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Great River Race & Malta Victory – 2007

Great River Race & Malta Victory: On Saturday 8th September 2007 I went to Ham, a mile or so upstream from Richmond, for the start of the Great River Race, a charity event on the River Thames first held in 1988. It is open only to fixed-seat traditional craft – including skiffs, cutters, Celtic longboats, currachs, and dragon boats (certainly not all traditional craft of the Thames.)

Each boat must all carry at least one passenger and a cox as well as those rowing or paddling. Later I photographed some of the boats as they passed through Central London but they were too spread out to make interesting pictures.

I was on my way to photograph the Maltese Victory Day procession from Westminster Cathedral, and left them some way down Victoria Street to photograph the statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square which had been unveiled a few days earlier.

Here are some pictures from the day, along with what I wrote about them back in 2007. You can see many more pictures on My London Diary.

The Great River Race

Ham & Vauxhall

Great River Race & Malta Victory - 2007 — *Crews paddling up to Ham for the start of the race*

The Great River Race isn’t really a particularly great race, but there were well over 200 boats involved, and considerable competition. The event is a handicap, and also has multiple classes and boats start at different times – some over an hour before the fastest – but should all arrive at Island Gardens [21.6 mile away at the tip of the Isle of Dogs] at around the same time. The boats include some of historical interest as well as those built entirely for speed.

It’s a long course, and can get a little rough further down in poor weather, but today was a fine day and everyone started from Ham in good spirits – and a few already well-fortified. Sting came along and fired a cannon as a starting signal and then the boats made their way in number order down to the real start a few hundred yards down river, a few at a time according to their handicaps.

Media interest mainly centred on Sting and a high-powered crew of young ladies, The Sisterhood, who attracted a great deal of sponsorship. They have already made an enormous amount for charity with a fast paddle across the English Channel, but today turned out to be the second fastest ladies crew, their dragonboat being beaten by an outrigger canoe.

My personal favourites were a crew of Welsh ladies who seemed to have a more relaxed approach to the occasion. There did seem to be a great many participants from the Celtic fringes, as well as visitors from the continent.

After all the boats had left I [walked back to Richmond and] took the train to Vauxhall and saw the first few crews pass there, all still rowing well (the paddlers hadn’t yet caught up.)

Far too many more pictures on My London Diary

Malta Day Procession

Westminster Cathedral

September 8th is a holiday in Malta, celebrated as the Feast Of Our Lady Of Victories (it is also the Feast Of The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary), and was the day in 1565 when the Knights Of St John Of Malta defeated the Turks. By coincidence it is also the day in 1943 that the Italian occupiers of the island surrendered to the allies.

*Traditional dress on the steps of the Cathedral*

*The procession leaves Westminster Cathedral*

The Maltese in London celebrate with a Mass at Westminster Cathedral followed by fireworks and a procession carrying a statue of the Baby Mary (Bambina) from there to the Sacred Heart Chapel Of Ease in Horseferry Road.

More pictures

Nelson Mandela statue

Parliament Square

The statue had been unveiled by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 29 August 2007, with Mandela, his wife Graça Machel and London Mayor Ken Livingstone among those present.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Monkey Business, Wrecked Cars & Roupell – 1990

Monkey Business, Wrecked Cars & Roupell: I’d thought when I wrote my previous post about 1990 that my day on April 1st 1990 had finished when my walk in Stoke Newington ended, but my contact sheets and the dates written on them tell a different story.

I’d not gone to the Poll Tax demonstration the previous day, but from Stoke Newington took the tube down to Covent Garden and walked to St Martin’s Lane and Tottenham Court Road where I photographed a few burnt out cars before going on to Waterloo East and catching a train to Lewisham to take more photographs there.

*Monkey Business, Covent Garden, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-33*

Monkey Business was a restaurant in Covent Garden which apparently came to an untimely end around 1991. In a Facebook post Sajan Narain relates: “While I was studying at Cambridge, a few of us friends went to Monkey Business, an aptly named restaurant in Covent Garden. While we were dining in the basement there, we heard loud sounds of guns being fired, and smashing of glass, like sound effects from an action movie. Waiters and staff were running around shouting.

