Year: 2015

Churchill and Wanstead, episode two

churchillIt’s 50 years this month since Winston Churchill’s death, and Wansteadium is going the extra mile for the people of Wanstead by reading Churchill: The Member for Wanstead Woodford by David A Thomas which tells the story of his relationship with his constituency.

(Though out of print, the book can be bought from Amazon here, in physical or electronic form.)

Episode two.
Yesterday we left our hero returned to Parliament after repeated electoral defeats in various constituencies. He was on his way to becoming a fully fledged Conservative, having served as a Liberal cabinet minister several times. He was accepted by the Epping constituency, which was in those days massive, but then again only men were allowed to vote. But by the end of 1924, he was back in the Commons. That’s where we got to.

Stanley Baldwin was the new prime minister. Some in the party didn’t want to give Churchill a cabinet post. Churchill himself wasn’t sure if he would accept a minor role or should hold out for a biggie. In the end, Baldwin asked him: “Will you go to the Treasury?” Thomas reports: “Churchill records that he would have liked to have replied: ‘Will the bloody duck swim?’ Instead, upholding the formality and the importance of the occasion, he replied more appropriately, ‘I shall be proud to serve you in this splendid Office.’”

Not everyone was happy though, even in the constituency. He tried charming people – even going to the Cowslip Road Branch annual general meeting in the Latchett Hall (a tin hut which was the forerunner to the Latchett Evangelical Church just off George Lane in South Woodford). Cowslip Road had its own branch! In his first Budget he restored the Gold Standard (pegging the pound sterling to the value of gold with the aim of retaining London’s financial dominance). Then came the National Strike, and Churchill turned his hand to being a newspaperman, producing a daily news sheet called The British Gazette. This is while he was also being chancellor of the exchequer. In Wanstead, as in other places, the paper was distributed by volunteers.

There were no winners from the National Strike, really, and Churchill said the year was ‘harassing, worrying and disappointing’ when he spoke to constituents in what Thomas describes as “the dingy Drummond Rooms in Wanstead close by Christ Church Green”. Any Wansteadium readers know where the Drummond Rooms were? It was at this time that women over 21 were given the vote. Any guesses as to how our greatest leader referred to this landmark in British democracy? “The flappers’ vote.” (In his defence, he does not seem to have been alone in using this term.)

And so this second instalment ends with Churchill in 1928 addressing the Aldersbrook Branch of the party in 1928 when he delivered the following speech warning about disarmament. Thomas refers to it as The Aldersbrook Fable, and the Churchill Centre’s archives report it as follows:

Once upon a time all the animals in the Zoo decided that they would disarm, and they arranged to have a conference to arrange the matter. So the Rhinoceros said when he opened the proceedings that the use of teeth was barbarous and horrible and ought to be strictly prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be allowed. The Buffalo, the Stag, the Porcupine, and even the little Hedgehog all said they would vote with the Rhino, but the Lion and the Tiger took a different view. They defended teeth and even claws, which they described as honourable weapons of immemorial antiquity. The Panther, the Leopard, the Puma, and the whole tribe of small cats all supported the Lion and the Tiger.

Then the Bear spoke. He proposed that both teeth and horns should be banned and never used again for fighting by any animal. It would be quite enough if animals were allowed to give each other a good hug when they quarreled. No one could object to that. It was so fraternal, and that would be a great step towards peace. However, all the other animals were very offended with the Bear, and the Turkey fell into a perfect panic.

The discussion got so hot and angry, and all those animals began thinking so much about horns and teeth and hugging when they argued about the peaceful intentions that had brought them together that they began to look at one another in a very nasty way. Luckily the keepers were able to calm them down and persuade them to go back quietly to their cages, and they began to feel quite friendly with one another again.


In tomorrow’s riveting instalment, Churchill has strong views about Gandhi, socialism, Nazis, and the size of meeting halls in Wanstead.

Churchill and Wanstead, episode one

Later this month is the 50th anniversary of the death of Winston Churchill. The bust outside Manor House marks the building’s past as the location of the Conservative Club. But beyond that, many Wanstead residents will not know much about his association with Wanstead. So in one of our occasional bursts of public service, Wansteadium is proudly reading Churchill: The member for Woodford, written by David A Thomas in 1994, and over the next few days will be sharing choice snippets.

(Though out of print, the book can be bought from Amazon here, in physical or electronic form.)

Episode One. The book starts with Churchill having been a Liberal MP for more than 20 years, having had five Cabinet posts, but now without a seat. He had lost Dundee in 1922 (even though he addressed 4,000 voters soon after having appendicitis and had to be ‘propped up, half-lying on a sort of sedan chair’). He then lost West Leicester in 1923. He lost again in January 1924. There were a lot of general elections then. He began to look for a safe London Tory seat – and was encouraged to eye up Epping. Women weren’t allowed to vote then. Also the constituencies were enormous. Epping started at Aldersbrook and stretched beyond Harlow. He knew Aldersbrook because his nurse – ‘that dear and excellent woman Mrs Everest’ – was buried in the City of London cemetery and he mourned there as a boy. He got selected as the candidate for Epping, though some in the local party had reservations. Him having been a Liberal for 20 years, that kind of thing. For Churchill, one of the attractions was that the new constituency was close to home. Thomas writes: “Churchill added contentedly that he made the journey from Woodford to Chartwell via the Blackwall Tunnel in only one hour and 20 minutes.” Beats driving to Dundee. After being selected as candidate, he went for a drink at the Manor House Conservative Club on Wanstead High Street. “What a fine club,” he wrote. He worked hard on giving speeches around the constituency and meeting thousands of voters (all men, naturally), and in 1924, aged 49, became MP for Epping. Which included Wanstead.

In tomorrow’s exciting installment, the new prime minister asks Winston if he will go to the Treasury. He nearly swears at him. But he does it and is faced with the National Strike, when he turns newspaperman. He does, however, have to visit a dingy room in Wanstead…

Octopus praise

Wanstead’s food blogger Suki Orange notes: Congratulations to Luppolo for making it into the Shortlist magazine hunt for the perfect pizza. Not bad coverage for a restaurant not a month old, even if the pizza in question is the one which bewildered me for my review last week, (baby octopus). I cant help be mystified by Shortlist’s descriptions of “the wilds of Wanstead” though, and as for one of the main advantages of Luppolo being within sight of the Tube, I’ve got nothing.

The Wanstead Festival is ON after all

Despite fears that the changes in Redbridge Council funding could mean the Wanstead Festival would no longer take place, the council decided on Monday evening to continue to back the event. The Health, Leisure and Older People service committee agreed to put £10,000 of council tax money behind the event, meaning it can take place as normal.

Regular readers will remember that the changes in funding, which involved the axing of the area committees, was the trigger to the community fundraising effort which raised more than £3k to pay for the Wanstead Christmas tree.

However, since the tree was put up, there have been claims on social media and elsewhere that the trees in other parts of the borough were in fact funded by the council despite the ending of the area committees. Wansteadium has been trying to get confirmation or denial of this from Redbridge Council, and will update this post if it gets it.

The following is the item from the council papers describing the Wanstead Festival.

funding1

And this is how the decision was reported via the council Twitter account.

Other events which will also be funded include the following, and appear here as described in the council papers:

  • London Youth Games (£1,800)
  • Armed Forces Day (£5,000)
  • Barley Lane ‘Our Community Festival’ (£10,000)
  • Woodford Festival (£5,000)
  • Fairlop Fair (£10,000)
  • Town Centre Events including Ken Aston Square (£15,000)
  • Celebratory/Recognition programme, ie Black History Month, LGBT History Month, Anti-Slavery (£7,200)