My Own Work | >Re-PHOTO

UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession – 2017

UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession: On the last Saturday of October each year The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of of people whose family members have been killed by police and in prisons, immigration detention and secure psychiatric hospitals make a procession of Remembrance from Trafalgar Square to a rally opposite Downing Street. In 2017 this was on Saturday 28th October. This year, 2026, will be the 27th Annual Memorial Remembrance Procession and it starts at noon in Trafalgar Square this Saturday, 31st October 2026.

The pictures in this post were all taken by me at the 2017 procession, and you can read more about it on My London Diary at UFFC annual remembrance procession. Here I’ll post the text of the release from the UFFC about this year’s event. I hope that Andy Burnham will respond more quickly than his predecessor to this year’s letter.

Memorial Procession announced for Oct 31st 2026

On Saturday 31st October 2026, UFFC will march to Downing Street for our 27th Annual Memorial Remembrance Procession. We assemble to remember our loved ones, demand accountability, and break the silence surrounding the alarming rise of deaths in state custody across the UK.

For nearly three decades, our coalition of bereaved families has led this solemn procession. Our collective pressure has historically forced major changes – from the rollout of body-worn video cameras to the enactment of Mental Health Units Use of Force Act (Seni’s Law). Yet, despite these hard-won reforms, state violence persists, and families continue to face a wall of silence.

27 Years of Tragic Delays: Slow Justice is No Justice

This year’s procession takes place against a backdrop of deep political frustration. It took Prime Minister Keir Starmer 21 weeks and 5 days to respond to a letter hand-delivered by our families. The response we finally received, penned by Minister of State for Justice Lord Timpson, offered mere platitudes. While Timpson praised our efforts to ensure bereaved voices are heard, the government entirely ignored our explicit call for a direct meeting.

While the state references the proposed Hillsborough Law Bill, reforms on ‘seriously improper acts’, and promises of legal aid funding for inquests, we are left asking: When will these laws actually be implemented? and What about our unresolved cases?

The Fight Continues

Many UFFC families, such as Celia Stubbs (partner of Blair Peach, killed by police in 1979), have been campaigning for nearly half a century with agonisingly little acknowledgment. These families have also been spied on by the state (See Spycops). Much like the survivors of the Hillsborough disaster and the Post Office scandal, our families are forced to expend years of energy, emotional trauma, and funds just to demand basic truth.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Join us on 31st October to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the families, break the cycle of state impunity, and demand immediate action from the government.

You can find pictures and accounts of most of the other UFFC processions from the first I attended in 2003 until 2019 and 2021 on My London Diary and from more recent years in my Facebook albums.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Blockade at Aldermaston – 2008

Blockade at Aldermaston: On Monday 27th October 2008 I cycled with Linda from Reading to join the CND Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which together with nearby Burghfield makes Britain’s nuclear bombs.

It isn’t a huge distance to cycle – I think around 12 miles taking the same route as the 2004 Aldermaston march. It was good weather for cycling and there was only one really difficult hill on the way. At Aldermaston we cycled around the outer fence of the huge site – over 4 miles – and then I cycled a little to and fro to take pictures before cycling back to Reading, perhaps covering a little over 30 miles in all. A shortish and pleasant ride, though some was on dirt tracks and jumping on and off to take photos also made it more tiring.

The blockades had been an overnight event, with actions beginning in the early morning and we arrived far too late for them. They had closed the main road and several gates of the site for some hours, and around 30 people being arrested. Many of those taking part in them had already left for home by the time we arrived.

Linda had come to demonstrate with Christian CND and was hoping to join them for lunch at the North Gate and continue with them on a procession of witness around the large site, holding a liturgy at each of the 8 gates.

Their procession had started earlier than expected and they had left before we arrived there, so we continued on our bikes making our own circuit of the site. A long hill leads up from Aldermaston Village and we caught up with Christian CND at the Construction Gate.

With them were several Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhists who had walked all the way to Aldermaston from the Battersea Park Peace Pagoda. Linda joined the group and walked with them to hold short services at each of the remaining gates.

