Coming soon - a book for all fans of this blog!

I've written a few stories on this blog about the old "workhouse school" on Forest Lane, and in particular about the dreadful fire that killed 26 of the resident boys on New Year's Eve, 1890.

I've also posted about its later life as a maternity hospital for most of the twentieth century and the buildings' subsequent times as a housing scheme - Gladys Dimson House - Forest Lane Park and some other housing initiatives, in and around Magpie Close, over the years.

An estimated 50,000 East End children were brought up in the institution in the nineteenth century, and a further 50,000 were born there in the twentieth century.

Over lockdown I've written a book telling the intruiging story of the buildings and institution and subsequent fates of the children who lived there, from the 1850s. It is called Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Abuse, Neglect and Fire in a London Children's Workhouse, 1854-1907 It will be published on 26 August, priced £12.99.

I think its a great story - told for the first time.

There is real insight into the daily lives of the up to 900 children who lived there at any one time, in prison-like conditions, from the age of two, over a fifty year period. They were overwhelmingly shipped there from workhouses in Whitechapel, Hackney and Poplar and left until they were sent into the world aged 14 or so, having had minimal contact with parents, siblings or the outside world  over those years.

Previously unknown heroes and villians emerge. Britain's first female civil servant (Jane Senior) and first female workhouse school governor (Henrietta Barnett) stand out as key reformers of what was truly an appalling establishment from the 1870s - 1890s. They were trail blazers for two working class men who cut their public service teeth as governors of the school at the end of the nineteenth century and replacing it in the early twentieth century, en route to becoming Labour MPs Will Crooks and George Lansbury.

 

The barbaric instituion sired a surprisingly successful training ship - The Goliath - in Grays, Essex, which became a short-lived beacon for naval training. Its story is told in some detail, until a dreadful fire destroyed it, with a loss of 22 lives in 1875.

The lessons learned from Forest Gate in the second half of the nineteenth century played key roles in shaping and building a new and reformed framework policy for the care of looked-after children for the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, for the whole of Britain. 

A chapter of the book is devoted to examining how those various experiments, overwhelmingly in Essex, evolved, after the institutional barrenness of the Forest Gate "school" was gradually replaced by more humane and child-centric institutions and more latterly homes.

The fascinating story of the Forest Gate District school, as it was usually known, is set within a historic and geographic context of the history of state, charity and church efforts to deal with pauper children in Britain and elsewhere in Europe since the Norman Conquest.

The book will be available, from 26 August (although can be pre-ordered) from Newham Bookshop and all other good booksellers.

I'll be launching it at an event hosted by the Newham Bookshop on Thursday 26 August, between 5.30 and 7pm. The totally informal occasion will consist of some drinks, a few nibbles and some words from me, and, of course, a chance to be the the first to buy the book, hot off the presses!

You are cordially invited to the event at Newham Bookshop. All I ask is that you contact the bookshop (details on the invitation) or me, if you intend coming, so that we can plan the refreshments for the event.

Look foward to seeing you there!

 

 

There has been a spate of non-fiction books written by Forest Gate authors over the last two years, which are featured in the right hand column of this blog. They are:

E7-NowAndThen contributor Peter Williams' well illustrated book on the history of the West Ham fire brigade.

Fellow E7-NowandThen writer and @Flatshistorian Twitter account holder, Mark Gorman, has recently published an account of how Wanstead Flats was saved for public use in the Victorian era.

Yet another 'Forest Gate History Boy' Robert Nurden last year published a fascinating account of his controversial grandfather. Who in an event-packed life was a Nonconformist minister, hobo, journalist, cowboy, mercenary soldier, pacifist during WW1 and early feminist, who later converted to Catholicism, for which he became a noted theologian and writer. Oh - he was also a bit of a Lothario.

Owen Walker was born and brought up in Forest Gate and is now a Walthamstow-based, award winning Financial Times journalist. He led the news pack on the story and subsequently published an account of the rise and fall of Neil Woodford, once the pin-up boy of British financial advisors. His fall from grace has cost literally millions of people, directly and indirectly through pension funds etc, to regret their lack of due diligence in dealing with him and his empire.

 

 

All books are available from the wonderful Newham Bookshop.

Kenney Jones in E7 - Now and Then!

