FROM 
SPIKE TO STEPFORD
SPIKE TO STEPFORD
I know that from time to time I am critical of the BBC and very often for good reason with their tendancy to squander other people`s money, pursue daft policies like transferring perfectly good operations to Salford, Edinburgh and, it seems, anywhere but London. But I have to confess my admiration for BBC 4, which produces some of the most interesting, if not quirky documentaries I`ve ever seen.
One of their latest series has been "The Beauty of Books." It was what it said on the tin, but the last episode was concerned with the changing design of book covers and took as an example the design of George Orwell`s `1984.` Now, my illustration shows Orwell`s `Down and Out in Paris and London` and the reason is that, watching the programme about `1984` and George Orwell, aka Eric Blair, reminded me that there is a real life Orwellian connection just up the road from where I live.
The King Hill `hostel` was built back in the 1920s on the site of the Victorian West Malling workhouse and features as one of the Spikes in George Orwell`s book, `Down and Out in Paris and London.` Orwell lived for several years in poverty, sometimes homeless, sometimes doing itinerant work, as he recalled in the book. In his day the Spike was the place where gentlemen of the road would come to sleep at night - an experience well known to Orwell during those difficult years for him.
Having served its time firstly as a workhouse and later as the `hostel,` in the 1970s the site was then used for homeless families waiting to be housed in council accommodation. Some families were there because they had been evicted from their homes, usually because they had defaulted on the rent. They were housed at King Hill until the arrears had been paid before being rehoused in more permanent accommodation. When the site was finally cleared, it was then used for a small, rather exclusive `development` of four large houses and, in memory of its undistinguished past but also in memory of one of its more distinguished `residents,` was named Orwell Spike.
Just literally across the road from there, is the huge expanse of Kings Hill, an ultra-modern development for business, retail and particularly housing, all on the site of what used to be West Malling Airfield. It`s a sign of the times that King Hill, given all its associations with workhouse and `hostel,` became Kings Hill - a subtle, small but significant name change signifying the advance from a deprived past to a prosperous present. In fact, the Kings Hill development, with its Stepford-esque neatness, broad avenues and thriving community, was listed in the 2004 Wealth of the Nation report as having the highest average income and the highest proportion of households earning greater than £100,000 per annum in the country.
Just literally across the road from there, is the huge expanse of Kings Hill, an ultra-modern development for business, retail and particularly housing, all on the site of what used to be West Malling Airfield. It`s a sign of the times that King Hill, given all its associations with workhouse and `hostel,` became Kings Hill - a subtle, small but significant name change signifying the advance from a deprived past to a prosperous present. In fact, the Kings Hill development, with its Stepford-esque neatness, broad avenues and thriving community, was listed in the 2004 Wealth of the Nation report as having the highest average income and the highest proportion of households earning greater than £100,000 per annum in the country.I wonder what George Orwell would make of it all.
10 comments:
The King Hill Hostel was used for homeless families from at least the early 60's.
Very interesting, do you have any more info about it?
Thank you for your comment. I`m afraid I know little more than what I posted on this blog - all a bit before my time, I fear - but a Google search seems to show up some useful links to the history of West Malling. Hope this helps.
My husband was housed as a child with his mother and four siblings in the early 1960s. His father had been in the RAF but the marriage broke down in the early 60s. This resulted in the family splitting up and the family becoming homeless..hence resettlement at the hostel. My husband , who was about 8 years old, recalls it being a horrible, crowded place and in the summer he was there a lot of illness. He has blocked out most of the memories as they are painful such were the conditions.
Thank you for your most interesting comment and I am sorry but perhaps not surprised that your husband has such painful memories from his childhood. The difference between those days and the rather nice `development` that is currently on the site is quite staggering. Thank you again and all good wishes.
My friend Jim Radford who died on the 6th November was as a 37 year old in the 1960s involved in 1966-67 campaign to stop closure of the Kings Hill Hostel there was much about that in the papers of the time the questions raised in Parliament were in part answered and are in Hansard for viewing however much is on the restricted list at the national archive. I was quite unaware until today of Jim`s part in the campaign. I in my youth worked on the old Nyssen Huts that had been there from wartime use, as a young plumber I was involved in refurbishment that would have been 1961.
Hi Chris - and many thanks for your most interesting comment, which is appreciated. There`s certainly a `history` to the Hostel which is in danger of being forgotten in the aftermath of the Kings Hill development, which is still going on, of course. I see there are going to be new houses just down the road from the old hostel site and a few more behind the Startled Saint. I didn`t know about the campaign in which Jim took part - before my time in these parts, I`m afraid but hopefully good people like the Malling Society and others will keep the memories intact. (I still wonder what George Orwell would make of it all.)
Hi My researches show that this issue was raised at the time in the national press and the house of commons reference is made in Hansard the parliamentary diary, The NRO National Record office at Kew have files locked away and still restricted after all these years. In writing an obit for Jim his son told me dad dragged me along to his various campaigns when I was only 10 Kings Hill was one of them. I was apprenticed to George Ansett and Son and later H Goodsell for 5 years to learn plumbing, Goodsell had the contract for work at the West Malling air field then leased to the Americans this after we had refurbished the mainly outside of the Kings Hill Huts 1961-2 we creosoted the huts and then replaced and repaired the asbestos gutters and pipes over some weeks, I remember that Husbands at that time were not allowed to stay in the Hostel splitting families Shelter fought and won a bitter campaign from what I see in old newspapers of the time. When Goodsell got the airfield contract we had a crew based there where we had a workshop, the Americans had an armed guard on the entrance which we had to pass through to get to the married quarters on the other side of the road, the Americans left and before they went they took so much up to the runway. Cars, fridges, freezers televisions much electrical goods and furniture all taken from the married quarters and burnt the lot as they would not sell anything off to locals, the airfield was then leased to Short Brothers, and latterly turned into housing. During the war we were told the road which ran parallel with the runway could be lit to throw off German attacks on the airfield. Chris
Thank you again, Chris, for more fascinating facts about the Hostel and the Airfield that was. But first my apologies for not passing on my condolences at the passing of your good friend, Jim - always a sad and difficult time when good friends leave us, so you have my sympathies.
The things you recalled and mentioned are important to the history of the area and I hope that others who read my blog will agree. Is there a local history society that might be grateful for the information and the recollections you have? I`m curious as to why the NRO are still locking up records from all those years ago. What are they trying to hide I wonder?
I lived there for a while when I was about 4 years old with my mum and my brother in early 1960's. Men weren't allowed there...it was like a fortress and locked up tight at night.My dad used to find a way to get in somehow to spend the odd night with us.
We had two small rooms ( bedroom and living are). There were mouse holes under our beds and the traps would go off in the night!
We had to share toilets and washroom facilities with a whole block of other families.
I remember the deliveries of jelly crystals for calcium, and cod liver oil. There was also some sweet tasing brown stuff that we had to have a spoon every day.
My dad had been made redundant from Snodland paper mill. We had lived in May Street which was a tied house to the mill.
Thats all I remember.
Thanks for the memories - would be good to respond more `personally` but your name is listed as `Unknown.` I think the brown stuff might have been something like Virol - I remember being force-fed with it as a boy growing up in and just after WW2. Looking back, life wasn`t easy in those days although we were probably not aware of it. As for me, growing up in wartime, I didn`t know that life was any different, so we just got on with it. Thanks again for your comments and all good wishes. S.
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