Some Wembley local history to enjoy in the next few weeks!

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity 

 

Sir Arthur Elvin in 1948.

 

I have to declare an interest, as I am involved with most of the events featured in this guest post, but I hope that by sharing the details on “Wembley Matters”, more people who might be interested in one or two of them will have the opportunity to enjoy them.

 

An aerial view of Wembley Town Hall, nearing completion in 1939.
(Image from “Wembley” by Geoffrey Hewlett, 2002)

 

 As part of Open House weekend, the Lycée International Winston Churchill in Forty Lane is opening its doors to the public for guided tours on Saturday 13 September, from 10am to 2.30pm. Although it has been a French Lycée since 2015, many people still know the building as the former Brent Town Hall. It started life as Wembley Town Hall, designed by Clifford Strange and built between 1937 and 1940. The former Town Hall is Grade 2 listed, and this is a rare opportunity for residents to go inside, so if you want more details please “click” on this link.

 

During his lifetime, Arthur Elvin became known as Mister Wembley, and played an important part in making Wembley the world-famous destination it is today. Yet many local people now don’t know much about him, or even why the name Elvin has been given to a garden square behind the Civic Centre or a school in the High Road. I felt that his story needed to be told, so I am giving an illustrated talk about him at the Wembley History Society meeting at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Kingsbury, on Friday 19 September at 7.30pm.

 

 

As the poster above says, visitors to the Society’s meetings are very welcome, and the 83 and 302 buses, which stop close to the venue, should be running along Church Lane again by the time of the meeting! So, please come along, arriving between 7.15 and 7.25pm if possible, if you would be interested in discovering more about “Mister Wembley” and his part in our local history.

 

Arthur Elvin played an important part in bringing the 1948 Olympic Games to Wembley, and that famous sporting event, and the part the local community played in making it a success, are the subject of a free “coffee morning” talk at Kingsbury Library on Tuesday 7 October, from 11am to 12noon (with tea/coffee and biscuits available from 10.45, so come early!). It is best to reserve your place for these Brent Libraries events, and you can do that by “clicking” here.

 

Title slide for the “coffee morning” talk on Tuesday 7 October.

 

The pre-arranged 1948 Olympic Games talk has been included in the programme for “Our Freedom – Then and Now”, a nationwide project, with Brent Libraries as one of its participating cultural organisations, building on the legacy of the VE Day and VJ Day 80^th anniversary commemorations. When I heard about this project, and that Brent’s aim was ‘an opportunity for local people to creatively explore and share Brent’s hidden wartime stories, connecting the past with their own experiences of community, resilience, and freedom today,’ I knew that I had a resource which would fit perfectly into that theme.

 

Title slide for the “coffee morning” event at Wembley Library on Wednesday 22 October

 

The result will be seen and heard at a Wembley Library “coffee morning” on Wednesday 22 October, from 11am to 12noon, when the first-hand Second World War experiences of two local housewives will be shared, through extracts from letters they wrote to a friend. Those letters were saved by their former neighbour, and eventually donated to Wembley History Society by her daughter in 2020, and they provide a fascinating insight into every-day life at that time. The extracts will be read by two ladies from Brent Libraries, while I will be providing the pictures which link their stories. You can reserve your seat for this event by “clicking” here.

 

Philip Grant.

Wembley Celebrates the Coronation – in 1953

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

Queen Elizabeth II in the Coronation Coach, 2 June 1953. (Image from the internet)

 

When King Charles III is crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 May, it will be almost 70 years since his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, had her Coronation. So much has changed during that time, in Wembley and elsewhere.

 

According to Brent Council, only eleven roads in the whole borough have applied to be closed for street parties on this occasion. Quintain have apparently not applied to close Olympic Way (which they are temporarily renaming King’s Way – a corruption of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition’s Kingsway) for the Coronation street party they are organising. (Do they think they own it, although it was adopted as a highway by Brent Council in the early 1980s?)

 

This article is not about the 2023 Coronation, but how it was celebrated in 1953. It felt like the dawn of a new age. The end was in sight for post-war rationing (sweets had come off rationing in February 1953, although sugar and some meats were still rationed). The country had a new, young Queen, and there was a feeling of optimism for the future.

