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Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals

Thursday, February 8th, 2024

Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals – Thursday 8th February 2018 saw a remarkable victory for Class War against the one of the richest families in the world, the Qatari Royal Family with a $335 billion sovereign wealth fund who are now one of the biggest landowners in the United Kingdom.

Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals

In the morning I had gone to the Royal Courts of Justice on Strand where lawyers acting for the Qatari royal family were trying to prevent a Class War protest against the ten empty £50 million pound apartments in The Shard, the tallest building in the United Kingdom. The Qataris own 95% of the property with the remaining 5% retained by its original developers Sellar Property.

Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals

I hadn’t gone into the court but had waited outside, arriving in plenty of time to greet Ian Bone and his barrister Ian Brownhill as they emerged triumphant from the court.

Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals

Lawyers for the Qatari royals had tried to get an injunction against protests by Bone and “persons unknown” and to claim over £500 in legal costs from the 70 year-old south London pensioner for them doing so.

Class War Victory Over Qatari Royals

Brownhill had contacted Bone and offered to take up his case pro bono, and as soon as he contacted the Qataris’ lawyers they offered to drop the case if Class War ‘would stop attacking the Shard’. Class War would of course not agree to giving up their protest. The Qatari attempt to stifle protest led to articles in the national and international press and radio and TV coverage.

In the High Court the Qataris’ lawyers were forced to drop the attempt to ban protests and their demand for fees but Bone accepted a legal restriction on him going inside the Shard and its immediate vicinity.

Among documents supplied to the court for the Qataris were some clearly defamatory statments about another person connected with Class War but not named in the injunction and other information which had clearly been obtained from police sources. The Head of Security at the Shard got his job after retiring as a police commander.

Police have over the years carried out a number of clearly malicious arrests of people from Class War during protests, aimed at harassing people engaged in peaceful protest. The cases have either been dropped before coming to court or have been thrown out by the courts.

Class War’s protest went ahead as planned, pointing out that the ten £50 million pound apartments in the Shard have remained empty since the building was completed.

There appeared to be several times as many police as the protesters outside the Shard, as well as a large number of security men and plain clothes police, along with two men with search dogs when the protesters arrived. It seemed a huge overkill for what was always intended – and was – an entirely peaceful but noisy small protest.

Ian Bone’s health problems meant he would not in any case have attended the protest, and the other protesters were careful to remain outside the boundary of the Shard which is marked by a metal line in the pavement.

Despite this police still tried to move them away to the other side of the road, making the patently spurious claim that they were causing an obstruction to commuters attempting to enter London Bridge station. it was very clear that it was the police were obviously causing a rather larger obstruction than Class War.

The protesters pointed out that there are now a huge number of empty properties in London at the same time as a huge housing crisis – at the time including over 100 families from Grenfell who were in temporary accommodation.

There are large developments of high-prices flats taking place, totally unaffordable for those in housing need, many of which are bought simply as investments to take advantage of rising house prices and remain empty all or most of the year.

In 2018 there were plans to build 26,000 more flats costing over a million pounds each, including many on former council estates being redeveloped and replacing social housing – when thousands are sleeping on the streets and councils have huge housing lists. Currently in 2023 both Lambeth and Newham have over 35,000 waiting for housing and nine other boroughs have lists with over 10,000 names, with a total of over 323,000 over the whole of Greater London.

George Monbiot last Saturday wrote an important article In a world built by plutocrats, the powerful are protected while vengeful laws silence their critics. Class War in February 2018 showed it is sometimes possible to take on the powerful and win. Though the Qataris are still laughing all the way to the bank which they own anyway.

More pictures on My London Diary:
Class War protest at Shard
Class War victory against Qatari Royals

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Bank of England Told Return Venezuela’s Gold

Wednesday, February 7th, 2024

Bank of England Told Return Venezuela’s Gold: Back in 1980 the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) deposited almost a hundred tons of the Venezuelan government’s gold reserves in the Bank of England for safe keeping, and around 31 tons of that are still held in the Bank’s vaults.The value of gold goes up and down, but the around 2,500 standard gold bars would be worth around £1.3 billion.

Bank of England Told Return Venezuela's Gold
Ken Livingstone

In 2019, shortly before this protest on Thursday 7th Feb 2019 organised by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, the BCV asked to have its gold back and the Bank of England refused to return it. It is still their in its vaults.

