march | >Re-PHOTO

Al Quds Day March in London – 2014

Al Quds Day March in London: International Quds Day is an annual event at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which expresses support for Palestinians and oppose Israel and Zionism. In particular it is a protest against the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem – al-Quds in Arabic.

A peaceful Al Quds march has taken place every year in London for over 40 years and the organisers describe it as having a “family atmosphere with demonstrators coming from all walks of life. Christians, Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths and none all march in common cause side by side.”

This is largely true, but the march in London attracts counter-protests from Zionists and others (including Iranian freedom, communist and royalist movements and UK right wing fringe groups), which have sometimes led to confrontations and delays and increased security with some marchers becoming mistrustful of photographers.

It has at times been a difficult event for me to cover in the close way I like work. Many of my pictures are made with wide angle or extreme wide angle lenses, 28mm or less focal length down to fisheye, working inside or on the edge of crowds. I want to be close to people, if not within touching distance, seldom more than a couple of metres away to give greater interaction and immediacy.

The Quds Day march and rally in 2025 was on Sunday 23rd March, but chaotic rail services that day prevented me from covering it, though I had photographed a pro-Palestine rally close to the Israeli Embassy the previous day. The organisers pointed out that it was taking place “amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza where Israeli forces have slaughtered 50,000 civilians in Gaza, most of them women and children. At the same time armed colonial settlers and troops are running rampage in the occupied West Bank, invading, looting and attacking Palestinian towns and villages with the international community turning a blind eye or actively complicit in the slaughter.”

Back in 2014, the situation in Gaza was dire. As UNRWA states, “During the 50 days of hostilities lasting from 8 July until 26 August 2014, 2,251 Palestinians were killed; 1,462 of them are believed to be civilians, including 551 children and 299 women. 66 Israeli soldiers and five civilians, including one child, were also killed. Overall, 11,231 Palestinians were injured during the conflict, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children.”

83 schools and 10 health centres were damaged, over 12,600 homes were totally destroyed and there was “a massive displacement crisis in Gaza, with almost 500,000 persons internally displaced at its peak.” The “scale of human loss, destruction, devastation and displacement caused by the 2014 conflict in Gaza – the third within seven years – was catastrophic, unprecedented and unparalleled in Gaza.”

But of course Gaza is now experiencing something far worse – and humanitarian agencies including UNWRA are being prevented by Israel from supporting the people and supplies of food and other necessities are largely being blocked. Inadequate amounts are brought in by the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and people desperate to get it are being shot by the Israeli Defence Forces.

Of course we all know this npw – even though the Israeli government has tried to hide it by preventing international journalists from entering Gaza – and also systematically targeting the Palestinians who are able to report. An article in Modern Times Review on July 15, 2025 quoted the Cost of War project as stating “more journalists have been killed in Gaza in the past 18 months than were killed in the U.S. Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and Afghanistan combined.” Early in July the number killed in Gaza had risen to 226.

On 24th July 2014, the march began close to the BBC and went to a rally outside the US Embassy, then still in Grosvenor Square. It was covered by several foreign media organisations but – as with most UK demonstrations – willfully ignored by the BBC.

Protesters called for a boycott of Israel and an end to the occupation of Palestine as well as an end to the attacks on Gaza.

On My London Diary I give a list of the organisations supporting the march – and there is a rather longer list of those supporting the 2025 march. One of the major organisations in both is the Innovative Minds Human Rights Group (InMinds). Founded in 1997 and alleged to have links to the Iranian Islamic Republic it has held regular protests in London against companies supporting the Israeli military, against the arbitrary detention of Palestinians, the torture and imprisonment of Palestinian children and calling for an end to apartheid in Israel.

In the pictures you will see many flags and posters from Inminds – and also a few images of Ayatollah Khomeini who started the celebration of Al Quds Day in Iran in 1979 as well as the current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

Also standing out in my pictures are the ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Neturei Karta Jews who state clearly their belief that Judaism is a religion and not a state, and “Judaism rejects the Zionist state And condemns its ATROCITIES”

One contentious issue in 2014 was over the carrying of flags of the Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah. In 2014 the political party, which was part of the government of Lebanon had not been proscribed and it was only illegal to carry it if there was other evidence to show support of the proscribed terrorist group. I was looking for these flags but only found a very few to photograph.

As the march made its way down Regent Street there were shouts against it from an upper floor window and vegetables were thrown down at the marchers who shouted back angrily. The march organisers asked police to investigate and urged to people to march on.

I left the march well before it reached the US Embassy and saw no other protests against the march. You can see more pictures from the march on My London Diary at Al Quds Day march for Jerusalem.

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End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel – 19 July 2025

End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel: Last Saturday, 19th July 2025, the weather forecast for London was dire. Thunderstorms and heavy rain until clearing a little later in the afternoon, with up to several inches of rain leading to some localised flooding. In the event it was a bit under two inches, with small rivers running along the side of some streets.

