Organised Cycling and Politics: the 1890s & 1900s in Battersea
                                    
                                    
                             Sean Creighton



     I began to be interested in sports history as a result of undertaking
a family history research commission into Percival Powell, a professional
roller skating floor manager in the Edwardian roller-skating boom
of 1908 to 1912. Many cyclists took up roller-skating with enthusiasm,
there were races between cyclists and rinkers as the skaters were
called, and there were `doom and gloom' merchants deploring the adverse
effect rinking was having attracting people away from cycling and
other sports. The Society published an article by me on the boom in
1991.1

     My main historical interest, however, is the labour movement in Battersea
and Wandsworth in to-day's South-West London. During an in-depth look
at one year, 1907, I came across a lot of material about the local
Battersea and Wandsworth based Clarion cyclists group, and discovered
a bound volume of the internal newsletter of the Pioneer Cycling Club
for the years 1895-1901.

     It is my intention to say a little about these two organised cycling
groups, within the political, social and cultural environment in which
they were active. But first I need to set the scene in Battersea.

     By 1900 Battersea had been transformed from a rural North East Surrey
rural village parish to an industrial urban appendage of London. The
population had risen from nearly 7,000 in 1841 to over 150,000 in
1891. During the transformation a rich culture of working class organisations
developed including the friendly benefit societies, like the Oddfellows
and the Forestors, co-operatives, trade unions, and political and
radical clubs. Four occupational groups played a particularly important
role in this organisational development: the candle-makers, the builders,
the railwaymen and the engineers. In 1854 the workers at Prices Candles
set up a retail co-operative, which became the Battersea & Wandsworth
Co-operative Society surviving until 1908. The carpenters and joiners
helped to set up their Amalgamated Society in 1860. In 1871 the railwaymen
helped create the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS),
the forerunner of today's RMT. The railwaymen were also active co-operators,
especially in the Battersea & Wandsworth Co-operative. The Society
ran retail stores, engaged in educational activities, and helped to
foster the early growth of the Co-operative Permanent Building Society
(now Nationwide Anglia). Its women members played an early and leading
role in the Womens Co-operative Guild. Many local activists were elected
or appointed to important regional and national trade union positions.
It was from within this trade union and co-operative environment that
the Workers Educational Association was set up in Battersea in 1904.

     Among the engineers were the socialists John Burns and Tom Mann.
Mann started the campaign for the eight hour day in Battersea which
led to the celebration of May Day as a workers festival. He and Burns
were the charismatic leaders of the New Unionist wave of trade union
organisation from 1888, their most famous success being the victory
of the Dockers in 1889. Burns had been pulling together a loose political
alliance involving Liberals, Radicals, Socialists, trade unionists,
co-operators and temperance activists, which got him elected to the
newly formed London County Council in early 1889. In 1892 Burns was
elected to Parliament as an independent labour MP, backed by his widening
political alliance, in a straight fight with the Conservatives. 2

     The next important step in cementing the alliance was the initiation
of the Trades Council in 1893, formally established in 1894 as the
Battersea Trades & Labour Council. 3 Later that year the Progressive
Alliance as it became called won electoral control of the Vestry,
and remained in control when the Battersea Borough Council took over
local administration in 1900. Never a Liberal Burns accepted the post
of local government minister in the Liberal Government from 1905.
He remained a Cabinet member until his resignation in 1914 in protest
at the outbreak of the First World War, and an MP until 1918. 4

     Opposing the Alliance were the Conservatives or Municipal Reformers.
They also had an extensive range of organisations promoting their
cause including branches of the Primrose League, the vehicle for women.

     Social, cultural and leisure activities were central to almost all
organisations. Back in the 1840s the candle workers had played cricket
against a Christian Socialist team. A wide range of organisations
provided railwaymen with concerts, singing, choirs, dinners, soirees,
brake outings and other entertainments. One of the largest local events
held in the Albert Palace, next to Battersea Park, attracting 10,000
people was organised in September 1885 by the Railway Orphans Fund.
William Ellis, the Fund's Secretary was an activist in the Union.
There was an industrial exhibition, a roller coaster, a military band,
a magician, singing and athletic sports, including normal running
and three-legged races and a concert in the evening. Both the ASRS
and the local co-op donated prizes for some of the races. In 1891
the Marxist SDF set up the first Socialist Sunday School in the country.
Activities included a brake outing to the country, picking wild flowers
and singing socialist songs on the way back. Its Christmas Party included
games, dancing and singing. 7

