Bubbles, Hula Hoops, Hugs & Venus: The 8th Reclaim Love Valentine Party on Saturday 12th February 2011 was a little different from usual, but like the others called for universal love and peace and opposed the incredible commercialisation of St Valentines Day.
This year 2026, there are plans for another Reclaim Love:- “You are invited to join us on Saturday February 14th (St. V. Day!) at 2:30pm for a 3:33pm LOVE CIRCLE by Eros in London’s Piccadilly Circus. YES! It’s back! RECLAIM LOVE!…”
I hope it goes well – and hope to be there.
Before the 2011 party I had photographed a celebration of the success of the Egyptian Revolution in removing President Mubarek. Unfortunately things have not gone well for Egypt in the years since that euphoric moment.
Reclaim Love Pavement Party
Piccadilly Circus & Green Park
Reclaim love presents an alternative to the commercial messages about Valentines day on the hoardings in Piccadilly Circus, watched by Eros and a helicopter far above.Rhythms of Resistance play at Piccadilly Circus
This was the 8th Annual Reclaim Love Pavement Party, organised by Venus “to celebrate the Greatest thing on Earth and the Greatest thing we have inside…Yes, Love!!!” It almost didn’t happen, but Irish poet and love activist Venus CuMara had been persuaded by many who had come to previous events to arrange another despite feeling she needed to rest. But her incredible energy and spirit shows in the many pictures I made of her at the event.
Free Reclaim Love T-shirts from Ethical ThreadsVenus arrives, having prepared the tree circle for our visit
But Piccadilly Circus where the event was normally held was being reorganised and although the persuasive charms of Venus managed to get the workmen to tidy up the area to make it possible to meet there, holding the great circle which is the climax of the event was impossible.
At times the air was pretty full of bubbles
Instead Venus led the group to a circle of 13 tall plane trees in Green Park for the event, where carefully avoiding the daffodils in the grass the circle was formed.
Venus says it’s time to go to a very special place
As well as this giant circle in London there were others forming to chant the same mantra “May All The Beings In All The Worlds Be Happy And At Peace” for around five minutes at the same time, 3.30pm UTC.
In 2010 there had been 7 circles in Ireland, 6 others in England, in Scotland, Wales, Pakistan, 2 in India, 4 in Spain, 2 in Italy, 3 in Germany, Austria, Iceland, France, Brazil, Argentina, 2 in New Zealand, 5 in the USA, Canada and Australia. And in 2011 for the first time there was to be one in Egypt.
After this as people began to party and dance in the centre of the tree circle – carefully avoiding the growing daffodils – two vans full of police drove up. Venus rushed to talk to them and explain what was happening and was told the the event was contravening a number of the bylaws of the Royal Parks, and it did not have the permissions needed.
Eventually Venus managed to convince the police the event was harmless and promised we would all leave the park by 4pm, and the police went away. I heard the officer who had been talking with Venus say to his colleagues: “I really thought I was in a parallel universe there” and indeed he had been.
And we did all leave, returning to continue to party around ‘Eros’ (Yes pedants, I know!). I was sorry to leave after after around half an hour, but the party apparently went on until late.
You can read a much fuller account of the event I wrote in 2011 on My London Diary, where of course there are many more pictures.
No Borders and the West End: On Saturday 10th February 2007 I went to photograph a protest against our racist, cruel and arbitrary detention of immigrants and asylum seekers at the neighbouring Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres on the Colnbrook By-Pass immediately north of Heathrow Airport – now known as Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. Like the first protest I covered there in April 2006 it was organised by No Borders, though several later events there were and at Yarls Wood were by Movement for Justice who were taking part in this protest with a Fight Racism! Fight Imprerialism! banner and others.
Harmondsworth (or rather Longford where both centres are located) was only a few miles bike ride from home, and after around an hour I jumped back on my bike, cycled home and took the train into London where I had arranged to meet a friend, I think probably to hand over some material.
We took a wander around Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and other parts of central London before saying goodbye and my making my way to Waterloo Station, photographing a few things on the way.
Here with the usual corrections is what I wrote about the day in 2007 on My London Diary and a few of the pictures with links more.
No Borders Demo at London Detention Centres
Colnbrook & Harmondsworth
Rhythms of Resistance players outside the detention centres – Harmondsworth centre in background.
