Ada's Garden and the Ada Salter statue: Celebration of the pioneering work of Ada Salter

Ada Salter

I am currently writing a post about Alfred and Ada Salter.  Although they achieved a considerable amount independently, the Salters were  very much a partnership but here I want to look very briefly at Ada and how she has been recognized and celebrated locally in recent  years. The Salters were social activists in Bermondsey in the first half of the 20th Century, when the Rotherhithe docks were still thriving and many of the dock workers were working class people who struggled financially in often very insalubrious conditions.  Unlike Michael Caine, Jessica Mitford and Princess Margaret, whose names are often bandied around when Rotherhithe is mentioned in connection with famous residents, Alfred and Ada Salter actually contributed to Rotherhithe and its people.  They helped its residents to combat the effects of poverty by both working to improve conditions on the ground, and helping to innovate social care in British politics.

Alfred Salter is probably the best known of the duo, but recently there has been much more recognition for the work of Ada Salter in her own right.  Salter Road, which connects Lower Road to Rotherhithe Street and Redriff Road, was named for them when it was constructed in the mid 1980s, a Rotherhithe primary school was named after Alfred Salter, and a foot bridge in Southwark Park was also named for him.  A trio of statues by the Angel public house on the Thames Path included Alfred, Joyce and the family's pet cat, but excluded Ada.

Ada's Garden naming ceremony.
Photograph by Steve Cornish

Recently, however, an awareness of Ada's contributions has emerged.  The statues of Alfred, Joyce and the cat, which were stolen several years ago, were replaced after a massive fund-raising campaign, and Ada was a very welcome addition to the group.  A new book has recently been published:   "Ada Salter: Pioneer of Ethical Socialism" by Graham Taylor, which recognizes her importance in early 20th century political and social reform.  And only this month, an undisturbed wildlife zone full of mature trees that sits between houses on Lower Road and the Tesco car park was given an official name:  Ada's Garden. The sign replaces one that was removed over a year ago by British Land, the developer of the shopping centre, which had explained how the wildlife area helped “support and safeguard the diversity of plant and animal life.”   Ada was an early environmentalist, a  follower of Ruskin and believed strongly in the value of nature to people and the importance of urban gardens.  She would have been delighted to be associated with this small corner of greenery that is sandwiched between buildings, roads and a railway.  It epitomizes her ideas of nature and urban life being more integrated for the benefit of all, completely consistent with the programme of beautification that she introduced when she became Mayor of Bermondsey in 1920, planting over 7000 trees throughout the borough, many in her newly established playgrounds.  Ada's Garden, home to a wide variety of insect and bird life, including dunnocks, blue tits, wrens, robins, wood pigeons and blackbirds, is a tiny oasis for wildlife on the edge of the urban chaos of the busy shopping centre.

Statue of Ada Salter, next to the
Angel public house.

Ada Brown (1866 - 1942) was born to a well-to-do family in Raunds in Northamptonshire. Her parents were Wesleyan Methodists, so she was brought up with principles of serving and only seeking leadership roles in order to serve the greater good.  Importantly, they also believed in free will and the ability to influence the future, requiring profound moral integrity in order to influence that future.  In 1896 Ada left Raunds with the intention of doing social work in London, joining the West London Mission to work with people of the slums of Soho and St Pancras.  Her main achievement was to establish social clubs for impoverished girls in those areas, places.  A year later she moved to Bermondsey to work at the Bermondsey Settlement.   The Bermondsey Settlement was run by a well known Methodist minister and Liberal politician, the Reverend John Scott Lidgett.  The Bermondsey Settlement location acted as a base for dedicated Methodists in  a very deprived area. They and other like-minded philanthropists created various societies and medical missions in the area, and Ada continued to establish the social clubs that had been so successful in north London.   Ada met Alfred Salter in Bermondsey.

