Camden Lock, South Bank & Soul in the City: I didn’t write much about my day on Saturday 7th August 2004 – and I’ll reproduce it in full at the end of this post.
I didn’t then mention that I started the day in Camden taking half an hour wandering around Camden Lock before walking along, past a secret garden near Regents Park (and I can’t remember where that was) to Park Square East where I took a picture of the Diorama “built in 1823 to show large, dramatized tableaux paintings as entertainment.“
Next I took the tube to the South Bank where at the National Theatre I found the Caesar Twins swimming around in a goldfish bowl, but with apparently relatively few people paying much attention.
On the beach at Gabriel’s Wharf
From there I went onto the beach beside the River Thames at Gabriel’s Wharf where people were relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. The tide was out revealing a remarkably wide area of sand.
In Bernie Spain Gardens on the bank above a festival was taking place and I photographed a few Romanian musicians before walking back across the new Jubilee (Hungerford) bridge to Trafalgar Square – where my 2004 account below describes what was taking place.
Romanian music in Bernie Spain Gardens
“Saturday I spent wandering around London, mainly getting to things too early. I did manage to take a few pictures of a Romanian group performing at Bernie Spain Gardens, before leaving for Trafalgar Square which had been taken over for the final event of a two week ‘Soul In The City’ mission for young people.
Worship in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the end of two weeks of work and witness.
The fountains in the square were full of young people, mainly girls, waving in ecstasy to rather tame gospel music in a slickly managed event. As I was photographing a woman was praying out loud into my left ear, filling it with sycophantic nonsense, but otherwise there seemed to be little real fervour.
I went back to the Romanians, where at least there was Urquell Pilsner on sale (its advertising says ‘In the beginning there was darkness, then in 1842 we found the light.)”
The larger images are ones I took then but didn’t use in my original post. There are a few more pictures on My London Diary, beginning here.
Lewisham, Black Heath and Heathside: Pictures from the final part of my walk on Sunday 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was Deptford, Greenwich and The Point – 1990.
House, 17, West Grove, Blackheath, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-56
I came down from The Point onto more or less the top of Point Hill, which rises steeply from Greenwich and turned east into West Grove where a few houses including this one overlook the western edge of the Black Heath – and a short distance across the grass the A2. Different maps show this section as the east section of Blackheath Hill or the start of Shooters Hill, though this section is more or less flat. There are a few trees in the grass which is criss-crossed by footpaths.
This Grade II* listed house, Manna Mead at 17 West Grove, was built around 1800. Although a fine building I think it owes its unusual Grade II* listing at least partly because of its position on the edge of Black Heath and its views. It is divided into flats.
I walked along to the well-known Rangers House on the edge of Greenwich Park and taking a few pictures there and on the way, including the listed Conduit Head for the water supply to the Greenwich Royal Hospital, none of which I have yet digitised. I went across the A2 and down Dartmouth Hill to Dartmouth Row.
Dartmouth House was a very substantial house and the sign outside suggests it was in process of being converted into flats. It was built in 1928-9 as a nurses home for the Miller General Hospital. This had been built in the grounds of the Royal Kent Dispensary in 1883 to celebrate the Dispensary’s 100th anniversary and “as a memorial to the Revd Canon John Cale Miller (1814-1880), the founder of Hospital Sunday”. This was an important national collection day every June, established in 1873 to support the work of voluntary hospitals, vital before the foundation of the NHS. Its inception is more generally attributed to London’s Lord Mayor.
Miller was Vicar of St Alfege, Greenwich and had greatly supported the work of the Dispensary. The hospital was closed in 1974 and the home was redundant. It briefly became a home for single mothers and was being converted into 17 2- and 3-bed flats.
This Dartmouth House is sometimes confused with the Grade II listed Blackheath House of the Earl of Dartmouth which was also in Dartmouth Row, just south of the church.
Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-35
Dartmouth Chapel was established in 1699 as private chapel for the Earls of Dartmouth so the Vicar of Lewisham could to preach a sermon for the family every Sunday. Traces of the original building may have survived the considerable rebuilding in around 1750 and 1834.
It had served as a temporary parish church for Lewisham in 1774-7 but was consecrated as a separate parish church, the Church of the Ascension in 1883. Much older material was also removed during rebuilding after wartime damage in 1950. The church is Grade II* listed.
View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990,
These flats on the side of Blackheath Hill were the Heathside Estate – Ferguson House, Melville House, Varden House, Glennie House and Travis House – built in 1948 by the LCC. They have since been demolished and the area redeveloped.
Stairs and View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-26
Noted for its vibrant community life, this estate on the edge of the London Borough of Lewisham was in a poor state structurally by the 2000s and in 2009 plans were approved for its demolition and replacement by new Heathside and Lethbridge estates.
House, 83, Morden Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-12
A fine example of a 1930s house with its Crittall windows intact. Although many houses like this were built with flat roofs, this had a pitched roof with a large overhang you can see here. The house still looks in good condition now, though the carefully trimmed bushes have gone.
