River Thames | >Re-PHOTO

Canning Town Walk (2007) 2 &3

2 Thames Ironworks

The walk starts at the top of the stairs leading up from the Station to the Bus Station. Here there is a memorial to the Thames Ironworks.

C J Mare’s shipbuilding firm did not prosper and was soon bought out by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, whose works soon occupied most of the Essex shore of Bow Creek as well as areas close to the Thames on the Middlesex side. Over the years it built at least 650 ships (some sources say 900) as well as bridges and other iron structures.

Frank Hills

Its greatest fame came under the ownership of Frank Hills who bought the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in 1880, when it was struggling to retain employment for its 6,000 men in face of competition from larger yards on the Clyde, Tyne and Mersey.

Hills, educated at Harrow was a Christian, a fine sportsman, English champion in the mile and 3 miles, an Oxford football blue, and played for England when they beat Scotland 5-4 in 1879. He was also the first President of the London Vegetarian Society (1888) and the Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club, and also served as President of a London Vegetarian Rambling Club. He also founded The Vegetarian, an independent magazine, and founded the Vegetarian Federal Union (1889), becoming President. He was also a member of the Temperance (total abstinence) union.

As an employer he was described as an “enlightened patriarch” who cared deeply for the welfare of his workers. For some years he lived among them in a small house in the East India Dock Road. Despite this, relations at work were not always good, especially when he engaged non-union workers, and some of the workforce went out on strike at the time of the dock strike of 1889.

Hills was one of the first employers to set up a bonus scheme – in 1892 – and he voluntarily introduced an eight-hour day in 1894 at a time when many employers demanded 10 or 12 hour days. He tried to get his workers to “sign the pledge” and take healthy exercise – and set up clubs of all kinds to keep them out of the pubs. These included a temperance league, cycling club, cricket club, an amateur operatic society and a brass band as well as a football club, the Thames Ironworks Football Team set up in 1895. In 1900, Hills put up the money to fund a merger with another local side, the Old Castle Swifts, and they became West Ham Football Club. The nickname the Hammers comes from the tools they used in building ships.

Bow Creek, River Thames, Orchard Place, Lower Lea Crossing, Leamouth, Tower Hamlets, 1992, 92-1n-42 — *Leamouth, 1992. Thames Ironworks formerly occupied all the land to the left of Bow Creek at its mouth and some parts in the centre of the picture.*

The Albion Disaster

Disaster struck at the Ironworks in 1898 at the launch of HMS Albion. The Duchess of York (later Queen Mary) tried 3 times to break the champagne bottle on the steel hull, but it just bounced off. Despite this bad omen, the launch went ahead. The 12,950 tons batleship, then the largest of the ship ever built on Bow Creek and the wave it created as it slipped into the water smashed a temporary jetty between it and a ship under construction for the Japanese navy.

A huge crowd had turned up to watch the launch, and a large number had managed to get onto this jetty (which hadn’t been intended for such use.) 26 people were awarded Royal Humane Society Broze Medals for their attempts to save those in the water, but despite their bravery, 38 were killed. Hills was devastated. He personally visited the families of the bereaved and paid the funeral expenses, as well as contributing generously to the West Ham Council fund for the survivors.

In 1911, the Ironworks built the Thunderer, at 22,500 tons the Navy’s largest dreadnought and the last great ship (and the largest) to be built on the Thames. It was an order that broke the yard. Hills, his health gravely effected by the Albion disaster in 1891, had a stroke shortly before its launch. The company closed at the end of the year, but Hills lived on until 1927, dying a few days short of his 70th birthday.

Flat-pack Steamers

Should you visit Lake Titicaca in Peru, (The Sacred Lake and legendary birthplace of the Incas), you can see the steamship Yavari, now the only ‘working’ single-screw iron passenger ship in the world.

Ordered from Boulton & Watt in Birmingham by the Peruvian government as one of a pair of cargo-passenger ‘gunboats’, her iron hull (and that of her sister ship) was built in Bow Creek, in numbered pieces, none weighing more than 3.5 cwt, the heaviest that a mule could carry. The two ships were completely fitted out here, then carefully stripped down, numbered and colour-coded and crated for transit.

