As told to Patrick Allen

I was born and raised in Cork, Ireland. After finishing my engineering degree there in summer 1969, I moved permanently to London but did not reach Tolmers Square until the winter of 1975/76.

Tolmers via Lexham Gardens, Elgin Avenue and Canfield Gardens

 I first stayed in Lexham Gardens, Earls Court. Two adjacent mid-Victorian townhouses had been converted into a warren of bedsitters. Many friends of mine from Cork were already living there, a few of whom (Donal, Seamus and Dervilla) later lived in Tolmers Square in the late 1970s. A book could be written about the Lexham Gardens days.¹ The caretaker landlady, Olga Solski, had featured in a News of the World article about the house, prominent photo and all. Many of the Cork people living there were thankful that the paper was not available in Ireland at that time!

I had been very involved in left-wing politics during my later years in university. So when I came to London I joined various political groups that campaigned (i) for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland; (ii) against internment of political activists; and (iii) for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland. I soon got to know Gerry Lawless³, a famous but controversial character who was very active in London Irish émigré politics in the 1960s and 1970s. He later became a Labour Party councillor in Hackney. Gery encouraged me to join a political group and not just confine my involvement in politics to single-issue campaigns. I joined the International Marxist Group (the IMG) in summer 1970 since I was impressed with the Group’s analysis of Irish politics². 

For some reason that I can’t remember, the need to pay rent in Lexham Gardens evaporated a short time after I moved in.  Eventually the landlord’s agent, a Dub called Mervin, emptied the building by summer 1972 using bribery, blackmail and other means. I had got to know Piers Corbyn (Yes! Jeremy’s brother) who was also in the IMG at the time. Piers, then a physics postgraduate student at Imperial College, was opening a squat in Elgin Avenue (at the Harrow Road end) and offered me a room there⁴. Many of the Lexham Gardens people subsequently came to the Elgin Avenue squat. 

My stay at Elgin Avenue lasted until early 1974. Fiona, my new girlfriend, who was also in the IMG, had been offered a room in a more salubrious squat in Canfield Gardens, behind Waitrose in Swiss Cottage and we jumped at the chance of moving there. I had also started working in the IMG bookshop, then situated in the Caledonian Road. 

The IMG and Tolmers

A confession – I don’t remember when exactly I came to live in Tolmers Square. It was sometime in winter 1975 / spring 1976. I knew about the Tolmers Village community well before I came to live there. From the early days many IMG supporters were living in Tolmers Square. From memory – Peter and Halya Gowan, Patrick Camiller, Anna Klein, John and Jackie, and Yarko all lived on the South side, and there were other members and supporters in No 12 on the North side. IMG members participated in the various campaigns run by Tolmers residents but their politics had little appeal. The most influential person then in Tolmers politics was Alan Walter. The IMG was always full of rival factions or tendencies and the IMG people in Tolmers were members of the main opposition tendency. The basement of No 17 Tolmers Square, being both in Central London and near to major railway stations was a regular, semi-secret meeting place for this tendency. 

Peter Gowan⁵ (see New Left Review interview) was later to become Professor of International Relations at London Metropolitan University, and to become a member of the editorial committee of New Left Review and was one of the founders of the journal Labour Focus on Eastern Europe. He was then, in the early 1970s, involved in overseas ‘security work’ with IMG’s fraternal organisations in other countries. He was in touch with a Czech underground dissident group in London. The Czech people in London who were involved in this later became part of the post 1990 government.

The IMG would periodically provide a pair of drivers to drive vans across the Czech border, taking in books and papers hidden in false compartments, and bringing other things out. When living in Swiss Cottage I was asked by Peter to volunteer but had to decline as I did not even have a driving licence! My partner Fiona volunteered. It was arranged that she meet up with her co-driver, Doug Smith, in the IMG bookshop before leaving. I had not met Doug before then – he was a Tolmers Village squatter and then boyfriend of Sacha Craddock. The trip encountered some hitches with drop-offs but they safely crossed the border back into Austria. Fiona and I separated in autumn 1975. She left London sometime in the late 1980s. By chance we met up at the Irish Centre in Camden about 10 years ago. Reminiscing about old times I asked if she remembered Doug Smith from a trip to Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. “Yes!” She said, “Didn’t get on with him at all!” “He’s now my brother-in-law!” I explained. A description of these clandestine trips appears in the Peter Gowan New Left Review interview.

