London | >Re-PHOTO

St Giles, It’s Churchyard and Wilson’s School

*St Giles Camberwell, Camberwell Church St, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-42*

I didn’t spend a lot of time photographing old churches, not least because most had already been photographed ad nauseam as I found when opening boxes of photographs in the library of the National Building Record. Vicars back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had plenty of time on their hands and many became keen amateur photographers, and seem to have spent much of their energy in photographing their churches.

But I made a slight exception for St Giles, largely because it appeared in some rather odd views such as this. Although there had been a church here in the middle of fields in Anglo-Saxon times, its wooden structure later replaced by stone, it burnt down in 1841. The replacement was the first major Gothic building by George Gilbert Scott, who later went on to build the monstrosity of the Albert Memorial. The top part of the spire had to be rebuilt in 2000.

The picture was taken on the usually busy street here and I rather liked the billboard – perhaps an advert for a lager – showing another busy street with a lorry apparently stuck in traffic.

*Churchyard Passage, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-31*

Another image with a little flare from working into the sun, either just out of frame or hidden behind the tree trunks at the right of picture.

*Thos Bourne, gravestone, St Giles Churchyard, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-32*

Parts of the inscripton were difficult to read:

‘Ah Cruel Death could nothing move Thy Pity Awe thy Power
To Spare the Object of my Love of all my Hopes the Flower
Thos Bourne Defuncti Pater Poni Fecit
Thos Bourne (1656- 1729)

The inscription was at some point re-inscribed as the two lines most visible the above picture, having previously been as four, a few words of which can still be made out. The tomb has been restored since I photographed this stone.

*St Giles Churchyard, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-34*

Long shadows from the trees from the low winter sun, and some remarkably wiggly branches on the central tree in the picture. Without any leaves the picture illustrates why I generally prefer trees in winter but meant I was unable to decide on the species.

The building along Wilson Road in the background was built for Wilson’s School in 1882, architect E R Robson. This is an ancient grammar school founded on another site in Camberwell by Edward Wilson, Vicar of Camberwell, in 1615. They left the building in 1975 and moved to Wallington in Sutton to escape becoming a comprehensive school under the Inner London Education Authority and continue there as a boys’ grammar school. The buildings are now a part of the University of the Arts London.

*St Giles Churchyard, Churchyard Path, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-36*

Another view of the churchyard and Churchyard Path between the railings at the right, looking directly towards the sun. My position in the shadow of some of the bare trunks enabled me to greatly reduce the amount of light flare in the picture. The grass was I think covered with drops of water from frost which had recently melted, giving it a slightly unnatural pale tone.

*Camberwell College of Arts, Wilson Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-23*

After taking a couple more frames of the remarkable tree shown above I walked on to Wilson Road to photograph the Grade II listed Wilson School building and the west-facing terrace along the street beyond. Above the school doorway is the Wilson coat of arms, which includes a wolf salient – leaping up – and above it a Fleur de Lys and two gold coins.

Camberwell College of Arts, whose main buildings are on Peckham Road later became a part of the University of the Arts London.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.

Boycott HP and Bonfire Night Poor Doors

On Wednesday 5th November 2014 I photographed a protest by pro-Palestinian campaigners against Hewlett-Packard before going on to the weekly ‘Poor Doors’ protest by Class War in Aldgate, which had a special ‘Bonfire Night’ theme.

Boycott Hewlett-Packard – Sustainable Brands – Lancaster London Hotel, Wed 5 Nov 2014

Hewlett-Packard were the sponsors of a ‘Sustainable Brands’ conference at the Lancaster London Hotel close to Lancaster Gate Underground station and were claiming to create “a better future for everyone.”

Campaigners for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails came to protest outside the hotel becuase HP runs the Israeli prison system as well as providing IT support for the Israeli forces which recently killed many Palestinians including 521 Palestinian children in their recent attack on Gaza.

As well as adults many young Palestinian boys are locked up for long periods in Israeli jails, often kept in solitary confinement in small cells and tortured. Palestinians are often imprisoned in ‘administrative confinement’ without any proper charges or trial, released at the end of a year in jail and immediately re-arrested.

The protesters stood on the pavement outside the hotel handing out leaflets to people entering or leaving the hotel or walking past on the street. There were also several speeches about HP’s deep involvement in Israeli war crimes and persecution of Palestinians, and people were urged to boycott the company’s products and services.

Boycott Hewlett Packard – Sustainable Brands

Poor Doors Guy Fawkes burn Boris One Commercial St, Aldgate, Wed 5 Nov 2014

I met some of Class War in a nearby pub before the protest where they showed me a Boris Johnson stick puppet with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a large amount of cash fanned out in the other, as well as their guy BJ dressed in a suit and tie with a Boris mask and a mop for fairly realistic hair.

We walked with the short distance along Aldgate High Street to the tall block of flats at One Commercial Street with its separate door for the social housing tenants in the building with a drunkenly staggering BJ helped to hold Class War’s Women’s Death Brigade banner for a few yards. He was then carried the rest of the distance with orange smoke billowing from a flare in his top pocket.

There was more orange smoke as he stood on the pavement in front of the posh foyer to the private flats, with Class War holding banners around and a line of eight police officers guarding the entrance.