     John Burns was a man with very clear views about what constituted
a responsible and respectable way of life and leisure pursuits, and
about the role of local government in fostering them. His explicitly
socialist manifesto for the 1889 LCC election contained a declaration
of support for:

establishing free baths and wash-houses, as well as free libraries,
in all districts of London, and set on foot free gymnasiums and recreation
grounds for the people, throwing open all enclosed squares to the
public. 5

His 1892 Parliamentary Manifesto talked about:`The recent movements
of labour, the popular demand for more leisure and a higher standard
of life' 6 He was anti-drink and gambling. `The man who bets regularly
is the man who never votes at all. The man who gambles frequently
cares nothing for the affairs of the community.' 7

He had many leisure interests, including a passion for playing cricket,
and he liked to pass on tips to the boys and young men in Battersea
Park and on Clapham Common. Certainly in the Edwardian years he was
using a cycle to get around Battersea, although I do not know whether
he cycled to Westminster. He had a reputation for being able to wallop
the ball. He once told an audience at the local Washington Music Hall
in April 1897:

Cricket was a game that was heartily enjoyed by the people who attended,
without that spirit of betting which would make a betting man lay
a wager on a fly walking across a jam tart. 7

Speaking in a House of Commons debate on 30 March 1900 against a motion
favouring military drill in elementary schools, he referred to the
enormous popularity of cricket and extolled its virtues. 8

     He was suspicious of professional sport. Approached in 1904 by the
Secretary of the Wandsworth Football Club to support the formation
of a professional team, Burns declared:

The young men whom you wish to concentrate on one spot in the interest
of `local trade'; should be distributed over a wide area, playing
the game themselves, if so inclined; and when not so engaged they
would be better occupied in taking a walk across the Common to Wimbledon
or Richmond Park. Real amateur sport will be discounted, the neighbourhood
vulgarised and a pleasant suburban area will be given over to large
crowds with the results to be seen everywhere. 9

     This view did not stop Burns watching cricket at Lords and at the
Oval, the Boat Race or the Cup Final. In an article he wrote on the
1905 Boat Race for the Daily News he praised the excellent standard
of behaviour of the crowds.

For the first time, I was really firmly convinced that thirty years
of free education, larger schools, concerted play, collective drill,
and methodical diversion were creditably revealed in the mutable many
that were gathering along the towpath... Well bodied, well clad, better
fed, kindly, quiet, civil and obliging was the Boat Race crowd of
1905.10

The central core of Burns' views are not untypical of many of those
active in the local political alliance which ensured his electoral
success, even if they did not all go along with his anti-drink position.
Individual and collective self-help were important aspects of improving
the quality of life of workers. As we will see later this was to be
central to the outlook of the Clarion movement.

     Even before the Progressive Alliance took control of the Vestry in
1894, socialist and radical members had been arguing for an extension
of leisure facilities. In 1891 two SDF members proposed the building
of a Town Hall. Conceived of as a municipal palace, in addition to
Offices and meeting facilities for the Vestrymen, there were the Grand
and Lower Town Halls. These were designed for meetings, social functions
and other events run by local organisations. The pediment carving
at the front of the Town Hall shows Labour and Progress, Art and Literature
instructing the young figure of Battersea. The entrance to the Grand
Hall has mosaics of bees, the symbol of co-operation, and the motto,
in Latin. `Not For Me. Not For You, But For Us.'11

     The Alliance pioneered many of the services that were to become part
of local government provision, including housing, health visiting
and child welfare, milk sterilisation and later electricity generation.
The Vestry and the Council were seen as having an important role to
play in expanding the range of wholesome and respectable leisure and
educational opportunities available for their working-class base.

     One of the initiatives was an attempt to provide municipal music.
A municipal choir and orchestra were established, an organ installed
in the Town Hall, an official borough organist appointed and free
public concerts started. These Tuesday evening concerts cost œ650
a year. From October 1901 to March 1902 additional performances took
place on Fridays and Sundays at a cost of an additional œ400. The
Conservatives objected and Battersea was surcharged œ278. 12

