Hayes in the south-east corner of Greater London in the London Borough of Bromley is at the centre of a tradition that goes back over a hundred years, the London May Queen. At its height in the inter-war period this attracted great publicity and was filmed by Pathé News for showing in cinemas around the country – you can watch some of those films on their site.
The event began in a local school
I came to the May Queens from the posthumous book of photographs by British photographer Tony Ray-Jones ‘A Day Off’, published in 1974 soon after his tragically early death which contained a handful of his pictures from May Queen festivals taken in the late 1960s.
One of these, not one of his better photographs and I wondered why it had made the book, was ”May Queen Gathering, Sittingbourne, 1968‘, which shows around 30 young women all wearing crowns in three rows in front of a maypole. I wasn’t impressed by his picture but thought it seemed an intriguing event to photograph. The location in the caption (written after his death by a colleague) was corrected in a later publication and he had taken it at the annual London May Queen festival at ‘Hayes, Kent’ in London.
The London May Queen festival still follows the design and pattern laid down at its inception by schoolmaster Joseph Deedy in 1913. The Hayes festival at which the London May Queen is crowned is simply the peak of a series of events by various May Queen ‘realms’ each with their own May Queens and retinues from various communities in this area of south and south-east London.
Each realm has its own colour and flower
I’ve often written at greater length about the organisation including several posts on this site such as Ray-Jones & London May Queen – 2005. My work with the May Queens was encouraged by a major London museum who promised me a show – but this was cancelled at the last minute for financial reasons, I think a victim of the 2008 financial crisis. I had hoped we would bring out a book to accompany the show, but in the end I self-published this, bringing out a second edition with minor corrections in 2012, a year before the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen.
The London May Queen at this event
The book preview at the link above shows the whole book, including my fairly lengthy texts and over 70 pictures, mainly from London May Queen.
Crowning the Hayes May QueenThe Hayes Common May Queen is crownedThen came the Hayes Village May Queen
Although the event may seem rather quaint with queens, pages and other positions in the realms, the activities are designed to be fun for the young girls but also to develop their confidence and self reliance. And there are teas with cake.
Some girls drop out as they get older, and progress through the various levels of the realms and of the London May Queen group to which the realm queens move up is determined solely by seniority in the organisation.
Altogether for the project I took over 12,000 pictures, adding a few more when I was later invited back to photograph her crowning by one of the later May Queens. All the pictures with this post are from 19th April 2008 in Hayes.
Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL: Saturday April 18th 2009 was another varied day for me, beginning at the City of London Police HQ with a protest over their policing of demonstrations – including the killing of Ian Tomlinson on April 1st, then a chance meeting with a Shakespeare event close to where he died. In Westminster I photographed a continuing Tamil hunger strike and went on to the Dutch festival in Trafalgar Square before photographing the annual Loyal Orange Lodge Parade, leaving them in Whitehall to finally go home.
Protest Against London Police
City of London Police HQ, Wood St
The carnival-themed protest in London on April 1st was met with an extraordinary display of police violence “police chiefs and politicians had spent the previous week ramping up the temperature and predicting violence.”
Three and a half Horsemen of the Apocalypse outside the Police Station on Wood St
As I reported on the April 1st protest: “Many of the police, particularly the TSG, came along to the event psyched up and spoiling for a fight” and their violence was not restricted to the small number of protesters who had come to cause trouble, but was also directed at the great majority of peaceful protesters – and to the press who were photographing the event.
Many police officers had removed or hidden their ID numbers to avoid being identified by protesters or recorded in photographs, a clear sign that they were intending to break the law.
Videos taken of the police attacks on the crowds show ‘people being attacked simply holding up their arms to protect themselves as police assault them with batons and riot shields used as weapons, people standing there and chanting “We are not a riot” and “Shame, shame, shame on you.” ‘
Protesters call for a “lights out” hour on Friday evening for Ian Tomlinson and all others killed in police custody
The protesters called for police to remember they are there to serve the public and for an end to the wholesale “kettling” of protests, the disbanding of the TSG and for proper training of police in handling demonstrations. They called on senior officers to enforce proper discipline and regulations and a complete end to all officers turning a blind eye when their colleagues behave illegally.