I arrived at the detention centres at Harmondsworth (Colnbrook and Harmondsworth are separated only by a narrow private road) just as the people who had come by coach from London marched onto the roadway leading to the two sites, with banners and the street band of Rhythms Of Resistance.
Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism’
We had come to give support to migrants and refugees, and to demand the closure of detention centres, a stop to deportations and and end to immigration controls.
Since I was last here the windows of the two detention centres seem to have been blocked off, giving them a more sinister appearance, but although those imprisoned within the blocks were not allowed to see us, I imagine they could hear the noise that was being made.
Hands off Kurdish Asylum Seekers Now
I left after around an hour, when a few people were still arriving. As well as the crowd in the road, there were also a number of people lined up along the main road in front of the two ‘prisons’.
The Campaign For The Defence Of Africans Returned To Zimbabwe make the point Zimbabwe is not a safe place
There didn’t seem to be a huge police presence, although probably there were rather more on hand not far away. I left to meet a friend I’d arranged to see in the centre of London.
There wasn’t a great deal special happening as I walked through the streets of the West End of London. At Piccadilly Circus we bumped into some people with placards, but they were just celebrating someones birthday.
It was as boring as it looks
In Trafalgar Square we found the Biblical Gospel Mission preaching and handing out free bibles, though I told them I had several already at home.
One of several sculptures and statues I photographed
1994 London Colour – City, Limehouse & Canning Town: More of my colour pictures made in July or the start of August 1994, in the City of London, Limehouse and at the Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town.
Red Chairs, London, 1994, 94-722-51
I can no longer remember where I saw this circle of chairs, left after a celebration of some kind. Reflected in the background I can see myself looking in, probably from one of the highwalks in the City, with a whole range of buildings behind me, none of which I can immediately recognise. I am standing in sunlight, which shines on the foreground chairs, but the back of the room is in fluorescent lighting, giving it an unnatural blued-green tint. A single empty glass on the decorated table and a stubbed out cigarette on the floor remain from the earlier gathering.
Fleet Place, City, 1994, 94-722-26
Fleet Place is immediately east of City Thameslink Station and this is one of London’s private pedestrian areas – like Broadgate and Canary Wharf – where various activities, including photography are not permitted.
Fleet Place, City, 1994, 94-723-61
I took a few pictures in Fleet Place on several occasions but was usually then approached by the private security men and told that photography was not allowed. But I generally work fairly quickly, though using the panoramic camera is rather slower than a normal camera as it needs careful levelling. But usually by the time I was told I could not take photographs I had already done so and was happy to leave the premises. But I think I took this in rather a hurry and underexposed it – perhaps seeing the man approaching.
A skeleton around the spine of a tower block in Limehouse, with the wall paper and paint of the flats that were once attached.
Car Sales, Royal Navy, pub, 53 Salmon Lane, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-803-44
Car sales and the typical bunting around them on the corner of Condor Street aand Salmon Lane. The Royal Navy pub at 53 Salmon Lane was open by 1856 but closed permanently in 1999 and was converted into flats four years later.
The Tidal Basin Pumping Station designed by Richard Rogers and built in 1998 is one of the three pumping stations that prevent the former marshy areas to the north of the Royal Docks from flooding, pumping out surface water into the Thames, allowing their redevelopment by the LDDC. It was built in a colourful post-modern fashion in a deliberate attempt to provide a colourful accent in the area.
Warehouses, Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-723-25
The part of the dock in the left foreground has now been built over, but six cranes remain on the dockside.
Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-803-61
Spillers Millenium Mills were “designed and built by millers William Vernon & Sons of West Float, Birkenhead in 1905” and were the last of the large mills built on the dock, following those of the Cooperative Wholesale Society and Joseph Rank. All the mills were damaged by the 1917 Silvertown explosion. Spillers took over the mill in 1920 and rebuilt it “as a 10-storey concrete art deco building in 1933.” Badly damaged by bombing it was again rebuilt after the war, reopening in 1953. The dock closed in 1981, and the other buildings in the picture have since been demolished.
Women and children were marched into captivity from Karbala
London Arbaeen Procession: On Sunday 7th February 2010 around five thousand Shia Muslims met at Marble Arch for the 29th annual Arbaeen procession in London.
There were three large Shabbih, gold and silver replicas of the shrines of Karbala
The procession celebrates the sacrifice made by the grandson of Mohammed, Imam Husain, who was killed with his family and companions at Kerbala in 61 AH (680 CE.)
