October, 2025 | >Re-PHOTO

Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990

Kings Cross and Pentonville: Although I took a few pictures in the next few weeks, mainly on my way to or from meetings, it was well into February before I was able to go on another long photographic walk. Of course the weather at that time of year often isn’t too kind and days are short, but winter is the best season for photographing much of London’s buildings, as so much is hidden once trees come into leaf.

*Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-54*

I can’t now recall why I decided to return to the Kings Cross area on Sunday February 11th 1990, though I liked to revisit areas periodically, and the journey to the Victoria line station was an easy one, suitable for short days to give me more hours of usable light.

I left the station by the Pentonville Road entrance and walked back towards the main station, taking a couple of pictures on my way before heading down Grays Inn Road. This picture looking back towards Kings Cross Station includes both the station clock tower – I seem to have arrived shortly before 10am – and the well-known “lighthouse” built simply as advertising for Netten’s Oyster Bar. What seems an incredibly long horizontal pole holds one of the many traffic lights in the area .

*Posters, Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-55*

In the centre of these fly-posted posters is an advert for ‘THE BEST SHOP IN TOWN’, SHE-AN-ME at 123 Hammersmith Road, West Kensington, London W14. It offers ‘UNUSUAL – BONED DRESSES – 6″ HEEL BOOTS – LATEX RUBBER …’ and much more, a fetish shop specialising in PVC, rubberwear and bondage equipment. Although Yelp still has a listing for the business it is long gone; after some years as ‘Simply Pleasure’ it is now ‘Quick Local Store’ selling snacks, cold drinks, tobacco, souvenirs, toiletries and household items.

*Scales, Weights, 319-321, Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-56*

One of London’s more photographed signs, though now a little faded and above a Nail Bar and Computer Centre on this nicely curved building. The Greek Restuarant at 325 is now a fast-food place – and is flanked by two others.

Tattoo Studio, Pentonville Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-43 — *Tattoo Studio, Pentonville Rd, Pentonville, Camden, 1990, 90-2b-43*

I walked back onto Pentonville Road, here the boundary between the London boroughs of Camden and Islington. Modern Jock’s Tattoo Studio on the south side was on the ground floor and Chestnuts Hair Studio for Men and Women through the same door on the first floor, illustrated by arrows for the non-literate. Born around 1920 British tattooing legend Jock Liddel started as a tattoo artist at the age of 16 in Scotland and his famous shop was at 287 Pentonville Road for many years. He died in 1995 but had moved down to Kent a few years earlier. His shop and several adjoining are now an American multinational fast food burger and fries chain.

*Signs, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-34*

‘Kings X People Say NO’ to the Chunnel Terminal for Kings X – Chaos for London’ read the array of posters on the back of a road sign, one of four signs in this picture, along with those for the Autodrome, Peacemeal Whole Foods and Loseley Dairy Ice Cream.

I was briefly and peripherally involved with the Kings Cross Railway Lands Group and their ‘Planning for Real’ exercise with local residents which formed a basis for the comprehensive alternative plan published in their Kings Cross Railwaylands Towards a People’s Plan Full Report published in October 1991.

Of course their plans were not adopted but the opposition certainly played a part in the decision to drop the plans for a new Kings Cross and instead to develop St Pancras as the international terminal. As an article on Londonist points out, “The plans would have seen 83 homes and 58 shops demolished. The scale of destruction would have witnessed landmark listed buildings like the Scala pulled down … The entire block between Caledonian Road, York Way and Caledonia Street would have also been lost.”

*Northdown St, Caledonian Rd, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-23*

The Kings X Sauna on the corner of Northdown Street and more useful shops and offices on Caldedonian Road. The sauna at No.70 later became an estate agents.

*Mercantile House, All Saints St, Pentonville, Islington, 1990, 90-2b-25*

Further north on Caledonian Road I turned west into All Saints St where I photographed Mercantile House which appropriately later became home to global brand consultancy agency Wolff Olins – who have now moved to Southwark.

Work began in 2022 to transform this and other buildings on the site into Regent’s Wharf, “a ground-breaking new campus … created with the next generation of innovators in mind.”

Mercantile House was built in 1891 as the Head Office for Thorley’s Food for Cattle with their mill behind it on the bank of the Regent’s Canal. They had moved onto the site in 1857.

“A family owned business for over 100 years, Joseph Thorley’s Ltd was an iconic player of the industrial age, inventing and distributing ‘spicy aromatic condiments’ that would beef up your cattle, pep up your pigs and ensure your chicken laid the best clutch in the roost.

This MiracleGro for animals was made to a secret recipe and sold around the world even in far flung outposts such as the Falkland Islands, all from the headquarters at Regent’s Wharf in King’s Cross.”

“Thorley’s progressive ideas extended to their charming and playful marketing, with eye-catching advertising and branding that has become collectable today. Animal feeds went by many wonderful names such as Grula for Horses, the famous Thorley’s Cake that reared ‘Champions’, Ovum for chickens and Rabbitum.”

Battle of Cable St – 75 Years On

Battle of Cable St: On Sunday 2 October 2011 well over a thousand trade unionists and anti-fascists celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street when Mosley’s fascists were prevented from marching into London’s largely Jewish East End.

Since 2011 we have seen other celebrations of this famous event and the people of the East End have also come together to stop other racist organisations marching into the East End, notably the EDL.

In 1936 Oswald Mosley led the ‘British Union of Fascists’, an organisation modelled on Mussolilni’s Italian fascist paramilitary groups on a march designed to intimidate the large Jewish community in the East End.