Flowers and posters remembering Ian Tomlinson around the Cornhill Fountain
At the end of the protest I walked to the display on Cornhill set up around the Cornhill Fountain a few yards from where Ian Tomlinson died, staggering there after being assaulted by a police officer while making his way home after work, with police refusing to give him medical attention until too late.
I was standing there when to my surprise a group of around 20 people, each holding a red flower came towards me, led by a woman with a badge saying ‘Steward.’ They stopped for a short performance exactly where Tomlinson died, where there was a picture of a woman and some flowers
They then stopped and a man read a short piece, which sounded vaguely familiar. As the group left I asked him about it “and found that this was one of around 20 groups each being taken on a guided walk around the city to various sites with similar performances to this of one of the sonnets to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday next Thursday.”
Eight days earlier I had visited the hunger strike by two young Tamil men over the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had begun their hunger strike on 6th April and the hunger strike was still continuing on the 18th, with a dozen of so others joining them each day for a one day fast, and a crowd of around 500 more Tamils beside their pen in support.
They protesters all supported the Tamil Tigers in their fight for an independent homeland and called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka, with full access for the UN, the Red Cross and other agencies, as well as the international press, along with an opportunity for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to have a free and independently observed referendum on their future.”
Not long after, in May 2009, the fight by the Tamil Tigers for independence ended in defeat. Since then Tamils have been subjected to continuing human rights violations although their situation is reported to have improved somewhat since 2015.
“In Trafalgar Square, the Dutch were holding a festival to prove their lack of understanding of popular music and to sell cheese, chips and beer. The cheese did look quite attractive. The only thing missing seemed to be a windmill, but I probably just didn’t look hard enough.”
On My London Dairy you can read more about the Orange Order which takes its name “from William, Prince of Orange who landed in Devon in 1688 to restore parliamentary democracy and prevent the imposition of the Catholic religion by James II. This was the ‘Glorious Revolution’ which forced James II to flee and made William king as William III.“
It led to greater freedom for dissenting nonconformist Protestants but Catholics were denied the right to vote, be MPs, become army officers or marry the monarch. That marriage is still out.
The Worthy Mistress of Corby First Ladies LOL53 unveils a new banner before the start of the march
The regular Orange marches in London are largely uncontroversial, but in Northern Ireland they still perpetuate the division between the Protestant and Catholic communities which led to the ‘troubles’.
Banners are lowered as a mark of respect as they march past the Cenotaph
I photographed them laying wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and marching past but theen left as they went on to the the statue of of “King Billy” in St James’s Square.
I’ve often been threatened and made unwelcome when photographing Orange marches, because of my political views or possibly those of a photographer who worked for Searchlight magazine which gathers information on the far right they have confused me with. Others taking part in Orange Order marches have congratulated me for my pictures.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-25
I found it hard to drag myself away from this spot on the path beside the River Wandle where the previous post had ended and took several more pictures before moving on, including this one.
Tyres, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-53
I didn’t move far, just a few yards further on before taking the picture above, which shows the same heap of tyres and the same covered pipe bridge – but from the other side. I think most of these pipe bridges date from the time the east side of the Wandle was occupied by the gas works.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-65
Much of the former gasworks site was then occupied by the concrete plant I wandered back and forth for some time taking pictures and cannot now remember the exact locations as the area has changed so much. This area is now a huge building site with a tall residential tower now going up.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-54
This is where the River Wandle and Bell Lane Creek rejoin, running to the right of this picture into the Thames just a few yards away. The tide was low and you can see there is little or no water running out from the Wandle with all the flow all going down Bell Lane Creek. The Shell Oil Terminal Site was in Osiers Road and this and adjoining sites have now been redeveloped with blocks of flats of various heights, the tallest around 15 storey. One gain from this is that there is now a walkway by the Wandle leading to the Thames; the previous diversion was not without interest – but had an overpowering strong smell of oil.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-55
Here I think I was looking roughly south I think over or through a fence at the north edge of the cement works where there is a cement lorry. I think this may be part of the works, possibly a water intake or perhaps a settling tank for water used for hosing down the lorries and plant, but that is simply guesswork. But as often with my pictures I did record a six-figure map reference – 257752.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-56
Also taken from The Causeway a few feet west from the previous image you can see the gasholder in the background – and at right the railway viaduct.