     Perhaps the most important leisure initiative was the way in which
the Alliance it developed the Latchmere Baths, originally built in
1888/89. In 1895 the Vestry opened them up to school use and the number
of school children attending the baths in that year was 5,211. The
Trades & Labour Council took part in lobbying for and supporting the
efforts to improve the facilities. It detailed developments in its
Annual Reports. An extra pool and more slipper baths had to be added
on to meet demand.13  Gymnasium facilities were added from 1898 during
the winter months `for the athletic enjoyment of Battersea's youthful
citizens'.14 By 1904 62,116 lads had used the facility. `There is
no need to point the moral of these figures to those who are anxious
for the welfare of the rising generation.' commented the Trades Council.13
The number of bathers increased from 133,000 to 226,193 between 1898
and 1901.15 In 1901 a recreation room was added for playing games
such as billiards and bagatelle. By 1904 this had been used by 55,224
young and older men. A separate female swimming pool was added in
1902 to meet the demand from women.13,16  A ladies team of the Battersea
Swimming Club was formed, and in 1907 took part in a competition in
Paris in 1907.17

     The Council went on in 1906 to open the Plough Rd Institute, where
billiards, bagatelle, bar games, a reading room, a gymnasium, and
slipper baths for both men and women were provided. In addition there
was a museum and a picture gallery, and a recreation and reading room
for children. 18

     The Conservatives kept up a rear-guard action against such leisure
initiatives. being provided on the rates. One of their members, however,
Percy Haythornthwaite was a believer in the conviviality and friendship
that sporting leisure activity provided. He was a leading member of
the local Pioneer Cycling Club.

     Battersea had two large open spaces, Battersea Park on the River
Thames, and Clapham Common. Cycling was a particularly popular pastime
for well-to-do people in the Park, especially women.19 By today's
standards people were prepared to walk long distances to and from
work, and for leisure. So both Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park
were within walking distance. London had not sprawled as far south
as it is today, so cycling to the nearest countryside was a much more
pleasant experience.

     Cycling had its individual enthusiasts like A.G.Pratt who kept a
diary of his trips. He purchased his first bike in March 1888. Once
he had mastered cycling, and experienced being attacked by a dog,
almost run down a young woman, and crashing into a horse-drawn coach,
he got permission to cycle to work in Southwark and `stand the bicycle
in the factory'. As he became more sure of himself his rode further
and further afield. Then as now cycling had its dangers. His skull
was nearly kicked in when he was blown by a gust of wind in front
of a horse. People rushed to help, women and children screamed, his
trousers fell down. But the experience did not dampen his enthusiasm.
In his first year he rode 982 miles, rising to 1,320 in 1891.20 Although
he occasionally rode with a friend, Pratt was an individual cyclist,
unlike the members of the Pioneer and Clarion Clubs, who unashamedly
enjoyed the cycling and the social life that went with the cycling.

     The Pioneer Cycling Club was started in 1881.21 In its early years
the Club ran races including a 25-mile championship. Later on it concentrated
on weekly runs, with the occasional train outing for wives and girl
friends, a monthly general meeting, dances and dinners, and other
social activities, especially billiards.

     Even organised enthusiasts were not immune from accidents. Even though
an accident in the 1883 Championship prevented Alf Pickard from riding
for several years, he helped to organise the Club.22 Most members
probably joined when they were young and still bachelors, like A.H.Allridge,
who despite being the youngest member of the Club was elected Captain.
Ill-health was then to stop him cycling, but like Pickard he continued
to help to organise the Club.23

     The Club was quick to get young enthusiastic members involved. In
1886 Alfred Williams joined the Club `a dark-eyed, dark complexioned
youth, attired in a grey uniform, and riding a Rudge rotary tricycle.'
The next year he was Secretary, and then for many years the Club's
delegate to the National Cycling Union.24

     Many of the members were active in other sports as well. Tommy Hayes
was a prominent member of the London Athletic Club and the winner
of the first open mile in London `upon the then peculiar looking pneumatic
tyres, his back wheel only being fitted with the new invention.'25
A.M. Kellaway had been a member of the Swimming and Rowing Clubs and
the Harriers in Portsmouth, and a member of the London Rifle Brigade.
His ability to accompany the Pioneers on the piano was particularly
valued.26 Ernest Oakeshott played football and cricket, was `a crack
shot', had saved a man from drowning, played chess and billiards `and
is one of the finest judges of a cigar or a bottle of Burgundy that
we have in the Club', rivalling Mark Twain in the quantities of cigars
he consumes each day'. He also collected `ancient and modern cycles'.27
Taffy Roberts was into cricket, football, boating, swimming, shooting,
skating, walking, golf, dancing, singing and billiards.28 Harry Westmore,
from Brixton, liked boating, football and cricket. He had been a Secretary
of the Surrey Wanderers' Football Club, as had been W.J. Tarplit.29