The protest began with speeches and sparklers and suddenly Boris began to go up in flames, thanks to a carefully applied sparkler, providing some welcome warmth on the cold night, burning fiercely for a few minutes before collapsing to a small burning heap on the wide pavement.

People were standing well back and there was clearly no danger, though a police officer did walk in to remove a bottle that had been placed close to the flames, presumably thinking it might explode due to the heat.

As the flames began to die down, Class War moved in and began to dance with their banners around the flames, and the samba band began to play.

There were more speeches and chants and eventually a fire engine, called by the police, drew up. At first the firefighters looked at the small fire, laughed and walked away. But police insisted they deal with the fire. It took one bucket of water.

The firefighters walked away and police moved to surround Jane Nicholl and arrest her for having set light to the guy with her sparkler.

Protesters surrounded the police shouting for them to release her, but eventually they managed to take her and put her in the back of a van, which was surrounded by people and unable to move for several minutes until more police arrived, the blue flashing lights of their vehicles making photography difficult.

Police grabbed another of the protesters who had I think been more vocal than most, handcuffed him and led him away to another van; this seemed a fairly random arrest and I think he was released without charge, as often happens after arrests at protests, with police misusing their power of arrest as a short period of administrative detention. People now were just standing around with a large crowd of police and it seemed clear the protest was over for the night and I left for home.

The police persisted with the prosecution of Jane Nicholl, and the case dragged on for six months before the case came to court. In court the CPS barrister had to ask for the charge to be altered as he conceded it was not an offence to burn an effigy of Boris Johnson and after the police CCTV had been shown tried to change the charge again. Defence barrister Ian Brownhill pointed out it was unfair for the prosecution to keep changing the goalposts and that the police watching the the fire were grinning and did not seem endangered as the prosecution alleged. The judge refused a further change of the charge and the prosecution dropped the case.

This was one of several expensive and time-consuming failed prosecutions of Class War protesters, which make it clear that police are misusing the law in order to intimidate and try to stop lawful protest – and that they are aided in this by the Crown Prosecution Service, almost certainly as a result of political pressure from some members of the government.

Poor Doors Guy Fawkes burn Boris

Free Education and Welcome Home Shaker

Free Education – No Barriers, Borders or Business – Wed 4 Nov 2015

I and many others in my generation and class were the first in their families to gain a university education, enabled to do so by maintenance grants. I got a full grant as my family earnings were under the limit where financial contributions were required. There were then no fees for university courses and I left university penniless (well almost – my total wealth was actually £5 8/6d in the post office bank) but with no debts, taking up a job at a salary more than my father had ever earned.

Fortunate too were my two sons, who both just managed to enter higher education when grants were still available (though I was then earning enough to have to pay a relatively trivial sum to make up their maintenance grants) and there were still no fees for UK students.

Now in 2022, the typical student leaves university in England with a debt of £45,000 and if my wife and I took the same courses as we did in the 1960s our combined debt would be in excess of £100,000. Of course we have had rather a lot of inflation since then, so this would equate to around £5,000. It would have seemed an unimaginable sum to me at the time, and I would certainly have gone out to work rather than continuing my studies.

As well as the fees, the students were also protesting at other changes in particular the way that education has become a market-led system, no longer led by knowledge and curiosity but by returns on investment with many courses in what are seen as unproductive areas being cut and research increasingly limited to topics which can be financially exploited.

Of course universities back in the 60s were not entirely ivory towers. Back in the 1940s they played an important part in the war effort, and one of my lecturers told us how his desk back then was made of planks across between two stacks of high explosive as he studied ways to improve the effectiveness of explosions. My own research, though driven by an unlikely theoretical hypothesis (which it demolished) was funded – as I only found out later – by a notorious US chemical company who had clearly been persuaded by my professor that it could be of considerable use to them (it wasn’t.) But he was a great con-artist.

I have mixed feelings about my university education. I was taught by people who were leading researchers in their fields but in the main had little idea about how to teach, and sometimes made it clear they were not really engaged with the task. Now much teaching seems to be done by graduate students on zero hours contracts who are equally unprepared for the job, though I think may well do it better.

The protest met in Malet St, outside the former University of London Union, shut down by the University management for its political activities – including support of protests by low paid workers who perform essential duties such as cooking, cleaning, portering and security in the university, and replaced by management-run Student Central – and this in turn closed by the university in 2021.

The rally there had a number of speeches by student leaders, staff supporters and others including Shadow Chancellor John McDonald and Antonia Bright of Movement for Justice. As well as the issues of student fees and loans and university issues, they also called for an end to borders and the scapegoating of immigrants.

As the rally ended the march was augmented by around a hundred black clad and masked students in an autonomous bloc at the rear, led by a ‘book bloc’, a line of protesters with large polystyrene padded posters with the names of left wing and anarchist classic books on them or slogans such as ‘Rise, Riot, Revolt.

Free Education – No Barriers, Borders or Business

Students at Home Office and BIS – Westminster, London, Wed 4 Nov 2015

After reaching Parliament Square the student march continued to the Home Office, where I caught up with them after pausing to photograph another event. By the time I got there the air was full of coloured smoke and there were a large number of police around it.