Finally I dragged myself away from the Wandle and made my way west to Point Pleasant where my next post on this walk will begin, coming back to those oil storage tanks beside the Wandle.
Vaisakhi Procession, Slough: On Sunday 15 April, 2007 I decided at the last minute to rush to Slough, picked up my rumāl and arrived just in time to photograph the Vaisakhi Procession as it left the Gurdwara. Two years later in 2009 I returned and was able to cover it more thoroughly and you can see the results on My London Diary – but in this post I’ll stay with the pictures and text from 2007. As usual I’ve made the text easier to read, correcting the capitalisation and typos etc.
Vaisakhi in Slough
Slough, Berkshire
I’d hoped to relax a bit on Sunday, have a day off from working with a camera, catch up with things. But Linda heard something on the radio about Vaisakhi in Slough, so I looked on the web, found the procession started at 10.30 and jumped on my ancient bike.
By then it was 10.15am, and according to the AA, the 9.5 miles should have taken me 27 minutes by car (and you could probably add a bit for parking etc onto that.)
So 40 minutes wasn’t too bad going, and I arrived just before the procession started to move off, just before 11.00am.
By the time I left two hours later, the procession carrying the Sikh holy scriptures and led as always by Khalsa carrying flags and swords was just around the corner a couple of hundred yards away in Shaggy Calf Lane (though it had taken a rather longer route than me to get there.) And as well as photographing the event and many of those taking part, I’d also had a very enjoyable free lunch.
I made my way home rather more slowly. One of the great advantages of travelling by bike is that you can stop exactly where you like to take photos.
As well as a few buildings in Slough, and what remains of a landmark garage at the west end of the Colnbrook Bypass (now sold and doubtless to be redeveloped) I spent some time in Horton, which in my youth really was a country village, and still retains some of that feeling, before returning to Staines via Wraysbury.
More From the Woolwich Free Ferry: I went on the ferry across to North Woolwich, taking pictures while I was on the ferry, I think mainly in black and white.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-51
Taken while I was waiting at Woolwich for vehicles and passengers could come off the ferry.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-811-42
At North Woolwich while vehicles were still driving off and foot passengers were boarding for the journey to Woolwich.
Riverside Path, River Thames, North Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-12
I got off the ferry at North Woolwich and took a short walk along the riverside path, making this picture and then returning to catch the ferry back. This screw was in the path. The ferry terminal is at right.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-32
I don’t know whether the pictures below on the ferry were made on the outward or return journey.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-33
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-41
Soon I was back in Woolwich and taking more pictures there – to be in a later post.
River Wandle, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-34
The area between Armoury Way and the River Thames was and still is very much an industrial one. I think most of the pictures in this post, probably including this one were taken from The Causeway, a street that leads from the junction between Armoury Way and Dormay Street, running beside the west bank of the River Wandle. A dead end for vehicles you can walk along it to reach a footpath which leads to the path beside the Thames towards Putney – or if you turn east, to Smugglers Way. Here across the Wandle you can see a cement plant and cement lorries.
Bell Lane Creek, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-42
Bell Lane Creek is the western of two mouths of the River Wandle and I think part of its original course though it was described as ‘a marshy area’ and might have had more channels. It was improved by the addition of a half lock from the Thames in the 1970s and apparently remains navigable from the River Thames an hour or two each side of high tide, though only as far as where I was standing to take this picture, next to a weir. The sluice gates here – which I photographed on another visit – have a bell on them inscribed ‘I AM RUNG BY THE TIDES’. The area to the right of the creek is Causeway Island.
To the left had once been the Wandsworth Royal Laundry and the creek had also extended further west to several wharves.