Kenney Jones, one- time drummer of The Small Faces, The Faces and The Who, last week returned to his east end roots and performed at the Wanstead Tap, where he discussed his autobiography, Let The Good Times Roll, with rock journalist Paolo Hewitt, in one of the Tap's great book collaborations with the Newham Bookshop. A most enjoyable evening, it was, too.

Above - the book.
Below - the signing

Kenney was born in Stepney, a couple of months after the NHS was established, and has come a long way since. His career as a rock musician, had Mod written through it, in much the same way as seaside rock has the name of the resort through it.

He  now owns  a Surrey polo club, hob-nobbing with the likes of Prince Charles on the pitch, and has swapped the Lambrettas for the  Lambourghinis.

Kenney playing polo with his new mate
Prince Charles at his Hurtwood Park
polo club, in Surrey

His story - as told in his book, and elsewhere - is a fascinating one and owes some huge debts to Forest Gate. What follows is a recollection of some of those, and a consideration of his life and times in music and beyond.

Kenney - the second "e" was added to distinguish him from other entertainers with similar names in the 60's - is a self described "Stepney Herbert", who was gripped by music in his early teens, and ventured over to Forest Gate:

Local dance clubs offered another opportunity to hear great music. At weekends we would queue for venues such as the Lotus in Forest Gate (ed: Kenny Johnson's venue - see footnote) , which initially, played dance records before it began hosting bands.

While in the area, he came across the J60 Music Bar at 445 High Street North, Manor Park - long gone (see photo below, today). It was, in Jones' words "an Aladdin's cave" and was there he bought his first drum kit, aged 13.

He soon met Stan Lane, who introduced him to his brother, the later bassist, Ronnie, and in no time Kenney was dragging his drums from Stepney to Ronnie's house, at 385 Romford Road to practice, as they began to put a band together.

Kenney links up with Ronnie Lane and starts jamming at his house,

                                     385 Romford Road

It wasn't long before the pair of them were back at the J60 to get a guitar for Ronnie (as he had switched from lead to bass) and ended up jamming in the shop with the Saturday boy, who turned out to be Steve Marriott - to the annoyance of the owner, who soon sacked Marriott for selling the bass to Lane at a cut price.

Ronnie and Kenney meet Steve Marriott (above), the Saturday boy at the J60 Music Bar (recent photo of its later reincarnation), 445 High Street North - and The Small Faces are born

Marriott had been brought up about half way between the J60 and Ronnie Lane's house, at 308  Strone Road. His dad, among other things, had a shell fish stall outside the Ruskin Arms - also on High Street North. The emerging musical trio linked up with the son of the pub's landlord - Jimmy Winston (aka Longwith) - who joined in, on keyboards, but more importantly offered practice space at the back room of the pub for the boys.

Left - 308 Strone Road, where Marriott
was brought up, right The Ruskin Arms,
where the Small Faces began practising seriously

The band gradually emerged and called themselves The Small Faces, because - well, they were all small - around 5'5" each. Winston was soon dropped and replaced by Ian McLagan - and the band took off, locally around 1965.

The opening of the Upper Cut club, on Woodgrange Road was a big occasion for Kenney Jones, both personally and professionally. He tells the story in the book:

My introduction to session work came about as a direct result of meeting Jan Osborne on 21 December 1966, following The Who's performance at the opening night of heavyweight boxer Billy Walker's The Upper Cut Club in Forest Gate, East London. My cousin, Roy, and I attended the gig, after which we met up back stage with Adrienne Posta and her friend Jan.

Jan later became his wife, for about a decade, and they had two children. Her father, Tony, also had a significant influence on the young Kenney. He was a prominent band leader of the day and taught Kenney how to read music, which became an intro for the young drummer to session music. He played this in parallel with his time with the bands. It extended his talents,  repertoire and contacts greatly - and made not a little money on the side for him.

Small Faces - Kenney Jones in front, with the
big checks - just the way he liked it!

The Small Faces were by now making a considerable name for themselves locally and nationally and made a big impact on the Upper Cut within a couple of weeks of it opening - and on a second occasion during the club's year long existence (see press cuttings for the story).

