We have a name for the project inspired by this strange photograph of the Plaistow Landgrabbers taken from 'The Newham Story' ....
" ... At this time there was still the view that if you were unemployed it was your
own fault. Then in July 1906 a group of local men occupied some waste
ground in St Mary’s Road, Plaistow. They were led by Councillor Ben
Cunningham. They cleared the site and laid it out in four triangle shapes and
planted vegetables. It became known as Triangle Camp.
The men had two aims: to show that waste ground could be put to good use
and to show that the unemployed were willing to work.
The Council saw things differently and served the men with an injunction.
Eventually the men were removed but they had made their point. Locally at
least attitudes started to change towards the unemployed."
The men have painted the back wall of the plot with the phrase WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE? For some reason it reads very much like a contemporary URL.
Posted 2008/04/29 14:21 by Nina : 1 comments : leave a commentThemes : regeneration, history, Abbey Gardens, garden
Comments :
I like the historical Link, prehaps it would be worth mentioning it on the Newham Local History site to see if any relations of the men may still be about, also there is still a large bit of open land in St Mary's Road, so could this be a part of the Traingle camp, somebody may know.
By Robert Rogers at 2008-05-28 12:23:15