Brent Trades Council took to the airways to publicise the 100th Anniversary of Willesden Trades Hall on K2K Radion this week in a sort of labour movement Desert Island Discs.
Maha Rahwnji interviewed Mary and Diane to learn about the history of the iconic building. Mary Adossides is Chair of Brent Trades Council and Secretary of the Willesden Trades and Labour Hall Society and Diane White is Manager of BBMC and bassist in band, Akabu.
Tickets include food and range from £5 unwaged to £20 general entry and £50 solidarity. Book HERE.
The Celebration of 100 Years of Working-class History in Brent fundraiser will be held on Saturday 15th October 2022, from 7pm till late at the Brent Black Music Cooperative (Theorem Music Complex). High Road Willesden. Nearest tube Dollis Hill, Close to the Trades Council building.
Programme
Akabu - reggae band
Food and Bar
with contributions from
- Dawn Butler MP on why the Trades Hall matters
- Chris Coates, a short history of the Trades Hall
- Fitzroy on the Apollo Club
- Sundara Anitha on the Grunwick strike and screening of a clip from the Grunwick strike
The history of this amazing building
The Willesden Trades and Labour Hall was registered as a friendly society on 30 August 1922. The Trades Hall became the HQ of the Labour Party, but also of local trade unions.
Through the 1920s and ‘30s, the Hall was mainly used for union and LP meetings with popular speakers such as Sylvia Pankhurst. In 1932 the local branch of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement was given the large hall for 2 days every week and later in October, 60 of the 500 strong Scottish and West Coast contingent of the National Hunger March slept over in the hall. In February 1934, the Hall was under police surveillance during a meeting of 12 women from the Catering Section of the Willesden Hunger March Solidarity Committee.
The Labour Party was still an active presence in the Hall and continued to organise larger meetings there, including on the Cuban crisis 1962. In June 1962, during a brief visit to London, Nelson Mandela was invited to address the Willesden Trades Council in the Anson Hall.
When Willesden and Wembley joined to form the London Borough of Brent in 1965, it became the home for the merged Brent Trades Council. In 1969, the Trades Hall welcomed the London Apollo Club which became a famous London music venue, occupying much of the Ground floor. It is said that Bob Marley played there when he first came to London. During the 1970s until this century, the Apollo Club became one of the most popular reggae venues in Brent.
The 1980s brought dramatic economic changes to Brent with major factory closures of well-known names like Smiths Industries and Guinness. The building became nationally known during the Grunwick dispute 1976-78, when a small group of mainly Asian women workers in a photo-processing factory in Chapter Road took strike action to protest their low wages and poor working conditioning.
By the turn of the century, it was clear that deindustrialisation, had deeply affected the Trades Council’s base and income. The Society, which owns the building, ceased to be a registered. The Trades Hall and the Apollo Club are now closed to the public for health and safety reasons as the older part of the building is in a poor state. Celebrating the centenary of this iconic building and of its rich working class history will provide the opportunity to relaunch the hall and the Apollo Club to serve as a Labour Centre in Brent at a time of revival of the trade union movement.
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