Above - adverts for the Small Faces gigs at the Upper Cut, 6 January 1967 and 8 July, the same year.  Below Stratford Express coverage of their gigs

The autobiography, itself, is Kenney's own slant on the familiar rock star tale of sex, drugs and rock and roll, complete with the touring excesses of scandalous bad boy behaviour.  All the staple elements are there: bands breaking up over "musical differences", bands being ripped off by devious managers/agents/promoters, and the double standards of rockers who toured and played away, but who objected to their WAGS staying at home and playing away.

Kenney Jones performed for the three of the biggest bands of the 60's and 70's - The Small Faces, The Faces and The Who and has lived to tell the tale.

Familiar themes recur in his story. His attitude to money - let's call it careful. His relationship with lead singers (Marriott, Stewart and Daltry) - let's call it feisty. And his attitude to authority - let's call it challenging. Perhaps they are connected and help define the man.

Kenney - far right, with The Faces

He has looked after himself. As his book tells us, and he probably had cause to remind many, he was a distant relation of the Kary twins. He is also a survivor, probably because his excesses were less extreme than many of his contemporaries. 

So, he has outlived the other members of the Small Faces (Steve Marriott died aged 44 in 1991, Ronnie Lane aged 51 in 1997 and Ian McLagan aged 69 in 2014).

Kenney in The Who, second right
and keeping close tabs on Roger Daltrey

He has also survived life as a drummer, an instrument notorious for the self-destruction of its musicians. Keith Moon, of The Who,  died aged 32 in 1978 - to be replaced by Jones. John Bonham of Led Zepplin also died aged 32, in 1980. Cozy Powell of the Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow and Black Sabbath survived until 1998, when he died, aged 51 and Mitch Mitchell who played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and with Georgie Fame went, aged 62 in 2008.

A Faces reunion in 1993, as a fund raiser for
Ronnie Lane (with stick, in centre) suffering from MS

Kenney Jones' survivor capacity extends beyond the music industry. He is a prostate cancer survivor and a keen supporter of charities associated with it.

He has enjoyed the good life outside of music, too. A helicopter and a fleet of smart cars is never far away from his Surrey polo club, which he admits is proving a drain on his £20m net worth. This, of course,  enables him to mix within circles undreamed of in his Stepney roots. But he has never deserted or disowned them, and was happy to reminisce about his early life and times,  at the Tap.

A recent photo, with ex Faces Ronnie
Wood and Rod Stewart at a fund raiser
for Protate Cancer research, at Kenney
Jones' Guildford polo club

So - a most enjoyable night was had at the 75 people lucky enough to be there (tickets sold out within 2 hours) on an occasion put on by the great local double act of Newham Bookshop and the Wanstead Tap - the entertainment highlight of E7 - now.

Kenney (right), a man at ease talking
about his East End roots to journalist Paolo
Hewitt, at the Wanstead Tap in July 2018

Kenney - left - having a drink
 after his E7 show at the Tap

Footnotes:

1. Let The Good Times Roll, by Kenney Jones is published by Blink Publishing and retails at £20. Copies (some signed) can be obtained from Newham Bookshop - tel: , 745-747 Barking Road, or via their website: www.newhambooks.co.uk  

2. Readers of this article may be interested in the following articles on this site, featuring themes mentioned in it:

The Newham Bookshop History

The Life and Times of Ronnie Lane

Kenny Johnson and the Lotus Club

Small Faces at the Upper Cut Club (1)

Small Faces at the Upper Cut Club (2)

Billy Walker recalls the Upper Cut club

Happy birthday, Newham Bookshop!

The familiar frontage - it is what
it says on the fascia board

Today is  World Book Day, and the beginning of the month in which Newham Bookshop - managed by Forest Gate stalwart, Vivian Archer  - celebrates its 40th anniversary.  In this article we examine its history, the challenges it has faced and its golden autumn.

Thanks all round - but especially
to Newham Bookshop

The bookshop emerged, in March 1978, from an initiative begun five years previously in an attempt to confront low educational achievement in Newham. 1973 saw the establishment of Newham Education Concern (slogan, "stick our NECs out"), in Plaistow, by some concerned parents.

Within two years the pressure group had established the Parents Centre, which thrived for over 20 years, promoting educational advancement in the borough.  One of the Parents' Centre's offshoots was a small publishing arm, which produced a number of fine historic, autobiographic and photo-books celebrating the borough - including those shown in the picture, below.