We saw lots of huge red marks on white shirts worn by waiters. It turned out to be blood. There was a huge gang war going on above us. Many shots were fired and glass windows at the front of Monkey Business had been smashed.

Armed police, ambulances, doctors and paramedics arrived while we were there. We survived the gang war without any injuries. After that incident, Monkey Business had to be shut down, unfortunately.”

Burnt out car, St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-21 — *Burnt out car, St Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-21*

Back in 1990 I rarely photographed demonstrations, mainly only on the large marches of organisations to which I belonged such as the Anti-Apartheid movement and CND. Although I was aware of protests against the Poll Tax – and had photographed people burning their community charge demands – I did not attend the major protest called for March 31st when around 200,000 crowded into the area around Trafalgar Square.

The police had thought there would only be a few thousand and laughed at the protest organisers when they had suggested there could be 20,000 but it turned out much, much larger and the police were unprepared.

*Smashed car, Charing Cross Rd, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-22*

Heavy-handed policing, including the violent arrest of a man in a wheelchair and a charge by mounted police into the crowd in Trafalgar Square, followed by police driving riot vans into the crowd aroused huge anger from the protesters, many of whom began attacking the police with anything to hand, including scaffold poles. The police actions turned what would have been an angry but largely peaceful protest into a riot.

*Smashed car, Charing Cross Rd, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-23*

According to Wikipedia “Scuffles between rioters and police continued until 3 am. Rioters attacked numerous shops, most notably Stringfellow’s nightclub, and car showrooms, and Covent Garden cafés and wine bars were set ablaze, along with motor vehicles.”

*Smashed car, Charing Cross Rd, Westminster, 1990, 90-4b-24*

A police report the following year found “no evidence that the trouble was orchestrated by left-wing anarchist groups”, though some of these definitely claimed the credit. As usual at protests, most of those responsible for attacks on police evaded arrest and those arrested were largely bystanders and many were acquitted with video evidence showing the police had “fabricated or inflated charges”.

Protests including this one against the Poll Tax led to the questioning of Margaret Thatcher’s position as Prime Minister and led to her replacement by John Major. In 1991 he announced his intention to replace the Poll Tax by a new Council Tax, still in operation.

This returned to basing tax levels on property valuations but was in many respects a much cruder and less fair system than the former rates, particularly favouring owners of large and expensive properties at the expense of those in moderate and smaller homes.

*Rooftops, Waterloo, Lambeth, 1990, 90-4b-26*

My day was still not finished and I was on my way to Lewisham. As I walked down to the platform at Waterloo East station I pushed my camera through the gap in one of the slightly open windows and took this picture of the rooftops of Roupell Street and its neighbours.

These densely packed late Georgian worker’s cottages were developed by metal merchant John Roupell in 1824. He had married the daughter of a wealthy City wine merchant and after she inherited a wealthy aunt’s estate in Essex bought around 7 acres here at a cost of £8,000 to develop the Roupell Park Estate, its streets named after his family.

In their early years many of these small 4-roomed houses will have housed perhaps four large families, one to a room, perhaps over 20 people. These streets are much used as settings for films and TV, and the small houses now sell for around £1.5m

Pictures from Lewisham in later posts.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Bikes, Canals & Walthamstow – 2004

Bikes, Canals & Walthamstow: On Sunday 5th September 2004 my work began with cycle racing in Whitehall, after which I went to Islington for a canal festival, finally making my way to High Street Walthamstow for another festival there. As usual I’ll reproduce what I wrote back then and link to more pictures from the three events still on My London Diary.

Cycle racing in Whitehall

Bikes, Canals & Walthamstow - 2004 — *The first lap of the club race and one cyclist has already broken from the pack on Embankment.*

The Tour Of Britain has so far lacked the public interest of the Tour De France, but a last day involving a road race around a mile course through Whitehall should have given it a boost. I only stayed for the warm-up event with club cyclists competing on the same course.

The crowding and the pace made for some excitement, but for an outsider I think there needed to be some way to make individuals more recognisable in the crowd.

