‘Memory Lane’, colourful street art on Talbot Lane, brings new life to a corner of north inner city Dublin

James Joyce depicted in ‘Memory Lane’ on Talbot Lane, off Talbot Street in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was in north inner city Dublin earlier this week, to see the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street, which has become Saint Mary’s Cathedral in recent weeks, to look again at the Welsh Chapel on Talbot Street, which is being saved from deterioration, and to visit Saint Francis Xavier Church on Upper Gardiner Street.

For too many years, Talbot Street has been a neglected, unattractive street in the northside inner city, and was hardly an inviting welcome to visitors to Dublin walking from Connolly Station on Amiens Street to O’Connell Street and the heart of the city centre.

But Dublin City Council is looking at the causes and effects of these realities. Dublin has a vibrant street art scene and the Talbot Lane Mural is a bright and colourful addition to Dulin’s public art scene and part of a positive initiative to make the area more attractive and inviting.

‘Memory Lane’ on Talbot Lane celebrates the area’s history and heritage of the inner city (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

‘Memory Lane’ is a vibrant work of street art on Talbot Lane by Fionnuala Halpin that depicts the area’s history, with images of amusement arcades, a jarvey, Georgian doorways, literary figures such as James Joyce and Sean O’Casey, and the revolutionary suffragette Countess Markievicz.

The Talbot Lane mural was supported by Dublin City Council and celebrates the history, architecture and literary and political legacy of the north inner city, as well as recalling Barney’s Arcade in nearby Marlborough Place, the site in the 18th century of the Marlborough Green Synagogue, from about 1762 to 1790 or 1791.

Countess Markievicz depicted in ‘Memory Lane’ on Talbot Lane, off Talbot Street in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Talbot Lane is a small, narrow cobbled alleyway between Talbot Street and Marlborough Place, features a collection of bright new street art murals, and this work of art is part of the city council’s regeneration project to brighten the area.

The artists who contributed to the art in the lane are Fionnuala Halpin, Inkfun, 23mGraphics, Kayde Middleton, and M50signs, working with the Lucky Bag collective as project manager and designer.

The artist Fionnuala Halpin works with businesses, schools, community groups and the city council to bring high quality art to the streets and neighbourhoods of Dublin.

Sean O’Casey depicted in ‘Memory Lane’ on Talbot Lane, off Talbot Street in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Dublin City Council is rolling out its plans to revamp laneways in the north inner-city, and Talbot Lane is a colourful example of how this plan is working out. The council is also exploring the idea of opening up city-centre laneways for people to play cricket, inspired by a similar initiative in Melbourne, and Leinster Cricket has been invited to examine the viability of the ‘laneways cricket’ initiative.

A Green Party councillor Janet Horner said recently the initiative would be ideal for lanes that are closed to the public, like Harbour Court, which runs from Abbey Street to the quays. ‘We are starved of inner-city sports spaces,’ she said.

Brendan Doggett, a council administrative officer, pitched the idea for cricket in the laneways after people from Cricket Ireland pointed out that some laneways in Australia are used like this. Michael Darragh MacAuley, community sports engagement manager with the council, has pointed out that in Mountjoy Park the council organises tape ball, a kind of Pakistani street cricket that uses a tennis ball wrapped in electrical tape.

Dublin City Council is investing €2.5 million to revamp the Talbot Street area (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Dublin City Council is investing €2.5 million to revamp Talbot Street and plans to breathe new life into five nearby inner city laneways named in an action plan drawn up by the architect Seán Harrington. The idea is to get businesses that back onto laneways to open up their entrances, and to encourage people to make positive use of these smaller back streets, including Abbey Cottages, Byrne’s Lane, Coles Lane, Talbot Place and Jervis Lane Upper. Talbot Lane was the first of these laneways to be completed.

James Joyce went to school nearby in Belvedere and there is a sculpture of him by Marjorie Fitzgibbon at the O’Connell Street end of Talbot Street, while Sean O’Casey was born on Dorset Street. Constance Markievicz is quoted as saying: ‘Consciousness of their own dignity and worth should be encouraged in women.’ Sean O’Casey is depicted saying: ‘When it was dark … you carried the sun in your hand for me.’

Appropriately, the quotation from James Joyce that is part of his portrait by Fionnuala Halpin in ‘Memory Lane’ on Talbot Lane is: ‘When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart.’

‘Memory Lane’ is a vibrant work of street art on Talbot Lane, off Talbot Street by Fionnuala Halpin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Christ Church, Stantonbury, an ecumenical partnership in Milton Keynes, prepares to mark its 50th anniversary

Christ Church, Stantonbury, is the parish church for Stantonbury and Bradville and is part of the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, earlier today at a lunchtime meeting of clergy in the Milton Keynes area. This was our first meeting after the busy time of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. Originally, the meeting was arranged to make place in Christ Church, Stantonbury, but the venue was changed at the last time.

This would have been my first time to visit Christ Church, which is based on the Stantonbury Campus in North Milton Keynes. Rather than miss the opportunity of a first-time visit to the church this, I decided to visit Stantonbury yesterday to see Christ Church and to search for the nearby ruins of the earlier Saint Peter's Church,

Christ Church is the parish church for Stantonbury and Bradville and is part of the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership, a group of six congregations in the north-east area of the city of Milton Keynes.

When Milton Keynes was designated as a new town, the Church of England, the Baptist Union and the Methodist Church had a common vision to work together in the new area. Christ Church was set up as the first Local Ecumenical Project (LEP) in Milton Keynes, enabling the three denominations to worship, work and plan together right from the start. The United Reformed Church joined as a sponsoring denomination a little later.

The first service was held in the Community House in Stantonbury on Easter Day 1975. By the end of the year the fellowship had moved to its present location on the Stantonbury Campus – although the building was not officially opened until February 1976. In those early years, the building was also home to the local Roman Catholic congregation, and they shared a monthly evening worship service together.

In 1982, the seven worshipping congregations in that north-east part of Milton Keynes formed the Stantonbury Ecumenical Parish, now the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership.

An extension to the building was opened at Easter 1990, providing for the first time a purpose-built sanctuary and baptistry, alongside the existing community hall.