     The Club seems to have pioneered touring in France and on the Continent
from 1889. In fact so much interest was taken in this trip by the
English and French cycle world, that Bicycling News, gave three columns
to an account of the tour, with illustrations, which were reproduced
in Le Veloce Sport.30

     In 1894 the Club started The Pioneer Gazette, an internal magazine
for members, edited for most of its life by Percy Haythornthwaite.
Haythornthwaite had become a member of the Club in 1888. He served
for a time as Chairman, then in 1893 as Secretary. He brought a politician's
desire for order through Committees. He wanted to persuade Club members
that it was time to have each separate activity of the Club managed
by sub-committees, for Dance, Billiards, Dinners, the Gazette and
Racing, and relieve the Secretary of much of the work-load.31

     The South London Clarion Cycling Club drew its members from Battersea,
the districts of Wandsworth such as Clapham and Tooting, and from
Brixton and Kennington. It was part of a movement built up around
The Clarion newspaper edited by Robert Blatchford from 1891. He hated
the drabness of so many people's lives and started the Clarion Clubs
to provide for leisure and friendship. Through them he hoped to widen
the appeal of the socialist movement. He had already organised Cinderella
Clubs in the north of England to provide meals and entertainment for
the poorest children. In some cases they developed into Sunday Schools
educating children towards a socialist outlook. Then came groups for
cycling, rambling, camping, photography, and other activities.32

     It is clear from The Clarion in 1907 that there was a wide range
of supporters for the movement. Readers were able to find out what
was going on through the list of and reports of events. They could
contribute to various funds run by the newspaper. They could support
Clarion causes through their membership of other organisations. They
could use the newspaper to draw attention to issues of concern.

     In the columns we find `E.L' who can only be Edith Lanchester, a
member of Battersea Social Democratic Federation, whose daughter Elsa,
became the famous Hollywood star and wife of Charles Laughton.33 There
was Councillor Andrews a Progressive Councillor 1906-9 and 1912-1919,
and Labour Councillor 1919-22.34 Stephen Sanders, who had been first
Secretary of Battersea Trades & Labour Council, and was a member of
the London County Council, called for resolutions against the proposed
ban on Socialist Sunday Schools using LCC school premises, and to
press the LCC to implement the Provision of Meals Act 1906 by providing
school meals.35

     A Clarion Cinderella Club was started in Battersea in March and April
by G.Steer34, and there were plans to establish one in Clapham, although
this may in fact have turned into the Socialist Sunday School which
opened in July.36 How Steer found the time I do not know. He was an
engineer by trade. He represented his union branch on the Trades &
Labour Council, and the District at the national Labour Party Conference.
He was a member of Battersea SDF, was to be Secretary of the Battersea
branch of the ILP (Independent Labour Party) from 1908. He was also
Secretary of Battersea Labour Party which was an umbrella group for
a number of trade union and socialist organisations, and its representative
to the 1909 Labour Party National Conference. He was also a member
of the Cycling Club, towards the end of 1907 being elected as Captain.37

     There were some similarities between the Pioneers and the Clarionettes,
and many dissimilarities. At one level they shared the same view of
conviviality and friendship. Haythornthwaite wrote:

Sociability, with true friendship, has ever been the keynote of the
Club, and 1894 has seen these great traits of all true Pioneers more
accentuated and marked to a greater degree than ever.38

Commenting on the last three runs in the 1907 season, the Club reporter
to The Clarion said:

Surely a revival has set in. The last two runs have been the best
for quite twelve months. There was the true spirit of fellowship about
them.39

If the two previous runs were remarkable for the Clarion spirit of
Fellowship, then this Sunday's run was doubly so.40

Both Clubs held Annual General Meetings, elected Chairs, Secretaries
and Treasurers, Captains and Vice-Captains.  Both held social functions,
although the Pioneers were more organised in this respect. In February
1895, for example, they held a Cinderella Dance at Battersea Town
Hall, and an Annual Dinner at the Holborn Restaurant.41 The Clarionettes
held Fellowship Gatherings. The one on 9 February 1907 `was a great
success', partly due to the entertainment provided by a couple of
`talented members of the Variety Artistes' Federation.'42

