Israeli Attacks on Lebanon & Brazilian Carnival: Twenty years ago on July 28th 2006 I photographed a large protest march calling on Israel to end its attacks on Lebanon, going on to take pictures of a Brazilian carnival at Sadlers Wells. It could have been last weekend, though the Israeli attacks have been far more serious this year. Here’s what I wrote in 2006 and a few of the pictures.
Lebanon: Ceasefire Now!
Downing St to Hyde Park
Many marchers carried Lebanese flags
Although the demonstration was called at the last minute, there was an urgent response and between 10,000 and 20,000 (my estimate) demonstrators turned up to march through London, calling for an immediate stop the the attacks on Lebanon and Palestine, although some like me will have given up before reaching Hyde Park. [Most of my pictures were taken at Downing Street and on Whitehall.]
French radio put the number of marchers at 700, and UK establishment figures were around 7000. The organisers figure of 30,000 was probably slightly on the high side, though not impossibly so.
The many Palestinian supporters made their views clear. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free!”.
Those attending called for an immediate end to the indiscriminate bombing by Israel in Lebanon which is killing so many civilians, especially children, and for our government to take a stand against this crime against humanity.
The Israeli response has been quite disproportionate – as the BBC point out, they have killed over 360 Lebanese, many of them civilians, while Israeli casualties from Hezbollah rocket attacks are thought to be 17, with around the same number killed in fighting.
Later in the day I went along to one of the Dance Week events, a Brazilian Carnival at Sadlers Wells.
Carnival performers mixed with the crowds outside Sadlers Wells despite the light rain that was falling
Having had a week or more of drought it was rather disappointing to find that the afternoon was dull, with light rain falling. Hardly enough to water the gardens that need it, hardly enough to be worth putting an umbrella up, but enough to put a damper on things, and enough to get in my 18-200mm lens and create some nasty blurs on pictures until it dried out. I’m a bit annoyed to find that now I have a reasonably weatherproof camera, this Nikon lens seems so susceptible to moisture in the air. I can (and do) wipe off the front filter, but there isn’t anyway to wipe water off the inside elements.
It was pretty humid and I soon got tired, coming home before the main fun started, although I’d photographed most of those in costumes. It seemed likely to be too crowded to do much more in any case.
Olympics, Illegal Policing & Cody Dock: On Saturday 21st July 2012 I went to Stratford, first to photograph the Olympic flame being carried along the High Street, then to join a tour of the Carpenter’s Estate led by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration.)
What should have been a straightforward visit was help up by police at the BBC’s request for around an hour without any legal reason before we were able to enter Lund Point, a tower block overlooking the Olympic area. This made me late for the Open Day at Cody Dock, where I arrived as most people were leaving.
You can read more detailed accounts of the events on My London Dairy, with many more pictures – links below.
Olympic Flame at Stratford Six Days Early
Stratford High St
The Olympic flame visited Stratford briefly but avoided the Olympic site where it was not due until the following Friday. I was surprised at how few came out to watch it.
The torch itself generated a little more interest. I’ve no idea who 070 was carrying it, and she handed it over to 071 at the junction with Warton Rd, which leads into the Olympic site a couple of hundred yards away.
An organised party of people visiting the Olympic site watched from the temporary bridge taking the Greenway over the High Street – with a big wooden torch behind them.
The tour of the Carpenters estate met outside Stratford Station– Placards showing Mayor Sir Robin Wales as ‘The Sheriff of Newham Robin the Poor’
The Carpenters Estate, close to Stratford Station, was one of the better council developments of the 1960s, with a large area of two-story terraced housing, some maisonettes and three 22 storey point blocks as well as some existing small industrial premises. It included shops, a pub and a school, and later a community and health centre and remained a very popular estate.
The tour sets off
But Newham Council saw the estate as simply as an opportunity to sell and make money and as a part of Mayor Robin Wales’ plans to make Stratford ‘London’s Third City’, even if this meant getting rid of many of the people who currently live there. The council began moving people out around 2004, leaving properties in good condition empty in a borough with London’s largest housing problem. In 2012 they were still hoping to sell it to University College for a new campus.