In 1862, they travelled on a ship around the Horn accompanied by 8 British engineers to Ordered from Boulton & Watt in Birmingham by the Peruvian government as one of a pair of cargo-passenger ‘gunboats’, her iron hull (and that of her sister ship) was built in Bow Creek, in numbered pieces, none weighing more than 3.5 cwt, the heaviest that a mule could carry. The two ships were completely fitted out here, then carefully stripped down, numbered and crated for transit. In 1862, they travelled by sea around the Horn accompanied by 8 British engineers to Arica, Peru, where the railway (the oldest in South America) took them the first 37 miles of the journey. The remaining 190 miles were to be by mule, and over mountain passes higher than anything in Europe up to the lake at 12, 500 ft, across the driest desert in the world. Meanwhile the engineers went ahead to build a jetty and machine shop on the lake. It took over 7 years for all the parts to arrive, and the Peruvian Navy in the meanwhile helped itself to the guns, which never made it.

Eventually the rest was there and the first ship, the Yavari was launched on Christmas day 1870. There was still a problem. There was no coal at Titicaca for the steam engines; the only fuel available was dried llama dung, and a simple journey along the 100 mile lake and back took 1,400 sacks. Its perhaps not surprising that the steam engine was replaced by a diesel in 1914. The ship continued in regular service until the 1950s. It was rediscovered in 1982, and found to be in excellent condition, thanks to the clean fresh water and high altitude of the lake, and is now preserved by a Peruvian charity.

The Memorial

At the top of the stairs leading down to the station barriers at Canning Town is a memorial to the Thames Ironworks by Richard Kindersley, unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1998. The large cast iron plate across its top is from the first iron Royal Navy vessel with a full iron hull, HMS Warrior, built around a quarter of a mile south of her by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in 1860.

The Warrior had 3 masts, two funnels and a screw propeller. When under fire, wooden ships splintered terribly and it was flying wood splinters that resulted in most injuries and deaths, and the use of iron cut this down. Other navies soon followed the example. The ship is restored and can be seen at Portsmouth.

The elegant engraving on the stonework in the middle of the stairway tells some of the story of the company. You can see a part of the company site (now empty) from the station platform.

3: Canning Town Transport Interchange

From Thames Ironworks memorial, look through the large glass windows towards the station, with its two level platforms. Walk along to see the bus station (which includes toilets) before taking the escalator down into to the bottom level of the station.

Canning Town DLR and Jubilee Line stations. Bus is in Bus Station

One of the better aspects of the LDDC, responsible for development from 1981-98 was the creation of the DLR and some other aspects of transport infrastructure. Widely derided as a ‘toy train’, the DLR has demonstrated the use of light railway technology.

The new Canning Town station replaced one to the north of the A13 on the North London Line, and opened as a DLR and Silverlink station in 1994, to close after a few months for a couple of years for the building of the Jubilee line. The station reopened – together with the adjoining bus station – in 1999.

North London Line services stopped in December 2006 in preparation for the DLR extension to Stratford International. The station has three levels; at the bottom is the booking hall and barriers, above that are the Jubilee line platforms, with the former NLL platforms at the same level to the east. The DLR lines and platforms are above those of the Jubilee Line.

This is perhaps the best example, indeed one of very few examples of an integrated transport interchange in London.

Bow Creek Walkway

As you walk past the ticket machines and office, in front you will see the exit from the station to the Bow Creek Walkway, completed in the 1990s, but still not open to the public.

*Weeds on the walkway – now open but still incomplete*

Newham has at least one other example of an expensively constructed foot path in a similar limbo. In this case the reason is said to be that the various parties involved, which include Tower Hamlets and Newham have been unable to reach an agreement about the ownership and liabilities involved.

