A rose by any other name: a radical history of Manette Street, London

Manette Street has probably more long-term associations with anarchism –and radicalism in general-than any other street in Britain. Formerly known as Rose Street, it acquired its new name in 1895 after the fictional Doctor Manette who resides there in Charles’ Dickens The Tale of Two Cities. Off of the Charing Cross Road, one side of it is now taken up by the north facing façade of Foyles book store.

It was in 1878 that the Social Democratic Club moved to 6 Rose Street. The Social Democratic Club had five sections of different nationalities, which included the Communistiche Arbeiter Bildungs Verein (CABV), the remnant of the Communist League. The Club only occupied part of the premises, a tenement full of poor working class tenants. One of those who lived there was Charles Ruster who according to the 1881 Census was the steward of the Club. The CABV supported a masons strike from there, as well as sheltering German fugitives from Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Laws. The veteran Frank Kitz recalled that: “The club was crowded with refugees: our hall at times resembled a railway station, with groups of men, women and children sitting disconsolately amidst piles of luggage”. Kitz, along with the German anarchist John Neve, was involved in the setting up of the Rose Street Club. The groups who came together to set up the Club had previously met at various pubs. Now they could avoid the interference of pub landlords and as Kitz wrote: “We were enabled to hold public meetings with greater frequency”. The Rose Street building had previously housed the St James and Soho Working Men’s Club, and was nearly derelict. Rebuilding and redecorating started in February 1878 and on 3rd August the Club was officially inaugurated for all sections of the Social Democratic Club/CABV.

Kitz, along with John Neve, Edwin Dunn and John Lord (treasurer of the Freiheit Defence Committee) and members of the Rose Street Club were delegates at the International Congress (Social Revolutionary and Anarchist) in July 1881. Edwin Dunn, who was also secretary of the Marylebone Radical Reform Association, was behind the initiative for an independent labour party alongside H. M. Hyndman. Meetings were held at Rose Street and elsewhere to discuss this subject and Dunn sent out invitations as secretary of the Marylebone Radical Association for a meeting in June 1881. This led to the foundation of the Democratic Federation, which later became the Social Democratic Federation in 1884. Dunn’s section was more advanced than the majority of the DF in 1881.

When the CABV split along the lines of those who supported Johann Most, on his way to becoming a full-fledged anarchist, and the orthodox Social Democrats, Rose Street housed the section that rallied behind Most, until it moved to St. Stephen’s Mews, Rathbone Place in 1885. Most’s paper Freiheit was published originally from Rose Street, moving to Percy Street in October 1879. In 1929 the building was demolished for the extension of Foyles bookshop.

At nearby Number 9, the anarchist Walter Ponder (see his biography here at libcom), together with a group of French anarchists organised for a large anti-militarist demonstration in 1913. This demonstration, supported by the North London Herald League, rallied at Trafalgar Square with feeder marches from Highbury Corner, St. Pancras Arches and several other venues.

In the same year, The Daily Herald reported on the "revolutionary club in Soho" on 5th March. A Daily Herald man met the French anarchist communist Henry Combes, editor of Le Mouvement Anarchiste, at the Manette Street Club. " In his country, Combes has been sentenced in default to three years solitary confinement, but the police were not quick enough. He reached London safely just after Christmas, and has obtained satisfactory employment. But a few days ago two special agents of La Sûreté, the French criminal investigation department, came mysteriously to London. They refused help from Scotland Yard. They wanted to see M. Combes, for they were over here "to discover the London agent of the motor bandit gang." But they did not find M. Combes, nor would he listen to the gentle hints they sent him concerning a possible reward for giving evidence. Combes is a little man of pale fair complexion, and quiet grey eyes. He told why was sentenced. His paper published article on how to prevent army quick-firing and other guns being used. The Balkan war scare had made France and Germany look upon one another with angry eyes,but the revolutionaries in both countries do not want war, so little Comix's issued scientific instructions concerning the sabotage all kinds firearms. But the French War Office stepped in. High treason, gentlemen! And the red-capped legal people in Paris condemned treasonable Combes to three years' solitary confinement. He is doing quite well out of prison, thank you."

According to Le Maitron, Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français, Combes (1887-1925), was the son of a navvy. He joined both the anarchist movement and the syndicalist union the CGT in 1906. He was a "a pillar of the Parisian anarchist communist movement, ranking in its most radical faction". He was one of the founders of the Alliance Anarchiste Communiste, whose aim was to create an anarchist communist federation. Le Mouvement Anarchiste, which Combes co-founded, was the the voice of the left wing of anarchism and the "ultra" wing of revolutionary syndicalism". Combes served as secretary of the Fédération Communiste Anarchiste (FCA) in 1912. The paper spoke for the radical wing of the FCA, and was sharply anti-patriotic. Whilst intensely critical of the individualists, it adopted a warmer tone towards those caught up with the Bonnot Gang arrests, "Thus, during the trial of the gang's survivors, the journal reserved its political support for a certain category of defendants, campaigning for the recognition of the "right of asylum" for those accused of harboring criminals" ( entry on Le Mouvement Anarchiste at https://archivesautonomies.org/spip.php?rubrique550).

