Plumstead is a hilly place, rising quite steeply from the River Thames as I remember from my first visit to the area when still in short trousers, trudging up a long hill holding my mother’s hand to visit some distant relatives, whose names I no longer remember, nor exactly where they lived. Their back garden went up steeply behind the terrace house.
I don’t think it was this road was the one I walked up back then, but it was still hilly and you can see the houses going down on both sides and I think in the distance to trees and buildings on the other side of the river.
Park, Plumstead Common, Plumstead, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-61
The previous picture was taken just a few yards from Winn’s Common, one of several areas also including Bleak Hill and The Slade which make up Plumstead Common. I think this is close to Lakedale Road and shows the foundations of a building with beyond it the rose garden in the next picture.
Park, Plumstead Common, Plumstead, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-13
I made several other pictures on Plumstead Common, though I can’t remember exactly where on the common this was and can find no traces now of this sunken garden with walkways which must once have been covered by plants and flowers but seem to have left in a semi-derelict state, though there are still some rose bushes.
Here I deliberately tilted the panoramic camera to give a curved horizon rather than try to level it with a spirit level as I usually did, partly to include the lower edge of the bushes and small trees, but also to create a kind of enclosed space.
Across the common is a pub, the Woodman, one of the 5 Plumstead Common Idlers, ‘the Woodman who never felled a tree’ at 35 The Slade.
“The Star which doesn’t shine in the sky, the Woodman who doesn’t cut down trees, the Ship that cannot sail the seas, the Mill which doesn’t grind corn, and Who’d a Thought it!”
Radnor Crescent is some distance to the east on the edge of Winn’s Common and I’m not sure exactly which direction I was looking to make this picture, perhaps looking towreds Shooters Hill.
Waste Land, Woolwich Church St, Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-42
From here I walked to Woolwich and the Woolwich Ferry. More pictures from Woolwich in a later post.
Teachers march past Parliament on their way to a rally at Central Hall Westminster
In 2024 Dr Stephen Burley wrote in ‘School Management Plus’ “The impact of the Govian education reforms has been unremittingly negative. Content heavy GCSEs have squeezed Key Stage 3, with many schools using Year 9 to cover over-burdened specifications. The EBacc, in the state sector, has devastated uptake in the creative and technical subjects, with music and DT fairing worst. Learning has narrowed to focus much more on memorisation as students cram for final exams.”
Those reforms were only a part of his ill conceived actions as Education Minister which included a rapid expansion of academies and multi-academy trusts and the introduction of ludicrous changes to the curriculum – such as ‘fronted adverbials’. He probably would have liked to see all those primary children seated in neat rows going through those ‘times tables’ as I spent so much time doing in the 1950s – and actually stated they should be learning the names and dates of the Kings and Queens of England.
He seldom if ever missed an opportunity to denigrate the work of dedicated teachers and clearly showed a fundamental distrust for the views of teachers and educationalists, relying instead in the strange and unsupported advice of a few often working outside their areas of academic competence.
Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary
The strike on 26th March 2014 came after Gove continually refused to engage in meaningful discussions with the unions over the changes his department is pushing through over pensions, performance related pay and the dismantling of a national pay structure.
I was fortunate to have left teaching after 30 years well before Gove and in my last years to teach mainly on courses not approved by the Ministry of Education (Ofsted inspectors didn’t come to judge my teaching but had to request my permission to observe and learn) and to teach other courses that were largely or entirely teacher assessed where students learnt by doing and creating rather than regurgitating.
Thousands came to London on their stike day, March 26th 2014 calling for Gove to resign or his attacks on their pay, pensions, conditions and job security and his denigration and undermining for their professional status, and I felt a great deal of empathy with them.
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: Bicentenary. Events on Sunday 25th March 2007 commemorated the 200th anniversary of the passing of an Act of Parliament to end the slave trade. The previous day I had photographed a Church of England walk of witness to mark the abolition, but on Sunday I covered events in Brixton and Clapham. Sunday was the actual anniversary of the Act which marked a change from Britain being a major partner in the slave trade to opposing slavery worldwide, though it was not until 26 years later in 1833 that slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. The text below is basically what I wrote in 2007 accompanied by a few of the pictures I made.