The partnership involves four denominations – Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Church. But the members come from a diversity of backgrounds and worship together, and a wide variety of community and Christian groups use the building extensively throughout the week.

thrist Church, Stantonbury, moved to its present location at the end of 1975 and building was officially opened in February 1976 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Stantonbury is about 3.2 km (2 miles) north of Central Milton Keynes, between Great Linford and Wolverton, and south of Oakridge Park. It is largely residential, and includes two secondary schools, Stantonbury School and the Webber Independent School, a theatre, a leisure centre with a 25 metre swimming pool and an all-weather athletics track. Webber Independent School was named in honour of the urban designer Melvin M Webber (1920-2006), who was described by the architect Derek Walker as the ‘father of the city’ of Milton Keynes.

The name comes from Stanton-, referring to Old English for a stone-built farmstead, and -bury, referring to the Barri or Barry family who owned the land in 1235. The original Stantonbury is a deserted mediaeval village now known as Stanton Low, and the name Stantonbury has become the name of the modern district at the heart of the civil parish, which includes Stantonbury itself and the districts of Bancroft and Bancroft Park, Blue Bridge, Bradville and Linford Wood. The population of the parish of Stantonbury grew from 19 at the 1971 census to 3,938 in 1981, 9,010 in 2001 and 10,084 in 2011.

Modern Stantonbury lies on land historically known as Stanton High. Stanton Low lies near the River Great Ouse and is the deserted village of historic Stantonbury, one of the rural Buckinghamshire villages that were included in the area designated in 1967 to become Milton Keynes. Today it is an uninhabited agricultural area near the river. Little if anything remains of the deserted village other than the ruins of the parish church of Saint Peter, and I hope to describe Saint Peter's in a separate posting on another day. The ruins of a Roman villa discovered there in the late 1950s were completely destroyed by gravel extraction.

The foundations of a Romano-British farm known as Bancroft Roman Villa are in what is now the North Loughton Park, overlooking the Shenley Brook. Rescue excavations in 1957 identified a group of perhaps four buildings, traces of a hypocaust and sherds of Iron Age pottery. A section of mosaic flooring recovered from the site is in the ‘guest services lounge’ in Central Milton Keynes shopping centre.

Blue Bridge is a small, mainly residential district near the West Coast Main Line and the Grand Union Canal, which separates it from Stonebridge. The ‘Blue Bridge’ (1834-1835), now restricted to pedestrian and cycle traffic, is one of the oldest bridges over the West Coast Main Line and is a Grade II listed structure.

Bradville district, between Bradwell, New Bradwell and Stantonbury itself, is mainly residential. Bradwell Windmill is a Grade II listed building. Linford Wood includes the ancient woodland that gives the district its name, was originally part of the Linford demesne. The district is known for high-tech industry, and is the site of a telecommunications tower, chosen for its high elevation.

Oakridge Park is a small district of private housing development, dating from about 2010.

Christ Church is a partnership supported by Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and the United Reformed Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Revd Rev Phil Dunning is the minister at Christ Church, Stantonbury. He moved to Milton Keynes and started working with Christ Church and the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership in September 2024. He trained forthe ministry in Bristol and was the pastor of a Baptist church in Cardiff for the 20 years.

The Rev Canon Chi Okpala is the Team Rector in Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership.

Today, Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership includes six churches in the areas around Bradwell, New Bradwell, Stantonbury, Great Linford, Downs Barn and Willen. The partnership brings together the Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed traditions, but welcomes people of all denominations and people still exploring the Christian faith.

There are six churches in the Partnership – some modern and some old. The four centuries-old churches are Saint Lawrence’s Church, Bradwell; Saint James’ Church, New Bradwell; Saint Andrew’s Church, Great Linford; and Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Willen; the two modern buildings are Cross and Stable Church, Downs Barn, and Christ Church, Stantonbury.

Canon Chi Okpala oversees Saint Andrew’s, Great Linford, Saint James’, New Bradwell, and Saint Mary Magdalene, Willen, with the support of the Revd Dr Sam Muthuveloe at Willen. The Revd Phil Dunning has pastoral responsibility for Christ Church, Stantonbury, Saint Lawrence’s, Bradwell, and Cross and Stable, Downs Barn, with support from Dr Muthuveloe at Downs Barn. In addition, the Revd Dave Haseldine, a Methodist, provides support at Saint Andrew’s, Great Linford.

After my first-ever visit to Christ Church, Stantonbury, I went in search of the ruins of Saint Peter’s Church and the deserted village of historic Stantonbury by the banks of the Great Ouse – but more about these on another evening, I hope.

• The congregation at Christ Church, Stantonbury, holds services at 10:30 am each Sunday and the services are livestreamed on its Facebook page.

Christ Church Stantonbury is one of six churches in the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

George Drumgoole Coleman, the architect from Drogheda who shaped the streets of Singapore

Parliament House in Singapore was first designed by George Drumgoole Coleman for John Argyle Maxwell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During our two recent visits to Singapore, I was interested in how much of Singapore was shaped in the 19th century and early 20th century by some influential Irish figures, including the Governor Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, and the architects George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), who was born in Drogheda, and Denis Santry (1879-1960), who was born in Cork.

George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), also known as George Drumgold Coleman, was Singapore’s pioneer colonial architect.

Only a few of Coleman’s buildings in Singapore have survived, including the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Maxwell’s House, later the Old Parliament House, Caldwell House and, perhaps, the Jamae Mosque that gives its name to Mosque Street. But he played a key role in designing and building much of early Singapore after it was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.

George Drumgoole Coleman was born in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1795, and returned to Drogheda in 1841-1842

George Drumgoole Coleman was born in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1795. He was the son of James Coleman, a merchant whose business included building materials. James Coleman had married into the Co Louth merchant family of Drumgold or Drumgoole, and many members of the Dromgold family are buried both at Saint Peter’s Church (Church of Ireland), Drogheda, and in the Cord Cemetery off Cord Road, Drogheda.

I mused at one stage how my great-great-grandfather, James Comerford (1775-1825) of Co Wexford, was a first cousin of Sylvester Comerford (1756-1796), who married Mary Dromgoole of Drogheda in 1779. But any connection would be both conjectural and remote.

There are no records indicating where George Coleman received his architectural education, and his name is not in the registers of the Dublin Society’s Drawing School or the Royal Academy School in London.

However, it has been suggested that he was articled to Francis Johnston (1760-1819), who once had an architectural practice in Paradise Place, off William Street, Drogheda, in in 1786-1793, and who designed Townley Hall and a related row of family houses in Drogheda (1794-1798). Perhaps Johnston’s influence is reflected in Coleman’s Palladian and Georgian designs in Singapore. But Johnston moved from Drogheda to Dublin before Coleman was born, and completed Townley Hall while Coleman was still an infant.

