History & Social Action Publications

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sean.creighton1947@btinternet.com

Please note that charges are made to email PDFs in order to cover future costs of printing and research.

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Latest Pamphlets In Email PDF Format

Aspects Of The History Of Tooting:

Part 1: The Development Of Tooting.  £3

Part 2: The Tooting Labour Movement & Collective Action To 1951. £3

Part 3: Labour Movement And Conservative Activists Living In Or Representing Tooting. £2

Balham Miscellaneous History. £2

H&SAP Monograph 23. Labour Monthly Items Relating To Anti-colonialism And Imperialism, West Indies, Africa And India. 2023

Pamphlets In print by Sean Creighton

Croydon Radical History. Newsletter No. 5. April 2023. Editorial – Borough of Culture, Publications & Archival Work; Peasants Revolt 1381; People; Miscellaneous; Petitions to Parliament; Freemasonry in the 1840s; Temperance 1841; Dr Daniel Percival Wildbore and the Weller Estate in the 1850s; Temperance 1866; Events in the 1860s & 1870s; Civil Society 1874; The Croydon Review 1888;  Women and Music 1890s to 1910s; Socialists; Aspects of Croydon 1904; Croydon National Union of Clerks 1908; Christian Socialist League 1909; Socialists and Trade Unions 1912-1916; Activities in January 1919; Watch and Clock Makers; Nurserymen, Gardeners & Nature Study; Circuses & Showmen; Theatre; Painters; Miscellaneous Notes; Richard Bannerman Collection. £3

John Archer. Battersea’s Black Progressive and Labour Mayor 1863-1932. 2014. £4

Keen as mustard. South Croydon’s heritage. 2019. £1

Kennington Common 10 April 1848. Chartism in Lambeth – an introduction. 2018. £2

Lambeth History, Collection of Miscellaneous Notes. George Whitfield on Kennington Common 1739

Georgian Period: Hercules Buildings; Punishment of Apprentices; John George, Spencean and Chartist

Radical and Labour Movement Activity 1842-1916;

Lambeth, Africa, Anti-Slavery and Black History;

Streatham Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras

and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1920-22; Land Nationalisation and Taxation Campaigning 1896-1921. 2017. £1

Lambeth Radicalism before Chartism. 2019. £4

Norbury History Newsletter No.1. 2017. Let’s protect Croydon’s pioneering libraries The Edwardian library legacy of an Anglo-Pole From the SS Windrush to Croydon: the life of Alex Elden A tribute to Darcus Howe Man Mohan Singh, Indian Air Ace and Norbury. £1

Norbury History Newsletter No.2. 2018. William Coles, Norbury farmer and slave owner; Aspects of Norbury 1908-1912; Kathy Stobart, Jazz Saxophonist; Norbury Trading Estate; Why Pollards Hill needs special protection. £1

Norbury History Newsletter No.3. 2022. Introduction; Ram Gopal, Indian Dance and Norbury; The Sale of the Norbury Hall Estate 1855; Norbury Road Works and Shops Developments 1901-1907; Croydon Corporation Consideration Of Norbury Matters 1921-22

Councillor George Lewin 1930s-1950s; Grandison College; Wates and 1260 London Road; Exploring Pollards Hill’s History

Organising Together in Lambeth. A Historical Review of Co-operative and Mutual Action. 2018. £2

Peace and antiwar campaigning in Croydon from 2016-1950s. 2018. £1

Politics and Culture. Paul Robeson in the UK in the UK. 2013. £2

Railwaymen and Brunswick House. 2013. £1

Suffrage Campaigns & Campaigners in Croydon with Iona Davito and Louise Szpera. 2018. £3.50

Thornton Heath History. A Introductory Overview; community & political organisations 1901-1911; Robert Applegarth, trade union leader and engineer 1834-1924. 2018. £2

What Happened in Norbury. An Introductory Chronology. 2017. £1

Pamphlets In Print By Other Authors

Terence Chapman. Caroline Ganley. 2018. Battersea socialist, co-operator, Councillor and MP. £8

Jeffrey Green. Coleridge-Taylor. A Centenary Celebration. 2012. £4

Peter Kuenstler. Learning About Community. With Oxford House, Bethnal Green.  2004  £5

Jon Newman. Battersea’s Global Reach. The History of Price’s Candles. 2009. £5

Pamphlets Out of Print by Other Authors

Stephen Bourne & Esther Bruce. Esther Bruce. A Black London Seamstress. Her Story 1912-1994. 2012. Emailable PDF. £3 

Penelope Corfield. Vauxhall. Sex and Entertainment. London’s Pioneering Urban Pleasure Garden.  2012. Downloadable at:

Click to access 3.3.7-CorfieldPdf39-Vauxhall-Booklet-Expanded-Edn-2012.pdf

Michael Tichelar. Labour Politics in Croydon 1880 to 1914. 2015. £2

Jonathan Wood. Bill Miller, Plymouth’s Black Labour Activist. In association with Labour Heritage.  2006. Emailable PDF. £3

Jason Young. Mother Seacole. A short story about the Jamaican Nurse in the Crimean War.2005. Emailable PDF. £2

Pamphlets by Sean Creighton Emailable As PDFs

The following are out of print and can be obtained by email as PDFs.

The Ancient Order Of Foresters In Battersea And Neighbouring Districts. 1999. £1

Battersea in the 1860s & 1870s. 2020. £3

Croydon Borough of Culture 2023. Discussion Paper. 2021. £5

Croydon’s Black African & Caribbean History Before the Windrush. 2019. £3

Croydon’s Black and Anti-Racism History 1948-1979. 2021. £6

Croydon Radical History. Trade Union Activity 1834; Christianity  and the Housing Question; Clarion Movement in Croydon in 1896; George Henry Young – Socialist candidate 1902-1909; Croydon and the General Strike; Croydon and the Spanish Civil War; Croydon & Brixton Black Peoples Organisation. 2017. £2

Croydon Radical History Newsletter No. 4. January 2017.

Croydon Trade Unions, The Environment And Climate Change. An Information Paper. £1.50

Digging Up the Hidden Chains. Researching and disseminating information about the North East’s involvements in the slavery business and anti-slavery campaigning. Slavery and Abolition and People of African Descent in the North East. Part 2. 2020. £2

Greening Croydon Post-COVID Economic Recovery, The Town Centre And Climate Change A Discussion And Information Paper. £3

The ‘Black Indies’: The North East Connections With The Slavery Business. Slavery and Abolition and People of African Descent in the North East. Part 2. 2020. £2

The Day Of Jubilee Is Come – Campaigning Against The Slave Trade And Slavery In The North East. Slavery and Abolition and People of African Descent in the North East. Part 3. 2020. £2

From Exclusion To Political Control Radical And Working Class Organisation In Battersea 1830s-1918. 2016 edition. £2

The Importance of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. A personal discussion triggered by Mike Leigh’s film and a Long 18thC Seminar. 2019. £2

In No Place In The United Kingdom Has The American Slave Warmer Friends than in Newcastle – Black Abolitionists And The North East. Slavery and Abolition and People of African Descent in the North East. Part 4. 2020. £2

The Involvement of People of African Heritage in the North East. An Introduction. Slavery and Abolition and People of African Descent in the North East. Part 5. 2020. £2

Radical Croydon 1860S-1939. An introduction to the history of Croydon’s labour, radical and socialist movements. 2016. £3

Railways And Railwaymen In Battersea  – An Introduction. 2021. £3

Who Controls Croydon? (2) Parks & Green Spaces, Planning & Development, The Local Plan & Small Businesses. 2018. £2

Emailable H&SAP Monographs

1. Progressive Battersea: Radicalism and Socialism 1880-1914. Basis of talk at West London Local History Conference 21 May 2009. 2009/2014. £2

2. Black Abolitionists And The North East. Talk at Liberating Sojourn 2 Conference Liverpool University, 23-25 April 2009. 2009. £2

3. John Archer And The Politics of Labour. Talk at Belonging in Europe Conference organised by the Equiano Centre, Department of Geography, University College London 8 & 9 November 2007. 2007. £2

4. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens – Its Continuing Historical Influence. A review and discussion re-leisure history. 2009. £2

5. Sharing Knowledge – Discussion Notes Re-Universities And the Wider Historical Community. 2009. £2

6. Black Emancipation And The Working Class 1815-1838. Talk at History Talk Seminar 13 October 2009. 2009. £2

8. Battersea Friendly Societies. Talk at Centre for Research into Freemasonry Seminar, Sheffield University, 11 December 2002. 2009. £2

