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Before I was “settled,” I
lived all over the place in London, including once, briefly, in Stamford Hill, then and now a prosperous suburb with a large Jewish population that at some point had included Marc Bolan, (originally Feld).
I didn’t know that at the
time, and only discovered it when avant-garde composer John Zorn released a
sort of tribute album Great Jewish Music: Marc Bolan as part
of his Radical Jewish Culture
series. I’m not sure that Bolan's Jewishness
plays much of a part in songs such as “Get it on” much less (pedestrian
allusion coming up) “Beltane Walk:”
Walking down by the westwind
I met a boy he was my friend
I said boy we could sing it too
And we do
Give us love
Give us little love
Give us little love from your hearts
And then we'll walk.
The place I lived in
Stamford Hill was not conspicuously prosperous, nor conspicuously Jewish. I had a nasty room in a nasty shared flat,
one of three in a nasty house, with just one nasty bathroom for all of us. Knowing that Marc Bolan had lived nearby
wouldn’t have made me very much happier.
One of the supposed advantages
of Stamford Hill was that it was on the Tube, and most of the accommodation I
could afford was not. But whenever I managed
to find a place in a neighbourhood served by the Tube there was always at least
a mile-long walk to the station, and that was the case here, plus my flat was
at the top of the Stamford Hill, while the Stamford Hill station was at the
bottom.
These days I tend to think
that a mile-long walk at the beginning and end of each day is a very good
thing, but back then I was filled with resentment. A mile-long slog up a hill, after work, to
get to a nasty room in a nasty flat didn’t make my heart sing. I moved on as soon as I could, though not in
fact to anywhere much better.
And now, even as I suspect
there may be more to the story than has been reported, I’m cautiously prepared to join in the
general and predictable “outrage” that posters have appeared on
the streets of Stamford Hill saying, "Women
should please walk along this side of the road only," while presumably, though perhaps not necessarily,
saying the same thing in Hebrew.
According to the Independent
newspaper these posters were put up by “an orthodox Jewish group” in
preparation for a Torah Procession. One Chaim Hochhauser, from the Stamford
Hill Shomrim Group, (shomrim being a kind of heavy-duty and apparently very
successful neighborhood watch group), said it had contacted the organizers to
inform them that the posters "lacked explanation in the English text, and
therefore could have offended people who don’t understand the Hebrew wording
and the logo.”
The
implication here of course is that if people did
understand the Hebrew wording then they wouldn’t be offended; a proposition
that I doubt. And is this really
a question of offence and understanding? Isn’t the issue that a religion which dictates where and when women can
walk, even in a procession, is, you know, questionable. I mean, why weren’t there signs that said, "Men
should please walk along the other side of this road," though I admit that
would only have been very slightly better.
The local council, in its wisdom, had the posters swiftly removed.
Above, for comparison, is a picture of a Torah
Procession from Ahavat Olam in Miami, Florida. It doesn’t
seem as though G-d has much problem with men and women walking on the same
side, or apparently right in the middle, of the road, although I would be the
first to admit that Stamford Hill is not Florida.
And for those of you who missed the allusion in the title of this post, it's Reeves and Dave and Gary, "The King of Stamford Hill" - it's a bit potty-mouthed I'm afraid, but it's good.
