Cup of tea and some Covid-denying views – tea house is accused of giving platform to anti-Semite

A tea house in Vauxhall has been accused of providing a platform for people with  anti-Semitic and Covid-denying views.

The Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall Walk, which has a tea house connected to it, ran an event on June 30 which was hosted by an alleged anti-Semite, James Thring, who has reportedly denied the Holocaust and has connections with the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

In a recording sent to the South London Press, you can hear Mr Thring identify  himself, and at one point he makes the

allegation that Israelis were behind the 9/11 attacks in New York.

The recording was made by Hil Aked, an author of a book on Zionism in Britain, who stumbled across the tea house while in the area.

Aked said they recognised Mr Thring through their work and stuck around to hear what he had to say.

Mr Thring called the gathering The Four Virtues Club. In the recording, he goes on to say the Covid-19 pandemic was an “invention”.

He said: “The pandemic we’re in now, that’s another kind of deception.

“It was an invention in the sense that the so-called virus was patented in the United States in 2017.

“They exported the research to China…to accidentally release it in China…this would fit with their fear of China…that’s my theory anyway.”

Aked said that when they challenged Mr Thring and those present they were shouted out of the tea house, at one point one of the audience shouts “don’t tell us what we can say in our own country”.

Aked replied they were from the UK.

Aked said: “Clearly the owners of this venue are sympathising with the far right.

“I think people in that area need to know. Because I as a queer brown person did not feel safe being in that space.

“If you were Jewish or you were someone who had lost a family member to Covid or you heard any of those ideas being spouted, you would not feel safe.

“I’m a Londoner. I want to be able to feel safe at home and not encounter racist conspiracy drivel.”

The owner of the Tea House Theatre, Harry Igulden, told the South London Press that he offers anyone a platform and believes in freedom of speech.

He said: “I am a Zionist and a Friend of Israel. I run a small theatre and I don’t mind listening to people I disagree with.

“I’m in the arts. I do defend free speech, as long as you’re not breaking the law then that’s fine. Let free speech reign.

Mr Thring denies he was peddling conspiracy theories and said: “Aked was an interloper at our meeting which was for invited guests only. So there was no publicity, we were not “peddling” conspiracy ‘theories’ and there was no danger of anyone being made to “feel unsafe”.

“Aked the meeting after trying to frighten the management into closing us down without discussion.

“That is far more dangerous to a democratic society priding itself on free speech than discussing who rules the world.

“Such de-platforming is one of the tricks used by the elite we complain about.

“The focus of our meeting was to invite members to comment on the state of the world and a proposed way forward.

“My speech outlined key threats to humanity: war, deprivation, religious and racial conflicts, pandemics, untested vaccines, economic re-structuring, deception, sowing fear and terror, suppression of free speech, intercepting communications, criminalizing whistle-blowers and conspiracy theorists and orchestrating the media.

“On Aked’s concern for Jewish people’s feelings, I can confirm that there are Jewish people in our club who are critical of the oligarchs who largely espouse the same religion.

“Moreover, the genuine Jews are more fearful of the harm done by such oligarchs to the name of their faith than by any critics of it.”

Pictured top: The Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall (Picture: Google Street View)