Dilip Sardar: The first Bengali Tower Hamlets Council employee?

 On Friday evening I went to a UNISON reunion with former colleagues who use to work in the Malmesbury Housing office in Bow, East London. We were all pleased to see Dilip (left) who retired from the Council 7 years ago.

Dilip joined the then Bethnal Green Council on 16 January 1962.  He started work in the Stores department of the depot in Digby Street, E2.  His manager at that time was not known by his job title but by his former military rank as "Major".   In 1965 Bethnal Green, Stepney and Poplar councils were merged to form "Tower Hamlets".

Dilip thinks in 1962 he may have been the first Tower Hamlets Council employee of Bengali origin.  Even though bearing in mind the strong trading links between Bengal and the Docks there was probably others who worked for the predecessor councils.  Dilip is a Hindu Bengali from outside Calcutta while most Bengali's in Tower Hamlets are Muslims who have roots in Bangladesh.

I first worked with Dilip as an Estate Officer in Malmesbury in the early 1990's together with our former manager, the shy and retiring, Derek Barclay (top right) and the hero of the hour Caretaking team leader, Montrose Matty (bottom right).  We reminisced about the good old days when there use to regular weekly team and community building meetings every Friday afternoon in various local public bars. 


Malmesbury was the last big estate (800 units) to be built by Tower Hamlets Council in the early 1980's.  We were based in a former fish and chip shop in Heylyn Square, E3.

The estate office also managed George Lansbury House (which was built near his former home) and the Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock on Electric House.  The famous Match Womens strike of 1888 also took place within the Estate boundaries.

A good night was had by all.

Battling Belles of Bow

This walking tour “The Battling Belles of Bow” is organised by SERTUC who ask colleagues to: “follow in the footsteps of Sylvia Pankhurst who chose east London as the starting point for her campaign for women's suffrage and seeing the plight of the working women and mothers also established a crèche, restaurant and model toy factory in the area. East End women were key to the success of the Suffragette movement and the route highlights their supporters and their workplaces including the Bryant & May Match Factory, site of the famous Match girls' strike of 1888”

I’ve worked as an Estate Officer in Bow, East London - for nearly 20 years. Firstly at a local housing office in Malmesbury Road where I once managed George Lansbury House and was also responsible for a time for the maintenance of Minnie Lansbury clock in nearby Electric House. Our estate also had properties in Fairfield Road where the privately run “gated community” called “Bow Quarter” is on the site of the original Bryant & May Factory.

Then I worked 300m away in another estate office in Armagh Road which was only around the corner from 1915 Sylvia Pankhurst clinic at “Gun Makers Arms “and the Suffragette meeting point now called the “Lord Morpeth “pub. I am now based right in the centre of Bow near the famous Roman Road Market.

This walk seems well worth a fiver!