In anticipation of their long trip abroad, Sidney and Becky gave up their seats on the Party's central executive committee and let their house on Regent Street. The family sailed for England in June 1922. Brian had just turned two in April, and Arthur, who boarded the ship carrying an improvised red flag to the consternation of some passengers, was almost five. The parents had their hands full.

Visually London had altered little since Sidney's last visit, although the last horse-drawn tram had ceased service in 1911, and there were more motor buses and cars carrying the middle class from the inner districts to the suburbs. London of 1922 was the capital not only of a victorious nation but of an empire since 1919 at its greatest geographical extent. Political life was changing. The Nonconformist conscience that Sidney's parents had served was in decline, along with a divided Liberal Party. There was an establishment desire to go back to 1914 and re-establish old certainties. But Labour was advancing in trade union strength, in local government and in confidence, even though the peak of post-war industrial militancy had passed. The massive expansion of the franchise posed a big challenge for politicians of older parties.

Sidney and Becky settled the boys in with Sidney's sister Evelyn on Torrington Place. There was no question that his sisters would not welcome the family, especially the children, even if they looked askance at Sidney's political activities and his marriage to a Russian Jewess.