Camberwell Fire Station,Peckham Road, Peckham, Southwark, 198989-1h-45
The Grade II listed Camberwell Fire Station by Edward Cresy Junior dating from 1867 is the earliest surviving purpose-built fire station in London, possibly in the country. Two of the three ground floor appliance bays of this gothic building have been converted to windows. It is now South London Gallery Fire Station, a contemporary arts centre for the South London Gallery. It was replaced by a more modern fire station, now demolished, in 1920.
It was only listed in November 2008, and the official listing names it as Former Peckham Fire Station. The h listing text explains that “There are a small number of surviving fire engine sheds dating from the first half of the C19: simple, single cell buildings were designed to house a fire pump and built by local vestries or by public subscriptions. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade stations are of a different order: publicly-funded, multi-storey buildings designed to provide accommodation for the newly-created fire brigade officers and to house engines, horses and equipment. “
Peckham Lodge, Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Peckham Rd, Grummant Rd, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-31
The Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers had their headquarters here from 1900 until 1996 when they became a part of Amicus. Their slogan ‘Be United and Industrious’ is above the door in Grummant Rd. The building was threatened with demolition in 2007 but has so far survived.
Shops, Peckham High St, Sumner Ave, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-32
The western start of Peckham High Street and a very down at heel side street, a dead end leading around to the back of the shops. Along it can be seen some buildings of St James the Great R C Primary School. There was a school entrance here, and a footpath still leads to Sumner Street along the side of a brick school wall. What was open space here, Jocelyn Street Park, has now become, despite some local protests, Peckham Flaxyard, a council development with a total of 168 homes, of which just over half are for social rent, and a 24 for shared ownership, with around 48 for sale or rent at market prices. Part of this site was formerly occupied by a factory making laundry machines.
The corner shop was built with an entrance to suggest it was a building of some status and it looks as if it dates from around the end of the Victorian era.
Shops, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-33
The rather grandiose building at left, in 1989 an Opticians, is now the Kentish Drovers, a Wetherspoon’s pub. Until the 1990s there was a pub of the same name on the opposite side of the road with the same name. Stockmen on foot driving flocks of sheep and herds of cows up from Kent to Smithfield market might take a rest or a reviving drink in Peckham before continuing their dusty slow journey to London Bridge and on to market.
I think the doorway at No 77 is probably also a part of the pub, though the door isn’t in use. Everything to the right of this – Hyper Records, Francis Chappell & Sons Funerals, Nature Trail Health Foods and the Soujourner Truth Youth Association at 83 Peckham High Street has since been demolished along with other buildings up to 89. This now the large covered space leading to Peckham Library, Peckham Square, Peckham Pulse and the Surrey Canal Walk.
Shops, The Crown, pub, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-36
The Crown pub was at 119 Peckham Hight St. The building is still there, on the corner of Mission Place but no longer a pub. There appears to have been a pub here in 1851 and was advertising drag nights when I photographed it. It apparently morphed into a bizarrely decorated Irish pub, with a tractor in the window and tables and chairs nailed to the ceiling complete with glasses and playing cards, but apparently Sally O’Brien’s was not a success and the pub soon closed, becoming a series of shops and agencies and most recently a Tapas restaurant.
Junction, Peckham Hill St, Peckham High St, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-21
The Bun House, a pub at 96 Peckham High St on the left of this picture has the date 1898. It remained in business as a pub until January 2012 but is now a betting shop. There was a pub on this site at least by 1871. The rest of the frontages along the High Street also remain.
At right is M Manze’s Eel & Pie House, still in business, although temporarily closed in 1989. The vacant shop next door has had a number of occupants and is now a clothing shop. The crossing in the centre is still there but has only a short vestigial length of railings in a rather fancier style than those utilitarian ones in my photograph.
This junction is a convenient place for me to end this post which has mainly been on Peckham High Street. More on this walk shortly.
I did some travelling around Central London on Saturday 19th November 2011, from the City to Westminster mainly to cover various aspects of Occupy London, but also to a march about women’s rights organised by the Fawcett Society.
Saturday Morning Occupy London – St Paul’s Cathedral, Saturday 19 November 2011
My work began at St Paul’s Cathedral, where five weeks earlier I had come with Occupy who were intending to Occupy the nearby Stock Exchange. Police had managed to deny them access to the ‘private’ public Paternoster Square in front of the Stock Exchange, and they had instead set up camp at St Paul’s, where they were still in occupation.