Soon the students marched off, with the black block and its large police escort soon following them on to the Dept of Business, Innovation & Science, now responsible for the universities which are no longer seen by government as a part of education.

The students were standing around in the road in front of the building and I was wandering through the crowd taking pictures when I heard a loud roar and turned around to see the black bloc charging the line of police in an attempt to enter the Deptartment.

The charge lacked conviction with most behind the front couple of rows standing back and watching as the police stopped the charge. Soon more police arrived and the black bloc were pushed forcibly back, with several photographers and bystanders being grabbed by the police.

The protesters tried to move away down Victoria St, but were stopped by more police, who moved in, preventing those who had remained peaceful from moving away. The students were now kettled and I decided I’d had enough and tried to leave the protest, showing my press card. At first police refused to let me through the line, but after a while I found an officer who let me through and walked away down a side road. As I did so heard a lot of noise as the students swept through the police line and ran along the street. But I was tired and went home.

Students at Home Office and BIS

‘Welcome Home Shaker’ celebration – Parliament Square, London. Wed 4 Nov 2015

Earlier as the student march had moved through Parliament Square I had stopped briefly to talk with campaigners from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign who had mounted a weekly vigil for his release opposite Parliament every Wednesday when Parliament was sitting.

Today they had come to celebrate the news of his release from Guantanamo and were holding signs saying ‘Welcome Home Shaker AAmer’ and ‘Free At Last’. He had been taken there after torture in Afghanistan, arriving on 14 February 2002 and was released and flown to Britain on 30 October 2015. He continued to be held and regularly tortured there despite the US government having acknowledged it had no evidence against him and clearing him for transfer in 2007.

‘Welcome Home Shaker’ celebration

Coal Drops, Libraries and Housing – 2018

On Saturday 3rd Novemeber I got to London earlier than anticipate and had time for a little walk before photographing the first protest I had come to cover, over the cuts to public libraries. Later I went to photograph another protest about the plans to demolish many London council estates under so-called ‘regeneration’ plans which involve demolition and rebuilding by developers with little social housing.

Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops – Sat 3 Nov 2018

Problems on my railway journeys into London are rather common, often involving considerable delays. Last weekend a replacement bus for part of the way meant that my usually slow journey scheduled to take 35 minutes to travel 20 miles instead took an hour and a half. But on Saturday 23rd November 2018, there was something of a miracle. When I arrived at the station a train which should have arrived half an hour earlier was just pulling in and an announcement told me it would be running non-stop to Waterloo.

Where possible I like to arrive at events perhaps 10 or 15 minutes before the advertised start time make sure I don’t miss anything. Travelling across London is often a little unpredictable, with odd holdups so I usually allow plenty of time. I’d arrived at my station a few minutes early, and with the non-stop service got me to Waterloo around 25 minutes before I expected. The normal timetable schedule gives a 5 or 10 minutes slack to make it less likely that train operating company has to pay fines for late running, and without stops the journey is significantly faster. Together with an Underground train that came as I walked onto the platform I arrived at Euston with around three quarters of an hour to spare.

This gave me time for a walk to the newly opened retail development in the former King’s Cross coal drops. I’d photographed the disused coal drops many years earlier, taking pictures of the demolished bridges across the Regents Canal and the still standing drops on the north side where coal brought from the North in railway goods waggons was transferred into carts for delivery across London. At first the waggons were lifted and tipped, later waggons had opening doors in their bottoms to dischage directly in the waiting carts and lorries.

My walk also took me through Somers Town, which has some of inner London’s more interesting social housing and past the new Francis Crick Institute before reaching the canal and a new walkway to Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square, and gave some views of the gasholders relocated across the canal from Kings Cross, some of which are now filled with flats. I made my way back with just enough time to visit the toilets in St Pancras Station before going to the meeting point for the Library protest at the rear of the British Library in Midland Road.

Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops

Save Our Libraries march – British Library, Sat 3 Nov 2018

The march and rally against cuts in library services, which are a vital part of our cultural services, especially for working class schoolchildren and young people was organised by Unison and supported by PCS and Unite, but they seem to have done very little publicity and the numbers were far fewer than expected.

Unfortunately the march clashed with another event I wanted to cover and I had to leave a few minutes before it was due to start. Perhaps more joined the protest for the rally at the end of the march outside Parliament.

Save Our Libraries march

No Demolitions Without Permission – City Hall, London. Sat 3 Nov 2018

‘Axe the Housing Act’ had called a protest to demand an end to the demolition of council estates unless these were approved by a ballot of all residents, and for public land to be used to build more council homes rather than being turned over to developers to make huge profits from high-priced flats.

Most of those who came were from London council estates under threat of demolition by Labour London councils and speaker after speaker from estate after estate got up and spoke about the lies, evasions and often illegal activities of London Labour councils bent on demolishing their council estates.

*Green Party co-leader and London Assembly’s Housing Committee chair Sian Berry*

Instead of looking after their working class populations Labour councils are time and time again forcing through demolition of council estates, enabling developers to make huge profits by building flats for sale largely at market rent, with a small proportion of high rent ‘affordable’ homes and a miserably small number of homes at social rent, promoting schemes which cut by thousands the number of council homes.