More pictures on My London Diary

Angel Canal Festival

Islington

Up at the Angel, it was the 19th annual Canal Festival, with singers and other performers, boat trips, decorated boats and various stalls along the towpath.

It really did seem to be a very pleasant event for a sunny summer Sunday with everyone enjoying themselves.

Up on the street people were sitting around the pub and being entertained, first by a three piece band, apparently of Cockney persuasion with a little Dixie thrown in, then by some Morris men

*Boats dressed up for the Canal Festival*

More pictures

Walthamstow Festival 2004

*A women’s morris dancing in High Street , Walthamstow*

The attraction that dragged me away [from the canal and the pub] was the promise of belly-dancing in Walthamstow.

*The musicians sensibly stayed in the shade*

Walthamstow has of course a William Morris connection (and an occasionally open museum [reopening by 1 October 2026 after significant renewal]) but there were no discernible signs of this. [Though I’m sure there were but I missed them.]

The first event that drew my interest was however a women’s Morris performing in the high street.

Belly-dancing is one of those things I always wonder if there is more too it than the obvious attraction. And I was obviously attracted, though it’s hard to think of any way to photograph it other than the obvious.

The display involved two solo performers of very different frame. If you don’t have much to wobble, the movements can be much more controlled, but to this male eye are considerably less provocative.

More pictures

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The New Trafalgar Dispatch – 2005

Staines, Sunday 4th September 2005

The New Trafalgar Dispatch: At a protest in Whitehall the previous day, I had “made the mistake of climbing up onto the small wall by the edge of the grass, which produced a nasty snapping feeling in my knee, leaving me in pain.” So on Sunday 4th September I didn’t feel up to travelling to cover events in London, and instead went to photograph this local event – part of a wider national event – in Staines celebrating the rapid journey to London after the first ship docked at Falmouth following the battle of Trafalgar and brought the news both of the victory and of the death of Admiral Nelson.

Despite limping badly and painfully I seem to have managed a very full coverage of the event – which you can still view on My London Diary. Here below is the text I wrote in 2005 and a few of the pictures.

Nelson’s final prayer, on 21 October 1804 [the day of the Battle of Trafalgar] included a plea for God to grant victory “to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general.” He continued: “may no misconduct, in any one, tarnish it, and may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet.” These noble sentiments were not empty words, and when the battle was over, British sailors would risk their lives to save those of their French counterparts.

I thought about the humanity towards refugees and asylum seekers currently being shown by our New Labour government during the new Trafalgar Dispatch events at Staines on Sunday and felt a sense of shame about my country.

But we were celebrating greater times, although 200 years ago the events were also tinged with great sadness. Along with news of Britain’s great victory, Lt John Richards Lapontiere also brought news of Nelson’s death on his rapid voyage to Falmouth and express post-chaise journey from there to London – covering the 271 miles on land in 37 hours. One of the many places his coach picked up fresh horses was the Bush Inn at Staines, then one of the major market towns of Middlesex, and only two stages from the Admiralty in London.

The Bush is long gone, as also is the bridge across which his coach ran, but Sunday saw actor Alex Price playing the role of Lapontiere coming by coach – from Homebase just down the road (more or less on the old Staines boundary) – into Staines and onto the bridge where he was met by the Mayors of Runnymede and Spelthorne and the Lord Lieutenant Of Surrey (all women.) It was a day full of anachronism, as neither Runnymede or Spelthorne existed at the time of Trafalgar, when Staines was one of the main market towns of Middlesex.

After a brief ceremony on the bridge, proceedings moved on to Staines Old Town Hall, a fine Victorian building given away at a derisory price recently by the local council to the disgust of most if not all locals to become a [short-lived] pub.

*A septet from Staines Brass Band, founded as Staines United Temperance Band in 1930, provided the music for the Trafalgar service*

Another short performance there ended with copies of the new Trafalgar Dispatch and a copy of the original being officially presented to the Mayors and Surrey, before a plaque was unveiled on the town hall wall and an Anglican service held at a ‘drumhead church‘ in the fountains in the Market Square – turned off for the day [and more or less ever since].)