For various reasons, not least my age and health, I hadn’t felt able to take part in this occupation though I felt a great deal of sympathy with its aims, and living on the edge of London had not been able to commit myself to photographing it like some other photographers, but I had kept in touch and had called in a number of times at St Paul’s and to the related occupation at Finsbury Square, as well as meeting people from Occupy taking part in other protests.
There was nothing particular scheduled for my visit on this Saturday morning – it was rather more a social call and an opportunity to find out more about what would be happening later in the day. The occupation at St Paul’s continued until the end of February, and I was sorry to be on a hillside in the north of England when I got a phone call from Occupy LSX asking for me to come and take pictures of the anticipated eviction and unable to make it.
Don’t Turn The Clock Back – Embankment to Westminster, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
I walked from St Paul’s to Temple, where around a thousand people, mainly women, were preparing to march from Temple past Downing St to a rally next to the Treasury in King Charles St, calling to the government not to turn back time on women’s equality though the cuts they were making.
The Fawcett Society who had organised the march say the cuts will put the clock back on the advances which women have made towards equality since the 1950s, and called on those taking part in the protest to come in 1950s style, variously interpreted by those taking part from Paris fashions to carrying brushes or brooms, wooden spoons or other kitchen implements as symbols of what they felt was the only role our government can envisage for women, the “good little wife.”
When the march neared Downing Street the slogans changed to ‘Calm Down Dear!’ with the deafening response ‘No We Won’t‘, repeating David Cameron’s sexist and patronising put down directed at Labour MP Angela Eagle in the House of Commons.
There were criticisms of the press for their belittling labelling of some groups of women in public life – such as ‘Blair’s Babes’ – as well as the general predominance of semi-pornographic imagery and demeaning attitudes to women. But most of the criticism was aimed at the government for the cuts which will affect women disproportionally as many more women than men in the NHS and other public sector services will lose their jobs and women are more dependent on these services than men.
As well as the Fawcett Society, founded in 1866 to campaign peacefully for votes for women and still a powerful campaigning organisation for equal rights, many other organisations were represented on the march from across society and politics, including journalists, trade unionists, and campaigning organisations including Southall Black Sisters, UK Uncut and the Turkish and Kurdish Refugee Women’s group.
Bank of Ideas & Finsbury Square – Sun Street & Finsbury Square, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
Occupy had set up The Bank of Ideas in a disused bank building, empty for several years, on Sun St and there I was able to listen to one of many talks taking place – an interesting and detailed presentation and question and answer session on the surveillance society.
I walked the short distance to Finsbury Square and made a few pictures of the tents in the Occupy camp there, but there were very few people around and little was happening.
I was told most of the residents had either gone to take part in events at the Bank of Ideas or at St Paul’s, where I then also made my way to.
Speakers At Occupy London – St Paul’s Cathedral, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
On the steps of St Paul’s I joined a crowd of a few hundred listening to speakers giving news from other occupations including those in New York and Bristol.
They were followed by a number of others who had come to give their support to Occupy, including among others Jeremy Corbyn, Vivienne Westwood and the now retired Methodist minister David Haslam who has been involved with many campaigns over the years.
City of London Anti-Apartheid Group At Occupy London – Saturday 19 November 2011
Also visiting St Paul’s to give support were a group who had taken part in the Non-Stop Picket of South Africa House started by the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group on 19 April 1986 who defied attempts by British police, the British government and the South African embassy to remove them for almost 4 years until Nelson Mandela was finally released in 1990. Over a thousand arrests were made – including of Jeremy Corbyn, but 96% of these were dismissed by the courts.
The picket gained widespread support around the world but were attacked and disowned by the official leadership of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, because of their support for revolutionary movements other than the ANC, and because the official movement wanted to avoid confrontation with the UK government. The group had been expelled from the AAM around a year before their long non-stop protest began, after carrying out a number of shorter protests. The group came and spoke about the protest and also sang – singing played an important part in keeping up their four year non-stop vigil outside South Africa House.
I went back to where I had finished my walk on 27th January 1989 two days later on Sunday 29th January, beginning with a couple of pictures of the former St Giles Hospital which I used in the final post on that walk.
I walked up Havill St to Southampton Way. Across the road was Rainbow Street with this building with bricked up windows and doorway on a large house converted to commercial use. Rainbow Street was not present in 1870 but appears on the map surveyed in 1893 and this building was almost certainly built between those dates, after the window tax was repealed in 1851 and so the bricking up of windows was for practical reasons – and clearly was the doorway.
