Vietnam – Who Took The Picture?

May 16th, 2025

Vietnam – Who Took The Picture? Whenever you think or talk with anyone about the US war against the people of Vietnam back in the sixties and seventies the one image that is in everyone’s mind is of a nine-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, running naked down a road screaming after a napalm attack on her village by the South Vietnam Air Force following misleading US intelligence. She saved her life by stripping off her burning clothing and running but was badly burnt. And the photographer who made this iconic image also saved her life.

Although this image is in the public domain in the USA because of it’s date of publication, I think it is still in copyright in the UK, so I won’t post it here. If you need to look at it again it is widely on the web, including on Wikipedia. It’s title is ‘The Terror of War‘, though it is better known simply as ‘Napalm Girl’.

The picture was taken by and credited to a young Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut (Huynh Công Út) working for Associated Press, the US not-for-profit news agency based in New York, and Ut took the 8 films he had shot that day into AP’s Saigon agency – after he had rushed her to hospital – where the film was processed. This image stood out immediately but the AP staff were reluctant to send it to New York because of its full-frontal nudity. They called agency director Horst Fass back into the office and he saw the power and news value of the image and transmitted it to New York demanding they publish it despite the nudity. They did and it won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year.

As so often in covering events, Ut was not the only photographer at the scene, but his image was the most visceral and Fass who was a noted photographer and fighter for the right of photographers to be credited saw that Ut’s name was attached to the picture – and AP had very careful procedures to ensure that pictures were accurately credited. So we can be sure that this picture was the picture taken by Ut.

And we all were convinced until a rival agency, VII led by its co-founder Gary Knight, working largely on the stories of a disgruntled former AP employee challenged this a few years ago and set up a two-year investigation which culminated in the film “The Stringer” released this year. This argues that the picture was actually taken by another, much less well known, Vietnamese photographer, Nguyen Thanh Nghe, who also took his film from that day into AP.

The film puts forward some evidence – enough to convince some reviewers – but I think few actual photographers who have read the truly comprehensive report of the investigation by AP into circumstances will be left with any real doubt that the published picture was by Ut.

Of course many of those who could have given relevant evidence are now dead, and film negatives contain little of the evidence that would be available from digital metadata, though AP did conduct extensive testing of the two negatives that remain from the film. The only people who denied them access to evidence were the film makers, who demanded AP sign a non-disclosure agreement which would have prevented AP from disclosing anything it found – which would have defeated the purpose of the investigation. And both “Nguyen Thanh Nghe, who says he took the photo, and former AP photo editor Carl Robinson, who claims he was ordered to change the credit” declined to be interviewed, instead providing written statements.

The AP investigation which took more than a year points out a number of lies, deliberate misrepresentations, omissions and errors in the film and points to the failures of a report commissioned for “The Stringer” on material still available from the day’s events from the commercial company INDEX which has also so far failed to work with AP. AP carried out a similar but more comprehensive study with significantly different conclusions and shows that the film makes use of “a flawed graphic 3D render of the scene.

As so much of the relevant evidence has disapppeared, AP are very circumspect in their conclusions. They conclude that Nick Ut could have taken the picture but there are some questions which it is impossible to be sure about largely because of the passage of time.

They say that they cannot now prove conclusively that Nick Ut took the photo, but the “no proof has been found that Nguyen took the picture” and also that there were other photographers who were in a position to have taken it.

And they conclude:

We applied AP’s photo standards to guide us to an outcome. AP’s standards say “a challenged credit would be removed only if definitive evidence … showed that the person who claimed to have taken the photo did not.”

All available evidence analyzed by AP does not clear that bar. Thus, the photo will remain attributed to Ut.

Some photographers have been very much clearer – including some of those who were invloved and gave evidence to AP and it seems almost certain that the accusations made in the film are both untrue and slanderous and that Ut took the picture used by AP which won him the Pulitzer.

I wasn’t in Vietnam and have no connection with either AP or VII or any of the photographers involved. But often I see published pictures of events or places I have photographed and cannot always decide if they are my work or that of another photographer. Particularly on Facebook, where most weeks I come across several of my pictures appearing without any attribution. I have to go back to my files to make sure if a picture is really mine or if someone else has taken a very similar picture. But usually when I have a suspicion a picture could be mine it is.

It seems to me quite likely that Nguyen took a similar but less powerful image on the roll that he claims went in to the AP office. He says AP paid him for bringing the picture in – something they often did even for pictures they could not use, though the records from the office show no record of any payment – and gave him back a print of his picture – but that later his wife threw that away. As the negatives no longer exist we cannot compare his picture with that by Ut. If his wife had kept that print I feel sure we would not now be having this controversy.