The Olympic site is really very close
In 2011 the council decided to fix the elections to the Carpenters Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). They barred freeholders on the estate from standing for the new board of management and ‘lost’ five out of the six leaseholder nominations. At the AGM the TMO officials employed security guards to refuse entry to all freeholders who had been invited to attend.
Joe Alexander of CARP speaks about how the council takeover to the TMP led to residents settting up CARP
The TMO was supposed to stand up for residents and to fight against the low valuations being made by the council for compulsory purchase of properties on the estate, but was now essentially a tool of the council. This led to residents setting up Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans (CARP) to challenge what they say are unconstitutional decisions made by the TMO and to get it to fulfil its duties to all residents of the estate, and to fight for the future of the residents and for a sustainable community.
A long-term resident who has lived on the estate for many years and intends to stay
The tour began at Stratford Station and we were taken on a long walk around the estate, with several CARP members speaking at various points.
Lund Point. Some residents were upset not to have been consulted about the advertising on their blocks
When we tried to visit two flats we had been invited to see in Lund Point we were stopped, first by BBC security and later by police, who stopped us from entering for around an hour and a half, but finally had to allow us to go in since we had an invitation from the residents of the two flats – more below.
BBC employed security men bar our way into Lund Point – but are told we will be back later
We continued to go around the estate and talk with some of the nearby businesses which are closing as people move out and redevelopment is taking place along the High Street, as well as briefly visiting James Reilly Point, where the BBC had wanted to set up their coverage, but determined action by one of the residents there had caused them to change their plans. Then we returned to Lund Point.
Following a request from BBC Security, police denied residents access to their tower block home close to the Olympic site in Stratford for well over an hour, before having to acknowledge they had no power to do so.
Some of those on the tour were opposed to UCL’s proposed grab of the estate
Colin, a resident in Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford had invited a group viewing the estate in a tour organised by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration) to come to his flat to see the high standard of accomodation in the 1966 tower block and the views across the estate. We tried to enter the building at 1.15pm but were blocked by BBC Security.
We are shown the BBC is occupying the lift lobby as well as the floors they have part rented and there are health and safety hazards for residents, particularly their children
When we returned 55 minutes later, there were a group of five PCSOs and a police officer assisting the security men in blocking our entrance. Again the resident and the group were refused entry but the police officer present refused to discuss why. She called for reinforcements; first one more officer and then two police vans arrived. Eventually I think a more senior officer decided that they were acting unlawfully and we were allowed to enter just before 3pm.
We take it in turns to go in and see the flat, which is in excellent repair (although the council say these flats are too expensive to refurbish, if UCL takes over the site it may reuse them as student residencies.)
Inside there was further resistance from BBC security and it soon became obvious why the BBC were reluctant to allow me and other members of the press on the tour to enter. Although this was still a residential building with around 30 flats still occupied, the interior appeared to be a health and safety nightmare, with cables, desks in lobby areas and so on.
On the 20th floor we move out of the lift but are stopped on the corridor by security
After visiting the first flat, we tried to visit another resident who owns a flat on the 20th floor of the block, and again police and security at first told us this was impossible. But we pressed on; we were blocked as we exited the lift, but when Warren confirmed he had invited us were eventually allowed through.
This is a residential area where people still live, despite the cables and poles
Tawanda Nyabango talks about the estate and the Olympic site next door from the 20th floor of Lund Point
Although the BBC has taken over most of the top 5 floors of Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate next to the Olympic park as studios for its coverage of London 2012, there are still some flats occupied by owner occupiers in the block. On a tour with residents group CARP (Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans) I was invited to visit a flat on the 20th floor of this 22 storey block.
I had a very limited time to work but managed to make a couple of panoramas as the single images while I was there.
More, including some different ways of representing the panoramic view on My London Diary: Olympic Views
Cody Dock Open Day
South Crescent, Canning Town
The hold-up by security and police made me too late for the Open Day at Cody Dock but I did manage to take a few pictures. You can see more in my post on My London Diary in April 2012 when I wrote Cody Dock in April and wrote Gasworks Dock Revived, which tells something of the history of the dock and the efforts being made to develop it into a real community resource, as well as filling a vital link in the footpath along the bank of Bow Creek from Bow Locks eventually to the Thames (there is still another gap beyond Cody Dock.