Hussain ibn Ali is regarded as “a 7th century revolutionary leader who sacrificed his life for social justice“. He refused to accept the rule of Yazid, “a corrupt ruler who was violating the basic rights and dignity of the people.”
Zuljana – representing the horse of Imam Husain
Husain and his family and supporters were surrounded by an army of the tyrant but refused to surrender, choosing to fight to the death for their beliefs rather than to compromise. Their stand is seen by Shia Muslims as symbol of freedom and dignity, and an aspiration to people and nations to strive for freedom, justice and equality.
Many Sunni Muslims also mourn for Imam Husain and regard the actions by Yazid’s men as unacceptable in Islam, but the events are not an important part of their observances. A small minority apparently still revere Yazid and suppot his actions.
Many of the banners and placards carried in the event call for and end to crimes against humanity – and in particular for various attacks on Shia Muslims around the world.
The London procession organised by the Hussaini Islamic Trust UK since 1982 is the oldest and largest in Europe. It takes place on the Sunday following the end of 40 days of mourning the martyrdom of Husain.
Men beat their breasts in mourning on Park Lane
I photographed the procession every year from 2007 to 2007-2012 and there are other accounts and pictures from these years on My London Diary.
St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea: My next London walk was on Sunday 4th March 1990 and began at Clapham Junction station, which is not in Clapham but in Battersea. The London and South Western Railway, London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the West London Extension Railway deliberately chose the misleading name for their interchange station as Clapham was so much more respectable than the rather working-class industrial Battersea and so would be more acceptable to the upper and middle class customers they wanted to use their trains.
Shop window, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-51
I walked south through the tunnel under the lines inside the station and made my way out to the exit onto St John’s Hill, Battersea, where I found this shop window with an intriguing range of content. at top left are directions ‘IF YOU NEED AN AMBULANCE’ and in the centre’ AND IN THE CENTRE ‘PLENTY OF MEN’S OVERCOATS ALL SIZES FORM £2.50 to £4=’ followed by the opening hours, the days listed in the rather odd order ‘MONDAY THURSDAY SATURDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY’.
On the bottom at left is a purse with a chain and then an incomprehensible rectangle, perhaps written in some alien language from outer space. Next is what I think could be a collapsed Japanese-style lampshade and then a 12 inch vinyl record cover for Star Wars and other space themes by Geoff Love and His Orchestra, a 1978 LP. Inside the shop – perhaps a ‘charity shop’ – there appears to be another basket full of what look to me like 78’s, but most of what we can see is reflections of the opposite side of the stree – and my body as I made the photo.
A short distance up the Hill I turned right into Plough Road and photographed this rather strange brick wall with an door-less doorway leading into what looks like a rubbish yard. I carefully lined up a block of flats in the aperture for the picture, but can tell you nothing more about it.
Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-55
Back on St John’s Hill at No 80 was KEARNS ANTIQUE COPIES, since replaced by a larger block, Langford Mews. The two properties with the roof balustrade are still there but the unnamed 76 now has an extra storey. But to my delight, HAPPY VALLEY is still there, looking much the same and still a Fish and Chicken bar. I think this building probably dates from around the 1850s. To its right is another new block with ground-floor retail which has replaced H J Golding & Co Ltd and the building to its right.
Shops, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-41
Shops and houses on the north side of St John’s Hill on each side of Louvaine Rd. These terraces probably date from around 1870 by which time most of the street was built up. The church in the distance, St. Peter and St Paul’s Church (now the LARA community centre and nursery) was built around 1868. These buildings are since 2009 part of the St John’s Hill Grove conservation area.
Brian J Reed, Silverline Press, St John’s Hill, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-42
Two businesses both doomed by changes in technology, with electronic components being replaced by integrated circuts and much of the printing business being transformed by computerisation. The works through the gateway is now part of a Sainsbury’s Local with a shop front a little further up the street.
Gateway, LCC, East Hill Estate, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-44
Further along the street St John’s Hill becomes East Hill and it was here that the London Country Council built their East Hill estate in 1928, having bought the site five years earlier. These Grade II listed gates date from 1851 and were preserved from St Peter’s Hospital (Fishmongers’ Almhouses) formerly on the site and re-used as the main pedestrian gateway to the new estate. The almshouses had been built to house 42 residents along with a chapel, hall and library and rooms for the medical officer, clergyman and paymaster. They replaced those in Newington, South London dating from 1618.