I’d stayed in Staines for this event partly because of my painful knee. I was surprised to find how much I had to move around even to cover a relatively simple event such as this. And yes, it hurt.

More pictures on My London Diary.

A few days later I added:

“A visit to my doctor’s [the following day] produced some [powerful prescription only] tablets that soothed the pain, and the advice that physiotherapy on the national health involves a wait of several months – by which time it would probably be fine anyway. Private treatment of course is available more or less on the spot, and he recommended the physios based at a local sports centre.

It’s not the cost, but the principle that stopped me ringing them to make an appointment. I grew up with the national health, orange juice and cod liver oil from the clinic, medicines and treatment when you needed them – not just if you could afford them. Prescription charges were a first step in the dismantling of the system, now more and more of it is being privatised in one way or another. National Health dentistry has more or less disappeared (and looks like going completely with government reforms next year.)

So I’m limping on, or rather trying not to limp, but get some gentle exercise without causing more damage and hoping time will heal.”

Slowly it did, and after a week’s rest I felt able to take some short walks in London and a couple of weeks later was back covering protests. But it was some months before I could walk without any pain.

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Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival – 2006

Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival: I went to Kingston upon Thames on Sunday September 3 2006 to photograph Kingston Carnival because I hoped to take at least one picture in the town to include in a show, Another London, I was preparing with two friends to take place in Kingston Museum in January 2007, and I made two pictures which ended up in that show.

But both were of Beeraahaar Sweet Combination, a prize-winning Carnival Mas Band based in Stamford Hill, Hackney, miles away in North London and with no real connection to Kingston. Kingston, formerly in Surrey, since 1965 has been a London borough on the edge of London, but until 2020 still home to the central offices of Surrey County Council.

Kingston Carnival began in 2001, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, although this year it was postponed, but is planned to return in 2027.

Later I went to the Regent Street Festival in central London which had a Spanish theme. Below I’ll post with minor corrections what I wrote in 2006 and links to more pictures.

Kingston Carnival

Kingston, Surrey

A little bit of Hackney came to Kingston on Sunday morning to provide the Kingston Carnival. Hard to see why Kingston can’t put up its own carnival, but Beeraahaar Sweet Combination are a fine group that I’ve photographed at Notting Hill and Mardi Gras in Hackney, and even a small group of them gave the event a little atmosphere. Just a pity there weren’t more groups and people from Kingston in the parade to match them.

The stalls around the Guildhall showed there are a diverse range of communities in the area, but the parade didn’t really reflect this. Shipping in a carnival procession provides a little diversion, but surely the whole point of a borough paying for a carnival is to encourage community activities within its own boundaries?

More pictures on My London Diary

Regent Street Festival

Regent St, Westminster

From Kingston I caught the train up to town and to Spain, which was happening in Regent Street, closed to traffic for the day. Of course not closed to shopping, which perhaps rather limits what the organisers could do. I didn’t find the event too exciting, and the large crowds around anything that was going on reflected that too little was happening.

The police, mainly down a side street, were putting on a good show, one of the funniest I’ve seen for a long time, demonstrating how the police are supposed to restrain people, and use weapons such as pepper spray. The gulf between theory and practice is amazing.

I tried out a free sample of a revolting sherry-based drink, watched more Spanish folk dancers than was good for anyone’s sanity, avoided the sand on the ‘beaches’ and decided it was time to go home.

More pictures

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Cycling The Colne Valley – 2004

Cycling The Colne Valley: The Colne Valley Regional Park was founded in 1965 but its development has been rather frustrated over the years, with the M25 being built along much of it and the M4 and M40 passing through, not to mention the increasing development of Heathrow – and if it ever goes ahead the third runway will cut a huge swathe through it.

The park stretches from Rickmansworth in the north to Staines in the south, and my bike ride on September 1st 2004 was only in the southern half of it, from Staines to Harefield and back.