River Wandle, Railway Bridge, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-35
Looking south up the Wandle under the railway bridge which carries the line from Reading and Windsor to Waterloo. Above it as left is the giant Wandsworth gasholder.
Railway Bridge, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-51
The Staines and Windsor line is on a viaduct here, with three bridges. As well as one over Bell Lane Creek and this one, a few yards to the east is one built to carry the lines over the Wandsworth Cut – later called McMurray’s Canal – there is a very clear map from 1891 here.
This quarter-mile long canal was built in 1802 to link the Surrey Iron Railway to the Thames and had an entrance lock from the river a few yards east of the Wandle where the Wandsworth Solid Waste Transfer Station now is. The horsedrawn Surrey Iron Railway, the first public railway ceased operation in 1846 and the canal was sold to the owners of a nearby flour mill.
The mill was later owned by William McMurray who made paper from esparto grass brought from farms owned by his family in Spain and North Africa – and from the docks by barge to his Royal Paper Mills in Wandsworth. After a fire bankrupted the company, the canal was sold to the Wandsworth and District Gas Company in 1910. In the 1930s they filled it in and built over its route.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-23
A rather confusing array of bridges and pipe bridges across the Wandle just to the north of the railway bridge. At right past the parked concrete lorries is the Wandsworth Solid Waste Transfer Station.
Footpath, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-63
A narrow footpath leads to the section of The Causeway at the west end of Smugglers Way. aAt right is the Waste Transfer Station and just getting into the picture at left a little of a large electrical substation.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-64
And from exactly the same position looking across the Wandle. I had probably intended to produce a panoramic image from these two exposures.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-26
And I too a third picture moving closer to the river at the same location.
I found this a fascinating area and continued to take pictures for some time – and will share a few more in a later post.
World Health, Syria & a Pillow Fight: Saturday 7th April 2012 was World Health Day and health campaigners protester against the increasing privatisation of the NHS. It was also International Pillow Fight Day which was celebrated by hundreds in Trafalgar Square. Between these I photographed Free Syria supporters calling for the UK government to do more over the atrocities by the Assad regime against their relatives still in Syria.
World Health Day: Lansley’s Bill
Dept of Health, Whitehall
Lansley’s Bill – Lansley lies to the media in the play performed outside the Dept of Health
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was now law, having gained royal assent on March 27th 2012. Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley had pushed through the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the NHS despite the united opposition of the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners and many campaigning groups.
‘Lansley’ looks at the Tory plan to hand the NHS to private companies and decides to present it as giving more choice to the public
The Act led to a greater marketisation of the NHS with an greatly increased role for private companies who mainly ‘cherry picked’ the simpler and so more readily profitable areas of service, and its structural reforms were damaging, with new complex systems of governance and accountability, while removing the system leadership needed to cope with major changes. And it didn’t give any more choice to the public – unless they went private.
Lansley’s Act failed, largely because it tried to introduce a system based on competition into a an NHS where care and cooperation was the bedrock, but it did succeed in diverting much needed funds to the private sector. By 2019 the policy of competition was effectively abandoned. Labour in 2024 commissioned a report led by Lord Darzi which called it a “broken system” and conclude it “was a calamity without international precedent – it proved disastrous. The result of the disruption was a permanent loss of capability from the NHS“.
Nurse Gail Lee began the protest by explaining that the Act was designed to lead eventually to the NHS being converted to an insurance-based healthcare system that will provide high-cost medical services for those who can afford it while retaining only a basic provision for others. So far this has not happened but there are still politicians – Labour as well as Conservatives – who are urging this.
After her short talk there was a performance of the play ‘Lansley’s Bill’ by Mike Hart, based on the facts of the planning by McKinzey Consulting and the Tories which led to the Lansley Bill, a bundle of Tory lies which opens up healthcare to the market under the misleading mantras of ‘choice’ and ‘efficiency’.
Without a public health service to treat them, people are dieing – we are told we must fight and throw out Lansley
Based around the problems of a cleaner who needs the help of the new version of the NHS but is told to wait, and wait – until she dies, it makes the point that “you have a choice. You can fight for the NHS, become rich, or you can make sure you are never ill. The least worst case is to get out there and fight.”