At the age of 19, Coleman left Ireland in 1815 for Calcutta, where he worked as an architect, designing private houses for the merchants of Fort William. In 1819, he was invited through his patron, John Palmer, to build two churches in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. The churches were never built, but Coleman spent two years in Java, where he surveyed large sugar plantations, designed private buildings and sugar mills and built machinery for sugar milling.

The Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator on Hill Street was designed by George Coleman in 1835 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Coleman obtained an introduction to Sir Stamford Raffles from Palmer and arrived in Singapore in June 1822. There he waited four months for Raffles to return from Bencoolen, now Bengkulu, in Sumatra.

In the meantime, he designed the Residency at the top of Bukit Larangan, now Fort Canning Hill, for Raffles. The house, with plank walls, Venetian windows and an attap roof, impressed Raffles. Later, at John Crawfurd’s expense, Coleman extended and redesigned the house as the residence of the Residents and Governors of Singapore.

Meanwhile, Raffles was impressed and commissioned Coleman to design a garrison church – that was never built – and to lay out the streets of Singapore. He planned the town centre, created roads, designed fine buildings, and oversaw the works at the Christian Cemetery on the slope of the hill.

Coleman left for Java in June 1823 and spent the next 2½ years there, but returned to Singapore in 1825 due to conflicts between the Dutch and native Javanese.

He designed a large Palladian house for David Skene Napier, the first magistrate in Singapore, in 1826, and a palatial building for the merchant John Argyle Maxwell. Before Maxwell’s house was completed, it was leased to the government for use as a court house and government offices. Much altered and enlarged, it eventually formed part of the Parliament House. This too was designed in the Palladian style, adapted to the tropical climate by incorporating a veranda and overhanging eaves to provide shade.

As a Revenue Surveyor in 1827, Coleman surveyed land titles that were issued mostly for shophouse lots in the town.

Coleman designed and built his own house in 1828, and it was completed in May 1829. That year, Coleman’s daughter, Meda Elizabeth Coleman, was born to Takouhi (Thagoohi) Manuk, on 10 March 1829, and the girl was baptised in Saint Andrew’s Cathedral on 30 July 1837. The child’s mother, Takouhi Manuk, was a sister of Gvork Manuk, a wealthy Persian-born merchant in India and Java, and Coleman built a mansion for her beside his own.

Takouhi Manuk and her sister Mary Arathoon later inherited the entire wealth of their bachelor brother and in 1854 they funded the rebuilding of Saint John’s Armenian Church in Calcutta. It is possibly because of his relationship with Takouhi Manuk that Coleman came to design the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator on Hill Street in 1835, and she donated much of the silverware and furnishings in the church.

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore … Coleman designed the original church on Coleman Street in 1835 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Meanwhile, in 1829, Coleman surveyed in minute detail the islands that would form the new harbour of the port, including all the shoals, slopes and heights of the hills along the coast for the possible fortification of the harbour. The survey was drawn and printed by JB Tassin as the first comprehensive map of the town and environs of Singapore.

Coleman was appointed the Superintendent of Public Works and Convicts in 1833 and was also the surveyor and overseer of convict labour. He managed building the North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road in 1833-1835.

Coleman built the first Anglican church in Singapore, Saint Andrew’s, which was begun in 1835. However, it was demolished in the 1850s when it became unsafe due to lightning strikes, and it was replaced by Saint Andrew’s Cathedral.

Coleman designed the Telok Ayer market, built on the waterfront in 1835. It was demolished during to land reclamation work in 1879 and was moved to Lau Pa Sat, where it retains the octagonal shape of Coleman’s original market.

Coleman helped found the Singapore Free Press & Mercantile Advertiser with William Napier, Edward Boustead, and Walter Scott Lorrain. The Singapore Free Press was first published in October 1835. Due to this competition, the Singapore Chronicle, the first newspaper in Singapore, closed in 1837, and the Singapore Free Press remained unrivalled until it was succeeded by the Straits Times in 1845.

‘Chijmes’ on Victoria Street incorporates Caldwell House, designed by George Coleman in 1840-1841 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Although Coleman designed numerous private houses in Singapore, only two that with certainty are his design have survived: the Parliament House, originally Maxwell’s house, although it has undergone considerable changes; and Caldwell House on Victoria Street.

Caldwell House was built in 1840-1841 for Henry Charles Caldwell of the Magistrates Court. The house was bought in 1852 by Father Jean-Marie Beurel to establish the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Today it is part of CHIJMES.

Coleman was also commissioned to finish and extend the Raffles Institution, originally designed by Phillip Jackson. That building was demolished in 1972.

The Istana Kampong Glam is believed to be by Coleman, although there is no definite evidence. Coleman is also said to have designed the green Jamae Mosque (Masjid Chulia), on the corner of South Bridge Road and Mosque Street. The entrance gate is distinctively South Indian, but the two prayer halls are Neo-Classical style, typical of Coleman’s. This unique appearance has made the mosque a prominent landmark.

Coleman is said to have designed the Jamae Mosque on the corner of South Bridge Road and Mosque Street in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

On his doctor’s advice to return to a more temperate climate, Coleman left for Europe on 25 July 1841 after 15 years of continuous work and 25 years in the East, leaving behind Takouhi Manuk and their daughter Meda Elizabeth Coleman. He visited Drogheda and later married Maria Frances Vernon, youngest daughter of George Vernon of Clontarf Castle, Dublin, in Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, on 17 September 1842.

However, Coleman was unable to settle down in Europe. He returned to Singapore with his wife on 25 November 1843, and they moved into his house on Coleman Street. Their son, George Vernon Coleman, was born on 27 December 1843.

Within three months, Coleman died at the age of 49 at home on 25 March 1844, due to a fever brought on by exposure to the sun. He was buried in an Old Christian Cemetery at the foot of Government Hill, now Fort Canning Hill. His gravestone misspells his name as George Doumgold Coleman.

Within months of Coleman’s death, his widow married William Napier, a conveyancing lawyer and the first law agent in Singapore. Napier adopted Coleman’s infant son George, who would die at sea on board HMS Maeander in 1848 at the age of four. His daughter Meda Elizabeth Coleman died in Singapore in October 1907.