Bank of England Told Return Venezuela's Gold
An actual gold bar weighs over 12kg – these were rather lighter

Venezuela had entered a crisis after the 2018 elections when the National Assembly declared the poll which had elected President Maduro invalid. There had been some irregularities in how the election had been run (and many unproven allegations) and some parties had boycotted the polls or not been allowed to stand. The turnout was low, with less than half of those registered voting, but even so the result seemed clear as Nicolás Maduro had gained two thirds of the votes cast, more than three times his closest rival.

Bank of England Told Return Venezuela's Gold

Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declared him to be the acting president of Venezuela in January 2019 and a long power struggle ensued. Many foreign governments, led by the US and including the UK, Canada and various Latin American and European countries recognised Guaidó as the head of the legitimate Venezuelan government, though after his interim government was dissolved in January 2021, many ended their recognition.

Bank of England Told Return Venezuela's Gold

After a disputed period in 2019 to 2023 Maduro is now firmly back as President with Guaidó expelled from Venezuela in April 2023 and now living in exile in Florida. The UK had supported Guaidó but its position now seems deliberately unclear.

Both Maduro and Guaidó had set up their own governing boards for the Central Bank, and both claimed the gold in the Bank of England leading to a number of battles in the UK courts. But although Maduro has clearly emerged as the legitimate leader of Venezuela the Bank of England is still refusing the BCV request – and will probably continue to do so until the UK government makes its position clear.

Ken Livingstone when Mayor of London had negotiated a deal with the Venezuelan state oil company to provide cheap fuel for London buses in exchange for help with urban planning. Later he blamed an “establishment elite” for the problems that Maduro was having and accused the US of meddling in the country.

Media coverage of the struggle between Maduro and Guaidó in the UK by the BBC and newspapers was almost entirely one-sided, largely relying on the views of the Venezuelan middle and upper classes who see themselves as severely threatened by the policies of Hugo Chávez and his successor Maduro who have done much to increase literacy and improve conditions for the poorest in the country.

Bank of England return Venezuela’s Gold

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Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice – 2008

Tuesday, February 6th, 2024

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice – pictures from Ash Wednesday in London on 6th February 2008, with an Ash Wednesday Witness and prayer against War at the Ministry of Defence and a Downing Street protest against a visit by US warmonger and then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. A week tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday Wednesday 14th February 2024, Pax Christi together with Christian CND and others will again be meeting at 3.30pm for a similar witness against war.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance – Ministry of Defence, Whitehall

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice

Pax Christi, Catholic Peace Action and Christian CND began their an annual liturgy of Repentance and Resistance around the Ministry of Defence in protest against the continued reliance on nuclear weapons on Ash Wednesday 1982, 42 years ago, and the 2008 event was their 26th.

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice

Looking back at the pictures I made in 2008 has a particular resonance for me, in that two of those in them are people that I knew who have died in the past couple of years. One was the well-known peace campaigner Bruce Kent who I’d photographed at various events since around 1990 if not earlier and though I didn’t know him well we often exchanged a few words when I took his photograph and had a little joke in recent years. Bruce died in June 2022 and in March 2023 I photographed Jeremy Corbyn planting a memorial tree to him in Finsbury Park.

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice

The other was a family friend who died recently and we were disappointed other appointments meant we were not be able to go to his funeral last week. He also appears in a some of my photographs of this and other peace events, sometimes singing in the Raised Voices choir.

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice

Here is the description of the event I wrote in 2008, although the story is mainly told in the pictures and their captions on My London Diary:

Although the ministry and nearby buildings such as the Old War Office were surrounded by police – rather as if they were expecting a massive attack, the police made no attempt to disperse what was undoubtedly an illegal unauthorised protest under the terms of SOCPA. They did hold a couple of people they caught writing on the walls of the Old War Office, and were at least threatening to charge one of them with causing damage to the building, but otherwise watched benignly, at least until I left to catch my train shortly before the liturgy had finished.

The most moving part of the liturgy was outside the Defence Ministry, where a wooden cross was laid on sackcloth. Ashes were sprinkled on it, and then while those present chanted a ‘litany of the martyrs’, including the names of Franz Jaegerstaetter, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero and Mary Lampard, 21 ‘Theses for today’s church’ by Philip Berrigan were read and then nailed to the cross.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance

Protest at Condi Rice’s London Visit – Downing St

A couple of hundred ‘Stop the War’ demonstrators were on the pavement facing Downing Street. They had come with a clear message to give Condoleezza Rice, that it was time for the US to get out of other people’s affairs in other countries.