This building is now home to a small 24hour supermarket on the ground floor with two of the top floor windows now opended up and a door replacing the right-hand ground floor window presumable giving access to living accommodation above the shop. The large notice area is still there, though without notices when I last saw it.
Rainbow Street was for some time the home of Great Train Robber Buster Edwards who many of us saw regularly at his florists stall near Waterloo after his release from jail in 1975.
Further south on Southampton Way was this house with iron screenwork, lions and mosaic path which made it stand out. In the background is the North Peckham estate. Unfortunately this doorway was altered around 2012. The estate was redeveloped under the Five Estates Peckham Masterplan approved by Southwark in 1995, which resulted in the net loss of 1184 social-rented dwellings. The chimney was for the estate heating system.
This house is at the corner with Peckham Grove and I think probably dates from the mid-19th century, possibly from around the time the houses nearby in Peckham Grove (now Newent Close) were developed from 1837 on. Unfortunately this doorway was altered around 2012, although the lions, steps and mosaic are still there. The houses around the corner were built in 1843 and are listed as is a lamp post on the corner outside this house.
House, 46, Peckham Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-54
This is now called “Listed House” and is at 46 Peckham Grove although its neighbours are also covered by the listing of 40-46 and attached railings. Built in 1843 and now flats.
Lamp post, Horse Trough, flats, Southampton Way, Peckham Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-41
And this is the Grade II listed Gothic Revival late 19th century hand pump converted in the 20th century to an electric lamp post, with a horse trough and drinking fountain beside it. Across Peckham Grove is the London Borough of Southwark’s Samuel Jones Industrial Estate and beyond that the North Peckham Estate.
The lampost and the rest of the corner along with tall chimney are still there, but the rest has been replaced by new housing.
The message on the horse trough, ‘”BLESSED ARE THE PITIFUL” – THE WORK OF ST LUKE’S BAND OF MERCY’ seems a little strange to me. It is a translation of Matthew 5 v7, more normally ‘Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy’ and means that those who show pity are to be blessed rather than those to be pitied. Some translate it as ‘Blessed are the humble’, but in this context it rather seems to me that St Luke’s Band Of Mercy were showing pride rather than humility. But horses need water and were doubtless grateful.
Men and women need water too. In my youth every park had its drinking fountain, providing not only water but also fun for kids as we used them to spray each other. Since then we have had decades of them being removed on grounds of hygiene (and I sometimes wonder how we survived back then.) Recently we have seen a huge fad of ‘hydration’, with people walking and running around our cities clutching water bottles – and the growing provision in a few places of free water bottle filling stations.
At the end of Southampton Way I came to Peckham Road and opposite me was Winnie Mandela House. Once described in the Daily Telegraph as a “viciously ugly 1960s office block” with a “shabby façade”, Winnie Mandela House looked more to me a 1930s art deco factory building, and not without its own charm.
Its former name was ‘Pelican House’, the words almost legible on either side of the clock, and now back under that name has been imaginatively converted to provide eighty new affordable housing apartments for shared ownership and rent for Amicus Horizon Group with the lower floors housing an arts café and gallery.
At right of this picture is the frontage of Kennedy’s Sausage Factory. Occasionally on my walks I felt hungry and would stop at one of their shops to buy a sausage roll. But they were closed on Sundays.
I crossed the road to take this second picture from the wide pavement outside.
The factory was was begun by The Surrey Association for the General Welfare of the Blind in 1885, and rebuilt in this form in 1936 (by which time it was the London Association for the Blind – and later became Action for Blind People) with new offices in Pelican House completed in 1952.
The factory employed blind men in the production of handmade baskets, the manufacture of casein and metal knitting needles, and injection moulded plastics. Production moved to Verney Road Peckham in 1974 and Pelican House was sold in 1976.
I find it hard to define a clear boundary between Camberwell and Peckham, and this part of the walk had been on the borderlands. From here on I was clearly walking into Peckham for the next part of my walk.
Nude, South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-26
A bronze nude by Karel Vogel was at the entrance to the gallery, and in 1989 seemed under threat by the tree emerging behind. I think both the sculpture and the tree behind it have gone although a large tree closer to the road remains. Vogel, (1897-1961) was a Czech sculptor who came to England fleeing the Nazis in 1938 and taught at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1948, and became in charge of the School of Sculpture there.
Perhaps his best-known work in this country is his 1959 Leaning Woman, Grade II listed in 2016, situated close to the A4 by St Peter’s Church in Hammersmith.