Cycling The Colne Valley - 2004 — *Lock and bridge, Grand Union Canal, near Harefield, Middlesex.*

Somewhere close to West Drayton was a finger post showing a bridleway – the Colne Valley Trail – to Staines. I rode and walked past it on various occasions; it led just a few yards to a fence and a firmly locked gate. More than 20 years later the trail has still not managed to reach Staines, though the map on the park site shows it now ending on the Colnbrook Bypass, so perhaps some progress has been made.

As my account in 2004 below suggests, it was in some ways a frustrating ride, but the Grand Union Canal always has some interest as I hope the photos show. And there are some good short rides and walks in the park as well as places worth a visit – including Harmondsworth with its Great Barn – the village and others will be destroyed if Heathrow gets another runway and the barn may not survive being moved.

Here’s what I wrote in 2004.

On my bike

Staines – Harefield – Staines

September seems like the end of summer, but started with some of the best weather we’ve had this year, so I felt like a bike ride. I’m still waiting for the bridle path from Staines to West Drayton to open, so it started with the normal dusty trek up past the edge of the airport. A skeletal T5 (or are they building T6 or T7 as well) looms immense and threatening over the surrounding countryside, but there are no decent views past the fences and screening trees. I push on up to Harefield at speed before descending to the canal, only to find that I’ve picked the one bit of towpath that is actually closed for repair work.

*Offices along Grand Union Canal, Uxbridge, Middlesex*

So I take some other footpaths, and don’t so much get lost as overcome with uncertainty as one of these disappears in the middle of a gravel site.

I give up and take to the main road, soon to discover it’s a mistake. Eventually I get back to the canal and cycle back along the towpath all the way back to West Drayton to curse again the barred bridle path and the busy traffic and bicycle hostile road engineering – now in the rush hour – past the airport.

There are a few more pictures on My London Diary beginning here.

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Diana & Mass Lone Demo – 2006

Diana & Mass Lone Demo: On Thursday 31 August I went with a friend to the gates of Kensington Palace on the ninth anniversary of the killing of Princess Diana (I think I deliberately misspelt her name twice as Diane to show my lack of interest in the royals) before going to a pub in Kensington.

Later in the day I went to Parliament Square for the Mass Lone Demonstration suggested by Mark Thomas in response to the ludicrous and dangerous restrictions on protests in a large area around Parliament and other designated sites imposed in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Princess Diana, 9th Anniversary commemoration

Kensington Palace

The last day of the month was the ninth anniversary of Diana’s death, and her fans, including members of the Diana Circle, were at Kensington Palace to mark the event, taping flowers and tributes to the gates and fence. I’d gone to meet a friend, who had extensively photographed the scenes there in the days immediately following her death.

The fans had come from all over the country, and from Germany and elsewhere. Father Frank Gelli, who was curate of St Mary Abbots just down the road at the time of her death, led prayers at a short memorial service. Throughout the day more people arrived with tributes and flowers. Next year on the 10th anniversary there are hopes for a bigger event. [And I went again then.]

Kensington Palace has had a bit of a face lift, doubtless benefiting from the Diana effect on visitor numbers. However, rather than taking a visit there, we went to visit the Elephant And Castle, and old press pub, taking a short detour through St Mary Abbots on our way.

More pictures on My London Diary.

Mass Lone Demonstration

Parliament Square

Later in Parliament Square I got a small badge ‘Mass Lone Demonstration 31/8 Parliament Square‘. This was an idea from Mark Thomas, who had suggested that as many people as possible should give the required one weeks notice to the police that they planned a solo demonstration in parliament square from 6-7pm.

I’m not sure how many did so, though there were perhaps around 50 with different placards while I was there. If I’d heard about it in time, I would perhaps have applied and arrived with a poster “End Police Harassment Of Photographers“.

One of the stupidest things that the Labour government have done was to try to pass a law to get rid of Brian Haw, whose continuing protest opposite the Houses of Parliament was causing minor embarrassment to Labour ministers, particularly Mr Blair. They managed to tag it on to something called SOCPA, the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005.

The blunt weapon they wielded banned all demonstrations without a weeks notice within a kilometre or so of parliament, and much to their disappointment it has so far failed to get rid of Brian. Actually he’s a reasonable man, and if they had instead done something serious to stop children being killed in Iraq he would have been out of the square immediately.