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Stratford & Silvertown – 2006

Newham

Stratford & Silvertown: One of the shorter posts I wrote on My London Diary was about my trip to Silvertown and Stratford in East London on 21st June 2006. Here it is in full, just as I published it then:

on wednesday 21st i took the DLR to stations in silvertown, taking pictures from the train, the platforms and around the stations. then i went to stratford to make more pictures there.

I left home in mid-afternoon and began photographing from the DLR a little after 4pm. It was a fine day and I was going to join a walk around Stratford in the evening by the Greater London Industrial Archaelogy Society and had a couple of hour before I was to meet with them at Stratford Station.

It was almost a year since London had been awarded the 2012 Olympics and I had made a number of visits to the Olympic area to record it before the huge changes that were about to take place.

The DLR extension to King George V station in North Woolwich had opened in December 2005, but had yet made little impact on the surrounding area. Construction had already begun on its extension under the River Thames to Woolwich Arsenal which opened in January 2009.

The line is largely elevated on a concrete viaduct which gives extensive views of the area. As the trains are driver-less I was able to sit at the front of the train and photograph through the front window. Then the DLR was relatively little used and at least on schooldays there was little competition for the front seats – and I think the train windows were usually cleaner.

Trains on the line were then reasonably frequent so I was able to get off at various stations to walk around a little and then return to the station to continue my journey, including a visit to Lyle Park with views across the River Thames.

The station platforms also provide elevated viewpoints to photograph the area. I went as far as Silvertown station and then made my way back to Stratford.

Here I left the train to join the GLIAS walk around the area to the south of the Olympic site, including the Carpenters Estate, a popular council estate close to the station which Newham were then trying to empty and sell off against local opposition, Stratford High Street and the Waterworks River.

By the time this evening walk ended although it was the middle of June the light was fading, though I think this picture exaggerates this a little.

There are quite a few more pictures on My London Diary, beginning here, but I took many more that day, particularly on the evening walk. Perhaps I will post more from this here some time.

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Gravesend and Northfleet, Kent – 2006

Gravesend and Northfleet, Kent: Twenty years ago on Thursday 8th June 2006 I took my folding bike by train to Gravesend and spent an afternoon cycling through the area on the Kent bank of the River Thames, long home to the cement industry – the manufacture of ‘Portland Cement’ began here in 1834.

I’d long had an interest in the area, both for its industrial history and for its sometimes spectacular landscapes created by this. I was first inspired when I borrowed an old book from my local library, Donald Maxwell’s ‘A Pilgrimage of the Thames‘, published in 1932. His accounts and sketches, some first published earlier in the Church Times present an interesting and romantic view of places and people along the river beginning at Gravesend and ending at Oxford.

Maxwell (1877-1936) reports a Thames pilot telling him as he sketched on a jetty, “The principal products of Gravesend are paper, cement and smoke – especially smoke.”

Later, writing about Northfleet he muses prophetically “One day, when the cement industry has left this valley, and centres of population have shifted, this district will be called the Switzerland of England, and weekend châlets, each with its aeroplane-landing on the cliff, will look down once again upon green shores and tree-embowered banks.”

It hasn’t happened quite like that, though the cement industry has gone and there are some luxury riverside flats and the new town of Ebbsfleet developing around a new station on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (which Eurostar trains whizz through non-stop at around the same speed as aircraft when Maxwell wrote.)

Of course Maxwell’s book was not my only source for information about the area. Particularly useful was the 1971 geography text ‘Lower Thameside‘ by Roy Millward & Adrian Robinson with its chapter ‘The Cement Industry of Lower Thameside‘ which gave some rather more precise information and a suggested itinerary which informed my first actual visits to the area in the 1980s.

A few years after I took these pictures in 2006 the vast cement works at Northfleet had gone.

The photographs on My London Diary are not captioned (and I wrote nothing about them) but a they are in order of my ride beginning in Gravesend and moving west, with views across the Thames to Tilbury. From Rosherville I moved on to Northfleet (where Gravesend & Northfleet FC is now Ebbsfleet United) and then on to take the train home from Swanscombe.