The London Institute, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-11
The Art School and gallery designed by Maurice Adams was built in 1896-8 is Grade II listed. It’s extravagantly baroque exterior includes a number of caryatids in supporting roles. ‘The Buildings of South London’, page 620, describes the 1960 addition at left by Murray, Ward & Partners as “totally unsympathetic” and it is certainly and doubtless intentionally a complete contrast. But it deserves to be seen and judged on its own.
Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Havil St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-14
The Havil Street frontage of the Poor Law Guardians building whose frontage on Peckham Road featured in the previous post in this series. It was built in an vaguely Art Nouveau style in 1904. I found the octagonal building with the rectangular blocks behind with its rhythmic patterns of windows and odd towers, together with the odd street wall, its curves echoed by the hood around the doorway quite enchanting.
St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark 1989-1g-15
In 1889-90 a new 4-storey ward tower fronting onto Havil Street was opened for the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary, later St Giles’s Hospital. Circular in design (which was fashionable at that time), it had cost about £14,500. Each storey contained 24 beds radiating around a central shaft, in which heating and ventilation services were located. This Grade II listed building is now flats. The pile of rubble behind the wall is from the demolition of unlisted hospital buildings.
St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-16
Another view of the hospital tower seen from Havil Street. Designed by Robert P Whellock it is Grade II listed. This was the last picture I took on Friday 27th January 1989, but two days later, Sunday 29th I came back here to begin another walk, beginning with more pictures here and a little further along Havil Street and I’ll include these here.
St Giles’ Hospital, Havil Street, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1h-65
Much of the former St Giles Hospital was in 1989 a demolition site with just the listed buildings being left standing. The area is now filled with rather dreary housing with two and three storey solid-looking blocks around ‘St Giles Tower’. I think this picture was taken from the corner of Brunswick Villas, just after I had made a picture (not on-line) of the Grade II listed Bethel Asylum for aged women founded by William Peacock in 1837 at 159-163 Havil Street.
I walked up Havil Street to the corner with Brunswick Villas, formerly Brunswick Road as the stone pillar still asserts. These houses are presumably a part of W J Hudson’s Brunswick Park development begun in 1847, though rather less grand than some.
From here I made my way towards Peckham – where my next series of posts on my walk on 29th January will begin.
Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-55
I walked down St Giles Road to the Peckham Road, turning east along it. At the end of the block on the corner of Havill Street is the former Guardians Offices built in an vaguely Art Nouveau style in 1904 for the Poor Law Guardians who ran the workhouse of which it was part. The sundial has the text ‘Do Today’s Work Today‘. The building is Grade II listed.
Under the 1929 Local Government Act the LCC took over the workhouse and infirmary buildings on the site and the same act abolished the Board of Guardians system in 1930. Many workhouses were redesignated as Public Assistance Institutions but Camberwell’s became St James’s Hospital and these offices became the Divisional Health Offices. Southwark Council inherited the building in 1966 but closed its offices here when it moved to Tooley Street in 2009. The building was bought in 2010 by homelessness charity Thames Reach who use it as an Employment Academy. There is also a cafe and tea room on the Havill Street side as well as a Montessori Nursery on the site.
Guardians Offices, London Borough of Southwark, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-45
A wider view of the building, still then in use by Southwark Council.
Camberwell Town Hall, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-56
On the east corner of Havill Street is the former Camberwell Town Hall designed in a Classical style by Culpin and Bowers and opened in 1934. It became the town hall for the London Borough of Southwark when this was created in 1965 and was still this when I took my picture. They sold it to a developer in 2009 when the council moved to Tooley St and it was converted into student accommodation for Goldsmiths College.
South House, 30-32 Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-41
This row of houses are Grade II listed and were built as separate houses ca 1790. Like the council offices across the road they were also in use as council offices until around 2010 with the house and have also been converted into student accommodation, with a total of 125 bedrooms in the three blocks including also listed Central and East Houses on the north side of Peckham Road and South House.. Joined to them the east end of the block (out of picutre at left) is still the Southwark Register Office.
Southwark Register Office is also Grade II listed and was built around 1790. At some unknown date it was liked to No 32 at right at second floor level, with the curious rooftop extension you see here. Presumably the tall archway in the middle had some purpose, and was possibly at one time without the lower wall and arch. Perhaps giraffes were kept in the gardens behind? Suggestions are welcome in the comments here or on Flickr.
The London Institute, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-23
John Passmore Edwards gave money for the erection of the South London Gallery and the College, architect Maurice Bingham Adams, in memory of Lord Leighton. The gallery opened in 1891 and the Technical Institute in 1898. It became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.
