Old Town Hall | >Re-PHOTO

Staines, Sunday 4th September 2005

The New Trafalgar Dispatch - 2005 Staines — *The coach carrying the dispatch is led across Staines Bridge by the mayors of Spelthorne and Runnymede.*

The New Trafalgar Dispatch: At a protest in Whitehall the previous day, I had “made the mistake of climbing up onto the small wall by the edge of the grass, which produced a nasty snapping feeling in my knee, leaving me in pain.” So on Sunday 4th September I didn’t feel up to travelling to cover events in London, and instead went to photograph this local event – part of a wider national event – in Staines celebrating the rapid journey to London after the first ship docked at Falmouth following the battle of Trafalgar and brought the news both of the victory and of the death of Admiral Nelson.

Despite limping badly and painfully I seem to have managed a very full coverage of the event – which you can still view on My London Diary. Here below is the text I wrote in 2005 and a few of the pictures.

Nelson’s final prayer, on 21 October 1804 [the day of the Battle of Trafalgar] included a plea for God to grant victory “to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general.” He continued: “may no misconduct, in any one, tarnish it, and may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet.” These noble sentiments were not empty words, and when the battle was over, British sailors would risk their lives to save those of their French counterparts.

I thought about the humanity towards refugees and asylum seekers currently being shown by our New Labour government during the new Trafalgar Dispatch events at Staines on Sunday and felt a sense of shame about my country.

But we were celebrating greater times, although 200 years ago the events were also tinged with great sadness. Along with news of Britain’s great victory, Lt John Richards Lapontiere also brought news of Nelson’s death on his rapid voyage to Falmouth and express post-chaise journey from there to London – covering the 271 miles on land in 37 hours. One of the many places his coach picked up fresh horses was the Bush Inn at Staines, then one of the major market towns of Middlesex, and only two stages from the Admiralty in London.

The Bush is long gone, as also is the bridge across which his coach ran, but Sunday saw actor Alex Price playing the role of Lapontiere coming by coach – from Homebase just down the road (more or less on the old Staines boundary) – into Staines and onto the bridge where he was met by the Mayors of Runnymede and Spelthorne and the Lord Lieutenant Of Surrey (all women.) It was a day full of anachronism, as neither Runnymede or Spelthorne existed at the time of Trafalgar, when Staines was one of the main market towns of Middlesex.

After a brief ceremony on the bridge, proceedings moved on to Staines Old Town Hall, a fine Victorian building given away at a derisory price recently by the local council to the disgust of most if not all locals to become a [short-lived] pub.

*A septet from Staines Brass Band, founded as Staines United Temperance Band in 1930, provided the music for the Trafalgar service*

Another short performance there ended with copies of the new Trafalgar Dispatch and a copy of the original being officially presented to the Mayors and Surrey, before a plaque was unveiled on the town hall wall and an Anglican service held at a ‘drumhead church‘ in the fountains in the Market Square – turned off for the day [and more or less ever since].)

I’d stayed in Staines for this event partly because of my painful knee. I was surprised to find how much I had to move around even to cover a relatively simple event such as this. And yes, it hurt.

More pictures on My London Diary.

A few days later I added:

“A visit to my doctor’s [the following day] produced some [powerful prescription only] tablets that soothed the pain, and the advice that physiotherapy on the national health involves a wait of several months – by which time it would probably be fine anyway. Private treatment of course is available more or less on the spot, and he recommended the physios based at a local sports centre.

It’s not the cost, but the principle that stopped me ringing them to make an appointment. I grew up with the national health, orange juice and cod liver oil from the clinic, medicines and treatment when you needed them – not just if you could afford them. Prescription charges were a first step in the dismantling of the system, now more and more of it is being privatised in one way or another. National Health dentistry has more or less disappeared (and looks like going completely with government reforms next year.)

So I’m limping on, or rather trying not to limp, but get some gentle exercise without causing more damage and hoping time will heal.”

Slowly it did, and after a week’s rest I felt able to take some short walks in London and a couple of weeks later was back covering protests. But it was some months before I could walk without any pain.

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My photographic projects in London relied on being able to get a train from Staines, and although the service was generally rather better back in the 1980s than now, there were still times when I turned up at the station only to find there were no trains running. It was probably on one of these days when I’d arrived at the station with my camera bag on my shoulder that I decided instead of going back home to take a walk around the town instead. There is nothing spectacular about these images, but I think they are an interesting record of a time and place and one that in many respects has changed since I took them in October 1987.

Clarence St, Church St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10i-51-positive_2400 — *Clarence St, Church St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne*

This corner has changed relatively little, but Johnson and Clark, the Staines department store said to have been the inspiration for a sitcom closed long ago, and its main building on the other side of the road not in this picture long demolished. It was a business which always seemed stuck in a 1950s time warp. The shop with a closing down sale at right had been Staines first supermarket, a small Tesco , but possibly it was a successor selling up; it is now a Wetherspoons, and the last pub I visited before the lockdown in December.

