The Cons Club, Austin Village
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Cons Club, Austin Village by A J Paxton as part of the Geograph project.
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The Cons Club, Austin Village
Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 16 Sep 2023
Yes, that's Cons as in Conservatives. It was the starting point of the Heritage Open Days tour of Austin Village and its American wooden bungalows, erected in 1917 to house wartime workers at Herbert Austin's Longbridge factory in Birmingham. The club was converted from farm buildings and is the only social centre in the village, the two churches having moved further afield many years ago. That it is a Conservative Club reflects Austin's politics. He represented King's Norton as a Conservative MP from 1918 to 1924, when he lost his seat to a Labour candidate who campaigned with the slogan, "Sack the boss!" Austin managed his employees with a strict discipline and was hostile to organised labour; his defeat was a sign of conflicts to come at Longbridge. Austin returned to parliament later in life as Baron Austin, a peer in the House of Lords. See Richard Vinen, Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain, Allen Lane, 2022, p181 and elsewhere. See Wikipedia on Austin Village https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Village and on Lord Herbert Austin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Austin,_1st_Baron_Austin .
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.402807
Longitude
-1.972867