More From Lewisham: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was St Johns Lewisham – 1990.
Denture Repairs, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-45
False teeth were still very common when I was growing up. Many if not most adults still went to bed with their teeth in a glass of water beside them on the bedside table like my parents. One of their wedding presents in 1932 from a wealthy relative had been for both of them to be given a ‘full set’, while others were often given the same as a coming of age present for their 21st birthday.
As many of us are still aware, tooth pain can be excruciating and few working-class people could afford proper dentistry. People extracted their own teeth or those of their friends with pliers, or tied strong thread around them and fixed it to a door handle asking for someone to slam the door. With current problems in getting NHS treatment there are again now people resorting to painful and dangerous DIY treatments.
Denture Repairs, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-32
Things had improved a little after the war, particularly with the school dental service, and I went regularly to the clinic on Bath Road until I was 16 and no longer qualified for their services. It was around ten years before my teeth saw a dentist again and by then the rot had truly set in. But back then it was simple to find a NHS dentist and become a regular patient.
Dentistry never really became a proper part of the NHS and NHS dentistry is now in dire straits, though there have been great advances in dental treatment – and so little need for shops such as this. I’m fortunate still to have a NHS dentist with regular check-ups and still enough of my own teeth to just about eat. And although the NHS charges increase regularly it remains cheap compare to private practice. But sorting it out should be another item on Andy Burnham’s list.
R Holt, Crash Centre, Thurston Rd, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-33
Car crashes are still common and there are still garages offering crash repairs, though I think rather more cars now get written off after crashes, partly because of changes in the way cars are built but also because of stricter safety laws. MOT testing was introduced in the 1960s but the tests are now much more detailed and rigorous.
Behind the yard is a row of trees at the edge of the site and a railway viaduct on the line to Lewisham station. This yard is long gone and the street is lined with tall flats.
R Holt, Crash Centre, Viaduct, Thurston Rd, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-34
The crashed cars on the lorry close to my camera make those by the fence look like toy models. I think many these cars would have been cannibalised for parts and then sold as scrap as they look beyond repair, even by specialists such as R Holt. The picture also gives a better view of the railway viaduct.
A bridge over the River Ravensbourne leads to the flats of Crescent House, a large 1950s council development. A few years later the DLR extension to Lewisham from Island Gardens was built through here, opening in 1999. The Elverson Road DLR station is a short walk away.
Built for the London County Council in 1903, Carrington House was a lodging house which replaced several small doss houses on the site. It was based on the Rowton Houses founded by Lord Rowton to provide cheap lodging for working men and named after Lord Carrington, chairman of the LCC’s Housing of the Working Classes Committee.
It provided cubicles for 800 men to sleep in and communal facilities including washrooms, dining, reading and smoking rooms. During the Great War it housed refugees, afterwards returning as a lodging house, continuing in this at least until the late 1970s and possibly still when I took these pictures.
In 1995 it was converted into social housing flats and renamed Mereton Mansions. The railings are said to be made from wartime stretcher frames.
David Barber (standing) the Queens Swan Master, with uppers and swans, Staines, July 18, 2005
Swan Upping: On Monday July 18 2005 I met the Swan Uppers at Shepperton Lock and spent the day following them, riding my bike along the Thames tow path as they rowed (or were towed) upriver.
I wasn’t the only cyclist, and followed Eric, a retired teacher who was going with the uppers for the whole week, riding ahead of them with a large bag of crushed digestive biscuits which he used to entice swans and their cygnets he spotted to a suitable place on the bank for the Uppers to do their work. And he also assisted them on the bank when there were large numbers of cygnets to record.
Eric with biscuit packets and too many cygnets to count
Of course sometimes the swans were by the opposite bank of the river and could not be persuaded to cross, so we were both kept waiting while they worked, too far distant for sensible photography, before riding on to find the next family group of swans.
A small flotilla follows the Uppers
When the boats moored up at The Swan close to Staines Bridge I went off for lunch too, joining them again as they came out and set off again. The rest of the press had taken the train back to London and the atmosphere was more relaxed.