An undated photograph of Coleman’s house at 3 Coleman Street as it originally appeared (Source: Lee Kip Lin, ‘The Singapore House 1819-1942’, Singapore 1988)

After Coleman’s death, the Coleman House at 3 Coleman Street became the London Hotel and then the Hotel de la Paix and the Burlington Hotel. The hotel was frequented by Joseph Conrad during his visits to Singapore.

The house changed hands many times, and at various times it was a boarding house and the Theatre Royal. Up to 1,000 squatters were living there and it was in a dilapidated state when it was demolished in December 1965. It is now the site of the Peninsula Shopping Centre.

Coleman’s grave and other graves were exhumed in 1954-1965 when the cemetery was turned into a park and the gravestones were built into the walls at Fort Canning Park. But his name lives on in a number of places in Singapore, including Coleman Bridge, Coleman Place and Coleman Street.

Looking out onto Coleman Street from the porch of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Coleman Bridge links Hill Street and New Bridge Road, spanning the Singapore River near Clarke Quay. Part of the bridge marks the boundary between the Downtown Core and the Singapore River Planning Area, both within the Central Area of Singapore.

Coleman Bridge was the second bridge built across the Singapore River and the first built in masonry. A brick bridge joining Old Bridge Road and Hill Street over the Singapore River was built in 1840 and named Coleman Bridge. The bridge had nine arches, and was first known as the New Bridge, giving its name to New Bridge Road.

The brick bridge was replaced in 1865 by one of timber, then in 1886 by an iron bridge spanning the Singapore River, and by the present concrete bridge in 1987. Several features of the iron bridge, including the decorative lamp posts and iron railings, have been incorporated in the present Coleman Bridge.

Coleman Bridge, the second bridge built across the Singapore River, has been rebuilt in 1865, 1886 and 1987 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

All Hallows and Church Square: reminders of a lost mediaeval church in the heart of Bedford

All Hallows and Church Square in Bedford have been revamped in recent years … but where was All Hallows’ Church? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks, I have been visiting a number of churches in Bedford, including Saint Paul’s Church, the main church in the town centre, Saint Peter’s Church on Saint Peter’s Street in the De Parys area, Saint Cuthbert’s Church in the middle of a traffic island between Castle Road and Mill Street, and the former Church of the Holy Trinity, now part of Bedford Sixth Form College.

But I have also gone in search of a long-disappeared mediaeval church, All Hallows’ Church, prompted by recent town planning developments in the centre of the town, and the delightful scene on a summer afternoon of children playing around a fountain.

All Hallows is home to an array of thriving businesses, homes and public realm space in the heart of Bedford’s town centre. Running from St Loyes through to Silver Street, this central hub is around a quarter of a kilometre long.

It has over 40 retail outlets including cafés, banks and estate agents and provides pedestrian access to Bedford Bus Station and All Hallows car park. In addition, there are a number of businesses on the first-floor level and a number of residential flats along All Hallows.

The revamp of All Hallows and Church Square was completed in 2021, bringing new life to an area that had become quite tired-looking. The £3 million project was designed to breathe new life into the space included improvements to all streetscape elements such as pavements, pathways, roads, protective bollards and street furniture.

The project provided new paving, benches and lighting lifting for this part of Bedford. The existing pavements and roadway were rebuilt and re-laid with high quality granite, and new seating and cycle stands were installed, alongside new lighting.

A plaque recalls the improvements to All Hallows and Church Square in 1988 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

All Hallows and Church Square lie within a pedestrianised shopping zone in Bedford. Church Square was laid out in the 1960s and improved in 1988. A plaque on the corner Church Square and All Hallows reads: ‘Allhallows and Church Square / Improvements / Opened by Mayor, Councillor W Astle / 13 April 1988 / Client – North Bedfordshire Borough Council / -Contractor - Kimbell Construction Limited.’

The building across the square was built in the early 1960s and originally housed Fine Fare supermarket, the first supermarket in Bedford. Later it was followed by Sainsbury’s and then Marks and Spencer.

Since then, there have been further improvements to Church Square, with a new fountain that delights children and may help scare away the pigeons – Church Square is known to local people as Pigeon Square.

Church Arcade runs from Church Square to Harpur Street. It is home to some independent businesses, including cafés, a small supermarket, a butcher’s, a jeweller’s and more.

All Hallows, Church Square and Church Arcade all take their name from All Hallows’ Church, a mediaeval church that no longer exists.

The first mention of the Church of All Saints or All Hallows, Bedford, is found in 1291, when the Prior of Newnham had a pension of 12 shillings there.

The church was on the north side of the river and appears to have belonged to Newnham Priory. William de Cotherstoke and others received licence in 1406 to grant William Hert, the parson of the Church of All Saints, a messuage in the town for a house for himself and his successors.

Church Square off All Hallows in Bedford … the names recall the lost mediaeval Church of All Hallows (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Another lost mediaeval church in Bedford was the oratory known as Saint Thomas’ Chapel, which was built on the bridge over the River Ouse by some men of the town ca 1331. A chaplain was appointed to act as keeper of the oratory and the bridge, and to receive alms from passengers for the repair of the bridge.

The right of appointing the chaplain was claimed by the mayor and townsmen. This right was violated by the Sheriff of Bedford in 1332, when he appointed John de Derby in the king’s name and ejected the chaplain elected by the borough. This led to disorderly scenes, in which the Mayor of Bedford, Nicholas de Astewood, and others assembled by ringing of the town bell and assaulted the king’s nominee.

In 1336, the justices were commissioned to inquire about the foundation and endowment of the chapel, whether it was built on the king's soil and all the circumstances of the case.

The town’s candidate, John de Bodenho, petitioned Parliament in 1338, saying the oratory was built by the people of Bedford over water belonging to Lord Moubray and with his permission.

The men of Bedford also complained that same year that the case had dragged on for five years, and in the meantime the bridge was falling into decay.

The dispute appears to have been settled in the king’s favour, and for the remainder of the century the appointments are made to ‘the king's free chapel of Saint Thomas.’ A chaplain was appointed in 1432, but no further mention is made of the chapel, and it seems to have fallen into decay before the Dissolution of the monastic houses at the Tudor Reformation.

Meanwhile, after the Dissolution, the clergy of All Hallows’ Church were the same as those Saint Paul’s Church. However, no reference has been found to the advowson later than 1614, nor to the rectory after 1655.

Later writers make no reference to All Hallows’ parish. Possibly, as with Saint Mary and Saint Peter Dunstable, All Hallows’ became absorbed in the larger and adjacent parish of Saint Paul’s.

