ON the outbreak of war London's theatres and concert halls were closed, along with its cinemas and art galleries. The Royal Choral Society suspended its activities and the Handel Society was disbanded for good. Goodall had no paid work of any kind. Eleanor's school was evacuated to Shropshire and she went with it, leaving her husband to his own devices in London, where he took to writing slogans on walls and pavements in support of Mosley's campaign for a negotiated peace; the BUF was not declared a proscribed organisation until July 1940.

Goodall's confused state of mind can be gauged from a letter he wrote to Maisie Aldridge on 22 September 1939:

The “English person” was presumably the propagandist William Joyce, known to the British public as Lord Haw Haw.

The temporary collapse of London's musical life gave Goodall's Symphony Rehearsal Orchestra an unexpected boost, for a number of leading players from the LSO, finding they had no work, applied to join to keep their hands in, though they drift ed away again when Queen's Hall reopened in early October. More players were lost to conscription, and eventually the orchestra had to close down before a cycle of Sibelius's symphonies could be completed.