I cycled on to photograph at other places and on to the Main Gate. Here there was a Quaker silent vigil and I found “the mobile bicycle-powered Rinky-Dink sound system and musicians were entertaining a small crowd. Seize the Day’s great Guantanamo number ‘Club X-Ray’ soon had everyone doing the ‘Shackle Shuffle’ to its Latin tinge.”

I went with Rinky Dink back to the Tadley Gate where I met with Linda and the Christian CND ending their final liturgy of the long day of protest. Everyone was now packing up and leaving and we began our ride back to Reading.

*The Christian CND procession around the base ends with the sharing of the peace*

We started back the way we had come, but on reaching the Kennett and Avon Canal north of Burghfield decided to join National Cycle Route 4, a long distance cycle route from Greenwich in London to Fishguard in Wales.

Fortunately we chose the right direction, but it did result in a rather lengthy detour on our way into Reading station as well as slowing our ride on the poorer surface.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Around London – January 1993

Around London – January 1993: Although I continued my walks around London at the end of 1992 and in January 1993 I made very few colour pictures in that time. On the 28th December I had been in Islington and on 3rd January I went to Hammersmith, later in the month continuing to South Kensington. January 24th I got on my bike to go to Colnbrook and Slough and on the 29th I cycled to Brentford. But from all those dates I can only find a handful of colour images – with just a few more similar frames to those here that I’ve not digitised. I’ve no idea why this was.

*Rheidol Terrace, Islington, London, 1993, 93c01-02-16*

This scene looked very familiar to me and trying to locate it was part of the reason for my looking up the details of my movements above. Unfortunately the street name on the end of that rather unusually shaped block is almost lost in film grain but eventually by looking at it at 100% on the negative I was able (with the help of some Natural Intelligence and memory) to decipher it as Rheidol Terrace. The Rheidol Terrace block is on the corner with St Peter Street and I think my picture was taken from the edge of the Packington Estate, described in an Islington Tribune 2019 article about its regeneration as “A VAST network of walkways offering a safe space for drug dealers to hide along with few green spaces for children to play.” The area has changed significantly since then.

Chinese, Takeaway, London, 93c01-02-33 — *Imperial Dragon, Chinese Takeaway, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1993, 93c01-02-33*

There is still an Imperial Dragon on Fulham Palace Road and I think this picture was probably taken at the same place in 1993. It is now ‘Chinese & Pizza’.

Playground, London, 1993, 93c01-02-34 — *Recreation Area, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1993, 93c01-02-34*

I’m not sure the exact location of this small play area, but the distinctive church tower is that of St Paul’s Hammersmith, rebuilt in Victorian Gothic in 1882–1891, architects J P Seddon and H R Gough. The railway had brought more development to Hammersmith and a larger parish church was needed. It got its Grade II* listing mainly on account of the fittings and monuments inside from the earlier church and a pulpit from Wren’s church of All Hallows-the-Great.

*Hollydale Laundry, Vauxhall St, Kennington, Lambeth, 1993, 93c01-02-36*

I walked more of less past this Laundry most months on my way to visit friends in a council flat in Kennington and occasionally photographed it as the paintwork increasinly decayed, though more often in black and white than in colour. It was never open as I visited them on Sundays, but I could not decide when it actually went out of business.

This and the bookies next door are now an art gallery.

*Works, Willow Rd, Poyle, Slough, 1993, 93c01-02-22*

My route on my bike to Slough took me through Poyle and Colnbrook and I detoured rather to look at the industrial sites at Poyle.

The Poyle Trading Estates (Britannia Trading Estate, Mckay Trading Estate, Trident Industrial Estate, Colne Trading Estate, Skyway Trading Estate, Poyle Industrial Estate) developed largely after the opening of Heathrow Airport in 1946, only a short distance away. Previously there had been a large explosives factory set up by Cogswell & Harrison in 1906 (and earlier still I gunpowder mills on the River Colne.)

Some of these early buildings from the late 1940s, though very much in a 1930s style, still remain in use among the many more modern industrial and commercial buildings, but the railway line that served the area – with two stations in Poyle – was closed to passengers in 1965. I remember going to Poyle on the diesel railcar from Staines West station (now offices). Goods traffic ceased around 1981 and some of the line was removed for the building of the M25.