9. Negro Life In Freedom And In Slavery. A note About An 1851 Theatre Production By Henry Russell. 2004/2008. £2

10. West Country Black & Asian Heritage Information. £2

11. Church Papers And Parish Magazines As A Source of Information.  2003/2014. £2

12. National Union Of Empire Africans. 2014. £2

13. Scottish Stories 1920 To 1941. 2014. £2

14. Indians In Britain And Indian Connections. 2004/2014. £2

15. Organising In The Film Industry In The Late 1930s. The Coloured Film Artistes’ Association  and the Eastern and Indian Film Artists’ Association. 2004/2014. £2

16. A Wimbledon Window On The Black And Asian Presence 1950-1953. 2004. £2

17. William Jackson At Anti-Slavery Meeting in Lambeth 1862. 2014. £1

18. Settlements And Social Action History. Settlements & Social Action Research Group Newsletters Nos. 1 –  3. 2003. 2014. £3

19. Lady Margaret Hall Settlement; History and Contemporary Challenges. Talk to Friends of Durning Library 18 February 2008.  2014. £2

20. History Of British Anti-Colonial And Anti-racism Activity A Note On Elements Towards Writing A History. 2015

21. The Negro Experience In The USA, The West Iindies & Canada 1839 – 1888. Extracts from British Newspapers. 2015

22. Black And Blackface Performers To 1914.  A Miscellaneous Collection of Notes. 2015

23. Labour Monthly Items Relating To Anti-colonialism And Imperialism, West Indies, Africa And India. 2023. £2

New, Reduced Price, & Second-Hand Books & Pamphlets For Sale

Orders to Agenda Services: sean.creighton1947@btinterent.com

An invoice will be issued with postage added.

Categories: Black British History, British History; Community & Neighbourhood Development, Croydon Authors and History, European Studies Review; Journal of Contemporary History; Labour & Working Class History, Lambeth History,  London History, Merton History, Miscellaneous, Music & Song,  Old Ordnance Survey Maps, Wandsworth History, Women’s History

Black History

Stephen Bourne. Black Poppies. Britain’s Black Community and the Great War.. History Press. 2019.  Pbk. Special price. £8

Jeffrey Green. Black Americans in Victorian Britain. . Pen & Sword. 2018. Remainder. Pbk. £5

Tom Langley. The Life of Peter Jackson. Champion of Australia. Re-West Indian boxer 1861-1901. Also British Empire Champion.  Vance Harvey Publishing. Hbk. £7.

Iain McCalman (ed). The Horrors of Slavery and other writings by Robert Wedderburn. Edinburgh UP. 1981. Pbk. £3

Brian Willan. Sol Plaatje: A Biography. Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje 1876-1932. Raven Press. 2001. Pbk. £5

British History

Prudence Bebb. Life in Regency Scarborough. William Sessions Ltd. 1999. Pbk. £1

Birmingham & District Local History Society. Birmingham Historian. Winter 2009. Includes articles re-Matthew Boulton, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the University and its founders, George Dixon, and more. £2

Brooklands Museum. Centenary of British Aviation.100 Year’s of British Aviation at Brooklands. Special Collector’s Edition. A. V. Roe 1908-2008. £3

H. Miles Brown. The story of Truro  Cathedral. Tor Mark Press. 1991. £1

Virginia Cowles. The Great Swindle. The Story of the South Sea Bubble. Collins. 1960. Hbk. £3

Frederick Hackwood. William Hone. His Life and Times. 1912. Augustus M. Kelley. 1970. Hbk. £5

Derek Kartun. The Marshall Plan. How it affects Britain. Communist Party. 1948. £1

Cecil King. Strictly Personal. Some Memoirs. Weidenfeld & Nicholson.  1969. Chairman of International Publishing Corporation, inc. Daily Mirror and newspapers across the world including West Africa and India. Hbk. £3

Dorothy Marshall. Eighteenth Century England. Longmans. 1963. Hbk. £5

Brian Parnaby. The Jefferson’s of Whitehaven. Travail Press. 2005. Pbk. £3

Frank Prochaska. The Republic of Britain 1760 to 2000. Allen Lane. 2000. Hbk. £5

Diana Southami. Selkirk’s Island. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Hbk. 2001. £3

J. H. Whiteley. Wesley’s England. A Survey of XVIIIth Century Social and Cultural Conditions. The Epworth Press. 1938. £3

Community & Neighbourhood Development

Hugh Barton, Marcus Grant and Richard Guise. Shaping Neighbourhoods. A Guide for Health, Sustainability and Vitality. Spon Press. £5

Akwugo Emejuklu & Mae Shaw. Community Empowerment: Critical Perspectives from Scotland. The Glasgow Papers. Edinburgh Community Development Journal. 2010. £3

Tony Gibson. Counterweight. The Neighbourhood Option. Town & Country Planning Association & Education for Neighbourhood Change. £3

The National Coalition for Neighbourhoods. A Manifesto for Neighbourhoods. 1985. £1

Jane Thomson. Paul Hamlyn Foundation Evaluation Resource Pack. In association with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. 2007. £5

Croydon Authors and History

CHNSS. Gardeners and Guardians of the Earth. The Lives of The Rev. William Wilks – of Shirley Poppy Fame, Mary Sibthorp, Addiscombe’s Pioneer Ecologist (and campaigner for refugees from Nazi terror), and George Clinch, Local Antiquarian. Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society. 2010. £3.50

Bernadette Fallon. Cathedrals of Britain. London and the South East. Pen & Sword. Remainder,. Pbk. £4.99

Andrew Fisher. The Failed Experiment. And how to build an economy that works. Radical Read. 2014. Croydon resident who used to work in Jeremy Corbyn’s Office analyses the financial crisis. The publisher has stopped publishing due to age. I was helping the late Ted Knight to sell the small remaining stock to raise money for Ruskin House. £3.  All the money from the sale if this will still go to Ruskin House.

Brian Lancaster. Consumed by Fire. The destruction of Croydon Parish Church in 1867 and its rebuild. Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society. 2016. £4.50

Lorna Liverpool. A Dance to Remember. Story about Kaa’hina  practising her African dance routine. Lorna lives in Croydon. The book is illustrated by Sarah-Louise Hibbs. 2017. £6.99

Lorna Liverpool. The Hidden Treasures Within. Story about Kaa’hinna learning about the history of Ancient Kemet. 2017. £6.99. + post

Bridget Riley. A Very Very Person.  Her Early Years. Paul Moorhouse. Riding House.  Special price. £15

Eric Sanders. Mazes 1. Murder in Munich & Mazes 2. Conspiracy in Vienna. . 101 year old Eric lives in Croydon. These two books are a novels about the rise of Nazism and the murder of a British diplomat in Munich, New Generation Publishing. Special price. £5 each. Eric has died since publication.

Stefan Szczelkun. The Conspiracy of Good Taste. An analysis of the suppression of working class culture. A critique of William Morris, Cecil Sharp and Clough Williams Ellis.  Essential reading for Croydon cultural activists ad for labour historians. Routine Art. 2016.  £9.99

The Selected Poems of James P. Hotckhkiss. Witty poems by Croydon author; and some about Croydon. The Butterfly Book Club. 2019. £7.50

European History

Barry Winter. Land and Freedom. An Episode from the Spanish Civil War. Independent Labour Publications. 2013. £1

Ernest Sommer. Into Exile. The History of the Counter-Reformation in Bohemia. New Europe Publishing Co. 1943. £2

European Studies Review:

Vol 1. No 3. July 1971. The Reception of F. I. Tyutchev’s Political Articles in Russia and Abroad 1844-1858; The British Reactions to the Assassination at Sarajevo; The Origins of Czechoslovak Communism; Fascism and the Generation Gap. Plus book reviews re-the Spanish and Italina Reformation, Goethe and Spinoza, France since the Revolution and the League of Nations. £2

Vol 2. No 1. January 1972. The Limits of Seriousness – Rousseau and the Interpretation of Political Theory; Bloody Sunday – A Reappraisal; Gustav Stresemann and the Ruhr Occupation – the Making of a Statesman; The German attack on the USSR – the Destruction of a Legend. Plus books reviews re- Humanism in France, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France 1519-72; The Russian Annexation of the Crimea 1772-1783; Russia and the Mediterranean 1797-1807; Mediterranean – Portrait of a Sea

Vol 2. No 3. July 1972. The Governorship of Don Luis de Requesens 1573-76 – a Spanish view; Ludwig Bamberger and the Politics of the Cold Shoulder – German Liberatism’s response to working class legislation in the 1870s; Language and Silence: Some Aspects of French Writing on the French Resistance; The Problem of Death and Destruction in Germany During the Thirty Years War; The Problem of Caprivi’s Polish Policy; Machiavelli’s Discourses. Plus book reviews inc. on The Old World and the New 1492-1650; Estates ad Revolutions 1516-1660;

Journal of Contemporary History

Vol 3. No 1. 1968. USA – the ‘New Political History’; German Protestantism and Politics 1918-1939; The Impact of the First World War on British Society (Arthur Marwick); The Russian Mobilization in 1914; Britain: Soldiers and Biographers; Italy 1919-21 – the Current State of Research; Three Crises 1938-39; The Allies and Armenia 1915-18; Cold War Origins.