Railway, Offices, Multi-storey Car Park, Molesworth St, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3n-01
I began and ended the walk at Lewisham Station and I’m unsure whether I made this image – taken on another camera – at the start or finish of my walk. The picture is made on a footpath that leads over the River Ravensbourne around a quarter of a mile south of the station and was taken from just on the east side of the river looking under the railway line towards Molesworth St. Although central Lewisham has changed drastically in the past decade or so, I think both the buildings in the background remain.
My next photographic walk was in North London two weeks later. Coming here shortly.
Shops & Yards, Leyton: Continuing with pictures from my walks around Leyton in September 1994 her is a final set of pictures of shops and yards which caught my attention. Although I originally captioned some as being in Leytonstone I think by this part of the walk I was back in Leyton. This post follows on from More Leytonstone Shops – 1994.
This amazing brightly sunlit near-symmetrical window display in a shop selling cakes has as its centrepiece a rather unhealthy looking plant in a bright orange container with a pentagonal gold design on its front.
Under each box was a carefully placed doily – a decorative openwork piece first popularised by London Draper Mr Doiley in the 17th century as woollen pieces to be worn. Later doilys became used as head coverings, napkins and largely “crocheted tatted or knitted out of cotton or linen thread” and became used under jugs, plates, vases and dishes on dining and other tables. More commonly they are now made – like those in this picture – from paper.
The interior of the shop can also be seen, if dimly, in the picture, and there are also some reflections, including me at the bottom of the frame, though more obvious is a road sign warning of the low railway bridge which I now think is that Hainault Road – and which can also be made out across the top of the picture. The interior and reflections merge well and it is hard to sort them out.
M W White, Metal Dealer, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-43
Somewhere in Leyton was a small and packed yard of metal dealer M W White and I think it was next to Midland Road station on Midland Road and I made this looking down from the station platform. This site was redeveloped before 2008.
The shop occupied by Lea Bridge Sauna at 171 Lea Bridge Road has undergone frequent changes of business since I made this picture and in 2025 was a mobile phone and vape shop. I think it has kept the central door but now has large glass windows on each side, though more often the whole ground floor frontage is covered by a metal blind.
I felt that one of the tropical fish in the ‘aquarium’ across the top half of the picture which had fallen off, leaving its outline and the bare wood behind was now swimming across the window below.
I think the only fish now for sale on the Lea Bridge Road are probably in fish and chip shops. I always enjoyed walking past the many shops on this road and at one time used to visit to buy bargain photographic paper and film at Marston & Heard at 378 Lea Bridge Road. In the late 1970s they became part of a larger group of dealers, the Phototec Group with various branches around London and elsewhere. Among other things in the early 1980s I bought fairly large stocks of Agfa Portriga paper which Agfa then no longer sold in the UK. The group disappeared around the end of that decade.
C Barralet Builders Merchants, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-33
The only information I can find searching on Google for C Barralet is based on these two pictures I took back in 1994, and this builders merchants otherwise seem to have disappeared without trace, though I’m sure will still be listed in out-of-date directories and other records.
In the background here is a distinctive huilding and further away two gasholders, presumably those of Lea Bridge (Clementina Road) Gasworks to the south of Clementina Road, which were taken out of use in 2012 and demolished in 2019. The parked gas can suggests this might be part of the gasworks site.
C Barralet Builders Merchants, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-36
Comprehensive redevelopment of this area since 1994 makes it impossible for me to precisely locate these pictures, and I think all of the buildings shown have now been demolished including the factory at the right of this picture.
Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-23
I think this industrial site was probably also in the same area south of Lea Bridge Road in Leyton and also now redeveloped. The buildings here seem to be largely steel frames covered with sheets of asbestos and I can identify none of the rusting stacks of products.
Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-25
Finally a closer look at the front of one of the sheds and the items in front of it photographed over the green fence with items of a similar colour and a large brighter green door. But what makes the composition stand out is the orange paint over parts of the structure of the large doorway, perhaps looking like some flat-footed robot standing arms outstretched holding vertical spears blocking the entrance.
I think this was the end of this walk in Leyton and I probably caught a bus back to Hackney Central for the North London Line.
Deptford, Greenwich and The Point: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was Lewisham and Deptford – 1990.
I walked from Deptford into the area between Deptford and Lewisham, mainly in the London Borough of Greenwich, then up the hills towards Blackheath. As often on my walks there was a good deal of wandering around as I tried to at least look down every street on my way.
This terrace of buildings from 17-21 Deptford Broadway dates from the late 17th century and is Grade II listed. The Eagle is perched on top of the Transport Cafe which was at some long past time a tavern. The listing says the building is probably from the late 17th century and still has two original staircases.
Two houses which caught my attention for their verandas. Both were built in the 1840s and are larger than you might think as you can just see they have basements. I wondered if the left hand house of the pair was built for a client with a larger family.
