This is one of at least two films made of St George's Crypt in Leeds, by Rotherham filmmaker Charles Chislett.   Although he worked full time as a bank manager Chislett was very active in many fields, and especially as a semi-professional filmmaker.   Between 1930 and 1967 he made some hundred films, usually of high quality.  Many are of holidays, but they also include documentaries, fiction and family portraits.  He would often be commissioned to make films, especially by the Pastoral...

This is one of at least two films made of St George's Crypt in Leeds, by Rotherham filmmaker Charles Chislett.   Although he worked full time as a bank manager Chislett was very active in many fields, and especially as a semi-professional filmmaker.   Between 1930 and 1967 he made some hundred films, usually of high quality.  Many are of holidays, but they also include documentaries, fiction and family portraits.  He would often be commissioned to make films, especially by the Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), of which Chislett was an active member, and of which this is an example.   His other film of St George's Crypt, from 1951, New Lives for Old, is also online.  The Context for this film has much more on Chislett, on charity and the work of St George's Crypt.

Given that this is a film to promote the charitable work of the Crypt it is hardly surprising that it focuses on showing the poor housing conditions and poverty of the local area in Leeds.  The later film focuses on the story of one man who benefits from the work of the Crypt, while this earlier film paints a slightly broader picture, with more emphasis on children.  

It is not easy to compare poverty today to what it was in 1948.  For one thing research into poverty, by for example the Institute for Fiscal Studies, tends to only monitor changes over a 20 or 30 year period.  For another the criteria for defining poverty have changed, and there is no consensus on how to define it. 

Amazingly, a study of poverty in York carried out in 1951 by Seebohm Rowntree and Lavers, claimed that only 1.5% of the survey population lived in poverty, compared with 18% in 1936.  But this used a very low threshold for what constituted poverty.  Somewhat later, in 1965, Peter Townsend (the one who pioneered research into poverty, not the guitar wrecking one), put forward the criteria of measuring poverty on the basis of the Supplementary Benefit scales, plus 40%; which put the figure in poverty for that time at 14%.  Later on factors other than income have been suggested as being equally as important; such as environment, housing standards, education  and leisure. 

It must be remembered that rationing was still very strict: in 1948 the weekly allowance for one person was 13 oz of meat, 1 ½ oz of cheese, 6 oz of butter and margarine, 1 oz cooking fat, 8 oz of sugar and one egg (Marwick, p 49).  One positive was the National Assistance Act of 1948 which abolished the Poor Laws, and made provision for cash payments for those in need.  It was also of course the year that the National Health Service was founded, although this had yet to have any major impact.

The situation was no better with regard to housing.  At the outset of the war there was already half a million houses waiting for demolition, and another 350,000 slums to go after that.  On top of this another 475,000 houses were destroyed or permanently damaged by bombing during the war.  Added to this were the large number of fatherless families and a baby boom (and there was a record numbers of divorces, 60,000 in 1947).  In the five years following the war, local government only built 432,000 houses, well under what the Labour Government had promised. 

Also, given that the charity is a Christian one, at a time when evangelical Christianity was more pronounced than today, it is equally unsurprising that the film shows the local pub – the Adelphi Inn (not the one on Hunslett Road) – and betting shop, J W Burton, ‘Turf and Football Accountant’.  Alcohol consumption had for a long time been seen by many as the great evil of the working class.  1948 was in fact the first year that the British Beer and Pub Association started collecting figures for alcohol consumption, and it shows that they have gone steadily up from this year; until, that is, recent years when, unsurprisingly, they have fell back to that relatively low level.  It ought to be remembered that, since the 1921 Licensing Act, pub opening hours were restricted to 8-9 hours a day, with afternoon closing, and 5 hours on a Sunday (staying that way until 1964).

This betting shop is something of a puzzle: ‘Turf Accountant’ is, of course, a euphemism for bookmakers, itself a euphemism for a betting shop.   The euphemisms abound here given moral condemnation and legal restrictions.  Following the Gaming Act of 1845 the only gambling allowed in the United Kingdom was at race tracks.  Gambling went underground, with “bookies' runners ferreting bets between punters and bookmakers, collecting in pubs and clubs (commonly in the urinals), and on street corners” (Clapson, References).  Betting shops weren’t legalised until 1961, when nearly 10,000 opened within the first six months.  Even then, until 1986, the shops had to have no advertising or facilities.  So, given this illegality, what is the betting shop doing there at all?  