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: Bicentenary
There is no escaping that all of us who live in Britain – whatever the colour of our skin or our personal history – are now benefiting from the proceeds of the trafficking of African people and their forced labour in our colonies over around four centuries. Fortunes made from slavery helped to build many of the institutions from which we still benefit, including our many of our great galleries and museums. Slavery founded many of our banks and breweries and other great industries, and made Britain a wealthy nation.
But it is also true that the same wealthy elite that treated Africans so callously exploited the poor in Britain. My ancestors were thrown off their land and probably some were imprisoned for their religious beliefs by these same elites. Almost certainly my forebears were a part of the movement that campaigned against slavery and called for an end to the trade in human beings, although equally certainly they had little or no political power at the time, and probably no vote.
Of course that in no way diminishes the horror of the trade, but it does colour my personal attitude to the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the abolition. The abolition movement was an important turning point in the history of our empire and the world leading to the act banning the trade in people and later in 1833 the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. The abolition movement changed Britain from being a country that enslaved millions in its own colonies to one that opposed slavery worldwide.
Slavery of course still exists, even in Britain, and we still need to oppose it in all its forms. Much of present day slavery here only flourishes because of our current immigration policies and their implementation, which makes many immigrants illegal, and impoverishes them, denying them human rights or making them afraid to claim them.
Clapham Commemoration Walk
One of the three groups at the probable site of the African Academy
For the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Slave Trade Act on 25 March 2007, I went to Clapham, the spiritual and physical home of the abolition movement, where the London Borough of Lambeth had organised a commemoration walk. This started at Holy Trinity Church, where the Clapham Sect at the centre of the movement, including William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, John and Henry Thornton, John Venn, Zachary Macaulay and others had worshipped.
Holy Trinity, Clapham, the home of the Clapham Sect
Steve Martin, our guide for the walk emphasised that Clapham was also home to many who had made fortunes from the trade and opposed the abolition, with both sides worshipping in the same parish church.
Nearby, at 5 The Pavement, now occupied by an ‘Evans’ shop, an LCC plaque marks the home of Zachary Macaulay, and also of his more famous son, Lord Macaulay.
Zachary was a former plantation manager in Jamaica and governor of Sierra Leone who had become an abolitionist. As a part of a project to return freed Africans to Sierra Leone he brought 21 boys and 4 girls back from Sierra Leone and set up an African Academy in Clapham to educate them to return to run their country. The walk took us to two possible sites for this school, as well as to a nearby church cemetery, as unfortunately many of them died of measles and were buried there.
Measles killed most of the African students who were buried in this churchyard.
Down Matrimony Place we came to Wandsworth Road, and turned along it to a former brewery and the pub next door. One local family that had made considerable fortune from plantations worked by slave labour were the Barclays (later they became abolitionists and freed their slaves much to the anger of other plantation owners.) When they sold their plantations, the money went into businesses including breweries and banks.
At the Hibbert Almshouses
One of those most prominent in the campaign against abolition was George Hibbert, chairman of the West India Dock Company which profited hugely as the slaving ships brought back the produce of the plantations to London. The Hibbert Almshouses on Wandsworth Road were built to house elderly poor residents of Clapham by his two daughters.
At the end of the walk there was some argument about whether the Tate fortunes depended on slavery
As we turned back up towards Clapham Common, Steve informed us that the street along which we walked had been built on what were once the back gardens of the houses of these wealthy traders in human beings who lived in the extensive houses facing the common on Clapham Northside. The tour ended outside no 29, once the home of George Hibbert (Robert Barclay lived next door at 31), a couple of hundred yards from Holy Trinity, where our walk had started.
Across the middle of the Clapham Common is of course a dividing line – between the London boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth. It would have prolonged our walk to take in the plaque to Wilberforce in Broomwood Road (Broomfield where he lived was demolished in 1904) or to Battersea Rise, the ‘home’ of the Clapham Sect where he lived earlier with his friend and fellow MP Henry Thornton (the house there was demolished in 1908 despite a campaign and public appeal to save it because of its connection with the abolition movement.)
I could find no mention of the bicentenary on the London Borough of Wandsworth site, although the mayor was to attend a church service at All Saints organised by the local churches on 31 march. One of the bas-reliefs on Wandsworth Town Hall shows Wilberforce with the act in his hand, next to Macaulay. Rather to my surprise I found Wandsworth Museum, instead of celebrating its contribution to abolition, was currently showing a Museum Of London travelling show, ‘Queer Is Here’ which in their words included “Peter Marshall’s dynamic black and white photographs capturing a decade of the annual London gay pride event” – which you can still see on line on My London Diary.