South London Gallery, The Passmore Edwards South London Art Gallery, Peckham Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-25
The Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts became one of England’s leading art schools particularly after WW2. It became a part of the London Institute formed by ILEA in 1986 and in 1989 it became Camberwell College of Arts becoming a part of the University of the Arts London in 2004.
My next post will start with a couple more pictures of Camberwell College of Arts before taking a walk up Havill Road.
Robert Browning the Victorian poet (1812-89) was born in Rainbow Cottage, Cottage Green and grew up in the area – there is a Rainbow Street not far away but the cottage is long gone. But the area still felt a little out of place in the middle of twentieth century London.
The tree is still there on the corner with Wells Way and so too is the chapel down the street and the house beyond on the corner of Southampton Way. At right the brick wall and fence remain, but the site behind, not visible here, has been sold for development. I’m not sure why the foreground railings on the pavement edge were there, but they are now no longer. At left instead of the corrugated iron there is now housing almost up to the pavement and the 11 storey block facing the end of the street has been replaced by flats of half the height.
Browning’s parents – his father was a clerk at the Bank of England on what was for the time a pretty decent salary – moved a few yards to Hanover Cottage on Coleman Rd when he was around 12, and there is a more or less illegible stone plaque on a wall of the shop on the corner of Southampton Way and Coleman Road with a more recent Southwark blue plaque higher up.
Cottage Green Baptist Chapel, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-61
The chapel was built in 1844 and became a Baptist chapel ten years later in 1854. Owned by the Copleston Centre, a Peckham Community Church in Copleston Road it has been in use as a Christian nursery, the Destiny Day Nursery registered in 2007.
When I took this picture is still in use as a Baptist chapel. The commercial building beyond the chapel is still there as is the brick building at left, though the fences have been replace by a low brick structure, perhaps a bin store.
Cottage Green Baptist Chapel, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-62
A second picture gives a clearer view of the church noticeboard with its message ‘SUNDAY FAMILY SERVICE 11.00AM’. I would like to know more about the windowless building to the right.
The houses at 73-77 were built in the early 19th century and are Grade II listed. A planning application was made in 2021 for the development of the yard which has an ‘L’ shape behind the houses on Southampton Way to another entrance on Cottage Green, opposite the chapel and next to another listed building, Collingwood House at 1-3 College Green – which I did not photograph.
Brunswick Park area, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-64
I think these houses are near Brunswick Park, but cannot identify the exact location. There are a number of houses of a similar mid-Victorian age and style in the area which was developed by W J Hudson who bought the area in 1847, naming the open space in the centre after the estranged wife of George IV, Caroline of Brunswick. Long separated from her husband she had become a very popular figure by the time he became king in 1820 and died (possibly not naturally) shortly after his coronation in 1821.
The garden at the centre of the square was bought by the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in 1901 and opened to the public as a park in 1907.
Brunswick Park, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-66
Finding the exact location of photographs I took 33 years ago is much easier when they include street names as this picture of houses on the corner of Brunswick Park does. Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the daughter of George III’s sister and had a surprising introduction to this country as she first landed at Greenwich at what was then the Royal Hospital for Seamen and asked “Are all Englishman missing an arm or a leg?“
The future George IV married her for her money and for the need to provide the country with an heir. She was “short, fat, ugly and never changed her undergarments, and rarely washed. Her body odour was overwhelming.” George had already made a secret and illegal marriage to the beautiful but Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert around ten years earlier, but as he had not had his father’s consent for this, the second marriage was not bigamous. Both George and Caroline got very drunk at their wedding and somehow despite their mutual repulsion a daughter and heir Princess Charlotte was born the following year.
The couple separated shortly after. George made a number of unsuccessful attempt to divorce her, including setting up a Royal Commission called the ‘Delicate Investigation’ which failed to find evidence of adultery, possibly because their heart wasn’t really in it, perhaps due to the overwhelming evidence against George.
Caroline left Britain in 1814 for Europe, shocking people in various countries by her behaviour (which included often appearing in public with her dress open to the waist, dancing topless in Geneva and becoming the mistress among others of Napoleon’s brother-in-law.)
When George became king in 1820 as they were still married she was automatically queen consort and decided to return to Britain. The government tried to bribe her, offering her £50,000 to stay away, but she came back and set up house in Hammersmith. She was very popular with the public (at a distance) many of whom were disgusted by her husband’s immoral behaviour, both towards her and with his various mistresses. A mob surrounded Parliament daily when the House of Lords tried for over 7 weeks to dissolve her marriage, eventually forcing them to abandon the attempt.