The church stood All Hallows Lane – possibly on the site of Church Square – until it disappeared some time in the 17th century.

On a sunny afternoon in Bedford last week, the fountain in Church Square was flowing to the delight of children and busy shoppers, creating a pleasant scene, although there is little greenery in the square and the surrounding area shows clear signs of urban deprivation evident.

The fountain in Church Square, Bedford, in summer sunshine (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A traditional but modern community is at the heart of Jewish life in Cambridge today

Cambridge Synagogue and the Cambridge Jewish Student Centre on Thompson’s Lane … designed by CJ Eprile and RJ Hersh in 1937 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

In recent weeks, in my Friday evening postings, I have looked at the sites of the mediaeval Jewry and the mediaeval synagogues in Cambridge (19 July 2024), and of the locations of the early modern synagogues in Cambridge (26 July 2024). In a separate posting, I also asked once again (24 July 2024) whether Portugal Place in Cambridge was so named because Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who found a welcome in Cromwell’s England had first settled in that part of Cambridge from the mid-17th century on.

Indeed, Portugal Place is close to the Cambridge Synagogue on Thompson’s Lane, although the synagogue dates from 1937, over a century after Clement’s Lane was renamed Portugal Place.

By late 1912, the Jewish community in Cambridge had moved into premises behind a bicycle shop opposite the entrance to Sidney Sussex College, possibly in premises on the site that is now part of Sainsbury’s.

A new, purpose-built synagogue was built in 1937 in Ellis Court in Thomson’s Lane, off Bridge Street and parallel to Portugal Place. It was built for the Cambridge Hebrew Congregation, a continuity of the earlier ‘Lyon’s Synagogue’. It now houses both the Cambridge Synagogue and the Cambridge Jewish Student Centre.

The synagogue is close to Saint Clement’s Church and stands on the site of a house that was known as Church House (1886) and the Vicarage (1928). Ellis Lane took its name from Robert Ellis, the parish clerk of Saint Clement’s, who once lived in the earlier house.

Although that house was described in early leases as a house rather than houses, it had two basement kitchens and two staircases, and until the end of the 19th century there were invariably two families living there.

The building included the Church House Mission Room and School in 1881. An appeal on behalf of the Church House was issued in 1884 in the name of the Revd Edmund Gough de Salis Wood (1841-1932). He was the curate of Saint Clement’s in 1865-1885, and then the Vicar in 1885-1931. By 1887, the name of the house had been changed to Edmund House, but by 1891 it was known as the Vicarage and Canon Edmund Wood was living there on his own.

Wood died in 1931, and when the Vicarage was put on sale in October 1931 it was sold to trustees acting on behalf of the Cambridge Jewish community.

A new purpose-built synagogue was designed by architects Cecil Jacob Eprile (1897-1982) and RJ Hersh. Cecil Eprile (later Epril) also designed synagogues in New Cross, East Ham, Cricklewood, Hackney, Willesden Green and Southend.

The foundation stone of the synagogue in Cambridge was laid on 25 April 1937 by Sir Robert Waley-Cohen (1877-1952), a Cambridge graduate and leading industrialist who was president of the United Synagogue and vice-chairman of University College London. The new synagogue was built within six weeks and was consecrated by the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Dr Joseph Herman Hertz, on 21 October 1937.

At the time, there were about 50 active Jewish students In Cambridge. A number of organisations, including the Schechter Society, the Oxford Zionist Society and the Oxford branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association, came together to form the Cambridge University Jewish Society (CUJS).

The Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation (CTRC) was established around 1979 as an independent orthodox community, sharing the synagogue building with the students. During term-time, the CUJS runs shabbat services and the CTJC organises the High Holy Day services and the other services.

Weekday services are agreed on a Shabbat morning or by special arrangement. There is usually a kiddush on Shabbat morning. During term, weekday shacharit is at 7:45 am and Sunday shacharit at 8:30 am.

Illustrative image of the proposed new synagogue on Thompson’s Lane, Cambridge (Image: RH Partnership Architects/Trustees of Cambridge University Jewish Society)

Today, the original building designed by Hersch and Eprile in 1937 is hidden behind a front extension.

The trustees of the Cambridge University Jewish Society had applied to redevelop the existing synagogue and community facility in Thompsons Lane. They described the current building as ‘inadequate’ and no longer ‘fit for purpose’, and said the new building would make a ‘positive contribution to Thompson’s Lane’.

A project to renew the synagogue has been worked for about 14 years and it has been the subject of three pre-applications with the city council in 2011, 2015 and 2018, and two public consultations in 2018 and 2019.

The proposed new building would wrap around the rear of the Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts (CSVPA) on a similar footprint to the existing synagogue, but would be enlarged and extended forward.

However, Cambridge city councillors last year rejected plans to demolish and rebuild the synagogue following concerns from neighbours on Portugal Place.

The houses on Portugal Place behind Cambridge Synagogue on Thompson’s Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Some neighbours who objected to the plans raised concerns about the impact of the new larger building on their gardens, particularly the sunlight reaching homes in Portugal Place.

Council planning officers had recommended the approval of the plans, but recognised that the impact the proposed changes would have on householders. In a report, they said the harm to neighbours would need to be balanced against the wider community benefits the new building would bring.

Some councillors questioned how the plans related to the neighbouring houses, and one councillor said the proposed building ‘turns its back on Portugal Place’ rather than ‘smile’ on it.

Earlier this year, a planning inspector upheld Cambridge City Council’s refusal of the application to build a new synagogue in Thompson’s Lane. The inspector said the proposed new synagogue would have an ‘intrusive’ impact on neighbouring homes and would ‘unduly harm’ the living conditions of two neighbours at 25 and 26 Portugal Place. However, the inspector found that ‘the living conditions of the occupiers of numbers 27, 28 and 29 would not be unduly harmed’.

The planning inspector disagreed with the city council’s concerns about the design of the proposed new building, saying it would be ‘compatible with the relatively diverse surrounding’ buildings and that it would make a ‘positive contribution to the street scene’.

The inspector also said there were ‘significant’ public benefits of the redevelopment and that the current building is ‘not fit for purpose’ and ‘too small.’ However, the inspector said these benefits were not enough to outweigh the harm it could cause.

The Chabad House on Castle Street, Cambridge, is run by Rabbi Dr Reuven Leigh and his wife Rochel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

In addition, there is a Chabad House at 37a Castle Street, Cambridge. It is run by Rabbi Dr Reuven Leigh and his wife Rochel. He studied at yeshivot in Manchester and Montreal and received semicha (rabbinic ordination) in 2001 from the Central Lubavitch Yeshiva.