Ut deserves a grovelling apology and compensation from the film makers for questioning his integrity – as do many of the others involved. Of course they won’t get it.

This is not a photo by Fay Godwin! Sleepy Lion, Chatsworth © Peter Marshall, 1980

Hanging on my living room wall (and there are copies on walls and at least one mug elsewhere) is a picture I made of a sculpture of a lion at Chatsworth. Years after taking it I opened a book by Fay Godwin – a photographer whose work I admired and who I knew personally – and found that very same lion staring out at me.

It’s part of the nature of photography that photographers can make very similar images to each other – and sometimes very minor differences or even chance can make one a masterpiece and another an also-ran – though in this case I think we both did pretty well. Her picture was taken from a position that must have been within an inch of where I had held the camera eight years earlier. Even though we were not there at the same time we saw the scene in the same way. More about this in my post Fay Godwin – Land Revisited.


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The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto – 2004

May 15th, 2025

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto: There were two protests on May 15th 2004 over major issues still very relevant now. The first was against the separation wall being built by Israel which was breaking up many Palestinian urban settlements and dividing some farmers from their lands. Designed for the convenience of IsraelI Security forces it reconfigures many boundaries and paved the way for further IsralI settlements on Palestinian land, in complete disregard of the needs and civil rights of Palestinians.

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto - 2004

Later I joined the march from Leatherhead to the US Embassy for the final few hundred yards of their march in protest against the failure of the US to ratify the Kyoto climate accord. US policies on climate change were and now are largely driven by the fossil fuel companies and have led to our current position with global temperatures continuing to rise towards levels the science tells us endangers human life on our planet. Though warming in the oceans may lead before long to a loss of the Gulf Stream which makes life in the UK tolerable and bring in a new Ice Age in the UK!

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto - 2004

As with other events in the early years of My London Diary, the page design separated text and images, and the text was made less legible by eschewing capitals, a victory of style over sense which made no sense when I had begun to post more events on the pages with longer stories – but which it took me until 2008 to redesign. Below I’ll reunite some of the pictures with the text I wrote and links to the many more pictures still on their own pages on My London Diary.


The Wall Must Fall – Free Palestine Rally, Trafalgar Square

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto - 2004
Peter Tatchell demonstrating against both the IsraelI persecution of Palestine, and also the persecution of gays by the Palestinians

The Wall Must Fall rally in Trafalgar Square on 15 May started with an an ugly scene, when stewards stopped Peter Tatchell and a group from Outrage from being photographed in front of the banners around Nelson’s Column. The rally organisers argued that raising the question of the persecution of gays in Palestine distracted attention from the Palestinian cause. Their childish attempts to distract the attention of photographers by jumping in front of the Outrage protesters, holding placards in front of theirs and shouting over them simply increased the force of Tatchell’s arguments and coverage they gained.

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto - 2004
Jamal Jumaa

Fortunately the rally soon got under way. The main speaker was Jamal Jumaa – Director of the Stop The Wall Campaign In Palestine, although there were many others, including Sophie Hurndall, the mother of murdered peace activist Tom, Green MEP Caroline Lucas, Afif Safieh the Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, George Galloway and more. Too many more for most of us.

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto - 2004
Zionism and Judaism are extreme opposites – Neturei Karta were there with placards
Street Theatre in Trafalgar Square
The wall at the start of Whitehall

War On Want activists came with a wall to dramatise the effect of the wall in Palestine. When the march moved off down Whitehall, the wall walked with them, and it was erected again opposite Downing Street. Here there was a short sit-down on the road before the event dissolved.

Many more pictures on My London Diary including of the main speakers.


Kyoto march to US embassy, Grosvenor Square

Bristol Radical Cheerleaders in the Kyoto march to the US embassy

I caught up with the Kyoto march, organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, as it reached Berkeley Square on the last quarter-mile or so of its long trek [around 19 miles] from the Esso British HQ in Leatherhead. Esso are seen as being one of the main influences behind the refusal by President George Bush and the US administration to ratify the Kyoto Accord.

Pedal-powered Rinky Dink sound system supports the Campaign against Climate Change

The campaign had previously organised a number of marches in london, and this was an annual event.

Marchers ready for the ‘Dinosaur Party’ at the US Embassy
CodePink campaigners with a coffin carrying planet Earth: TAKE ACTION NOW TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE

Among the marchers it was good to find a number dressed ready for the promised ‘Dinosaur Party’ at the US Embassy, as well as the fantastic Rinky Dink cycle-powered sound system. It was also good to meet a few of the Bristol Radical Cheerleaders again, bouncing with energy as ever. A little colour was also added by a small group of of Codepink activists forming a funeral cortège, carrying the globe on their coffin.

