The ORIGINAL ‘Blade Runners’: How secret mob went on 1930s wrecking spree of Belisha Beacons in protest at London’s new pedestrian crossings

• The beacons were among measures introduced by Leslie Hore-Belisha
• The Transport Secretary was trying to improve disastrous road safety statistics 

The campaign by self-proclaimed ‘Blade Runners’ to destroy Sadiq Khan’s hated ULEZ cameras has received significant attention in recent weeks.

The London mayor is facing a huge backlash to his hated scheme and saboteurs have vowed to destroy eight in ten of the cameras that are put up.

But the campaign of vandalism is far from the first time that Britons have taken a major disliking to a traffic-related measures imposed from on high. 

Back in the 1930s, Belisha Beacons – as they quickly became known – were a major target for vandals.

Introduced by Transport Secretary Leslie Hore-Belisha in 1934, the amber-coloured globes sit atop black and white striped poles to mark pedestrian crossings and are now ubiquitous across the country. 

But, from the day that that the first lot were installed in London in late 1934, they were hugely unpopular – and Hore-Belisha was branded a ‘traffic dictator’. 

Back in the 1930s, Belisha Beacons – as they quickly became known – were a major target for vandals. They were introduced by Transport Secretary Leslie Hore-Belisha in 1934. Above: Hore-Belisha – then Secretary of State for War – is seen in 1940 crossing the road at a crossing marked by one of his beacons 

The beacons had been installed to attempt to grapple with the increasingly dangerous nature of the road network.

A November 1934 Daily Mail report on the ‘gun threat’ to the beacons

The situation was typified by the fact that, in the week after his appointment in June 1934, 180 people had been killed on Britain’s roads, with a further 6,000 injured. 

To curb the deaths, Hore-Belisha introduced measures that included a driving test and a 30mph speed limit in cities and towns.

He also gave councils powers to introduce safe crossings for pedestrians. 

But the new crossings and the accompanying Belisha Beacons were considered by many to be the wrong move. 

The first beacons were installed on Kensington Road near Hyde Park in September 1934 and then rolled out elsewhere in London.

Initially they did not light up and this led to the criticism that they were hard to see in the dark.  

But by the end of November in 1934, 10,000 beacons had been put up in London, at an approximate cost of £15,000 – the equivalent of nearly £900,000 today. 

Nannies about to cross the road where a Belisha Beacon has been installed in Kensington Road, London

A Belisha Beacon is seen being installed in Hanwell Broadway, West London, in May 1935

Leslie Hore-Belisha is seen crossing with Gordon Selfridge at a miniature pedestrian crossing at the launch of the Safety Week Exhibition in January 1935

However, when the price of the electricity needed to light them was factored in, the cost went up by £100,000 just for installation. 

Taxpayers had to fork out a further £30,000 a year for maintenance. 

A Daily Mail report 

Some of the vandalism of the globes was particularly violent. A Daily Mail report from November 12, 1934, tells how four men had shattered 18 beacons with air guns.

They had driven across ‘half of London’ to ‘systematically’ take out the safety fixtures.

A witness told the paper: ‘I was following a black sports coupe down Edgware-road, when the barrel of a gun suddenly popped out of one of the windows, and a moment later a Belisha beacon was shattered.

‘The car immediately shot off at high speed, but on approaching another beacon it slowed down to walking pace to enable the marksmen to shoot again – with equally successful results.’ 

One of the shooters then phoned the Daily Mail with a message for Hore-Belisha.

He said: ‘My friends and I feel that Belisha beacons are a positive menace on the road.

‘In most cases they cannot be seen until a driver is right on top of the crossings they are supposed to mark.

‘They give pedestrians a false sense of security and convert motoring after dark into a nightmare.’

In Hampstead, north London, 80 beacons were stolen in the first few weeks after they were put up. 

When it was announced in November that the London experiment was to be extended across the country, there was reported to be ‘dismay and even rebellion’ among regional officials.

However, the beacons remained and over time were reformed. 

The glass orbs were replaced with plastic so they were harder to vandalised.

As for the crossings, they had begun as two parallel rows of studs.

Women workers packing belisha beacon globes in straw at a factory in Morley, September 29, 1934

Belisha Beacons are seen in Shaftesbury Avenue, in London in November 1934

Model Christine Donna in Grosvenor Square advertising Dulux paint. She is dressed as a ‘roman’ soldier and swinging round a Belisha Beacon

But in 1951, ‘Zebra’ crossings – named for their black and white stripes – were introduced and are now common across the UK. 

The cameras installed on the orders of Mr Khan are enforcing the mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone charges.

From September, motorists driving non-compliant cars have had to pay £12.50-a-day charge to enter the zone, which operates across all of the capital’s boroughs and the City of London.

It has caused outrage in the suburbs, with Mr Khan’s Tory mayoral election rival Susan Hall promising to scrap it if she wins power.

There are about 1,775 ULEZ cameras in London, dozens of which have been targeted by ‘Blade Runners’ in recent weeks. 

Anti-ULEZ ‘blade runners’ have vowed to destroy eight out of ten cameras being used to charge drivers in the next four weeks in an attempt to bring Sadiq Khan’s scheme ‘to its knees’

A ULEZ camera in Ickenham, Hillingdon which was vandalised by being sprayed with expanding foam

Earlier this month the group vowed to bring the scheme ‘to its knees’.

One Blade Runner said: ‘The target is to get 80 per cent gone in four weeks. That’s the start.

‘There are thought to be around 250 people involved but there’s no official tally. The idea is people are attracted to this themselves. It’s not an official group or society.

‘It’s up to people if they want to take the direct action needed. Jail is on the table. It’s that serious.’

The campaigners have also targeted ULEZ enforcement vans by letting air out of the vehicles’ tyres.  

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