Travel with Angela Lansbury: The Battle Of Cable Street and Shadwell Stations

Saturday, September 30, 2017

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.