Brixton Commemoration – Windrush Square
Earlier in the day I’d been at another Lambeth event, in the centre of Brixton, outside the Tate Library.
At the end of the Clapham walk there had been a fairly intense argument about whether Tate’s sugar fortunes had come, at least in part, from slave labour on Brazilian plantations after the abolition in the British Empire.
Sozo House of Praise Gospel Choir performing.
Organised by the Brixton Society, the commemoration of the abolition took place next to Windrush Square and the site of the proposed Black Cultural History Centre in Raleigh Hall. It was opened by an African drummer and singers from the Sozo House Of Praise gospel choir. There were then some speeches mainly concerned with commemorating the abolition of slavery from the Mayor of Lambeth, Cllr Liz Atkinson, local MP Keith Hill, and Superintendent Paul Wilson for Metropolitan Police in Lambeth.
A woman with a remarkable record as a foster parent speaking
Those present were then invited to plant bulbs in the grass as a permanent memorial, after which Rev Stephen Sichel of St Matthew’s with St Judes across the road led prayers.
Dr Floella Benjamin, OBEplants a bulb
Norma Williamson, the treasurer of the Brixton Society introduced a the next section celebrating the contribution of those of Black Afro-Caribbean origin to life and culture in Britain now. Floella Benjamin, OBE gave a very powerful address particularly stressing the need for black kids to get educated to empower themselves. It was a hard act for Derrick Anderson, CBE, Lambeth’s chief executive, and Devon Thomas, the chair of Brixton Business Forum to follow.
Linda Bellos, former leader of the Labour group on Lambeth council, but rejected by the party as a candidate for a local parliamentary seat gave another powerful performance, putting the issue strongly into its political perspective. Power isn’t just about race, it’s also about class, and gender. The event closed with more fine gospel singing from the Sozo House Of Praise choir.
ESOL, Libya & UCU: On the morning of Thursday 24th March 2011 hundreds of students and teachers portested against cuts to English lnaguage courses for speakers of other languages. Then at lunchtime Libyans came to Downing Street to thank David Cameron for air strikes against Gaddaffi’s forces in Libya. Finally in the afternoon I photographed a march to Parliament by University and college lecturers from the London region protesting over pensions, jobs and pay,
ESOL Day of Action
Old Palace Yard & Downing St
ESOL students and tutors crowd outside Downing St
Several hundred ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students and tutors from colleges across London, including Lambeth, Hackney, Barnet, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich came to a rally opposite Parliament as a part of a nationwide day of protest against government cuts in these courses.
There were similar protests taking place in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Halifax, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Rochdale, Sheffield and Warwickshire.
ESOL courses provide an essential service for “many asylum seekers and refugees. ESOL is essential for integrating refugees into the community here and enabling them to contribute fully to British society.”
The cuts were expected to mean that around 70% of current students would be unable to complete their courses and roughly the same proportion of classes across the country would close. The closure would particularly impact women who were the majority of students.
Cuts in ESOL funding have continued since 2011, making it now difficult or impossible for many recent migrants to access courses. Some Reform UK-led local authorities are now cutting these course completely.
Libyans chant praise for Cameron prodding the UN into action
It was highly unusual for a protest to come to Downing Street to praise the Prime Minister for his actions, but around 500 Libyans were there to give thanks to David Cameron for the air strikes against Gadaffi’s forces and his leadership in establishing a ‘no-fly’ zone.
Gadaffi was of course a highly controversial figure in Libya. Supporters praised him for “combating homelessness, ensuring access to food and safe drinking water, and to dramatic improvements in education” and great improvements in medical care including a free and universal medical system. He had also done much to improve the status of women, though keeping the “sexes as “separate but equal”.’
But there was also a considerable downside, with the persecution of non-Arab Libyans, and human rights abuses. He alienated many by largely eliminating private businesses and imposed censorship. Under him Libya had no free press and no trade unions. And under him the system was highly corrupt and unemployment was high.
His brutal clampdown on protests inspired by the Arab Spring led to an uprising and the formation of the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council which this protest was supporting. Two weeks before this event France had recognised this as the “legitimate representative of the Libyan people” and Britain together with France was urging Europe to do so.