     The runs of both clubs were mainly into Surrey and Kent. The Pioneers
were pre-organised on Saturdays, the Clarionettes impromptu on Saturdays
and organised on Sundays. They went to Surbiton, Wootton, Ewell, Sutton,
Epsom, Merstham, Ripley, Cheam, Carshalton, Dorking, Reigate, Godstone,
Weybridge, Caterham, Sevenoaks, Guildford, Maidenhead, Box Hill and
Virginia Woods. One of the Pioneer runs in 1895 went as far as Aylesbury,
and that September saw a run to Brighton. The runs ended in tea, usually
at an inn, where they would sing, go for a walk, play billiards and
pool. In the Pioneers case great emphasis was put on smoking. `After
a solid tea, we smoked and smoked, and rode home.' One hotel even
managed to arrange the tables in such a way that the Club members
could toboggan on a tea-tray from ceiling to floor. For their last
run of 1907 the Clarionettes were urged `please tune up your singing
boxes and bring your best voices.'39

     The success of these runs inevitably depended on the weather. Both
Clubs gave long reports on their runs. The Clarion run to Godstone
on 3 February was `Most successful...;'43 Bookham on 10 February:
`A very successful and extremely muddy run';42  Westerham on 17 February
saw a `nice little crowd' and `glorious weather'.44 `Despite mud,
we enjoyed Sunday's run to Merstham' on 10 March.45 Seventeen took
part in the Reigate run on 17 March: `Although many old faces were
missing, the attendance on club runs maintains a good average.'46
The run to Keston on 21 April was the worst. `Last Sunday, it rained
all day, and six homeless idiots sullied forth to get wet. People
starred scornfully out of windows, and pedestrians passed rude remarks,
but we never flinched. This was the club run.'47

     More members tended to take part in the summer runs. 25 went to Redhill
with the Clarion Cyclists on 26 May. `Our numbers increase weekly.
Last Sunday we went to Ockham, and interviewed various types of British
publicans. A sunny time in the woods terminated in a wet scramble
to Cobham for tea.'48 `Last Sunday to Reigate Hill. Another truly
successful day. To have rambled with us along Sylvan lanes, till we
suddenly found ourselves out upon the verge of a steep precipice,
with a view across a broad sweep of some thirty miles towards the
hazy ridge of the North Downs, was to have lived.49 `The great enjoyment
and continued success of our runs was again most particularly marked
at Hindhead last Sunday. Although over 40 miles away, South London's
reputation for long distances had to be maintained somehow, and reputation
being right loyally upheld, in spite of distance or doubtful weather
by 21, mainly tourist members.'50

     There was friendly rivalry with other cycling clubs, the Pioneers
with clubs they met on the runs, like the Wandsworth T & B C, and
the London County, while the Clarionettes sparred with other Clarion
groups. The latter rivalry seems to have been triggered by the behaviour
of the South London Club at the thirteenth annual meet of the National
Clarion Cycling Club of which it was a section. This was held at Matlock
over 4 days of the Easter weekend at the end of March. Club members
and supporters made up 32 of the 1,320 who attended from 123 clubs.

We went to Matlock. We pushed all other Clarion Clubs off the map.
We have won the prize for attendance (32 out of 26 paid members).
We disgusted the inhabitants and the police. We taught Matlock how
to make tea. And now we have returned and will spend a year in anticipation
of next Easter. We were well entertained by the Nottingham Club, and
we thank them heartily. Also by the Railway Inn, Matlock, where we
filled up twice daily; they quite understood London appetites here,
and acted accordingly. For further particulars those who were not
at Matlock had better turn up next Sunday at Balham Corner at ten
o'clock, and we will talk of nothing else.51

     This also a period when the Clarion Cycling Clubs were coming into
existence elsewhere in London, including Croydon, Bromley, and West
London, and in which a degree of friendly rivalry and joint runs develops.
A report about Clarion Cyclists support of the London Clarion propaganda
Van in Islington on 12 May, noted that of the 134 present only 3 were
from South London, `despite possessing the largest membership of any
club in the South of England.'52 Shortly after South London claimed
to have saved the situation in a run to Watford on 2 June `beating
North London in numbers by four. Our turnout was only 17.' Tea was
provided for the 40 riders by the Watford Labour Church.53

     Reporting on a joint run in June the Bromley Club jibed: `But where
was South London? Have we beaten them already or are only 24 capable
of doing 20 miles...' Croydon reported: `During our travels we came
upon the South London Club... in the park.' On another joint meet
in June to Brighton, the Croydon Club was sitting down to breakfast,
`when the bold bad South London rolled in - late.'54