Free Syria Supporters protested aaginst the continuing killing, torture, imprisonment and abductions of their relatives by the Assad regime, calling on the UK government to take greater action
Some held up placards ‘For My Sister’, ‘For My Mum’ and for some at least of those wearing gags with the words ‘Freedom’ or ‘Tortured’ it was there own family who was tortured or missing or held in jail. Their protest over human rights violation was personal.
Some held family snapshots, blown up to A4, and others were taped to the railings along with lists of names, and roses dedicated to the missing and dead.
Many also called for the release of human rights activist Noura Aljizawi, who had led protests against the Asad regime, worked in hospitals to support women and children and written for the Syrian underground newspaper Hurriyat. Arrested on 28th March she was tortured and denied access to family and lawyer; an international campaign led by Reporters without Borders eventually led to her release and she fled to Turkey, continuing her campaign against the Assad government, finally relocating to Canada.
My final paragraph on the protest on My London Diary: “On a pillar behind and on the leaflets handed out were the grim statistics. 12,460 Syrians killed since March 2011; 65,000 innocent Syrians are missing; 882 children and babies murdered, 773 women slaughtered; 212,000 men women and children are detained; 30,627 refugees fled in fear of their lives. And the numbers are still rising.”
It was International Pillow Fight Day with fights arranged in 111 cities around the world in an event promoted by the urban playground movement.
A whistle signalled the start of the fight
As well as London there were fights in cities from Amsterdam to Zürich, with the majority being in the USA, but they were also in virtually every European country, as well as in Canada, Greenland, Turkey, Bahrain, South America, Cape Town, Australia, Hong Kong and China.
The organisers had set out a list of nine rules, some of which were adhered too, but others were clearly ignored – such as “6) NO FEATHERS, let’s not make a mess”.
Another that was often ignored was “4) Do not swing at anyone without a pillow or holding a camera”, though some did apologise after hitting me.
As I commented, it “was half an hour of glorious chaos as people of all ages – though mainly in their teens and twenties – rushed around attacking anyone with a pillow.”
Generally the attacks were random, but there were occasional cries to “attack the panda, or the guy in stripes or spiderman or one of the others in identifiable costumes”.
After around 20 minutes when the air (and my lungs) was full of dust and feathers the council cleaners began to pour buckets of water and sweep the dampened feathers away, but the fighting continued until a whistle blew to end the fight at the end of 30 minutes – with just a few continuing to fight.
Good Friday: On Friday 6th April 2007 I got up early and took a train to London to photograph several of the Christian walks of witness and other events taking place around London. The accounts and pictures of my day are still on My London Diary, but rather hidden away. So here is what I wrote (with the usual minor corrections) in 2007, with a few of the pictures and links to the rest.
Good Friday Walk of Witness: North Lambeth
My day started in North Lambeth at 10am, where Churches Together gathered for a short service in the gardens at the front of the Imperial War Museum, before their walk of witness through the locality.
After a short services in a council estate, and the small neighbourhood park they met with others from St Johns, Waterloo for a service on the concourse of Waterloo Station, where I left them.
A number 4 bus took me close to London’s oldest church, St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, where the Butterworth Charity was to be distributed.
A member of the publishing company gave money in 1887 to ensure the continuation of the established custom of providing 6d (increased to 4 shillings in the 1920s) to 21 poor widows of the parish, and buns to children who came to watch the proceedings.
This year, no poor widows declared themselves and the buns were shared by all present.
Even the workers on the street next to the church.
I left before the end of the service at St Bartholomews and despite just missing a bus and a long wait, caught the end of the procession through Islington to St Mary’s Church.
At first I failed to notice the large crowd making it’s way along the busy pavement rather than the road, and the noisy surroundings drowned out the two drums behind the bloody carrier of the Cross at its head.
One of the women in the crowd behind had the best Easter Hat I met on the day, which contrasted rather with the sober black of her Ggreek friend.