The couple moved to Cambridge in 2003 and established Chabad of Cambridge, and they remain its rabbinic couple and directors. He has also served as a Jewish chaplain at the university and became rabbi to Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation in 2009.

Rabbi Reuven Leigh received his PhD in Cambridge in 2020. Rochel Leigh, who has taught Jewish Studies in Florida, California, Texas and New York, received her MEd in Cambridge in 2018.

The Chabad House has a mikvah that is available for Jewish women in a Jewish marriage.

Today, there are two other active Jewish congregations in Cambridge. The Beth Shalom congregation, founded in 1981, developed from the Cambridge Reform Jewish Community which was established in October 1976. Professor Nicholas Lange is chaplain to a Progressive Jewish Community in Cambridge.

The Cambridge and Suffolk Jewish Community, also known as Hama’ayan, was formed about 2005, and had its own nursery and mikvah. But it does not seems to have been active after 2007.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום

A menorah outside the Chabad House on Castle Street, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Could the plans for Grafton Park help to make Milton Keynes ‘the greenest city in the world’

Grafton Park is a quiet corner beside the former Jaipur Restaurant in the centre of Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing last night about the threatened demolition of the former Jaipur restaurant in the centre of Milton Keynes, and with that the loss of one of the architectural landmarks and unique buildings in the heart of the city.

The proposals to replace the Jaipur building, modelled on the Chandra Mahal, the palace of the Maharajas of Jaipur, and to replace it with a 33-storey high-rise tower block, would mean the loss of a unique building that has never been recognised for its distinctive design. But the plans have also raised concerns that Milton Keynes ‘is fast becoming a city of skyscrapers.’

Is it ironic, or a sign of hope, that at the same time, Grafton Park, a little-known and almost-hidden park beside the former Jaipur restaurant, is part of an interesting plan to make Milton Keynes ‘the greenest city in the world’?

Plans were announced last year (2023) to transform this hidden and overgrown site in the middle of one of the busiest areas in the centre of central Milton Keynes into an attractive urban park and a new haven for wildlife.

At the moment, Grafton Gate Park is a seldom-visited, little-used and overgrown space between Lower Second Street and Lower Fourth Street. It is to the left of the former Jaipur restaurant and the Premier Inn, a few hundred metres from Milton Keynes Central rail station and close to the former bus station in Elder Gate.

The park is a hidden gem with five ponds and a number of waterfalls. The ponds and waterfalls are prone to flooding, but work is being carried out to remedy this. Landscaping work is aimed at cutting back overgrown bushes and trees, removing ivy, clearing litter, and making the park a more attractive space for both people and wildlife.

Milton Keynes City Council is working on the transformation in partnership with MyMiltonKeynes and the landlord, MKDP.

The project is part of a longer-term aim to create a masterplan for Grafton Park and make the 9,000 square metre site a premium city park. It is also hoped that Grafton Park will achieve green flag status, recognising well-managed green spaces.

The bird tower is earmarked to become a central attraction in Grafton Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Councillor Jenny Wilson-Marklew (Labour) has said: ‘Grafton Park is a hidden gem in the middle of the city centre that deserves to be maximised to its full potential. She describes the development of Grafton Park development as a critical flagship project that will help Milton Keynes become ‘the greenest city in the world.’

The proposals include refurbishing public art and sculptures in the park – including the bird tower that is earmarked to become a central attraction – upgrading pathways upgraded, installing benches and bins and improving the signage.

Grafton Park is in the south-west quarter of Milton Keynes, between CBX and the former Bus Station. Its style contrasts with the more formal layout of the Fred Roche Gardens. To the north-east stand Witan Gate House, with more recent office developments to the north and south, while Premier Inn and the former Jaipur Restaurant are beside the south-west corner.

The park featured as a major green space in early plans prepared for Milton Keynes Development Corporation, and from about 2000 it was named on plans and maps as Grafton Park.

The long, narrow rectangular site slopes east to west and is surrounded by shrubs and hedging. The ground has been sculpted into interesting landforms and the north and south sides have been planted with birch and pines.

A large informal pool at the east end is surrounded by bamboo and birches. This feeds into a small stream or rill that flows down the site through waterfalls to a more formal, central round pond. From there, the stream flows gently to disappear at the garden’s west boundary.

The stream interconnects with the main path running east-west, with metal grids to act as pedestrian bridges. The path is lined with ornamental grasses and sedges and the garden is laid to lawns leading up to the boundary shrubbery.

If Grafton Park is successfully transformed into attractive urban park and a new haven for wildlife, is all that work going to be fruitless if it falls under the shadow of a 33-storey high-rise tower block on the site of the beautiful but fading and decaying former Jaipur restaurant?

Ninety seconds by a water feature in Grafton Park (Patrick Comerford)

If Jaipur Restaurant is demolished, Milton Keynes loses a unique taste of India

The former Jaipur Restaurant on the corner of Grafton Gate and Avebury Boulevard in Milton Keynes … closed since 2022 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Milton Keynes may be about to lose one of its most curious landmarks and a unique architectural work on a prominent, busy city centre corner. Since I moved here two years ago, I have been captivated by the former Jaipur Restaurant on the busy corner of Grafton Gate and Avebury Boulevard, a few hundred paces from Milton Keynes Central train station to the south-west.

With its elegant domed-roof, its covered balconies, verandas and colonnades, the building looks like it has been transplanted from India’s majestic past and the places of the maharajas.

Jaipur is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. The city, with a population of 3.1 million, is the tenth largest city in India. Jaipur is also known as the ‘Pink City’ because of the colour scheme of buildings in old city.

Jaipur was founded in 1727 by Sawai Jai Singh, the Kachhwaha Rajput ruler of Amer, who gave the city its name. It is one of the earliest planned cities of modern India, and during the days of the Raj the city was the capital of Jaipur State.

Jaipur is a popular tourist destination and is part of the west Golden triangle along with Delhi and Agra. It has two World heritage sites and is included on the World Heritage Cities list.

The Jaipur restaurant in Milton Keynes was built in the style of an Indian palace or temple, with a dome, covered balconies and verandas inspired by the Chandra Mahal, or Palace of the Moon, still the palatial home of the Maharajas of Jaipur.