More pictures on My London Diary

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Jubilee Celebrations and Kurdish Protest – 2002

Jubilee Celebrations and Kurdish Protest: Celebrations were taking place on Sunday 2nd June 2002 for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee (and they continued the following day which was the Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday, with the Tuesday also being the Spring Bank Holiday – moved into Summer for more celebrations.) My main reason for going into London was to photograph a protest by Kurds but I also tried to photograph some of the celebrations. Quotes below are from what I wrote on My London Diary back in 2002 with some of the pictures and I took.

Sloane Square

Chelsea

“As a convinced republican I wasn’t too excited, but thought I’d go along and have a little look at how others were celebrating. Sloane Square seemed a good place to see how Chelsea was taking it as they were having a fair on Sunday 2nd June.”

At least while I was there the celebrations in Sloane Square were an extremely formal event and rather boring.

Kurds Call For Human Rights in Turkey

Westminster

“I was glad to leave and join the Kurds in their demonstration for human rights. Britain has a lot to answer for, having betrayed them at the Lausanne Treaty in 1923 which divided their country, giving most to Turkey which has since behaved with complete disregard for their human rights.”

*Kurds protest against banning of their organisations*

“More recently – again to keep the Turks onside – the US put the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on their terrorist list, despite it having abandoned terrorism to try and obtain justice. ” KADEK was the name the PKK changed to in 2002 when it said it was committed to non-violent activities and it was added to the PKK proscription in 2006.

“Turkey has continued a policy of brutal repression – as the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed.”

“Cynical support of US policy by Britain and other countries resulted in the PKK also being listed [in the UK] as a banned terrorist organisation last month. It’s the kind of politics that makes me ashamed to be British and loses our Labour government any respect.”

A few more black and white pictures

Southwark Celebrations?

“After the demo I went on to see how Southwark were celebrating. “

“The answer turned out to be very low key, though as usual there were some interesting food and drink stalls at Borough Market, and a steady stream of people walking along by the river.”

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Hall Place & River Darent

Hall Place & River Darent: More from my walks by the River Cray and Darent in September 1994. Firstly a couple of pictures from Hall Place, Bexley where the River Cray runs through the grounds of a magnificent Tudor Hall.

*Park, River Cray, Bexley Hall Place, Bexley, 1994, 94-906-62*

The gardens are open free of charge all year round, and are well worth a visit – and dogs, footballs, BBQs or fishing are not allowed, making it very peaceful. I can’t remember exactly where in the grounds this was, perhaps at the north close to the A2 where there is a flood channel marked on the map.

*Hall Place, Bourne Road Bexley, 1994, 94-901-61*

Although you can see the exterior of the Grade I listed country house for free, you can only go inside on pre-booked guided tours. I once went on one of these and possibly these pictures were taken on the same day, but I took no pictures inside the house.

The main house was built in two stages, the first in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a wealthy merchant and former Lord Mayor of London with the fine flint and rubble walls in my picture. Some of the stone used in its construction was recycled from the ruins of the former Lesnes Abbey not far away in Abbey Wood.

When the house was sold to a second wealth London merchant, Sir Robert Austen in 1649, he decided to double its size, extending it in red brick. Later buildings including a lodge were added in the Victorian era. In the 1920s the last tenant of the hall, then owned by her wealthy American son-in-law Stephen Cox Brady, was the eccentric Lady Limerick who added some mock-Tudor interior features.

Brady died in 1928 and the house and gardens were sold to Bexley Council, but the eccentric Lady Limerick lived there as a tenant until her death in 1945. During the war the house was also in use by US soldiers who were involved in the decoding of German messages, part of the operation centred at Bletchley Park and had the code name Santa Fe.