The first time I met Sacha

In the IMG I was in charge of what was called the Central Educational Group, a class that explained IMG’s politics to new members. Sacha was a health worker at University College Hospital. She joined the union National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and became a convenor. She met people in the IMG, probably also Tolmers residents. She joined up and was invited to come along to my group for some induction. It wasn’t just about giving lectures. Being ahead of my time (!), I used role-play frequently in these meetings.  I pretended to be a kind of in-your-face member of another political grouping being very challenging at a union meeting. Sacha found this totally bewildering. Afterwards she was asked about the meeting and said it was terrible! She couldn’t deal with the organiser (me) at all and his very aggressive approach. Prominent IMG members Robin Blackburn and Peter Gowan went and complained to the London regional organiser and said: “Do something about these classes and the people who are running them (i.e. me), otherwise the organisation risks losing young working-class militants like Sacha Craddock”!

Becoming a lifelong Arsenal supporter 

The Villabella Restaurant at 187 North Gower Street did lovely traditional breakfasts and was popular with squatters. While having breakfast there with Sacha and Colin on a Saturday morning in late 1976, they wondered if I would like to come to see the Arsenal v Manchester United game that afternoon. At university I had a very keen interest in football but had let this wane in my early years in London. That was about to change. I witnessed a very entertaining 3 -1 Arsenal victory. I was especially impressed by the number of Irish players on the Arsenal team including the famous Liam Brady. I became a fan for life. I enjoyed going to the Boxing Day derbies often with Patrick Allen, Keith Kirby and Henry Hodge. I remember attending the disappointing 1978 Cup Final defeat to Ipswich and in the following year getting a spare Hodge, Jones and Allen ticket to the 1979 Cup Final win over Manchester United, a match long remembered for the finish with 3 goals in the last six minutes.

The pubs in Tolmers Village

The Lord Palmerston, very popular with the early Tolmers squatters, closed around the time that I came to live in No 16 Tolmers Square. I have dim memories of having a drink there on occasions and being struck by the vibrant atmosphere and the array of clothing styles. Another popular pub was the The Crown and Anchor on the corner of Drummond Street and North Gower Street. A wide range of people used to drink there: staff from The Leveller magazine, Euston Station and Simmonds furniture store all frequented the place. The pool table was very popular. Jeyant Patel, founder of the Diwana Bhel Poori House, was a regular and able pool player. Many of the Simmonds staff, Euston rail workers and Tolmers squatters were keen players. I got to know Ernie and Tony Wordsworth from Simmonds as they were lifelong Arsenal supporters. We travelled to many of the matches during the 1979 winning cup run – to Nottingham for an unexpected win against the famous Brian Clough team and to Birmingham for the semi-final win against Wolves. They were unable to get a Final ticket and they were quite envious when I acquired one from Patrick Allen! I occasionally had a quiet drink at the Jolly Gardiners (later the Bree Louise, now demolished by the HS2 works) where I often watched Match of the Day. A character, working there as a potman, was called Corky. Corky spent most of his evenings slumped in an alcoholic snooze. Occasionally in the evening he would rouse himself, cursing the extreme stress of the job, collect in a few glasses, wipe down a few tables and return to his slumbers. I annoyed him considerably one Saturday evening. Waiting for Match of the Day to start, I was watching the end of a Western on TV. Corky had just finished his arduous round of the tables when I knocked over a beer glass which broke on the floor! Swearing profusely Corky fetched a brush and dustpan and shouted: “I was just about to have a well earned break, when John Wayne shot the glass out of yer man’s hands!” The Exmouth Arms became the most popular pub with Tolmers squatters in the latter years of the 1970s. It was run with a firm hand by landlord ‘Big’ Con McGlynn and his brother-in-law Michael. Con kept his Merc with its personalised number plates ‘CON 500’ parked outside the pub! “Just to show you where your money is going, boys!” was a frequent quip of his. The Exmouth Arms was an informal meeting place of the London branch of the Liverpool FC supporters club. They used to book carriages on the train to all home Liverpool matches. I got to know them well and was invited to travel with them to the annual Liverpool v Arsenal match at Anfield provided I was prepared to watch the match from the Kop! I was pleased to avail of this offer right through the 1980s. In the 1970s / early 1980s the National Union of Miners (NUM) headquarters was based in Euston Road. Laurence Daly⁶ was its national secretary from 1968 to 1984 and a regular at the Exmouth. There was an apocryphal story told about Tolmers Village of a tabloid journalist who had infiltrated the squatting community looking for a scoop. The best the journalist could reveal was a report about a basement party where drugs were being smoked – WOW! The hack did not recognise Laurence Daly who was at the party. There were no claims that Laurence was smoking drugs but the mere report of him being at that type of party would have made national tabloid headlines in those days. There had been two major miners’ strikes in the early 1970s and an anti-NUM headline would easily have been fabricated by the tabloids. In later years Laurence developed ‘a drink problem’. He loved singing including Irish rebel songs. One evening he came into the Exmouth, well inebriated. On enquiring about Big Con (the Landlord), Laurence was told that Con was on holiday. Steadying himself against the counter, Laurence remarked: “Got to admire Big Con. He had a fierce problem with the drink once, you know but now does not touch a drop!” 