The Uppers surround a family of swans
By the time we got to Old Windsor I had taken rather a lot of pictures and was getting tired and decided to leave, though this meant missing the ceremonies at Romney Lock at the end of the day – which I photographed in some later years.
They close in and then grab the adult swans
I didn’t go to see the Swan Uppers as they passed through Staines last Monday. I hadn’t seen any cygnets on my local walks by the river. It was too hot for me to go and stand in the sun on Monday morning, and I felt I had already covered the event comprehensively in previous years.
Once properly held the swans stop struggling
Here’s what I wrote back in 2005:
Monday I was on my bike at ten in the morning, looking out for cygnets as I cycled to meet up with the swan uppers at Shepperton Lock. they had already found there first broods by then, as I could tell from the white feathers in some caps.
The cygnets are then lifted out and the health check and recording begins
I’ve written before at some length about Swan Upping so I won’t repeat all that here. There were even more press photographers than last year, and the added impediment of a small TV crew. I’m told I was on the BBC that evening, my back and Nikon D70 clearly visible, and they certainly got in my way for several shots.
Fortunately the press were on the boat, and that kept them out of the way for long enough for me to work unfettered on several occasions before they were able to disembark. Once or twice there were times when those on the boat were in a better position to take pictures, but it doesn’t often happen.
Of course, I don’t mind working with other photographers – we all have a job to do – but at times they can be a nuisance. They, and particularly the video team – did often break what I regard as one of the first rules of the documentary photographer: Thou shalt not get in the way’ of the people who are actually doing the job you are taking pictures of.
The way they worked pointed out a real difference to me between press and documentary. They were interested in getting pictures. I need to start by finding out what the event is about [and show the story].
I also provided a little amusement for the Uppers later in the day when I trod on a rotten plank on one of the landing stages [in Old Windsor]. It left me staggering around for several seconds, a hair’s breadth from falling in to the river. Earlier one of them had somehow fallen in while releasing one of the swans.
Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn: On Saturday 17th July 2004 I did rather a lot of travelling around London, beginning in Trafalgar Square with a shoe pyramid against cluster bombs, then going to Acton to look at a project London Arts Café had helped with (I think I was its treasurer at the time) which took me rather longer than expected so I didn’t stay long to make sure I was back on the South Bank for the Spanish Civil War commemoration. Then out to Kilburn for a festival in Grange Park.
But I took few photographs except at the Spanish Civil War event, which was attended by at least nine of those who had gone to Spain as well as many from the families of those no longer living.
The rich and wealthy elites outside Spain feared the rebellion against the church, landowners and bosses by the peasants and working classes supporting the elected Spanish government against the fascist armies might give their those they were exploiting ideas,, Workers and intellectuals here and elsewhere saw clearly what was happening and many “went because their open eyes could see no other way.” Over 30,000 volunteers went to fight in the International Brigades, including more than 2,500 from Britain, although our government tried to prevent them. Probably around five thousand of the volunteers died in Spain and many, many more were injured.
Here is what I wrote on My London Diary back then, with the usual corrections and a few pictures, with links to rather more still on My London Diary.
Handicap International
Pyramid of Shoes, Trafalgar Square
Saturday saw a repeat of last year’s shoe pyramid in Trafalgar Square, Handicap International campaigning against the use of cluster bombs, weapons that largely maim innocent women and children, which governments, including our own, are continuing to insist to use. So our taxes are now still killing and disabling innocent kids in Iraq from the invasion last year.
Artist Mamily Sheiban with his screen in Churchfield Road, Acton
In Acton it was carnival day, but I didn’t have time to watch. I did manage to go and see the screen which Mohamed (Mamily) Sheibani has designed to screen off the waste area at the rear of the Oaks Shopping Centre in Churchfield Road. This was a project carried out by Acton Action with the help of Acton Arts And Media, the London Arts Café, the Churchfield Road Community Association and the shopping centre. Not a big thing, but the kind of small local project that makes an impact – we just need a few thousand more like it in London.
Spanish Civil War International Brigades Memorial Event
Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo,
Moe Fishman, veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil war
The Spanish Civil War started in 1936, and while governments including ours made the wrong decisions [in part] based on incorrect intelligence, as over Iraq. The rights and wrongs of the matter were clear to most of those who took an interest, especially on the left.