Uninvited, she tried to attend George IV’s coronation in 1821, but had the door of Westminster Abbey slammed in her face. She died 19 days later, convinced she had been poisoned. It seems more than likely this was so.
St Giles Hospital, Flats, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-52
St Giles Hospital was opened in 1875 as the Camberwell Workhouse Infirmary and blocks were added here on St Giles Rd (then Brunswick Rd) around 1900. In 1913 it became the Camberwell Parish Infirmary and in 1930 it was taken over by the London County Council. On joining the NHS in 1948 it became St Giles’ Hospital. It closed in 1983 and the blocks here were converted into flats.
St Giles Hospital, Flats, St Giles Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1g-54
Another picture from the four I made of the former hospital in St Giles Road on the east side of Brunswick Park. I walked down the road back to Peckham Road, where my walk will continue in a later post.
On the 14th of each month my thoughts turn at least for a short while to 14th June 2017 when a fire broke out in the 24 storey block in North Kensington. Instead of being confined to a single flat as the original design intended, flammable cladding wrongly applied on the outside of the building led to a rapid spread which engulfed the tower, killing 72 of those inside.
March organiser Zeyad Cred
The public inquiry into the tragedy ended a few days ago, with the lead counsel Richard Millett KC stating that the risks that led to the fire were well known by many of the organisations involved and should have been known by all. He said the inquiry should decide with confidence that all 72 deaths were avoidable, and criticised the many organisations which had been more concerned with trying to evade any legal responsibility for the fire and blame others rather than assist the inquiry.
Moyra Samuels, a teacher at a school close to Grenfell Tower and a leading member of Justice4Grenfell
The BBC report lists some of those responsible, with a diagram of the web of blame, including the companies who manufactured the cladding, those who designed their installation and fitted them, the fire safety consultants, the local council and the government who had set up a broken building safety system.
Behind the marchers the burnt out shell of Grenfell
A report from Sky, Grenfell survivors insulted as long-running inquiry comes to close, looks at the effects on some of the residents and their views and including that of barrister for the bereaved and survivors Imran Khan KC, who points out that 85% of those who died were from minority ethnic communities and raises the question of the “institutional or structural or systemic racism” that lay behind the treatment of the tower before the tragedy and of the survivors.
Grenfell United issued a long statement via Twitter in response to the closing statements from the inquiry. In it they point out that none of the recommendations of the first phase of the inquiry has yet been implemented. They say that the government had ignored previous warnings about the dangers caused by deregulation and that Government Ministers were still advocating for deregulation.
They criticise the London Fire Brigade also because the critical recommendations from the Lakanal House fire in 2009 were then incompletely put in place – and they should have lifted the ‘stay put’ advice once it was clear the fire was uncontrollable.
The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea they say “treated us like second class citizens. They refused to invest in Grenfell Tower for 30 years, and when they did they wrapped it in petrol.” The also blame them for colluding with their landlord who bullied them, “ignored our fire safety concerns and treated our lives like a game of monopoly.“
Their statement also describes briefly the failures of Kingspan, Arconic and Celotex and points out that as yet there have been no consequences. They say the justice system protects the powerful and prevents justice. “From Aberfan, to Hillsborough, justice has been denied and Grenfell is no different.“
They hope the final inquiry report will bring real change and that the Metropolitan Police and CPS will bring “the necessary criminal charges … and prove to us that there is not a two tier justice system.”
On Tuesday 14th of November 2017 I joined the large crowd which met at Notting Hill Methodist Church for the monthly slow and silent walk to demand justice and remember those killed in the tragic fire. At the front of the march were large green hearts calling for Truth, Unity and Justice and many others carried placards calling for justice and truth.
Matt Wrack
Among those marching were a group of firefighters including FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack, and more firefighters stood by the side of the road beside there fire engine close to Ladbroke Grove station. Whatever the criticism of the fire brigade, the firefighters who came to Grenfell showed great bravery and worked to exhaustion to rescue many of the survivors unable to make their way out unaided.
The march went on to the Maxilla Centre, but that was a occasion for the local community and not for the press, and I stayed on Ladbroke Grove taking pictures until the end of the procession had passed me, then made my way home.
Back when we lived in caves and hunted animals for food it made sense to use their skins and fur for clothing. Even before the wide availability of synthetic materials in the second half of the last century fur there were still some functional reasons for using fur. And though it is possible to imagine that fur animals could be farmed without excessive cruelty, it seems very doubtful if this has ever actually taken place. The idea of ‘ethically sourced fur’ seems a nonsense – you can read how fur is acutally produced in one of mny articles on the PETA web-site, Inside the Fur Industry: Factory Farms.