However there was no sign of Condi, who had obviously avoided using the front entrance to miss the protesters, either entering by the back entrance or through another Government building, possibly making use of the extensive network of tunnels underneath Whitehall.

A large crowd of press photographers were also waiting impatiently opposite the front door of Number 10, waiting for her to appear for a press call along with Gordon Brown, but I think they were waiting until after the protesters dispersed.

I could have joined them, but although the press likes to use pictures taken in front of the famous door I find the great majority of them supremely boring. And I don’t carry the long heavy lenses you really need for the situation to take the one in a million images that has some interest. It’s been years since I bothered to go through the security check and into Downing Street.

Welcome for Condi Rice

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Latchmere Passage, Milton Hall, Dentists & a Triangle

Monday, February 5th, 2024

Latchmere Passage, Milton Hall, Dentists & a Triangle concludes my walk in Clapham on Saturday July 29th 1989 which began with Some Madness and Houses in Clapham and continued on Monday 31st. The previous part was Shaftesbury Park & Latchmere Road.

Latchmere Passage, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-32
Latchmere Passage, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-32

The passage was probably built around 1859-63 when the West London Extension Railway was built, disrupting a local route that links what is now Cabul Road with Sheepcote Lane on the eastern side of Latchmere Road.

The railway was an important route crossing the Thames and the three lines that cross Latchmere Passage, each on its own viaduct and bridge, link it to the lines into Waterloo, to the north platforms of Clapham Junction serving lines out of Waterloo and those on the south side for the lines out of Victoria. The latter two bridges are now used by Overground and Thameslink trains.

Milton Congregational Hall, 21, Cabul Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-34
Milton Congregational Hall, 21, Cabul Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-34

Cabul Road is part of the estate here and to the west of Falcon Road developed as the Falcon Park estate by Alfred Heaver in 1879 – 1881, with street names taken from the battles of the Second Afghan War (1878–80) and the 1879 Zulu War. Almost all of the area was covered with small two-storey terraced houses, with the exception of this 1885 Milton Congregational Hall, designed by Searle & Hayes in a restrained Queen Anne style.

Congregationalists had worshipped at Milton Hall, Battersea since 1873, presumably in some earlier building and after its congregation combined with Battersea Congregational Church in the 1930s had various uses including as a film studio. It was recently redeveloped, retaining the facade, as residential properties.

A large part of the area was damaged by wartime bombing and after the war converted to open and rather featureless green spaces, Shillington Gardens and Falcon Park.

Dentists, 77 Falcon Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-22
Dentists, 77 Falcon Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-22

This is one of three semi-deatched pairs of houses on Falcon Road which date from around 1850 when the area began to be developed by William Willmer Pocock, an architect and prominent Methodist and Thomas Daniel Carter who owned much of the land. Carter had sold some of the land to Pocock as containing brick earth, and Pocock set up the Falcon Brick Works here. But the bricks were not too good and the area soon began to be built over.

Next door to the dentists was Grove End House, also built around 1850 and now rather altered as the Battersea Mosque.

Knowsley Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-24
Knowsley Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-24

I realised then that I had missed out the Poyntz Road triangle, a small triangle of roads between the railway lines to the east of Latchmere Road, and I retraced my steps to Latchmere Road, then crossed over into Knowsley Road.

The picture shows the end of the road just beyond its junction with Shellwood Road. The houses here were built in the 1870s and seem little changed now. The archway led through to a yard with buildings around it, I think workshops, though there is now a more recent block of flats. The Overground from Clapham Junction to Wandsworth Road runs on an embankment to the right of the houses here.

Door, Battersea Bridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-11
Door, Battersea Bridge Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-11

I took a couple of pictures on Latchmere Road, not on-line, and continued north up Battersea Bridge Road, where I made this picture of a doorway with a rather flimsy-looking railing and what appears to be a fairly subtantial tree. The house and doorway are still there and in rather better condition but there is no sign of the the tree and its hard to see where it could have been growing.

By now I was looking for a bus stop to take me back to Clapham Junction, just a few yards further up the street. This was the end of my walk in July 1989 though I returned to Battersea a few days later.