The Chandra Mahal, or Palace of the Moon, the palatial home of the Maharajas of Jaipur, inspired the design of the Jaipur restaurant in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Jakub Hałun / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0)

When the Jaipur restaurant opened in 2002, it was said to be the largest purpose-built Indian restaurant in the world. At the time, it was owned by Abdul Ahad, a high profile member of the Bangladeshi community, who dubbed the Jaipur not his ‘Chandra Mahal’ but his own ‘mini Taj Mahal.’

The building housed the Jaipur Indian restaurant on the ground floor and the Orchid Lounge Thai restaurant upstairs. It was a busy and popular venue, and also become a well-known wedding venue. Inside, the Jaipur had luxurious decor and opulent architectural features, including a curved staircase, a beautiful chandelier and a raised domed roof light, as well as an ornate veranda and a number of balcony areas.

The company was put into liquidation at the end of 2014, owing substantial debts. But it was bought back two months later, in January 2015, for more than £1 million by a consortium led by Adbul Ahad, who reopened the restaurant.

Jaipur closed suddenly in 2018. When it re-opened it was as a late-night cocktail and clubbing venue housing the Atesh bar and restaurant.

But on the day after Christmas Day, 26 December 2021, Nagiib Maxamed (28) was fatally stabbed outside the premises during a party. He died in hospital from his wounds two days later, on 28 December 2021. The venue’s drink licence was subsequently suspended by Milton Keynes Council and it closed down completely shortly after.

The dome, covered balconies and verandas of the Jaipur restaurant were inspired by the Chandra Mahal, the palace of the Maharajas of Jaipur (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The former Jaipur building has remained closed for the past two years, and developers have now proposed building a 33-storey apartment block on the site, with the proposed name of Jaipur Tower.

The application by Smith Jenkins Planning and Heritage on behalf of Galliford Try Investments seeks full planning permission for a 33-storey high-rise residential tower block with 302 built-to-rent apartments, ranging from one- to two-bedroom flats to accommodate one to four people.

The proposals include communal spaces that could include a gym and co-working spaces, two rooftop terraces on the ninth and 29th floors, and commercial use at ground floor and mezzanine floor level. According to the planning application, this would be a car-free development and no car parking spaces are included in the plans.

The proposed tower block would be one of the tallest buildings in Milton Keynes. Reports say the planning application has prompted many objections from nearby residents, who have describes the proposal as ‘hideous,’ ‘unsightly’ and out of character with the area.

The site is beside the 10-storey Premier Inn hotel, with a ground floor restaurant and bar. The Premier Inn says the tower block would result in ‘direct adverse impacts and potential risks to the hotel, as well as lack of light and privacy for guests.’

Residents in neighbouring areas and estates say the development would impact on their roads and infrastructure – and would be a blot on the landscape at the city centre, changing the character of the area and the view.

The Jaipur building has been vacant since 2022 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

With its distinctive style, the Jaipur building has been well-loved locally and is still regarded as an architectural landmark. But the building has been vacant since 2022, and the application claims ‘there is little to no prospect of it being re-used as a restaurant.’

Conservation officers at Milton Keynes City Council say it is not officially considered to have special heritage value, and it has never been considered as a heritage asset. A report says this rules out any heritage objections to the redevelopment of the site.

Despite an original planning principle in Milton Keynes that no building could be higher than the tallest tree, a worrying precedent was set in 2021 when planning permission was granted for a 33-storey ‘vertical village’ block with 288 apartments as part of the redevelopment of Saxon Court, the council’s former housing offices.

Milton Keynes is fast becoming a city of skyscrapers, and may soon lose one of its unique architectural landmarks.

The Jaipur restaurant in Milton Keynes was said to be the largest purpose-built Indian restaurant in the world (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Red Lion Square, reminders of Fenner Brockway, and the death of a student on a protest 50 years ago

The statue of Fenner Brockway (1888-1988) by Ian Walters in Red Lion Square in Holborn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my strolls around Bloomsbury, Holborn and Fleet Street earlier this month, I visited a number of London churches that I have blogged about in recent days. But I also stopped to visit Red Lion Square, a small square in Holborn.

This square was home in the Victorian era to many of the pre-Raphaelites. It has a sculpture commemorating Fenner Brockway, a father-figure – or, perhaps, a grandparent figure – in the modern peace movement.

I remember Red Lion Square too as the place where 50 years ago Kevin Gately, a young student, was left dead during a protest against fascism and racism on 15 June 1974. He was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Britain for over half a century, and no one has ever been held responsible for his death.

Although Oliver Cromwell’s head is said to be buried in the antechapel in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, some sources say that after the Restoration the bodies of Cromwell, his son-in-law Henry Ireton, and a third regicide John Bradshaw, were dumped in a pit on the site of the square in 1661 after they had been exhumed and beheaded posthumously.

Red Lion Square was laid out in 1684 by Nicholas Barbon, who was active in redeveloping the City after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Barbon was the eldest son of the Fifth Monarchist Praise-God Barebone (or Barbon), who gave his name to ‘Barebone’s Parliament’, the predecessor in 1653 of Cromwell’s Protectorate. At his baptism in 1640, his father gave Nicholas an unusual tongue-twister of a baptismal name: ‘If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned.’

Barbon’s developments, including squares, streets and houses on the Strand, Bloomsbury, St Giles and Holborn, linked the City of London with Westminster for the first time. Red Lion Square took its name from the Red Lion Inn, reputed to be the most important pub in Holborn. It was a fashionable part of London in the 1720s, when the residents included an eminent judge Sir Bernard Hale and Sir Robert Raymond, Lord Chief Justice.

Red Lion Square was ‘beautified’ under an Act of Parliament in 1737. But, by then, it had become a ‘receptacle for rubbish, dirt and nastiness of all kinds and an encouragement to common beggars, vagabonds and other disorderly persons.’

Charles Lamb was painted at No 3 in 1826 by Henry Mayer. A generation later, many of the Pre-Raphaelites lived and worked on Red Lion Square. Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived at No 17 in 1851, while William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Richard Watson Dixon also lived at No 17 from 1856 to 1859. No 8 was a decorator’s shop run by Morris, Burne-Jones and others from 1860 to 1865, and it was the first headquarters of Marshall, Faulkner & Co, founded by William Morris.

At the same time as these Pre-Raphaelites were living and working in Red Lion Square, Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), a towering figure in 19th century theology, lived at No 31. He was sacked as Professor of Theology at King’s College London in 1853 because of his leadership in the Christian Socialist Movement, but became a professor of theology at Cambridge in 1866.

