A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist journal Class Warr #95 - Page 12-13 - Death of Walthamstow Racecourse

In the last month, London has lost another cultural landmark to yuppification, 
Walthamstow Dog Stadium. Despite a belated, forlorn, limp media front by the 
stadium's two local MPs, Neil Garrard and Iain Duncan Smith, apparently nothing 
could stop the Chandler family from flogging the track and 77 years of heritage 
to the highest bidders. ---- 700 jobs will be lost, many of which were held by 
pensioners, to whom the track was their life, their social circle, their 
community, and in some cases their family. ---- The dog track opened on 29th May 
1931 to a stream of opposition from locals, fearing an `unmitigated nuisance' in 
the area. ---- Lieutenant Colonel S.S. Mallinson (a local resident presumably) 
was so moved by hordes of working classes enjoying themselves in his area he 
felt compelled to write to the Waltham Forest Gazette saying there will be 
"undesirables ruining a desirable portion of town".

Things were obviously a bit differ-
ent back in Lt Col Mallinson's day,
as now the area is a thriving work-
ing class community, full of locals
who want the dogs to stay, not a
load of yuppies gentrifying the area.
Walthamstow Dog Track was one
of London's cultural icons - with
entry just £3 - and people flocked
from around the country to vis-
it the stadium, giving all a fun,
enjoyable, affordable night out.

IMPOTENT

The buyers, L&Q Group, Yoo Capital and
KW Linfoot apparently spent £30mn on
a site containing two listed buildings and
on top of a river full of sewage. Despite
Waltham Forest Council and the MPs be-
ing up in arms over this, they were appar-
ently powerless to stop it. In fact Waltham
Forest Council were so powerless to stop
it, they have actively permitted housing on
the land and not the eyesore of a car park
opposite, which, if any housing had to be
built, would be a prime location. John Price,
Duty Rota Head Of Planning at Waltham
forest Council told CW that Waltham For-
est targets 50% affordable housing. This
is merely a target, not a rule, so of course
it can be broken. He went on to say there
must be a replacement leisure facility built.
How you replace a 77 year-old dog track
is anyone's guess. A possible main reason
for the council's lack of strong opposition
is that the buyers must give an unspecified
amount to Waltham Forest Council. He add-
ed that to counteract the loss of jobs, there
will be training schemes in place in comput-
ing and such. To the pensioners on the Tote
I'm sure that will come as a great relief. We
were also told that the area will be profitable
because of the `Olympic legacy'. Seeing as
the land has no planning permission and
work has not yet begun, houses will surely
not be up by 2012 and, even so, what kind
of legacy is a block of yuppie apartments?
On a trip to the track, I met Martin Kelly, the
groundsman at The `Stow. He said "This
place will flood with sewage. I've known
for two years this was going, but got just
90 days notice. Cleaners, the Tote girls
here, they've been here up to 70 years
and none of them will ever get a new job.
Their wages here keep them going. The mil-
lionaires don't give a fuck about the work-
ers". The racing manager, who asked not
to be named, said "They want to pull out.
There'll be no work. They'll kill the commu-
nity and friends. My wife has been here 31
years and she's lost her pension scheme.
We've had no answers. They let this place
run down and now it's closing they want
to give it a lick of paint for the first time in
ages. Charlie Chandler (the owner) is mak-
ing a fast buck and so are the shareholders.
They ran the place badly so it had to close".

   PISSPOOR

On the off chance, CW gave Iain Duncan
Smith a call, and surprisingly he was willing
to speak. He took a chance to snipe at the
Labour council when he said "They'll run the
area down. It's a terrible planning department.
There's no enforcement, they've no idea how
to use the money. They have a terrible track
record and they let the area dilapidate. There's
no market for houses. Without the dog track,
there's nothing there. Marks and Spencers
wanted to build on the car park and that was
snubbed. The council are not building council
houses. The whole area will be under pres-
sure to change and locals will be priced out the
area. Central London is too dear to go out in,
it's too drink orientated. There's a slow middle
class takeover and the working class will be
outpriced". Nice words, but on the night of the
first "Save our Stow" night, Mr Duncan Smith,
despite assurances, was nowhere to be seen.
The Labour MP for Walthamstow, Neil Gar-
rard said there had been no planning applica-
tion received yet. Some houses will be given
over to so-called key workers though, so as
a replacement for dogs, residents get police
on their doorstep. Not a fair exchange at all.

