The Battle Of Cable Street and Shadwell Stations

Photo of Tower Hamlets Environment Trust pinky red plaque about The Battle Of Cable Street, 1936. Photo from Wikipedia. "THEY SHALL NOT PASS"

Problem
Where is the mural about the Battle of Cable Street?

Answer
In London's East End, near two Shadwell stations, only a stop away from Bank station on the red Central Line in the city near Tower Bridge.

The battle of Cable Street took place here on the 4th October 1936 when the fascist Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts tried to march through. The slogan was: "They shall not pass".

The mural shows the police with helmets and the police horses.

Photo from Wikipedia.

How to see the mural

The mural is on Cable Street, on the plain bricks walls of a couple of linked buildings, the town hall. If you want to go there the nearest stations are the Shadwell underground and above your head, above the street, the Shadwell station on the Docklands Light railway. (Also three buses. See link at end.)

My Story

I must have passed through Shadwell on the Docklands Light Railway, gliding along like passengers at Disney World and theme parks, looking down at the streets below, many times. At least three times a year, in the morning and again in the evening on my way to and from the annual World Travel Market at the brightly lit, huge, stifling hot and stuffy waterside Excel exhibition centre, where the staff of tourist boards, hotels, airlines, tour companies and travel writers gather indoors, every year, watching sales girls from South America and Africa and Las Vegas, dance and praise in swimsuits and grass skirts, prompting summer and winter escapes from London's chilly November. 

I have never thought to wonder whether Shadwell was originally built over a well. Nor did I realise that the famous Cable Street was just below, with a mural and plaque commemorating the occasion. If I have time to visit an exhibition at ExCel this year, I must make a point of getting off the train at Shadwell and seeking out the mural in the morning, because in the evening I was be tired, laden with shopping bags and the light will be fading.

If I miss the mural on the way to or from ExCel, I could take a side trip from Bank station when visiting a restaurant or shop or exhibition in the city.

What are your chances of seeing the Battle of Cable Street mural? The mural was been damaged in the past but the council has promised that if it is ever vandalised it will be restored and it is now protected by CCTV.

Shadwell Station, London, England

Shadwell station, interior. Photo from Wikipedia, author Sunil060902.

You can see the station staff with their orange high-visibility outfits and their megaphones. These people shout directions and will answer questions about any station you are going to. They will help you find your way from one part of the station to another when you are wanting to change onto the DLR or get off it and onto another line.

Shadwell station, South entrance in 2010, exterior. Photo author Sunil060902.

Tips

http://www.londonmuralpreservationsociety.com/murals/battle-cable-street/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadwell_railway_station

http://www.visitlondon.com/#bIF5RTxGZfQAFWoJ.97

https://www.visitengland.com

https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

See my earlier post on murals including this one. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Bored on Trains and Planes? How to Crochet for Absolute Beginners: Part 1

Here's how to crochet. A project if you think you'll be bored stuck at an airport for hours. Make a list of things you want to learn. You could stick to crochet, then do a project every journey. Or pick different skills. Learn how to crochet on one trip. Knit on the next. Write a sonnet the last one - about your other projects.

Do you remember the girl I saw on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) train to the world Travel Market at Excel in London? She was knitting scarves for Christmas presents.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

What's new in November? Travel, Quit Smoking, Novel writing month. World Travel Market. Quit Smoking.

November national writing your novel month. If you are stuck at home, or on the move in public transport, time to start that novel, writing a minimum number of words every day to finish first draft by the end of the month.

My problem is not writing the novel. It's converting to an ebook. I keep trying and getting told that it is not formatting correctly. This is the month I shall try to get my first ebook published. Even if I have to do two pages and sell if free to get it in the right format.

From Monday November 2nd to Thursday November 5th (Guy Fawkes night) it's World Travel Market at Excel in London. DLR (Dockland light railway) has a predicted strike Tuesday to Thursday but WTM is negotiating. Maybe there will be buses. I expect to get an update during Monday. Let's hope for good news.

Guy Fawkes Night, celebrating saving Parliament in London, England, is November 5th. But many official displays will take place on Saturday, eg in Harrow.

How about writing a travel book? Or a novel taking in 30 destinations? Too many? One destination. Not A Month in the Country because that's been done but November in Norway, November with the Navajo, November in Nantucket. November in Norwich, November in Newcastle.

Combine all three events. Giving up smoking whilst writing a novel travelling the world's town's beginning with the letter N.

For a list of cities starting with the letter N see
http://www.wunderground.com/weather-by-city.asp?L=N
Nagoya, Japan might suit somebody.
I picked out some well known places and some amusing names.
Nan, Thailand.
Nairobi, Kenya
Name Unknown, China ???
Nancy, France. Also Texas and Kentucky.
Nantes, France.
Nantucket, US.
Napier, New Zealand.
Naples, Italy.
Napa, California.
Narawilli, Northern Territory, Australia.

If you like a place with a girl's name, there's Nancy in France or Naomi in the USA.
In addition to New York, lots of New ... towns, New Castles, Napoleons, Nelsons.

Halloween Sale Items
Today is the day after October 31st which was Halloween so the supermarkets are reducing prices of their Halloween items, useful for those of us who buy in advance for next year. I have been on the phone to a relative in a UK supermarket and they have described what's for sale. I opted for a hand puppet kit in Waitrose. You do have to sew it yourself.

