100 years ago today this was the most important building in the country.
It's 32 Eccleston Square in Pimlico, just round the corner from Victoria station.
Sorry about the scaffolding, that's temporary.
But in May 1926 it was the headquarters of the Trades Union Congress.
And it was here that the General Strike was called, bringing the nation to a halt for nine days.
No struggle like it has ever happened since.
The build-up
It was the miners that started it, or rather the mining companies, or perhaps Sir Winston Churchill. In 1925 as Chancellor he restored Britain to the Gold Standard, thereby raising exchange rates and dampening global demand for exports. This made the mining industry even less profitable than it had been so the private companies that ran the mines looked for ways to make efficiencies. They decided to pay miners less and extend their working day which plainly the mining unions weren't happy with, their campaign slogan being ‘Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day.’ Stanley Baldwin's government subsidised the industry for a further nine months before concurring in April 1926 that change was indeed needed and wages should drop by 13%. Talks broke down on 1st May so the TUC announced that a general strike "in defence of miners' wages and hours" should begin at one minute to midnight on Monday 3rd May. The actual centenary was thus technically yesterday but nobody would have noticed any ill effects until 100 years ago today.
The TUC
The TUC was founded in Manchester in the 1860s, in part because workers wanted a collective voice that wasn't London-centric. It grew to represent a broad coalition of trade-based bodies, initially focused on influencing government policy but by the 1920s keener on developing its own activities. The TUC moved into 32 Eccleston Square shortly after WW1, back when everything could still be coordinated from a single Georgian townhouse, and moved out to somewhere bigger in 1930. An open architectural competition then led to the opening of their current HQ in March 1958, the Grade II* listed Congress House.
The strike
Support for the General Strike was widespread and immediate, the scale of the action surprising even those who'd called for it. The National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport Workers' Federation agreed to stop all movements of coal, bringing public transport across the country to a standstill. Also showing solidarity with the miners were printers, dockers, engineers and others whose labour kept the country running, thereby bringing much of the economy to a halt.
A key issue was that newspapers could not be printed, so the TUC stepped in with a daily screed called The British Worker and the government countered with The British Gazette, a propaganda tool edited by Winston Churchill. The government also leaned heavily on the BBC, at this point still a private company, to broadcast its preferred version of the news.
The strike's impact was initially severe but the government had contingency plans which involved a "militia" of special constables called the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies. Picket lines were broken, supplies of newsprint for The British Worker were restricted and soon reports began circulating that men were drifting back to work. Sympathy for the cause was harder to find after a week with no wages, and on 12th May the TUC General Council walked from 32 Eccleston Square to 10 Downing Street to announce its decision to call off the strike. No guarantees were offered in response, such was the capitulation, and inevitably the mining companies did indeed impose longer hours for less pay. The General Strike was thus simultaneously a demonstration that two million working Britons were willing to stand together to fight injustice but also an unequivocable trouncing by the government.
The house
1836: The first houses are built on Eccleston Square, designed by Thomas Cubitt.
1862: Number 32 is built on the southeast side.
1863: The first owner is Lord Eustace Cecil, brother of future Prime Minister Lord Salisbury. who moved in after retiring from the Coldstream Guards and before becoming Conservative MP for South Essex. He has three children called Evelyn, Blanche and Algernon.
1895: The second owner is Duncan Pirie, a Scottish Lieutenant-Colonel who became Liberal MP for Aberdeen North. 32 Eccleston Square is already moving left.
1899: The third owner is Sir Charles John, a barrister and Clerk of the London County Council.
1920: The TUC move in, Eccleston Square no longer being the prime address it once was.
1930: Next to move in are the Rifleman’s Aid Society, a charity for army veterans
1970: ...then the Institution of Public Health Engineers
1984: ...then the National Video Corporation
1987: ... then the Inchbald School of Design
2021: Purchased by art historian Alexander Rudigier for £2,750,000
Future plans
Alexander is attempting to restore 32 Eccleston Square to its former glory as a Georgian townhouse. The majority of similar houses within the area have been subdivided into a single flat per floor with architectural detailing removed, whereas number 32 is substantially unaltered and retains much of its original form. He's already converted it back to a residential dwelling by restoring authentic features and returning the interior to the presumed colour scheme of the first occupant. The current works are relatively minor - removing a flagpole from the facade, dismantling a metal access ladder and replacing a third floor WC with a half-height cupboard. I thank Alexander for the comprehensive documentation attached to recent planning proposals, and also curse the bad luck which means 32 will spend the centenary of the General Strike shrouded in sheeting and scaffolding.
Eccleston Square today
This is one of London's finest garden squares despite its proximity to Victoria, indeed if you stand outside number 32 you can see the Coach Station at the end of the road. The central three-acre garden houses the National Collection of Ceanothus, also several rosebeds and currently a fine wisteria tunnel. It's normally locked but next Sunday you can go in for a look round and home-made teas as part of the National Open Garden Scheme (2-5pm, £5). Eccleston Square is now prime residential estate intermingled with small independent hotels, for example the Jubilee Hotel nextdoor at number 31. Their interior is perhaps over-endowed with patriotic decor, also breakfast's not included, also we now have minimum wage legislation so none of the workers need to go on strike for pay. But what I found most intriguing about this side of the square was the blue plaque outside number 34 which simply says 'Winston Churchill lived here 1909-1913'. How ironic that the politician who did so much to smash the General Strike used to live just two doors down from where it was co-ordinated.
Legacy
The General Strike didn't end well for the TUC and for British miners it was catastrophic. They ended up working longer hours for less, at least until nationalisation in 1947, having endured nine days without pay essentially for nothing. These days the TUC puts a more positive spin on the General Strike, saying it reinforced the importance of trade unions as a collective voice for workers and helped shape the labour movement for the next century. However when miners embarked on a huge strike again in 1984 the rest of the nation didn't come with them and the outcomes were even worse, smashed this time by an even more intransigent establishment. In solidarity with today's 100th anniversary the annual May Day parade will be marching from Clerkenwell to Trafalgar Square this afternoon seeking comradely change. But the days when two million workers could shut the country down, and were brotherly enough to do so, are long gone.
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