Ada planting a tree in a newly
established playground

Alfred Salter (1873 - 1945)  was born in South Street, Greenwich.  Although he himself grew up to be agnostic his parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, so from early childhood Alfred was surrounded with ideals of charitable activities and the support of the poor.  Like Ada, his childhood experiences had a lot to do with his later directions and achievements.  Although he began his career in medical research, he began to work in Bermondsey to provide medical expertise to the impoverished.  Epidemic diseases were very poorly understood at the time, and were rife.  In the days before the NHS here was no state operated free medical support it fell to philanthropists and social reformers to attempt to provide support for those who were most vulnerable to disease and least capable of coping.  Conditions in Bermondsey were particularly bad. 

It was at the Bermondsey Settlement that Ada and Alfred met. Although up until meeting Ada, Alfred had had no particular religious affiliation, in 1900 he became a Quaker, and he and Ada were married in the same year.  In 1902 their only child Joyce was born.  Adhering to Quaker principles, they decided to live in the areas in which they worked on behalf of the poor, and when Joyce became old enough she attended the local school on Keeting Road.

It soon became evident to the Salters that their own work would only touch the tip of the iceberg, and that to really help the poor political change would be necessary.  Alfred joined the Liberal Party in 1903 and was elected to Bermondsey Borough Council in 1906.   Two years later he became a member of the London County Council. In 1907 women won the right to stand in elections, and Ada was elected as the first female Councillor in Bermondsey.  She and Alfred were founders of the first branch of the young Independent Labour Party (ILP) in Bermondsey. In 1906 she co-founded the  Women's Labour League with Margaret MacDonald.  In 1909 Ada stood as their sole candidate in the elections for the borough council.  She was successful and became the first woman elected to a borough council in London.   In 1911 the whole working population of Bermondsey went on strike for better employment conditions.  Ada organized free meals for the women and children.  She did this again in the General Strike of 1926.  A Quaker and a pacifist, she was deeply disturbed by the First World War and campaigned extensively for peace, establishing the Wonen's International League for Peace and Freedom.  Ada became London’s first female Lord Mayor in 1920 but refused to wear the robes and chain of office, the symbols of status and power that were irrelevant to her work and contrary to hear beliefs. 

Ada Salter

The Salters experienced the impacts of poverty and disease personally.  Their only child Joyce died from scarlet in 1910.  Living in the heart of Bermondsey, the Salters were as vulnerable to disease as the people whom they were there to help. 

This brief summary misses out many important details about Ada's life, but the full post about both of the Salters will expand upon this small introduction to a remarkable person, environmentalist, social reformer and political activist.  It is wonderful to see her being recognized by history and by local residents.  I wonder what she would have thought about Southwark Councillor Mark Williams and his idea of "regeneration" as the replacement of playgrounds and mature nature areas with the sterile blocks and towering monoliths of the Canada Water Masterplan. Ada's Garden, for example, is under imminent threat from the Council who want to eliminate it to put a leisure centre where the wildlife area is located, in spite of 46 acres of land already ear-marked for development where it could easily be incorporated.

Notes from the Odessa Street /Thames Path/ Red Crane development consultation

I seem to be spending far too much time talking about development plans and not enough about local history.  But on this post the two come together.  I went to the Hollybrook Homes exhibition at the Dockland Settlement this evening, which was introducing plans for the 1-3 Odessa Street site.  They had mounted a series of posters presenting their proposition for the new building project.  There were no hand-outs and I forgot to take my camera so I am afraid that I have been unable to provide images of the planned development.  

They are proposing to build a by-now familiar mix of different types of housing, with a commitment imposed by Southwark Council of at least 35% affordable housing.  The buildings will be between 4 and 10 storeys tall, will comprise around 50 homes (final number to be confirmed) and car parking for an as yet undetermined proportion of the homes being built (but likely to be around 50%, which was the same number being voiced for the St George's Quay, South Dock site).