     The quality of the inns was very important to both Clubs. At the
Duke's Head at Leatherhead the Pioneers received a frosty reception:
`Fancy, in these go ahead-days, an inn-keeper being so far behind
the times as to have to confess that he cannot provide a meal for
six hungry cyclists.' This contrasted with the White Hart in Blackwater,
where:

An excellent hot and cold luncheon was served in good style, and much
good it did us. We were all very pleased with the food, hotel, landlord,
and general surroundings, and I prophesy that we shall have a real
good time when he next visit the place.55

     The Clayton Arms at Godstone was described in the Gazette as `one
of those old-world inns, whose charm has not been destroyed by the
craze of modern improvements and where the catering is excellent and
proportionately reasonable.'56 The Clarion Club arranged a Whitsun
holiday weekend at Foster's Temperance Hotel, at the top of Redhill.
Thirty went down `and created quite a sensation in the town. We explored
the neighbouring country, including Leith Hill. Foster's Hotel is
a good place for Clarionettes.'57

 But the Clubs were far apart in their attitudes and activities in
many other ways. The Pioneers was an all male club. Although two members
had successfully moved a resolution at the 1885 Committee meeting
to admit ladies as members, it was rescinded a year later. `From this
we may gather that with us, at any rate, lady members were not a success.',
wrote Haythornthwaite.58 The columns of the Gazette contain frequent
comments deploring the effect of marriage on Club involvement.

     On the other hand the Clarion Cyclists included lady members. This
was not surprising as there was strong support in Battersea and Wandsworth
for votes for women. Charlotte Despard lived in the Thames-side Nine
Elms District, and Stephen Sanders wife worked at the head office
of the Pankhursts' Womens' Political and Social Union. `Eighteen hardy
cyclists braved the elements on the final run of the season. Thanks
are due to the lady member who discoursed sweet music.'59 At the Annual
General Meeting Miss. A. Norman was elected a Vice-Captain.57

     The social status of the two clubs seems very different, although
this is based more on guess-work than actual clear information. The
Pioneers seem to have been professionals and businessmen, the Clarionettes
better-off workers and clerks. Subscriptions and donations to the
Pioneers could be as high as 10s 6d. Many of the Pioneer members were
honorary, although they were expected to subscribe, donate money and
support social events. Vice-Presidents included Jack Pilditch, the
Battersea Borough Surveyor; Percy Low, the former journalist on the
newspaper Wheeling, and an activist in the National Cycling Union;
Percy Thornton, Clapham's Liberal MP; and at one stage W. Chinnery,
the Conservative beaten by Burns in 1892 General Election.

     Like all organisations they both had their ups and downs of membership
and attendances. Being the more highly organised, with a greater level
of expenses, it was the Pioneers that experienced the greater difficulties.
Because the club was making a loss in June 1901 a Special General
Meeting was held to discuss the future of the Gazette. `It appeared
that the present parlous state of the finances had arisen owing to
the losses on social events, and to the great difficulty experienced
in getting in subscriptions, and other outstanding amounts.' It was
decided to cease the Gazette at the end of the financial year, the
last issues being October 1901.60 I do not know how long the Club
survived after that.

     The substantial difference between the two clubs, however, was the
fact that the Clarion Club was political, while the Pioneer Club was
not. Occasionally a hint of politics did creep into the Gazette. Not
everyone seems to have shared Haythornthwaite's political views. In
December 1898 mention is made of `our worthy, but Radical Captain',61
The reviewer of the January 1899 dance at Battersea Town Hall was
not entirely happy with the facilities provided by the Vestry. The
Club had to provide its own furniture and furnishings for the event.
The writer thought that as a Vestryman Haythornthwaite should sort
these problems out, but if the demands had been acceded to there would
have been a cost on the rates.62 In April 1900 when the Vestry was
doing a household survey, Augustus Pipplewhite wrote a barbed letter
saying that the information requested was nothing to do with them,
and accusing Haythornthwaite of `asking rude and irritating questions.'63

     The undercurrent of racism in Victorian and Edwardian Britain surfaces,
but it is not clear whether it was Haythornthwaite the editor, or
another member writing. The summer Ladies dance in 1899 had been a
complete flop. The writer met one of his fellow members.