The Winter of discontent and the end of Tolmers

Sometime late 1975 early 1976 the Canfield gardens squat came to an end. John and Jackie in No 16 Tolmers Square arranged for me to move into a spare room there. 1977 was a very eventful year with many people from Tolmers participating in the major protests in support of the Grunwick strikers and against National Front marches. Locally the Tolmers initiated campaign, ‘Single People Need Homes Too’, was also gathering pace.

By Spring 1978, I felt it was time to get a substantial, long term job. A friend, a maths teacher who was in the IMG, alerted me to government schemes to train people as maths teachers at secondary school level. I applied for a place on one such course beginning in September 1978 at the North London Polytechnic. There was a special grant for the course, comparable to a first year teaching salary. I was accepted on the course. I also resigned from the bookshop and did bar work and flat cleaning which paid better than the bookshop! Gradually I distanced myself from IMG politics. The IMG was a very hermetic lifestyle especially if you were a full-timer like me – talking mainly to IMG people during the day, and later while socialising togther in the evenings. It was commonplace to have optimistic, unrealistic views on the potential for rapid change in popular political attitudes. Once outside the Group, their many analyses and political predictions began to appear as more and more unrealistic.   

Winter 1978 /1979 brought the ‘Winter of Discontent‘ characterised by widespread strikes by trade unions both from the private and public sector. Frequent heavy snowfalls brought the coldest winter in 16 years. This put the Tolmers Square infrastructure under severe stress – virtually testing it to destruction with many frozen and burst water pipes and damaged cables! 

The incapacity of the Labour government to cope with the ‘Winter of Discontent’ contributed to the election of the Tories under Margaret Thatcher on 3^rdMay 1979. On 4^thMay, early morning, the bailiffs arrived at Tolmers Square and evicted all the residents on the south side! While evictions were expected in the short term, it was a surprise when the bailiffs actually arrived.

The centre of the square soon became chaotic – furniture and belongings dumped there; a growing crowd of people  – bailiffs; police; the press; onlookers; officials from the council trying to ensure that there were no children left homeless. Even the newly elected Labour MP for the area, Frank Dobson put in an appearance. Some of us had been offered rooms in the North side. As I was, by now, a good friend of Sacha, Corinne, Colin and Dave I was thankful to be offered a room in No. 12. 

I completed the course in North London Polytechnic in June and got a position as a maths teacher in Haverstock School, Chalk Farm, Camden starting in the beginning of September.

By the summer of 1979 the campaign ‘Single People Need Homes Too’ had had some success. Camden Council offered a number of hard-to-let flats to Tolmers residents during July/ August. Tolmers had its last summer carnival and last round of house parties also in July and August – we had prior information this time that the bailiffs would evict the residents from the North side on a Monday in late August. In the week before the eviction a reporter from The Observer came round. The reporter took a photo of a group of us on the balcony of No 11 & 12 and told us that they intended to have an item on Tolmers in the following Sunday’s edition. On Saturday night many of us were in the Exmouth Arms. Late in the evening, a couple whom we did not know came in with an early edition of The Observer which they acquired in nearby Euston station. I asked them for a quick read. I skimmed though the paper looking for the photo. I could not find it! I was just about to return the paper when I noticed the front page. There the photo was! It was stretching across the top of the front page just under the masthead!