Ditch Alley, Blackheath Rd, Greenwich, 1990
Ditch Alley runs from Blackheath Road to John Penn St which gets its name from the engineering works of John Penn & Sons which were begun in 1799 and from 1825 produced marine engines here as well as boilers at its riverside site at Palmers Payne Wharf, Deptford.
The alley went through the centre of the site and I think all the buildings in my two pictures date from 1863 or later. Among other claims to engineering fame the company produced the world’s first wind tunnel in 1868. The company declined as shipbuilding declined in London and was wound up in 1914.
Ditch Alley, John Penn St, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-62
John Penn Street was originally known as Cold Bath Lane but was renamed John Penn Street in the 1870s. Parts of the works site were later occupied by the Broomfield Bakery which closed in 1992 (and is still missed by some locals – Gregg’s sausage rolls are not the same), and while Lewisham Council dithered over adding some of the remaining buildings to the Statutory List they were demolished. The site is now occupied by Wickes, Pets at Home and a large car park for these stores along with housing. More details on the Greenwich Industrial History site.
By 2009 Parry’s Dispensing Chemist’s premises at 6-8 Lewisham Road were occupied by Juliet Q Unisex Hair Beauty Salon but this closed shortly after and I think the ground floor has since remained unoccupied. But although Mr Yip may well have left us, the shop next door at No 4 is still a Chinese Take Away.
Dutton Street, Maidenstone Hill, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-66
Although Google Maps calls this Maidenstone Hill, the name on the houses clearly reads Dutton Street, while a newer sign on the other side of the road favours Google’s choice. This is certainly a hilly part of London and I made my way to the top of the hill.
View, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-51
The Point has been noted for centuries as a viewpoint over London with wide views to the north and the west, and remains as a small area of public open space. Although now in Greenwich it was formerly in the Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, and was named The Blackheath Point.
On a clear day there is a protected view of St Paul’s Cathedral, but although I had good weather, the city was covered in the usual murk of pollution, atmospheric but hiding it. I think to get a clear view you would need to be up here after a thunderstorm had scrubbed the London air.
Point Hill, Westgrove Lane, from, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-53
The land drops away steeply here to a road full of houses for the fashionable and wealthy in the Victorian era – and still now for the rich. These houses are quite a contrast to the working class homes in my Dutton Street picture above.
View, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-55
Looking roughly north there are more plebeian residencies close to The Point and in the middle distance a number of large council blocks from the 1930s or 1950s. Beyond them is housing on the Isle of Dogs and the growing development of Docklands, as yet without its towers, though the cranes are busy.
I was coming close to the end of my walk but I took a few more pictures before leaving for home which I’ll post shortly in the final selection from this walk.
More Leytonstone Shop Windows: More pictures from my walk in September 1994.
Tailor, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-32
High Road Leytonstone is a main road which stretches from around the junction with Cann Hall Lane and goes though the centre of Leytonstone to the Green Man Roundabout around a mile and a half to the north. When I made these pictures I had little interest in their exact location. It was the content of the picture that interested me, this plastic-wrapped head and arm-less torso in a tight top and skirt with rather odd chains with hanging tassels and the curtains with flowering branches and vases of flowers.
Tailor, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 94-903-33
I stood further back to take a more overall image, but this meant I was unable to control the reflection. This shows a rather distinctive end of a terrace of shops which I can’t now find on High Rd, Leytonstone, but there are some very similar frontages close to the south end of the road. But perhaps someone with local knowledge will be able to comment and post a more detailed location for this and the other images.
A sparsely furnished brightly coloured café with shining clean tables, but strangely lacking in condiments, with just a single pepper pot on each table. And apparently nothing on the wall behind. Those double-side bright red benches look to me rather narrow and uncomfortable and a possible cause of friction with those sitting on the bench on the other side.
All Occasions, Florist, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-61
The lettering and decoration of ‘All Occasions Florists’ suggested to me a Greek or Turkish hand behind them, but the posters covering the windows indicated this was no longer in business selling Wedding and Funeral Flowers.
I could never understand the large number of wig shops in all of the most deprived areas of London, and photographed many of the displays. And why at the front of the window was there a bright blue bald head?
Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-51
Most of the wigs seemed to be for women, but I was attracted to this window for men, with a head with a ridiculously fake moustache and behind, with staring blue eyes and ridiculous eyebrows, a figure with a crudely drawn collar and tie. And another bald head, this time white while the other male heads were – unlike those in the previous picture – some kind of skin colour.
Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-54
And a second, wider view of that same window, with at the bottom a photograph of a man wearing the ‘St Giles’ wig and giving some technical details: 60% human hair and 40% modacyrlic fibre it weighs 42 grams and is available in a wide range of colours.
People wear wigs for various reason, including to cover hair loss due to alopecia or chemotherapy as well as for fashion and changing their looks – as well as for theatre, TV and film. Apparently many people including some stars are never seen in public without one.
Israeli Attacks on Lebanon & Brazilian Carnival: Twenty years ago on July 22nd 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.