Even the Statue of Liberty implores Bush to sign Kyoto
E$$o campaigners in front of the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square

The police in Grosvenor Square were not helpful, but eventually the speeches got under way in a corner of the square.

More pictures on My London Diary.


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Ray-Jones & London May Queen – 2005

May 14th, 2025

Ray-Jones & London May Queen: The very first London May Queen event I photographed was on Saturday 14th May 2005. Previously I had thought that such events had died out years earlier. They had been recorded in the late 1960s and 1970s by photographers including the late Tony Ray-Jones whose work in his book ‘A Day Off‘ published posthumously in 1974 (and earlier publications in Creative Camera magazine and elsewhere) had a great influence on myself and other young photographers in the UK.

Ray-Jones & London May Queen - 2005
The Queen’s carriage is pulled by the Girls Brigade. All photographs here by Peter Marshall

Ray-Jones had won a scholarship to the USA to study design at Yale in 1961 and there he had been greatly influenced by the work of Robert Frank in his book ‘The Americans’ published in France in 1958 and in the USA the following year as well as the work of a younger generation of American photographers Frank’s work had inspired. After Yale Ray-Jones worked for several years in the USA and attended workshops with the legendary art directory Alexey Brodovitch.

Ray-Jones & London May Queen - 2005

He returned to the UK and as well as taking photographs promoted his US-acquired views on photography with an evangelistic fervour. In this he found an ally in the Bronx-born photographer John Benton-Harris, another ‘Brodovitch Boy’ who had settled in London – who I later became friends and worked with. After Ray-Jones died tragically young from Leukaemia in 1972 it was Benton-Harris who made the prints that were used in ‘A Day Off’, printed very much in the style of the time.

Ray-Jones & London May Queen - 2005

Among the several images in the ‘Summer Carnivals’ section of the book were several from May Queen festivals, including a large group photograph of over twenty young girls all wearing crowns in front a maypole. The caption ‘May Queen gathering, Sittingbourne, still used on the Getty site, 1968′ was incorrect (as were some others as the photographer was no longer alive and they were captioned by others.) Possibly the least characteristic image of the book it was actually from the crowning of the 1968 London May Queen on Hayes Common in the London Borough of Bromley.

Ray-Jones & London May Queen - 2005

From two of my close photographic friends following in the footsteps of Ray-Jones and Benton-Harris photographing English Carnivals with an Arts Council grant I found that these events were still taking place and I decided to find out more. It was hard to find information but I was finally able to find the date and time of the 2005 crowning.

I arrived at Hayes Common with some trepidation. Since Ray-Jones had taken his pictures there had been several decades of warnings from the government and media over “stranger danger” and panic over men pointing cameras at young girls was rife. Although this was a public event, before taking any pictures I went to find the organisers and explained what I hoped to do. I had for some years been part of a group of photographers, London Documentary Photographers, organised by Mike Seaborne at the Museum of London and had ID from them as well as a Press card which, unusually for me, wore visibly on my jacket for the event. This possibly wasn’t a good idea as the organisers were worried that some of the older girls taking part might be embarassed to have their pictures in the local press. They were less worried about me posting them on the web or elsewhere.

The children – many girls but with a few brothers among them – were almost all eager to have their pictures taken, and their mothers (and there were a few fathers too) were also happy to have a record of the day. From this first event I got requests to photograph other events in the London May Queen cycle the following year and for years later, though I was often busy elsewhere and unable to do so.

A few days after the event I put the pictures on-line with a long explanation about the event and an invitation to the mothers to ask me if I had other pictures of their children and for larger files they could use to make prints. I’d also given out copies of my business card to many of thembut made it clear I would be happy to provide digital images without charge.


Here – with minor corrections – is what I wrote in 2005.

Merrie England and London May Queen Festival
Hayes Common and Hayes Village, Kent, 14 May 2005

The ‘Merrie England And London May Queen Festival’ was founded by a master at Dulwich School, Joseph Deedy in 1913, making this year’s festival the 93rd. [Later I was told he was from Whitelands College where John Ruskin had started a May Queen festival in 1881 – still continuing at Roehampton University as a May Monarch.]

The tradition of May Queens is much older, coming from pre-Christian times, as the Goddess Of The Spring, who the Romans called Flora. It was a traditional time for young women to come to the villages from the farms to find a husband, and the maypole is a symbol of virility.