The Daily Herald reported that "The little Anarchist wrote a most amusing letter to Drioux, the judge in charge of his case, thus adding insult to injury. And, though the French police may make all kinds of promises, Combes is not going back to France, he has brought his wife and his brother here, and they live quite happily, all working for the social revolution. Combes insisted that he was not a philosophical Anarchist. He is militant and proud of it" Combes was one of the signatories of the internationalist anarchist manifestoThe Anarchist International and the War, in 1915, also signed by Malatesta, Goldman , Nieuwenhuis, Fred Dunn, Lillian Wolfe, etc. He stayed in London during and after the war, having received no reassurance that he would not have to serve the 3 year prison sentence, dying there in 1925.

Combes may well have been one of those involved with Ponder in preparation for the antimilitarist demonstration. Also involved would have been the Groupe d’Études Sociales Francais. This was formed in 1911 according to a notice in the socialist paper Justice (November 4th, 1911). It held propaganda meetings in Hyde Park, and ran English language courses for its members. It had weekly meetings at nearby 6, Gerrard Street but then moved to 9 Manette Street. From there it organised a picnic in Epping Forest on July 20th,1913, and ran a series of meetings, one on agriculture by James Tochatti. The group also distributed French language papers, one of which was the French anarchist art journal Action d'Art (Art Action).

Another group housed at no.9 which would most likely have been involved in the antimilitarist agitation was the Groupe des Insoumis et Déserteurs (Draft Dodgers and Deserters Group) . This included the anarchists Georges Ozon, Marcel Viriaut, A. Pedu et P. Robert . However, its most prominent member was Eugène Bévant . Born in 1884, into a peasant family, he refused compulsory military service in 1905 and went to Paris where he contacted the anarchist movement. Under pressure from his parents, he agreed to do military service in 1906 , but was given a suspended sentence by a military service for being absent without leave. He then deserted, making his way to Switzerland, from where he was expelled after 18 months for taking part in anti-militarist activity. Following this, he was expelled from Germany for contact with the anarchist movement. On 31st December, 1907 he arrived in London. He was arrested by the British police in December 1916 and sent back to France, where he was sentenced to 5 years forced labour by a court martial.

Antimilitarist activity continued at no.9 after the demonstration, and a Workers' Antimilitarist Committee operated at that address. It produced a pamphlet, Antimilitarism from the Worker's Point of View, written by the militant socialist suffragettee Dora Montefiore (Freedom, November, 1913)

Also in that busy year, an appeal by the Anarchist Federation of Germany to convene an International Anarchist Congress was discussed at a public meeting on July 14th at No 9. The Congress never materialised.

Manette Street’s last associations with anarchism seem to have been with The London Anarchist Group which held outdoor meetings in Manette Street every Saturday evening during the 1950s. This was in addition to the LAG's weekly pitches at Speakers' Corner. It had a team of “at least six outdoor speakers” including Philip Sansom. Freedom reported on a meeting in Manette Street in 1952: "The meeting had only just begun and less than half a dozen people (apart from the group members) were listening when a policeman sailed round the corner and called the first speaker (John Bishop) down. Thinking it was simply the routine demand for name and address, comrade Bishop got down from the platform and. in order not to leave it vacant—and some people began to gather as soon as the policeman arrived—comrade Philip Sansom mounted the platform and began to speak. The constable then switched his attention to Sansom and arrogantly ordered him to stop speaking and get down. Our comrade refused and after some argument the constable grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him down and then told him he was going to charge him with obstruction. On Monday morning. Sansom appeared at Gt. Marlborough Street Magistrates' Court and, conducting his own defence, was able to question the constable and make a statement. Before the witnesses for the defence were called, however, the magistrate. Mr. Paul Bennett. V.C adjourned the case for one week". In early November, Sansom was fined 5 shillings for obstructing the highway, whilst the other charge of obstructing the cop was dismissed. During the Suez and Hungary crises the LAG held a meeting there on 17th November 1956 that attracted a huge crowd, which prevented the police attempt to close it down. In fact it “virtually stopped the traffic in Charing Cross Road”. (Philip Sansom, Freedom, 1976).
Photo of Henry Combes from the Daily Herald.

Nick Heath