward Timothy Palmer had won in 1923, but
reflecting the fortunes of the Ramsay Macdonald era, lost in 1924, won again in
1929, lost again in 1931. In each
election he stood against a strong local Unionist candidate, Sir George Hume,
who went on to hold the seat throughout the 1930s. It was not until 1945 that Joe Reeves became
Labour MP for Greenwich with a 10,000 majority, followed successively by
Richard Marsh (1959), Guy Barnett
(1971), Nick Raynsford (1992) and now Matt Pennycook (2015)
Looking at resolutions passed by the Party in the 1930s you realise how nothing changes
– there are just as many condemning the Secretary for sending notices out late
and to the wrong address then, as now
- and moans about lack of time
for proper discussions. As the Second World War began there were worries about
black out lights – but also support for keeping pigs on council
allotments. I note a lecture on proportional
representation in 1945. There was great support for the coming of the National
Heath Service despite some worries about the future of clinics, which were then
largely still council owned.
At various times some of the rooms have been rented out- for example
in 1943 to the Greenwich Rabbit Club -
on condition no rabbits to be brought into the building - and in the 1960s to
the Barge Builders Union. John Austin
remembers them queuing down the road to pay their dues on a Friday night. The Women’s Section met there - who remember Peggy tearing up her Party card
over something at every meeting she went to?. As Women’s Section Secretary she
let men join as long as they were the husbands of women members. Members of
Parliament - for instance Guy Barnett – have used it as office
accommodation. Throughout the fabric has
been maintained by what has essentially been a community effort – every year someone
with known handyman skills has found themselves elected ‘in charge of the building’.
and it is only after 90 years that a professional restoration of the fabric has
become necessary.
And so – this humble little shop has had a makeover – and many thanks
to the Party Treasurer who has acted as Clerk of the Works throughout as well
as co-ordinating fundraising, because this hasn't come cheap. Structurally
sound and smart let’s hope it sees us through the next 90 years so well. It has provided a service not just to the Labour
Party but, by providing a base for its elected representatives, the community
as a whole as well.
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