Image: Ben Uri Gallery, London
The item commemorates the 90th anniversary today of the Battle of Cable Street. Its featured artwork is John Allin’s ‘Protest at Whitechapel Road and Commercial Street’, described as an evocative picture of the battle for democracy and humanity and held in the Ben Uri Collection.
The work is a 1975 print, identified as a lithograph on paper. At Gardiners’ Corner, the scene shows thousands of protesters waving banners bearing the slogans “They Shall Not Pass,” “East End Unite” and “No Nazis Here.” Uniformed policemen, some on horseback, prevent them from passing by barricading them with rows of furniture.
The image depicts thousands of people, including local Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist and Irish groups, uniting as one in the battle against Fascism. Allin drew deeply on memories of the communal life of the East End in which he was raised, when it was home to a thriving Jewish community.
His paintings evoke mood and memory, particularly of the East End, and he was often referred to as the “London Lowry” or the “Pied Painter of Hackney.” The print was made in 1975, at a time when many Jewish people had left, or were leaving, the East End for the suburbs. The artist nostalgically recalls a period from the past when a tight community was living together, sharing aims and sentiments.