Some of the Parents' Centre's
impressive publications

Before the Centre was established, local parents could not get hold of good educational materials to help their kids at school, so the idea of an Education Shop emerged.  It was initially located in an old Eel and Pie shop in Prince Regents Lane.

One of the pressure group's founders, and for the last 30 years Secretary of the London Voluntary Sector Training Consortium, Ray Phillips, said this of the present shop's origins:

When we moved to the Boleyn in 1978, we set up a separate company to develop a proper Education Shop for the sale of play materials and books. Later, we were also able to refurbish the double-fronted bookshop, with the now familiar space split between children's and adult ranges. After a difficult start, we never looked back.

Ray wrote that in a booklet to celebrate the shop's silver anniversary in 2003. And the final sentence could not be truer, today.

The shop is community-owned and the management committee consists of volunteers. The overall manager, Vivian Archer, joined the shop 30 years ago. She is ably assisted by another Forest Gate stalwart, John Newman, who manages the children's section. CJ Gajjar, was in charge of that when we visited.

CJ with just some of the extensive children's stock

Vivian's background is in drama.  She studied at the Central School for Speech and Drama in the late 60's, where she made a series of acquaintances - like the Redgraves, Ken Loach and others - who spurred her on. She spent 10 years as a working actor, with roles on both the stage and TV, before moving to the more settling world of bookshop management.

Her first experience was in Hackney, before moving to Newham in the 1980's. She has built up a network of influential literary supporters, including poets John Hegley and Benjamin Zephaniah (who wrote a poem to celebrate their silver jubilee) - and one-time children's laureate, poet and Radio 4 stalwart, Michael Rosen.

Benjamin Zephaniah - an early and loyal supporter

Michael, who will be appearing in one of the events being hosted to celebrate 40 glorious years (see footnote), had this to say about the shop in 2003:

Newham Bookshop is simply the best bookshop I know.  In the years I've had something to do with it, I've seen the way in which it is a place that reaches out to the people who live, work and study nearby. With meetings, signings and readings, the bookshop announces to the community that it is interested in ideas, people, history, education and life itself....

In Michael Rosen's view: "Newham
Bookshop is simply the best bookshop I know"

It is a showcase for what a bookshop should be about and I can only wish that many other booksellers ... would come and see what is possible, when you treat the people ...  with respect and interest. May the bookshop live on and all who work in it!"

Newham Bookshop's survival has been remarkable, and down to the dedicated staff and volunteers who work for and with it.  Consider the challenges it has faced over the last 20 years alone.

Until 1997 a scheme known as the Net Book Agreement (NBA) was in operation - which meant that all new books had to be sold at a publisher's fixed price in every shop and outlet. There was a level playing field in the industry , designed to protect small independents, like Newham Bookshop.

The scrapping of the NBA meant a free-for all in the book market. It saw the emergence of large chains such as Waterstones, who, along with established sellers like WH Smith,  could now bulk purchase, and sell new and popular books at discount.

Supermarkets jumped on the bandwagon too and handpicked pot-boilers and books from popular authors, bulk purchased and sold them - often as lost leads - at huge discounts, sometimes far below the price shops like Newham Bookshop could even purchase them at.

Unlike these 'pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' competitors,  Newham Bookshop stocks a huge range of books on politics, history, literature and local interest and the children's bookshop is a must for relatives looking for books and educational toys and aids for the very young.

Vivian says that you can almost track the different waves of immigration coming into Newham, by the sales of the various bi-lingual dictionaries and phrasebooks sold at the store.

Vivian, surrounded by some
of the shop's many thousands
of books

Having ridden the storm of seeing the sale of best-sellers effectively taken away from them, independents, like the Newham shop began to face two more massive challenges as the 21st century changed people's leisure and shopping habits.

Kindles emerged a decade ago  - 'to make hard copies of books and their retailers redundant'. Newham Bookshop did not bow to the proclaimed inevitable, but persevered.  The result has seen "the dead Kindle in the cupboard" emerge, as readers have reverted to the hard copy book.

Kindle's manufacturer, Amazon, have not given up, however.  They are now the dominant force in the retail book market, and almost all the competition is suffering badly.