But fur was a luxury item, one that signified wealth and privilege. A mink coat was something for women to aspire to, something that advertised their success in the world, though for those of us in the poorer areas it was often regarded as being all “fur coat and no knickers” marking out its showy and seemingly elegant wearer as vulgar and sexually immoral.
Our dressing-up box as kids – all from jumble sales – included a moth-eaten red fox scarf complete with head and tail. It smelt strongly, though perhaps not of fox. But the fox trims on my mothers’ coats owed their life to crude petroleum rather than any any living animal.
I’m not a fan of foxes. I’ve seen what they do in a chicken run, and it isn’t pretty. Last year I left a recently bough expensive pair of boots outside our back door overnight and one of our local foxes came and took a bite out of them – and they leave foul-smelling excrement on our yard to attract the unwary shoe. Of course I’m against hunting, but would certainly support measures that cut there populations perhaps by eliminating the waste food that has powered their growth thanks to fast-food outlets and fining those urban dwellers who leave out food for them.
But we don’t need fur for clothing. And I’m shocked to find real fur coats and scarves still being sold in shops and on-line. I’d even be in favour of banning the sale of ‘vintage fur’ as this perpetuates the idea of fur as a luxury that sustains the cruelty to animals of producing new fur. And I don’t believe there is such a thing as ‘ethically sourced fur’ which shops including Harrods continue to push.
As the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade pointed out in 2018: “Harrods is one of only two department stores in the UK which continues to sell real fur, even though the production of fur is illegal in the UK.” Hopes in 2010 that a change in ownership might change the policy were optimistic – and you can still buy fur there – should you want a gilet “crafted from mink fur – a delicate yet warming material that exudes undeniable glamour” it could be yours for just £8,910.
CAFT in 2018 wrote “The last survey at Harrods revealed a wide range of real fur garments on sale on display throughout the store, and included items made from beaver, chinchilla, red fox, arctic fox, mink, musquash, rabbit, wolf, coyote and squirrel.” They organise regular protests there and at other shops selling real fur products.
I found it hard not to admire the determination of the protesters and the inventive nature of many of their posters, placards, costumes and props, all of which made it easy to take interesting photographs – though there were a few activists who were not keen to be photographed. But I couldn’t help wishing that they could transfer some of their creative anger to protests over the way humans are being treated around the world and support these as well.
Class War Women in Red One Commercial St, Aldgate, Wed 12 Nov 2014
A week earlier on 5th November 2014, police had arrested Jane Nicholl for setting fire to an effigy of Boris Johnson as a part of Class War’s ‘Poor Doors’ weekly protest against separate entrances for wealthy and social housing residents in the block at 1 Commercial St in Aldgate.
The bail conditions imposed by police prevented her from taking place in further protests outside the block in Aldgate, a clear attack on her right to protest. Jane had been wearing a red coat when she was arrested, and a number of women wore red for the protest a week later in solidarity.
Police had earlier complained about Class War’s posters earlier in the year for the general election, which had featured large portraits of the party leaders with Class War’s verdict – the same on each of them – overprinted large, the word ‘WANKER’. At least one person displaying them during the election had been threatend with arrest and forced to take them out of his house windows and in May police had objected to and seized a banner featuring all four leaders with a similar message.
Eventually the police were told they had to hand the banner back as its display was not an offence. But they were unwilling to do so, claiming it had been lost – though more probably they had destroyed it rather than having to lose face handing it back.
So the banner was not present at this protest, though later Class War made an updated version to use. But Ian Bone had brought along a pile of the posters, mainly of Tory Prime Minister David Cameron but with a few of other party leaders and handed them out.
Ian told us that this was an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of ‘Cameron wanker posters’ ever displayed at a protest. I’m not sure how many there were on display, but I think it was certainly a record number, but the chances of it being recorded in that rather conservative publication were as I wrote, “rather sub-zero.”
Police presence this week was low-key with just half a dozen officers standing beside the ‘rich door’ and along the front of the building and watching. The protest was noisy, with speeches, a samba band and dancing, but was entirely peaceful with no attempt to enter the building.
Silent Remembrance Peace Vigil – Trafalgar Square, Sat 11 Nov 2017
I came up the steps from the Underground into Trafalgar Square just as the clocks struck 11am on Saturday 11th of November 2017, exactly 99 years to the minute after the end of fighting following the signing earlier in the morning of the Armistice in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne. Though actually an hour late, since it was 11.00 am Paris time, an hour ahead of GMT.
