Just the other side of Tescos and the A12 is Kingsley Hall, a beautiful red brick building established by Muriel and Doris Lester in 1928. It was set up as a ‘people’s house’ where locals could come together.

The sisters’ aim was to bring people together regardless of class, race or religion and provide support for body, mind and spirit in this poor neighbourhood of London.

In 1931 Muriel invited Mahatma Gandhi to stay at the Hall for three months while he attended the Round Table Conference on the future of colonial India.

Around his work with the government, Gandhi enjoyed walks along the canal and visited locals. He spent an hour a day working on a spinning wheel, creating the hand spun dhoti (clothing) he was famous for wearing.

One of the workers at the Hall nursery recalls:
“He visited the Nursery School and all the children called him Uncle Gandhi. At six o’clock each morning, after his prayers, he took his walk along the canal, talking to workmen on the way…. There was something about him that always lives with the people”

The photo here shows Gandhi meeting Charlie Chaplin just up the road at Dr Katial’s surgery in Canning Town. Chuni Lal Katial later became the UK’s first South Asian mayor in 1938 when he was elected Mayor of Finsbury.