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Shaftesbury Park & Latchmere Road

Sunday, February 4th, 2024

Shaftesbury Park & Latchmere Road: Continuing my walk in Clapham on Saturday July 29th 1989 which began with Some Madness and Houses in Clapham. The previous post was A Chateau, Wix’s Lane & Shaftesbury.

Ashbury Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-55
Ashbury Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-55

Thes two handcarts on Ashbury Road close to the corner with Grayshott Road took me straight back to my childhood. Tradesmen commonly used such carts to carry their equipment and materials around the streets back in the 1950s, and my father continued using his until he retired in the late 1960s whenever he needed more than he could carry on his bicycle.

Ladders, bricks, tiles, sand, plaster, tools, cookers, fridges, bee hives and more would be carted around the streets of Hounslow and neighbouring areas. Dad never owned a car or a van, though in his youth he had ridden a motorcycle. Sometimes I would be recruited to pull the cart, and when younger still I sometimes got a ride on it when he had to look after me while he was working as a plumber, painter and decorator, electrician, plasterer, bricklayer etc. Though social services now would have a fit if he took me up with him to keep an eye on while he was roofing.

And as a Boy Scout in my teens I sometimes helped to pull a trek cart loaded with our camping gear for a weekend at Chalfont St Peter, setting off along busy main roads for around 15 miles to the camp site.

Eversleigh Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-41
Eversleigh Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-41

The doorway at left is on the corner of Grayshott Road and Eversleigh Road, where above the porch on the other side of the road is the date 1878 and the intertwined initials of the Artizans’, Labourers’, & General Dwellings Company. I’ve written in earlier posts about the company and you can also read a much more detailed account in the Survey of London’s Shaftesbury Park Estate chapter.

Eversleigh Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-42
Eversleigh Rd, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-42

A closer view of the porches on some of the houses on Eversleigh Road – these are on the southern side of the street. The uniformity of the long terrace is enlivened by the occasional gable with a narrow window in the attic storey though any room there must have been only dimly lit and with steeply sloping sides. But servants were not kept in luxury.

In the distance you can just make out the octagonal turret with a steep roof, almost a spire, at the end of the terrace at No 44.

Kingsley St, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-44
Kingsley St, Shaftesbury Estate, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-44

On the triangular sites on the corners of Eversleigh Road and both Ashbury Road and Kingsley Street are rather more substantial detached houses. This doorway is on Kingsley Street but the address is 18 Eversleigh Road. These ‘Gothic’ Houses were designed for the more prosperous ‘clerk’ classes and were the most expensive of four classes of housing built on the estate, deliberately creating a social mix. But even the smallest ‘Class 4’ two bedroom houses were too expensive for the many poorer working class families.

Iglesia Ni Christo, Church of Christ, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-46
Iglesia Ni Christo, Church of Christ, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-46

I made my way west out of the Shaftesbury Park Estate onto Latchmere Road and turned north towards the railway. On the east side of the road is a short terrace of the estate, but the west side is very different, and even contains a pub, something the estate, built on temperance principles, lacked. Probably many of its residents made their away across Latchmere Road to the Fox and Hounds, although perhaps few could afford it as the estate rents were high.

A few yards further north, next to the railway lines was the Iglesia Ni Christo, Church of Christ. The church was founded in the Phillipines in 1913 and it now has 2.8 million worshippers there. Its founder Felix Y Manalo became dissatisfied with the theology of the established churches, eventually setting up his own which claims to be based on the true church established by Jesus Christ in the first century and rejects the traditional Christian belief in the Trinity for a belief in only ‘God the Father’ as the one true God.

The church now has members in “165 countries and territories in the six inhabited continents of the world” and has around 50 churches across the UK. The Latchmere Road site is now occupied by a block of flats but there is an Lglesia Ni Christo further north in Battersea.

Latchmere Passage, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-31
Latchmere Passage, Latchmere Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7o-31

I continued north on Latchmere Road under the long bridge taking 15 tracks out of Clapham Junction across the road, followed immediately by another bridge with two more and continued, going under yet another railway bridge a couple of hundred metres on.

Latchmere Passage is a narrow street running west from Latchmere Road and then turning south under two rather small bridges to Falcon Park and another on to Cabul Road.

My final post on this walk will pick up the story here shortly.

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More Support to Gaza – 27th January 2024

Saturday, February 3rd, 2024

More Support to Gaza: Local actions took place across the country last weekend calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and for an immediate ceasefire and freedom and a just peace in Palestine.