*Works, Willow Rd, Poyle, Slough, 199393c01-02-23*

Another of the 1940s factory buildings on Willow Road in the Poyle Industrial Estate.

Transport Café, Colnbrook Bypass, Slough, 1993,93c01-02-24 — *Transport Café, Colnbrook Bypass, Colnbrook, Slough, 1993,93c01-02-24*

Colnbrook was one of the first villages to get a bypass, its narrow and crooked High Street clearly not suitable for the increasing motor traffic on the Bath Road. The Bypass opened in 1927.

Colnbrook High Street had been littered with coaching inns where horses could be changed and travellers served with refreshment. Though legend says that for some wealthy travellers in the 17th century their night in the Blue Room at the Ostrich Inn would be their last, as after eating and drinking well, once asleep a lever tilted their four-poster bed, tipping them into a vat of boiling liquid in the kitchen below. Publican John Jarman and his wife are alleged to have murdered at least 60 for the money they carried with them to carry out their business in those days.

But I think there was only one café on the bypass – and the lorries that called in churned up the car park which seemed always full of huge puddles. Back in 1993, Sunday was still a quiet day for business and transport and the car pack was empty – and the café possibly closed, though I did stand beside a lorry to make this picture.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Vertical Vienna, Rail Cuts & Occupy London – 2011

Vertical Vienna, Rail Cuts & Occupy London: Tuesday 25th October 2011 performers from Vienna were performing on a huge vertical wall in Trafalgar Square to promote tourism, but which left with a feeling of vertigo. I came down to earth outside Parliament where rail unions marched from a lunchtime rally in Central Hall to protest against the government plans to cut rail jobs, raise fares and close ticket offices. I then visited Finsbury Square where Occupy London had set up a second camp. There wasn’t a great deal actually happening there and after taking a few pictures I walked back to the camp at St Paul’s and took a few more. But I had to leave before the events there were to start at 5pm.

Vienna From a Different Angle

Trafalgar Square

The Vienna Tourist Board had brought a huge 21 metre vertical stage to Trafalgar Square on which dancers on ropes performed a series of tableaux as they were slowly lowered. Some were clearly linked to Vienna, with waltzes, cafés and Klimt but failed to inspire me to want to visit the city, rather giving me a crick in the neck and a feeling of vertigo.

Vienna Now Or Never – I suspect like much of London it has gone already,
but daren’t go to find out in case I have to walk down a very tall wall

As I commented “it would have been far more effective (and cost less) for them to have handed me a coffee or better still a glass of Grüner Veltliner along with a slice of Sachertorte.”

But perhaps Nelson was pleased to have some human company rather than just pigeons up there, though he did keep his back turned on them.

Vienna From a Different Angle

Rail Unions Protest McNulty Cuts

Westminster

*Rail privatisation was implemented in a way that made no sense but satisfied Tory dogma*

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and other unions along with passenger groups walked from a rally in Central Hall with their banners past Westminster Abbey to Old Palace Yard to pose for photographs outside the Houses of Parliament.

*RMT General Secretary Bob Crowe poses with union members as he leaves the rally*

They say the proposals in the review are the greatest threat to the rail network since privatisation and will increase our rail fares – already the highest in Europe because of the huge amounts taken out of the system for investors.

The proposed cuts increase the break-up of our rail system and hand over greater power to the private companies that operate it. They cut safety standards, losing safety-critical jobs such as removing guards from trains and will involve the closure of 600 ticket offices.

They called for the government to bring back the system into public ownership as franchises come up for renewal and begin to reintegrate rail into a publicly owned system run for the benefit of passengers rather than the shareholders, highly paid consultants and lawyers of private companies.

*Bombardier’s rail business was sold to French rail manufacturer Alstom in 2021*

The sheer idiocy of the privatised system has led to some of this now having happened, with all the train running franchises being slowly brought back into the public – but much is still to be done. Almost none of the train operating companies actually own any trains, and huge profits are still being taken out of the system by the Rolling Stock Companies they lease them from. We need to move to a system where the operators own and maintain trains.

Rail Unions Protest McNulty Cuts

Occupy Finsbury Square

There wasn’t much actually happening in the afternoon and I took a few pictures of the tents, banners, posters and the yurt.