Market Square, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10i-41-positive_2400 — *Market Square, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne*

The Blue Anchor was in business here, possibly from the 15th century, and the brick facade dates from 1721. Some of its windows are real but others only painted, presumably because of the window tax which first came into force in 1696 and was only repealed in 1851, and its hard to see the difference in this picture. One of the major inns in the old town, it closed as a pub around 2006, and has since been a series of restaurants, currently Turkish and of course only able to serve takeaway meals.

Staines Town Hall was built in 1880, financed by public subscription and the building became redundant when Spelthorne Council built new offices around a mile away – and at roughly the same time was Grade II listed. For some years it was used only for occasional concerts (and is the courtroom in the 1982 film Gandhi) but the council spent £1 million to convert it into a much-needed arts centre in Staines which opened in 1994. But this lost money and was closed in 1999 being at the wrong end of the borough to get support from the Tory council. It reopened as a wine bar from 2004-12, then was left empty (apart from a brief squat) before being sold off to a developer for £1.6 million with planning permission granted in 2018 for conversion to flats despite there being no parking space and inadequate disabled access. Many Staines residents regard it as a scandalous loss of what should have been seen as a major public asset for the town desperately short of cultural facilities.

Cock Tavern, Church St, Bridge St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10i-31-positive_2400 — *Cock Inn, Church St, Bridge St, Staines, Middx, 1987*

The Cock Inn, built in 1832 on a site that had been a pub for several hundred years, closed in 2009 and is now offices. Behind it was Ashby’s Brewery, where a modern building for Courage can be seen peeping over and to the left, but it served Brandon’s Fine Ales, brewed in Putney. Some of the older Ashby buildings still stand, converted to residential and office uses and the Quaker Ashby family was one of the most important in the growth of Staines.

A second Staines brewery, on Kingston Rd, set up by the Harris family was taken over by Ashby’s in 1903 and closed in 1914. Later it briefly became Staines Library and then an adult education centre for Surrey County Council but was closed 15 years ago and has been empty and unused since. Squatters occupied it in 2015 attempting to open up the buildings for community use but were evicted after a couple of months.

Clarence St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10i-26-positive_2400 — *Clarence St, Staines, Middx, 1987*

Clarence Street was built as the approach road to the new Staines Bridge designed by John and George Rennie and opened by King William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1832, a short distance upstream of previous bridges thought to have crossed the river since Roman times close to the Market Square. It was the fourth bridge to be built since the Civil War and is still in use, widened considerably in 1958, but still a bottleneck. The building on the corner of Bridge St was in the 1970s Staines Library.

High St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10i-03-positive_2400 — *High St, Staines, Middx, 1987*

Staines High St is still lined by a few buildings of some architectural interest from the Victorian era, along with some rather less exciting 20th century additions, but the big difference is that it is now pedestrianised.

High St, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10h-11-positive_2400 — *High St, Staines, Middx, 1987*

Another view of the north side of the High St, this time looking east towards the ‘Iron Bridge’ which carries the Windsor Line across the road. Almost all of the buildings here have now been demolished, with a large hotel replacing most of them.

London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10h-36-positive_2400 — *London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987*

The main road through Staines, on the line of the Roman Road to the Southwest which became the A30, becomes London Road to the east of the Iron Bridge seen at the left of this picture. Fortunately the opening of the second section of the Staines bypass in the 1960s takes much of the traffic away from the town which had been a notorious bottleneck. Only the shop and pub barely visible here at the side of the bridge remain (though probably not for long), with both the 1950s shops, the 1930s Post Office and the rest all long demolished and now part of a new partly high-rise largely residential development currently nearing completion – and including a new Co-op store.

London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10h-35-positive_2400 — *London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987*

A little further along on London Road and some pleasant 1920s style parades of shops on the north side (with some of a similar age on the south side, which would have been in shadow – so I will have decided to photograph them another day in different lighting.)

London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987, Spelthorne 87-10f-33-positive_2400 — *London Rd, Staines, Middx, 1987*

Surprisingly the Three Tuns and the two shops to the left are still there today, though sadly closed at the moment. As with all pubs we wonder if it will one day reopen, though we hope so, though it isn’t one I frequent. It was listed on this site in 1798 and possibly dates from rather earlier. The large office block is long gone, and development is promised on the site, though when I last looked it was still just earth and rubble.

There are a few more pictures of Staines on page 7 of my album 1987 London Photos, including just a few of the common land and other open spaces around the area on the edge of London – but just inside the M25 which is perhaps its real boundary.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Tag: Old Town Hall

The New Trafalgar Dispatch – 2005

Staines 1987