From National Front HQ to Husseins Bakery

The Media Archive for Central England (MACE) has a 10-minute ATV Today film from 1976 on the rise of the National Front in Leicester. At the city council elections held just before the film was made this far-right party, though it had not won any seats, had polled more than 18 per cent of the vote.

Halfway through the film we are shown the city's National Front office. I went there today - Fernie Street is just off the Uppingham Road - to photograph the building and found it is now Husseins Bakery. (To be honest, thanks to Google Street View, I already knew that, but its more fun taking you own photographs and for some odd reason exploring this part of Leicester makes me happy.)

There are several films about the Imperial Typewriters strike on the MACE site, which had a strong racial element, and that is a subject to which I may return one day.

But I am left with a puzzle. I have a clear memory of seeing a National Front headquarters on the Uppingham Road itself (or possibly on another main road nearby) in 1976 or even a year or two before. Perhaps it was a temporary HQ for a local or Westminster election campaign, or perhaps someone had plastered an empty shop with NF posters. But I know I saw it.