National Rail in November.
nationalrail.co.uk
National Novel Writing Month
http://nanowrimo.org
World Travel Market
http://www.wtmlondon.com
American quit smoking Thursday in November
http://www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/greatamericansmokeout/index

Remember to keep readers interested, end each chapter with a question.

Every year for the travel trade and travel press there's the World Travel Market in London,

Next year World Travel Market will be at Excel November 2016 Mon 7 to Wed  9.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author.

World Travel Market and train strike, but 2016 will be shorter and better

This is all we need. DLR strike threat just before the annual travel event of the year, World Travel Market. Travel companies from all over the world have booked their flights in. Travel companies and the press in London are looking forward to going.

Even if we are given double decker buses from Canning Town (which happened one year previously) you get masses of q u e u e s (line-ups) as thousands of exhibitors and press and visitors get off the trains and the station is cordoned off because it is over crowded.

And any timed meeting you have - you arrive and find it's cancelled because the others have not turned up, or you are late and miss it, or it is delayed because so many are late, so it runs into the next event, then everybody packs up early to get home.

I am wondering about going up on Sunday, to pick up press releases. What a pity they don't hold a networking event for press on the Sunday.

I have friends who are travel agents and they don't want to give up a midweek working day for a travel show. Move back to Olympia/Earls Court? Is it big enough?

Next year - Good News?
The World Travel Market will be three days next year, 2016, instead of four. My first thought was, help, not enough money coming, will it get a day shorter each year until it disappears? But after continually re-reading what they say I am totally convinced by what they say, no longer fearing it's just spin. Yes, three days is better than four.

I was often so tired I could not manage 4 days. I did the first three, or the first two, then in a panic the last one, or the afternoon of the last one. I would sweep up brochures from abandoned stands. I often ended up having cocktails on one of more of the Caribbean stands which played music and served drinks until late every night.

Three longer days is good, so people spend less time away from work elsewhere, reduced fees for hotels, transport to the show. If you have to go to work in the morning to deal with post and queries, still worthwhile to go in the afternoon if the show stays on until the evening, to 7 pm instead of 5 or 6. Less cost for hiring a stand for three days instead of 4.

I went back onto the WTM's own website to look for news about the strike. The website is so full of pages it takes ages to find anything, if you are easily distracted as I am.

WTM Fun Facts
I found a page of fun facts about past shows, and animals which were invited. Red rum. The escaped parrot.

I was talking to somebody on the phone about the DLR strike. My friend said, "I thought the trains were driverless?" Even so, you need all the staff to sell ticket, and stand on platforms directing passengers, ensuring safety.

http://news.wtmlondon.com/press/35-world-travel-market-facts/
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/wtm-in-talks-with-transport-bosses-over-strike-threat-1340
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Travel_Market
http://www.wtmlondon.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker, author.

What's New In The World Travel Market & Holidays and Banksy's Bristol

HOLIDAY DOMAIN NAME
The domain name holidays.com is being auctioned off at this year's World Travel Market in London, England. (I add England because our mail addressed to London was sent to London in Canada after we left the USA and friends and companies over there put London without specifying England.) I imagine people in Paris, Texas, lose a few things, too. Back to the subject of my first sentence, what a memorable domain name. I wonder who will pay the most and win the unforgettable name. When I know I'll tell you in another post.

DLR
  I learned that snippet of information from the Metro which I read on the train on my way to Excel in East London. Also on my journey, I took the Docklands Light Railway. How efficient were the big signs for the show and the orange jacket staff were telling us which platform when we changed trains. Posters proclaimed the fact that most customers were satisfied with DLR (90 per cent) and most of their trains ran on time. (Nearly 99% is the figure I remember.)
 
BRISTOL, BRUNEL, BANKSY
Whilst sitting on the DLR train I chatted to the girl sitting beside me, whose name was Anna, same as my email name. (I'm Angela - but hundreds of other no doubt delightful ladies called Angela had wanted the domain name before the second I hit the grab it now key.) The other Anna, the real Anna was from Bristol, Brunel's Bristol, Bristol, famed for the landmark Suspension Bridge.
  Brunel built the railways, the tunnel under the Thames in London, the railway on from Paddington west to Bristol, and the ship which took travellers on to the USA and brought them back to the old country. I asked her about where you could find stories about Bristol's most famous fictional and real sailors between Bristol and the USA.
  You can still visit the old attractions I saw on my previous visits to cliffside Bristol with its cliffside hotels and restaurants. Last time I saw the inn - nowadays we cal it a pub, associated with RLS and Treasure Island. Another museum honours those prominent families who made money in the slave trade and whose children then abolished the slave trade, and whose great-grandchildren and descendants come back to see the history.
  Bristol's latest accolade is the European city of greenery, first cycling city, and the website will tell you more about famous characters such as Plimsoll of the Plimsoll line, Banksy murals - I'll Tell you more later.
Destination Bristol
PR and Marketing Executive
Anna Slade
53 Queen Square , Bristol BS1 4LH
e:anna.slad@destinationbristol.co.uk
tel:+44 (0)117 9462205
www.visitbristol.co.uk