youth hostels, the history, people and ideas behind them
Len Clark was a young Londoner in 1939. When Europe lost all reason and lurched into war in September he had drifted into the pacifist camp. He debated the rights and wrongs of war, took long walks in the countryside and listened to his gramophone for solace. I love diaries. Diaries and letters offer the... Continue Reading →
May was an exciting and productive month for John Martin, YHA's honorary archivist. John writes about YHA's archive and its latest acquisitions and boxes and boxes of old records from the Lake District in this report. He came back from a recent trip to the Lake District laden with old files of fascinating material and... Continue Reading →
A letter from Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Party prime minister, turned up in old papers this week. The pages on which it was written are stiff, thick and yellow with age. An old fashioned treasury tag holds the typewritten pages together, and the paper smells faintly of decay. It slipped from a bundle of... Continue Reading →
People loved collecting hostel stamps whenever they stayed at a hostel. Not only were some stamps collector's items, being works of art in themselves, but they were a record of where people stayed, prompting recollections, competition, and banter. Here's a lovely set from during the second world war, when the stamps were simple, just the... Continue Reading →
A sunny Saturday afternoon in April and the FA cup is into semi finals. When I get off the bus, football supporters are making a racket outside Liverpool Street station. They're either Spurs or Chelsea supporters, I have no idea which, and either way passers by are scurrying, trying not to be intimidated. I haven't... Continue Reading →