The UN had already suspended “Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, implementing sanctions and calling for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the killing of unarmed civilians” the previous month and had declared a “no-fly zone to protect the civilian population from aerial bombardment”.
One lone protester called for an end to attacks on Libya
NATO went further and as well as enforcing this also carried out air strikes. Its actions are thought to have enabled the enabled the NTC – whose forces like Gadaffi’s also “disregarded the laws of war, committing human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial executions, and revenge attacks” – to defeat Gadaffi.
University and college lecturers had received derisive pay offers in 2010 and 2011 meaning a cut in real wages allowing for inflation of 8-10%, and those from colleges in and around London marched to Parliament to protest over pay, job cuts and pensions.
Government was threatening cuts of up to 40,000 jobs in higher education and lecturers were worried that there might be large increases in student course fees that would deter many students.
They were also angered by government claims that their pensions were ‘gold plated’ – they are actually much less generous than the government’s lies – and proposed changes to the system.
Statistics also show that lecturers are paid much less than those with similar qualifications working in private industry. And they criticise the perception encouraged by our billionaire-owned press that they enjoy lengthy holidays as college terms are short.
Lecturers around the country were taking part in a one-day strike and the march by UCU London Region was one of many events around the country.
Central Hill & Vigil Against Terror: On Thursday 23 March 2017 tenants and supporters from the Central Hill estate in Crystal Palace came to a Lambeth Council Cabinet Meeting to protest against the proposed demolition of their estate. Later I went to Trafalgar Square to a vigil following the terrorist attack in Westminster the previous day.
Stop Central Hill Estate Demolition
South Lambeth
Jane Nicholl holds a mask of Lambeth Council Leader Liz Peck calling her SCUM
Central Hill is one of the finest council estates in London with around 450 homes built in 1966-74 on a hillside with views of London. I’ve photographed it on several occasions including in 2016, and was astounded when I heard of Lambeth’s plan to demolish it.
This is an estate that should certainly have been listed for its architectural merit but was refused I think on political grounds – as was Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar. Although in need of some refurbishment it is basically a a good condition and would last for many more years.
The council say that by demolishing the estate and working with a private developer they can put around twice as many homes on the site, though most of these would be for sale or market price rents rather than social housing.
Central Hill residents gather outside the community centre where the council are meeting
A report by Architects for Social Housing, Central Hill: A Case Study in Estate Regeneration, includes not only their “designs for the estate’s refurbishment and increase in housing capacity by up to 50 per cent without the demolition of a single existing home, but also our account of why and how these proposals were rejected by Lambeth council, which – despite being opposed by 77 per cent of the residents – in March 2017 announced its intention to demolish Central Hill estate.”
The residents had brought with them to present to the council the survey of 322 households which showed 79% of all residents were against demolition and favoured a programme of refurbishment. The survey completely contradicted the council’s assertions.
Sid shows off his T-shirt with an amended Lambeth Council mission statement: ‘We demolish beautiful council estates to make way for ugly homes for the rich – Lambeth’
I left before the meeting, but was told the councillors refused to listen to the arguments put forward by the residents and approved the decision for demolition without any real consideration. Residents and activists say the council seems to have no interest in providing housing for its current residents but is simply hoping to share in the profits of private development – and the financial opportunities this will provide for some councillors and officers.
The Revolutionary Communist Group pose with their ‘Housing is A Right’ banner outside
Protests continued and the Central Hill estate is still there eight years later, although some facilities have closed. On Lambeth Council’s web site it states “We are undergoing the Options Appraisal process for your estate from July 2024. The process is now estimated to complete in late 2026.”
After the speeches people lit candles in the square
Thousands of Londoners including many Muslims had come to the vigil called by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to show their respect for those killed and injured in the terror attack the previous day.
Six people including the attacker died, and at least 50 people were injured when a terrorist drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street before crashing into the fence around the Houses of Parliament and jumping out to fatally stab a police officer before being himself shot and killed.
There were speeches by police, the Home Secretary and the Mayor and then a minutes silence. Three large candles on the steps were lit and people in the crowd also lit candles, bringing them to place with others as dusk fell.
