The 1920s: Beyond the Roar

Hello, and welcome to the The 1920s: Beyond the Roar at The National Archives.

On the 19th of June 1921, millions of people living in England and Wales filled in their census returns.

The census offers us a snapshot of that one moment in time, a society of nearly 38 million people on the cusp of a new modern era.

Just over 100 years later, these census records are now available to the public.

Along with other government records from The National Archives collection, they capture the changing world of the 1920s.

Drawing on records, including international peace treaties, textile samples, and lonely hearts adverts, we'll go beyond the popular image of the roaring twenties to uncover how people in all sections of society experienced a decade of change, crisis, and defiance.

The exhibition begins on a street corner at a newspaper stand.

Racial tension, high unemployment, and recovery from a global pandemic are some of the events making headlines.

The end of the First World War was still a dominant headline at the beginning of the decade.

The conflict cast a long shadow into the 1920s, and affected many aspects of people's lives.

Britain celebrated peace in July 1919, shortly after signing the Treaty of Versailles.

In addition to street parties and thanksgiving services, approximately 15,000 British Empire and allied servicemen and women took part in the victory parade, but not everyone who had served was represented.

Black service personnel from overseas were excluded.

This was said to be due to the cost of bringing West Indian and African servicemen to the UK. However, Indian soldiers were brought to London especially.

This photograph shows service personnel parading through Whitehall past a temporary cenotaph made of wood and plaster.

The permanent stone cenotaph, an empty tomb in memory of those killed in the war, which still stands to this day, was unveiled the following year in 1920.

The end of the war also brought big changes to women's lives in Britain.

While men were away fighting on the front line, many women had entered the workforce to support the war effort.

Lots of women worked in munitions factories responding to a government recruitment campaign.

As soldiers were demobilised, and began to return home, the government had wanted to make sure that they had jobs to return to.

The Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act was passed to ensure this. However, this also meant forcing working women out of jobs.

Many objected to this, and women's campaign groups called for action.

The act came into force in 1919, and by the early 1920s a great deal of women had lost their jobs, either becoming unemployed, or returning to work as servants.

The peace process following the First World War continued well into the 1920s.

One important achievement was the Locarno Pact, a series of agreements signed in December 1925 by Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany.

The five nations agreed borders, approved non-aggression pacts, and paved the way for Germany to join the League of Nations, which had been founded in 1920 with the intention of maintaining world peace.

Despite the tag of the 'roaring twenties' the British economy was floundering.

The decade also saw cuts to public services due to war debt.

Mass unemployment bred discontent, and people took to the streets and the poll booths with their grievances and demands for change.

Politics, and the governments in power were often fragile and unstable.

The decade witnessed four general elections with the Conservative Party in power for the majority of the period.

The decade also saw the decline of the Liberal Party, the rise of communism, and the first Labour government, which lasted less than a year in 1924.

One momentous political achievement in the 1920s was the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act of 1928.

A result of dedicated campaigning by activists, this act granted women the same voting rights as men for the first time.

People often think of 1918 as the year women gain the vote, however, this had only applied to women over 30, who owned a certain amount of property.

In 1928, voting became fully equal, with younger women and working class women all taking part in the democratic process, and this was the act that achieved this.

The change in the law meant there had to be changes in the way elections were run.

This draft elector registration form for the 1929 election shows corrections marked on the text adding 'she' and 'her', so that the form would apply to women as well as men.

As we mentioned, many people were struggling with poverty and unemployment during the 1920s.

In protest, people marched on foot from towns in England, Scotland, and Wales to London.

The size of the marches varied as people joined up and left along the way.

Marches often ended in London, where the protestors brought their case to politicians.

Hunger marches did little to change government policy, but drew attention to their cause, and continued into the 1930s.

Hunger marches were not the only popular protest to take place during the 1920s.

The General Strike of 1926 saw over 1.5 million workers go on strike in support of coal miners, who were protesting changes to wages and working conditions.

One member of parliament who supported the strike publicly, and who was arrested for his support, was Shapurji Saklatvala.

Saklatvala was one of the first MPs of Indian heritage.

For the majority of the 1920s, he was the MP for Battersea North.

He was endorsed by Labour, but was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

During his career, he also spoke out about decolonisation and Irish independence.

Due to his activities, and his membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Saklatvala was watched closely throughout his career by the government and security services.

Here, we can see an entry for his name taken from the MI5 Black List, where his life, up to April 1921 is detailed.

Within his security service file, there are also many newspaper cuttings about his activities, including this photograph of him with his wife, Sarah.

