Andrew Whitehead

 

'Hey Ho, Cook and Rowe' - NOW WITH THE MUSIC EMBEDDED

16/12/2011

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Peggy Seeger + Ewan MacColl, thanks to www.peggyseeger.com
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  I may be coming late to the party, but I have only just found out that the great Peggy Seeger once wrote a song about a big rent strike and bust-up here in Kentish Town.

I owe this 32-carat nugget  to the broadcaster and oral historian Alan Dein, who has spoken to veterans of the rent strike. And of course, there's a good story behind the song.

Back in the summer of 1960, a long standing grievance among tenants of the borough of St Pancras brewed up into an almighty row. It reached a climax in September when two tenants - yes, 'Cook and Rowe', Don Cook and Arthur Rowe - sought to challenge eviction orders by barricading themselves in their flats. They used bedsteads, barbed wire and a remarkable number of old pianos to keep police and bailiffs at bay.

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_The key battle ground was at Kennistoun House on Leighton Road, where there is to this day a plaque 'in memory of Don Cook and the rent battles of 1959-1964'.

One evening in late September, hundreds of police descended on Kennistoun House. Yes, literally - breaking into one of the flats through the roof. A large crowd quickly assembled in support of the rent strikers.

The photo below - which Alan Dein sent me - shows Peter Richards (like Cook, a former soldier and a CP'er) addressing a meeting in support of the rent strike.
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Peter Richards / Kings Cross Voices

You can get a marvellous sense of the drama, and the level of political engagement, in a wonderful Pathe news reel of the rent strike available to view on line, Eviction Battle On! It features both Don Cook and Arthur Rowe.

The forced evictions and protests they triggered were big news - and clearly attracted the attention of Peggy Seeger, who wrote 'Hey Ho, Cook and Rowe' and recorded it with Ewan MacColl. If you click on the arrow below, you can here the full recording - posted here with Peggy Seeger's blessing - distinctly dated, but wonderfully so. And below there's a taste of the lyrics - you can find them in full, with much other background, here:

CLICK ON THE ARROW  BELOW TO HEAR  'Hey Ho, Cook and Rowe'

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HEY HO! COOK AND ROWE!
(or: The Landlord's Nine Questions)
Words and Music by Peggy Seeger

As true a story I'll relate
(With a) HEY HO! COOK AND ROWE!
How the landlord told Don Cook one night,
(With a) HEY HO! COOK AND ROWE!
You must answer questions nine
(With a) HEY HO! COOK AND ROWE!
To see if your flat is yours or mine
(With a) HEY HO! COOK AND ROWE!

CHORUS:
Hey, ho, tell them no
With a barb-wire fence and a piano,
Took a thousand cops to make them go,
Three cheers for Cook and Rowe!

What is higher than a tree? (With a, etc.)
And what is lower than a flea?
My rent is higher than a tree,
And the landlord's lower than a flea.
(CHORUS)

There's another photo of the rent strike, and some links to sites with more information, at the bottom of this web page.
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Up the Cally Road

02/05/2010

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A wet, cold, miserable morning - about the worst imaginable to go on a walk almost the entire length of London's Caledonian Road. But that's what I've just done - in the company of the oral historian Alan Dein abd about twenty others.

The organised walk is linked to the entirely wonderful sound map that Alan and The Guardian's Francesca Panetta have recently posted on The Guardian's site:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/interactive/2010/apr/26/caledonian-road-sound-map
It's a fantastic piece of audio - strong voices, specially commissioned music and magical production. (And the images and web design are also impressive). Alan took along a ghetto blaster so we could hear some local voices and stories as we walked.

We started close to what was once the Caledonian market (the clock tower and the railings are almost all that survives) - a live meat market from the mid-nineteenth century which turned in to London's largest flea market but came to an end with the Second World War. On through the Caldeonian Estate to Pentonville jail - there's a road just to the north side, a public throughfare leading to blocks of warders' housing, which doesn't appear in the A-to-Z, I suppose in a nod towards security.

Then under the Ferodo bridge (I didn't know that Ferodo had a deal once with a big building concern to feature on all their bridges) into the Cally Road proper. It's a haven of family-run shops and small businesses. Hardly any chains. Prosperous Barnsbury to the east - slightly run down social housing to the west. Towards the canal, we walk past a recycling bin for kinives - an attempt to tackle gang-related street crime.

Then on towards what used to be the Geberal Picton - a local turned gastropub, The Drivers, with a vertical garden on its exterior walls. A sign of the gentrification that is increasingly evident at the southern extremity of the road. I just hope Housman's bookshop survives.
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