Society of Friends, Quakers, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-62
My view here today would be very similar. The norices have chanted and at left there is now a large sign QUAKER MEETING HOUSE over much of the area where you can just make out a bricked up window. Even the sign for WINDOVER PIANOS – GRAMOPHONE RECORDS MUSIC – STRINGS AND SMALL GOODS – CASH OR EASY TERMS remains, though perhaps a little less visible. Then and now it is over a branch of William Hill. The bracket for a hanging sign remains empty, but the gatepost at left has gone – replaced further back for a new gate.
The Grade II listed Quaker Meeting house was built in 1778 but later enlarged and this frontage dates from 1927 with later alterations. It is the oldest Quaker Meeting House in London. Unlike much of the old High Street it survived the widening of the road, now a busy part of the South Circular.
Palace Theatre, Gaumont, For Sale, 52, Wandsworth High Street, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-63
The Palace Theatre was a pupose-built cinema, architect John Stanley Coombe Beard (1890-1970) who designed many cinemas around London. It opened in 1920 and in 1958 was renamed The Gaumont, closing in 1961 and becoming a bingo club and then a church. For sale when I made this picture it was bought for use as a night club, The Theatre. It now has columns at each side of the entrance and houses a gym.
The Brewery Tap, Ram Brewery Tap, Wandsworth High Street, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-64
Now called The Ram, this fine 1883 pub building on the corner of Ram Street and with a ram above its doorway at at 68 Wandsworth High Street was still in 1990 the brewery tap for the Ram Brewery. Beer has been brewed here since 1533 and from 1831 by 2006 Young’s & Co who moved out to Bedford.
When I last visited a year or two back the tradition was being continued in the Ram Brewery, now Sambrook’s Brewery – and you can go on tours, even make your own beer there, though I simply enjoyed the Sambrook’s Brewery Wandle, first brewed there in 2008.
You can see the brewery behind the pub in my picture and to the left. This Grade II* building is now ” a premium boutique bowling venue, including traditional bowling, duckpin bowling, electronic darts and shuffleboard under one roof.”
Borrodaile Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-66
I turned south down Garratt Lane and wnet donw an alley leading to The notice tells us that this “122 luxury one and two bedroom flats set in courtyard development, with private parking”, but those were yet to come.
Linstone Court looks to me like 1960s council flats, though many will have been bought under ‘right to buy’ and sold on.
River Wandle, Mapleton Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-51
The River Wandle, once an important industrial river, flows underground though the large Southside Shopping Centre south of Wandsworth High Street. I had come down Garratt Lane mainly to see the river upstream from there.
This was the view downstream from Mapleton Road with Wandsworth Medical Centre on the right.
River Wandle, Mapleton Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-52
And I think this is the view upstream from the same bridge or possibly the next bridge upstream. There has been considerable building around this area since 1990.
Ram Brewery, Wandsworth High Street, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-41
I walked back up Garratt Lane to Wandsworth High Street and made another picture of the Ram Brewery, with its Ram on the weathervane. Then I walked back to Garratt Lane where the next post on this walk will begin.
NT Racism Protest & Eid Milad-Un-Nabi: I began work on Saturday 21st March 2009 outside the National Theatre . A protest by East End artists and community activists was calling for an open debate at the National Theatre over a play there which they say was racist. I then went to Tooting where I had been invited by the Sunni Muslim Association to photograph their annual Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations.
Love Theatre Hate Racism Protest NT Play
National Theatre
East-Enders object to racial stereotyping in ‘England People Very Nice’ and call for a public debate
A small group of East End artists and community activists protested outside the National theatre calling for an open debate on the play ‘England People Very Nice‘ which was being performed there.
They say the play, set in Bethnal Green and covering three centuries is anti-Bangladeshi, anti-Irish, and Islamophobic, and in February East-End playwright Hussain Ismail and teacher Keith Kinsella had walked on stage during a talk by the play’s author to make their views clear, interupting the talk for around 10 minutes before they were removed by security.
And National Theatre security tried to stop this protest on a public walkway in front of the theatre too, telling the protesters they could not protest there and a cameraman who was videoing the event that he was not allowed to take pictures. But the protesters refused to leave and we kept videoing and photographing and after a few minutes he left.
