Angel Pond: Then and Now

This morning I started yet another New Year's Resolution to get fit by going for a jog around nearby Wanstead Flats. Less than 50m from the start of my run is "Angel Pond" seen then (early 20th century) and now in collage above.

It was named after the first ever West Ham Council Engineer,  Lewis Angell, who was responsible for its construction in 1893/94. It used to have rowing boats for hire and a bandstand. The fascist leader, Oswald Mosley, used to speak from the bandstand during weekends in the 1930s, nearby was the local headquarters of the British Union of Fascists in Woodford Road. He would have had a lively reception from anti-fascist locals.

The bandstand caught fire and was replaced by a circle of trees which you can see in the bottom photo. Angel pond is looking very full at the moment due to recent rain but the plan by Epping Forest is for it to be an aquatic nature reserve that is a pond in the winter but marshland during the summer.

Hopefully my resolution to get fit this year will last longer than it usually does (which is not very long but fingers crossed). 

Fascism in 1930's East London

Fascinating post by local history blog "E7 Now & Then" on Fascism in  Forest Gate, Newham, East London during the 1930s.

I have lived in Forest Gate since 1988 and I knew that Mosley and his fascists use to hold open air meetings at the old bandstand  near to where I now live in Wanstead Flats.

I didn't realise that I passed the former local British Union of Fascists district headquarters everyday on the way to and from the railway station.

The post is largely about Forest Gate but mentions fascist activities elsewhere in East London.

I think we should be proud that despite the mass unemployment and economic hardship of the 1930's that the fascists were never able to win any significant level of electoral support in London.

The Forest Gate fascists seemed to have been composed solely of racist middle class anti-semitics and working class jack boot uniform fetishists. I suspect they differed very little from our modern day racists and  fascists.