`He had a face the colour of a Pawnee Indian, and for the moment I
imagined that one of the natives from ``Savage South Africa'' had
eluded his keepers.'64

     There was one dig at John Burns: `Wanted. - A few Shakespearean or
other quotations, suited to the various members shortly to be treated
as ``Celebrities'' in these columns. Our present stock is very low.
Anything from Keats, Burns (not John), Shelley, Tennyson, or Alfred
Austin will be highly acceptable. '65

     The Clarion Club's political activities included running three dances
raising money towards buying a Van for Clarion propaganda activities
in London. The Secretary of the Van Committee Frederick Hagger lived
in Clapham and was a member of the Club.66 On one run Club members
found 5s. 2d at Crystal Palace and donated it to the Van Fund. There
was other specific political fund raising. The collection at the February
Fellowship Gathering raised œ1.3s.6d for the Music Hall Strike Fund.42
The Club also made a donation to an election campaign fund in Aberdeen.67

     On 14 July several members supported the Wimbledon Socialist Society
on the Common, where `A fair muster of Socialists were in attendance
from all parts of South London.' The Society was protesting against
the threat by the Commons Conservators to prevent meetings on the
Common. In response to the campaign the Conservators backed off.68

     A major focus for activities of the London Clubs in the summer was
to support the tour being made by the newly purchased London Clarion
Van Tour. South London Club members were among hundreds who went to
Epsom, where there were organised attacks on the Van.69 Several went
to a Garden Party raising funds for the van on 31 August organised
by the Bromley Club.70

     On September 1 a cycle parade from Lavender Hill was held at 10.30am
to support the Van in Battersea Park. `Nearly 100 cyclists were in
appearance, and, with the van in attendance, paraded several of the
principal roads, creating much interest by their brave show.' They
included members of the South London, the Croydon, the Bromley and
the North London clubs.71

     Dave Prynn, who has researched and written about the Clarion movement,
suggests that its members and supporters had:

in their vision of socialism, ... the implicit assumption that the
new society would be one of free, conscious self-determination and
self-activity for its members at all levels of political and economic
life.

A `change in social values was seen as a necessary pre-condition for
a more general improvement in the condition of society. To make a
healthier and more just society, it was first necessary to make people
`better', to alter human nature. In attempting to do this, it was
believed that community living, fellowship and the expansion of the
human personality would play a vital part...' 72

     Sports and leisure activities were clearly seen by many political
activists as an important part of everyday life, especially for friendship
and relaxation. There were major differences of opinion as to whether
such activities should only be carried on through individual self-help
as Haythornthwaite of the Pioneers clearly believed, or through collective
self-help and provision by the local authority, as Steer of the Clarionettes
believed. The bottom line, however, was that the Haythornthwaite approach
depended on people having the money to pursue their hobbies. The majority
of Battersea's working class could not afford the expense. Therefore
municipal provision was all important.

     Because I am not a specialist in sports or social history I do not
have a sufficient knowledge to draw any general conclusions or to
offer theoretical perspectives. I suspect though that a lot more research
into Battersea and Wandsworth working-class organisations will uncover
a much richer seam of material about the role of leisure and sporting
activities than I have been able to hint at today. My research so
far seems to suggest that leisure and sporting activities contributed
to the building up of members sense of solidarity, interdependence,
unity and confidence, workplace, occupational, neighbourhood and class
identity, except when serious personality and policy clashes or financial
crises shattered that collectivity.

     It is therefore significant that fundamental changes in thinking
within the labour movement nationally and in Battersea, involving
a sharp debate on whether there should be alliances with the Liberals,
or an all-out drive for independent labour movement representation,
led to deep divisions within and between organisations in Battersea,
resulting in the Progressive Alliance losing control of the Council.
The three years from 1909 to 1912 saw Percy Haythornthwaite at the
helm. The shock of defeat brought people back together in the Alliance,
which re-gained control in 1912. A new period in the development of
Battersea's labour movement began. Perhaps the pre-War highlight was
the election in 1913 of the Progressive John Archer and his wife as
first black Mayor and Mayoress in Britain. The War interrupted what
could be achieved. The tensions of the War led many Liberals to split
off. The Alliance folded and was replaced by the newly created Battersea
Trades & Labour Party which swept into control in 1919.73 This ushered
in a second period of municipal socialist initiatives. I do not know
as yet how long the local Clarion Club remained in existence. Its
social, leisure and cultural approach is evident in some of the Battersea
organisations after the War. When some of these helped form it, they
took that approach into the Communist Party. But that is another story.