I’ve not seen the play, though I did read a number of reviews and it certainly caused a great deal of distress, and the publicity over this made it a box office hit for the NT who extended its run. As I commented in 2009, I think it is a proper part of the NT’s remit to be controversial, but it should also – as the protesters were demanding “provide a proper forum to explore that controversy. I very much support the protesters who challenge what they see to be racism and the motives of the playwright and the NT in putting on this work.”
I was pleased to have been invited by the Sunni Muslim Association to photograph their Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations to mark the anniversary of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
Sadiq Khan MP received a warm welcome
It was publicised as a a community event to which all – Muslim and non-Muslim – were invited, although unfortunately few non-Muslims took the opportunity to attend. I think many more would have enjoyed it.
The personal invitation came after I had photographed a couple of their annual processions and had attended an earlier cultural event by the SMA at Tooting Leisure Centre, run by the London Borough of Wandsworth.
As I commented, “It was a very friendly event and although much of the first half was in Urdu or Arabic, there were some fine voices to listen to in the recitations. There was also a very well-produced exhibition about Islam.”
But many outside of the Muslim community would have found the second half more enjoyable. A Sudanese group give some fine performances of religious songs, Muslim comedian Prince Abdi was extremely funny and the Whirling Dervishes were just amazing.
Their dance is “a kind of spiritual rebirth, with their tall hats representing the ‘tombstone of the ego’ and the wide white skirt it’s shroud. The right arm lifts towards the sky to receive God’s blessings and the left palm on which he directs his gaze is turned towards the earth… And they do whirl and whirl, making me dizzy just watching them.”
Photographing them was something of a challenge as the lighting was low and there was a delicate balance between freezing the movement with flash and allowing a certain blur to indicate their movement. I didn’t always get it right.
On My London Diary I list the other performances that follow with my comments. I particularly enjoyed an a capella performance about life in Gaza by Muslim convert rap poet and activist Spitz, but all were excellent.
As I concluded, “It was a fine night’s entertainment – and one that showed (unlike some religious events I’ve attended in the past) that being profoundly spiritual doesn’t mean not being highly talented or not having a good time.”
The Pearls of Islam – two spendid Afro-Caribbean performers from East London
Among others invited to the event were Sadiq Khan, then MP for Tooting who spoke at athe event and several of the neighbourhood police, one of whom as on the jury of four which awarded the prize for the evening’s entertainment to the two remarkable Afro-Caribbean women from East London, ‘The Pearls of Islam’, drumming and performing their own poetry and songs.
Druids enter the circle through a gateway between two standing druids
Druids Celebrate the Spring Equinox: On Friday 20th March 2009 I went to Tower Hill to photograph the annual ceremony there by the Druid Order.
It’s an interesting event to see and their web site this year states “Our Ceremony will be held at our traditional venue of Tower Hill. 12 noon, Friday, 20th March.”
I probably won’t be there today. It’s an event I’ve photographed on various occasions and stopped going when I felt I was simply repeating myself.
‘The Lady’ with a basket of flowers represents the Earth Mother, Ceridwen and her maids carry seeds and a vessel with a libation
I’ve also described the ceremony – and that at Primrose Hill on the Autumn Equinox – as well as some of the history of druidism and in particular of the Druid Order in various posts on My London Diary. So here I’ll just post some images of key points with brief captions.
A horn is blown to the four points of the compassThen with a raised sword, the question is asked, “Is it peace?”
The Wikipedia post The Druid Order gives some brief details and links to a couple of my posts.
The Lady and her companions request permission to enter the circle and bring their gifts
The Wikipedia link to ‘Autumn Equinox ceremony pictures‘ no longer works but you can view these from various years on My London Diary, most recently from 2014 in Druids on Primrose Hill. Search on My London Diary for ‘Druid Order‘ to find more.
The vessel containing the libation is passed to the Chief Druid who tastes it,then goes around the circle pouring it at intervals on the ground as a libation.
In my 2009 post I linked to the Spring Equinox ceremnonies in 2007 and 2008 and quoted a brief description from 2008 – so here it is again:
"The horn was sounded to the four corners, and then the sword was raised, and it was peace from the North, South, West and East. The Earth Mother, Ceridwen and her attendants brought a horn for a libation, seeds to scatter and flowers into the circle, and those departed were remembered."
You can also find a selection of my images of the Druid Order on Alamy available for personal or editorial use.
The Chief Druid gives a short address and then Druids join hands around the circle,and after a inal blessing process back to their starting place to unrobe.