Vol 4. No 3. 1969. Urbanism. The City in History. Historical Contours of Contemporary Urban Society – a comparative view; Rome in the Past Hundred Years: Urban expansion without industrialisation; influences of the development of Town Planning Britain; The Process of Urbanization in Germany; West Berlin – the isolated city in the twentieth century; The Lima of Joaquim Capelo; Town Dweller versus Village Dwellers in Poland; Transport Technology and the Urban Pattern; Italian Fascism and Youth; Polish Youth in the Thirties; Economic Problems of the Danube Region After the Break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. £2

Vol 4. No 4. 1969. The Great Depression. Articles on the economic depression and Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe and primary producing countries; Soviet reactions; Trade union reactions;  The development of the managed economy before 1939; Cultural change and the ghetto; The Genesis of the European Advisory Committee. £2

Vol 5. No 2. 1970. Pierre de Coubertin and the introduction of organized sport in France; Between Taylorism and Technology; The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement, March 1921; The MacMahon-Hussein Correspondence and the question of Palestine; A note on coup d’etat in the Middle East; Karl Moor – German agent and friend of Lenin; The Foreign Office 1924-1929; The British press, conservatives, and Mussolini 190=34; Ernest Thompson Seton and the origins of he Woodcraft movement. £2

Vol 6. No 1. 1971. Unsatisfied Nationalisms; Catalan and Basque Nationalism; The Germans of Rumania, The Lebanese Identity, Kurdish Nationalism; The Southern Sudan; Northern Ireland; The Nationalist Movement in Scotland; Welsh Nationalism: The Historical Background; Canada: notes I two ideas of nation in confrontation. £2

Vol 6. No 2. 1971. Scientific advice war at sea  1915-17;  Congress of Historians; The impact of the Second World War on the American Negro; Spanish Anarchism and Women’s Liberation; India and East Africa at end of FWW; Brtish Government strike breaking organisation and Black Friday; The Third |Reich and The Transfer Agreement; Conservatism and the national education system; Caesarism, Circuses and Monuments; Caesar, Caesarism and the historians. £2

Vol 6. No 3. 1971. The Intellectual in Politics – The case of the Webbs; The Socialist League – Intellectuals and the Labour Left in the 1930s; Eden, Blum and the Origins of Non-Intervention; Leon Blum and the Spanish Civil War; Fascism, Communism and the Foreign Office 1937-39; 25 October 1940 – A Historical puzzle; Storm-troopers in Slovakia – The Rodobrana and the Hlinka Guard; Sir Edward Grey and Imperial Germany in 1914; Lloyd George and Poland 1919-20; The Voluntary Occupational Centre Movement 1932-39; East Fulham Revisited.

Labour, Socialist  & Working Class History

Althea. What is a Union? Dinoasaur’s Althea Books for children. Dinosaur Publications. 1981. £1

George Barnsby. 1945 Year of Victory. Communist Party History Group Our History pamphlet 62. Spring 1975

Stefan Berger. Labour and Social History in Great Britain: Historiographical Reviews and Agendas. Essays by– ; Lawrence Black Labour at 100; Steven Fielding – ‘New Labour’ and the ‘New’ Labour History; John Callaghan – The Foreign Policies of he Labour Party; , Kevin Morgan – Labour with Knobs on? The Recent Historiography of the British Communist Party; Alastair Ried – Trade Union History: The Consolidation of Revisionism; Chris Wrigley – The Co-operative Movement; Dan Weinbren – ‘Imagined Families’ Research on Friendly Societies; Andy Croll – the Impact of Postmodernism on Modern British Social History; Ross McKibben – Classes and Cultures: a Postscript; Edmund Neil: British Political Thought in the 1990s: Thatcherism, Citizenship and Social Democracy; Karen Hunt – Gender and Labour Hisyory in the 1990s; Interview of John Halstead on the Society for the Study of Labour History and its Journal. Mitteilungsblatt des Instuts for Soziale Bewegungen. No 27/2002. Pbk. £3

G. D. H. Cole. Attempts of  General Union. A Study in British Trade Union History 1818-1834. Macmillan.  Hbk. 1953. £3

G.D. H. Cole & A. W. Filson. British Working Class Movements. Select Documents 1789-1875. Macmillan. 1951. Hbk. £5

Margaret. I. Cole. Beatrice Webb’s Diaries 1912-1924. Longmans, Green & Co. Hbk. 1952. £5

Communist Party. The British Road to Socialism. CP Programme. 1968. £1

Ditto. Draft for Discussion. £1

Communist Party. About Marxism. A CP introductory course.  January 1974. £1

Mary Davis. Socialist Opposition to World War One. Marx Memorial Library. 50p

Labour Party. Labour’s Colonial Policy. Part 1 The Plural Society.  £2

Roger Logan. High Court Meetings  of the Ancient Order of Foresters. Friendly Society. 1835-2009. The Foresters Heritage Trust. 2009

John Mahon. May 1^st 1940. The meaning of May Day. First of May Demonstration Committee. In poor condition. £1

Marx Memorial Library Quarterly Bulletins:

Apr-Jun 1973. Andrew Rothstein on A Century of Marxist Study in Britain; Celebration of the Library’s Fortieth Anniversary; Marxist Education Classes in 1904; How London Welcomed Home The Men of Dorset; New Facts of British Working-Class History;  The Frows on Papers of Engineering Stop Stewards

Jan/Mar 1976. Priceless records of the War in Spain; The Clarion Fellowship; A Reunion of Old Chartists. £1

Jan/Mar 1977. Inc. Militia and the Maintenance of Public Order in Nineteenth Century America; What is Marxism?; The role of poetry and song in British Trade Unions. £1

Jan/Mar 1978. The Centenary of Anti-During, The ideas of Antonio Gramsci, The Chartist Contribution to Marxist Theory; History of the British Labour Movement. £1

Bill Moore. Labour – Communist Relations 920-1951. Part III. 1945-1951. Communist Party History Group. Our History 84/85. August 1991. £2

Bill Moore & George Barnsby (eds). The Anti-Fascist People’s Front in the Armed Forces. The Communist contribution 1939-46. Community Party History Group. Our History 81. February 1980. £1

Raymond Postgate. The Life of George Lansbury. Longman, Green & Co. 1951. Hbk. £5

Raphael Samuel. 1934-1996. Tributes and Appreciations. No date. £2

SERTUC. Levellers Movement, The. An Account of perhaps the first political movement to represent the ordinary people.  2015. £2.

Beatrice Webb. My Apprenticeship. Longman’s, Green & Co. Published for use of H. M. Forces in Second World War. Hbk. £5

Lambeth History

Daneille Arnaud et al. Cloud & Vision. Exhibition booklet about artists interpretations of William Blake’s ten year living in Hercules Rd. Parabola. 2005.£2

David Coke. The Muse’s Bower. Vauxhall Gardens 1728-1786. An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Relics . Gainsborough Museum House, Sudbury, Surrey. 2 June – 2 July 1978. £2

Bob Flanigan. West Norbury  Cemetery’s Music Hall. Friends of West Norbury Cemetery. 1998. £1.50

Bob Flanigan. West Norbury  Cemetery’s Musicians.1998.  Friends of West Norbury Cemetery. 1998. £1.50

Bob Flanigan. West Norbury  Cemetery’s Sportsmen. Friends of West Norbury Cemetery. 1995. £1.50

Judy Harris. A History of Lambeth’s Horticultural Societies. Streatham Society. 2003. 50pAndrea Gregson. Last Night For Ever. Being an account and General Prospect of the work of Andrea Gregson (at the Garden Museum). Parabola. 2009

Library of Unwritten Books. These are from a project in 2006 interviewing elderly people in Lambeth about their memories. They did not all grow up in Lambeth.

