which stamped the time on it. The working keep the community more self-sufficient. day was from 7.30am to 4.30pm, with an hour The Bata farm produced milk from its own for lunch and a short break in the morning herd of dairy cattle which was delivered and afternoon. If you look to your left from the around the Estate in bottles embossed Bata Estate gate the first building you see is number 24, with the Bata name. the leather factory and beyond that is number 34, the rubber factory. 10 Bata College. Continue along Gloucester Avenue and turn left into Queen Mary 6 Bata Cinema. Continue to Princess Avenue. As you walk along, the Bata Walking Tour Margaret Road and make your way to the Primary School stood where the flats to crossing into the park. The cream building your right are. Further along where Queen to your left was the cinema. It opened in Mary Court stands there was the Bata 1938, closed in 1965 and is now the Village Technical College which housed and trained Hall. The doors are original as is some young men for a career in the shoe trade. of the interior. The cinema showed films three times a week and Saturday morning 11 The Avenues and Swimming Pool. films for the youngsters. The cinema Continue walking along Queen Mary occasionally hosted ‘Workers Playtime’; Avenue, passing Princess Avenue until a radio programme broadcast by the BBC you reach the roundabout. To your left featuring comedy and musical acts. you will see a block of flats, this was the site of the swimming pool. You 6a East War Memorial. To your right, entered through a building that housed at the centre of the park, is the memorial the changing facilities. The tour ends back dedicated to the fallen of World War II with at the library site. an everlasting flame that was sculpted by Joseph Hermon Cawthra, (this is a replica Bata Heritage Centre collects the memories as the original was stolen). The field beyond of the international community growing the park was the Bata Sports Ground and up on the Bata Estate, in order that future here is a surprise – in the 1950s and 1960s generations will better understand some West Ham football team trained here and of the social history of the 20th century. played charity matches against the Bata For more information please visit team. Afterwards there would be a Dinner www.bataheritagecentre.org.uk Dance in the Hotel ballroom for the team, their wives and other guests. Photography: Catherine Hyland Design: Fraser Muggeridge studio 7 Espresso Bar. As you exit the park, take Director: Joe Hill a look at the building housing the takeaway Project Manager: Hayley Dixon shops. This building was also designed Project Assistant: Hannah Rose Whittle by Bronek Katz and built in 1960. Apart from the barbers, the building housed the www.radicalessex.uk espresso bar, which was the social hub of @RadicalEssex the Estate. You could sit with your friends This walking tour guide was produced by with a frothy coffee freshly made from the Gaggia machine and listen to the latest Radical in conjunction with Bata Heritage sounds from the jukebox. Centre on the occasion of ESSEX Architecture 8 New Houses. Turn right into Gloucester Avenue passing houses built between Weekend, 10 – 11 September 2016. Radical 1939 – 1955 and you will come to Farm Road, which led to the Bata farm. ESSEX is a project aiming to re-examine the

9 Bata Farm. The land was formerly history of the county in relation to radicalism agricultural and a large part of the farmland continued to be utilised by Bata to help in thought, lifestyle, politics and architecture. In 1933, Bata Shoe Company opened Turn left into Coronation Avenue and East Tilbury Area Map their new factory on the Essex marshes cross over Princess Margaret Road at East Tilbury. Based in , at the zebra crossing. the company was founded by Tomas Bata, who was killed in 1932 in a plane crash. 2 Bata Corner. Our second point of Over the next 70 years Bata was an important interest is Bata Avenue where the first part of the local economy and an international houses were built in 1933. As you look community grew up on the Bata Estate, along the Avenue the first buildings on comprised of houses built for the workers your left and right were hostels for the by the company. young men and women who came to work for Bata, some of them as young The best way to experience the Bata as 14. They travelled great distances to Estate is to download the find work, because jobs were scarce in Mobile Explorer App and follow the other parts of the country and Bata provided Bata Reminiscence Trail. This is available employment and lodgings. If you look on both iOS (search Thurrock Mobile at the layout of the houses you will see Explorer) and Android (search Travel that they are arranged in a chequerboard

Q Thurrock) devices, best listened to on effect, this was copied from the layout u e headphones. of Bata houses in Zlin, Czech Republic, e n e where Bata originated. u K E n East Tilbury Railway Station i li e n z v g a A 3 Bata Hotel and Garage. Further along G b e n e t on your right you will pass Production o o h i t r A g a House, where the Bata garage/petrol e v n e V o station once stood. Stop now and T n r I u h o A e look across the road to Stanford House o C m v e which was the Bata Hotel, formerly called a n s u

B e Community House. You entered by revolving a t doors and on the ground floor there was a a ballroom, a restaurant and in the 1950s Aven ue there was a Czech library later to become Q ueen 11 Ma the residents lounge. The entire first P ry A r v The tour is narrated by Mike Tarbard and floor was the workers canteen where i e en n u ue c n other residents of the estate, telling stories hot meals were prepared for around e ve 10 s A s s of the site, featuring both the architecture 600 people. The other floors consisted s M ce 1 a 2 rin ue and social history. This guide complements of rooms and flats for workers. Families rg P en 9 ue a Av the audio guide, containing a reduced version who worked for Bata overseas stayed en re 3 r v t e 8 A st of each location, which can be listened to in the Hotel when on leave. On the top R e ata uc B o lo or read in depth on the App, where you will floor was Flat number 1, which was for a G 7 d hear tales of a time gone by, and learn about the use of the Bata family when they were 6 sites at each point that would have previously in . 4 been seen. 6a 4 Tomas Bata Statue. Continue walking 5 The best examples of the Modernist housing towards the factory passing on your right can be seen on the Avenues: Bata Avenue, the statue of Tomas Bata, the founder Thomas Bata Avenue, King George VI of the Bata Shoe Company. Avenue and Queen Elizabeth Avenue. 5 Factory Gate. The building ahead of you 1 East Tilbury Library. The walk starts with the revolving doors is the administration from the library site, currently closed building which housed reception, retail, the due to a fire in early 2017. Make your way managers’ offices and the export department. towards Coronation Avenue, taking note To the left of this building you will see the of the building on your left, the Recreation gates where the workers entered. They Club designed by Bronek Katz in 1960. ‘clocked on’ by putting a card into a machine