The 1928 LCC estate was demolished in 1981 and replaced by the more modern flats on the site in my photograph.
The Trinity Road dual carriageway had started to be planned when Wandsworth Bridge was build in the 1930s as a part of extensive road and motorway schemes which included a real South Circular, but only materialised in the 1960s as a rather forgotten part of London’s Ringway schemes, intended at some date to link up north of the river with the West Cross Route at Shepherds Bush.
Fortunately sanity prevailed and after a few disastrous short sections of road were built most of these schemes were abandoned. I’m unsure when this section of Trinity Road was converted to dual carriageway, going under the A3 and East Hill and the famous square roundabout were built, but I think some time around 1970.
This small garden is immediately north of East Hill on the corner of Birdhurst Road and has now lost all of its railings and is surrounded by a ring of rather delicate-looking metal bollards. A board about environmental improvements has a graphic including Battersea’s most famous building.
Muslims, Iran, Canary Wharf & Queer is Here: Saturday February 4th was a busy day for me with a couple of protests, a trip to Canary Wharf and then the opening of a show in the Foyer of the Museum of London which included some of my work from ten years of London’s Pride marches.
The first of the protests was by Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain, a radical Muslim organisagion which was proscribed in the UK in January 2024 following a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy which called on ‘Muslim Armies’ to take action against Israel. I’d first photographed a group which had been formed by its former leader for ten years, Omar BakrI Muhammad at a protest in Trafalgar Square in 1998 and later had photographed a number of the Hizb Ut-Tahrir protests, including the one for which they were banned.
The ban was part of a government attempt to stigmatise all protests against the Israeli attacks taking place on Gaza as ‘hate protests‘ and the BBC and other media outlets aided them by failing to properly distinguish the protest by a few hundred radical Muslims from the hundreds of thousands who marched peacefully at the same time through London calling for peace and justice in Palestine. Had they thought if they could get away with proscribing Stop the War, CND and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign they would surely have done so.
Here I’ll re-post a normally capitalised and slightly corrected version of what I wrote back in 2006 on My London Diary about that and other events of the day, along with links to more pictures including the full set of my pictures used in the museum show.
Defend the Honour of the Prophet
Danish Embassy
Speaker addressing crowd penned in on the pavement at the official demonstration opposite the embassy.
Several thousand British Muslims turned up outside the Danish Embassy around midday on Saturday 4 February 2006 to protest peacefully about the publication of cartoons by a Danish newspaper some months ago, following their re-publication in a number of other newspapers around Europe and on the Internet. Although I understand their outrage, and support their right to protest, the world-wide reactions have seemed excessive, with violence and injuries as well as lurid threats of death and atrocities presenting a very negative image of Islam.
Some demonstrators wanted to continue after the official end of the demonstration, but were urged to go home.
To the credit of British Muslims, this demonstration was peaceful and restrained, with official placards provided by organisers Hizb Ut-Tahrir, Britain saying things such as ‘we do not fear debate or criticism – but no one likes abuse‘, ‘Islam says – don’t insult other peoples religions‘ and ‘Europe lacks respect for others’, or simply praising the prophet, although some of the speeches sounded rather more inflammatory.
Stewards (and of course the police) generally kept everyone well under order, as well as making sensible photography virtually impossible during the rally. After the event was officially over it was possible to take more pictures
The problem is I think not that “Europe lacks respect” but that our tradition is a secular liberal one which respects and upholds freedom of speech and opinion (our blasphemy laws, which should have been repealed long ago, are seldom invoked.)
There are many things said and written that I find offensive (including several of the cartoons at issue) and you and I have the right to state our objections, to debate or criticise and even to stop eating Danish butter – but not to stir up hatred or issue death threats. Despite some press reports, this demonstration was generally well-ordered, and I saw none of the placards which have led to calls for people to be prosecuted.
Protestors hold posters about public executions, torture and imprisonment of workers opposite Iran’s London Embassy in Kensington.
Meanwhile, a short distance away, a demonstration that perhaps should have attracted rather more support from the Muslim community was taking place opposite the Iranian embassy. Perhaps 50 people had gathered there to protest against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to support workers there who have no right to strike or organise under Iran’s draconian labour law.