Eileen Finch. United Family; Mary. Mary, Queen of Scots; Megan Jenkins. Did it Really Happen?; Brenda Obsorne. War Years; Robert Walker. Playing in the Ruins. £2.50 the set

Lady Margaret Hall Settlement. Kennington Quarter. Outline of area arts regeneration proposal. 50p

Jon Newman. Dead Reckoning: William Bligh. Parabola. 2005. £2

Rob Pateman. The history of sport and leisure in Kennington Park. Friends of Kennington Park. No date. 20p

Rob Pateman. Kennington’s Forgotten Tragedy. Friends of Kennington Park. An account of the air-raid shelter and memorial to the victims of World War II bomb incident. 20p

Streatham Millennium Trail walk guides. 1. Central Streatham; 2. South Streatham;  3. Streatham Common; 4. Streatham High Rd; 5. Streatham Hill & 6. Streatham Hill Estates. 80p the set

Janet Weeks. The Oakey Saga. A Brief History of John Oakey & Sons of Wellington Mills, Kennington. Local History Publications. 50p

London History

W. D. T. Davis. The History of the Palace of Whitehall. (King Henry VIII) Win Cellar & Historic Room 27. No publisher. No date. £1

J. Dunleavy. Workers’ Educational Association. Some Oxford connections. Oxford WEA. 2003. £1

The London Journal. Vol 24. No 1. 1999. The Evidence of Richard Horwood’s Maps for Residential Building in London 1799-1819; Languages of Citizenship in the City of London 1848-1867; Continuity and Change in Philanthropic Housing Organisations: th Octavia Hill Housing Trust and the Guinness Trust; Re-reading Robson on the Government of London; Faith in the Metropolis: Opinion Polls and Christianity in Post-War London. Plus book reviews. Pbk. £2

John Sutherland. The Mary Ward Centre 1890-1990. Cover bent marks. 50p. The pamphlet leaflet Information on Mary Ward House will be included.

Toynbee Hall. A brief history. 20p

Merton History

John Brown. Roe Bridge. Mitcham Lane. Local History Publications.1993. 50p

Wandle Industrial Museum. An hour passed at Morden Hall Park. Walk guide. 50p

Miscellaneous

Frank Ash & Stephen  Moss (ed.). Advice Shop Programme Notes. 17 Campaigning. BBC Education.1991.50p

Patricia Clabburn. Samplers. Shire Publications. 2002. £1

G. P. Gooch. Citizenship and History. Association for Education in Citizenship. 1936. £1

David Graddol, Jenny Chesire & Joan Swann. Describing Language. Oxford UP. 1996 edition. Pbk. £3

Oona Grimes. Postcards from the 7th Floor. Pighog Press. 2010. £2

Alicia Herbert & Elaine Kempson. Water Debt & Disconnection. Policy Studies Institute. 1995. Pbk. £3

New Left Review. 63. Sept-Oct 1970.Fred Halliday: Counter-Revolution in Yemen; Bill Warren: The British Road to Socialism; Tariq Ali: Class Struggles in Pakistan; Robin Blackburn: The Politics of ‘The First Circle’; Goran Therborn: A Critique of the Frankfurt School. £2

New Left Review. No 120. Mar-Apr 1980. Marxism and the Historians. Raph Samuel on British Marxist Historians; Raymond Willaims on Beyond Actually Existing Socialism (Bahro); Victor Kiernan on Blood of Spain; Rodney Hilton on English Individualism and the English Peasant; Tarama Deutscher. A Chinese Journey. £2

Simon Potter. Heavy Metal The Charm of diecast rail and road models. Glassingall Books. 2021. Pbk£10

David Robinson, Kathryn Dunn & Scott Balintyne. Social Enterprise Zones. Building innovation into regeneration. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. £2

Gordon Schaffer. Who Owns Britain? Reynolds News articles. 1944 or 1945. In poor condition. £1

Bernard Stace. Bath Abbey Monuments. Millstream Books. 1993. 50p

L. F. Rushbrook  Williams. India. Oxford Pamphlets On World Affairs. Oxford University Press. 1940. £1

Peter J. Schryver. Industrialised Building – the contribution of precast concrete. Article reprinted from Building 3 March 1967. A Bison Bulletin. Concrete Ltd. £1

Music and Song

Mary Ellen Brown & Paul S. Smith. Ballad and Folk song. Research guide. No.3. Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language. University of Sheffield. 1982. £1

John Crook & Albert Chevalier. The Coster’s Serenade. A Humorous Song. Reynolds & Co.  Sheet music. £1

La Marseillaise. Music and words. Postcard sent from Paris. No year date. 20p

Sheffield Socialist Choir. 10^th Anniversary Songbook. 1999. £5

Stand Together. A New Song Book. Hackney and Inslington Music Wokrshop.1978. £5

Old Ordnance Survey Maps – Alan Godfrey

50p each

Battersea & Fulham 1894

Clapham Common 1870 & 1894

Clapham Park & Balham 1872

Hammersmith & Fulham 1871

Kennington & Walworth 1871 & 1914

Lambeth Rd 1872

Merton 1894

Pimlico, Sloane Square & Nine Elms 1869 & 1894

Putney Bridge 1894

Putney Bridge & Fulham 1865 & 1913

Roehampton 1894

Southfields 1913

Southfields & Wimbledon Park 1867

Streatham Hill & Tulse Hill 1870 & 1894

Tooting 1894 & 1913

Wandsworth 1894

Westminster & Victoria 1869

West Streatham & Tooting 1894

Social Policy

David Downes & Tony Ward. Democratic Policing. Towards Labour Party Policy on Police Accountability. The Labour Campaign for Criminal Justice. 1986.  £2

Stewart Lansley & Guy Fiegehen. One Nation? Housing and Conservative Policy. Fabian Tract 432. 1974. £1

Wandsworth History

Anon. The Mayor of Garratt. Mock Elections in 18^th Century South London. Past Tense. 2004. £1

Battersea Council. Historic Battersea. Exhibition pamphlet. 1965. £1

Ann Bott (ed). Alice from Tooting. Alice Mullen 1879-1977. Plowright Press. 1997. Pbk. £3

Norman Levinson. The History of The Furzedown Project. Furzedown Project 2000?. 50p

C. F. Lindsey. (compiled). Around Wandsworth. History and Leisure. This is a street guide. No publisher, no date. £1

Wandsworth Historical Society. The Wandsworth Historian. No. 71. Spring 2000. Articles inc. Beaufoy, Burns and Booth: The Beaufoy Estate in 1889; Thames-side Sugar Houses, Friendly Societies of Battersea and Clapham (by me) and William McAndrew, Orange Merchant.

Women’s History

Betty Brown. Jane Milbourn in Carlisle Gaol. Imprisoned from 1792 for refusing to hand her property to her husband 1792. Bookcase. Pbk. £2

W. F. Cater (ed). Margaret Fountaine. Love Among the Butterflies. The Travels and Adventures of a Victorian Lady. Virago. 1997. Pbk. £2

Flora Fraser. The Unruly Queen. The Life of Queen Caroline. Macmillan. 1996. Hbk. £5

Ruth and Edmund Frow. (ed). Political Women 1800-1850. Pluto Press. 1989. Hbk. £5

Pamela M. Graves. Labour Women. Women in British Working Class Politics 1919-1939. Cambridge University Press. Pbk.£3

Angela V.  John. (ed). Unequal Opportunities. Women’s Employment in England 1800-1918. Pbk.  1986. £3

Candida Ann Lacey. Barbara Leigh Smith and the Langham Place Group. Routledge, Kegan & Paul. Hbk 1987. £5

Fiona Sampson. Two Way Mirror. The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Profile Books. 2021. Hbk. £5

Norbert C. Soldon. Women in British Trade Unions 1874-1976. Gill & Macmillan. 1978. Hbk. £5

Janet Todd. Mary Wollstoncraft. A Revolutionary Life. Phoenix Press. 2000. Pbk. £5

Martha Vicinus (ed).  Suffer and Be Still. Women in the Victorian Age. Indiana University Press. 1973. Hbk. 1994. £3

John Tearle. Mrs. Piozzi’s’ Tall Young Beau. Associated Universities Press. 1991. Hbk. £3

Croydon Update 3 December

Croydon Financial Crisis Deepens

Croydon’s financial crisis could go on for 10 years Mayor Perry told the recent Upper Norwood Question Time. The Cabinet is being told that unresolved issues over the last four years could increase the historic debt. Perry told the QT that the new bus shelters will not be in place until next winter. Perry is getting ready to approve the closure of between 4 and 5 libraries. The Council has been found by the Supreme Court to have broken the law re-rehousing.

Croydon Meetings & Events

Wednesday 6 December. 6.30pm. Cabinet

Scrutiny Stage 2 Responses to Recommendations arising from Homes Sub-Committee held on 24 July 2023; Future Options for Maintained Nursery Schools – Consultation Outcomes Report; Housing Strategy 2023- 2028; Transport for London Local Implementation Plan Healthy streets funding and programme 2024/25; Finance 6 Period Financial Performance Report; Fees and Charges 2024-25; Capital Programme and Capital Strategy 2023-29 Quarterly Procurement Plan update; progress update on tranche 1 asset disposals, seeking approval for tranche 2 of asset for disposal and approval of the update of the Community Asset Transfer Policy.

Thursday 7 December. 10.30am. Licensing Sub-Committee on Teams

Thursday 7 December. 7pm. Croydon’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy

Croydon Community Consortium Zoom meeting.

Council officers will explain the factors being considered to inform the priorities identified, the broad themes based on key findings and the proposed actions to address these.