The square also has a drinking fountain given to the parish in memory of their mother Martha Smith (1825-1908) by Thomas and Walter Smith – the family that invented the Christma Cracker. Like most other public water fountains it no longer works, having failed modern hygiene standards.

Occupy Finsbury Square

More from OccupyLSX

St Paul’s Cathedral

I’d been there on Westminster Bridge where a general meeting had decided to Occupy the Stock Exchange, and again when they had been prevented from doing and had set up instead at neighbouring St Pauls, but I’d been too busy to take part actively in Occupy London (and too much in need of home comforts to camp.) I’d looked in at the camp since and did so again on my way home, taking quite a few photographs.

Occupy London were later forced to stop using the Underground logo by legal threats, although there seemed little danger of them being confused with London’s transport provider. The ban on alcohol was observed by many residents, but OccupyLSX attracts and supports some of the drinkers who live
on the City streets

The camp was looking very tidy and there were a lot of people about, both residents and visitors – it was clearly becoming something of a tourist attraction. There wasn’t a a great deal happening while I was there, and events were listed to start at 5pm when I was due to be home.

Afghanistan – Bring the Troops Home – 2009

Afghanistan – Bring the Troops Home: A large march on Saturday 24 October 2009 from Hyde Park to a rally in Trafalgar Square demanded that British troops be brought home from Afghanistan now.

British forces have a long record of failures in Afghanistan, beginning with the disastrous British retreat from Kabul at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1842. The Helmand Campaign in 2006–2014, the most active part of British intervention following 9/11, was also something of a disaster. Between the 1001 invasion and the final withdrawal of British troops in 2021, 457 killed and over 600 seriously injured. Our military intervention there cost around £40 billion and Afghanistan after we left was in a worse state than when it started.

The march, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was of course entirely peaceful, with much noisy chanting and live music from The King Blues.

Among those at the front of the march was serving soldier Lance Corporal Joe Glenton with his wife Clare, already facing court-martial for refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan and defying an order not to take part in the protest.

There were other anti-war military family members marching including those whose sons had been killed in Afghanistan, as well as veteran peace campaigners including Pat Arrowsmith and Hetty Bower, then 104.

Speakers at the rally in Trafalgar Square included Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Omar Deghayes, Tariq Ali, George Galloway MP, Lance Cpl Joe Glenton and others.

Glenton had deserted in 2007 after being told he would be sent back to Afghanistan after only a brief break following his first tour of duty. He had eventually returned to the UK in 2009 to campaign against the war and hand himself in. In March 2010 he was sentenced to 10 months in a military prison, but was released after serving four months.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Afghanistan – Bring the Troops Home.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Lumsdale & Matlock

Lumsdale & Matlock: There are quite a few places I’ve been to which claim to be where the industrial revolution started, but Lumsdale near Matlock where I went for a walk with Linda on Wednesday 23 October 2019 perhaps has a better claim than most apart from the nearby Arkwright mill in Cromford built in 1771, the first modern factory.

*Water from the Bentley Brook powered the early days of the industrial revolution*

Lumsdale is a steeply sloping valley with a small stream the Bentley Brook tumbling down it, apparently never running dry. It housed industrial mills from the 17th century on and is a site of national archaeological and historic importance. Among the industries that worked there were lead, textile, paint and timber.

The mills at Lumsdale were on a smaller scale than Arkwright’s Cromford Mill and are now only ruins – I think the last closed in 1927.

The area is now owned by the Arkwright Society and can be explored on a permissive footpath. Parts have been fenced off since my visit for safety reasons and I think some of my pictures were taken in these. But it remains an area where you need to take great care near steep drops, especially if like me you sometime suffer from a little vertigo.

Although there is little or no parking in the area there have always been quite a few visitor in my several visits to the area. In 2014 it became a scheduled Ancient Monument.

*I played a little with various shutter speeds by decided I like it best with those that more or less stopped movement rather than blurred it*

*The Lower Pond built in the 1850s has been restored several times, most recently in 2014*

This was the site of the oldest mill in Lumsdale, a former lead smelting mill which was converted to a bone mill
around 1600. Bones were heated and then crushed to be used as pigments. The mill only closed in 1920.

