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Between the World Wars 1919 – 1939
the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
Nationally between the Wars there was a very wide political spectrum (though the 1930s have been seen as a period of broad consensus and shared culture 3).
Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (the ‘Black Shirts’) was an atheistic, anti-Semitic uniformed organisation which attracted some members in Leyton. Petitions persuaded the Council to cancel a booking made by the British Union of Fascists for a meeting at the Town Hall on 7th April 1936 1. This was a period in which the BUF aimed to win elections and at the same time stirred up hatred of Jewish people and relished street fights with Communists (a combination which had brought Adolf Hitler to power in Germany). BUF District Organisers at this time included Harold Scott-Turner, a journalist of Liverpool Road, tall, blonde, about 25 years of age, often wearing riding breeches and boots. The cobbled space in front of the Baker’s Arms pub provided a site for street propaganda.
Politics : Fascism
2 East London for Mosley: The British Union of Fascists in East London and South West Essex 1933-1940 by Thomas P Linehan
3 ‘Hunger ... is a very good thing’, Britain in the 1930s by Tony Mason in ‘From Blitz to Blair, A New History of Britain since 1939’ edited by Nick Tiratsoo
On the night of 18th April 1937 the synagogue in Drayton Road (photo to the right is of 1950s building) was damaged, but Leyton offered fewer targets for anti-Semitism than the rag trade areas of Hackney and Shoreditch. 2