I think the next pictures were made a few days later.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-912-23*

I’ve walked around beside the River Darent and on to the Thames and to Erith a number of times, and more recently on my folding bike. Usually I’ve begun my walk either at Slade Green or Barnes Cray stations, though I think I may once have done it in the opposite direction.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-912-42*

The land here is on the edge of the marshes and was marsh and grass land until the 1879s when the Thames Ammunition Works, later part of VickersArmstrong, was established here. During World War I it employed thousands, many of them women, working long hours in hazardous conditions. The site officially closed in 1962, having been run down for some years and became home to a number of smaller companies.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-913-32*

*River Thames, Crayford Ness, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-913-42*

Taken from the low-lying ground immediately upstream of the confluence of the River Darent with the River Thames. At left is the QE2 bridge, with the chimney of Littlebrook Power station on the south bank – only finally demolished in 2019 though the plant had closed in 2015, and at right the Darent Flood barrier built in 1982. The riverside path runs along the top of the grassy bank at right.

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Point Pleasant and the Thames – 1990

Point Pleasant and the Thames: Continuing my walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 and the previous post to this was Yet More Wandle.

*Prospect Cottages, Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-43*

I get a fleeting view of these cottages as my train goes past between Putney and Wandsworth Town at ‘Point Pleasant Junction’ which still connects the National Rail lines with the District Line to Wimbledon. The bridge over the lines was closed in 1987 as unsafe and partly demolished, though the piers remain and the remaining link made bi-directional. It is now only used by excusions and some empty trains – but I was on a train that took this route during an emergency deviation quite a few years ago.

I don’t know how Point Pleasant got its name, though it seems to date back as long as the street existed. Perhaps it was simply lead to a pleasant view of the River Thames.

I think these cottages are present on the earliest maps of the area I have seen from the early years of the 19th century, though its hard to be sure and they may have replaced earlier cottages on the site. Surprisingly the 14 cottages do not appear to be even locally listed.

*Works, Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-44*

But Point Pleasant was long an industrial area. According to Ediths Street’s Edward Barker set up an ironworks here in 1634 making small articles such as frying pans and to have been a major arms supplier to the Civil War. His site was sold to Gatty and Waller in 1771 and they set up a chemical works distilling vinegar and producing other chemicals.

The Union Brewery opened here in 1820 and closed in 1920. Richard Seligman set up the Aluminium Plant and Vessel Co. a specialist aluminium welding business, on part of the brewery site in 1920 and his works eventually covered most of Point Pleasant, moving out to Crawley in 1952. I think this factory, built in two stages, was a part of those works.

*Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-45*

Redevelopment of the whole area was just beginning in 1990, and although it started well – and even received a Housing Design award in 2005, later developments have been considerably higher and far less sympathetic.

*Prospect House, Point Pleasant, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-32*

There is one Grade II listed property in the area, this house built for a local businessman in 1805-6 who probably did enjoy a pleasant view. It is listed as an excvellent example of domestic Georgian architecture. Just down the road is a locally listed pub which I failed to photograph or to visit. Then I think it was then a Watney’s pub, The Foresters Arms, but shortly after, when its resident cat went missing and then returned was renamed ‘The Cat’s Back’. Taken over by Harvey’s in 2011 it is now apparently a pub worth visiting both for the beer and its now quirky interior. Perhaps time for me to revisit Point Pleasant!

*River Thames, from, Wandsworth Park, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-34*

The riverside view downsteam from close to Point Pleasant. Certainly interesting but I don’t think I would describe it as pleasant. Moorings now obscure much of the view.

*Oil Storage tanks, Osiers Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-35*

The Shell Oil terminal on Osiers Road, an area marked on old maps as a marsh with tidal channels on the corner of the River Wandle and River Thames. Doubtless before Shell it had willows, perhaps harvested for wicker baskets etc.

The site is now crowded with much taller blocks of flats, including a 21 storey tower, with 275 homes. At least it no longer reeks of oil, though I think I could still smell it faintly when I walked around the new riverside path here shortly after it opened.

Still one more set of pictures from this long walk to come.

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Woolwich Riverside and Royal Artillery

Woolwich Riverside and Royal Artillery: More pictures from my walk around Woolwich in August 1994

*Waste Land, Woolwich Church St, Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-42*

This area, previously occupied by engineering works, has now been redeveloped with a luxury development of tall housing blocks on Mast Quay, “A magnificent crafted living space with panoramic views of the River Thames.”