Linda and I were in Matlock to look after grandchildren and walked up from Matlock after taking them to school. After exploring the valley we walked across to the top of Matlock for an unexciting pub lunch and then walked on to the top of Matlock Bank.

We walked around a little at the top of the Bank then came down the steep hill to the bridge over the Derwent. In 1893 when Matlock was a popular spa town a cable-hauled tramway was built to take people up and down the 300ft hill. The fare was 2d up and 1d down. It felt a little mean to me charging for taking people down as I think their weight would actually be helping to pull people up. But the tramway closed in 1927, being replaced by a bus service. So far I’ve always walked up, but usually feel by the time I near the top I should have taken a bus.

And back down to the River Derwent. I think we remembered to collect the kids from school.

More on My London Dairy at Lumsdale & Matlock.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

The Jewish East End & Al-Quds Day – 2006

The Jewish East End & Al-Quds Day: On Sunday 22 October 2006 I went on a morning guided walk around parts of the formerly Jewish East End, one of the activities of the now long gone (and still missed) London Arts Café. The name was rather misleading as it never achieved its aim to open a cafe dedicated to London and the arts in the city, but did organise some interesting talks as well as exhibitions at various venues showing painting and photography of London and walks and visits such as this. Some record of these is still on-line although the organisation closed down in 2007, though was continued as a short-lived Meetup group.

After lunch I went to Marble Arch for the start of the annual Al-Quds Day march. I didn’t stay long as it began to rain heavily.

Here (with minor corrections) is all I wrote in 2006 and a few of the pictures. You can still see more at the links to My London Diary.

The (formerly) Jewish East End

The Jewish East End & Al-Quds Day - 2006 — *Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, built in 1899 and one of the very few synagogues still open then in the East End.*

On Sunday morning I took a walk with members of London Arts Cafe through the once Jewish areas of London’s East End. We were fortunate to be able to go in both the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, as well as the Bevis Marks Synagogue, Britain’s oldest standing Jewish place of worship, built in 1698, where unfortunately, photography is not allowed, but you can see some other pictures from our walk.

A few more pictures on My London Diary

International Al-Quds Day March

Marble Arch

Al-Quds is Jerusalem, and Sunday saw the annual march calling for its liberation, and that of Palestine.

*Hizbullah capes help keep some marchers dry*

The idea of an international Al-Quds Day came from Ayatollah Khomeini, shortly after he gained power in Iran in 1979.

Shortly after the start of the march, it started to rain heavily and I came home rather than get my equipment soaked again.

A few more pictures on My London Diary.

The External Security Organisation of Hizbullah was proscribed in the UK in 2001, but it was only in 2008 that the whole of its military wing was proscribed. But Hizbullah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with around 12% of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament, and operates a vast social services network in the country including schools and hospitals, as well as a satellite TV station. The party flag covers both the civil and the military wings of the party, and so its display was not an offence after the 2008 proscription. There were probably more Hisbullah flags on display than usual in 2006 because the march took place just a couple of months after the Israeli invasion and occupation of parts of Lebanon in July-August 2006.

Following years of lobbying the proscription was extended to cover the whole organisation in 2019 and it is now an offence to carry the flag. My pictures are a historical record and do not imply any support for the organisation.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Wakey Wakey Mr Blair – 2005

Wakey Wakey Mr Blair: On Friday 21st October 2005 Fathers For Justice held a march – or rather ‘Pyjama Protest’ – calling for children to be allowed to stay overnight with their fathers after families have separated. They met in Green Park and marched to a rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Here is what I wrote about it in 2005 with some of the pictures from My London Diary and a link to more.

Applying law to families that have broken up is difficult, and currently often results in a raw deal for fathers. Even where they are granted access, there is often no way of achieving it. I don’t think there are any easy answers; when relationships break down, people are often very bitter and irrational and any normal relationship can be very difficult to establish.

There does need to be an enforceable legal framework based on the best interests of the children concerned, and where both parents want to be involved in their future this must normally be for their good. Quite how this can be done is hard to see, and sometimes family courts seem to need both the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job.

What is very clear is that many fathers (and a few mothers) get a raw deal at the moment, and the children involved are short-changed too. Fathers 4 Justice are a very media-savvy organisation and have in the past pulled off some clever stunts to bring attention to their case.

