Len Snow: A good and gentle man

The Memorial Bench in its setting in Barham Park

Guest blog by Philip Grant
 

There are many good reasons to visit Brent’s parks and open spaces, and last Sunday another reason was added to the list of why you should visit the excellent Barham Park. A group of family, friends, Labour Party supporters and (my own category) local historians gathered in the park for the unveiling of a memorial seat to Len and Joan Snow. They had been married for seventy years when Len died in November 2013, and both had lived ninety active years, more than sixty of them as Wembley residents.

They had been stalwarts of the Labour Party since the Attlee years of the 1940’s, and Len was a local councillor for more than 25 years up to 1990, and Mayor of Brent in 1976/77. It was not surprising, then, that the main speaker at the short ceremony was Paul (now Lord) Boateng, the former MP for Brent South, whose strongest memories of them were for the kindness and love they shared with everyone they met, rather than their political work.

I had known Len and Joan only since 2007, and the conversations we shared were mainly about local history, not politics. One of my best memories of Len was from a talk he gave to Wembley History Society about Japan. As a 22 year-old British officer, he had been in charge of a district in southern Japan as part of the allied army of occupation after the Second World War. Despite the cruelty displayed by the Japanese army in South-East Asia up to 1945, Len soon developed a love and respect for the ordinary people of that country and their culture. A visit to Hiroshima, just months after an atomic bomb had been dropped on the city, left him committed to nuclear disarmament for the rest of his life.

It is fitting that Len and Joan’s memorial seat is in a peaceful and beautiful setting. I would encourage you to visit it. You can find it by entering the park beside the former Barham Park Library, going straight ahead into the walled garden area, through the gateway at the far side between the two lion head fountains from the 1924 British Empire Exhibition (now sadly damaged), then up the path to the right and turn left along a path to the top of a small hill.

A plaque on the seat asks visitors to remember Len’s legacy, a life of service to his community, carried out with kindness, fairness and humanity – that is something that all politicians, both local and national, and not only within the Labour Party, should reflect on, and an example that they would do well to follow.

Philip Grant.

Squaring up for a battle in Willesden Green

Campaigning in the 'Town Square' (Photo: Kilburn Times)

The battle over the application to designate the open space outside the Willesden Green Library Centre as a Town Square is hotting up.

If the space is so designated it could torpedo the plans to build over 90 unaffordable flats on the present car park.  These plans require that the new building be moved close to the High Road roadside to make room for the flats. The present open space would be built over.  If the space is designated a Town Square, it cannot be built on and this would mean the former car park space available for the flats would be much less. The project depends on the developer making money from the land given to it by Brent Council to build the Cultural Centre at 'no cost' to the council. Fewer flats, less profit, no money for the Cultural Centre.

Not surprisingly the developer, Galliford Try-Linden Homes has put in an objection to the Town Square application. Rather more surprisingly, as Brent Council decides to approve or reject the application, the Council itself has also put in an objection.

In the meantime local historian Philip Grant has revealed that back in 1984 Brent Council itself supported the idea of an open space here:

In a document produced by Brent's Development Department (the forerunner of the present "Regeneration and Major Projects") in December 1983, an annotated plan of the site stated: 'The Council intend to preserve the little building on the corner with its turret and decoration - the wings behind are later additions, and these will be removed to provide some much-needed open space.'

 

Some councillors wanted to save money on the project, and demolish the whole of the old (Victorian) Willesden Green Library, replacing it with a public square which would run from the new Library Centre right down to the High Road. In a Council debate, reported in the "Kilburn Times" on 20 April 1984, Councillor Len Snow said that this 'would be a sad mistake', leaving 'a gap here, which will be open to wind and traffic noise'. He went on to say: 'If the square was protected by an interesting frontage it would be a haven of peace and on a sunny day a delight to sit in.' 

 

Len Snow's view, and that of like-minded Councillors, eventually prevailed, giving Willesden Green the public square that local people have enjoyed for more than 25 years, and still enjoy.

Philip's article and the response by Martin Redston to the developer's objection can all be found on the Keep Willesden Green blog HERE