Socialist Meeting outside Great Northern Railway Tavern c1914

Robert Blatchford founded ‘The Clarion’ as a weekly Socialist newspaper. Clarion readers organised various activities e.g. cycling clubs, choral societies, rambling clubs, often meeting in Clarion club-houses. The Clarion vans were mobile propaganda vehicles, carrying socialist leaflets, newspapers and speakers to all areas, often accompanied at weekends by “Clarionettes” on bicycles. Pictured here is Clarion van no 3 which came into service in 1914. The vans toured from 1896 until 1929.