The demonstration is a show of solidarity with Iranian trade unionists and the GMB London Region banner added colour.
In January 2004 workers staging a sit-in at the Khatoon Abad copper plant were attacked by riot police, with four killed and many more injured. Recently, bus workers in Tehran have been arrested for planning and carrying out strike action. According to Amnesty International, around 500 are still in jail, without charges being made or access to lawyers. Some of them have been beaten in prison, and their wives and children also beaten in raids on their homes.
A letter of protest was taken to the door of the embassy but nobody came to accept it
There are many more abuses of human rights being committed under the name of law in Iran including torture, murder and public executions (even of minors) for offences including ‘un-Islamic behaviour‘. Given the amount of news coverage on Iran at the moment over uranium enrichment, it is perhaps surprising that other stories from Iran – such as these – have not attracted more attention. And since most of those who are suffering are Muslim, I’m suprised at the apparent lack of solidarity from the community in Britain.
I left for a late lunch, then went on to Canary Wharf, where I had things to do. Although it was a very dull day I took a few pictures before catching the Docklands Light Railway to Bank and walking through the empty City to the Museum Of London on London Wall.
London Gay Mens Chorus at the opening of ‘Queer is Here’ at the Museum of London.
At the Museum Of London was an event I had a personal interest in, the opening of a foyer display ‘Queer Is Here‘. I’d provided the dozen images used on the front of the large display panel beside the general text on the show, and there was also a screen beside it showing more of my images taken at London Gay Pride Parades from 1993-2002. In those ten years of Pride I took perhaps 5,000 images, and the display shows around 40 of the best of them.
Gay Pride parade in Piccadilly, June 1994. Picture by Peter Marshall from ‘Ten Years of Pride’ , part of the ‘Queer is Here’ exhibition at the Museum of London.
There were a few of these on My London Diary already (along with many from later Prides) but I posted the full set of pictures used in the show.
Peter Tatchell
The exhibition was opened by Peter Tatchell, who I’ve photographed many times over the years, and was enlivened by a spirited performance from the London Gay Mens Chorus. After the month at the Museum Of London the display was to tour to libraries and other venues in London and possibly elsewhere around the country
Barking and the River Roding: Another post from what now seems to me a distant past, Saturday 3rd February 2007, when I took my Brompton folding bike across London on three trains to Barking. Easy as it is to ride, I think I would find lugging it up and down all the stairs to change trains and enter and exit stations rather too tiring now, 19 years later. There are some very much lighter titanium models now than my ageing steel bike – but at an eye-watering cost. And as well as the bike my camera gear probably put the total weight I was carrying up to more than 20kg.
Barking riverside from Hand Trough Creek
So this is a ride I’m unlikely to repeat, though I’ve often thought of doing so – but perhaps on foot. And although I describe this as a ride, much of it was a walk pushing the bike, not a good off-road bike and impossible on muddy paths. Fortunately it was mainly dry in February 2007 though some paths were quite overgrown.
A13 Alfred’s Way crosses the River Roding
As usual I’ve put the account into normal case to make it more readable, corrected the odd typo and made a few comments on things that have changed and have given a link to more pictures on My London Diary than on this page.
This car park in Jenkins Lane was a possible site for relocated Clay’s Lane travellers
Barking and the River Roding
Barking, Ilford & Redbridge
I had taken the train to Barking
The River Roding runs into the River Thames at Barking Creek. I’d hoped to be able to ride alongside it to the Thames, but although the London Borough of Newham had spent a small fortune on getting ARUP to produce 2.4km of riverside path in 2001-2, it still wasn’t opened for public use. The large and expensive gates at its northern end remain locked. [The path leading to the Beckton Creekside Nature Reserve has apparently since been opened and there a plans for it to go on and no longer be a dead end. But I had to change my plans and instead go north by the Roding.]
River Roding in Barking
I don’t know what it is about Newham and footpaths. At Canning Town, the exit from the station to the riverside path remains firmly closed after the riverside walk was completed some years back, with the end of the bridge over the DLR coming from Tower Hamlets also being fenced off. [Now open, but the path still a dead end in both directions, though there is a new bridge to take you across Bow Creek and so further on.]
River Roding, riverside path and Showcase Cinemas
This would be the end of The Roding Valley Way, started in 1996, but still largely non-existent, leading to the as yet unbuilt Thames Gateway Bridge and the dream of a park across the river. Don’t hold your breath.