Please book via https://croydoncc.wordpress.com/2023/12/01/public-meeting-7-dec-2023-homelessness/

Sunday 10 December. Folk & Blues – Jim Smith and Open Mic – Ruskin House

Monday 11 December. Folk Club – Singers’ Night – Ruskin House

Croydon News

36 storey tower Approved for Park Hotel site. (Architects Journal. 30 November plus Inside Croydon 28 November

17 charities May Be Hit By Council Sales

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67570091 plus Inside Croydon 30 November

Croydon Broke Legal Requirements Re-Rehousing

‘In a significant victory for homeless applicants, the Supreme Court has recently delivered a landmark judgment in the case of R (on the application of Imam) v London Borough of Croydon [2023] UKSC 45. The decision, handed down on 28th November 2023, addresses the crucial issue of whether a council’s lack of resources can serve as a valid excuse for failing to fulfil its duties to homeless individuals. Giles Peaker, a partner at Anthony Gold, played a crucial role in representing Crisis as an intervenor in this case.’

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a939991f-8333-478b-8ca6-980203b29d80

https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/supreme-court-gives-landmark-decision-mandatory-relief-r-imam-v-croydon

Plus Inside Croydon 29 November

Record Number Of Suspensions at Croydon Schools Last Autumn Term

https://www.londonworld.com/your-london/croydon/record-number-of-suspensions-at-croydon-schools-in-autumn-term-last-year-4425760

Inside Croydon News

Library Closure Threat. 2 December

Council Drops Nursery Closure Plans. 1 December

Sports England £400,000 Bails Out Council Indoor Swimming Pools. 1 December

Croydon TUC Gaza Protest Outside Sarah Jones Office. 29 November

Effect of Autumn Statement on Councils. 27 November

M & S Purley scheme gets overwhelming public backing. 27 November

Police Will Arrest Protestors Outside MPs Homes. 25 November

Council Seeks TfL Safe and Healthy Streets Funding 2024/25

The recommended programme aims to support:

• the regeneration of Croydon’s town and district centres, seeking inward investment and grants – Central Croydon (£1,800,000), corridors (£1,025,000), neighbourhoods (£375,000);  
• action to reduce carbon emissions in Croydon – School Streets (£250,000);
• making Croydon safer and more inviting for all Croydon residents and visitors – Road Safety (£200,000)
• working with partners and the voluntary, community, and faith sector to promote independence, health and wellbeing – Active Travel (£394,000), Bus Priority (£550,000), Cycle Parking (£100,000),  Cycle Training (£130,000).

From 6 December Cabinet report

Financial Crisis Issues Still Not Resolved

The Council’s overall financial position is still subject to a number of unresolved historic legacy issues. The Council admits that:

• ‘it needs to correct a range of misstatements in its legacy accounts from 2019-20 which are currently still not fully closed. This was more than the £74.6m previously identified to Cabinet in November 2022.’
• its provision for bad debt was ‘found to be understated by £46m rather than the £20m previously assumed’.
• there is a ‘potential £70m gap in the accounts caused by incorrect accounting for Croydon Affordable Homes and Tenures, instead of the £9m previously assumed.’
• with ‘four years of accounts still open, there remains a risk that further legacy issues will be uncovered.’

From 6 December Cabinet report

Croydon History

David Morgan tells the story of Alice Malleson,  reformer who died in 1901. Inside Croydon. 26 November

The Autum Budget Statement

The Resolution Foundation has produced a briefing note analysing the Autumn Statement announcements, highlighting the following:

• The Autumn Statement’s £20 billion of tax cuts compare to around £90 billion of tax rises (including higher Corporation Tax) already announced this Parliament. Despite the tax-cutting rhetoric, taxes are rising by 4.5 per cent of GDP between 2019-20 and 2028- 29, equivalent to £4,300 per household.

• With real average earnings adjusted for inflation not forecast to return to their 2008 peak until 2028, this was “a totally unprecedented 20-year pay stagnation”.

• Real household disposable incomes will have fallen by 3.1 per cent from December 2019 to January 2025. Households will, on average, be £1,900 poorer at the end of this Parliament than at its start.

• By not fully accounting for higher inflation in public services spending plans, unprotected departments such as Justice, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office are set to see their per capita day-to-day budgets fall by 14 per cent – equivalent to a real-terms cut of £17 billion – between 2022-23 and 2027-28.

Local Government Association Statement

• The evidence of the financial strain on councils has been growing and it is hugely disappointing that today’s Autumn Statement has failed to provide funding needed to protect the services the people in our communities rely on every day.
• There are now more than 80,000 looked after children in England and we were disappointed by the lack of reference to children’s services, funding for early years and support for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Spiralling costs in children’s social care are a key driver of budget pressures across councils with social care responsibilities.

Energy, Broadband And Mobile Prices To Rise Again

Ofgem has announced that from January to March the energy price cap will rise by 5% from £1,834 to £1,928 a year.

Research by Which? estimates that mobile and broadband companies will generate nearly £500m in additional income from mid contract price rises next April. Which? is calling for Ofcom to ban inflation-based mid contract price hikes. Link

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/telecoms-providers-2024-price-rises-awk0h6A96dET

Food Inflation

Although Annual inflation in October fell to 4.7%, from 6.7% in September, research on food prices by the market research group Kantar has found that in the four weeks to 29 October, UK grocery inflation was 9.7%, own from 11% in September. Source: ESAN Bulletin November 2023

General Update 26 November

Bernard Winchester’s December Diary

Diary December 2023.pdf

Croydon Council Meetings

Tuesday 28 November. 10am. Appointments & Disciplinary Committee

Bernard Wetherill House. Appointment to the post of Director of Housing Assets. Paper not yet on website.

Tuesday 28 November. 6.30 pm. General Purposes Committee

Proposed Change to the Constitution – Appointments and Disciplinary Committee; draft Council Calendar May 2024 to May 2025. It is proposed that there be only 6 Councill meetings, despite the proposed 11 Cabinet and 8 Scrutiny & Overview Committee meetings.

Can Perry deliver on £18.5m Levelling Up Grant for Town Centre?

For full details of the proposed scheme and the conditions applying to the grant see https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/what-will-croydon-do-with-the-18-5m-of-funding-from-government. See also Inside Croydon. 21 November)

The Work Foundation at Lancaster University has found that 17.5% of workers in Croydon are in severely insecure jobs.

Click to access WF_Factsheet_GreaterLondon.pdf

Inside Croydon Postings 22-25 November

IC backs Cassandra Centre Xmas Event.

Birch Hotel in Selsdon in administration.

Andrew Fisher on the Autumn Budget statement. He says that in Croydon next year, schools will lose £10.3million of funding.

Playgrounds upgrade fiasco.

Fraud suspected in Labour’s Croydon East Parliamentary and GLA selection processes. (See also Evening Standard. 24 November)

Interview with ‘concrete brutalism’ John Grindrod.

Sunak Shafts Philp and Perry over house conversions.

Other Croydon News

Philp Backs Hunt’s Benefits Clampdown

London boroughs ‘teetering on the edge’ after Autumn Statement

Croydon Health Watch November Newsletter

https://mailchi.mp/c2b12678aebe/healthwatch-croydon-august-newsletter-8784239

Croydon Trading Standards Bulletin

Croydon Trading Standards Bulletin – 2023/24 – Edition 2

Croydon Healthy Homes Energy Advice Workshops

https://www.croydon.gov.uk/environment/sustainable-development/energy/energy-advice-events

Other Events

Battersea

https://mailchi.mp/7b2f0cf4d01b/battersea-insider-things-to-do-things-to-see-15891732

Thursday 7 December. 6.30pm. Resisters: how ordinary Jews fought persecution in Hitler’s Germany

Talk by Professor Wolf Gruner, University of Southern California for The Wiener Holocaust Library and the Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway.

Clore Lecture Theatre, Clore Management Centre, Torrington Square, WC1E 7JL.

To book place:

Resisters: how ordinary Jews fought persecution in Hitler’s Germany

Thursday 14 December. 6pm. The Black Trade Union Oral History

On-line dialogue.

https://www.history.ac.uk/events/black-trade-union-oral-history-project-dialogue-ohs-ihr

History

Scotland Jamaica and Slavery

The recorded talk for Black Conversations by Kate Phillips can be seen at

Medieval Immigration

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-31462885

Black Londoners And The Black Death

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/21/women-with-black-african-ancestry-at-greater-risk-when-plague-hit-london

Val Wilmer’s Photographic Work

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/nov/21/fela-kuti-bb-king-jimi-hendrix-miles-davis-val-wilmer-mi6

Legacies Of British Slave-ownership Newsletter

The Centre has now got a website separate from the Legacies database. Its latest Traces newsletter is full of fascinating material.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/history/research/centre-study-legacies-british-slavery-cslbs/traces-cslbs-quarterly-newsletter

Remainder Books From www.psbooks.co.uk

David Olusoga. Cult of Progress. £5.99. No. 518482

Robert Peal. Meet the Georgians. £6.99. No. 527837. Biog. profiles including John Wilkes and Olaudah Equiano.