In this account I intend to write about my personal experiences and working as a photographer on the day rather than my views on the terrible situation in Palestine and the reprehensible actions of the Israeli government and army – and Hamas. I’ve often written about the need for peace and justice, for an end to occupation and destruction and for the release of hostages and prisoners.

Linda and I were determined to go out and join the national demonstration, to show our support for the people of Gaza, to demand our government stop selling arms to Israel and to call on the Israeli government to end its terrible destruction and genocidal attacks and to allow humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, many now starving. A little rain was not going to stop us.

As usual I checked online for our trains, only to find that our services into London were subject to delay and cancellation due to signalling problems. We dropped everything and hurried to get an earlier train than we had intended – and which actually was more punctual than usual – only two or three minutes late into Waterloo.

It was raining fairly heavily as we walked out of the station and by the time we’d crossed the Jubilee bridge to the Embankment where the march was gathering we were already quite wet.

As the forecast was for afternoon temperatures in the low to mid twenties I’d grabbed a lightweight waterproof jacket on my way out, which was a mistake. It did keep the water off to start with but was soon getting soaked through in places. I realised too late that I should have worn my poncho – or a heavier jacket that although too warm would have kept me dry. At least I’d had the sense to put on my truly waterproof walking boots rather than my usual trainers.

We joined the large crowd that was sheltering under the bridge carrying the rail lines into Charing Cross and I started to take photographs. It was dry – so long as you avoided the areas where water was leaking down from above – but rather dark.

I was working with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III (what a crazy mouthful of a name) a camera that came out over 5 years ago. It’s a Micro 43 camera with a sensor only around half the size of full-frame, but that does mean it can be significantly smaller and lighter – something increasingly important to me as I get less able to carry heavy camera bags. And, vitally important today, it is a camera that has good weather protection.

I also had my Fuji X-T30 in my camera bag, with a 10-24 zoom fitted. Had I not rushed out I might have chosen a more suitable body and wide angle for use in wet weather. Neither that camera or lens are weather sealed (the more recent 10-24mm is) and for most of the day they stayed in my bag. I did take them out a couple of times when the rain had eased off, but hardly any of the pictures I took with them were usable.

Under the bridge light was low, but the Olympus has good image stablisation and the main problem was subject movement, as people shouted slogans, jumped up and down, banged drums and more. Being very crowded also meant people were often banging into me as I was working.

I also use small and light lenses – in the case the Olympus 14-150mm F4-5.6 – equivalent to 28-300mm on full frame, going from a decent but not extreme wide-angle to a long telephoto. Its a small, light and incredibly versatile lens, but not one at its best in low light with its rather small aperture.

I started off working with the lens on the P setting, the programme choosing suitable shutter speed and aperture – with the lens wide open and shutter speeds of around 1/15 to 1/25 second. But I soon realised to stop action I would need a faster speed and switched to manual, deliberating underexposing at 1/100th second, f5.0 and at ISO 3200. The RAW images were dark but I knew that I could get Lightroom to make them look fine – if sometimes lacking in shadow detail.

Eventually people began to move out into the rain and march and I went with them, holding my camera under my jacket and only taking it out quickly to take pictures. I looked in my bag for the chamois leather I usually hold to dry and hold in front of the lens filter and it wasn’t there – I’d left it back home in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing when it last rained while I was taking pictures. I had to make do with a handkerchief instead, giving the protective filter a quick wipe before each exposure.

Outside it was a little brighter and I was able to increase the shutter speed to something more sensible, and was using manual settings of 1/160 f5.6 with auto-ISO giving me correct exposure. I was mainly working at the wider focal lengths of the lens and f5.6 gave me enough depth of field.

I hadn’t got out my umbrella, but of course many others were carrying them to keep dry. I find it hard to work with one hand while holding an umbrella in the other. But other people’s umbrellas were a little of a nuisance, with water often pouring from them onto me as I took pictures, adding to the effect of the rain.

So I was getting increasing wet – and soon retreated to the sheltered area under the bridge where different groups were now coming through. Keeping close to the end of the sheltered area I was able to keep working at the same settings, with the ISO now 3200.

London, UK. 19 July 2025. Stephen Kapos and another holocaust survivor on the march.

After a while I went out into the wet again – the rain had eased off slightly, and took more pictures. Then I noticed the banner for the Jewish holocaust survivors and their descendants and went over to greet Stephen Kapos, photograph him and another survivor as they set off on the march.

Shortly after I decided I would move to Westminster Bridge to take pictures of the marchers with the Houses of Parliament in the background, and walked as quickly as I could to there. Crowds of marchers and tourists watching the march slowed my progress somewhat.

The bridge is open to light and I was now using 1/250 second, but still with the Olympus lens at its wide-angle lens there was no need to stop down and I was working at around ISO 640.

I think around half of the march had gone over the bridge before I got there and I stayed taking pictures around halfway across the bridge for around half an hour, only leaving when I could see the end of the march coming on to the bridge. Fortunately the rain had eased off, but I was still getting wet.

