London after Dark by Fabian of the Yard is not really a Christmas book. I have added the Christmas reference to the title of this Christmas Day post for a special reason.

My father had a large collection of books about London, and reading many of these at a young age was probably one of the factors that helped grow my interest in the city.

On the inside page, he frequently wrote the date of purchase, where purchased, and if a present, who gave it to him (often written by the person who gave it). A bit of a tradition that I have carried on to this day, as surprisingly, I am often given London books as Christmas presents.

London after Dark was a present to him, confirmed by the note and date on the front page of Christmas 1954 – Christmas 70 years ago today.

Fabian of the Yard was ex-Detective Superintendent Robert Fabian, whose first book, simply titled “Fabian of the Yard” had been a best seller and was described in newspaper reviews as “the best detective autobiography ever written”. This is the cover of London after Dark:

The author biography on the inside cover reads: “Fabian began as an ordinary constable walking the regulation 2.5 m.p.h. on the beat, and worked his way up through all the grades of the C.I.D.

Few men understand the workings of the criminal better than Bob Fabian; from his earliest days as a probationer detective in Soho he made a point of frequenting the cafes and dives to which hardened old lags tend to return, and from them he learned a strange kind of loyalty which on more than one occasion helped to solve a difficult case.

But the Underworld also knew that when Fabian was roused it faced an enemy whose pursuit would be relentless and whose brain could outwit the most cunning.”

The caption to the following photo reads “I spend much of my time wandering round odd spots in London”:

London after Dark covers the period when Fabian was head of the Vice Squad, and in the book he gives “vivid descriptions of dope, prostitution, blackmail, low night-clubs and all that goes with the murky side of London after Dark“, and that “he eschews sensationalism and deals with them as human problems for which it seems we are all responsible” – I did say it is not really a Christmas book.

“Night closes over London, and under the light of a lamp, two people meet”:

A selection of chapter headings helps provide an idea of the contents:

• London’s Night Clubs
• Dope – A Traffic in Damnation
• Sex and Crime in London
• The Street Girls of Soho
• The Master Minds of Crime
• The Men of Violence
• London’s Cocktail Girls
• West End Hotel Undesirables
• The Blitz Site Murder
• The Constable Who Noticed Something
• The Killer Left a Thread

“Drama or romance?”:

The book is a fascinating, very descriptive read of crime in London during Fabian’s police career, up to his retirement in 1949.

There is an interesting chapter on the role of the pub in London night life, and the pubs of Soho (or the “square mile of vice” as Fabian describes the area), were places where anything could happen.

To try and maintain order within the pubs of Soho, Fabian included a list of “thou-shall-nots” as a guide for the Soho publican:

• Allow betting in the pub. This is very strictly enforced and a publican can very soon lose his licence if he allows any laxity in this rule.
• Allow billiards on Sunday. The reason for this is not obvious as it cannot be more wicked to play the game on Sunday than any other day of the week. It is probably a survival of a strict Sabbatarian approach to the Lord’s Day, and, like so many similar rules and regulations, awaits the hand of the reformer.
• Allow the pub to be used as a brothel. This is the most important rule as there was a time within living memory when certain pubs were used for immoral purposes, and quite unfit places to take one’s female relations or friends.
• Serve liquor to policemen while on duty. Hard luck on a thirsty policeman, maybe, but a very wise precaution.
• Allow drunkenness, violent, quarrelsome or riotous conduct to take place on his premises. I am not going to pretend that there is no drunkenness in pubs today – there is – but compared with my young days, it is no longer a serious social problem. I well remember the average Saturday night on the beat when the paths were strewn with drunks of both sexes. Fights were a regular feature, and it was quite common to see two women surrounded by a crowd tearing at each other’s hair and screaming. Not a pretty sight, I can assure you.
• Harbour thieves or reputed thieves, policemen on duty or prostitutes. A pub is a natural meeting-place, and a publican has to be especially careful to ensure that his premises are not used for criminal purposes or soliciting by males or females.

“Outside a London pub, ‘hot dogs’ find ready customers”:

“For those who prefer a restaurant, Soho provides for every taste”:

The book is very much of it’s time. The language used to describe sections of the community in Soho is not what we would use today, and the attitude to what were crimes at the time (such as homosexuality) is appalling.

The book describes a Soho (with some diversions to other parts of London as well as some serious crimes across the country) that was over 75 years ago and for the most part is unrecognisable today.

I am not in favour of cancelling books and authors from when attitudes were so very different. They are important in understanding how attitudes have evolved, how London was at various points in history, and how attitudes, places and communities continually change.

Too often we look back on a sanitised view of the past – a golden era when compared to the present time, and an understanding that the past was just a flawed as today is important.

Someone looking back on London in 75 years time will probably be just as critical.

“For some, life begins after dark”:

“A friendly chart with Roy Birchenough at his club”:

Roy Birchenough, on the left in the above photo, seems to have come to the notice of the police on a number of occasions. The following news’s report from the Sunday Express on the 31st of July, 1932 is a typical example:

“VORTEX STRUCK OFF. CLUB STARTED BY TRAGIC VISCOUNTESS. The Vortex Club, Denman Street, Piccadilly, which was started by Eleanor Viscountess Torrington a fortnight before she was found dead from gas poisoning last December, was struck off the register by Mr. Mead at Marlborough Street yesterday.

The new proprietor, Harry Shine was fined £130, and the secretary, Roy Birchenough was fined £120 for selling drinks without a licence during prohibited hours and on credit.

These disreputable clubs necessitate constables having to visit them and drink which is undesirable but necessary, declared Mr. Mead.”

The fine detailed above did not change Roy Birchenough’s approach to keeping a club, as he was fined a number of times during the 1930s, and in 1939, he received a “sentence of one month’s imprisonment was passed at Bow Street on Roy Birchenough, of Norfolk Place, London, W., for selling liquor at Chumleigh’s bottle party, Regent Street, London. He was fined £60 for keeping the premises for public dancing without a licence.”

“Piccadilly Circus, where the pulsing heat of London is most truly felt”:

The big problem for the Vice Squad in Soho in the 1930s and 1940s was drugs, and London’s black market drugs included heroin, cocaine, morphine, pethidine, with the main problem drugs being opium and marijuana, and during a five year period, prosecutions for marijuana increased by 2,100 per cent.

Charing Cross Road was a particular problem area, and it was where “young gangsters use it to get courage. Girls are betrayed by it. It is the easiest, newest weapon of the West End ponce”.

Fabian describes a raid at the Paramount Dance Hall in Tottenham Court Road, where eight men were arrested – one so drug crazed that he attacked the police.

The Paramount Dance Hall and the Club Eleven were both closed by the police. Another closure was the A to Z Dance Club in Gerard Street after a raid by twenty five police officers.

“The lights of Leicester Square act as a magnate to Londoners and visitors from overseas”;

A read of “London after Dark” by “Fabian of the Yard” provides a whole new perspective for when you walk the streets of Soho. A very different place today, but a place that is in danger of changing from the area described in the book to a very sanitised, corporate space that removes almost everything that has made Soho such a unique area of London.

And with that, can I wish you a very happy Christmas, however (or not) you are celebrating, and if you get any books as presents this Christmas, write the date inside, along with who gave it to you (or better still get the giver to write) – a simple message to the future.

alondoninheritance.com