The Old Oak – Ken Loach Film

Director Ken Loach, and writer Paul Laverty, made the award-winning films ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016, on the brutality of benefit sanctions and the need for food banks), and ‘Sorry We Missed You’ (2018, on the gig economy and loss of workers’ rights). Their trilogy is completed with ‘The Old Oak’, released just seven weeks ago. Set in northern England in 2016, THE OLD OAK is the last pub in the village and the only public space where the hard-hit former mining community can meet. T J Ballantyne, the pub landlord, struggles to keep the pub running, but it becomes a contested space following the arrival of refugees in the village without notice. TJ befriends a young photographer among the refugees. Can a way be found for the two traumatised communities, thrown together, to understand one another? It becomes a moving drama about their fears and hopes.  Syrian refugees, who settled in the north-east, contributed to the script, enabling the story  to reflect their own experiences. Elba Mari – who plays the lead as Yara, the photographer – is not a refugee, but lives in the Golan Heights (Syrian territory under illegal Israeli military occupation and condemned by the UN, despite Trump recognising it as part of Israel). Both Elba and Claire Rodgerson (who plays Laura, a community activist) hope the film will have a lasting impact – that there is more that unites people than divides them, and we need to overcome fear and resentment.   After making films on major issues for over sixty years, and having reached the age of 87, Ken has said ‘The Old Oak’ is likely to be his final film.  If you can, please join us for our screening of this powerful and moving film next week.        UK | 2023  | 90 mins    FRIDAY 24th November 2023, 7.30pm   Ruskin House (Cedar Hall), 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD More information, a trailer and tickets are available online (£5.80) at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/697544974797 or from Ruskin House Bar/on the door (£5.00 cash) (All ticket sales benefit Ruskin House)

Croydon Trade Unionists Views On Gaza Crisis

The Croydon Unite Retired Members branch passed the following resolution on 13 November.

‘This branch expresses its shock and outrage at the ongoing siege and bombing of Gaza by Israel which amounts to collective punishment in flagrant breach of international law. Gaza is a tiny territory densely populated by over two million Palestinians almost half of whom are under the age of sixteen. Israel has cut off food, fuel and water to a population that is already undernourished by years of a semi-blockade. Israel has demanded a million civilians move in 24 hours before it launches a major offensive with tanks and troops.

2. These actions: collective punishment, mass bombing of civilians, siege and now potential ethnic cleansing into the south of the Gaza strip and Egypt, are war crimes committed by the Israeli state. We condemn the Tory government’s declared support for these crimes and the Labour leadership’s endorsement of them. All this is done with the spurious claim that Israel is acting in “self-defence” – in fact it is acting to destroy the Palestinian resistance at any cost in lives of civilians – men, women and children.

3. We do not endorse the atrocities committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israeli civilians and young people in their incursion into Israel but we recognise the boiling rage brought about by decades of occupation, discrimination, arbitrary detention and killings – the de facto establishment of an apartheid-like state by Israel in occupied Palestine. We do not equate the oppressor with the oppressed and continue to support the Palestinian resistance and its right to defend itself against the Israeli army and armed settlers by all available means under international law.

Actions 

This branch:
1. Notes it is affiliated to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
2. Supports and encourages its members to attend all protests against the siege and war against Gaza
3. Calls for an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of all blockades, the return of all stolen and occupied land to the Palestinians, and a just and lasting peace acceptable to the Palestinian people, implementation of full parity of all civil and human rights and the dismantling of all apparatus of apartheid. 
4. Supports and promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel
5. Opposes any moves by the Tory government to legally restrict shows of solidarity with Palestine
6. Sends this resolution to Sharon Graham for the Unite Executive and calls upon them to issue a statement  and to urgently organise a day of action from Unite and further advocate similar all trade union action from the TUC Special Congress on 9 December in support of Palestine 
7. Instructs its LP delegates to put this resolution, unamended, to their General Committees.
8. Sends a donation of £250 to Medical Aid for Palestinians (www.map.org.uk)’

This resolution will also be considered by the Croydon TUC at its meeting on 23 November.

Croydon TUC Statement

Croydon TUC has already approved the following statement on the crisis in Gaza.

‘As Croydon trade unionists we are deeply concerned by the current violence and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire and the upholding of international law.

We condemn the attacks and murder of Israeli civilians by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and call for the immediate release of all hostages.

We also condemn Israel’s reaction to these attacks. This reaction has breached international law by being a collective punishment of the people of Gaza. Israel’s bombing of apartment blocks, houses, schools, hospitals and places of worship amounts to a war crime, as does the forced removal of most of the population of the north of Gaza to the south, and the denial of essential water, food and electricity to the population of Gaza.

The killing of so many Palestinian civilians, including thousands of children, by Israel is not “self-defence”.

We support the road to a just peace in Israel and Palestine. UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has acknowledged that “The most recent violence does not come in a vacuum. The reality is that it grows out of a long-standing conflict, with a 56-year long occupation and no political end in sight.”

We believe there can be no military or security solution to the conflict. There must be a political solution. It should be based on an end to the military occupation of Palestinian territory and the blockade of Gaza, and respect for Palestinian rights including the right to self-determination.

Only through such a solution can Israelis and Palestinians live in peace and security in the future.’

General Update 20 November

Croydon Council Meetings

Tuesday 21 November. 6.30pm. Scrutiny & Overview Committee

It will consider the Improvement and Assurance Panel Exit Strategy, Period 5 Financial Performance Report, Pre-Decision Scrutiny: Progress update on tranche 1 asset disposals, seeking approval for tranche 2 of asset for disposal and approval of the update of the Community Asset Transfer Policy;  Appointments to Scrutiny Sub-Committees; Scrutiny; Scrutiny Work Programme 2022-23.

Tuesday 21 November. 6pm. Planning Committee

Croydon Park Hotel – demolition of the existing buildings and retention of the existing basement, and erection of a residential building of  447 homes with a maximum height of 36 storeys and community floorspace; and Royal Russell School, Coombe Lane demolition of existing Junior School and replacement.

Croydon Budget Consultation

The consultation survey form for the Council’s budget for 2024-5 can be seen at

https://www.getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/budget24-25

The consultation ends on 15 December. A short explanation can be seen at

https://news.croydon.gov.uk/have-your-say-on-the-councils-2024-25-budget-survey-opens-today/

Council To Pay For Government Panel Members Fee Increase

The Secretary of State Michael Gove has decided to increase the daily fee for the Chair members of the Improvement and Assurance Panel from £900 to £1,000, and for the other independent members from £800 to £900, and requires the Council to meet these fees, and the Secretary of State expects the London Borough. See also Inside Croydon 10 November)

Ruskin House Events

FOLK & BLUES £3 (cash) at 8pm every Sun

26^th – Paul Steele and Open Mic

3^rd Dec – Four Gone Confusion and Open Mic

FOLK CLUB £4 (cash or card) at 7.30 for 8pm every Mon.  See also croydonfolkclub.org.uk.

20^th – Singers’ Night £4

27^th – Wizz Jones £12/£10

4^th Dec – Georgia Shackleton £10/£8

Other:

Nov 24^th – Jazz in Mandela

Nov 24^th – Film ‘The Old Oak’ Ken Loach in Cedar Hall

Nov 25^th – Amnesty Lindy Hop Dance in Cedar Hall

Inside Croydon Postings

More concerns about Purley Pool Developers. (8, 9 & 15 November)

Croydon Federation of Mosques has asked Croydon North MP Steve Reed why he supports the killing of Palestinians, including children, as part of Israel’s self-defence. (9 November)

Andrew Fisher discussed the tensions being cranked up over Remembrance Day. (9 November)

Perry blames police for slow investigation of  complaint over former Council leaders. (9 November)

Labour excludes members from shortlisting candidates for Croydon East. (11 & 18 November)

Whitgift Foundation CEO resigns. (20 November)

Other News

Hot Air Delusion At Develop Croydon Conference. (Council News. 10 November)

Reclaim Croydon evicted from former Matthews Yard

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/croydon-squatters-giving-free-hot-28119066

Crisis At Refugee Hostel

https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/23928057.croydon-refugee-hotel-rehousing-nearly-300-males-rape-reports

Black History

Wednesday 22 November. 4.30-6pm. Slavery and Popular Print in Early Modern England

Talk by Professor Phil Withington, University of Sheffield for the Wilberforce Institute

In 1500 the language of ‘slavery’ was unused in English; by the 1650s, it was the usual term for English men and women to describe states of unfreedom. This talk outlines the remarkable rise of slavery in the English vernacular before the creation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, focusing on how the language was used in popular print culture.

If you wish to attend in person at the Wilberforce Building at Hull University please email wilberforce@hull.ac.uk  

To hear online go to

Register on Eventbrite

The Music Is Black: A British Story

Exhibition being planned by the Victoria & Albert Museum. Spanning the past 125 years it will trace the story of Black music in the UK from the early twentieth century right up to the present day. It will highlight early pioneers like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Winifred Atwell, Emile Ford and Janet Kay, as well as paying tribute to modern artists.

V&A East Announces The Music Is Black: A British Story

The Smalls –  A Mixed Race Couples In Ireland

‘Foreign’ Mixed Race Couples in Ireland

Labour Movement History

Bernard Winchester writes about Annie Besant in Inside Croydon 12 November.

Video: The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914

Labour History Journals Round-up

Welcome to the SSLH

Other Histories

https://www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org/chronicles/11/11-2023.html

Croydon and Digital Connectivity and Affordability Gap

I keep commenting on the problem of Digital Exclusion and the fact that by stopping publication of its magazine to every household, the Council has been discriminating against those who are digitally excluded.

A new report by the social enterprise organisation Promising Trouble states that the cost of broadband is rising for everyone, but for low income households the rise in expenditure is steeper than for everyone else: a nearly 4% rise for poorer households compared to 0.04% for the richest.

‘Although there are cheaper, social tariffs available from many broadband providers, they unfortunately don’t solve the affordability challenge. The research looked at different types of households on a low income, including those receiving in-work benefits, pension credit and disability benefits. Even on a social tariff all of them would be spending a bigger chunk of their disposable income than the average household on broadband. An estimated 2.4m people struggle to afford broadband but aren’t eligible for a social tariff, normally because they are not receiving a qualifying benefit. Promising Trouble says this affordability gap, in which the cost of social tariffs is still too high, and huge numbers of people aren’t even eligible for one, represents a failure of the broadband market to meet the needs of millions of consumers. It creates and deepens inequalities and puts additional burdens on households and families who are already under significant pressure.

https://www.promisingtrouble.net/blog/the-real-cost-of-home-broadband

Promising Trouble is also working with Impact on Urban Health on how access to the internet impacts health and wellbeing.

Community Connectivity

BT commissioned Frontier Economics to use Government data sets to analyse the household income level, and therefore affordability of connectivity, for individuals eligible for their broadband social tariff. BT wanted to explore the possibility that for some of those eligible, household income is too low to even be able to afford a social tariff. The report, published in August found that one million (11%) eligible individuals live in low income households that cannot afford any connectivity, even lower priced social tariffs. Most in this position (73%) are of working age but not in work and receive all of their income from Government sources. (From ESAH Newsletter October)

Digital Inclusion in Croydon 2015/6

Towards the end of 2015  Croydon Council produced a report on digital inclusion. The statistics were very revealing.

• 46% of adults had not used their digital skills in the previous 3 months.
• 10% of adults in Croydon have never been online

This led me to ask several questions.

• What percentage of adults use their digital skills at libraries because they do not have computers/laptops/notebooks?
• What % of adults do not have smart phones?
• What percentage of Croydon households do have broadband connection?
• What are the geographic differences between wards, bearing in mind those areas with higher levels of inequalities are most likely to be on the wrong side of the digital divide?
• How many of the 120,000 sign ups to My Account are from residents, Croydon based businesses, and residents and business elsewhere?
• How many of the 120,000 sign ups to My Account are from residents in the same household?
• How many households are in the 120,000 sign ups?
• Is there a ward analysis of the residents/households who are signed up?

It would be interesting to know what the current statistics would reveal. A further report  2016 report showed:

• 85,000 adults in Croydon do not have basic digital skills
• 35%of C2DE (skilled working class; skilled manual workers, working class; semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers and non working; casual or lowest grade workers pensioners and other who depend on the welfare state for their income.) lack basic digital skills
• 40%of low income households lack basic digital skills (compared to just 8% of high income households)
• 64%of over 65s lack basic digital skills

In the light of the cost of living crisis and the two reports discussed about I wonder what the current statistical information is.

General Update 5 November

Government Should Write Off Croydon’s Debt

The Government should write off Croydon Council’s £1.3bn General Fund debt, or bundle all its components together at a low interest rate, suggests Rowena Davies, Labour’s Chair of the Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee. She says ‘The people paying for these mistakes are the Croydon taxpayers who haven’t done anything wrong.’

Croydon says it continues to be in ‘regular’ talks with Government ministers about a ‘long-term solution to the council’s debt in order to balance its books’. (Municipal Journal, Local Government Journal, Inside Croydon. 1 November.)

Croydon Events

Wednesday 8 November 7-8pm. Croydon Climate Action

Online meeting at whichIan and Kavitha Morris will talk about the circular economy and their involvement in it, how to support Love Lane Green Community Garden in South Norwood, where the landlord has published his intention to close off its access and hear more about developments on CCA’s Trees4Croydon campaign.

Please email us at croydonclimateaction@gmail.com with ‘November CCA Meeting’ in subject line if there is anything that you would like us to include in AOB!

Zoom link: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82648142839?pwd=VzAxaTdOVzFOQTA1aXVkcnJCZmRJdz09

Meeting ID: 826 4814 2839

Passcode: 354213

Wednesday 8 November. 7.45pm. CWGC Architecture and Conservation

CNHSS talk by Christine Goodair of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This presentation will introduce some of the most iconic memorials and cemeteries the CWGC cares for across the world, before revealing how the very best architectural minds of the time influenced their design. East Croydon United Reform Church.

Croydon News

Inside Croydon postings

In the last week Inside Croydon has run postings about the continuing crisis at Whiftgift Foundation, the Council throwing the Credit Union out of Bernard Weatherill House, the resignation of a former Labour Councillor Resigns over Starmer, the Labour fundraiser event cancelled for fear of a demonstration, serious Questions About Purley Pool Developer and the St George’s/Nestle Tower developer in Hong Kong Court over debts.

Regina Flats Residents Do Not Know Where They Will be Rehoused

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/notorious-croydon-flats-demolished-no-28011101

Hospital Cleaners Suspend Strike While consider 10% Pay Rise Offer

https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2023/10/strike-at-croydon-hospital-put-on-hold-after-10-per-cent-pay-rise-offer/

College Rd Modular Tower Blocks Completed

HTA Design completes another two Croydon modular towers

Local Plan Timetable

Proposed submission consultation: January to February 2024

Submission of plan to Secretary of State: Summer 2024

Local plan examination anticipated during late 2024 (subject to availability of inspectors)

Local plan adoption anticipated December 2025

Knife Crime in Croydon

Knife crime in Croydon is up 25 per cent for the year to 681 by the end of March 2023 according to the House of Commons Library.

https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2023/10/croydon-knife-crime-rate-up-25-per-cent-from-last-year/

Croydon History

Jerry Fitzpatrick discusses Victorian school education and David Morgan on First World War correspondence from the Front in Inside Croydon.

Other History Events

Monday 6 November. 6pm. There is an abundance of work for all wounded soldiers … provided sobriety and good conduct are united’: disabled ex-servicemen and their transition to civilian life in the Corps of Commissionaires 1859 to 1939.

In-person and Zoom talk by Nick Bailey for Voluntary Action History Society, IHR, Senate House,  Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Wednesday, November 15. 6-7pm. The Branson Family

On-line talk by Jeanne Rathbone for Battersea Society

Register on Eventbrite

Clive Branson was an English artist, poet and active communist in the 1930s living in Battersea living in Battersea 1933-41. He was  Chairman of the Battersea Brach Communist Party. And a founder of  the Battersea Aid to Spain Committee. He fought in Spain as a member of the  International Brigade. He was killed in Burma during the War.  The Communist Party published his letters from India. His wife Noreen became a historian of the Communist Party and his daughter Rosa is a painter and fabric designer.

Labour History News

Video: The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914

Archives and Museums Issues

Those of us in Croydon have been concerned aver the years will the underfunding of the Croydon Archives and Museum and the limitations of research opportunities. The Council is not the only one. Greenwich Industrial History Society  is urging Greenwich Council to restore a properly functioning archive and museum service” and is running a petition at https://chng.it/cS7TtpzyHj

Croydon Council has been successful in securing £249,000 funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to collect, preserve and make accessible the digital archives of Croydon’s year as London Borough of Culture. (Council Your Croydon news release)

Slavery History

While doing some research on the internet in conjunction with Terry Graham of the Durham based Project North Star I stumbled across Robert Wright, a judge sent to colonial Carolina, who became a slave owner. In the course of follow-up Terry has come across the following details about Charleston and the slavery business in the colony.

https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/auction-sales-enslaved-residents-colonial-era-charleston

General Update 28 October

Croydon Council To Attack The Poor

The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 25 October has agreed to recover Council Tax arrears from benefit claimants,

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/croydon-council-tax-arrears-debt-recovery-bankruptcy-b1115843.html

This part of the cuts strategy 2024 to 2028. It was be an indictment to of the Government Improvement and Assurance Panel whose exit strategy to 2025 was also discussed by the Cabinet. The proposed action contrasts with the decision the former Wandsworth Tory Council took not to take action on rent arrears after I proved that it would cost more in legal and bailiff action than in recoverable areas. With the growing poverty in London it is clear that the Council needs to completely re-consider its anti-poverty strategy.