Spanish Civil War veteran Jack Jones speaks to the assembled crowd
2,600 British men had the courage to go and join the International Brigade in the fight against fascism, and today we were again paying tribute to them. There are still a few living, and those who turned up were remarkably fit and alert considering their age.
Laying a wreath to honour dead comrades, both the over 500 who died in Spain and those who have died since
Veteran Jack Jones chaired the event, and Ana Perez from the Madrid Amigos spoke movingly.
A new banner to replace the original which was getting faded and worn.Moe Fishman in front of the memorial text YET FREEDOM! YET THY BANNER TORN, BUT FLYING, STREAMS LIKE THE THUNDER-STORM AGAINST THE WIND
Veteran Moe Fishman from Manhattan, still a peace activist, brought greetings from the peace movement in America and praise for the strength of the British people in demonstrating against the invasion of Iraq – a movement now carried from the streets to the ballot box.
Jack Jones and the memorial: “TTHEY WENT BECAUSE THEIR OPEN EYES COULD SEE NO OTHER WAY”
Kilburn High Road is one of the more interesting high streets of London. Too poor to have been swamped by the chains, it retains its own character and wide range of shops of various types. Perhaps more a place to look and stroll (as I did) rather than photograph.
The Kilburn Mural project is to provide a mural at the tube station
They were having a festival in grange park, which included some of the artists who are to create a mural by the tube station demonstrating their skills and giving the local people a chance to influence the mural design.
Tin Pan Alley & Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Sunday 16th July 2006 I went to the Tin Pan Alley Festival in Denmark Street, a short street off the Charing Cross Road, for many years the centre of the UK popular music industry, but now sadly declined. There are still some shops selling instruments, but the music publishers, newspapers and most recording studios have disappeared, and much redevelopment has taken place, including behind some of the seventeenth century and later facades.
It was a crowded and very noisy event and I found little to photograph, soon leaving for Clerkenwell to photograph the annual Italian festival there.
The 2026 Procession in Honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel takes place this Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 3:30 but the street festival there begins around noon and continues long after the procession. It’s an event I’ve photographed many years since I first knew about it in the 1990s, but this year I think it will be far to hot for me to travel and work there.
Here as usual is what I wrote back in 2006 with normal capitalisation and spelling corrections, along with a few of my favourite images and links to the many others still on My London Diary.
Tin Pan Alley Festival
Denmark Street
Crowding around the stage in ‘Tin Pan Alley’
Not a lot to say about the Tin Pan Alley Festival in Denmark Street. It was noisy, fun if you like that kind of thing (but 15 minutes was long enough for me) and for a good cause.
A game of football around the corner
Denmark Street is perhaps more interesting on other days, I must take my “famous” (allegedly ex-beatle) guitar in for repair sometime.
Ladies on one of the stalls at the Sagra in Warner StAnd men. More on My London Diary
The Italian Church festival is one of the great events of the London calendar, which fortunately hasn’t yet been noticed by too many non-Italians.
First communicant poses with her motherStatues and banners are carried in the processionA group of women leave the church to take part in the procession
The Procession In Honour Of Our Lady Of Mount Carmel Attracts several thousands. Good food, good wine and Italian beer along with other things for sale, colourful statues, and a cast list that included Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus, the Four Evangelists and many more, all parading through the streets around St Peter’s Church in Clerkenwell.
First communicantsPadre Carmelo di Giovanni, parish priest from 1991 to 2014Jesus carries a heavy wooden crossThere were three baskets each with a pair of doves who were reluctant to flyAnother Jesus led the first communicants
At the end of the procession is Our Lady Of Mount Carmel and the priests; as they join it, doves are released and the crowd of parishioners joins in a solemn procession of witness around the streets.
The clergy with a visiting dignitary
There are very many pictures from the event beginning here on My London Diary and spread over around a dozen pages, beginning with a number from the Sagra, the street festival in the street below the church. This continues with music and dancing ofter the procession (as well as eating and drinking) but in 2006 I needed to leave rather than continue photographing.