A revolt by sailors in the German Navy, beginning in Wilhelmshaven on 29-30th October 2018 had lead widespread actions across Germany with the proclamation of a Republic which forced the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm and made the end of the war inevitable – it had largely been a family quarrel between the ruling royals.
As I came up into the square a whistle marked the start of the two-minute silence, and at least one bus swerved to the side of the road and stopped, though much of the traffic continued around it. A few people in the square stood to attention, but many of the tourists continued as normal. And I stood for a few seconds then kept on walking to photograph a small group of Quakers on the North Terrace wearing white poppies and beginning a 45 minute silent remembrance peace vigil outside the National Gallery.
White poppies were first made in 1933 by the Co-operative Women’s Guild to hold on to the key message of remembrance, ‘never again’. The First World War, known at the time as The Great War, had been called “the war to end all wars” but by 1933 many were beginning to think that another world war was coming.
The white poppy remembers all victims or war, both civilians and military, and of all nationalities and has become more important as our official armistice events have over the past years become more and more militaristic celebrations. Sales of white poppies have increased greatly in recent years, with demand outstripping supply.
The white poppy challenges war and militarism and any attempt to glorify or celebrate war, and shows a committment to peace and nonviolent solutions to conflict. This year writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah appears in a popular https://youtu.be/jtjCGCxT_PU video where he explains why he wears a white poppy and urges others to do the same to remember all victims of war and to work towards a world where there is no war.
Close Canada Goose for animal cruelty – Regent St, Sat 11 Nov 2017
Fur is Worn By Beautiful Animals and Ugly People!
Several hundred campaigners marched from a nearby square to protest outside the newly opened flagship Regent Street Canada Goose store where the protest continued for most of the day. Police struggled to clear a path through the protesters for customers to enter and leave.
Canada Goose was selling coats with fur trims using trapped wild coyotes, which may suffer for days in cruel traps, facing blood loss, dehydration, frostbite, gangrene and attacks by predators, some even trying to chew off their own trapped limbs to escape before a trapper returns to strangle, stamp or bludgeon them to death.
The down in their jackets is from ducks and geese that have their throats slit and are dumped into scalding hot water for feather removal while often still alive and feeling pain to make the down-filled jackets.
The London protests followed years of protests in New York and Toronto and continued weekly and at times more frequently. The shop gained an interim injunction restricting the activities outside the Regent St shop at the end of November 2017, but this was discharged in 2019 and their request to make it final refused, with the High Court saying the right to protest is an important legal right.
In June 2021 Canada Goose announced it would stop buying fur by the end of that year and no longer make products using real fur no later than the end of 2022. The protests backed by Peta for 15 years had eventually led to success, although the company denied that they had any part in its decision. The campaign to stop them using geese and duck feathers continues.
Remember Refugees on Armistice Day – Whitehall, Sat 11 Nov 2017
Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants hosted a a commemoration ceremony to lay a life-ring wreath in memory of the people who have died fleeing their war-torn countries to seek refuge over the past year.
The event began at the Ministry of Defence. Many feel that the official celebration of Remembrance Day has gradually become more militaristic and a celebration of our victories rather than remembering the deaths of many in all the wars that our country has played a part in.
Among those taking part were a number of refugees as well as some activists who had supported them in the camps at Calais and on Greek Islands.
After speeches on the steps of the Ministry of Defence people held up posters with the details known about some of the migrants who have died trying to cross to the UK, but for many the posters read ‘Name Unknown’ – all we know is their date of death.
Then people processed holding wreaths of orange poppies and burning candles to the Cenotaph where they laid these to remember those who died seeking sanctuary. There were 17 small wreaths, the average number of people who have died so far trying to migrate each day in 2017.
Orange Lodges Remembrance Day parade – Whitehall, Sat 11 Nov 2017
As I was at the Cenotaph I heard the sound of a flute band and drums as the London City District No 63 and the Houses of Parliament Lodge marched up Parliament St with visiting loyalists on their annual Remembrance Day parade in central London.
I photographed them marching and laying wreaths, but didn’t go with them as they went to lay further wreaths at the Duke of York Column in honour of Prince Frederick, Duke of York, the second eldest son of King George III and a Grand Master of the Loyal Orange Institution of England and then to St James’ Square for the end of their parade, where they were to lay a wreath at the memorial to WPC Yvonne Fletcher. Although I had no problems in Whitehall on this occasion I have been attacked at some other Orange events in London.