River Roding, Barking
I’d gone to Barking partly to have a look at the Jenkins Lane Car Park underneath the A13 flyover being offered by the London 2012 Olympics developers to relocate travellers from the Clays Lane site. It’s in a kind of wasteland adjoining the Roding, handy for the council yard at the end of the lane, the cinema complex, the sewage works and the new refuse transfer station, and not far from the East Beckton megastores. Just down the road there is still the Horse Sanctuary, a home for neglected old horses. [I think this may have gone.]
A13 Flyover over River Roding
It is just possible to force your way along the riverside path north from the Hollywood Bowl and Showcase Cinema, but on a bicycle it’s easier to follow Jenkins Lane under the A13 and then take the new path to the riverside walk and Cuckold’s Point, and its viewing area, with some convenient seats where I sat in the February sun and ate my sandwiches. Unfortunately the path ends at the head of Hand Trough Creek a couple of hundred yards further on, with a long detour under, beside and over the North Circular to reach Highbridge Road and the town dock.
From there you can walk along the river in Tesco’s car park and on from there all the way to the railway line, although it gets rather overgrown. Today I left the path and went through Little Ilford, meeting the river again at the side of the City Of London Cemetery, then going off through Wanstead Park and the Redbridge Roundabout.
From the Redbridge Roundabout going north is another finished section of the Roding Valley Way, although I only followed it as far as the bridge across to Roding Lane South, where I turned south and rode back to Ilford and the trains home.
Nine from Around Stepney: I spent a day on Sunday 17th July 1994 walking around Stepney and straying into some neighbouring areas of East London, making almost 300 black and white pictures mainly of streets and buildings, some of which you can see in my Flickr album 1984 London Photographs.
But I was carrying two Olympus OM4 cameras, and one was loaded with Fujicolor film, and I also made a few colour pictures. Here are ten from the single colour film I used on that day. For once I won’t write much about them, partly because I made very few notes about them when I was making them. My colour work at the time was entirely personal work.
Torn posters, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-722-42
Closing Down Sale, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-722-43
Grade II listed Southampton House at 137 Highgate Road was built in the early 19th century and housed the Southampton House Academy run by Captain John Bickerstaffe. The pub adjoining Southampton House is The Southampton Arms, but was built in 1874, and I think took its name from the house, which is now flats. The pub is legendary among beer (and cider) drinkers and apparently only serves beers from wholly independent breweries. I have no idea why Capt Bickerstaffe called his Academy Southampton House, perhaps he was a native of Southampton.
The Orientalist, 78, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-31
The Orientalist was a residue from the International Oriental Carpet Centre which I mentioned in my previous post on this walk, where in 1973 Oriental rug dealers moved to Kentish Town from the PLA Cutler Street warehouses. Most moved out of the area in 1994, but some stayed in premises in Kentish Town. The Orientalist rebuilt this building with a more conventional shop front soon after I made this picture and had a closing down sale in 2025.
Shops, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-26
WE STOCK SUPLUS GOVERNMENT CLOTHING NEW & PART·WORN COMBAT TROUSERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS SHIRTS JACKETS·ETC ACHOICE OF JEANSFOR ALL·THE.FAMILY STONEWASH·SHRUNK FOOTWEAR FOR ALL PURPOSES ALSOFULL RANGE DR.MARTENS INDUSTRIAL CLOTHINGBOILER SUITS BIB-BRACE TEE SHIRTS SUPPLIERS OF ALL·TYPES OF RAINWEARJACKETSCOATS ETC. SPECIALISTS IN CAMPATINGEQUIPMENT.THENTSSLEEPBAGGAZ
Who could ask for anything more?
Shops, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-11
‘LOOK IN AT FERME SALES’ states the painting of a man being lifted up by another and pointing with his umbrella on the side of THE BEECH Restaurant – (though why does this have ‘ML’ on its canopy?) This painted has long been painted over and the restaurant is now an estate agents.
The Assembly House, Leighton Rd, Kentish Town Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-12
Another large late Victorian pub built in 1896 to designs by Thorpe and Furniss in a style resembling a French Château and Grade II listed. It replaced an earlier pub on the site which in 1788 had as landlord Thomas Wood.