“Wait till your new head teacher sees this” quipped one of my friends. Some of the teachers at the school did see it but I needn’t have worried. It was amazing how many teachers relied on squatting at that time. Six of my new colleagues were squatting in a disused fire station in Hackney!

The Bailiffs dutifully arrived at the Square on Monday.

After leaving Tolmers Square I spent 3 months living with friends in Cricklewood.  Sacha, Jamie, Dave and Corinne moved from No 12 to Blashford, Adelaide Road, a 3-bedroom council flat. But it was obviously not suitable for them and when the lease of a house in Great Russell Street became available they moved there. Vince Hetreed and I moved to Blashford. That was very convenient for me as it was a 5-minute walk to Haverstock School.

Those happy days

I remember:

… the first time I was invited to Sacha’s parents’ house in Oxford, (St Frideswide’s Farmhouse) where I met her parents, John and Sally Craddock, who became very supportive friends of mine. After that I had the privilege of becoming a regular visitor. Sue (Doug’s sister) and I held our wedding reception there in 1997.

… the snowball fight in the Square on New Year’s night which was curtailed when Gerry Lawless began throwing flowerpots instead of snowballs from the balcony of No 12, damaging Patrick’s car in the process!

… the Sunday afternoon football and rounders matches in Regents Park!

… the many parties, dinners and singsongs around the piano in No 12 and the very enjoyable Elvis impersonations by Jamie. 

…. being regularly beaten at chess by both Dave Holden and Patrick Camiller.

… the many tasty breakfasts and leisurely chats in the Villabella Restaurant in North Gower Street. For many years afterwards, ex-Tolmers residents would meet up on Saturday mornings for these events.

However:

It would be very wrong of me to paint too idealistic, too utopian a picture of life in Tolmers Village. The residents were much more diverse than just young students or young professionals. Some lived on the edge of society – in one house there was a 12 year old cat burglar and his father!! There were people with big emotional and mental health problems. Allocation of rooms in houses was not always frictionless…..

Final words

Over 40 years on I still live in Camden with my wife Sue. Our 30-year old son, Alan now teaches in Camden. Sue and I met indirectly through Tolmers Square friends (by all accounts we had met in the 1970s at one of the Tolmers Hampstead Heath picnics but neither of us can remember it!). I am now a retired teacher but I still do A Level exam marking. It’s great to still have and regularly meet several good friends from the Tolmers days but sad to know about those who are now imithe ar slí na fírinne.⁷ 

And finally a song – an Irish song of course! The Parting Glass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisW0skJ9fU

Notes

¹A literary informed resident asserted that the house at Lexham Gardens resembled the Catacombs, a network of basement rooms in Dublin city centre and described in Anthony Cronin’s memoirs, Dead as Doornails. 

² The IMG was one of the different varieties of Trotskyist groups (not quite 57!)  that existed in Britain at the time. Its best known member was Tariq Ali and the Group was associated with the journals Black Dwarf, Red Mole and, Red Weekly.
Many prominent IMG members were on the Editorial Board of New Left Review.   

³Gerry Lawless made international news in the 1950s when he took the Irish Government to court. Lawless v Ireland (1957–61) was the first international court case filed against a country. An electrician by trade, Gerry went into journalism in the late 1960s. He often wrote for Private Eye until becoming the London correspondent for the Irish newspaper,The Sunday World, in the mid 1970s.  

⁴ Piers started his many years of housing agitation and involvement in the London squatting movement while living in Elgin Avenue. He produced numerous regular duplicated bulletins and posters which regularly submerged his floor mattress! The room became a work of art, worthy of a Turner prize but alas a bit ahead of its time. After Elgin, Piers moved to a South London squat in Rust Square!

⁵ https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii59/articles/peter-gowan-the-ways-of-the-world

⁶  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/30/obituary-lawrence-daly

⁷ Irish (Gaelic) speaking people seldom say simply that someone has died – “Fuair sé bás”. Instead they say “Tá sé imithe ar slí na fírinne”: He is gone in the way of truth, or he is walking on the road of truth. 

Read more about the author Oscar Gregan