Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society

Central Stores was rebuilt in 1903

The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) was a consumer co-operative based in south east London; taking its name from the royal munitions works (Royal Arsenal)at Woolwich.

Set up in 1868 by 20 workers from the Royal Arsenal, the RACS began as a food shop in a house in Plumstead and expanded into a huge range of commercial, social & political activities. At its height (circa 1975) the society had spread across most of South London and parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, had 500,000 members and sales exceeding £60million. Yet by 1985 its commercial problems were such that it merged into the national Co-operative Wholesale Society.

Activities

Retail & services

The RACS ran not just food shops (a founding aim of the UK consumer co-operative movement being the provision of cheap unadulterated food) but also milk, bread & fuel deliveries, department stores, a bookshop, jewelery department, shoe shops and chemists. Other services included removals, catering, undertakers (customers included Herbert Morrison), hairdressers, laundry, a travel agency, life insurance & savings clubs. As was usual for such co-operative societies, members were paid a dividend in proportion to their spending with the society - at one point in embossed tin tokens, later by the quoting of a "Divi Number", towards the end by stamps.

Production & distribution

To support its retail activities the RACS established bakeries, bought farms & piggeries and built food processing factories. It owned stables & railway wagons, an abbatoir, dairy, a frozen food plant, a fleet of coaches and two hotels on the Isle of Wight.

Social

From 1878 onwards 2.5% of the society's profits were spent on education. The RACS had an Education Department, ran classes and sports days, opened reading rooms, supported the Woodcraft Folk & the Co-operative Women's Guild, a cricket club, orchestras and at one point two choirs conducted by (Sir) Michael Tippett. The society opened its first library in Woolwich in 1879, and it was 20 years before the local authority followed.

Housing

Perhaps surprisingly, in 1900 the RACS became a large-scale housing developer by building the Bostall Estate on its farmland in Abbey Wood - its Works Department constructing over a thousand homes. The streets still bear co-operative-theme names, such as Owenite (after Robert Owen), Commonwealth, Rochdale (after the 'Rochdale Pioneers'), McLeod and WillRose (founder-members). In 1925 the RACS bought the 1250-home Royal Arsenal workers estate at Well Hall in Eltham from the Government, which it then renamed the Progress Estate.

Political

The RACS was always one of the more political co-operative societies. Its motto was "Each for All and All for Each", it employed a Political Secretary, published magazines and newspapers (such as "Comradeship" & "The Wheatsheaf") and housed Basque refugees from the Spanish Civil War (see also Milk for Spain). The RACS supported the campaign for working-class political representation (see Labour Representation Committee) and the election of Will Crooks as MP for Woolwich. It chose to affiliate directly to the Labour Party rather than to the more usual Co-operative Party. As well as the usual co-op dividend to its customer-members, the RACS also paid a "bonus to labour" - for instance paying the tradesmen building the Bostall Estate a halfpenny an hour above the Trade Union rate. Overall control of the RACS rested with a full-time Management Committee elected by society members under proportional representation.

Decline and fall

By the late 1970s the RACS was in trouble. Greater customer affluence and competition from supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's were changing the society's market - its size & democratic ownership structure made it slow to adapt. Membership declined, weakening the society's democratic basis. Reserves dwindled and dividend payments - for many the Co-op's unique selling point - all but ceased. In 1985, after a century of expansion in size & scope the RACS avoided collapse by 'transferring its engagements' to the national Co-operative Wholesale Society. Many of the former RACS supermarkets and funeral homes remain as Co-op outlets, but most of the rest is history.

Other London-area consumer co-operative societies

• South Suburban Co-operative Society
• London Co-operative Society
• Enfield Highway Co-operative Society
• Invicta Co-operative Society

Further reading

• Rita Rhodes An Arsenal for Labour: the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society and Politics 1896-1996, Holyoake Books, 1999,ISBN 0-85195-253-4
• Walter T. Davis & William B. Neville The history of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, Ltd. 1868-1918,Pioneer Press, 1921
• Minute books and papers of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, 1868-1986, Adam Matthew Pubs., 1994, ISBN B0000EEZ1F
• Alex. Mcleod & T. Geo. Arnold, The origin and progress of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, Co-operative Printing Society, 1896
• Ron Roffey, The Co-operative Way, Membership Services of South East Co-op, 40 Orchard Street, Dartford, Kent, DA1 2DG, ISBN 0-85195-256-9
• John Attfield, With Light of Knowledge: Hundred Years of Education in the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society, 1877-1977, Journeyman, 1981, ISBN 0-904526-67-4

References

• RACS Minutes Books & Papers, Adam Matthew Pubs.
• Bert A. French Boyhood memories of Eltham
• Rod Le Gear/Kent Archaeological Society The Building of the Bostall Estate
• Ideal homes - Progress Estate
• "Good service in life and death", This is Local London, 9 July 2003
• E.F.E. Jefferson, The Woolwich Story, Woolwich & District Archeological Society, Jan 1970