*Tanya Murat, Chair of Southwark Defend Council Housing*

Although a new policy was about to come in to insist their should be residents ballots, London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan had responded to this by fast-tracking 34 demolition schemes by Labour councils before it was implemented. He allowed some schemes to go forward without a ballot, and had failed to insist that all residents were allowed to take part in such ballots.

*Former Lambeth Council leader and veteran Labour politician Ted Knight*

Among the groups taking part in the rally were Class War and the Revolutionary Communist Group, both very much involved in campaigns across the capital on housing, and among the most effective at raising the issues involved in London’s housing. For some reason the rally organisers would not allow representatives of either of these to speak at the event, which led to a loud confrontation when Labour supporter Ted Knight came to speak. More below on this.

At the end of the rally people marched around City Hall with their banners.

No Demolitions Without Permission.

Class War protest Labour Housing record – City Hall, Sat 3 Nov 2018

Although Class War supporters were one of the larger groups taking part in the ‘No Demolitions Without Permission’ rally at City Hall they and others were denied any opportunity to speak as a part of the official rally.

Class War have been the most active group in supporting and raising the profile of campaigns in London against estate demolition mainly by London Labour councils who are responsible for the great bulk of estate sell-offs and demolition involving over 160 council estates – social cleansing on a massive scale. Among those protesting at the rally with Class War was Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina under orders from the Labour Mayor of London.

*Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina and Lisa McKenzie hold the banner high*

It was no surprise that when a prominent Labour politician got up to speak, Class War erupted, shouting him down to make clear that it was Labour who was responsible for estate demolitions. It was perhaps unfair on Ted Knight, a former Lambeth Labour leader who together with other councillors defied Thatcher and was surcharged and banned from holding public office for 5 years.

*Ted Knight (right) and Martin Wright (left) shout at each other*

Knight has supported Central Hill Estate residents in their fight against Lambeth Council’s plans for demolition, singing from much the same hymn sheet as Class War on housing issues. As Lambeth council’s leader he was clear that “Nothing is too good for the working classes” and estates such as Central Hill reflect this. And there was a little of old scores in the verbal attack on him by Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright.

*Finally at the end of the rally, Leigh Miller did get a chance to speak.*

As a number of those estate residents allowed to speak at the rally pointed out, homes will only be saved if people become more militant and engage in the kind of direct actions which Class War advocates – and not by rallies like today’s outside a closed City Hall.

Class War stood to one side at the end of the rally when most of the rest taking part marched around the empty offices, they were calling for a rather different revolution.

Class War protest Labour Housing record

Arctic 30, Gurkhas, Zombies & John Lewis

Another busy day for me in London on Saturday 2nd November 2013, though I spent quite a lot of it in a pub with zombies who were putting on a rather late Halloween appearance. But there were more serious things as well.

Free Kieron & Arctic 30 – Russian Embassy, Notting Hill. Sat 2 Nov 2013

Family, friends & supporters of freelance videojournalist Kieron Bryan, one of the 30 arrested on Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise, held a silent vigil at the Russian Embassy, delivering a petition signed by over 1000 journalists calling for his release.

There was intense media interest in the event, with several TV crews, radio journalists and photographers, perhaps because the imprisonment of a journalist is a threat to all journalists around the world. Unusually the Russian embassy had agreed to meet Kieron’s brother and take the petition, and although no photography is permitted in the private street in which it (and the Israeli embassy) are situated I was able to photograph him standing in the gate to the street holding it.

The Arctic 30 had sailed to the Russian Arctic on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in September 2013 to protest peacefully against Gazprom’s plans to start oil production in the Arctic. The ship was seized and they were kept in custody for two months before being released on bail in November – after the Netherlands had filed a case at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea which led to an order for the crew and Dutch-registered vessel to be released while the case was being considered. Although Russia ignored this ruling they did release the journalists, activists and crew, and six months later, the ship. Probably protests such as this helped to persuade them to do so.

The Dutch government filed complaints at the European Court against the unlawful detention of the Dutch-registered ship and the protesters also took a case claiming that hey had been detained unlawfully and their right to freedom of expression had been breached.

Free Kieron & Arctic 30

Gurkha Veterans Hunger Strike for Justice – Downing St, Sat 2 Nov 2013

*Gurkha wives and widows support the campaign for justice*

Although high-profile earlier campaigns supported by Joanna Lumley and others in the broadcast media have led to increased support for former Gurkha soldiers, elderly Gurkha veterans did not benefit from these and most live here in extreme poverty.

After submitting their petition to Prime Minister David Cameron and the Nepalese Prime Minister in April and getting no satisfactory result and they had “with a heavy heart” begun a series of hunger strikes. These had begun in late October with a “13 days relay hunger strike in the name of the 13 Ghurka VCs” which was in progress when I took these pictures, demanding equal pensions, compensation, a preserved pension for those made redundant, the right of settlement in the UK for their adult children and free medical treatment in Nepal.

Five days later some began a hunger strike until death, and after two weeks the government offered talks and this was halted.

Gurkha Veterans Hunger Strike

LoNdOn ZoMbIE WaLk VII – Soho, Sat 2 Nov 2013

I met with around a hundred zombies in Waxy O’Connor’s pub on Rupert St, where they were drinking for a couple of hours occasionally emerging into the dim daylight of Wardour St for a fag break.