Deedy’s folklorique version is rather different from this with an uplifting script, still read by the participants as a part of the festival. Some of the texts are on the back of the signs carried by the attendants of the London May Queen, the ‘Joy Bells Of Merrie England’ representing ‘Music’, ‘Company’, ‘Beauty’, ‘Light’…

The London May Queen is also attended by ‘The Prince Of Merrie England‘ (also female) along with the Fairy Queen, Bo-Peep and Robin Hood. The event is also attended by a couple of dozen ‘Realm Queens’ each also with her attendants: a Prince, Banner Bearer, Crown Bearer, Pages, Fairies and Flower Girls, from half a dozen to twenty or more girls, all dressed in the particular Realm Colours and with their own Realm Flower. At its peak in the 1920s and 1930s there were 120 realms with well over a thousand children taking part in the event on Hayes Common.

The various positions are decided entirely by seniority in the organisation – children can join when they are three and continue until their sixteenth birthday. Many of the mothers I talked to at this and later May Queen events had been May Queens or taken part in the ceremony in their childhood; one of the organisers was May Queen in 1932 and her grandchildren were taking part in 2005.

As well as the Hayes festival, there is another a week earlier in Beckenham, where most of the realm queens are crowned. The queens and realms also take part in other fêtes and carnivals, take flowers to the elderly and attend flower services in churches in their areas. Almost all the realms come from the surrounding areas in surburban Kent and Surrey (now mainly in Greater London.)

The children process, [in their realms in alphabetical order] from the Common to Hayes village, where there is a short ceremony, ‘Little Sanctum’ outside the village church.

The procession then continues around Hayes, returning to the Common. This is rather a long walk for some of the younger children.

Back at the Common there is a short ceremony using Mr Deedy’s words read by the Fairy Queen, Bo-Peep, Robin Hood and others, before the London May Queen is crowned by the Prince Of Merrie England. The realm queens are then presented to the London May Queen, and have their pictures taken as a group in front of the maypole [as in that Ray-Jones picture.]

The London May Queen then goes around the field with her main attendants as Flora, with baskets of flowers which she throws to the realm children.This is followed (after the rather lengthy raffle draw) by dancing round the maypole in a fairly energetic and undisciplined fashion.


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Ravensbourne Walk – 2012

May 13th, 2025

Ravensbourne Walk: On Sunday 13th May 2012 I decided to take a walk alongside one of London’s rivers, the Ravensbourne. It isn’t one of London’s best-known rivers and perhaps lacks the glamour of the so-called ‘lost rivers’.

The Ravensbourne still flows largely above ground, and its final tidal section before it enters into the Thames is the rather better-known Deptford Creek, once an important industrial area. It also once powered a number of mills along its length.

I’d decided not to begin at its source at Caesar’s Well in Keston but to join it around 4 miles to the north at Bromley where I could join it by a short downhill walk from Bromley South station. The area around Bromley has several culverted sections of the river and it emerges from one of these into a lake at the west of Church House Gardens, disappearing again for a short section before coming into the open in parkland in Martins Hill Open Space north of Glassmill Lane.

It then goes underground for around a quarter of a mile before appearing again along the edge of a golf course, but non-members have to walk along Ravensbourne Avenue before seeing it again at the bridge under Farnaby Road.

From there on the river flows in the open through Beckenham Place Park and I could walk beside it or close to it, having to weave my way through various roads in an estate here. Just to the east of the river on Brangbourne Road is a large council estate with blocks named after various rivers, mostly I think London Rivers, and a block on the corner with Old Bromley Road is Ravensbourne.

After a small green area on the corner of Bromley Rd and Beckenham Hill Rd which it then goes under to feed a large pond at Homebase. The map I was using for the walk shows this as a stream with a weir in the middle. Part was once the mill pond for Lower Mill, a corn mill (which was at different times a mustard mill and a cutlery mill) on the corner of Southend Lane. Upper Mill stood roughly here on the corner of Beckenham Hill Rd.

Overlooking the pond at Hoomebase I photographed the sculpture The Whisper, Andre Wallace 1984 and the church hall opposite. The river leaves the pound overground, emerging into the open again a couple of hundred yards on as it goes under Watermead Lane where it runs between houses and flats. You can follow this on a back-street but I took the more interesting route along the Bromley Road.

Allerford Rd

At Randlesdown Road it flows into the Catford Trading Estate, then goes under Fordmill Rd just north of the railway bridge. Shortly after here it joins what is usually called its largest tributary, the River Pool, though I think this is usually a larger river than the Ravensbourne, though shorter before continuing under Catford Road next to Catford Bridge Station.

It was a hot day, and I had done rather more walking around than the relatively short route taken by the river, and I was tired. I had intended to walk on to Lewisham or perhaps even Deptford, but abandoned my plans and caught a train here.

More pictures on My London Diary at Ravensbourne.


