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Phil Jeffries |
‘Phil inspired us all to stand up for our neighbourhood’
FURTHER tributes have been paid to Phil Jeffries, the King’s Cross campaigner who died of cancer last month, aged 55.
Phil, who was a founder member of the King’s Cross Railway Lands Group in 1987, passed away on December 14. He lived with his partner of 32 years Diana Shelley, chairwoman of the Cally Rail Group, in Gifford Road.
Caledonian ward Labour councillor Paul Convery described Phil as “a good friend, a great neighbour and a fine comrade”.
He added: “Phil and Diana together have been a formidable force in our neighbourhood and his loss will be felt widely.”
Cllr Convery, a member of Islington Council, said Phil had a formidable intellect, wonderfully eclectic interests and a passion for social justice.
“The driving force behind Phil’s life really was a determination to fight against powerful people who throw their weight around and rich people getting richer, usually by wrecking the place in which everyone else lives,” said Cllr Convery
Phil was a long-standing member of the Labour Party in Islington South.
Andrew Bosi, chairnan of the Islington Society, said his death was the second blow to King’s Cross within just a few months, following the death in a road accident of Lisa Pontecorvo.
He said: “Phil did a great deal to protect King’s Cross against the worst excesses of capitalist-led development. Lisa herself once described Phil as ‘the man who saved King’s Cross twice’ and he did a lot more after she said that. It was Phil Jeffries’ tireless work that enabled Chris Smith [former MP Islington South and Finsbury] to block the infamous King’s Cross Bill for long enough for it to be shown to be completely unworkable.
“This was a scheme to build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link under Clerkenwell and terminate it not at St Pancras, but at the magnificent underground station that most people still call King’s Cross Thameslink, although it is now a Monday to Friday Tube entrance.
“It was also Phil’s work that resulted in a tunnelled approach to St Pancras, rather than the initial idea of using the North London Line, or the second suggestion of a partially tunnelled route.
“The improvements which Ken Livingstone brought to this line and which Boris Johnson is happy to commend and develop would have been pie in the sky were it not for Phil Jeffries.”
William Perrin, a friend and fellow campaigner, added: “It was inspiring to watch Phil tackle a campaign and occasionally to work with him on one. Not everyone will have agreed with Phil’s points of view, but it is people like Phil, prepared to take on massive vested interests, working the democratic and campaigning machinery, that show we still have a vibrant democracy in Britain. He showed that it is possible to take on the government from a back street in Islington and win. That should inspire us all to stand up for our neighbourhood.”
Phil’s final act, as a scientist dedicated to improving life, was to leave his body to the London Teaching Hospitals. An event to celebrate Phil Jeffries’ life is being arranged. |
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