*Entrance, Woolwich Foot Tunnel, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-13*

As well as getting a free ferry, Woolwich also got a foot tunnel under the River Thames, opened by the London County Council in 1912. The tunnel is just over 500 meters long and remains delightfully cool on hot summer days.

Many cyclists also use the tunnel despite bylwws prohibiting cyclists. Electronic signs were installed in 2016 which used a computerised system to measure traffic and messaged ‘No cycling allowed‘ in red at busy times but ‘Please consider pedestrians‘ in green when the tunnel was fairly empty. Greenwich council was in favour of changing the bylaws to legalise this, but Tower Hamlets refused and the system was discontinued. Many cyclists still ride.

The tunnel provides a useful route across the river, particularly when the ferry is out of action, but most times I’ve used it one of both of the lifts at each end have not been working. I’ve never counted the steps but there are rather a lot of them, particularly when going up.

*River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-21*

Downstream from the ferry in what in 1994 was I think an open area, once the site of Woolwich Power Station, demolished in 1978-9 though the coaling jetty in this picture is still there. There is still a riverside walk but most of the site is now occupied by tall blocks of flats.

*River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-22*

A bridge here links the former coaling jetty with the riverside path.

From Riverside Path, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-33 — *Steps from Riverside Path, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-33*

This area is now covered by tall flats, though there is a small segment of parkland with fountains.

*Mural, Thames Barrier, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-812-65*

I cannot remember exactly where I found this mural of the Thames Barrier in Woolwich and I think it was soon demolished.

Royal Artillery Memorial, St George's Garrison Church, Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-812-52 — *Royal Artillery Memorial, St George’s Garrison Church, Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-812-52*

Built for the garrison in 1862-3 it was hit by a V1 flying bomb in 1944 and the church was largely destroyed by fire. In 1970 more of the building was demolished but a canopy roof added to protect the apse and its polychromatic Victorian brick and decorations, with a memorial garden added in the former nave. It was listed in 1973. In 2011 it was transferred out of military ownership and since then there has been some restoration work, partly lottery funded.

*Cannon, Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-32*

The barracks was the home of the Royal Artillery from 1776 until 2007. Its 1,000 foot long Georgian frontage is said to be the longest in Europe if not the world. Since 2007 most of it has been rebuilt behind this, and in 2016 the Ministry of Defence announced plans for all army units to move out by 2028.

The cannon is the “17.75-ton Bhurtpore gun, captured by Field Marshall the Viscount Combermere after the 1826 siege of Bhurtpore” and brought here in 1828. When the Royal Artillery moved out they took this and four other cannons with them, doubtless a vital part of our country’s defence.

Yet More Wandle – 1990

Yet More Wandle: Continuing my walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 and the previous post to this was A Wandle Wander – 1990:

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-25*

I found it hard to drag myself away from this spot on the path beside the River Wandle where the previous post had ended and took several more pictures before moving on, including this one.

*Tyres, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-53*

I didn’t move far, just a few yards further on before taking the picture above, which shows the same heap of tyres and the same covered pipe bridge – but from the other side. I think most of these pipe bridges date from the time the east side of the Wandle was occupied by the gas works.

River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-65

Much of the former gasworks site was then occupied by the concrete plant I wandered back and forth for some time taking pictures and cannot now remember the exact locations as the area has changed so much. This area is now a huge building site with a tall residential tower now going up.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-54*

This is where the River Wandle and Bell Lane Creek rejoin, running to the right of this picture into the Thames just a few yards away. The tide was low and you can see there is little or no water running out from the Wandle with all the flow all going down Bell Lane Creek. The Shell Oil Terminal Site was in Osiers Road and this and adjoining sites have now been redeveloped with blocks of flats of various heights, the tallest around 15 storey. One gain from this is that there is now a walkway by the Wandle leading to the Thames; the previous diversion was not without interest – but had an overpowering strong smell of oil.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-55*

Here I think I was looking roughly south I think over or through a fence at the north edge of the cement works where there is a cement lorry. I think this may be part of the works, possibly a water intake or perhaps a settling tank for water used for hosing down the lorries and plant, but that is simply guesswork. But as often with my pictures I did record a six-figure map reference – 257752.

