Celebrating the Salter Centenary 2022

by Sheila Taylor (Salter Centenary Co-ordinator).

When 2022 was approaching, we wanted to mark the centenary of Ada Salter becoming Mayor of Bermondsey and Alfred being elected MP. The Salters’ political activism was always rooted in Quaker principles and the ethical socialism of the old ILP (Independent Labour Party). So we envisaged perhaps a conference with political speakers? In fact, nothing like that has happened! Instead, there has been a stream of cultural events throughout the year, with all sorts of people volunteering to arrange all sorts of activities in memory of Ada and Alfred. 

How visionary the Salters were – on environment, housing and public health – has become increasingly evident as our world faces climate crisis, worldwide homelessness and global pandemic. Their insights resonated with everyone we spoke to, and people were inspired to do something which would in some way help spread the values and principles of the Salters. 

So there have been walks and bike rides, concerts and art exhibitions, films and plays, planting of trees and hedges, school lessons and children’s books, a street mural, tea towels, a podcast, etc. Virtually every month there has been something, and this article gives a brief overview.  (For details: www.saltercentenary.org.uk.)

The Salter story for children
We foundthere was no teaching material to tell thestory of Ada, Alfred and Joyce to youngsters growing up in the area, despite its fascination and relevance.So Karen Metcalf and Sarah Mason produced a set of school lessons, freely available on the internet, encouraging teachers to take their classes to see the Salter statues and learn about their local history.
For pre-school children, Sue and Peter Rogers have written an utterly charming little book, ‘Ada and Alfred’, also available free of charge.

Bike rides
were definitely the most unexpected aspect of the centenary year! Bruce Lynn of Southwark Cyclists proposed the ‘Salter sites of Bermondsey’ as a new Saturday morning ride. It was great fun, with Bruce leading the cyclists to each stop where I told them about the Salter story. That took place in June, but had a spin-off in October when one of the participants, John Clements, organised a repeat tour for his Dulwich U3A Bike Group.
Meanwhile in August Andy Bates set up a far more ambitious ride: to Fairby Grange in Kent. The London Clarion Cycling Club assembled at Southwark Park and rode to the Salter cottages and statues for introductory talks, before being waved off on their strenuous ride. (An easier visit, by coach, took place in July. See article on page ////.)

Ada’s birthday concert
To honour Ada suitably requires performers who share her ethos. Eleanor Thorn of TunedIn London found the perfect pair: celebrated singer-songwriters Silvia Balducci and Adam Beattie, and they together created a moving celebration in the packed City Hope Church. Silvia sang of working conditions and human rights, drawing parallels with the Salters’ Bermondsey, and Adam’s performance culminated with his amazingly appropriate ‘Song of One Hundred Years’, making adeeply emotional impact on the audience.

Our Local History Society
featured the centenary at two meetings. In July members joined Salter themed walks led by tour guides Oonagh Gay and Sue McCarthy. Then in September we enjoyed a talk by Southwark Archivist Patricia Dark, on living conditions and health in inter-war Bermondsey, including the medical innovations of Dr Salter and his colleagues. 

Art exhibition: ‘The Spirit of the Salters Lives On’ (10 September – 9 October)
Southwark Park Art Gallery named their designated community room the ‘Salter Space’, and invited us to curate its first exhibition. Contributions flowed in. Local artist Nigel Moyce painted the first ever portraits of the Salters. Eugene Ankomah, artist at the Salmon Youth Centre, told young people about the Salters and they created a collaborative installation. Leanne Werner took photos of environmentalists. Karin Wach included her trauma sketches as a testimony to pacifism. Over the month, the gallery had 747 visitors.
(The exhibition handout is on our website.) 

Town partnership
Friendship has grown between Ada’s two homes: Raunds, the country town where she was born and Bermondsey, where she spent most of her life. We had exchanged visits twice, in 2016 and 2018. For 2022 we invited the Mayor of Raunds, their Brass Band and other residents to join us for celebrations. Sadly two days before the event the Queen died, civic dignitaries were withdrawn from all official duties and the council banned our concert (no jolly music in public places, please). Fortunately the rest of the programme went ahead as planned and everybody had a lovely day. 

Alfred’s great-niece Jo Crawshaw and husband Sebastian were with us to greet the Raunds group, which included Amanda Mauro and husband Andy Farrow, current owners of Ada’s Thorpe House. Following a reception by Canon Gary Jenkins at St James’s Church, we walked via the Wilson Grove estate, with a glimpse inside one of Ada’s garden cottages, to the Salter statues on the riverfront.

After a buffet lunch at Cherry Garden Hall, the afternoon was spent in Southwark Park. Gary Magold and Pat Kingwell told us some park history, and we welcomed the installation of a new (historically accurate) information board in the Ada Salter Garden. At the Lakeside Art Gallery we had tea and cakes with a private view of our Salter exhibition. A walk then took us to Sands Film Studios for an early evening performance of ‘Red Flag Over Bermondsey’, Lynn Morris’s striking play depicting Ada’s early years in Bermondsey.  

We were delighted that the Town Partnership was thus strengthened during the centenary year. Both sides hope to continue the happy link in future. 

School film ‘Ada’
On 3 November 2022 a headline in Southwark News announced: ‘Bermondsey school kids star in film about Salter family to mark centenary celebrations of historic couple’. The report explained how Joyce attended school on the site where Compass School stands today, and this fact sparked off the idea of making a film. Ben May, Head of Drama, said, ‘The film captures the legacy of Ada Salter through the eyes of her daughter, Joyce, as she travels through time witnessing the changing landscape of Bermondsey…. our film celebrates the extraordinary vision and legacy of Ada.’ 

The Principal, Marcus Huntley, said, ‘The school is incredibly proud to play its part in the Salter Centenary celebrations. We are committed to ensuring the Salter legacy continues through our history curriculum… including our new Ada Salter-inspired Chess Club…’. Southwark News quoted my reaction: ‘I never dreamt that the sadness of Joyce’s death could inspire such a beautiful little film. To see her come alive and play with kids who would have been her classmates at Keeton’s Road School brought tears to my eyes!’ (See it on YouTube: youtu.be/CkqytP80wZQ)

What a joy it is to have as patron Dame Judi Dench, a Quaker and environmentalist like the Salters. After hearing of our exhibition, she wrote to the artists with congratulations and thanks for participating. Nigel, Eugene and the young people at the Salmon Centre were amazed and so thrilled to receive personal letters signed by Judi! 

In November Southwark Council are displaying Nigel’s portraits of Ada and Alfred in the atrium of the council offices at Tooley Street to mark their November 1922 elections. Then the centenary celebrations slip over into next year and culminate with a grand finale, when the People’s Company perform John Whelan’s specially written Ada Festival play at Southwark Playhouse on 12, 13 & 14 January 2023.

Throughout the year I kept remembering how historians described the Independent Labour Party, the Salters’ old ILP. It was less of a political party than a way of life, they said: full of fun and fellowship, kindliness, good humour, equality, beauty, peacefulness, human unity, cooperation. During 2022 I had an extraordinary sense that this spirit had come alive again and was moving people in a way that the Salters would have recognised and loved.

For full details, see website: www.saltercentenary.org.uk