This fateful combination of negative book trade factors has had a dramatic effect.  Over 550 -almost half - of small UK bookstores have closed in the last decade.

On top of these factors , Newham Bookshop has had to overcome its own very local difficulty recently.

Twenty times a year the shop could count on a bumper sales day, as West Ham supporters, from near and far would descend on the shop on match-days, snaffling up some of the wide range of club-related books on sale - or perhaps to meet an old crowd favourite player who would cheerfully sign their autobiographies in the shop.

No more. West Ham's move from the Boleyn to the London Stadium in the Olympic Park has cut off that regular piece of passing trade. None of those associated with the new stadium will enable fans to buy what they want from the Bookshop there.

Despite the very formidable obstacles Newham Bookshop has encountered, particularly over the last two decades, the shop soldiers on.  And this is in no small part to the goodwill and contacts that Vivian has built up over that period.

So, on World Book Day, the shop will receive visits from possibly hundreds of local school children, ready to exchange the tokens they get for the occasion for books in the shop.  Last year they had 1800 visitors on the day. And all because the Bookshop has cultivated great relationships with schools in Newham, Redbridge and Barking over the years - bringing authors to schools and helping with school libraries and book sales.

CJ welcomes you to
World Book Day

Vivian has matched her great contacts in the book trade with one of Forest Gate's quirkiest ventures, to provide great evenings of local entertainment and education.  The, now regular, book events at the Wanstead Tap are almost guaranteed sell outs and big local crowd pleasers.

It is a real win:win:win:win combination. Authors love coming to the relaxed, invariably packed venue, and meet engaged audiences at the Tap, Forest Gate comes out in force for the events, Dan Clapton entertains, gets alcohol sales and cements his place on the map as the area's best events venue and the Bookshop gets sales. An almost ideal combination.  And as Dan says - "Viv lines 'em up, I say 'yes' and a great evening is had by all!' See footnote for details of forthcoming events.

Vivian's car is like a travelling bookstore.  In addition to author's events at the Tap, she regularly services events at Conway Hall, and for 5x15 sessions in Notting Hill, as well as other venues, across London.

As Michael Rosen has said, much of Newham Bookshop's success is down to its relationship with the communities it serves. So, the bookshop plays an active part in trying to retain the now-famous World Cup statue in its original home - just opposite the shop - rather than have it moved to the soulless London Stadium.

Of the community - campaigning for
the community in the fight
to keep this landmark local

Vivian is a trustee of a charity set up in honour of East End author, Gilda O'Neil, and as such is promoting Holding the Baby - sponsored by the charity, a travelling exhibition, around Newham's libraries sharing memories of childcare and parenting in the East End in the 1950's. It is launched today (1 March 2018 at 5.30 in Plaistow library) and will tour the borough's libraries for a year.

Vivian used her contacts and entrepreneurial skills to persuade publishers and authors to donated signed copies of their books to her, to auction, with the proceeds going to the survivors of Grenfell Towers.  Over £7,000 has been raised to date.

So, Newham Bookshop is in the community, and of the communities it serves. And it is this formula that has ensured its success against very formidable obstacles.  Long may it continue to prosper - for all of our sakes!

A busy shop window, for a busy shop

Footnotes 

1.Anniversary celebrations. Newham Bookshop has arranged a series of exciting events at the Wanstead Tap, to celebrate its anniversary.  Over the coming months renowned authors such as Misha Glenny (of McMafia fame), Michael Rosen, Stuart Cosgrove and Helen Pankhurst,  will be appearing, together with important evenings with authors discussing books on autism and others on the future of the Labour Party.For contact details see below.

2. Contact details Newham Bookshop is based at 745-747 Barking Road E13 9ER. Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 9.30 - 5pm, Saturday 10 am - 5pm. Phone: 020 8552 9993.

Its website is https://www.newhambooks.co.uk, e.mail address: info@newhambooks and Twitter account (8,000 followers):  @NewhamBookshop.

3. Events bookings Tickets for events are sold via both The Wanstead Tap and Newham Bookshop websites. A handy hint: The Tap often sell out before the Bookshop. If you want to go to an event and the Tap says 'Sold out' - try the Bookshop - you may be lucky!