If you have a real interest in this development, I would seriously recommend reading the Southwark Council report "Extending the Thames Riverside Footpath including Consequential Lands Transactions" at http://bit.ly/1LMpUvz (it loads as a PDF) dating to 9th December 2014. It is focussed on this site and contains some insights not covered at the exhibition.

The unique features of the Hollybrook development are that it is planned for one of the truly miserable corners of Rotherhithe, just downriver (west) of where the former nightclub and its squatters are currently located, taking up the space currently occupied by the defunct youth club, sports ground and red derrick (crane).  Here's where all the main features are located:

The removal of the nightclub is part of the plan.  This would not only remove an eyesore but would open up another stretch of Thames Path, currently blocked by the nightclub itself.   In theory, this would enable Southwark Council to open up the Thames Path in front of New Caledonia Wharf and Odessa Wharf.  Although provision was made for the Thames Path to extend in front of these buildings it was never opened up, and the residents in New Caledonia have converted it to a terrace serving the building - and this has been the case for over 20 years.  Should the path be opened in front of New Caledonia, this would be something that would have to be negotiated between its residents and Southwark Council.  This means that although the idea of opening a huge stretch of the Thames Path would certainly be theoretically possible with the removal of the nightclub, it is by no means certain that Southwark Council could successfully negotiate for the return of the stretch of land currently in use by residents of New Caledonia Wharf.  Any New Caledonia Wharf residents reading this might want to have a look at the Southwark Council report "Extending the Thames Riverside Footpath including Consequential Lands Transactions" at http://bit.ly/1LMpUvz (see sections 6, 7, 8 and 22).  There is also more on the Southwark Council website at: http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=32831. 

As well as extending the Thames Path either a short way or all the way to Greenland Dock, there are plans for a "pocket park" (one of those pseudo-phrases like pop-up restaurant or tea-cup pig) which basically makes provision for a small green area within the development.  The development itself is shown skewed at an angle, which has been done to preserve existing mature trees, but I was unable to determine if any other mature trees were under threat. A park, even a small one, would be a good thing.  The more greenery the better.  There's not much of it in that area of the Thames Path.

There are also plans for a cafe with views over the river to be built underneath one of the apartment buildings, which sounds like a very good idea, as long as it is sustainable.  If memory serves, the Surrey Docks Farm had a lot of trouble maintaining a cafe in their busy facility before the current Piccalilli Cafe was established.  I would image that one of the problems would be figuring out how to promote its survival during the week, when most people in the area are at work, and through the winter months. 

My main priority in attending was to see the plans for the red derrick (or crane) that was preserved by the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) as a piece of riverside heritage.  Many other pieces of history were preserved by them at the same time and they have all become valued features of our landscape, landmarks with great personality that give Rotherhithe a unique character.  The Hollybrook consultation included a poster that asked for ideas about what to do with the derrick.  David Godden, who helpfully answered a positive barrage of questions from residents, says that there was no plan to move it north of the river, but that there were other options.  First, a specialist company is being brought in to see how structurally sound it actually is.  Thanks to decades of neglect by Southwark Council, there is significant rust.  An engineer, one of the residents attending the exhibition, thought from the photographs that it was probably structurally sound, and that the visible rust is cosmetic, but we have to wait for the survey before any decisions can be made.  I will be so hacked off if Southwark Council's neglect has resulted in its demise  - that's a serious dereliction of the council's duty of care to our heritage, to the community who live in its vicinity and to visitors on the Thames Path.  It is of course a long-standing, if dishonourable tradition in this country to let inconvenient structures that are located on prime development land rot so that there are good arguments for removal.    If it is given a surveyor's seal of approval the next question is what happens to it.  One suggestion is to reduce it down to more manageable dimensions and shift its position slightly so that it is still incorporated into the site but does not require as much space as it does at the moment.  A suggestion from Southwark Council (proposed in the above report) was to try to interest some sort of heritage organization who might take it and incorporate it into some sort of display (all a bit ephemeral!).  No other suggestions were being proposed, but the Hollybrook standpoint on it is that they would like to hear other ideas for its future.  So if anyone has any good alternative ideas please let me know and I will pass them on.   Something certainly needs to be done with it - it is probably a health and safety hazard and it is currently occupied by pigeons (winged vermin), and it will be wonderful to see it restored in some way to its former dignity.  My email address is in the header at the top of this blog if anyone has any suggestions for its future.  Hollybrook themselves seemed very approachable on the subject, and included the derrick in many of their artist's impressions.  It does worry me, however, that Southwark Council's own "Extending the Thames Riverside Footpath including Consequential Lands Transactions" from 9th December 2014 report at http://bit.ly/1LMpUvz (see sections 19, 21) states:

The removal of the crane may result in some members of the community being concerned about the loss of a heritage feature. However, the safety of the wider community including persons inclined to climb upon it and users of the Thames Path being subject to pigeon mess must over-ride this concern. Hollybrook has agreed to see if a historical organisation will take the crane but failing that it will be broken up and removed.

It seems so typical of Southwark Council to become concerned for public safety only when it becomes possible to redevelop the site! They couldn't develop it previously because of agreements for its usage that were in place and have only been recently overturned.  It is really no more of health and safety hazard now that it was five or more years ago, and no-one on the Thames Path walks under it at the moment, so that statement is all about being in a position to move an obstacle to development, not making the site any safer or more "mess"-free. 

I would imagine that parking would be an issue for the residents of Redriff Estate, because they already have difficulty with car owners from surrounding developments using their spaces.

I am forever banging on about traffic and public transport impact assessments because there is so much new building going up that at rush hour local roads, buses and tube trains are creaking at the seams.  As anyone who lives upriver (west) of Greenland Dock knows, there are only three ways off Rotherhithe in a car.  And there's nothing more annoying when you're trying to get to work by bus than watching the 381 sweep merrily past your bus stop because it is full to capacity.   There are already two huge brand new developments nearby, one opposite Trinity Church and the other just up the road at the Downtown site where the medical centre has always been located, and these are already contributing to the strain.   Southwark Council really need to think about how to improve public transport services if they want all these new homes to be built.

As to the buildings themselves, Hollybrook had quite a few posters and a model on display.   The buildings are being graded in height to limit the impact of light blockage on surrounding buildings (one will have to wait for a full assessment to see how effective this will be), and although the design doesn't look particularly distinctive or imaginative in the architectural sketches, it doesn't look too bad either.  The illustrations are early stage impressions of what it will look like, and I'm fairly sure that if they go ahead as they are they won't distinguish themselves, but they seem unlikely to upset anyone either.  The architect firm is Panter Hudspith.  The sketch of the building certainly looks a lot better than the nearby Custom House Reach!  I do wish I had pictures to show you.

I don't live in that corner of Rotherhithe, so I don't feel that I really have the right to comment on whether the proposed development is a good thing or not, but I did like the idea of the park, of the cafe (if it could be made sustainable) and of a residential development of some sort to replace and improve that terribly wasted corner of Odessa Street.  I think if I did live around there, I would be concerned about parking and public transport, but would be glad to see that ghastly mess of abandoned sports grounds and the former youth centre transformed into something useful and viable.  Local residents who were in the group of us talking with David Godden were all in favour of salvaging the red derrick in some form. 

As with all these developments, residents are always dealing with two separate entities - the developers and what they want to produce, and Southwark Council and what they want to achieve.  It's amazing how often the developers are more reasonable than the Council (other than Barratts of course!).  But it is Southwark Council who have the final say, so if you have any concerns you will need to communicate them to both Hollybrook Homes and, when a planning page becomes available for this development, Southwark Council.

Thanks to David Godden from Hollybrook Homes for talking through and explaining in detail the information provided at the exhibition.   

Hollybrook have promised to keep those of us who left email addresses up to date with proceedings, so I look forward with real interest to seeing what happens next.