All of the pictures in this post are from Friday 20th march 2009 where with more images they show the event in detail., You can see more of them at Druids Celebrate the Spring Equinox.
UN Anti-Racism Day & IDS Gone: Saturday 19th March 2016 was UN Anti-Racism Day and was celebrated with a Refugees Welcome march and rally, and by Australians and others protesting at the Australian High Commission in London to condemn the Australian government’s treatment of refugees. Later in Parliament Square I joined disabled people and friends celebrating the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith whose policies had caused them so much suffering and harm.
Stand Up to Racism – Refugees Welcome March
BBC to Piccadilly Circus
Thousands met outside the BBC for a national demonstration called by Stand Up to Racism against racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and fascism and to make the point that refugees are welcome here.
They had started at the BBC pointing out that it should have a much more positive attitude to refugees. It gives much air time to the views of racists and extreme right groups and personalities and fails to adequately represent the view of the majority of the British population shown in protests such as this.
The BBC often minimises the positive contributions of migrants and refugees to the British economy and keeping vital services such as the NHS running and fails to criticise the increasingly racist government policies.
As well as a large ‘Black Lives Matter’ bloc led by Lee Jasper and Zita Holbourne, there were also groups working with refugees trapped in the camps in Calais and Dunkirk by the failure of our government to set up legal routes for refugees, demanding our government take a much more positive and humanitarian approach to refugees. Apart from a small concession for children, forced on them by Lord Dubs with massive public support, which was very grudgingly administered and prematurely ended, successive governments have responded with increasingly draconian measures.
What I wrote in 2016 is now even more apposite: “Of course there are racists and bigots who oppose Britain taking in any refugees, and those who would want to abandon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Britain played a major role in drawing up in 1947-8. Winston Churchill – who many on the far right look on as a symbol of all things British – proposed a European Charter of Human Rights in 1947 and we were the first country to ratify it in 1951.”
A very small group of members of the far-right group ‘Britain First’ in their para-military uniforms stood guarded by several times as many police on the steps around Eros as the march past, shouting their hate and insults and making derisory and threatening gestures. Most of the marchers simply ignored them, but a few rushed towards them but were held back by police.
Australians were protesting at home & at embassies around the world against their country’s racist immigration policy.
Many who try to claim asylum in Australia are locked up and detained indefinitely in contradiction to international law on remote Pacific Islands including Manus and Nauru in detention camps run by Serco and will never be allowed to resettle in Australia.
Detainees in these camps have been sexually abused, denied proper health treatment, and in at least one case, that of a young man called Reza Berati, beaten to death by the prison guards.
Serco also run detention centres such as Yarl’s Wood in the UK, where detainees have also been mistreated, sexually abused and denied proper health treatment. The Australian protesters were joined by members of Movement for Justice, which has held many protests at UK detention centres including Yarl’s Wood and Harmondsworth.
No UK newspapers, TV or Radio media had even sent reporters to this protest. The only other photographer taking pictures at the event had been commissioned by a Sydney newspaper.
IDS, Iain Duncan Smith, was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016 and responsible for brutal cuts in welfare polices in those years.
In particular he decided to save money by making it harder for sick and disabled people to claim benefits, introducing new eligibility tests and benefit sanctions, incentivising DWP staff to strip claimants of their benefits often for trivial reasons or for matters beyond their control such as the late arrival of official letters or cancellation of buses and trains making them arrive late for appointments.
In 2015 the statistics showed that 2,380 people died in a 3-year period shortly after a work capability assessment declared them fit for work.
The poorly thought out nature of the introduction of Universal Credit also brought suffering to many, left for weeks without financial support. He introduced disastrous schemes to force the disabled into work and cut the support which had enabled some disabled people to work.
His period as a minister had combined a total lack of empathy with a peculiar incompetence and the National Audit Office accused the DWP of ‘”weak management, ineffective control and poor governance” and of wasting £34 million on inadequate computer systems.’
So naturally DPAC were pleased to see him go, and celebrated at this party – though with Prosecco rather than the Champagne some media reports stated. And perhaps their celebrations were a little muted by the knowledge that his successor Stephen Crabb had shown himself to be equally bigoted and lacking compassion and understanding of the needs of the poor and disabled.