Around 4pm as dusk was falling the multitude of undead staggered up the stairs to begin their crawl around Londinium in search of brains and booze. I left them to it.

Among those on Gerrard Street were a group of Zombie Police whose warrant cards carried the message ‘A pint of Cider and Black Please’.

Announced as the seventh consecutive year for this event, it followed on from some earlier ‘Crawls of the Dead’ which began in 2004.

Inside the pub the lighting was low and I needed to use flash. While the Nikon flash gun I was using in the hot-shoe of my camera is generally a great performer I had some problems. While it is OK with the camera in landscape mode, turning the setup through 90 degrees for portrait format images isn’t really very successful. And I also found myself unable to use the usually magical i-TTL mode, not because of some zombie spells, but as later searches through the fat manual at home revealed it is incompatible with the camera mode I had set for the dark interior. I think the camera and flash manual have a total of well over 500 pages – these things are just too complicated for mortals.

LoNdOn ZoMbIE WaLk VII

City Link & Cleaners at John Lewis – Oxford St, Sat 2 Nov 2013

As the final zombies staggered out of the pub to crawl Soho I rushed away to Oxford Street where cleaners were holding a protest outside the flagship John Lewis Store, and were today joined by City Link workers who deliver goods for the company.

City Link was sold off earlier in the year to Jon Moulton’s private equity group ‘Better Capital’ and face pay cuts, enforced overtime, loss of bonus scheme and other changes. They were protesting with John Lewis’s cleaners who are fighting to get a living wage and better working conditions. Unlike other staff in the store who are directly employed by the company as ‘partners’ and share in the profits through a bonus scheme, cleaners are outsourced to a cleaning company and paid less than a pittance, with unsocial hours and poor conditions of service. John Lewis management wash their hands and say it it nothing to do with them.

City Link & Cleaners at John Lewis

Naked Vegans, Acid Attacks, Anonymous & Kobane

PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest – Trafalgar Square, Sat 1 Nov 2014

Wikipedia tells me that World Vegan Day is an annual event celebrated by vegans around the world every 1 November and was established in 1994 to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UK Vegan Society and the coining of the terms “vegan” and “veganism”. The exact date of the founding wasn’t known and Nov 1st was chosen for its association with “Samhain/Halloween and the Day of the Dead”. November 1st has also been All Saints Day since AD 835.

I’m not a vegan. But I have no problems with eating vegan food or vegetarian food, but often prefer meat or fish in my meals. But clearly reducing the amount of meat that is eaten by people around the world would be a useful contribution to reducing carbon emissions, although some vegetable production does involve a considerable carbon footprint, as well as environmental problems.

I welcome that many people now choose not to eat animals and avoid animal products, whatever their reasons, but also think there are good reasons to keep farming animals though there are plenty of farming practices I think should be banned. But keeping livestock is very much a traditional part of life in this country, one that has produced the landscape we enjoy and the animals we like to see in it. It can be done in an ethical and humane manner, though this means paying a price that allows farmers to do so.

So although I was happy to photograph PETA’s World Vegan Day protest in Trafalgar Square when activists wearing little clothing and smeared with fake blood lay on a large tarpaulin, I was not in sympathy with some of the views expressed by PETA. But the posters held by those taking part in the protest (I think less than half the advertised 255, the number of animals killed for food in the UK every second) simply noted the “1 billion animals killed for flesh each year” and encouraged people to “Choose Life: Chose Vegan“.

PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest

Against acid attacks on Iranian women – Trafalgar Square, Sat 1 Nov 2014

I think I had actually come to Trafalgar Square for this protest, organised by the 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan).

They were in the square protesting at the horrific attacks on women who go onto the streets of Iran not wearing a veil. Gangs encouraged by the Iranian regime have thrown acid in the faces of many women, causing intense pain and burning, leaving them scarred and blinded. As the protest also pointed out as well as the forced wearing of the veil, women in Iran have no right to divorce, can still be stoned to death for adultery and can be victims of so-called ‘honour killings’.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women

Revolution Banner Drop – Waterloo Bridge and Trafalgar Square, Sat 1 Nov 2014

‘Anonymous’ protesters in Guy Fawkes masks held up a large banner with the message ‘REVOLUTION’ on Waterloo Bridge to publicise their November 5th ‘March Against Government Corruption’ in London. I photographed it from Westminster Bridge, but the banner really wasn’t quite large enough to really stand out against the background of the City.

Later they took the banner to Trafalgar Square where a rally in support of Kobane was taking place (see pictures below) and it was rather more impressive there.

Revolution Banner Drop

Global Solidarity With Kobane – Trafalgar Square, Sat 1 Nov 2014

November 1st was also World Kobane Day, and thousands were in Trafalgar Square supporting the defenders of Kobane against ISIS and fighting for the remarkable democratic revolution of Rojava, calling for aid for the Kurdish fighters and refugees, legitimisation of the PKK and the release of Ocalan. The protest was part of a Global day of solidarity with the YPG (People’s Defense Units) and the women of the YPJ fighting against ISIS.