      ON THE STREETS

Walthamstow's big protest night was Thursday
31st July. The Save Our Stow campaigners were
out in force, leafletting, urging people to show
support. Sky cameras were there to capture the
speeches to be made later on, in a break in rac-
ing. There was a fair turnout of locals, all heart-
broken to see a place they know and love be
turned over for developers' gold. Cleaner, Vasi-
liki Recorb said "There are nice people here,
I have worked here eight years and made a lot
of friends, I have no idea what to do now". Bar-
rie Clegg, Walthamstow Greyhound Welfare Of-
ficer said "We will have a lot of dogs to rehome.
I've been coming here since I was 15. There's no
community anymore, nothing to do. Give people a
chance to run the stadium. It's a family night out
and there really is no winner in this. It's Waltham-
stow's Eiffel Tower, it's synonymous with the area.
The protest began after race five when everyone
assembled out on the front, chanting "Save Our
Stow" before various names in the greyhound
world came out to show support. Ricky Hollo-
way, a trainer at the track told the crowd "We are
sold out. They took our staff, they took our salary.
There's so many people disappointed, everything
round here has gone". Linda German, a champion
trainer climbed aboard the soaand said "This sta-
dium never lost money. The Greyhound industry
sold us out. Lord Lipsey (President of the British
Greyhound Racing Board) stand aside. You sold
us down the river. You won't get rid of us. We of-
fered £1mn more than the accepted bid. We await
the developer's answer". A consortium member,
vying to buy The Stow for £31mn to keep it as a
dog racing track said "I've been coming here 35
years. We won't give up. There is money coming
in and this is the best track in the world". The pretty
speeches however took a turn for the worse when
a David Beckham lookalike was wheeled out for
the cameras. He told the crowd "I'm sure David
wants this track to stay". Possibly not the defining
moment of the Save Our Stow campaign, but it was
what made it onto Sky Sports News the next day.

      SILENCE

After the Save Our Stow campaign, CW
tried to contact the developers for their
comments on the matter. Fun-
nily enough, all three compa-
nies were very reluctant to call
us back. The one that did, KW
Linfoot had appointed Luchfords
as their media spokesgroup and
I managed to talk to Marie Jack-
son from them, who sounded
more like Michael Jackson with
the needle stuck, as she repeat-
ed "No comment. No comment"
to all my questions. Not sure why
KW Linfoot needed to employ a
media consultancy to say `no
comment' when plenty of people
out there could do it for half the
price they are on. I told her that
one worker told me without the
track and it's social life, she will
just fade away until she died.
Jackson's response "I think that's
a bit harsh". Not quite. What is `a
bit harsh' is closing down a com-
munity, killing jobs, pricing out lo-
cals, ruining local shops, just so
her employers can make millions.
     SCANDAL
Jonathan Hobbs, head greyhound
writer at The Racing Post was
keen to talk to us. He told u"this is
a dreadful blow for sport. We hold
out hope, with the current finan-
cial climate, the owners may take
the money and run. Catford closed
five years ago and now that's just
an area of barren land. If that hap-
pens in Walthamstow, it'll be crimi-
nal and scandalous for the local
community. What kind of legacy is
that? Who would deny a commu-
nity this facility? Chander's young-
er family didn't want this and they didn't
save it as a going concern. Not enough
has been done to save greyhound racing.
Shareholders just want their payoffs. Lon-
don will be a one bedroomed flat soon."
The plan at present is for a circle of tower
blocks, where the track used to be. There
has been no mention of affordable hous-
ing, just luxury apartments and the like,
making yet another part of London far
too expensive to live in, forcing the local
shops out of business and spelling the
end for north Walthamstow as we know it.
Despite marching with dogs at the front of
the stadium, despite Duncan Smith and
Gerrard's numerous photo opportunities,
and hollow words, nothing has been done
to save a unique part of London's rich,
mixed history. Walthamstow Stadium is a
place where the working classes can come
together, have a flutter, a few beers and
get change from £20. Just like Colindale's
recently closed `Oriental City', this is part
of London's history that can never be re-
placed or filled in by any kind of legacy.
_________________________________________
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