Our profile this issue is of Theo Barker, a colourful character who some of our more seasoned alumni might remember, as he visited the School regularly until the very early 2000s. Here, Colin Lewis remembers the life (and parties) of Theo and his wife, Joy, and their little flat in Red Lion Square, before highlighting how his work was used by the Friends of Red Lion Square to create a small history trail for visitors.
T.C. (‘Theo’) Barker cut an impressive figure – in all senses. A larger-than-life personality, a substantial physical presence, an energetic scholar – notably a promoter of business history in the UK and overseas, and a bluff Lancastrian – with firm opinions, who was also a bon vivant with an appreciation of fine wine and a fine argument.
Having studied in Oxford and Manchester, and briefly taught in Aberdeen, his first major appointment was at the School - where he lectured in Economic History from 1953 until 1964, when he left to take up the inaugural Chair in Economic and Social History at the University of Kent at Canterbury, as the newly created institution was then known. He returned to the School to head the Department as Convenor in 1976.
Theo saw himself primarily as an economic and a social historian, a view of the discipline shaped by his early research on nineteenth-century St Helens, where he had been born, and later as a business historian when the focus of his research shifted to a study of the glass industry based there - particularly the dynamic firm, Pilkington Brothers. He also developed interests in, and promoted, transport and urban history. The inventor of ‘float’ glass, Pilkington evolved from a family business into a multinational enterprise during the course of Theo’s research, and ‘Pilks’ (or the Bank of Pilks) was instrumental in sustaining his business history initiatives, including financing the creation of the Business History Unit at the School.
Indeed, Theo became something of an academic entrepreneur. He chaired the Transport History Trust, was president of the Canals and Railways Historical Society and served the Economic History Society in various capacities, as the British National Committee of Historians. His ideas and passions for new ventures lead to the British Academy forging links with sister organisations in eastern Europe and the Far East, connexions that provided Theo with opportunities to travel and experience different cultures and cuisines. His presidency of the International Congress of Historical Science (1990-1995) brought great pleasure, while reflecting the esteem in which he was held.
While Economic History had been favoured by students – Theo earned the accolade of best teacher in the School while a lecturer, and had considerable popular outreach, in part because of Theo’s broadcasts, he sensed that by the 1960s, the tide was turning towards new- fangled subjects like sociology and development. The discipline needed to adapt. Hence his initial promotion of urban history and subsequently business history. These were fruitful directions for teaching and research. Yet as Theo was arguing the case for business history, quantitative methods (cliometric history) were gaining traction in the USA. He had little truck with the ‘epidemic of econometric history’ that was spreading to the UK, expressing his views robustly.
When Theo returned to the Department, it was still School policy that academics live within 30 miles of the Aldwych. As he and wife Judith (Joy), an opera singer specialising in Wagnerian roles, were unwilling to abandon their large house and substantial garden in Kent – their pride and joy, it was fortuitous that the flat in Red Lion Square came on to the market. It became a base for their famous parties and after-seminar gatherings. This was another area in which Theo was prepared to be unfashionable and challenge accepted conventions.
At a time when German wine in the UK was synonymous with cheap, sweet Liebfraumilch and brands like Blue Nun and Black Tower, Theo was a connoisseur of what the Rhineland provided. Each Summer, part of the long vacation would be devoted to leisurely road trips to the Mosel, Franconia or the Rheingau. On return, the capacious boot would be loaded with cases purchased at small vineyards. The following Michaelmas Term, there would be wine-tastings in Red Lion Square, at which colleagues – some of whom sniffly protested that they imbibed only chateau-provenance products – were prevailed upon to sample the latest discoveries and regaled with tales of Theo’s negotiations at customs in Dover, and of deals achieved with gullible (or charmed) officials to ‘smuggle’ to London some of the best wine that Germany had to offer.
Theo retired in 1983 and sadly passed away in 2001 (Guardian Obit), followed two years later by Joy (Obit), but this was not the end of Theo’s association with the Square.
In 2017, Jim Walsh, CEO of Conway Hall and Chair of the Friends of Red Lion Square, led a successful bid for Community Investment Funds from Camden Council. The ambitious plans included a new pollinator friendly planting scheme to encourage bees and other kinds of insects to visit; refurbishment of the paths, benches and bins; a café; and new signage to create a trail for visitors to follow.
In Jim’s mind, this trail would track the development of the square from when it was first laid out in 1684 right up to the present day and, when he expressed this interest to Julian Fulbrooke, the then Mayor of Camden, Julian gave him a copy of a little book in his possession: Three Hundred Years of Red Lion Square, 1684-1984 by Theo Barker. This book had been published by Theo in 1987, and under Jim’s expert eye, formed the basis of the four boards that now sit at each entrance to the square.
Theo’s book was easy enough to split across the first three boards covering 1660-1760; 1760-1860; and 1860-1960 but, although the book claims to end in 1984, in reality, nothing of note is included after the 1960s. So it was left to Jim to update the story for the fourth board 1960-present day which details riots, famous residents and the commissioning of a statue of Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, one of the early teachers at LSE.[1]
Thanks to Jim’s hard work, and the influence of Theo Barker, the boards were unveiled in 2019 – they are well worth a visit.
Red Lion Square is a tranquil oasis in Bloomsbury, easily accessible from Holborn tube station.
If you would like more information on the work of the Friends of Red Lion Square, please visit their website: Red Lion Square – Friends of Red Lion Square Gardens
[1] In 1896 he gave a series of lectures on German social democracy. He was also a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by Sidney and Beatrice Webb.