The protest was organised by the Kurdish People’s Assembly and Peace in Kurdistan Campaign in cooperation with Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), Roj Women Assembly and Free Youth Movement and community organisations, and was also supported by some left and human rights groups, but failed to attract some of the larger groups on the left.

Among the speakers were human rights lawyer Margaret Owen OBE, an adviser to Kurdish human rights groups in London, Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for London, Mark Thomas, Peter Tatchell and Father Joe Ryan, a Catholic priest from Haringey as well as those from various Kurdish groups.

Many speakers criticised Turkey for supporting ISIS and allowing the smuggling of oil and other goods through Turkey which finance ISIS. They also supported the the model constitution adopted in Rojava, the de facto autonomous Kurdish majority region in northern and north-eastern Syria as an important democratic development, for its pluralism, democratic participation and protection of fundamental human rights and liberties.

Global Solidarity With Kobane

Court, Wash-House, Baths and Camberwell Grove

The previous post on the walk I made on 27th January 1989 was Camberwell Green to Addington Square 1989

Brisbane St: Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-61 — *Brisbane St: Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-61*

I walked back down from Addington Square towards Camberwell GGreen stopping to photograph this view of the back of the Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, hiding the sun behing a large tree on the corner of the path and the road, though some of its bright winter light has caused some flare which I find rahter atmospherice.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-62 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-62*

Moving forwards and into some shade enabled me to eliminate any flare but still to take advantage of the light and shade to clearly show the three-dimensional nature of the building. Little has yet changed, though there may well be some differences as the building is redeveloped.

*Camberwell Public Wash-Houses, Harvey Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-63*

Camberwell Public Wash-Houses in Harvey Rd are at the back of the Camberwell Public Baths, an early public baths, designed by Henry Spalding and Alfred WS Cross and completed in 1891. Although much around them has changed they remain much the same and are now in use as part of Arco Academy, a sports specialist alternative provision school.

*Camberwell Public Baths, Artichoke Place, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-64*

I walked around the block down Kimpton Rd into Camberwell Church St and then went up the delightfully named Artichoke Place to photograph the front of the Camberwell Public Baths, designed by Henry Spalding and Alfred WS Cross in a Flemish Renaissance style and completed in 1891. Now called Camberwell Leisure Centre the Grade II listed baths were saved from closure by a local campaign, refurbished and reopened in 2011.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-65 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-65*

The lighting with low winter sun was very different to when I had photographed the Magistrates Court earlier in the day, so I decided to go back and take another picture from D’Eynsford Rd.

*7-11, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-52*

I walked back to Camberwell Church St and along it to Camberwell Grove where these well-proportioned nineteenth century houses were also in a good light. Something that particularly caught my eye was a blind window. It was not just the bricked up window often found in properties built before window tax was abolished, but had rudimentary columns and a keystone of a doorway. The recessed doors and window of the property to the right were also of interest. The street was originally called Walnut Tree Grove but the name was soon changed.

*Chamberlain Cottages, Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1e-55*

Chamberlain Cottages off the east side of Camberwell Grove between Nos 15 and 17 is described by estate agents as peaceful gated mews and a beautifully kept enclave of enchanting period cottages.

Joseph Chamberlain (1796–1874) was a successful manufacturer who lived 188 Camberwell Grove. His son, also Joseph, was born there and at 18 moved to Birmingham to work at the screw factory owned by his father and uncle John Nettlefold, helping the business to become England’s most successful screw makers, producing two-thirds of those made in this country. Later he became one of the country’s best known politicians and a radical social reformer.

St Giles Camberwell is a little further to the east and can just be glimpsed over one of the cottages where the alley turns to the right. Another picture of it in the next post.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began at http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=14008 St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.

Camberwell Green to Addington Square 1989

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began with the previous post at St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto where I ended at Camberwell Greeen.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-34 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-34*

Walking across Camberwell Green I came to the Magistrates Court, built from 1965 and opened in 1971. It was closed in 2019 and has been sold to Criterion Capital for £13.5m – they plan to turn it into around 160 1,2 and 3 bedroom flats “Ideal for young professionals who want to live as well as work in Central London” with leisure and coworking space on the ground floor. So far it still looks fairly similar from the outside although the ground floor has been boarded up and the boards covered with graffiti.

But in front of it on what was previously a community orchard on council land, a new Camberwell Library was opened in November 2015. There had been considerable local opposition to the destruction of the orchard in 2013, but Camberwell had not had a permanent library since a V1 flying bomdb destroyed the Victorian Camberwell Central Library on Peckham Road in 1944.

Camberwell Green Magistrate's Court, D'Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-35 — *Camberwell Green Magistrate’s Court, D’Eynsford Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-35*

In front of the Magistrate’s Court is this large ventilation tower, presumably for the two floors of underground parking below, though there may well be other underground facilities.

*Camberwell Business Centre, Lomond Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-36*

This Grade II listed early 19th century industrial building was, according to English Heritage a former Perfume Factory, though other sources suggest it was a former bakery. Quite likely both are correct. Jusst a few yards north from the Magistrates Court and is now a business centre with offices and light industry.

Beyond it is the also Grade II listed Bryanston House, an early 19th century large residence in the area, also now I think offices. Together the two buildings are Camberwell Business Centre.