Spice, Rain, Turkey & Cyprus: Sunday 15 July 2007 was another varied day for me in London, both for events and weather. I went to Hackney for Hackney Spice, but got bored and went to the South Bank where there was a tremendous thunderstorm. When the rain eased off I photographed some of the performers in a Turkish festival in Bernie Spain Gardens before crossing the river to the Embankment to photograph a protest by Greek Cypriots over the Turkish occupation of North Cyprus.
Hackney Spice
Hackney Town Hall
I think these dancers came from South London, but some other performers were local.
Hackney Spice was an event outside the town hall in Hackney, next to the Hackney Empire. Perhaps I was there too early, but it appeared to be getting off to a rather slow start, and I soon lost interest and caught a bus.
As I arrived at Coin Street, there were a few drops of rain, and apart from eating and drinking (high-priced cheap beer) not a lot was happening. I walked around and then took a walk along the embankment, sheltering under a tree as the rain came on a little harder.
Then came the thunderstorm, with perhaps the most tremendous downpour I’ve ever seen, pouring down through the leaves as if I was in the open. Even my umbrella didn’t really keep me dry, although it offered some protection. As the rain came, the view disappeared, first the distant view along the river, then the bridge, then I could no longer see the river itself, and trees only perhaps 25 metres away merged into whiteness.
There wasn’t a great deal to photograph, and I was more concerned about keeping my cameras dry – fortunately the raincoat built into my Lowe-pro camera bag was reasonably effective. As the storm eased slightly and visibility returned, still holding up my umbrella, I took a few pictures, but it was still raining too hard to move much.
Then the storm was over, and there were belly dancers on the stage. I don’t think I appreciate the finer points of this art (and appreciate quantity rather more than quality – after all you can only shake what you have), but I took a few pictures but rather more of the folk dancers that followed, their dances clearly linked to village life and agriculture.
National Federation of Cypriots – Turks out of Cyprus
March & Rally, Westminster
But I’d really come to photograph something connected with a rather different Turkish activity, the continued occupation of part of Cyprus by the Turkish army. I grew up hearing about the war in Cyprus, older brothers of friends were there fighting as a part of their compulsory national military service, and Don McCullin took some of his first and most striking images of war.
The front of the march – the red area is the Northern Cyprus, occupied by Turks
War and partition left both Greek and Turkish Cypriots with justifiable grievances – there were atrocities on both sides, and time seems to have done little to heal. While I sympathise with the Greeks who still mourn their lost sons, often disappeared without trace, I also find it hard to understand why the EU went ahead with recognition of Cyprus after the Greek Cypriots voted down the UN attempts to reunite the country. Greek and Turkish Cypriots live together with few problems in London – and it is surely time they did so in Cyprus too.
The National Federation of Cypriots march and rally called for Turkish troops and settlers who have come since the Turkish occupation in 1974 to leave Cyprus.
I’d expected the march to start late, and was surprised to see it had already begun as I came across Hungerford Bridge. It was a larger event than the similar rally I’d photographed a couple of years previously and attracted more photographers.
The organisers for some reason didn’t want photographers to cover the rally, moving us out of the area in front of the platform. It seems odd to say the least to organise a public event and then not provide proper facilities for press coverage.
Streatham & Newham Carnivals: On Saturday 14 July 2007 I photographed carnivals in two areas of London, Streatham in south London and Newham in East London.
Although we had a long carnival tradition in England, and one that was much revived after the Second World War, many of those traditional carnivals had by around 2000 died out. But new carnival traditions, particularly from the Caribbean have come to take their place. Unlike the traditional events many of these received considerable funding from local authorities and organisations such as the Arts Council. While I was pleased to see this, I think we lost something by failing to support our own traditional and often rather zany activities.
The two events were rather different. This was only the second Streatham Carnival and seemed to be supported by small local groups and individuals. It was specifically a children’s parade, mainly with primary age children and their parents. The Newham event is a much larger council organised and sponsored event and includes many community organisations and schools and is in part a PR event for Newham’s Mayor.
The Streatham procession was mainly on the pavements of one of London’s busier roads, while in Newham to procession took place in a park and along less busy urban roads. The Streatham parade had a spontaneous feel while in Newham you were aware of the weeks or months of planning by the various organisations.
Here I’ll post a few pictures from each of them – with links to more pictures on My London Diary – and the short texts I wrote in 2007.