*River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-56*

Also taken from The Causeway a few feet west from the previous image you can see the gasholder in the background – and at right the railway viaduct.

Finally I dragged myself away from the Wandle and made my way west to Point Pleasant where my next post on this walk will begin, coming back to those oil storage tanks beside the Wandle.

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More From the Woolwich Free Ferry – 1994

More From the Woolwich Free Ferry: I went on the ferry across to North Woolwich, taking pictures while I was on the ferry, I think mainly in black and white.

*Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-51*

Taken while I was waiting at Woolwich for vehicles and passengers could come off the ferry.

*Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-811-42*

At North Woolwich while vehicles were still driving off and foot passengers were boarding for the journey to Woolwich.

*Riverside Path, River Thames, North Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-12*

I got off the ferry at North Woolwich and took a short walk along the riverside path, making this picture and then returning to catch the ferry back. This screw was in the path. The ferry terminal is at right.

*Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-32*

I don’t know whether the pictures below on the ferry were made on the outward or return journey.

*Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-33*

*Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-41*

Soon I was back in Woolwich and taking more pictures there – to be in a later post.

Good Friday – 2007

Good Friday: On Friday 6th April 2007 I got up early and took a train to London to photograph several of the Christian walks of witness and other events taking place around London. The accounts and pictures of my day are still on My London Diary, but rather hidden away. So here is what I wrote (with the usual minor corrections) in 2007, with a few of the pictures and links to the rest.

Good Friday Walk of Witness: North Lambeth

My day started in North Lambeth at 10am, where Churches Together gathered for a short service in the gardens at the front of the Imperial War Museum, before their walk of witness through the locality.

After a short services in a council estate, and the small neighbourhood park they met with others from St Johns, Waterloo for a service on the concourse of Waterloo Station, where I left them.

more pictures

Distribution of the Butterworth Charity

St Bartholemew the Great, Smithfield

A number 4 bus took me close to London’s oldest church, St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, where the Butterworth Charity was to be distributed.

A member of the publishing company gave money in 1887 to ensure the continuation of the established custom of providing 6d (increased to 4 shillings in the 1920s) to 21 poor widows of the parish, and buns to children who came to watch the proceedings.

This year, no poor widows declared themselves and the buns were shared by all present.

Even the workers on the street next to the church.

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Good Friday Procession: St Mary’s Islington

I left before the end of the service at St Bartholomews and despite just missing a bus and a long wait, caught the end of the procession through Islington to St Mary’s Church.

At first I failed to notice the large crowd making it’s way along the busy pavement rather than the road, and the noisy surroundings drowned out the two drums behind the bloody carrier of the Cross at its head.

One of the women in the crowd behind had the best Easter Hat I met on the day, which contrasted rather with the sober black of her Ggreek friend.

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Good Friday Open Air Service

Upper Holloway Fellowship of Churches, The Mall, Archway

Another bus took us to Archway. However it was held up in the queue of traffic behind the march there, so I arrived just as the service was starting.

Perhaps 200 people had assembled and a lively service followed. The singing improved when the generator ran out of petrol, and I felt moved to join in.

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City, Thames & Borough Market

From Archway I took several buses to meet up with a friend in Borough Market, which in the past 10 years has transformed itself from dying old-fashioned fruit and veg business to catering for the an affluent mainly young ‘foody’ market. There is an incredible range of produce on sale now, and some at incredible prices. Some great stuff, some at surprisingly reasonable prices, but plenty of ripoff also.

*Windsor Boat Club Easter Cruise, Slave replica ship ‘Zong’ and the Tower of London.*

I’d come here mainly to meet one of my friends who was photographing the would-be trendy young who where fluttering around its flame. But it wasn’t really my thing, and the Nikon I use wasn’t really the right tool for the job.

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This was the end of what I wrote in My London Diary, and there are many more pictures on the links above. We soon get fed up with Borough Market and made our way to a nearby pub before going home.

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