The IAP exist strategy can be read at:

Click to access 231011%20Exit%20Strategy%20Final%20Version.pdf

The Council is proposing further major cuts £30.9m.

While there will be a Budget consultation it will be on online from 6 November for at least six weeks. This will be discriminatory given towards those who are not on-line connected or savvy.

Click to access MTFS%20Report%20Final.pdf

See also Inside Croydon 25 & 26 October.

Government Remains In Control Until July 2025

Croydon LBC’s Government-appointed improvement panel has outlined a timetable for withdrawing from the authority amid ‘strong progress’ in fixing its finances.

The improvement and assurance panel chaired by former Lincolnshire CC chief Tony McArdle said it expected to complete its work at the south London borough by July 2025 or sooner.

The Council statement on the exit report of the Government’s Improvement & Assurance Panel can be see at

https://news.croydon.gov.uk/government-panel-sets-out-plan-to-exit-croydon-by-july-2025/

Yet Another Hot Air Conference

The Restart Conference will be held by the Council and developers

https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2023/10/19/restart-croydon-event-sets-out-to-explore-a-new-vision-for-the-local-area

Developer Tide Completes its College Road modular residential development comprising a 50-storey build-to-rent tower with 817 apartments, called Enclave: Croydon; and a 35-storey tower providing 120 affordable homes.

College Road

Will Whitgift Be Developed For More Housing?

One possibility for the development of the Whitgift Centre is more flats, a move underway that the other Westfield London schemes.

https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/why-unibail-is-building-flats-at-its-westfield-malls-20231025-p5eerg

Questions adapted from 2016 which may still be relevant in considering the next planning application:

• If car parking spaces are increased what will be the estimated contribution to air pollution?
• How many flats will be allocated to disabled users and what provision will be made for ramps, lifts and blue badge parking spaces?
• Can apartments be built on top of the shopping centre in a way that reduces the need for tower blocks?
• Will the Council refuse to accept an outline application with reserved design matters dealt with later in favour of a detailed application?
• Will landscaping be required as part of the planning application and not left to reserved design matters?
• What will be the need for community facilities for the residents?
• Will the applicant be required to submit a socio-economic impact statement about the development?
• What open and park space and communal gardens will be provided for the residents?

New Addington Remains Poorest Area in Croydon

Census and other statistics about the area can be seen on the Croydon Observatory website.

Hospital Cleaners And Porters To Strike

Cleaners and porters employed by outsourcing giant G4S at Croydon University Hospital are to stage a 48 hour walkout from 12am on Monday 30 October.

https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/croydon-hospital-cleaners-to-stage-48-hour-strike

Croydon’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-2029 Consultation

See https://www.getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/hrssurvey

Statistics on population and housing context can be seen at

https://www.getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/hrssurvey/widgets/79654/faqs#question21065

The Importance of Singing in Croydon

Singing for Creativity & Wellbeing

UK Ambassador for Singing Hospitals 

http://www.singing-hospitals.com/ 

Wednesday 8 November. 7.30pm.The Coming War On China

John Pilger’s excellent documentary on the historical context – from US Pacific nuclear tests and research on human victims of radioactivity – to the strategic build-up of US military bases. It’s a prescient warning of the dangers of current western intentions. Tickets: £5.00 (cash) at the bar/on the door; £5.80 on: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/697544613717

Croydon History Notes

Croydon supporter of Universal Races Congress 1911

The Universal Races Congress, held in London over three days in June 1911, was organised by Gustave Spiller, of the Ethical Culture movement. The aim of the Congress was to discuss race relations and relations between East and West. In involved anthropologists, sociologists, politicians, lawyers and students all gathered. The list if officers, Council and supporters includes  a Miss B. Pullen-Burry, FRAI, of Croydon. FRAI stands for Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. The lady is possibly one of the daughters of Henry Burry Pullen-Burry (1855 –1926), a doctor, occultist, author of the book Qabalism, and member of the occult group The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn founded in 1888. Apparently he deserted his family to take part in the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1905 he published Ethiopia in exile : Jamaica revisited. His two daughters were Ethel and Winfred. Annie Horniman, of the Croydon family and creator of repertory theatre paid for their education. (Sources include The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats. Volume IV, 1905-1907. 1986)

Votes For Women Plaques

Ethel Fennings, a suffragist, and Mary Pearson, a suffragette, have become the first two women ever to be commemorated on blue plaques added at 251-253 Selhurst Road.

First Blue Plaques for women in Croydon honour two suffragettes

History News

Level of History Knowledge

The  Bloomsbury Publishing You Gov survey showing that over 50% of Britons cannot name one Black historical figures. (Guardian. 26 October) appears on the surface to be a blow to all those who have been researching, writing publishing, speaking about such historical figures, and given the increasing coverage of TV. I wonder what the results of a survey would be that sought people’s views about make and female scientists, women suffragists and suffragettes, and radicals, trade unionists and politicians from the 18^thC to mid 20^th Century. Nor it’s the survey conclusion surprising given the lack of knowledge shown in the Guardian article on nominations for Black Britons for stamps although Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano have already been subject to stamps.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/28/britain-postage-stamp-black-history-month

Sunday 29 October. 2pm. Volunteers for Liberty

The annual event to commemorate the volunteers from the North East who gave their lives fighting in the International Brigade in Spain at the memorial plaque in the grounds of Newcastle Civic Centre.

Speakers will include author Alex Clifford and representatives from the Communist Parties of Britain and Spain.  There will also be the reading of the names of those who sacrificed their lives, and the laying of wreaths.

Bread not bayonets: Chartism and the strikes of 1842 on film

Saturday 18 November.  2pm. The Squatters of 1946

Talk by Don Watson for Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Labour History Society. Don is the author of Squatting in Britain 1945-1955: Housing, Politics, and Direct Action (Merlin Press 2016).

Derby West Indian Community Association, Carrington Street, Derby DE1 2ND.    

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82156266579

Black Conversations

27 October. 3pm. Dr Alexander Scott – From Liverpool to Lampeter and Back: Researching and Curating Transatlantic Slavery 

10 November. 2pm. Laura Trevellian –  The Heirs of Slavery – owners and enslaved workers – with an update on this initiative and research of families 

https://www.heirsofslavery.org/

17 November. Kate Phillips – author Bought and Sold (Luath Press 2022) katephillips1@mac.com

https://www.luath.co.uk/productsb/bought-and-sold

24 November. Kate Simpson of University of Sheffield and David Livingstone Centre will talk about the book she is writing about the women on Livingstone’s expeditions. kathryn.simpson@sheffield.ac.uk  

1 December. Nigel Slater will talk about his research into the story of the Troubadour Slave ship and its legacy, as well as his book The Legacy of Slavery in Britain

http://www.sandsoftimeconsultancy.com/   https://www.tcmuseum.org/projects/slave-ship-trouvadore/

8 December. The Museum of Diversity (https://museumofdiversity.com/) which is planning to get one place with the whole story of Black History. 

Black History News

Funding round for 2023 BME history projects now open

(https://sslh.org.uk)

Eliza Greenfield: From Jamaica to Arbroath

Eliza Greenfield: From Jamaica to Arbroath

History Matters Magazine

The third issue of the History Matters magazine can be downloaded at

Click to access ae0333_9945d467463b48b9b4020cfb80082378.pdf

There are problems with some of the articles in the three issues inc:

• The article on BASA and its work of curriculum reform and the role of its newsletters fails to mention that the BASA Archives and the newsletters are at Black Cultural Archives.
• The article on John Archer fails to reference my biography and has the wrong location for the Nubian Jak plaque. It draws heavily on Mike Philip’s article on the British Library website, which I advised on.
• The article on Coleridge-Taylor does not reference the work of book and the pamphlet by Jeffery Green

Labour Movement History News

The latest issue of Shelf Life (Working Class Movement Library) can be downloaded here.

file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Shelf%20Life%2070,%20Autumn%202023.pdf

The Society for the Study of Labour History website’s (https://sslh.org.uk) latest postings are:

• Organise! Organise! Organise! From messy politics to the paperwork of petitioning and memories of protests

• Bread not bayonets: Chartism and the strikes of 1842 on film

• Samuel Smiles and working-class politics: a new work from the late Malcolm Chase

• ‘Glimpsus Ankli and Veenecki’: catching sight of women workers in First World War aircraft factories