 

Sitting down for a Coronation street party in Deanscroft Avenue, Kingsbury, in 1953.
(Courtesy of Susan Larter)

 

Kingsbury got its celebrations underway on Saturday 30 May 1953, with a Coronation Carnival. A quarter-mile long procession of decorated floats formed up in Valley Drive, before travelling along Kingsbury Road, up Honeypot Lane and along Princes Avenue, to a fête on the playing fields of the County grammar school (now Kingsbury High). The float carrying the Coronation “Carnival Queen” had a guard of honour from the local Sea Cadets, while all the other local youth organisations marched behind.

 

Kingsbury Swimming Pool, seen in the 1960s. (Brent Archives – Wembley History Society Colln.)

 

Kingsbury Swimming Pool, in Roe Green Park, also played a part in the celebrations, staging a Coronation swimming gala in which Kingsbury S.C. took on teams from Wembley, Willesden and other local swimming clubs in front of a large crowd. 

 

The weather over that weekend was perfect for several local street parties that were held, but Coronation Day itself, the following Tuesday, was cold and wet. The residents of Berkeley Road in Kingsbury had decided to hold their street party for seventy-five children on the big day itself, with food, singing and a fancy dress competition. It looked like being a washout, but the owners of Kingsbury Arcade, on the corner with Kingsbury Road, came to the rescue and let the party be held there free of charge.

 

The Deanscroft Avenue children in their home-made hats. (Courtesy of Susan Larter)

 

I don’t know whether the Deanscroft Avenue street party was held on the weekend before or after the Coronation, but the weather was fine for it. One feature of the party was that all of the children had to come in home-made hats or bonnets, and there was probably a prize for the best one.

 

A “Wembley News” report, with photograph of the Pilgrims Way Coronation tea party.
(Brent Archives – local newspaper microfilms)

 

An invitation to the Pilgrims Way Coronation tea party on 6 June 1953. (Courtesy of Paul Kennedy)

 

I do know which day the Pilgrims Way pre-fab estate had its Coronation celebrations, because I’ve got a copy of one of the invitations, sent to each of the 200 children living there. I heard about it from several of those who took part, during a Brent Archives “Pre-fabs Project” in 2011. Fancy dress was “optional” but many children, and adults, took up that option, especially as there was a competition with prizes for the best children in fancy dress.

 

One of the Pilgrims Way children, and two mums, in fancy dress, 6 June 1953.
(Photos courtesy of Paul Kennedy and Wally Robson)

 

Thanks to Sir Arthur Elvin (who I believe a member of the Tenants’ Association worked for at Wembley Stadium and Arena), there were special guests to judge the fancy dress competition. There were no photographs in the local newspapers then of the famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball players, who were in Wembley for their annual sporting entertainment show. But Sir Arthur had sent a photographer along, to capture their visit to Pilgrims Way, and this photograph appeared in the programme for the Globetrotters’ 1954 week at the “Empire Pool”.

 

Harlem Globetrotters players at the Pilgrims Way Coronation party, 1953.
(Brent Archives – Wembley event programmes)

 

The “Wembley News” did report the results of the fancy dress competition:

 

‘Probably the biggest street party held in Kingsbury on Saturday was the one organised for 200 children of the Pilgrims-way pre-fab estate. Six members of the Harlem Globe-trotters team arrived at mid-day to open the party and give an exhibition of their basket ball wizardry. They also judged the fancy dress parade. Their choice was: Up to five years old, Patricia Craig (Elizabeth the 1^st); 5-10 years, Pamela Bignell (Gypsy Girl); and 10-15 years, John Gibbons (Long John Silver).’

 

It wasn’t just Wembley that was celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation. There were street parties all across the country. I was 3½ in 1953, growing up on a post-war Council housing estate in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. Our Coronation tea party, where nearly everyone came in fancy dress, is one of my earliest memories, and although it is not “Wembley” local history, I will finish off by sharing a couple of pictures from the event with you. 

 

The Blackman Avenue Coronation tea party, June 1953.

 

I was dressed up as a “Chinaman” (echos of Empire?) for the occasion. Judging from the look on my face, not wanting to be photographed, I was not too happy about it! But in the background, you can see the wide grassy open space which ran down the middle of our street, where the tea party was held, and which provided a great place for me and the many other (post-war baby boom) children who lived there to play throughout our childhood.