More Support to Gaza - 27th January 2024
Barclay’s Peckham branch

Most of the protests last Saturday were directed against local branches of Barclays Bank, demanding they stop bankrolling Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and calling customers to boycott the bank. Barclays has investments in weapons companies BAE Systems, Boeing, Elbit Systems, Raytheon all producing weapons and systems used in Gaza and Caterpiller whose bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes, schools and civilian infrastructure.

More Support to Gaza - 27th January 2024
Barclay’s Peckham branch

The protests came the day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, the UN’s top court, had ruled that there was a plausible case against Israel under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that the Palestinian population in Gaza was at real risk of irreparable damage.

More Support to Gaza - 27th January 2024
Barclay’s Peckham branch

The ICJ stopped short of ordering an Israeli ceasefire and instead directed Israel to take every measure possible to avoid genocide while also ensuring humanitarian aid. The six provisional measures the court voted on to protect Palestinians from “irreparable” damage were all passed by overwhelming votes by the 17 judges, with even an Israeli judge supporting two of them, while a Ugandan judge voted against them all (although the Ugandan government issued a statement backing the ICJ).

More Support to Gaza - 27th January 2024
Barclay’s Whitechapel branch

Media reports here in the UK have generally been rather lacking in detail and have underplayed the ICJ judgement. You can read it on the ICJ web site in full or as their lengthy unofficial summary. The court demanded that Israel must:

  • take all measures in its power to prevent all acts against Palestinians in Gaza violating the Genocide Convention;
  • ensure its military does not commit any acts of genocide;
  • punish all incitements to commit genocide;
  • take immediate and effective steps to provide basic services and humanitarian assistance in Gaza;
  • take effective measures to preserve evidence related to allegations of genocide;
  • report to the ICJ within one month on actions it has taken over these orders.

The ICJ has no powers to enforce its decisions and statements from Israeli government and military have been defiant, while the UK and USA governments seem determined to continue their support for genocide and to continue giving support to Israel, including supplying weapons

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

The ICJ decision came after South Africa brought the case, but protesters around the world have been clear that this is genocide. And in December the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, continuing the work of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who coined the term genocide and campaigned to establish the Genocide Convention, issued a statement explaining “the reasons why we believe the Israel-Palestine situation constitutes an instance of genocide.”

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

The killing in Gaza continues, with over 26,000 Palestinians now known to be killed including over 10,000 children. More than 8,000 are missing, probably most of them buried under the rubble, and over 65,000 are severely injured.

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

A BBC report states that more than half of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the Israeli assault. There are also said to be almost 20,000 children in Gaza who have been orphaned or separated from their families. Other reports suggest that around three-quarters of Hamas fighters are men who became orphans, and so the current attacks are likely to be a powerful recruiting ground for future militants against Israel.

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

The whole Israeli policy over the years has been counter-productive. Peace in the region requires a thriving Palestine, not an area subjected to military occupation, under an apartheid system and subjected to destructive attacks – and certainly will not be achieved by genocide.

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

It’s very hard to see how any positive outcome can emerge now for Israel and Palestine, but perhaps the ICJ ruling is a small glimmer of hope – as years ago was Oslo. But hope then was soon defeated by Israel’s determination not to accept peace.

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

Last Saturday made my way around London on National Rail, Overground, Underground and Elizabeth Line to visit several pickets outside Barclays branches and then to Edmonton Green.

Edmonton Green march to a rally at Silver St

I arrived at Edmonton Green just in time for the march organised by the Enfield branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to a rally at Silver Street. They demanded Israel ends its genocidal attack on Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire and an urgent programme of humanitarian aid to end famine and provide shelter, medicine and water. They praised South Africa for taking Israel to court for genocide and called for a just peace with freedom for Palestine.

At the start of the rally at Silver St

The pictures here come from protests outside Barclays branches on Rye Lane, Peckham and Whitechapel High Street and from the Edmonton march. You can see more pictures online at Barclays Told Stop Banking On Genocide and Enfield for Gaza Ceasefire, End to Occupation.

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Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail

Friday, February 2nd, 2024

Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail: Sunday 2nd February 2014, ten years ago today was a pleasant winter day, not too cold and with some sunshine and light clouds, perfect for panoramas, so I went early to have a walk around the area before going on to photograph the wassail in Willesden Green.