*Flats, Drayton House, Lomond Grove, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-21*

Drayton House, a maisonette block at 30-72 Lomond Grove was the last part of the Elmington Estate when it was built around 1960 and was around the last to be demolished in 2016-7, replaced by ‘Elmington Green’ development of largely market price flats in 2018.

The redevelopment of the estate began in 2002, and under this first phase almost 90% of those displaced from the estate were rehoused in the new flats, though many complained that the new buildings had smaller rooms and thinner walls that gave them little privacy. But in the next phase, “redevelopment became’regeneration'” and Southwark Council began a policy of social cleansing, with only a relatively small proportion of social housing in the new buildings. Things became even worse later, as Southwark Notes detail on their web site.

*Faces, Doorway, Kitson Rd, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-23*

Faces, ferns, foliage on the capitals and worms – vermiculation – on the keyston of these doorways in Kitson Road, an attractive street parts of which face the south-west tip of Burgess Park, was described by Booth’s associates ten years after his orginal 1889 survey of London poverty in 1899 as “good working class”. These houses possibly date from around the 1880s.

*Houses, Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-26*

I wrote more about Addington Square in a post about my previous walk. Almost all the houses in this square developed between 1810 and 1850 are Grade II listed. These houses are at the north-west of the square and the road going off between the houses here is also called Addington Square.

Addington Square, Camberwell, Southwark, 1989 89-1d-12

This view across the grassed area in the centre of the square shows the same houses in the distance with a few more at the right of picture. The fine trees are still growing.

My posts on this walk on 27th January 1989 began with part of St George’s, Camberwell, Absolutely Board & Alberto. This walk will continue in a later post.

Rail Fares, ISIS and Biofuels – 28 Oct 2014

Fair Fares Petition – Westminster. Tue 28 Oct 2014

Eight years later problems with our rail system continue and no significant changes have been made. Rail is a textbook example of something which should be run as in integrated public service and privatisation has been an entirely predictable disaster, at least for taxpayers and particularly those who use the railways.

*Campaigners met at the Dept of Transport in Horseferry Rd*

It has of course been a bonanza for the companies that have run parts of the service, particularly the three large companies that own and hire out most of the rail carriages, engines and waggons. Three ROSCOs (Rolling stock leasing companies) – Porterbrook, Eversholt and Willow – own together 87% of the rolling stock – and have made huge profits for their shareholders while failing to invest a great deal in new rolling stock. They are almost entirely owned by German, Australian, Canadian and other multinationals, mostly registered in Luxembourg to evade tax.

*Stephen Joseph OBE, executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport joins the protest*

Probably most people now know that the companies that actually run the trains – Train Operating Companies or TOCs – are largely foreign owned, mostly by the nationalised railways of Germany, France and Holland, with a couple from Italy and one from China (Hong Kong.) We do now have three nationalised TOCs, ScotRail, Northern and Transport for Wales. So basically the railways proved a mechanism for our government to hand over large amount of our taxes to these foreign countries.

*They stop to pose in Parliament Square*

The Campaign for Better Transport protest on Tuesday 28th October 2014 was more simply about changes in the evening peak time fares introduced by Northern Rail, then I think run by Serco-Abellio, a subsidiary of the Dutch state railway. These changes have particularly hit shift and part-time workers who work irregular hours, resulting in a 167% increase for some. Other TOCs have since made similar changes – with the ‘Off-Peak’ fares no longer available on my line, having been replaced by much more restricted evening fares.

*And then hand the petition to Rail Minister Claire Perry MP*

Our whole incredibly complex fare system is also down to the fragmented privatisation, and often means people pay far more than necessary. Even the highly trained ticket office staff are often unable to find the cheapest fare, and machines and web services are often misleading.

Rail fares are now often ridiculously high, particularly for those unable to book in advance. It’s often cheaper to fly to America than take a train from one English city to another. Even the Advance fares (Introduced by British Rail before privatisation) limited to a specific train can be pretty huge, often several times the European fares for similar journey lengths. We need lower fares to encourage people to stop using cars and move to public transport.

More at Fair Fares Petition.

Kobane – Unite against Isis Drawing – Trafalgar Square, Tue 28 Oct 2014

Kurds chanted slogans against ISIS and in support of the defenders of Kobane around a giant pavement chalk drawing based on an agonised Statue of Liberty in front of London’s National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

More pictures at Kobane – Unite against Isis Drawing.

Biofuel picket Green Investment Bank Birthday – King Edward Street, Tue 28 Oct 2014

Protesters from Biofuelwatch and London Biomassive, some dressed as wise owls, picketed the second birthday celebrations of the Green Investment Bank at Bank of America Merrill Lynch against their funding of environmentally disastrous biomass and incineration projects.

The say the large-scale projects the bank funds are worse for the environment and for climate change than burning coal and urged the GIB to finance “low carbon sustainable solutions” instead of these “high-carbon destructive delusions.”

More at Biofuel picket Green Investment Bank Birthday.

Saturday 27th October 2007

One of my busier days in London was Saturday 27th October 2007, when I began with a trip to Hoxton to collect and take home some pictures from a group exhibition, then travelled back into the centre of London for a number of events. The main protest I covered was the annual UFFC march against deaths in custody, but there were also Kurds protesting against Turkish army attacks on them in Northern Iraq, campaigners calling for a Brexit referendum, an anti-abortion rally and peace protesters around Parliament where I also photographed a new statue in Parliament Square. I ended my working day with a Halloween Zombie Crawl.