Instead they choose to strike at free speech for all of us. It’s a law that has so far resulted in some farcical prosecutions (though with serious consequences for those taken to court.) Many of the police I’ve talked to obviously feel the law is an ass, and resent having to try and enforce it. Often they’ve turned their backs and walked away from illegal events (or even escorted the people carrying them out when they were company directors), but it has also wasted huge amounts of public money when they have been pushed into action.

One of the provisions of the law is that a lone demonstration – one person with a placard – is automatically to be granted permission provided a week’s notice is given, although conditions may be attached either when the permission is granted or by a police officer on the spot. It was Mark Thomas who had the idea that there could be a large number of such demonstrations at the same time and place, and it was made public on several blogs and web sites.

Those taking part were encouraged to pick their own subject of protest – serious or silly – and you can see some of these in my pictures. Brian Haw, who has received limited permission to use a megaphone, was able to do so.

A few more pictures here on My London Diary.

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Childrens Day, Notting Hill – 2004

Childrens Day, Notting Hill Carnival: Sunday 29th August 2004 was Children’s Day at Notting Hill Carnival and back in 2004 I wrote just two short paragraphs to go with a large number of pictures.

“I don’t know whose wallet it was in the hand I caught as it reached into my pocket in Cambridge Gardens, but it wasn’t mine. It wasn’t the time or place to argue much, so I let the youth wriggle away.”

“The 40th Notting Hill Carnival was living up to its reputation, in this and also in the friendliness of most of the participants. This was Children’s Day, so I took my son, and will embarrass him with a couple of pictures of him dancing. But mostly it was what we have come to expect, and a little dull weather and the odd shower didn’t mar the celebrations”

I didn’t take my wallet to Notting Hill, but in a densely-packed crowd found a hand putting an empty one back into my left front trouser pocket. Perhaps he thought he had earlier taken it from that same pocket before removing the contents and was trying to replace it, or did he just want an easy way to get rid of the evidence.

I think I probably went to carnival on around twenty or thirty days over the years, though I’ve not been recently. Apart from this rather odd incident I saw very little criminality apart from the widespread smoking of weed – and I picked up enough secondary smoke some days to make me rather high.

But generally there were many more pickpockets on crowded underground trains and much more violence in the crowds around football stadiums. Press reports always greatly exaggerated the negative sides of the event and I never felt unsafe. When there were reports of trouble it was usually late in the day when I had gone home.

But I did take some simple precautions – taking a couple of notes and some coins rather than my wallet and credit cards, and being more careful than usual with my photo gear. I carried less than usual and kept it in a small ex-military shoulder bag – though in crowds I carried this around my neck and in front of my body.

Attitude is also important. Some photographers seem to me to be rather confrontational but I followed my normal friendly nature, smiling, talking and at times dancing with people. Like most of the others at the event I was there to have a good time. And to have just a can or two of Red Stripe – and some of my free annual malt fix.

You can see more pictures from Childrens Day beginning here on My London Diary.

And I went back on the following day on my own for the carnival proper – pictures begin here.

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Notting Hill Carnival – 2006

Notting Hill Carnival – On Sunday 27th August 2006 I went to Childrens’ Day of the Notting Hill Carnival, returning on Monday 28th for the main Carnival Day.

By then I’d photographed carnival over more than a dozen years and was getting to feel I had little more to say about the event, though I was still enjoying the atmosphere. I’d had to miss the 2005 event and this year was determined to do my best.

Looking at the pictures I think I concentrated more on the actual parade than in previous years, though I think the black and white images probably show more of those of us following the performers. Below I’ll include – with the usual corrections – what I wrote about the two days back in 2006.

“The big event of August is always Notting Hill Carnival, and I was there both on the Sunday afternoon for Children’s Day and for the main event on the Monday, shooting both black and white film and colour digital (though when I’ll get round to processing the film is anyone’s guess.) [By 2006 I had largely abandoned film and I think a few months later I finally decided rather than process it myself to send it to a lab.]

“Perhaps it’s because I’m getting older, but I didn’t get the same buzz from this year’s event as in previous years, though most of the same things seemed to be around.

