Crofton Park has had a Labour MP for many years -- but that wasn't always so.
Crofton Park has an interesting past, electorally speaking. From 1885-1918, it was part of the borough of Lewisham, which was created in 1885 under the Redistribution of Seats Act. This allocated seats in the House of Commons to represent equal populations for the first time.
Over that period, Lewisham was represented by Conservative MPs. First was William Legge, the 6th Earl of Dartmouth. He was known as Viscount Lewisham – the family were substantial landowners in the area, as shown by the names ‘Dartmouth road’, and the ‘Dartmouth Arms’ pub.
He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and had a military career before becoming the local MP. He played cricket for the MCC and Shropshire, and first became an MP in 1878, when this area was part of the West Kent constituency.
Legge was followed by John Penn. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, and managed his father’s marine engineering firm. Legge distinguished himself in Parliament as one of its best golfers; it helped that he had his own private course at the family’s country home in Scotland.
The third and MP for Lewisham was Sir Edward Coates. Educated at Marlborough College, he was a stockbroker and art collector. Coates continued as the local MP after the seat was abolished in 1918, to be replaced by the new constituency of Lewisham West. Crofton Park was, and has remained part of that constituency, through various boundary changes, for the next 92 years.
Coates died in 1921 and a by-election returned yet another Conservative, Sir Phillip Dawson. Dawson lived in Sydenham. He was an electrical engineer and had been involved in projects in the British Empire, Europe and South America. Locally, he had worked on the electrification of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, running through Brockley and Honor Oak Park stations. He served as an MP until his death in 1938, his popularity apparently unaffected by his admiration for Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy.
Before he became an MP, Dawson served on the London County Council, as a member of the Municipal Reform Party. This was a Conservative-backed London party, formed in 1906 to oppose the Liberal-backed Progressives and the Labour party, which between them ran most of local government in London.
Another member of the Municipal Reform Party was Alfred Garside, the headmaster of the Brockley Road Schools (now Beecroft Gardens). He was a member of Lewisham council. He chaired the council’s library committee and was an alderman, who lived in St Margaret’s Road.
Dawson’s successor in Parliament, Henry Brooke, was a philosopher and another Conservative. He was an ally of the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and a supporter of the 1938 Munich agreement.
Shortly after the end of WW2, in July 1945, Labour won a landslide victory under Clement Attlee, with a net gain of 239 seats and a majority of 145. For the first time, Crofton Park was represented by a Labour MP. He was Arthur Skeffington, an economist who had worked for the Board of Trade in WW2.
Lewisham’s flirtation with Labour was short-lived; at the 1950 election, the Conservatives were back in office and locally, Arthur Skeffington was beaten by another Conservative, Henry Price. Previously Price represented the local area on the London County Council and had been a Lewisham borough councillor in WW2.
Price was a colourful character: he was from a working-class family – his father was a bricklayer – and had his own business as a paper merchant. Price was concerned about high rents for housing, the subject of his maiden speech. Four years later, his home in Forest Hill was compulsorily purchased by the LCC as part of a new housing development. He was opposed to trade unions and also to the Rent Act of 1957. He tried but failed to stop the merger of the two boroughs of Lewisham and Deptford into the London Borough of Lewisham in 1965.
Price did not stand for re-election in 1964, his place being taken by another Conservative, Patrick McNair-Wilson.
Former teacher Christopher Price won the seat for Labour in 1974. In 1983, Crofton Park became part of the Lewisham Deptford constituency, represented by another Labour MP, John Silkin.
From 1987, Joan Ruddock was the local MP. She was already well-known as chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was briefly in Tony Blair’s government as Minister for Women. Later, Gordon Brown appointed her as a minister at the Department for Environment, and to the new Department of Energy and Climate Change. She brought in Private Members’ bills on fly-tipping and to ensure doorstep recycling by local authorities.
In 2010, Crofton Park became part of the Lewisham Deptford seat as a result of new boundary changes. Joan Ruddock continued to represent the area until she stood down in 2015, when she was succeeded by Vicky Foxcroft, who had been a local councillor. The constituency was the 23rd safest seat for Labour; Ms Foxcroft had a majority of 21,516. She was re-elected in 2017 with an increased majority of 34,899 and increased her share of the vote to 77%. In the 2019 snap election, that dropped slightly to 71% and 32,913.
Crofton Park’s time as part of Lewisham Deptford was short: new boundaries drawn for the 2024 election placed it in the new constituency of Lewisham West and East Dulwich.
Regardless of the constituency, for most of the time in its history, voters in Crofton Park have had a straight choice between Conservative, Labour and Liberal/Liberal Democrat candidates. In recent years, Greens have added their names to the list. As we go to the polls today, there is a longer list of candidates than in most of the previous elections.
Don't forget to vote -- and don't forget your photo ID!
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