The Assembly House was where people gathered to go together across the dangerous hills to Highgate in groups because of the frequent attacks on travellers on the route. Wood possibly moonlighted as a highway robber – apparently he was tried but acquitted for the offence – but he died insane in Newgate Prison.
Leighton Road was built at the back of the Assembly House pub garden and this Grade II listed house was built around 1828 when the street was called Gloucester Place. The listing text gives more detail than most, including about the street; “In 1804 it was but a pathway leading from Kentish Town to Islington, with a stile at the eastern end and a bowling green on its north side near where No. 27 Leighton Road now stands; this was probably for patrons of the Assembly House inn located at the corner of Kentish Town Road.” and its early residents; “a Mr Crowe (the original freeholder and builder), and then an architect with family and servants. By 1861, the owner was a Mr Pike, with his family but no servants. Pike made various changes to the house in 1870 … and his story is vividly told in Gillian Tindall’s book, “The Fields Beneath: the History of One London Village“, published in 1977.”
Also the listing text for 27 Leighton Road tells us that “At this time the land was owned by one Joshua Prole Torriano” which explains this street name. In 1990 it was a rather run-down area as this picture suggests. The view here is looking towards from the south towards Leighton Road and the pub on the corner at 140 Leighton Road was the Torriano Arms, closed and sold in 1994 and now residential.
Unusually the pub’s name lived on, being taken over by the Rose and Crown, a few doors down Torriano Aveven. A long fight saved this from being converted in turn into flats. In 2014 the Camden New Journal published “Torriano pub closes but will reopen with its original name as The Rose and Crown”.
I made four more pictures on my way back to Kentish Town station, on Leighton Rd and Montpelier Grove but haven’t digitised these. The pictures in these posts are generally around a quarter or so of those I took on my walks.
My next walk was in South London – coming shortly.
Regents Park & Beckton Alp – 2008: On Wednesday 30 January 2008 I took two walks in London. The first took me to Regents Park around noon, but I can remember nothing about it – all I have are the pictures that I took with their EXIF time stamps. But I was soon the Tube and the DLR, taking some pictures on my way to Beckton, a visit I wrote about on My London Diary and I’ll reproduce that account below. But first some pictures from Regents Park.
Regents Park, Park Square & Park Crescent
The gardens in Park Square are private, but it isn’t far to go to walk in Regents Park.
So on Jan 30 as it was a rather nice day I took a walk in the alps, or rather the singular alp that London has on offer, at Beckton. Theoretically there are two, but the other is more of a pimple, while the northern alp is 36 metres high.
A strikingly decorated shed at Gallions Reach
The gasworks started by Simon Adam Beck on agricultural land in 1868 became the largest in Europe, but closed down in 1967. The LDDC bulldozed all of the rubbish from the site into the two mounds, put a 2m capping, mainly of clay on top, and the larger one became a dry ski slope in 1989.
The London Eye is one of many London buildings easily seen from the slopes of the Beckton Alp
Despite the odd landslide the ski slope continued in use until 2001, and there were then plans for a ‘Snowdome’ with real snow on the site. But the developer went bust, leaving the site in a dangerous condition with some exposed waste – which includes various nasty chemicals – acids, volatile hydrocarbons – including carcinogens such as benzene, cyanides.
From the Beckton Alp, looking roughly east with the flood barrier on Barking Creek at left of picture. The gasholders are from the old Beckton works
Meanwhile the LDDC had faded away, having done its job of diverting large amounts of public wealth into private pockets, and had handed its problems to the local authority – in this instance, Newham, although the ski slope area is owned by Cresney who have had various ideas, including a possible hotel development on part of the site. It was also one of the shortlisted sites for a large scale artwork in the Channel 4 Big Art project to be shown in April 2008. [Antony Gormley’s plan for the site was never realised.]
The retail park, with East Beckton and the University of East London
Although there is still access to the public open space around the alp, the ski slope site and the top of the alp is surrounded by a large fence. However there was a rather convenient hole in this, and since there was no notice telling me to keep out – and a very well-worn path on the other side I went through it.
I carefully made my way to the summit to enjoy the views, before continuing my walk along the northern outfall sewer and then down along various paths through East Beckton to Manor Way and the Gallions Roundabout, where I took my life into my hands to dash across Royal Docks Way to the DLR station
[You can read more detail about the Beckton Alp in a 2023 post ‘What’s in the Beckton Alp‘ on the Reimagining Waste Landscapes site.]