 

Philip Grant, in fancy dress, June 1953.

 

Will there be as much genuine excitement over the Coronation of King Charles III as there was for that of his mother? I doubt it, but perhaps, 70 years on, I’m getting old and cynical. Some other historian can write about it in future, if they are interested in doing so, as a piece of social history (“The dawn of another new age”, or “The last hurrah of the monarchy”?).

 

If you would like to watch a film produced for Wembley Borough Council to commemorate the way that the Coronation was celebrated in 1953, Brent Archives has a 28-minute silent film, mainly in colour, which is now available to view on the London Screen Archives website LINK.

It begins by showing Civic dignitaries attending services at St John’s Church and Wembley Town Hall, but goes on to cover a whole range of events, including the Kingsbury carnival procession and swimming gala, mentioned in the article. A selection of shops and houses decorated for the Coronation are also shown, and there are a number of sporting events (my favourite is the Tour de Wembley cycle race, from the Town Hall, with a “summit finish” on Fryent Way).

 

Philip Grant.

 

Editor's note for readers who may be puzzled by coverage of events in Kingsbury under a Wembley headline.

In 1953 the Municipal Borough of Wembley included the former Kingsbury Urban District. The Borough of Wembley was abolished in 1965 when it merged with the Borough of Willesden to become the London Borough of Brent.

It’s time for another Christmas Picture Quiz!

 For the past two years, “Wembley Matters” readers have been invited to have a go at the Wembley History Society Christmas Picture Quiz. If you fancy testing yourself (gently) with this year’s quiz, the “question paper” is attached below.

 

There are ten photographs again this year, but only one question with each. All of them are to do with the area covered by the former Borough of Wembley (which from 1934 included the previous Urban District of Kingsbury), which the Society was set up to promote the history of in 1952.

A stained glass window with the Borough of Wembley’s coat of arms,
which was in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall at Forty Lane until 1965.

See how many questions you know the answers to. Share the quiz with friends and family living locally, if you think they’ll enjoy it too.

 

The quiz is just for fun (no prizes!), and you’ll get the answers on this blog site in a few days’ time. And as before, the more questions you don’t know the answers to, the more you’ll discover then about Wembley. Good luck!

Philip Grant.

 

 

Still time to comment on Wembley French International School plans for the Town Hall

School plan with Annex

Plans for the Wembley French International School which will occupy the redundant Brent Town Hall have largely met with approval from heritage organisations as they preserve many of the features of the Grade 2 listed building.

The prefabricated buildings and garages  at the back of the Town Hall will be demolished along with the print room, a former mortuary which was added to the original building. A new L-shaped annex to the north east (dark orange on plan) will be constructed with a canopied link to the main building and entered via The Paddocks.

Changes of use include the Mayor's Parlour becoming the headteacher's office, the Paul Daisley Hall a gymnasium, the Council Chamber a lecture theatre, the stage a drama studio and the committee rooms a study and exam space. Th retractable walls and parquet flooring of the committee rooms will be retained.

Two MUGAs (Multi-use Games Areas) are planned for the area north of the building but what is likely to be controversial is a running track in front of the Town Hall. Also controversial the plans will  require the removal of some trees. Some of the trees at the front of the Town Hall  have been planted as memorials and have plaques attached, It is not clear whether these will be retained or transferred to another site.

The small primary school (one form entry) will be in the East Wing and will largely be segregated from the secondary school sharing only the dining room, sports hall, studio and adminstration.

The secondary school of 900 pupils (11-18) will be in the West Wing.

The current Town Hall Library will be retained as the school library and it is proposed that it could be used by neighbouring schools. It will retain its Kings Drive entrance.

The existing bar will be demolished to expose the walls but the glazed roofing pavilion will be retained after a plea from English Heritage. The refreshment room will become a cafeteria.

It is envisaged that Institut Francais will provide after hours language classes for local schools and adult learners at the school.

The school will be fee paying and run by a board of trustees.It will follow the French curriculum and pupils will be taught in French and English.

The hours will be from 7.30am until 6.30pm with sports activities restricted to 8.30am until 6.30pm. A breakfast club will run from 7.30am.

Car parking will b reduced from the current 107 spaces to 46 with 78 cycle places.

The Planning Application can be found HERE It will not be decided before August 22nd, 2013