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Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen – 2012

May 12th, 2025

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen: Saturday 12th May 2012 was an unusually busy day for me, rushing from Covent Garden to Westminster and then out to Hayes Common. There were two very different events I was determined not to miss, the Nakba Day protest at Downing Street remembering the anniversary of the eviction of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948 and the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen taking place on Hayes Common on the edge of London, around a hour’s travel away. And a couple of other events I could fit in too.

I wrote all of these up on My London Diary and you can read those accounts there on the links in this post – as well as finding many more pictures, so I won’t repeat myself too much here.


Punch Celebrates 350th Birthday – Covent Garden

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012
Professors’ had come from around the world including Uncle Shiro the only Japanese Punch

Punch and Judy professors from around the country and around the world brought their booths to Covent Garden this weekend to celebrate 350 years since Samuel Pepys first recorded a performance there in his diary.

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012

His was the first recorded performance of the “Italian puppet play” and though Punch was then called Pulcinella and has obvious earlier roots in Italy it is regarded as the start of Punch and Judy in England.

The fun was only just starting when I left for more serious matters in Westminster. More about the day and many more pictures at Punch Celebrates 350th Birthday


Morris Men Occupy Westminster

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012
A Morris dancer dressed as a woman, who plays the fool, blows me a kiss

Pavements across Westminster were filled with gaily dressed men with bells on them leaping and dancing as twelve Morris sides performed in around twenty sets over the day in Central London on the Westminster Day of Dance.

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012

The performances were taking place at various locations in the City of Westminster, including the Victoria Embankment, St Margarets Westminster, Westminster Cathedral and Tate Britain, with the various Morris sides rotating between them throughout the day.

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012

I left as the morning sessions ended and the Morris Men had a break for a doubtless mainly liquid lunch (dancing really is thirsty work) before the afternoon sessions which, after a euphemistically named ‘Tea Break’ were to conclude with a mass performance south of the river in Lambeth by the National Theatre.


Nakba Day Protest at Downing St

This was a family protest – young protesters hold a Palestinian flag and placards

Nakba Day is generally commemorated on 15 May and remembers the eviction of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Israel forces in 1948. This London protest opposite Downing St was on the nearest Saturday.

At the time of the protest around 2000 Palestinians were on hunger strike in Israeli jails in protest against ‘administrative detention’ which allows them to be detained for consequtive periods of up to six months without any charge or trial.

Israel was still displacing Palestinians from their homes – and is currently in 2025 planning to clear them entirely from Gaza, either killing them through starvation, bombing or military eviction. Back in 2012 they were planning to forcibly displace around 40,000 Palestinian Bedouin from the Naqab desert, threatening to demolish the homes of around 85,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and to forcibly evict 2,000 from the West Bank.

Unfortunately I had to rush away while people were still arriving for the protest as I had promised to photograph the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen and was only able to take very few pictures to accompany the text.

More at Nakba Day Protest in London.


London Crowns 100th May Queen – Hayes, Kent

The Merrie England Children Dance around the maypole with the newly crowned Queen at its centre

The 100th London May Queen was crowned at the Merrie England and London May Queen Festival on Hayes Common, Kent, part of an unbroken tradition stretching back to 1913. 20 other Queens and their realms took part.

The ceremonies at Hayes Common, now a part of the London Borough of Bromley, continued even during both World Wars, though they were then carried out inside the local church as it was feared the procession around the village might attract unwanted attention from the German air force.

I’ve written often here and elsewhere about the London May Queen organisation and events, including a long account in my book London’s May Queens. [You can read a little more about this book – also available much more cheaply as an e-book – on >Re:PHOTO and can read the text and see many of the pictures at the book link.]

But there is one section of my post in 2012 which adds something to the story, so I’ll repeat it here.

“Whitelands College in London started its May Queen festival rather earlier in 1881 at the prompting of John Ruskin, and this still continues at the college (now part of the University of Roehampton) although since the college now admits men, some years they have a May King in place of a queen. Talking to one of the organisers of the event yesterday I learnt that Deedy had worked at Whitelands – contrary to the published information on him.”

Fortunately I arrived at Hayes Common just in time – though rather out of breath having run from Hayes Station – for the start of the procession around the village before the crowning.

Text and many more pictures at London Crowns 100th May Queen.