The demonstration on Friday 21st October, ‘Wakey Wakey Mr Blair’ was in support of overnight stays for children with their dads after separation. Advertised as a ‘Pyjama Protest’, those taking part were asked to wear their ‘jim jams’, slippers and dressing gown, and bring their hot water bottles, teddy bears and even their beds.

It poured on the morning of the march, which perhaps put a few people off coming, and there were only just over a hundred demonstrators all told, with just a sprinkling of pyjamas and beds, but the good publicity had resulted in a reasonable amount of press interest, both on the march and, rather more waiting for their arrival at the Royal Courts Of Justice in Strand.

I limped along with the march [still suffering from my knee injury a month earlier] which was led by a hired open-top double-decker bus, going the whole distance and taking a few pictures en route, but the arrival outside the Law Courts was disappointingly unorganised.

After listening to the address from the top of the bus for a few minutes I decided it was time to catch a bus.

More pictures from the march and rally begin here on My London Diary.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

A Film Disaster – and the Isle of Dogs – 1990

A Film Disaster: From Hampstead I went on to Colindale where I took only a couple of pictures – not on line – and then on to Kingsbury. But the next time I developed a batch of film – fortunately only 4 films from a new 100 ft roll – I found there was a disaster. Every image was covered with speckled white spots and quite impossible to print.

I contacted the film manufacturer with a sample and while they accepted no liability, the did replace the roll with a new one, which I suppose was better than nothing. But the damage was so bad it was impossible to make acceptable darkroom prints from the negatives, and I kept them in my files with the message ‘DAMAGED FILM – REFERENCE ONLY’. And a month or so later went back to Kingsbury to retake those incredible 1930s houses by Ernest Trobridge again.

After scanning these damaged negatives it became possible -though very time-consuming – to digitally retouch most of these negatives, and I have done so with a handful of them. But I’ll come back to them later along with the replacement images I took in May.

Isle of Dogs – 1990

Isle of Dogs: The pictures I took a few days later on the Isle of Dogs were also on the faulty film, but again after scanning them I was able to painstakingly digitally retouch a few of them. You can still see a little unevenness in some areas of some of the pictures, most noticeably in some of the skies. These were retouched several years ago and I could do a better job now, certainly if I was prepared to use AI tools.

*West India Docks, Canary Wharf, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4i-55*

This view was I think from a DLR West India platform. It gives some idea of the building work taking place in the area at the time.

Heron Quays, DLR, Station, Canary Wharf, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4i-21 — *DLR, Station, Canary Wharf, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4i-21*

I think this was the first Canary Wharf DLR station – replaced by the rather larger one now there which opened in November 1991.

*West India Dock Entrance, Westferry Rd, River Thames, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-64*

At left is the distinctive 20-storey residential block Cascades by Rex Wilkinson of CZWG. Across the River Thames in Rotherhithe is Lawrence Wharf, completed by the Danish developer ISLEF between 1986 and 1988 on the former Vitak Timber Imports timber yard and sawmill which closed in 1987

*West India Dock Entrance, Westferry Rd, River Thames, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-66*

An aggregate works supplying sand and gravel, still much in demand with the immense amount of building works in the area.

John Lemanton & Son Ltd, Regents Wharf, Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-52 — *John Lenanton & Son Ltd, Regents Wharf, Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-52*

One of the oldest businesses on the Isle of Dogs founded by timber merchant John Lenanton at Batson’s Wharf close by and it soon expanded to Regents Wharf. It was still trading in 1990. While for many years most of the timber came in to the yard by water to the wharf, including by barge from the Surrey Docks, in its later years most came by lorry from Tilbury Docks.

*John Lemanton & Son Ltd, Regents Wharf, Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-53*

The company closed soon after I made these pictures and its buildings were demolished and replaced by a rather dreary apartment complex.

*Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-55*

The two shops at the right of the picture are still there but the rest of the buildings have been demolished and replaced and are now part of the exclusive, gated Ocean Wharf development between Westferry Road and the River Thames completed around 2000.

*Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-56*

More derelict former industrial premises in this section of Westferry Road – the windows at right are on the left of the previous picture

*Shops, 46-54, Westferry Rd, Millwall, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-4j-41*

There is still a row of shops here on Westferry Road and three of the original buildings remain along with some more modern infill, although the businesses in the are different. There is no longer a New Friends Chinese Takeaway or Golden Fish Bar. New Friends is a reminder that Limehouse, London’s first Chinatown is just up the road.

The Golden Fishbar at 46 Westferry Road was apparently a central location for the successful 1986 Channel 4 drama series Prospects about two young East End lads, Jimmy ‘Pincy’ Pince and Billy ‘Bill’ Pearson, played by Gary Olsen and Brian Bovell, trying to make a living on the Isle of Dogs. The shop is now Docklands Fried Chicken, a branch of Docklands Grill House.

More from the Isle of Dogs in a later post.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Fight for Sites go to Evict Pickles – 2012

Fight for Sites go to Evict Pickles: On Friday 19th October 2012, the first anniversary of the brutal eviction of the Dale Farm Traveller community, activists and some of those evicted marched to the Department for Communities and Local Government to serve an eviction notice on DCLG Minister Eric Pickles.

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers have long found life in the UK difficult for their nomadic lifestyle, and have long been subjected to discrimination. There is a huge shortage of sites where they can legally stop both short-term while they are moving and for longer winter breaks.

Relatively few local authorities had made a real effort to meet their planning obligation to provide traveller sites, and these are often not popular with some local residents. Dale Farm – as the Wikipedia article tells – began with a planning appeal in the 1980s over the right to establish a site there.

Much of the problems that ensued over the subsequent expansion of the site onto a neighbouring plot of derelict wasteland owned by a traveller family came from it being ‘Green Belt’ – despite which it had been allegedly used by Basildon Council to tip waste tarmac and rubble from roadworks for many years.

In 2003 then Secretary of State, John Prescott had made an order giving temporary permission to the site for two years to give the site residents and the local authority time to find a suitable alternative site. But no progress was made, and by 2007 a government report stated that opposition amongst parts of the settled community towards site residents had become ever fiercer.

I went to the site in September 2011 and photographed a flash mob later that month at the DCLG, but was not able to be there for the eventual eviction on 19 October 2011 which was widely covered as it happened by UK and international media.

On the day when I marched with residents and protesters from Wickford Station the three miles to a rally at the site I was surprised at how remote and isolated it seemed to be, and thought it was in many ways a very appropriate place for a traveller site. I felt that Basildon Council had created a fight with the travellers based largely on racial discrimination and had not attempt to come to a sensible resolution.

*Police held and arrested a few protesters*

The Fight for Sites protest on the first anniversary of the eviction was organised by the Traveller Solidarity Network in protest over the evictions last year and the continuing harassment of travellers at Dale Farm and across the country.

*Photographers were hampered by a woman officer who kept forcing us back where we could see little*

As I commented then, a year after the eviction had taken place from what had been “in most respects a highly appropriate, tidy and well-kept site” it was now “an eyesore, filled with stagnant water, sewage and toxic material, while 83 homeless families, mainly evicted from the site, are now living on the approach road to the site without electricity or running water” and facing further threat of eviction but with nowhere else to go.

*Two people are held by police on the other side of the protest and then carried away*

Minister Eric Pickles response to the lack of sites had been to remove the duty of local government to permit traveller sites and to give them greater power to evict. The protesters met at Victoria Station and marched to the nearby DCLG offices to give him a notice of eviction.

*Two women decided to lie down in front of the police*

It was a colourful protest and ended outside the offices with a number of scuffles between police and protesters, with some climbing onto a rood with banners and posters, as well as pasting up an eviction notice on the building. Photographers were harassed and moved back by police who were at the same time telling us we had a right to photograph the event, and several protesters were arrested.

*Police tried to push back one of the ‘caravan’ sides while protesters held firm*

I left after the protesters had stopped trying to get in the building and a statement was read out about why the had come to protest. I think the protest was coming to a close; by then it was raining heavily and I needed to be elsewhere.

*The protests then pulled back and a statement about the protest was read out*

You can read the text of the eviction notice and find more details about the protest and see many more photographs on My London Dairy at Fight for Sites go to Evict Pickles.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos