[Vwoolf] Rent or own?

danelljones at bresnan.net danelljones at bresnan.net
Fri Jul 3 13:45:43 EDT 2020


I so appreciate these reminders, Jeremy. It is really so shocking to think these things have happened during many of our lifetimes. 

 

The mention of Eldred Jones reminded me that African law students lived in the cosmopolitan Woolf’s own Fitzroy Square in 1909: Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Alfred Mangena, both founding members of the African National Congress.

 

Lastly, and apologies for tooting my own horn, but if anyone is interested in the experiences of an African writer living in London at the same time as Woolf, I recently wrote a biography of the fascinating A.B.C. Merriman-Labor: An African in Imperial London: The Indomitable Life of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor. 

 

For 30% off at Oxford UP, use code: ADISTA5

 

Danell

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+danelljones=bresnan.net at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf
Sent: Friday, July 3, 2020 8:16 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Rent or own?

 

Property and race: a few recollections.

1. When I was in Austin, Texas 1994-5, we had friends who lived in a house built in the mid 1930s. There was a condition on purchase of the house (lease? deeds?) that no-one of African descent was allowed to be in the house during the night. Ironically, as we are now understood to be all of African descent, this should arguably have applied to all human beings.

2. As a student at Leeds University, UK, in the 1960s I remember talking to two Kenyan postgraduates, one of whom was the novelist James Ngugi, later Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o. They told me that on the day after Kenya got independence from the British there were still places in the centre of Nairobi that were open only to white people. At that time it was still legal in the UK to bar people from clubs and shops on the basis of colour; when students in Leeds demonstrated against this they were attacked as vandals and communists.

3. When Professor Eldred Jones from Sierra Leone, author of Othello’s Countrymen (1965), came as visiting professor to Leeds, it was extremely difficult to find accommodation for him because of his colour.

So when people mock political correctness, they should be reminded of what things were like a mere half century ago.

Jeremy H

 

 

On 03.07.2020 16:01, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:

I hope I never said that there was “little difference between leasing and owning except for legalities”, tho’ I will say that a 999-year lease seems to me very close to owning a freehold.  (I am not alone in holding this opinion.)  And of course I was only talking about England & Wales – not even Scotland – far less the US.  (Perhaps I should have been talking about Scotland – which I’m not equipped to do – since the Ramsays’ house is in Skye!)

 

The question I was raising was how better off you were if you had a lease on a property as opposed to a rental agreement.  It’s impossible to answer unless you know the individual terms of the leasehold v. the rental agreement.  Why did the Woolfs move from 52 Tavistock Sq to Mecklenburgh Sq?  Why, when they moved, were they still holding onto 52 TS? They were hamstrung by an expiring lease.

 

(Oh, and I misspelt “peppercorn”.)

 

After all, I *did* say that the British were obsessed with *owning* property.  Do I have to say also that it’s a way of making money long-term?

 

Stuart

 

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