THE DISGRACED AND THE DISPLACED I had been Chairing The Spitalfield

THE DISGRACED AND THE DISPLACED

I had been Chairing The Spitalfield's Project Public Consultative Committee when I first met John Profumo. He represented Toynbee Hall - on what was a multi-Agency Group - tasked with considering Grant Applications from a host of voluntary organisations. Subject to this Committee's consideration and approval, Grant Applications were passed up to a deciding Executive Committee. It had one million pounds at its disposal allocated by The Home Office, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets and The Greater London Council.

That day, sometime in 1979, we had considered a range of applications: An Urban Farm in a vacant area of Bishopsgate Goods Yard; Improvements in The Whitechapel Art Gallery - its Director - Nick Serota, later to become the Director of The Tate Gallery in the 1990s, led on this application; Sonny Silverman, Tenant's Association Chairman, was presenting improvement proposals for Bruin House, on a GLC housing estate; Johnie Fresco, a resident of Denning Point, a 20 story tower block in Toynbee Street was seeking improvements to secure the basement area against rough sleepers, while John Profumo was supporting a contentious proposal for a day-centre for homeless people in Providence Row. As its Administrator, I could not speak directly on the matter. At the end of the meeting, he asked me to come and see him in his office in Toynbee Hall.

Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE (30/1/1915 - 9/3/2006) informally known as Jack Profumo, was a British politician. His title, which he did not use, was Sardinian. Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known today for his involvement in a 1963 scandal involving a prostitute. The scandal, now known as the Profumo Affair, led to Profumo's resignation and withdrawal from politics, and it may have helped to topple the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan.

After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London and continued to work there for the rest of his life. Eventually, Profumo volunteered as the charity's chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore the fallen politician's reputation; he was awarded a CBE in 1975, and in 1995 attended Margaret Thatcher's 70th birthday dinner: he sat next to The Queen. He was a member of Boodles Club until his death.

Jack, as he preferred to be called, set out his concerns. The public garden outside Toynbee Hall was occupied day and night by homeless alcoholics. They had moved in, when they were evicted by public demand from elsewhere in Whitechapel. The Kray Twins, whose parents lived further down the road, had nothing to do with the action by the residents of Hughes Mansions, close by "the dossers" regular place in the small public park called Vallance Gardens. Now, just as in their previous occupation, the detritus of destitution dominated: discarded empty bottles, crushed cans, large pieces of cardboard, blankets. The shrubbery was being used as toilets.

I thanked Jack for his recent letter. He explained that realising I had left Providence Row, he had written wishing to engage me in his concerns and come up with a plan to provide some day care for the unofficial occupants of the garden outside. We stood together at a window overlooking the area: semi comatose men sprawled on benches; others staggered about and a "bag-woman" defecated visibly close to a bush. We were joined at our viewpoint by Donald Chesworth - sometime Oxford University Don - now The Warden of Toynbee Hall. It was agreed that I would do some informal research along the lines of identifying an alternative place of shelter and draw up a feasibility plan for them to consider. Presently, a beautiful women put her head round the door. Jack introduced me to his wife Valerie Hobson. She joined our group and added to the general sympathetic views about the goings-on below the window. The meeting was over.

While Jack and Donald trailed after, I walked with Mrs. Profumo. She said to me that she came every evening to accompany her husband home: "It's not that I cannot trust him - it's just that if did not come and fetch him he would never clock off!" She had been an accomplished and famous stage actress. Quite regularly they went on to catch a play in the West End.

Jack soon took my plan and costed a scheme envisaged in a redundant church in Dock Street, by St. Katherine's Dock. We were guzzumped by developers. Providence Row metamorphosed from being a Night Refuge, to running a Day Centre: an ongoing service called The Dellow Centre for homeless people in Spitalfields. I am proud that as a sometime farm worker, I became a founder member with John Profumo of Spitalfield's Farm.

Tony Brady March 2010