“Perhaps there lies the problem; most of them did seem to be the same, two years on from when I last photographed the event.

“Last year I tried to go, dragging myself to the station with a knee injury, but the pain was too much to continue. This year my knee held out, though I was glad to sink into a seat on the Underground at Latimer Road at the end of the day.”

There are many photographers at Carnival, and only a few of these pictures have ever got published. Among those that have is the one apparently showing a well-known football manager (who I didn’t recognise and whose name I’ve forgotten) in a line of women in costume.

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Gunnersbury Park & Brentford – 2018

Gunnersbury Park & Brentford: Another family outing on Friday 24th August 2018 took us to Gunnersbury House Museum, a free museum jointly owned by the London Borough of Hounslow and the London Borough of Ealing. It turned out to be considerably more interesting than I expected.

The 200 acre Gunnersbury estate was bought in 1925 from the Rothschild family by Ealing Borough Council and Acton Borough Council for £130,000, although it was all actually just outside their areas and in Brentford Urban District. They wanted to build over it, but the Rothschilds stipulated that all except a small part of it it was only to be used for leisure and recreation and it was opened to the public as a park by Neville Chamberlainn, then Minister of Health, in 1926.

Development of the site as a ‘country estate’ on the outskirts of London had begun in the late 17th century when the first large mansion, Gunnersbury House was built around 1663. The estate passed through various hands including wealthy merchant and MP Henry Furnese who had noted landscape designer William Kent give the park a makeover. Next Princess Amelia, favourite daughter of George II, had further changes made to the grounds for her famous parties there, including building a bathhouse.

The first mansion was demolished in 1801 and the estate was split into two adjoining estates each with a new mansion.

The Grade II* listing for the ‘Large Mansion’ states it was built in “1801-28 by and for Alexander Copland; remodelled 1836 by Sydney Smirke for Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the City financier and Frankfurt-born founder of the British branch of this famous international Jewish banking dynasty.”

Next door the “Small Mansion”, on the site of the former mansion was built in 1801-1802 for Stephen Cosser according its Grade II listing, though other sources place it a few years later. It was extended with a service wing in 1837-44 by eccentric “Rogue Gothic” architect Joseph Peacock (1821–1893).

*The Rothschilds had two French chefs who shared this office*

The Rothschilds bought the Large Mansion (now the museum) and its gardens and park in 1835, adding the Small Mansion and its grounds in 1889 to recreate the now Grade II* listed Gunnersbury Park.

*Large prints from Leopold de Rothschild’s Autochromes show the place as it was over a hundred years ago – with flamingos*

I walked with Linda to the park from Kew Bridge Station along Lionel Road “with some difficulty as it is now a building site and crossed the Great West Road under the overhead M4, a Ballardian trek past the old and closed castellated gate to the park to enter into a sylvan wilderness, walking past the Potomac lake and its gothic folly.”

*The garden slopes down from the house to a lake*

Older members of our party took a shorter walk from the underground at Acton Central. Lionel Road is now overlooked by Brentford Community Stadium opened in 2020.

The park is certainly worth a visit and on My London Diary you can read more about what were for me the two highlights.These were the huge Rothschild’s kitchens where meals, not generally kosher, were prepared under the supervision of two French chefs, and a display of large prints from the Autochromes taken by Leopold de Rothschild using the first practical colour photography process patented by the Lumiere brothers in 1903 and sold to the public from 1907.

*I made a new picture as we passed a cafe I photographed almost 30 years earlier on our way to Kew Bridge*

We ate, not from those kitchens but from the modern park café, “tasty but rather insubstantial, and if you visit and are hungry, I’d advise a side order of chips” – or a short walk to a cheaper place near Acton Town station.

*The Thames and Brentford Ait from under Kew Bridge*

After the meal we said goodbye to the others and took a longer walk around the park before walking back to Kew Bridge station. With almost half and hour to wait for the next train we took a short walk by the River Thames to Brentford High Street and back.

You can read more about our trip to the park and the museum and see many more pictures from the day on My London Diary at Gunnersbury Park & Brentford.

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