Here’s what I wrote back in 2007, with minor corrections including normal capitalisation and some changes of tense – and I’ve included some headings and pictures. As usual there are many more pictures if you follow the links to My London Diary.

On saturday, everything was happening. I had to run around to start with to collect my unsold pictures from the City People show at the Juggler in Hoxton. Fortunately I’d sold one of my four pictures, so that made them easier to carry, but it was a rush to be back in the centre of London and I had to more or less miss the demonstrators who wanted a referendum on leaving the European Union.

Protest Against Custody Deaths – Trafalgar Square & Whitehall, Saturday 27 Oct, 2007

Instead I started at Trafalgar Square, where the annual event remembering those who have died in custody was taking place, organised by the UFFC, families and friends of those killed.

It’s an occasion that always shocks me by the sheer number of people who have died in such disgraceful or suspicious circumstances, in police cells, in prisons and elsewhere. It’s an event I sometimes find it hard to photograph, both emotionally and physically – thankfully autofocus works even when your eyes are filling with tears.
more pictures

Kurds Demand – Stop Turkey – Trafalgar Square, London. 27 October 2007

While that demo was getting ready to march, a large crowd of Kurds swarmed into Trafalgar Square and held a short rally, protesting against the Turkish government’s approval of incursions into Northern Iraq to attack the PKK there. Both the Kurds and the Armenians have suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks (who in turn have been rather screwed by the EU over Cyprus.)

It was a typically exuberant performance, and one that I enjoyed photographing, but rather a distraction from the family and friends event.
more pictures

Pro-referendum on Europe Rally – Old Palace Yard, Westminster. 27 October 2007

There seems to be hiatus in the UFFC demonstration, so I caught a bus down Whitehall. Walking along to Old Palace Yard I passed a few of the pro-referendum demonstrators, though some others had stayed to join in the anti-abortion protest.
a couple of pictures

Anti-Abortion (Pro-Life) Rally – Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Saturday 27 October, 2007

This was rather smaller than I’d expected, perhaps around 500 people, although it was the only event that made the BBC news bulletins I heard when I got home later in the day.
more pictures

Lloyd George – Parliament Square, London. Saturday October 27, 2007

I listened a little to the speeches, but then went to Parliament Square to take a look at the new statue of Lloyd George – which failed to impress me. Of course he was long before my time – although I did have a landlady as a student in Manchester who had worked as a secretary for him – but somehow I feel the statue trivialises him, looking rather like an enlarged version of a plastic figure you might find in a box of cornflakes rather than a statue of a Prime Minister.
another picture

Peace Train – Parliament Square, Westminster. Saturday October 27, 2007

The Peace Train is beginning to form a protest in Parliament Square and I go along to talk to them and take a few pictures.

I rejoin the ‘Famiilies and Friends’ march now making a considerable protest opposite Downing Street, where a delegation has permission to deliver a letter to the prime minister’s residence at No 10. It takes a lot of argument before the police let them in despite this.

For some reason the police decide not to allow those with press cards into the street in the normal way. I don’t like going in – the security checks are a nuisance and being restricted to a pen on the other side of the street is normally hopeless, but I think its a matter of principle that access should not be unreasonably prevented – as it was for this event, even if personally I don’t particularly want to take advantage of it.

By the time the deputation emerge, the mood on the street is getting rather angry. One young policeman is getting surrounded and insulted and is trying hard to ignore it. A few minutes later a motor-cyclist foolishly stays in the route of the march, and is soon surrounded by angry people. He has to be rescued by his colleagues.

There are police who are racist, who are thugs, who are bullies. Too many who have got away with murder, often thanks to covering up or a lack of diligence in investigation by their colleagues. If it were not so, there would be no demonstration. But there are also officers who do their best to carry out a difficult and necessary job in a decent, reasonable and even-handed way – even though they may sometimes get disciplined for doing so. Those who bear the brunt of considerable and understandable hate directed against the police at a demo like this are not necessarily the guilty.
more pictures

Crawl of the Dead IV – City and Southwark, London. Saturday October 27, 2007

It’s time for me to leave and make my way to the City of London, where this year the zombies are starting their walk at a pub on Ludgate Hill. I go into the pub and talk to some of them and take photographs, and am gratified to find that quite a few have seen my pictures from around Oxford Street last year.

By the time they emerge from the pub it is getting dark, and my flash by now is refusing to work at all. I have to make do either with available light (and there isn’t a lot) or the pretty useless camera built in flash, but I still manage to get a few decent pictures, even though some are rather noisier than I’d like.

There are quite a few people around as we go over the Millennium bridge, and more in front of Tate Modern, where zombies decide to play dead for a while. Then we visit the famous crack in the turbine hall, coming out towards the Founder’s arms, where I made my goodbyes and turned for home.

More pictures on all these on My London Diary:

against deaths in custody
kurds demand – stop turkey
for a euro-referendum
anti-abortion (pro-life) rally
lloyd george statue
peace train
crawl of the dead iv