Strangely, despite his long record of cutting disablity benefits, IDS’s stated reason for his resignation was that he was unable to accept the government’s planned cuts to disability benefits, later describing the policies he had spent six years putting into effect of “balancing the books on the backs of the poor and vulnerable” as divisive and “deeply unfair“.
Belvedere Riverside & Plumstead: Some more pictures including some panoramas from my Thames riverside walk on Monday 1st August 1994, and a few from Plumstead a few days later.
Ford Ferry, Pier, River Thames, Belvedere, Bexley, 1994, 94-805-22
Ford at Dagenham was just on the opposite bank of the Thames, with a Ford ship moored in front of it and some ominous black smoke rising.
But although the Ford was only around 600 metres away, the fastest route for workers driving from here to the factory was around 15 miles. Taking the Woolwich ferry would take a couple of miles off this, but be slower.
Ford Ferry, Pier, River Thames, Belvedere, Bexley, 1994, 94-802-11
Many of Ford’s workers did live south of the river, either in Thamesmead or further away, and Ford provided a large suppposedly secure car park here from which they could walk down the pier to the Ford Ferry to take them across the river.
Ford had come to Dagenham in 1929 and opened the factory in 1931. They set up the private ferry for workers living in Kent in 1933. In its heyday it made 50 crossings a day taking as many as 1,500 workers to and from the plant, but after vehicle production ended with the plant turning to making engines it was only taking around 240 across and Ford discontinued it in 2003. Eventually they were forced to pay around half a million in compensation and to provide a bus service instead.
Much earlier there had been a Pilgrims ferry from Rainham to Erith, for pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, said to have begun in 1199 and to have continued in use until the mid 1950s.
Riverside Path, River Thames, Belvedere, Bexley, 1994, 94-802-12
Around here I turned back towards Erith, taking some more pictures on my way (some of which were included in my previous post.)
Riverside Path, River Thames, Belvedere, Bexley, 1994, 94-802-13
I can’t now remember exactly where on the path this was, but I think I walked all the way back to Erith and to the station there.
Penny’s Cafe, Motor Auctions, Manor Road, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-803-32
Finally from that day in Erith, one I took earlier around the start of my walk but failed to post previously. Manor Road leads out east from Erith and was then an industrial area.
This Café (and Motor Auctions) had also clearly once been a factory and still catered for workers in nearby factories. Facebook posts say it had been an engineering factory called Ivor & Jettage, that the café was full of boxing photos and that its yard, used for motor auctions and later car boot sales on Sundays, was in 2024 a scaffolding yard. But I have been unable to confirm this.
Nathan Way, Plumstead, Greenwich, 1994, 94-806-52
A few days after my Erith walk I was back not far away in Plumstead, and made just a handful of colour images including these three.
This picture was made from The Ridgeway a foot and cycle path on top of the Southern Outfall Sewer from Plumstead to Crossness. Nathan Way runs for around 600 metres just to the north of this and most industrial sites along here were demolished by 2015 and are being replaced by a huge estate of blocks of flats, Lombard Square, with 1,913 new homes. The first were finished in 2025.
Nathan Way, Plumstead, Greenwich, 1994, 94-805-24
Another image from The Greenway not far from where I made the panorama above. From 1888-90 here or close by Royal Arsenal football team played here at what became the Manor Ground. They moved next to Woolwich, becoming Woolwich Arsenal but soon found the rent there too high and moved back. They played their last game here in 1913 before moving to Highbury in North London – and of course losing the Woolwich.
Some industry remains at the east end of this stretch of Nathan Way but I’m not sure this includes any in my picture.
Nathan Way is a long road leading from Plumsteaad to Thamesmead and I think this may have been on the corner with Kellner Road.. But the name repeated on the lorry and the large modern shed behind as well as on what was perhas a small shed in the foreground was unmissable. I just had to make a Panorama.
Tony’s Snack Bar, Nathan Way, Plumstead, Greenwich, 1994, 94-805-26
I think the building at left it 115 Nathan Way, now occupied by Hydraquip Hose & Hydraulics, while behind are the roofs of Belmarsh Prison. But the picture is about the mobile snack bar here and the neat empty row of six white chairs for its then non-existent customers.
My walk continued on into Thamesmead but although I took quite a few black and white pictures I can’t at the moment find any more colour – and perhaps I took none.