Streatham Carnival Parade
Streatham High Road
The procession walked along the pavement on both sides of the High Road.
Saturday 14th July I photographed a small carnival procession in Streatham High Road, making its way down the pavement on the edge of the busy street, part of the Streatham Festival.
There were lots of kids having fun in Newham’s carnival
Newham Carnival was a much larger affair, with quite a few local schools taking part along with other community groups. The carnival had a largely West Indian feel, although there were some Indian dancers. Of course those taking part reflected the multiracial nature of Newham, with over 60% of residents from ethnic groups other than White English, but I would have liked to see more diversity reflected. We even have an English Carnival tradition – and no reason why this, along with Irish and other ethnic traditions shouldn’t be more evident in events such as this
Indian dancers were at the front of the processionThe Mayor dances with the procession
Looking through Windows – Leyton & Leytonstone: After photographing Claremont Road where the M11 protesters had covered many of the houses with some splendid art work I wandered off into the area around, eventually making my way from Leyton into Leytonstone. Many of the pictures I made on this walk were taken through the windows of shops that attracted my interest.
None of these pictures were taken from inside the premises, all looking in through their windows. To avoid unwanted reflections I held the lens against the glass and tried to shield the area around the lens. This wasn’t always entirely successful and some images have light areas in some corners. And of course occasionally I decided to include reflections in the pictures.
With a 50mm lens I could use a flexible rubber lenshood to seal around the lens and the window, but the lens mount on this created its own vignetting on wide-angle lenses. Much more recently a larger and much floppier version of this device which fits around a lens barrel has been marketed which I would have found very useful. So of course I bought one, but I can’t remember ever having used it – I just don’t take these kind of pictures any more.
Chinese, Fish & Chips, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-65
This walk, like most of my walks, was on a Sunday morning when few people were about, and I was seldom interrupted or asked what I was doing. I carried a cloth in my camera bag as I sometimes cleaned a small patch of window to get a clear view. I don’t think these pictures were unduly obtrusive as I was only recording the public face of these premises which was open to everyone walking past.
Most of these pictures were taken using an Olympus 35mm shift lens which enabled me to move the frame up,m down, left and right a little to frame precisely. For some I used wider lenses, both a 28mm and also an ultrawide 21mm f3.5. Though an excellent and very small and light lens this does show more vignetting in the corners than the less wide lenses which I haven’t always entirely corrected.
Shooting through glass does introduce another optical element which can change the colour of the images, sometimes making the negatives difficult to colour balance. With the ultra-wide light from the corners takes a significantly longer path through the window glass which can give some colour casts towards the edges of the pictures.
Hyams Gymnasium, 857, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-42
I published a couple of black and white images of the gymnasium taken at the same time a couple of years ago, including one of this side wall in Gainsborough Road. Hyam’s was apparently a well-known sporting institution in the area, but as I commented then, is “now in very different use.
This is now The Walnut Tree, a Wetherspoon pub, and as often it has some history of the area it its web page, but this does not mention Hyams Gym. The figures on the building’s side have gone and its groundfloor windows have been bricked up but the rows of 8 or 9 upper floor gym windows remain.“
Hairdressers, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-43
Using very wide-angle lenses which produce “normal” rectilinear results means that light going to the edges of the frame from the lens have a longer route and thus diverge more, distorting objects close to the edges of the picture. You can see this in the picture at extreme right of this picture.
Chinese Takeaway, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-44
Similarly the two blue and white plates are actually circular and facing the shop window, but that at the left is noticeably oval in this picture.
Chinese Takeaway, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-31
There did seem to be rather a lot of Chinese food available in the area in 1994. When I grew up in the 1960s Chinese food was a rarity except in areas such as Limehouse and Soho. There isn’t a particularly high Chinese origin population in the area – around 1% of the population, one of the lowest among London Boroughs and a third of that Tower Hamlets and Westminster.
I had a particular interest in the shop interiors in recording how they reflected the varied ethnicities of their owners, often with very different decoration and layout etc to traditional English small shops. It was one of many different changes I had observed over the years.