Harlesden, Willesden & Mary Seacole

Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail

It was long ago on one of the dirtiest trains imaginable, windows think with dust so I could hardly see outside that I first came to Willesden Junction Station from Richmond on the North London Line which ran to the City and Broad Street Station. Upgraded to run to North Woolwich in the 80s with new rolling stock the line became a key way for me to travel to photograph around north London. Nowadays the line is part of London’s Overground, since 2016 run by Arriva Rail London, a part of Deutsche Bahn and rather cleaner, with trains running to Stratford.

Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail

Willesden Junction, which links with the Bakerloo line and another Overground service from Euston to Watford Junction is not in Willesden but in Harlesden and has platforms at two levels, and also has mainline trains rushing past without stopping. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, in earlier years it was was nicknamed “Bewildering Junction” or “The Wilderness” because it contained such a maze of entrances, passages and platforms and it is still rather like that.

Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail

If you can find it, a footpath leads over the mainline tracks next to the line from Richmond and Clapham Junction through an industrial wasteland and eventually to Hythe Road. Google Maps even dignifies it with a name, Salter Street Alleyway. Turning left at into Hythe Road takes you to Scrubs Lane, but going right can take you to the Grand Union Canal, with a bridge leading across to the tow path. I did both.

Harlesden, Willesden, Mary Seacole & a Wassail

The blue sky with clouds was perfect weather for panoramas, and I took a number going back and forth a little in the area, across the Scrubs Lane bridge and back. At the corner of this bridge is a memorial garden to Mary Seacole (1805-81) who nursed many British soldiers in the Crimean War as well as working in her native Jamaica and Panama and Cuba, funding her medical work from the proceeds of her general store and boarding house in Jamaica. The garden, on the canal bank next to Mitre bridge, on Scrubs Lane, not far from where she was buried in St Mary’s Catholic cemetery, Kensal Green, was begun in 2003, shortly before the 2005 bi-centenary celebration of her birth.

The garden, now rather overshadowed by a new development, was a pleasant place to sit in the sun and eat my sandwiches before making my way to Willesden Green for the Wassail. Pictures from the walk start here on My London Diary and include more panoramas as well as other pictures.

Willesden Wassail – Willesden Green

This was the fifth Urban Wassail in Willesden High Street organised by Rachel Rose Reid to celebrate local shopkeepers who give Willesden Green its character and help to create a vibrant community.

The wassail is described as a “small free festival run by and for people from Willesden Green” and also celebrates the work of all who live there and create the neighbourhood and brought together artists and volunteers from the area including James Mcdonald, Berakah Multi Faith Choir, Poetcurious, Errol Mcglashan and several others, with more performing later after the wassail.

The group met at Willesden Green Station, though unfortunately this was closed for engineering works on the day. Here there was a performance from ParkLife singers, a local community choir run as a not-for-profit co-operatvie and led by Charlotte Eaton, before Rachel Rose Reid introduced us to the first shopkeeper who told us a little abor her shop, Daisychain Florist, with all of the 70 or so people present repeating her words in Occupy ‘mike-check’ style.

Then everyone sang a Wassail Song, borrowed from the Carhampton Wassail, with the shop name in place of its “Old Apple Tree”. You can read this on My London Diary.

The same pattern was repeated at a number of shops along the High Stret including Hamada supermarket, Khan Halal Butchers, Pound.com, Corner Barber Shop, Red Pig, Fornetti, Mezzoroma and Buy Wise.

There were other stops on the route for poetry and songs, including one in the yard at the front of Sainsbury’s, one of relatively few chains in the area.

Here we were also told about the campaign to save the Queensbury Pub on Walm Lane from demolition, with a petition of over 4,000 signatures to Brent Council against the demolition of this ‘Asset of Community Value’ and its replacement by a 10 storey block of flats. The pub had been open since 1895 but was bought by developer Fairview New Homes (North London) Ltd in 2012. Brent turned down the development, but the developer, now called Redbourne (Queensbury) Ltd put forward new plans in 2018. Again these were refused by the council but the developer’s appeal succeeded. The pub vlosed in 2022-3 and was demolished in October 2023 to build 48 flats. The development is supposed to include a new pub.