However, Red Lion Square may have become unfashionable by 1860s. Anthony Trollope, in Orley Farm (1862), reassures his readers that one of his characters is perfectly respectable, despite living in Red Lion Square.

The landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson laid out the square as a public garden in 1885. In 1894, the trustees of the square passed the freehold to the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and it then passed to the London County Council.

The centrepiece of the garden today is a statue by Ian Walters (1930-2006) of Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), which was installed in 1986. There is also a bust of Bertrand Russell.

Archibald Fenner Brockway was a socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, journalist and anti-war activist. He was born in Calcutta, the son of missionary parents, the Revd William George Brockway and Frances Elizabeth (Abbey). After leaving school, he worked as a journalist and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1907. He later recalled he was introduced to socialism through Keir Hardie. He soon became the editor of the Labour Leader (later the New Leader).

He became a vegetarian in 1908 and by 1913 he was a committed pacifist. At the outbreak of World War I, he was involved in forming the No-Conscription Fellowship to campaign against the government attempts to introduce conscription. The Labour Leader offices were raided in August 1915 and he was charged with publishing seditious material. He was acquitted but was arrested again in 1916 for distributing anti-conscription leaflets. After refusing to pay a fine, he was sent to Pentonville Prison.

He was arrested a third time for refusing to be conscripted after he was denied recognition as a conscientious objector. He was court-martialled for disobeying army orders, and was jailed in the Tower of London, in a dungeon under Chester Castle and in Walton Prison, Liverpool, before he was transferred to Lincoln Jail. There he spent some time in solitary confinement until he was released in 1919. He revisited Lincoln Jail with Éamon de Valera in 1950.

Following his release, he became an active member of the India League. He became secretary of the Independent Labour Party in 1923 and later its chair.

Brockway stood for Parliament several times, including standing against Winston Churchill in a by-election in 1924. He was elected the Labour MP for Leyton East in the general election in 1929. In Parliament he was outspoken and was once ‘named’ (suspended) by the Speaker while demanding a debate on India.

He lost his seat in 1931 and he disaffiliated from the Labour Party the following year, along with the rest of the ILP. He stood unsuccessfully for the ILP in the 1934 Upton by-election and in Norwich in the 1935 election.

He was the first chair of War Resisters’ International in 1926-1934. But, despite his long-standing pacifism, he resigned from War Resisters' International at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and helped to recruit British volunteers to fight Franco’s fascist forces, including Eric Blair – better known as George Orwell. He wrote a number of articles about the Spanish Civil War, and was influential in having George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia published.

He chaired the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors throughout World War II, and continued as chair until he died. He tried to return to Parliament, but was unsuccessful as an ILP candidate in by-elections in Lancaster (1941) and Cardiff East (1942).

After World War II, he visited the British occupation zone in Germany as a war correspondent in 1946, and wrote about the visit in German Diary, published by the Left Book Club.

Brockway rejoined the Labour Party, and after an absence of over 18 years he returned to the Commons in 1950 as MP for Eton and Slough. He forced a Commons debate in 1950 when the Labour Government banished Seretse Khama from what would become Botswana after he married an English woman, an action seen an affront to apartheid South Africa.

He was one of the founders of War on Want in 1951, and from the 1950s on he regularly proposed legislation to ban racial discrimination, and spoke out against responses to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. He strongly opposed nuclear weapons and was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

He narrowly lost his seat in the 1964 election. Later that year, he was made a life peer, with the title Baron Brockway of Eton and of Slough in the County of Buckingham.

As Lord Brockway, he campaigned for world peace and against the war in Vietnam. With Philip Noel-Baker founded the World Disarmament Campaign in 1979. It was through these campaigns that I met him in the early 1980s. He died on 28 April 1988, six months shy of his 100th birthday.

Fenner Brockway was a prominent member of the British Humanist Association and the South Place Ethical Society. His Conway Memorial Lecture in 1986 was chaired by Michael Foot and the Brockway Room at Conway Hall on Red Lion Square is named after him.

Conway Hall – the home of the South Place Ethical Society and the National Secular Society – opens on to Red Lion Square. Many remember it to this day for the protests against a meeting by the National Front in Conway Hall on 15 June 1974. In the chaos and disorder that afternoon and the police response, Kevin Gately, a student from the University of Warwick in Coventry, was left dead.

Peter Cadogan (1921-2007), who was chairman of the South Place Ethical Society from 1970 to 1981, took the controversial decision to allow the National Front to book the meeting in Conway Hall. The counter-demonstration was organised by Liberation, a movement opposing colonialism and of which Lord Brockway was the president.

In scenes that must have been reminiscent of the Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936, the police led the National Front marchers around the south and east sides of Red Lion Square and into Conway Hall. A total of 51 people were arrested that day – all were counter-protesters and none was among the National Front.

Kevin Gately was 20 when he died as the result of a head injury that afternoon. He was not a member of any political organisation and he had come to London from Coventry for the day. It was his first protest march, and he was the first person to die in a public demonstration in Great Britain for at least 55 years.

A public inquiry by Lord Scarman denied there was any evidence that Gately had been killed by the police. Inquiries and reports refused to blame the police or the National Front for his death. Liberation was never involved in political violence, but the far-left groups who infiltrated the counter-demonstration never accepted any responsibility for their role in the afternoon’s mayhem. And Peter Cadogan always maintained that he had allowed the National Front to book the Conway Hall only in the interests of freedom of speech.

Kevin Gately and Blair Peach, who was killed in Southall in 1979, have been described as martyrs against fascism and racism, but they are largely forgotten.

As I stood in front of Fenner Brockway’s statue in Red Lion Square on a bright February morning, I recalled the price FD Maurice paid for his socialism, the radicalism of the Pre-Raphaelites, and how many of Fenner Brockway’s values remain relevant to the needs of Britain and the world today. But I also wondered who is going to remember Kevin Gately later this year on the 50th anniversary of his death or murder.

As I thought of this year’s inevitable general election, I thought of Fenner Brockway’s many efforts to get elected. But I realised too, 50 years after that dreadful and deadly afternoon in Red Lion Square, how many of the demands of the National Front have since become mainstream policies in the Conservative Party, including withdrawal from what became the European Union, caps on immigration and the forced deportation of vulnerable immigrants.

Red Lion Square in London, with Conway Hall in the distance to the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)