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Rainham and Hornchurch – 2006

May 11th, 2025

Rainham and Hornchurch: On Thursday 11th May 2006 I put my Brompton folding bike on the train for the journey across London to Rainham Station. The journey, around 31 miles in a straight line, though rather longer on the ground, took me almost two hours on three trains, one Underground. As usual I took a book to read and relaxed on the journey.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Containers on Rainham Marshes

Rainham is in Havering, part of Greater London and is the last station out to the east on the C2C rail service where the Travelcard I used covered. I did several rides and walks from here into Essex over the years, but I on this one stayed inside Greater London.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Mural of previous industry in the area and Tilda Rice works

The first part of this bike ride followed the route of the London Loop path around the outskirts of London, which at that date came to a dead and desolate end at Coldharbour Point. The path now continues to end in Purfleet, and if you have the stamina you can continue walking on a riverside path which ends at Tilbury Docks before having to retrace your steps to Grays.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Derelict concrete barges in the Thames built for the Mulberry Harbour used for the D-Day landings

I didn’t write much about the ride back in 2006, and I didn’t ride very far. After returning from the end of the path I had a short ride west along the A13, which I don’t recommended as it is certainly not cycle friendly with much fast-moving traffic. The Mardyke Estate, where I went after that is now called ‘Orchard Village’ which at least avoids confusion with the Mardyke, a small river a few miles to the east. I continued roughly north through South Hornchurch, finally ending my ride at the District Line station of Elm Park.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006

The sculpture in the river facing the barges and the Tilda Rice plant is Diver: Regeneration by local sculptor John Kaufman, who died in 2002, not long after it was placed here in the mud in 2000. Some of the funding for it came from the landfill company which carried waste here to raise parts of the marshes above sea level.

Waste Transfer Jetty – Landfill is raising much of the below sea-level marshes

My pictures don’t reflect the nature of the area which has large areas of open with marshes and country parks and two rivers flowing through it, the Beam River and the Ingrebourne which flows into the Thames at Rainham Creek. I think it is also an area which has seen considerable regeneration since 2006 in the London Riverside area of Thames Gateway redevelopment.

Coldharbour Point and the barbed wire where the London Loop then ended

Here’s my account with the usual minor corrections from 2006:

Rainham is at the eastern edge of London, an area of marsh, industry, warehouses, container stacks, dereliction and landfill on the Essex (north) bank of the Thames, cut across by the elevated A13 trunk road which sweeps across the creek and on over the marshes to Purfleet, alongside the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Rainham Creek from the A13

One day the Thames Path will continue past Coldharbour Point, but for the moment it’s a dead end. I eat my sandwiches and then turn back, making my way up onto the elevated roadway, but the views are disappointing.

Mardyke Estate, South Hornchurch

At the next roundabout west I take a look around, leave the main road and then head north, past disused areas of the Ford Dagenham site and up through the Mardyke Estate and South Hornchurch.

At Elm Park the heat of our first hot day if the year – 25 Celsius in the shade, but I’ve been constantly in sun – gets to me and I give up and take the Underground towards home.

One of many houses decorated for the Cup Final. Unfortunately West Ham lost to Liverpool

The heat has buckled some of the rails and the District Line train has to crawl along, more or less at my cycling speed, but at least I can just sit and rest.

There are more pictures from the ride here.


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Rathmore Benches & Greyladies – New Charlton 1995

May 10th, 2025

Rathmore Benches & Greyladies – New Charlton 1995: You can still see these mosaic decorated concrete benches on Troughton Rd and around the corner in Rathmore Rd. A short walk from Charlton Station, the building they are outside has for some years been the New Covenant Church Charlton.

Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-714
Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-714

The mosaic covered benches were installed here together with a mural on the walls behind in 1980. By 1995 the mural had been painted over but the benches remained, still in fairly good condition.

Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-713
Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-713

The benches were created as a part of a ‘Past, Present and Future of Charlton‘ project with the help of adults and children from the community centre by Greenwich Mural Workshop, who got funding to restore them in 2019 as they had suffered from wear and tear and some vandalism.

Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-835
Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-835

On the For Walls With Tongues web site of Greenwich Mural Workshop you can see pictures of the missing mural as well as the benches and learn more about their creation.

Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-834
Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-834

The centre had been built as the Good Shepherd Mission Hall and the Greenwich Local Heritage List states it is a 200-seater mission hall built 1900 to designs of architect J Rowland and was developed from Holy Trinity Mission run by Greyladies College.

Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-833
Rathmore Community Centre & Rathmore Benches (Former Good Shepherd Mission Hall), 61a, Troughton Road, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-833

Greyladies College for Women Workers was based in Dartmouth Row , in “a delightful country house, once the mansion of Lord Dartmouth, and stands on the breezy heights of Blackheath, in the midst of its own beautiful grounds, and with far-stretching views over the surrounding country to the Crystal Palace.

The great aim of the Greyladies’ College is to bring together lonely women working in isolation without a definite plan, and also women who are possibly daughters in a large family and find it difficult to separate themselves from social distraction in order to follow religious and philanthropic work.

