This site is mainly the work of one person. I’m aware that it could be biased towards my interests and experiences. To avoid that, I’m keen to hear from other people.
If you have been involved with radical projects in Hackney and would like to talk or write about them (or have documentation of them) then do get in touch!
I am also very open to suggestions, comments, ideas for contributions, criticisms etc.
(For the sake of convenience this site generally covers things which happened before the year 2000.)
I’m looking for copies or scans of the following for inclusion here:
Black Unity and Freedom Party – Who Killed Aseta Simms pamphlet
Hackney Council for Racial Equality – Policing in Hackney: A Record of HCRE’s Experience 1978-82
Hackney Heckler issues 2, 4 and 10.
Hackney Against The Cuts issue 1, 1991.
HCDA – A People’s Account of the Hackney Anti-Poll Tax Demonstration on March 8th 1990, 1990
HCDA – A Crime Is A Crime Is A Crime, 1991. (Report into police crime in Hackney 1989-1991. Presented to the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice in November 1991)
HCDA – Squats ‘n’ Cops, 1993
HCDA – On The Border of A Police State
HCDA – Community Defence bulletin, various issues
Hackney NUT / Hackney Teachers’ Association – Police Out of School, 1986
Copies of Hackney Gutter Press and Hackney People’s Press.
Similar material that I’m not aware of, from the eighties or earlier.
Also general information on:
Kwame Nkrumah school (set up by Hackney black teachers in the 1980s, also connected to Centerprise)
Hackney Black People’s Defence Organisation
leave a comment or drop me an email at hackneyinnit at hotmail.co.uk if you can help.
Please note that this is a radical history site, we are unfortunately not able to help people who have experienced problems with the police. Newham Monitoring Project may be able to help if you have been a victim of racist policing in East London.
I recall seeing at least one issue of Hackney People’s Press in the LSE University library archive a few years ago. The archive can provide you with photocopies of any of their materials quite cheaply.
Thanks for the tip off – will see what I can do…
i’ve got the lot, give me a ring
mark metcalf
07952 801783
Some of those HCDA reports are in the 56a Archive for sure
do you want copies of the hackney and islington music workshop song books? I have 4 and I think there were only 4 issued.
That sounds interesting, Cotswold Quaker! Maybe drop me an email at hackneyinnit at hotmail.co.uk ?
Hi was wondering if you could help its a long shot my dad was brought over during the war as an evacuee he lived at de beaviour road with his mum and dad now him and his mum left London circa 1939ish now his dad stayed and he used to sing in the pubs and clubs of hackney one pub I know he sang in was the de beaviour arms on de beaviour road how could I find out more on the history and employees of the pub and anymore information about my pap thank you any help would be great Phil
Hi,
I would very much like copies of The Hackney and Islington Music Workshop songbooks.
Any news on this?
Regards,
Cris
Me too!
I came up from Brighton to work on a calendar in the late 70s [I think I did March] and I came across a children’s alphabet book printed at Lenthall road. Has anyone seen a copy. [its called ‘a is for ‘hackney]
The ultimate lowdown on adult ABCs, also published by Hanborough Parrot, is David Blamires’s beautifully illustrated Adults Alphabets (1990). His checklist of 56 titles includes A for ‘Ackney, published by Lenthall Road Workshop in 1984, and an ABC fundraiser for Aids, Aiding and Abetting (1991), edited by John Byrne, with illustrations by 26 artists, hand-coloured at pounds 115. Hockney’s Alphabet (1991), with the artist’s letters accompanied by text from 26 authors, is also still selling, at pounds 175. Hardly books for kids.
I Don’t Know Where You Will Find One
But I hope this helps
I need your help for an article I am researching. Can you get in touch? Thanks Polly Botsford
Hi Polly. You can email at the address in the last paragraph above.
sorry this reads like a circular (cos it is!) but i thought you may have some stuff relevant to the exhibition? let me know if so. ive got the hcda stuff you want – feel free to hassle me for it at the email below
Blue House at Sutton House – can you help?.
The National Trust is planning an exhibition at Sutton House (squatted as the Blue House in 1985-6) in November-December 2015 called ‘The Human Quest for Home’. Part of the exhibition will be about the Blue House.
If you lived there, visited, played etc and have any photos or flyers or other relevant bits and pieces, or if you would be willing to be interviewed for the exhibition about the House and squatting in Hackney at the time, please contact me: charles_loft@hotmail.com or post here.
Photos etc can be scanned and returned, interviews will be audio only and can be anonymous if you want. The exhibition will include restoring one room as a squatted bedroom, so anything relevant to that you can lend would be great.
This is a chance to present a positive story about squatting (which led to the house being restored by the NT and opened to the public) to schoolkids and others for whom this is all ancient history, so if you have anything to offer please get in touch. Cheers, Chas from flowers in the dustbin (ps we’re playing there on 14 November as part of the exhibition – see our page for details)
Hi Chas, looks good to me – I will repost on the main blog and get in touch soon!
Hi there, I am Ashton Gibson son – Alex, I’ll be quite happy to meet up some time to discuss Caribbean House and anything to do with Dr Ashton Gibson
Hi Alex,
I work at the Black Cultural Archives and would like to speak to you about Caribbean House and your father’s impact.
Could we get in contact?
Thanks
I have a lot of stuff on HCDA that should be uploaded, including some of the wanted items.
hi been looking for graham smith
Hi Michael – you should be able to get hold of him at the University of Manchester.