Upper Holloway Fellowship of Churches, The Mall, Archway
Another bus took us to Archway. However it was held up in the queue of traffic behind the march there, so I arrived just as the service was starting.
Perhaps 200 people had assembled and a lively service followed. The singing improved when the generator ran out of petrol, and I felt moved to join in.
From Archway I took several buses to meet up with a friend in Borough Market, which in the past 10 years has transformed itself from dying old-fashioned fruit and veg business to catering for the an affluent mainly young ‘foody’ market. There is an incredible range of produce on sale now, and some at incredible prices. Some great stuff, some at surprisingly reasonable prices, but plenty of ripoff also.
Windsor Boat Club Easter Cruise, Slave replica ship ‘Zong’ and the Tower of London.
I’d come here mainly to meet one of my friends who was photographing the would-be trendy young who where fluttering around its flame. But it wasn’t really my thing, and the Nikon I use wasn’t really the right tool for the job.
This was the end of what I wrote in My London Diary, and there are many more pictures on the links above. We soon get fed up with Borough Market and made our way to a nearby pub before going home.
Eid Milad-Un-Nabi & End the Siege of Gaza: On Saturday 5th April 2008 was a rather frustrating day for me. I struggled to get to Tooting for the procession honouring the birthday of the Prophet as rail services to the west of London came to a halt. I finally made it but left as the procession neared its end. Thankfully the tube was working to take me into central London to view some exhibitions and photograph a protest at Downing Street calling for an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza.
Milad 2008 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi
Procession and Community Day, Tooting
As usual I’d planned my journey into London carefully, intending to arrive in Tooting well before the start of the procession but a cable fire stopped all services into Waterloo with trains piling up back along the lines. Mine “came to a halt in Feltham, then crept forward slowly to Twickenham where it expired completely. Ten minutes later another service took me the few hundred yards further to St Margarets, where I abandoned rail and jumped onto a passing bus to Richmond.”
Then as I commented “Should you ever want a slow and frustrating ride through some of the more obscure southwest London suburbs I recommend the 493 route, which even includes a ride past Wimbledon Park and the world’s most famous tennis club before taking you past the dog track and on to Tooting.”
A full 50 stops and over an hour later I jumped off the bus and ran the last mile or so towards where the procession was to start on Tooting Bec Road, meeting the procession a few hundred yards from its start. Back in 2008 I wrote “half a mile” but I’ve just measured it and my run was at least double that. The Tooting Sunni Muslim Association’s procession for Eid Milad-Un-Nabi had started ‘promptly’ only around 20 minutes late so I hadn’t missed too much.
The Juloos to honour the birthday of the Prophet was part of an all-day community event and as well as the Muslims there were other local community representatives taking part including the Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Mrs. Claire Clay.
The previous year I’d gone on after the procession to the celebrations at Tooting Leisure Centre, including the impressive whirling dervishes – who I photographed again there in 2009. But in 2008 there were exhibitions I wanted to see in London – and a protest at Downing Street, so I left as the procession turned into Garratt Lane and took the tube from Tooting Broadway.
A demonstration on a wet Saturday afternoon at Downing St
In September 2007 the Israeli government had imposed a siege which was preventing vital medicines and other supplies from entering Gaza. This was a collective punishment against the population, illegal under international law and had by April 2008 already resulted in a number of deaths.
It was one of a series of protests organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on a rather smaller scale than the hundreds of thousands in some more recent demonstrations, but sharing similar aims. It called on the British government to end the arms trade with Israel, and to press Israel to abide by international law, end its illegal occupation and allow the return of refugees.
During the protest one young man with a Palestinian flag crossed the road and stood in front of the gates of Downing Street holding it. It was the police reaction to this – and their attempts to stop me photographing it that made up most of my report in 2008.
The man picks his flag up from the wet pavement and the officer shouts at him, telling him to put the f***ing flag down
Police pulled him to one side and questioned him, telling him that the SOCPA had made it a crime to protest there. They pulled his flag from his hands and dropped it on the pavement, and when he picked it up an officer swore at him, dragged it out of his hands and dropped it on the pavement again. He was then told he was being stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act 2000, though waving a flag is clearly not terrorism.