The Greyladies worked in 22 parishes in South London “helping in the work of the Church of England under the incumbents of the diocese.” The description of them in Volume 1 of Every Woman’s Encylclopaedia published in 1910-12 is fascinatingly and charmingly dated.

More from Charlton to follow.


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Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock – 1990

May 9th, 2025

Three Colt Street & Limekiln Dock: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is More from Narrow Street – 1990.

Limekiln Wharf, Development, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-34
Limekiln Wharf, Development, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-34

Limehouse gets its name from the making of quicklime here, an industry dating back here into antiquity getting its first written reference in 1335. The newly developed flats of Limekiln Wharf and Dundee Wharf on the south side of Limekiln Creek (or Limekiln Dock) are probably on the site of old lime kilns (lime oasts) where chalk (calcium carbonate) brought by boats from Swanscombe or Northfleet or other areas of North Kent was brought ashore in the Creek and roasted to give quicklime (calcium oxide) the vital ingredient for cement, mortar and concrete and with many other uses. When water is then added it forms slaked lime (calcium hydroxide.)

Along the street are the late-Victorian buildings of the Dundee, Perth, and London Shipping Co. which were used by the London Docklands Development Corporation which was responsible for the redevelopment of docklands, over-riding the normal functions of the local authorities and still have the LDDC logo as a weathercock, though this was not in place in 1990.

Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-36
Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-36

The always interesting ‘A London Inheritance‘ has a fascinating and very detailed account of the area, based on considerable research, Limekiln Dock and the Black Ditch.

The Black Ditch has been much mythologised as one of ‘London’s Lost Rivers‘ and its lower parts were after the 1855 replaced by the Limekiln Dock Sewer. I imagine the Black Ditch and this were both subsumed into Bazalgette’s grand designs in the 1860s and now flow to Beckton.

The view here is looking out towards the River Thames. Since 1996 there has been a swing bridge taking the Thames Path across the mouth of the creek. It had to be built as a swing bridge because of the ancient rights of navigation into the dock, though I would be surprised to find that it has ever needed to be swung to allow this.

Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-25
Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-25

There seemed to be quite a lot of rubbish in the dock in 1990, but in earlier years things were much worse. The post in ‘A London Inheritance’ quotes a court case from 1893 where it is described as “the common receptacle for the sewerage of part of Fore-street, and also being a harbour for a large portion of the animal refuse of the Thames.”

J R Wilson, Ship Stores, Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-26
J R Wilson, Ship Stores, Limekiln Dock, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-26

J R Wilson, Ship Stores at Limehouse Wharf has a frontage on Narrow Street and its back faces Limekiln Dock. I think the area from which I took this and the other pictures is no longer open to the public, but gave access to the Thames Path before the footbridge across the dock was built. In the foreground is the white-painted flood wall which was built around the Thames in London in the 1970s. Together with the Thames Barrier this has protected London from the serious floods of earlier years, but with rising sea levels will soon become inadequate.

110, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-11
110, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-11

The late-Victorian buildings of the Dundee, Perth, and London Shipping Co were in 1990 in use by D D Repro Limited, ‘Plain Paper & Dyeline Specialists. Their board on the building depicts the rough outline of the Thames from Tower Bridge around the Isle of Dogs and on to Beckton.

The Enterprise, pub, Milligan St, 145, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-12
The Enterprise, pub, Milligan St, 145, Three Colt St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1b-12

The sign on the pub shows a three-masted ship caught in ice. The ships on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 search for the North-West Passage were last seen by the whaler ‘Enterprise’, and I think this picture may be a depiction of one of his two ships, which were abandoned after being ice-bound for over a year. It was a story that very much caught the Victorian imagination.

The pub is said to have closed in 1963, but was open again in 1990, It closed in 2001, the pub became an Indian restaurant but is now an estate agents with another floor added in recent years.

Still more to come from my Limehouse walk in 1990.


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VE Day 60 Years On – 2005

May 8th, 2025

VE Day 60 Years On: Twenty Years ago Britain had a two day major celebration of the end of the war in Europe on 8th May 1945, and I wrote about this both at the time on My London Diary and last year here on >Re:PHOTO at VE Day 60 Years On – 2005.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

Of course it wasn’t the end of the war, which continued against Japan for another 3 months, only brought to an end following the dreadful revelation of the power of nuclear weapons to destroy whole cities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The huge civilian deaths these caused may have shortened the war by a few days, but probably a USA determined to bring it to an end might have achieved a settlement earlier had some not wanted this more spectacular and deadly finale.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

I grew up among many who had fought in WW2 and some who had lost fathers, uncles, cousins and brothers. There was a strong feeling that while the First World War which had been known as ‘The War to end all Wars’ had not proved to do so, this one should lead to an era of peace on the world.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