Dear all,
On behalf of the Revolutionary History journal I am looking for any reminiscences of two very long serving Trotskyists who were associated with Hackney.
1. Walter Nardell, party name Walter Graham, Expelled from Hackney Communist Party for Trotskyism in 1934. died March 2004, probably still in Hackney.
2. Eileen Gersh nee Sutton, also one of the very first Trotskyists in Britain, from 1933 on. Went to USA 1938, where she was active in the (US) SWP and later the Fourth Internationalist Tendency. Returned to UK early 80s and lived in Hackney until her death 1998. Active in Socialist Outlook, thereafter Socialist Action.
Hi there;
I am part of a research project undertaken by the EastEnd Womens
Museum. I’m trying to gather information for an exhibition about
Hackney Women’s Aid Hostel that was opened in 1973 and it was part of
the National Women’s Aid Federation alongside Chiswick Refuge Centre.
Is there any chance that you might have some information on your
records about the Hackney Women’s Aid Hostel? Many thanks.
I am looking forward to hear from you.
With best wishes;
Noelia
Hi Noella. That sounds like a good project. There is a reference to Hackney Womens Aid in one of the issues of Hackney Peoples Press here. I will try to scan the full article in for you and email it. You might also want to go to Hackney Archives and have a look through their copies of HPP and see what else they have.
Sorry link to the piece I mentioned https://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/hackney-peoples-press-1975-hackney-mental-patients-union/
Hi there;
Thank you so much, ackneyinnit! I appreciate you taking the time to scan and send the article. Definitively I will do that!
With best wishes
Noelia
This is a great website. I was looking for the estate where they filmed the movie “For Queen and Country” and I discovered this. Keep it up! I’m an Aboriginal Australian and think its great! Barry.
Hello John – spent ages going through your blog. What a veritable treasure trove of local history! Every borough should at least one such blog that documents radical/left local history.
Not sure the African History Month UK Network Conference at Unite The Union in Holborn on Nov 18 is radical. However, if you’re up for joining us, just let me know by contacting me via the contact the organiser link at http://www.bitly.com/AHMUKNConf
Hi I was on the estate when this happened as one of my mums friends squatted there.i remember a fog horn going off and us getting on the roof and started throwing roof tiles with my brother at the Police(not good I know) and Jumping up and down on an overturned Skip. I was 17 at the time.
Dear “The Radical History of Hackney”,
Can I just say what a brilliant job you do in raising awareness on so many under-represented aspects of Hackney’s history and diverse shared histories. We often refer researchers at Hackney Archives to your website for allied material and truly significant insights. Keep up the great work!
Best wishes,
Joanne (Manager of Hackney Archives)
Thanks Joanne! I’m a big fan of the archives and staff – I just wish I had more time to get there… 🙂
We would very much like to be able to use this photograph taken in 1899 of Suffragettes outside Stoke Newington Station in the book we plan to publish in May this year to be called “The Streets of London- The Booth Notebooks – East”.
Do you know how we could get permission ti use it?
Nope, sorry
Hello, great site.
I’m making a documentary film about Hoxton, collaborating with the Museum of London.
You have posted a video of racist Derrick Day, writing: “Here’s a video of him climbing out of a his Hoxton flat window in order to be racist to a cameraman, with Johnny Rotten doing disparaging commentary”:
https://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/the-national-fronts-hackney-hq/
and linking to Youtube:
I wonder if you can help me find the video’s source, so i can ask permission to use the clip in my film?
Thanks for your assistance,
Zed Nelson
Hi Zed. I believe that is from the punk film “The Filth and the Fury” from 2000 directed by Julien Temple. Obviously taken from somewhere else though. Presumably credited in the credits.
A quick google suggests it may be from a 1977 Panorama programme on Hoxton NF.
PS. John, I’d love to know where you found the Panorama link…? I’ve Googled: “1977 Panorama film about the National Front in Hoxton” and come up with nothing…
Can you share what you found that indicated it may be from a panorama programe?
Hi Zed. On the kill your pet puppy site – a comment under their entry on the 4skins of April 23 2008. So maybe not reliable but a lead….
Hi John, thanks for your reply and the info, really helpful and appreciated!
thanks John, i’ll search that!
Anyone have any information on the Kingsland road flasher in the mid 80’s
Hello,
I’m looking for people who have memories/experiences of Hackney in the 1980s to be interviewed for my undergraduate history dissertation at the University of Exeter. The project connects race, place and wider society by comparing Liverpool 8 and Hackney, in the 1980s. It’s really about why such a vibrant, diverse and progressive place has often been misrepresented in national politics and the media. I am interested in some of the local, community organisations, especially anti-racism campaigns. I’m also interested in examining Hackney Council in the 1980s and the role of the police in the community.
There is no ‘type’ of person I want to interview; anyone who has memories of 1980s Liverpool 8. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t part of any community groups either.
If there’s a chance anyone might be able to help me out, I am doing interviews from now until 21st April- they can be as long or as short as you would like and the ones I have conducted so far have been chatty and informal. Also, a location as convenient for you.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Nancy
Email: njohnsonkelly@hotmail.com
Hi! I just stumbled across your website and think its fab! I was wondering if you’d be up for including a link to Freedom Press’s website in your links section? We publish a lot of radical authors/histories of East London! https://freedompress.org.uk/