Clearly I was a already a good distance away when the officer on the left edge of this picture ordered me to move away
At this point an officer stood in front of me to stop me taking photographs. I told him I was press but he insisted I move further ways as I was “interfering with the actions of the police.” Clearly I wasn’t and I made this clear to him before moving back as ordered.
A woman officer came up and held her hand in front of my lens. I told her that this was illegal and a senior officer in the Met had told a colleague that he would consider it “a sacking offence” and she hurriedly moved off across the road and away from the area. Unfortunately I failed to get a good picture of her or to take her number.
I went back across the road to continue photographing the protest. Police officers at the protest on the other side of the road were approached by the event organisers about the man being held but denied any connection with the officers on the other side of Whitehall. The officer did attempt to excuse their actions on possible grounds of security, but I didn’t feel he felt too happy about it. The man was still being held by police when I left the area.
The Woolwich Ferry: Continuing my walk in Plumstead and Woolwich in August 1994 I came to the Woolwich Ferry and couldn’t resist taking a ride across the river on it. And since I wanted to continue my walk in Woolwich, rather than in North Woolwich, I stayed on the ferry to come back.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-41
There had almost certainly been a ferry across the Thames at Woolwich at least since the Norman Conquest, though the first written reference by name only came when it was sold together with a house by William de Wicton to William atte Halle for £10. In the early years of the 19th century there were three Woolwich Ferry Acts (1811, 1815 and 1816) establishing a commercial ferry.
These were passed in particular for the movement of troops and supplies from Woolwich Arsenal across the river. From 1846 there was also a rail connection from North Woolwich to Stratford and eventually there were three steam ferries on the route
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-11
After the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was created in 1855 it had taken over toll bridges in West London and made them free to use. People to the east of London in Greenwich and Woolwich argued that they should also be able to cross the river without paying. Eventually in 1884 the MWB agreed and tasked Sir Joseph Bazalgette to oversee the provision of approaches, bridges and pontoons for the ferry. These were built by the still familiar name of Messrs Mowlem in 1887-9. (The company is no longer; having got into financial difficulties it was acquired by its rival Carillion in 2005.)
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-12
The London County Council was established on 21st March 1889, two days before the Free Ferry was due to open and so it was Lord Roseberry, the LCC’s first chairman who led the huge procession and festivities to the new ferry terminal in Woolwich and announced to a crowd of thousands “The free ferry is open to the public.“
There was only one paddle steamer working the ferry that weekend and it must have got very crowded. As well as those in Woolwich , “the Great Eastern Railway Company carried 25,000 people to its North Woolwich terminus, most of whom were intent on riding the ferry.”
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-13
The initial fleet of two paddle steamers soon became three and were replaced by newer paddle steamers in the 1920s. It was these that inspired the story and wonderful illustrations by Charles Keeping in his 1968 children’s classic ‘Alfie and the Ferryboat (1968), very much enjoyed a few years later by myself and my two boys. So of course we had to come to Woolwich and I took my first crossing with them in the early 1980s.
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-11
But by the time that book was published the paddle steamers had gone, replaced from 1963 by the diesel-powered double ended James Newman, John Burns and Ernest Bevin which enabled vehicles to drive up newly built causeways with hinged bridges and drive directly onto the ferries, greatly speeding up the loading. As they were double-ended vehicles could also drive off forwards on the other side and the ships did not need to reverse. They were steered from a central bridge over their roadways.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-12
The ferries in my pictures continued in service until 2018, when the ferry closed down for four months waiting the arrive of replacements. These have had various problems with London May Sadiq Khan apologising and saying the new vessels “aren’t good enough.”
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-13
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-22
I had just missed the ferry and spent it walking around the area and taking pictures.
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-33
All of the pictures before this one have been of a vessel not in use, moored at Woolwich but in this picture you can see one ferry at the North Woolwich terminal and another approaching Woolwich, and I hurried up the approach to catch it. In my next post from 1994 I will include some pictures I made on the ferry.
