Campbell Bunk: The Worst Street in North London Between the Wars

by Jerry White

From the 1880s to the Second World War, Campbell Road, Finsbury Park (known as Campbell Bunk), had a notorious reputation for violence, for breeding thieves and prostitutes, and for an enthusiastic disregard for law and order. It was the object of reform by church, magistrates, local authorities, and social scientists, who left many traces of their attempts to improve what became known as 'the worst street in North London'. Jerry White offers insight into the realities of life in a 'slum' community, showing how it changed over a 90-year period. Using extensive oral history to describe in detail the years between the wars, White reveals the complex tensions between the new world opening up and the street's traditional culture of economic individualism, crime, street theatre, and domestic violence.

Genres: London, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 1986

About the author

Professor of London history

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent piece of social and oral history about Campbell Road in North London, otherwise known as Campbell Bunk. This focuses primarily on the period between the wars, although there are chapters on the development of the road, its pre First World War history and post 1945 history until it was demolished in the 1950s. White follows a number of the individuals and families throughout the period. This was researched and written in the 1970s and early 1980s and so White was able to interview some of the people he writes about: the original voices do add an extra dimension. It was also good to read a piece of Marxist historiography which takes note of and assesses the place of class.
The book covers all aspects of life, particularly family relations, living conditions, employment, entertainment, crime and punishment, violence and abuse. The shadow of the workhouse is present. Religion occasionally tries to permeate with little success. Information comes from police and court records, from other surviving written records from a variety of sources and oral accounts.
The oral accounts make the book. Take this from a young thief in 1933:
“Why should I be singled out to walk the places – nowhere to go, nothing to eat? Mother at home crying, Dad’s out of work and you see all those people with lovely horses coming down Holloway Road there, and always going out shopping with bags of servants – never used to seem right to me, somehow. Something seemed to be wrong, something’s missing, you know, something’s gotta be put right. I used to rebel against this. I used to take things as a right. If my brothers and sisters were at home crying, they got nothing to eat, and there’s a bakers shop just round the corner full of bread! Course I’m going to nick some bread. It’s mine! I want some.”
Crime started young, sometimes with training from parents and White refers to the street as a “collective Artful Dodger”. Police had to walk down in twos and were often attacked if they tried to make an arrest. Most of the work people did was casual, short term labouring, totters and costermongers. Women worked in factories or charring. There was also a great deal of unemployment, especially if you were disabled. Violence was a commonplace between men and women, parents and children. Attitudes were plain and sometimes brutal as with this advice from mother to daughter:
“She always warned me my mother did: “If you ever marry a man” she said …. “who knocks you about, just wait until he gets in bed and get the chopper or the hammer and break his legs. He can’t run after you and pay you no more.””
Or this reported by a policeman from the mid-1930s:
“On Sunday afternoon I was walking up the Bunk when a little girl came out of the house crying and said to me “Come in our house and see what mummy’s done to dad.” I went with the child and on the living room floor lying unconscious and spread-eagled on his back was the bald-headed husband, his head covered in blood. Standing over him, holding by the handle the remains of a chamber pot was a grim faced wife. The remainder of the pot was shattered round his head on the floor. “What’s happened here?” I asked. She looked at me for a moment then said, “I had just emptied this when he came in as usual pissed. His first words were, “I’m the King of the Castle”, so I fucking crowned him.” He came to a short time after but he refused to charge her for assault.”
The history records great bleakness and poverty along with a certain resilience and humour. The name was changed to Whadcoat Street in the late 1930s to try to change the reputation, but that was pretty much ignored. This is a very good piece of historical research about an area of history that has been often ignored.

[K.J. Charles]

A fascinating social history of Campbell Street, a horrendous slum, and the lives and struggles of its inhabitants between the 20s and 40s. Absolutely horrifying stuff at points, with the depiction of human degradation and awfulness, but also a kind of exhilarating, stubborn defiance. The first part is hard going because the author is taking a Marxist view of history with associated verbiage, but at least I've finally learned what lumpenproletariat means. Terrific London history from the expert.

[John Newcomb]

I have not read a proper ideological marxist history book for a while. Reading one about my old neighborhood was novel. White brings the voices and lifestyle of the impoverished and criminal underclass of Finsbury Park to life. It made me feel a little homesick.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simply suberb local history of a single Islington street during the first half of the 20th century. White has a subtle and sophisticated grasp of the dynamics of London life, and in this case takes us inside a working class part of town in a way that is carefully aware of class and gender dynamics, the significance of both work and everyday life in making peoples. This is one of a small cluster of books that inspired me to begin to call myself a historian, and to continue to study. It has a major place in my heart.

[Mike Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating and very readable

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[Jwalth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Loved the tales of life and the author's Marxist prism, so great to see working class life depicted unapologetically.