He was not alone in being under surveillance.

Communism was a concern for many, especially those in the establishment, as they had witnessed and feared the upheaval and change of power in Russia, which followed the revolution there.

In the 1920s, Britain was at the centre of a huge international empire, ruling over more than 400 million people.

For some, the empire was a source of pride.

Since the British economy depended on colonial produce, the government wanted to promote imperial trade through poster campaigns and exhibitions.

The Empire Marketing Board was formed in 1926 to develop the campaign.

Among other things, it commissioned striking posters, such as this one, designed by McDonald Gill, which shows connections between countries within the empire.

A very large version of this poster was originally displayed on Charing Cross Road in London.

It proved so popular that smaller prints were made and sold.

The British Empire Exhibition was a celebration of empire, and a defining moment of imperial pride.

It was held at Wembley between April 1924 and October 1925, and showcased the importance of raw materials from all across the empire to the British economy.

It also provided an opportunity for the nation to learn about Britain and its empire.

One of the most popular exhibits was a vast recreation of an African walled city.

Around 20 Nigerians participated in the exhibition, having travelled to London specifically to take part in live demonstrations of traditional crafting.

The way in which living people were exhibited drew criticism at the time.

A speaker at a 1924 meeting of the Union of Students of African Descent explained that the displays would fail to improve or educate the opinion of millions of visitors at the exhibition as to the actual conditions of home life in Nigeria.

Our records reveal another troubling side of Britain's relationship with its empire, which saw colonial citizens penalised on the grounds of race.

Improved methods of transportation and communication also led to more people travelling from the empire to live and work in Britain.

New arrivals in the UK were often treated poorly, and our records demonstrate the inconsistent and polarised nature of British attitudes to the empire.

At this time, men from all over the British colonies worked as merchant seamen, providing the manual labour behind imperial trade.

One such seaman was an individual named Jan Mohamed.

Jan was Indian born, and had fought for Britain in the First World War.

Our Home Office files reveal that Jan sought to acquire a certificate of nationality, but was initially denied under the Coloured Alien Seaman's Order of 1925.

This order racially discriminated against the non-white colonial seamen by restricting access to the British labour market.

Jan later struggled to obtain a passport to travel legally, due to these restrictions.

He was not able to obtain British nationality until 1930.

Long distance travel was becoming more common in the 1920s, and the most efficient and accessible form of transport was the ship.

People travelled around the world for a variety of reasons, to work, to visit friends and family, and for those better off, to go on holiday.

But many were also boarding ships to leave Britain for good, and emigrate to other countries, including parts of the British Empire, such as Canada and Australia.

The names of passengers were recorded on lists, and this is one example.

It shows passengers sailing from Liverpool to Montreal and Quebec in Canada on the 24th of October 1924.

They were in the third-class category on a ship called Montclare, and were likely emigrating permanently.

When you think about the 1920s, one of the first things to come to mind is the development of new fashions.

Changes in society were reflected in the changes in fashion.

For women, dresses were designed with shorter hemlines and a looser fit, allowing more physical movement, and reflecting their greater independence in the period.

Hairstyles also became shorter.

While some women could afford to purchase clothes 'off the rack' at newly-established department stores, most made and altered their own clothes at home.

They followed fashionable styles as best they could, and used fabric purchased from draper's shops.

Our draper's shop displays fabrics which were all designed during the 1920s.

Textile designers were inspired by modernist and art deco movements, experimenting with geometric and angular shapes, stylistic and abstract motifs, and bold colour.

The 1921 census is a fascinating snapshot of the nation that allows us to step back in time.

Each printed census return is filled in by hand and seems to bring us within touching distance of our ancestors, but there are no pictures, so we asked the public to send us theirs.

This wall is a collection of family photographs from the decade.

Throughout the exhibition, we'll be changing the census volume on display to highlight the different lives on show here.

The census provided more information than ever before about jobs and family structures.

For some, home life was becoming more comfortable.

Public health had vastly improved in the 19th century, particularly with regards to the provision of sanitation.

However, in the 1920s, the quality of housing in many areas of the country was still very poor.

The importance of adequate homes to the prevention of disease and general health was an ongoing concern, and when the Ministry of Health was established in 1919, housing formed its main remit.

During the 1919 post-war election, Prime Minister David Lloyd George promised "Homes Fit for Heroes", leading to new state-funded housing estates, and the clearance of slums in the 1920s.

While these housing schemes certainly brought improvements, the process of clearing existing dwellings could be very distressing for people already living there.