Although various groups tried to get the march banned the Home Secretary sided with the fascists insisting their democratic right to march had to be upheld by the police. The fascists were also supported by the right wing press, particularly the Daily Mail, while more liberal newspapers urged people to stay away from the counter demonstration.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews had condemned the march as anti-Semitic, and they had advised people to stay away from the march as did the Labour Party. The opposition to Mosley was led by local members of the Communist Party of Great Britain including Phil Piratin who nine ears later became Communist MP for Mile End. They eventually persuaded the party to back the counter-demonstration.

Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people turned out to stop the fascists. Many were Jewish, and many were members or supporters of the Communist Party but the call brought out many others from the East End, including “Irish Catholics, Jews, Orthodox Jews, dockers and Somali seamen” in a huge mobilisation across the community.

There are three routes leading into the East End from the City of London where Mosely and people gathered at key points on them, particularly at Aldgate, where most of the fighting between police and protesters took place, particularly around Gardiner’s Corner – where a ten years ago Class War carried out their long series of Poor Doors protests against social apartheid in housing.

Police decided to try and force a way through at Cable Street a little to the south and tried to force a way through the crowds and remove the barricades they had set up.

According to Wikipedia, police managed to take and dismantle the first barrier but the anti-fascists set up another a few yards down the road.

“The police attempts to take and remove the barricades were resisted in hand-to-hand fighting and also by missiles, including rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots thrown at the police by women in houses along the street … children’s marbles were also used to counter charges by mounted police.”

Eventually the police gave up and told Mosley to march with his followers back to the West End, where they held a rally in Hyde Park rather than those they had intended in Limehouse, Bow, Bethnal Green and Hoxton.

Seventy five years after the battle the crowd was rather smaller, but the well over a thousand who met at Aldgate included several veterans of the 1936 battle, among them 96 year old Max Levitas who led the march and spoke at the rally. He was also there and spoke at the 80th anniversary event in 2016.

The oldest person on the march was 106 year old lifelong political activist and suffragette Hetty Bower who had also been at the 1936 demonstration and was later one of the founder members of CND. I photographed her on several occasions at CND and other protests, the last at the Hiroshima Day commemoration in 2013 where she spoke briefly, a few months before her death.

*Beattie Orwell, 94, was another of the veterans of 1936*

You can read more about the Cable Street 75 event on My London Diary, where there are also many more pictures.
Battle of Cable St – 75 Years

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Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara – Southall 2005

Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara: On Saturday 1st October 2005 I enjoyed a tour of the largest Sikh Gurdwara in Europe. Building had begun in 2000 and the temple opened at the end of March 2003. The tour had been arranged by art and urban historian Mireille Galinou for the now long-defunct and much missed group ‘London Arts Café‘ – and you can still read more about on the web site I wrote for it, although the group came to an end in 2008.

Here is what I wrote about the visit in 2005 and a few of the pictures I took at the Gurdwara – there are more on My London Diary.

October started with a fine day, and I went to visit the largest Sikh Temple or Gurdwara in europe (and the fourth largest in the world) which opened a couple of years ago in Southall, along with a group of friends from the London Arts Café. We were shown around the building by one of the Sikh volunteer guides and also the architect, Richard Adams of Architect Co-Partnership, which had won the open competition to design the building. He had worked fully with the Sikh community to produce a building suited to their needs, and it does so impressively: clean simple surfaces, powerful colour in the windows and light streaming into the central stairway and lobby from the large window and glass roof areas.

The Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara serves the community, both for workship and for other needs. As well as a vast prayer hall officially capable of seating up to 3,000 people (and actually holding rather more at major festivals) there is a fine marriage room, and various other facilities including a Langar (Dining Hall); this free community kitchen can serve over 20,000 vegetarian meals over a festival weekend.

The Gurdwara had a powerfully religious atmosphere. On entering we followed the customary practice of removing our shoes, covering our heads with the scarves provided and washing our hands before commencing our visit.

At various points both our guide and the architect explained how the building served the basic Sikh tenets of service, humility and equality, and also the spiritual guidance from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the religious writings which are were appointed as spiritual head of the Sikh religion, the Eternal Guru, by Guru Gobind Singh around three hundred years ago.

Although the architecture and the prayer hall in particular were impressive, what made the strongest impression on me was the kitchen, especially the team of women working together. The food was excellent, a real pleasure to eat, although my still rather painful knee made it easier for me to stand and eat at one of the tables rather than in the traditional manner seated on the floor. Although food is free, those eating may perform some service to the temple in thanks for their food, or give an donation of some kind, which we gladly did.

Southall is now Britain’s holy city, apparently with places of worship for over 50 religions or denominations. Brother Daniel Faivre’s ‘Glimpses Of A Holy City‘ published in 2001 after more than 20 years of living in Southall gives a good insight into some of this diversity.

Unfortunately Brother Daniel Faivre’s 104 page spiral bound book published in 2001 is no longer available. The Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara is, according to Wikipedia one of ten Sikh Gurdwaras in Southall, which also has two large Hindu ‘Mandir’ temples, six Mosques and “more than ten Christian churches including 5 Anglican, one Roman Catholic (St Anselm’s Church), Baptist, Methodist and several Pentecostal or Independent.” In the 2021 Census, 28.5% of the population were Sikh, 24.1% Muslim, 22.6% Christian 22.6% and 14.2% Hindu.

More pictures on My London Diary include some taken in Southall after leaving the Gurdwara.

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