Most references to illegal gambling prior to 1961, off race courses, relate to street and workplace betting, only rarely betting shops.  One way around the legislation was the pretence to be offering other services, and the  term 'Credit  Commission Agent' was adopted early on.  Note that the shop is affiliated to the BPA (Bookmakers' Protection Association) – the Northern Association, based in Leeds, was set up in the 1920s.  Around the turn of the twentieth century a host of organisations came into being, concerned about the possibility of anti-gambling legislation.  The BPA was formed in April 1923 to help both bookmakers and punters in their dealings on the racecourse.

From the early Victorian era there had been a running battle between pro and anti-gamblers.  Those who opposed gambling aimed their moral outrage at its popularity with the working class, and the detrimental effects this may have.  Social historian Mark Clapson notes that the National Anti-Gambling  League's  agitation favoured the wealthy, and led to the 1906 Street Betting Act, “an unequal and inoperable  law.”

Mark Clapson concludes his study on popular gambling by stating that, “the predominant forms of betting  which had developed by 1960 were a testament to the moderation and self-determination of working class leisure.  Betting had become central to a shared national culture which defined itself only apolitically in class terms, and more in terms of 'sportsman' or punter versus 'faddist'.  Those who berated gambling were un-English. The law was ignored by those who  enjoyed, as they saw it, a harmless flutter.  The state eventually came round to this viewpoint.”

This latter point also highlights the fact that the government aimed to control betting by setting up the tote in 1928; channelling money to race horse owners and racecourses.  The tote was suspended during the World War, and didn’t really recover after it (Premium  Bonds were introduced in 1956).  Nevertheless, the tote is still the fourth largest bookmaker, with 516 shops (eventually sold to Betfred in July 2011).  At the time that this film was made it could be argued that gambling, in part, resulted from the relative poverty of leisure activities among the lower sections of the working class.  That it is also enjoyable, and addictive, is testified by the fact that gambling is as strong as ever.  Although much betting is now done online, as of 2008, William Hill had more than 2,250 shops, Ladbrokes 2,350 and Coral 1,600.  Gambling in Britain is now a 24-hour activity, worth more than £30bn annually to the economy.  Yet only 17% of the population bet on horseracing, while 57% use the lottery and 20% buy scratch cards.  This also testifies that for most people gambling is the only way to rise significantly out of their present income bracket.

The combination of charity work for the down and outs and the promotion of Christianity is something that we owe to the Victorians, and especially the Salvation Army.  Their main converts were at first alcoholics, morphine addicts, prostitutes and other ‘undesirables’ unwelcome in polite Christian society.  This approach has been criticised for forcing upon the vulnerable unwanted religion, but it has certainly helped very many over the years.

Needless to say, both the Salvation Army and St George's Crypt are still, “working with the homeless, the vulnerable and those suffering from addiction” (although with less in-your-face religion).  The post-war years are renown as being ones of austerity, and yet – despite the huge advances in technology, productivity, social understanding and health care –  we are once again in a period when the work of the Crypt, sadly, remains vital to many suffering the consequences of the new austerity.   The Rowntree Foundation puts the number of children in poverty today as 27% of all children, with most having at least one parent working.  Christmas is a time when there are usually extra efforts to help those in need, and the motto of the Crypt, from Matthew 25:35, remains as relevant as ever: “I was a stranger and you invited me in”.

References

Mark Clapson, Popular Gambling and English Culture, c. 1845 to 1961.  Submitted for the degree of Ph. D in Social History at the University of Warwick, June 1989.

Chris Cook and John Stevenson, Britain since 1945, Longman, 1996.

John Stevenson, ‘The New Jerusalem that Failed? The Rebuilding Post-War Britain’, in Britain since 1945, eds. Terry Gourvish and Alan O’Day, Macmillan, London, 1991.

Arthur Marwick, British society since 1945, 4th edition, Penguin, London, 2003.

John Veit-Wilson, ‘Poverty’, Routledge International Encyclopaedia of Social Policy (2006).

PSE, Poverty and Social Exclusion

Poverty in the United Kingdom, Wikipedia

Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2012, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Stan Hey, Our national love affair: a history of the betting shop, The Independent

St George’s Crypt website