In 1925, when the Ossulston Estate was being planned to improve housing in North West London, a particularly desperate objection letter was sent in.

It was from Arthur Freethy, who owned a business on Chapel Street, and feared that it would be demolished.

He'd already lost one business when he left to serve in the First World War.

In his letter he wrote, "A man cannot work up two businesses and lose them both."

This story illustrates how difficult it could be to live through the trauma of the war, followed by the upheavals of society in the 1920s.

Before the advent of the National Health Service, home tended to be the place where people recovered from illness, or battled infectious diseases.

Healthcare provision could also be through the likes of voluntary hospitals, insurance companies, or through workplace schemes and friendly societies.

The very poor might end up in a workhouse infirmary.

Local health campaigns were carried out by local authorities in the period, so really, the quality of these campaigns depended on the enthusiasm of local medical officers of health and local organisations.

The Leicestershire Insurance Committee seemed particularly enthusiastic, and produced lots of health advice for its citizens to follow, such as keeping milk cool in covered vessels, or letting sunlight into the home.

These records give us a sense of the importance of preventing infectious diseases in the period.

Infectious diseases like measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, smallpox, and typhoid fever were sadly common.

Methods of control for many diseases like tuberculosis included the isolation of the patient, either in the home, or in a special hospital.

Contacts were surveyed, and clothing and bedding were disinfected.

These measures were enforced locally.

Today, we perhaps associate the 1920s with freedom and excess. However, concerns over evolving morality were at the fore of political and intellectual discussions, particularly around working class pastimes like gambling on greyhound races, and betting on the outcome of football matches.

Littlewoods, who you may recognise from the British high street, started out life as the first company to provide football pools.

We hold examples of some of these early football coupons which became a popular activity after they were introduced by the Liverpudlian John Moores in 1923.

Moores was convicted under the 1920 Ready Money Football Betting Act, which prohibited cash bets. However, he won the appeal, showing that his company only accepted postal orders that were cashed in after the results were in.

Littlewoods would go on to be one of the largest mail order and football pool companies of the 20th century, making Moore Liverpool's first billionaire.

We have a form here relating to John Moore and Company Limited.

It's not the same company, but it is likely that they were using a similar name in the hope of similar success.

In reality, the bookmaker's licence for this company was held by John Robert Clark and Clara Sisson.

Today, nightclubs, dancing, and new music genres like jazz are one of our overriding images of the 1920s.

Dancing was one of the most popular social activities during the decade, with energetic dances like the Trevor Trot and the Charleston giving people the freedom of expression that challenged traditional notions of respectability.

Dances didn't just happen in nightclubs.

In towns and villages across the country, dances were put on in local dance halls, and with varying admission fees, so the activity was accessible to all but the poorest in society.

For those with a greater disposable income, the nightclub was an attractive place to enjoy a decadent evening of drink, music, and sometimes, scandalous company.

Perhaps surprisingly for a government archive, The National Archives holds a significant number of records about nightclubs, as they were regularly raided by the Metropolitan police for breaking licensing laws.

One club that features heavily in our records is the 43 Club.

This is where we meet Kate Meyrick. Born in Dublin, she was a notorious club owner who became known as the 'Nightclub Queen' of Soho.

She opened her first nightclub in London in 1919, and ran a number of clubs throughout the 20s, of which the 43 Club was her most famous.

She frequently broke licensing laws, which saw her receive five prison sentences, totalling over three years.

Kate was very active in running her businesses, and could often be found at the entrance of the 43 Club, greeting members, and taking an entrance fee from visitors.

The records we hold relate to reports of raids and undercover police observations, and they provide a fascinating source for understanding what the 43 Club was like.

Records provide detailed information about the staff, which included Italian waiters, and East End dancing instructresses, as well as the clientele, and the food and drink, and general atmosphere of the club.

Our documents reveal a diverse clientele, from the rich and famous, like sports stars, show girls, actors, royalty, and aristocracy, to the criminal underground, like drug dealers, and gang members.

One of the regulars at her clubs was American actor Tallulah Bankhead, a notorious socialite, who reportedly smoked over 100 cigarettes a day, and had numerous affairs with men and women.

One evening, Tallulah and her royal partner, Prince Nicholas of Romania, visited the Silver Slipper, another one of Kate's Soho nightclubs.

After a particularly frolicsome and energetic dance number, they broke a pane of glass on the illuminated dance floor.

Kate was someone who was fascinated by other people, and she said that it was only at night that people became real and alive to her.

With this exhibition, we've attempted to recreate Kate's fascination with the people of the 20s, piecing together the world of this lost generation.