It was this spirit that led to the foundation of the United Nations, and to developments such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of which are now very much under threat. And of course the war led to a Labour government which brought in reforms including the setting up of the NHS.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

Peace did not last long, at least in part because it was not good for business. In part it was replaced by the ‘Cold War’ but there have been plenty of hot wars too. The world has seen war after war since VE day, many of which have involved either the USA or the UK, either actively with “boots on the ground”, or supporting one or sometimes both sides in the conflict openly or clandestinely and selling them the weapons with which to fight. There is a long list of wars the UK has been actively involved in on Wikipedia, since 1946 as well as a longer list for the USA which includes some others the UK was involved in.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

The Cold War should have come to an end with the end of the Soviet Union in August 1991, but the ‘hawks’ were determined to keep it going rather than work with Russia. Had they not done so things might have been very different and Russia would not have felt the need for a strong president which led to the appointment of Putin.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

Recently British jets have bombed the Houthis in Yemen, and the UK has sold arms to Saudi Arabia to be used against them in the war there. And the UK has given diplomatic support and supplied arms for the Israeli government for the genocide in Gaza, as well as carrying out reconnaissance flights for Israel over Gaza from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to enable them to locate targets.

VE Day 60 Years On - 2005

There are now relatively few survivors who actually fought in World War 2, although it was estimated that “under 70,000” British WW2 veterans were still alive, aged between 95 and 112.

My London Diary 2005
VE Day 60 Years On – 2005


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Strangers into Citizens March and Rally – 2007

May 7th, 2025

Strangers into Citizens March and Rally: On Monday 7th May 2007 on the Bank Holiday, London Citizens, an organisatioin working for social change through ‘community organising‘ inspired by the US civil rights movement and earlier struggles in the UK by “the Levellers, the Abolitionists, the Chartists, early trade unionists like the match girls and dock strikers, and the Suffragettes” organised a march and rally to launch their ‘Strangers Into Citizens’ campaign, This called “for the mass regularisation of people without immigration status, who have put down roots in this country over years but are vulnerable to exploitation and hardship.”

Strangers into Citizens March and Rally - 2007

I attended this, took photographs and published a post about it on My London Diary, which is a little hard to find and to connect with the pictures there. Here it is again with the usual corrections and a few of the pictures – with links to the rest.


Strangers into Citizens March and Rally

Westminster, London. Monday 7 May, 2007
Strangers into Citizens March and Rally - 2007
Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor led the march

Over the past years, many people without British passports had come to live in our country. Some of course had the right to do so as EU nationals. Many have claimed asylum, often refused for trivial reasons of paperwork or formalities even when people were clearly endangered in their home countries. Some claims drag on for years before a decision is made. Others have simply stayed on after studies or holidays, or entered the country without any permission.

Strangers into Citizens March and Rally - 2007

Almost all of these people have one thing in common; they want to work and earn a living. Their work – often for very low wages at or below the national minimum – has helped to keep our economy buoyant, although in many cases they do not have the correct papers to work legally. They are thus open to exploitation and often unable to access medical services or even open bank accounts. One in 100 of those living in Britain is currently in this kind of limbo.

Strangers into Citizens March and Rally - 2007

Many have lived here for years, paid their taxes and contributed to society in various ways – helping to run the parent teacher associations at their children’s schools, supporting local churches and mosques, volunteering for charities – as well as their work. Most of them will remain here – as the government admits there are just too many for them to be removed in any remotely civilised manner.

Not that it is civilised for the unfortunate few picked out by the authorities for a 4.30am raid, not given the opportunity to properly pack their belongings or say goodbye to friends and neighbours, taken to the airport and put on a plane back to a country where they may well face persecution for their political or religious beliefs.

This is a problem that needs a sensible, humane and pragmatic solution. Strangers Into Citizens have proposed one: – those irregular migrants who have lived here for more than 4 years should be given a 2 year work permit; at the end of this, provided they get suitable employer and character references, they would be given leave to remain indefinitely.


Although a great advance on the current treatment of these people it seems to me not to go far enough; too many would still be left out in the cold. It’s also a a one-off measure, and needs (as Strangers Into Citizens propose) to be a part of a wider package of fair treatment for those applying for asylum or immigration.

Since 2007 our political parties have shifted dramatically to the right, strengthening their already racist stances and now a new extreme-right party has gained significant votes in elections although still only having 5 MPs. At the last General election only the Lib-Dems and Green Party had more sensible and positive policies on migration.

So while the proposals by Strangers into Citizens seem sensible and humane – if rather limited – there seems to be no political possibility of them or anything like them becoming law.

More pictures on My London Diary.


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