Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph, February 27th, 1915

The Waller Street Plait Hall is now open as a YMCA recreation centre for soldiers. The official opening does not take place until Monday evening, but soldiers who wanted to spend a pleasant hour or two last night soon found they were welcome despite the fact that the hall was officially not open, and tonight they will be welcomed just as cordially.

The three new billiard tables which have been installed were in full swing last evening. Draughts, chess and other games are also provided. Writing materials are provided free, and as the hall is laid out at the moment there is writing accommodation for 150 men. Stamps and postal orders can be obtained on the premises. A certain amount of reading material has also been provided.

If sufficient talent is forthcoming, there will be a concert every evening. The necessary platform and piano are already installed.

The centre at High Town Primitive Methodist Church is now in full working order, and arrangements are being made to reopen the old school at Stopsley as a YMCA centre. The latter was closed with the departure of the North Midland Division but now is needed for the signalling section now located in the district.

[The illustration picture was taken in February 1937 after the Waller Street Plait Hall, next to the baths and on the opposite side of the road to the Grand Theatre, had become an indoor market.]

• We are informed that Lady Wernher has offered the Luton Hoo Park to the War Office for training purposes and that the offer has been readily accepted by Lord Kitchener. The portions of the Park selected are Jackson's Hill (approaching from the London Road) that has been used previously for reviewing troops, the part of the Park near the Luton lodges and the upper part of the lake for pontoon purposes.

• A letter from the Board of Education raised concerns over the future of New Town Street Schools. Although not council-run, the state of the schools was brought to the attention of Luton Education Committee, who were told that had they been Council schools they would have been condemned years ago. Top of the Board of Education concerns was that three classes were being taught in one room, a situation which could not be allowed to continue. Other concerns were the small size of the awkward shaped site; that exterior walls were only 9 inches thick; lighting, ventilation and heating were poor; and there was no lavatory for the infants. The Education Committee would await a response from the school managers.

• The little man is coming into his own, for the War Office has still further reduced the height standard of recruits for certain regiments to 5ft 1in. Evidently, however, the standard of Bedfordshire is good, for the Bedfords are not scheduled for the lower height.

• Housewives are beginning to cry out about the price of firewood. Where they used to get seven bundles for 3d, they now get six for 4d. And the bundles don't appear to contain as many sticks as before.

• Luton County Court judge surprised a hearing involving a Luton tobacconist when he asked, 'What are Woodbines?' 'Cheap cigarettes,' he was informed.

• In another case at the County Court, Walter Thomas Field, a carpenter, of Lyndhurst Road, Luton, was told he could not sue Capt Dansey, Assistant and Deputy Quartermaster General, North Midland Brigade, for 19 shillings, the balance of military billets and for meals supplied in December. After the military claimed an important principle was involved in the case, Mr Field was told Capt Dansey could not properly be made the subject of legal proceedings when he was carrying out the regulations charged upon him from a higher authority. When Judge Wheeler advised him to calmly and quietly acquiesce in the loss, Mr Field said he would post Capt Dansey as a defaulter outside his premises and "be taken to the Tower".

• On a billboard overlooking Blackburn Cemetery, a local billposter has displayed a big recruiting placard which reads, "Wake up! Your King and country need you."

• Crystal Palace came to Luton this afternoon in the full flush of their recovered form and only a point below Luton in the Southern League with a game in hand. Two first half goals won the game for Palace, although Luton had a penalty appeal turned down and found the net as the referee was blowing the final whistle, the goal being disallowed.

• The Saturday Telegraph was elated at beating the London papers by nearly two hours with the news the previous week of the bombardment of the Dardanelles. This week the Luton newspaper reported that the Allied fleet had advanced up the Dardanelles, destroying a fort and bombarding a Turkish Army encampment. Yesterday the fleet fired a thousand shells at a distance of 18 kilometres.