Big Brew, Childrens’ Carnival & London Bridge: On Saturday July 11th 2009 I’d been commissioned to photograph a bishop at fair trade events in Finchley, then rushed to Newham for a children’s carnival procession. Gettingg back to London Bridge for its 800th birthday celebration was made difficult by the planned closure of both District and Jubilee lines and I only made it minutes before the event ended.
Big Brew
Finchley and Edgware
The Diocese of London had organised a day of ‘Big Brew’ events at Anglican churches across Greater London promoting fairly traded goods, particularly tea and coffee. Fair Trade is a movement and system that ensures the farmers and other workers get a fair return for their work, safe working conditions and ensures that money from their products gets invested into their local communities for healthcare, education and other development opportunities. Both I and my wife had been active supporters of the movement since our student days, long before the Fairtrade certification mark was first introduced in 1988.
I had been persuaded to photograph two events organised by the parish churches in Finchley and Edgware which the Bishop of Edmonton, the Right Revd Peter Wheatley, a strong supporter of the fair trade movement would be attending.
St Mary’s Finchley had tables and chairs on the pavement with tea, coffee and a large assortment of delicious looking cakes. As well as the bishop, Barnet Mayor Councillor Brian Coleman and the leader of the opposition were there too.
But for me the main attraction were the waitresses in caps and aprons and the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ performed by children from the Church’s drama group.
Things were a little quieter at St Margaret’s Edgware, where I went on with the Bishop. We met the local MP Gareth Thomas and were offered the chance of ringing the church bells. Or at least they posed for a photograph pretending to ring them. It was very dark and needed a tricky bit of flash.
Newham Carnival seemed rather smaller than when I photographed it in 2007, but it was still a lively procession, with lots of kids having fun. The Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, came and joined in, though I found his performance rather embarrassing.
I suppose its a point in his favour that he doesn’t mind making a fool of himself
Keir Hardie was the country’s first Labour MP, elected in West Ham South in 1892. The County Borough of West Ham, now a part of Newham, elected England’s first Labour-controlled council in 1898. And in 2009 every one of its 60 councillors was Labour. Robin Wales became council leader in 1995 and became its elected mayor in 2002. In 2018 he was de-selected as Labour’s mayoral candidate following a bitter dispute inside Newham Labour party and is now a leading member of Reform UK.
Wales seemed very much to regard Newham as a personal fiefdom and used events such as this very much as PR opportunities.
In the Wikipedia article you can read a little – in a very bland fashion about some of the controversies of his reign as local dictator. Under his leadership Newham gained large amounts of high cost private developments but failed to deal with the incredible housing problem in the area – telling people if they couldn’t afford to live in Newham they should move. As his critics said, we want social housing not social cleansing.
I walked some way with the carnival procession, but then took a bus, which was held up even more than usual by the traffic congestion the procession created. Normally I would have taken the District line, but this was closed for engineering work. And at Canning Town, rather than the Jubilee line (also closed) I had to use the much slower Docklands Light Railway, so I arrived rather late for my next event.
One of a number of guild displays on the modern London Bridge, 30 metres upstream from the old bridge
The Romans had built bridges across the Thames but these wooden structures did not survive. As I wrote (with minor corrections) in 2009:
“It was Peter de Colechurch who decided a stone bridge would be a better bet well over a thousand years after the first bridge, and started building one in 1176. It was a lengthy job, and was only finished 33 years later, and it was also very expensive.
To get back the cost houses were built on the bridge (as well as a chapel in the middle) and it soon became a thriving medieval shopping centre. There was actually very little space left for traffic to get across it, traffic moving in both directions on a 12 foot wide roadway (and in 1722 we got our first Highway Code, with the Lord Mayor laying down that carts coming from Southwark should stick to the west side, and those going south from the City drive on the east.)
This was part of the roadway across the 1209 London Bridge
You can get a good idea of its width from going to the church of St Magnus the Martyr, as its entrance porch is the only remaining part of the bridge, and if the church is open you can go inside and view (sometimes through a rather thick haze of incense) a large model of the whole bridge.
Found in the Thames
That bridge – with pretty well constant repairs and several major disasters – lasted until 1831 when a new bridge designed by John Rennie opened for business, around 100 ft upstream… The current bridge opened in 1971″
