Published: 12 January, 2012
by JOHN GULLIVER

I WAS standing outside the high rise block, called Silverdale, with hundreds of tenants, shouting and holding banners.

It was early morning, and I had been sent by my news desk in Fleet Street to cover the rent strike by thousands of St Pancras council tenants.

Among their leaders was Arthur Rowe, who had barricaded his flat in Silverdale, daring the bailiffs to evict him.

Neighbours used to lower baskets of food down to his front room window.

Suddenly, several hundred building workers who had marched from a South Bank site to support the tenants came into view.

The cheers split the air. I was in my early days in the trade and ran off to phone copy to the news desk.

Later that day in 1959 the see-saw battle with bailiffs and police went on for hours, and thousands fought with the police outside the Town Hall.

Several years ago, a plaque was erected in the foyer of Silverdale in memory of Arthur Rowe, who had since died.

When the bulldozers come to demolish Silverdale for the HS2 project a piece of local history will vanish.