Notes

1 Sean Creighton. The Edwardian Roller Skating Boom. British Society
of Sports History Bulletin, 11. 1991. Since then Roger Pout has written
and published The Early Years of English Roller Hockey. 1885-1914'
(1993)

2 Sean Creighton. Battersea and New Unionism. South London Record
4, 1989

3 Ben Ruddock. Builders of the Borough. A Century of Achievement by
Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Union Council 1894-1994. (Battersea
& Wandsworth Trades Union Council, 1993)

4 Kenneth D. Brown. John Burns. (Royal Historical Society, 1977)

5 Quoted. A. P. Grubb, From Candle Factory to British Cabinet. The
Life Story of the Right Hon. John Burns, P.C., M.P. (Edwin Dalton,
1908), p. 107

6 Ibid, p. 130

7 William Kent. John Burns. Labour's Lost Leader. (Williams & Norgate,
1950) p. 80

8 ibid, p. 100

9 ibid, p. 132

10 ibid, p. 143

11 Jo Stanley. Battersea Old Town Hall, 1893-1993 (Battersea Arts
Centre, 1993)

12 Chris Waters. British Socialists and the Politics of Popular Culture.
1884-1914, p. 140-141

13 Battersea Trades & Labour Council 1904 Annual Report

14 ibid, 1898-99

15 ibid, 1907

16 For further detail see. Sean Creighton. Latchmere Baths. The First
Twenty Years. (1987)     

17 The Morning Leader, 26 July 1901

18 The Municipal Journal, 5 October 1906

19 The Friends of Battersea Park. Battersea Park. An Illustrated History
(1993)

20 The Diary of A.G. Pratt. Cycling, December 19 & 26 1981

21 The Pioneer Gazette, June 1894, p.1

22 ibid, September 1894, p.1

23 ibid, March 1895, p.1

24 The Pioneer Gazette, August 1894, p.1

25 ibid, February 1895, p.1

26 ibid, September 1895, p.1

27 ibid, August 1896, p.1

28 ibid, May 1898, p.1

29 ibid, October 1897, p.1; August 1901, p.1

30 ibid, June 1894, p.3

31 ibid, September 1894, p.1

32 David Prynn. `The Clarion Clubs, Rambling and the Holiday Associations
in Britain since the 1890s'. Journal of Contemporary History, 11 (1976),
p. 65-77

33 The Clarion, 12 July 1907, p. 8

34 ibid, p. 12

35 ibid, 31 May 1907, p, 12; 7 June 1907, p. 5

36 ibid, 10 May 1907, p. 8; 12 July 1907, p. 7

37 ibid, 29 November 1907, p. 8

38 The Pioneer Gazette, October 1894, p.1

39 The Clarion, 27 September 1907, p.9

40 ibid, 4 October 1907, p. 11

41 The Pioneer Gazette, December & January 1894-5, p.4; February 1895,
p.3ibid

42 The Clarion, 15 February 1907, p. 8

43 The Clarion, 8 February 1907, p. 11

44 ibid, 22 February 1907, p. 8

45 ibid, 15 March 1907, p. 9

46 ibid, 22 March 1907,

47 ibid, 26 April 1907, p.9

48 ibid, 31 May 1907, p. 9

49 ibid, 26 July 1907, p. 9

50 ibid, 2 August,1907, p. 9

51 ibid, 5 April 1907, p. 9 52     ibid, 17 May 1907, p. 9

53 ibid, 7 June 1907, p.  

54 ibid, 14 June 1907, p  9

55 The Pioneer Gazette April 1899, p. 3

56 ibid, August 1900, p. 4

57 The Clarion, 24 May 1907, p. 9

58 The Pioneer Gazette, May 1895, p. 1

59 The Clarion, 11 October 1907, p. 11

60 The Pioneer Gazette, June 1901, p.4; October 1901

61 ibid, December 1889, p.3

5 2 ibid, February 1889, p.3

63 ibid, February 1899, p. 3

64 ibid, July 1899, p. 4

65 ibid, August 1901, p.2

66 The Clarion, 11 January 1907, p.8; 18 January, p. 10; 25 January,
p. 10; 15 February, p. 8; 22 February, p. 5

67 ibid, 1 March 1907, p. 8

68 ibid, 19 July 1907, p. 5 & 7

69 ibid, 23 August 1907, p. 6 & 9

70 ibid, 23 August 1907, p. 9; 30 August, p. 10

71 ibid, 30 August, p. 9

72 Prynn, op cit, p. 75

73 Chris Wrigley, op cit, and Republicanism and War in Battersea (Wandsworth
History Workshop, 1973)