The Wassail ended with a number of poetry performances opposite the Willesden Green Library building site, after which we moved to the neighbouring cherry tree for a final wassail after which everyone let off the party poppers and decorated the tree with ribbons. It was slightly less noisy version of the traditional banging pans and firing guns in order to wake up the apple trees.

The wassailers then moved to the Bar Gallery in Queens Parade on the corner of Walm Lane, where refreshments were available and there were to be more performances. I went along but then realised it was time for me to start my journey home and left.

More pictures on My London Diary at Willesden Wassail.

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EDL Saved by Police in Slough – 2014

Thursday, February 1st, 2024

EDL Saved by Police in Slough: Ten years ago today around two hundred EDL supporters had come from around the country to march to a rally in the centre of Slough on Saturday 1st February 2014, sparked by plans to convert a failed social club on the outskirts of Slough to be used as a mosque and Islamic centre.

EDL Saved by Police in Slough

Their protest was opposed by a much larger counter-protests by black clad anti-fascist groups, the UAF and trade unionists, a large group of local mainly Asian youths and other local residents. Police had to clear a route for the EDL march with charges by police horses and with riot police with raised batons, and also protect them from having to run for their lives from angry counter-protesters to allow their rally to proceed. A large police presence seperated them from a rally by the UAF and trade unionists a short distance away.

EDL Saved by Police in Slough

Langley Village Club on Cheviot Road, Langley ceased trading in 2013 and was bought by Dawat-e-Islami who gained planning permission to convert it into an Islamic community and teaching centre and place of worship, Faizon-E-Madina.

EDL Saved by Police in Slough

Langley is on the eastern outskirts of Slough just north of the M4 and A4 and the small medieval village became a major manufacturing ventre, at first for building the Hawker Hurricane and other fighters during and after the war including the Hawker Hunter. When Hawker Siddeley left in 1959 the entire site was taken over by the Ford Motor Company who had been making parts for commercial vehicles there since 1949. The club was a part of the large estates that grew up here in the 1960s and 70s to house the workers in these and other factories around Slough and at Heathrow.

EDL Saved by Police in Slough

Some local residents had objected to the change of use, in particular fearing it might generate large volumes of traffic, although it is a relatively small building and the planning permission imposed a limit of 300 people at events there. The area now has a fairly high number of Muslims living within walking distance of the centre and the charity argued that the 35 parking places on site were sufficient, though the planning committee was not convinced.

The opposition to the plans by the EDL were not largely about parking but Islamophobia. EDL leaflets talked about “the disturbing proliferation of poorly regulated mosques” and linked the protest with its actions to highlight the activities of “vile grooming gangs“; they alleged that residents living around other mosques have been “driven to anger, tears and despair” because of the mosques, and suggested that the centre will “antagonise, perhaps even terrorise, local residents.”

They also claimed that Dawat-e-Islami “overtly supported the assassination of Pakistani politician Salmaan Taseer by Mumtaz Qadri, a member of the organisation who disagreed with Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law.”

They raised other local issues too, including the setting up of a Muslim faith-based school under the Free Schools programme which opened in September 2015 as Eden Girl’s School. Many others -including probably most of those who came to protest against the EDl would agree with there opposition to this, some opposed to all faith-based schools and those who oppose the whole divisive approach of ‘Free Schools’, agreeing as I do with the teacher’s union NUT (now NEU) that “We believe it is wrong that state funding should be given to small groups of individuals to run schools that are unaccountable to their local communities.”

I don’t visit Slough often, although I live only a few miles away – though it takes a while on the bus. I arrived a couple of hours before the EDL rally was due to start and was able to photograph and talk with the EDL about their protest for some time before a few of them objected to my presence.

The pictures on My London Dairy at EDL Saved by Police in Slough and my account there give a very full account of what happened and I won’t repeat it here. Slough is one of the UK’s most ethnically diverse towns and its industries have brought people to it from across the country and around the world since the 1920s. The population of the borough is now over 150,000 and the various communities seem largely to live together with few problems.

According to Wikipedia, “the 2011 census showed that 41.2% of Slough’s population identified as Christian, 23.3% as Muslim, 10.6% as Sikh, 6.2% as Hindu, 0.5% as Buddhist, 0.1% as Jewish, 0.3% as having other religions” and Slough has the highest proportion of Sikh residents of any town in the country and “the highest percentage of Muslim and Hindu residents in the South East region.”

Much more about what happened along with many more pictures at EDL Saved by Police in Slough.

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