I then hurried taking a short cut to get to Waterloo Bridge, taking just a few pictures where hurried past the march again on York Road. I took more photographs as people came onto Waterloo Bridge and then saw that a large group had stopped in the shelter underneath the railyway bridge and were having a spirited protest there – so I went to photograph them. When they marched off I went with them to Waterloo Bridge.

I looked at my watch. I had thought about taking the tube to Westminster and then going to photograph the rally in Whitehall, but decided it was perhaps too late to bother. I’d taken a lot of photographs and was rather wet and also hungry and decided it was time to go home.

I went to Waterloo and got on a train. Eventually, 15 minutes late, it decided to leave, and with a few stoppages at signals got me home around 25 minutes later than it should. Fortunately I’d packed some sandwiches and was able to eat them sitting at Waterloo, though the view wasn’t interesting. I’d edited and filed my pictures by the time Linda arrived home.

More pictures on Alamy and Facebook.

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Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – 2018

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14 – Yarl’s Wood immigration prison, near Bedford

The protest outside Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre on Saturday 14th July 2018 was the fourteenth on the remote site built on a wartime air base organised by Movement for Justice, although I had been covering protests in and around London calling for the closure of this and the other immigrant prisons for over 10 years.

I’d been at most of the previous thirteen at the site, although I had missed the first, largely because of transport problems – living outside London it wasn’t practical for me to travel on one of the coaches organised from London. In July 2018 I came with my bike on the train to Bedford and then cycled the 5 hilly miles to the event.

This protest was the smallest of them all I had attended there, with only a little over a hundred protesters. Many of those present had themselves been held for some time in this or other detention centres.

Yarl’s Wood was being used to hold women and a few families, and previous protests had been widely supported by other groups including many feminist groups, who on this occasion stayed away. Later some other groups organised protests but on a smaller scale than the previous protests.

*and through a gate into the field next to the detention centre*

A woman who had been part of Movement for Justice and active in earlier protests here had left the group, complaining bitterly about the way the group had treated her. She had received widespread support including from some other former members leading to many boycotting this protest. I knew both her and others in MfJ and commented: “However justified her personal complaint, it revealed little if anything about the group that was not already public knowledge, and MfJ has played a major role in protests against our racist immigration detention system, and still seems to be supported by the former detainees.”

You can read about that public knowlege of MfJ on Wikipedia and on the complaints on the “Speak The Plain Truth” blog. I was saddened by the dispute but more so at the effect it had in weakening this and related campaigns – and I had never had any illusions about the nature of the organisation which I had first met in the 1990s.

*A woman looks out at the protesters who were obviously welcomed*

The protest followed the usual pattern, meeting on the public highway and, after a rally there marching a mile or so along a public footpath to a field next to the prison and overlooking a part of the site across a 20 foot high metal fence.

*Others hold messages in the windows which only open a narrow slit*

The lower 10ft of the fence is solid metal sheeting but the upper 10ft is a thick metal gauze (out of focus in the picture above.) Standing back on a slope I could see women held inside greeting the protesters. Guards inside had apparently tried to keep them away from the windows – even enticing them to another part of the building with offers of free ice-cream!

They could hear the protest and know that there were people outside who supported them, and some inside were able to speak to us over a mobile phone link. Some of those who spoke outside were able to greet friends still inside – some are held for long periods, with one released a day under three years.

*Mabel had spent 3 years inside and knew many of those still held there*

Most asylum seekers are genuine and are eventually released, but the Home Office has long appeared to have a policy of putting as many hurdles as possible in their way, often demanding records that are impossible for the detainees to provide – a similar tactic to that used in the Windrush scandal. Many were deported under illegal “fast-track” procedures – and MfJ has also managed to take legal action along with others to stop some individuals being deported.

*Between speeches many banged on the fence to make a great deal of noise*

Most of our legal system is based on the principle that people are innocent until they are tried and proven guilty. But our asylum system works in the opposite way, assuming claims are fraudulent and demanding that asylum seekers prove they are genuine.

It was hot in the sun and I got tired. The protest was still continuing as I got on my bike to ride back to Bedford station.

More pictures from Saturday 14th July 2018 at Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 14.

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Battersea, Jesus, Bonkers & Peckham – 2008

Battersea, Jesus, Bonkers & Peckham: On Saturday 19 July 2008 I began my day at an open day at Battersea Power Station by developers proposing a comprehensive redevelopment before photographing the Jesus Army marching along Piccadilly and, going on to Camberwell Green for Bonkersfest and a brief visit to I Love Peckham.

Battersea Power Station

Battersea, Jesus, Bonkers & Peckham - 2008

Developers Real Estate Opportunities had bought the site for around £400 million and were showing the latest development of their plans for it to the public. These then involved re-building the chimneys and filling the space around with various buildings including an eco-dome and a 980ft eco-tower which dwarfed the power station – and which London Mayor Boris Johnson described as an “inverted toilet-roll holder”. You can see it in my photograph of their model on My London Diary, and to be fair I think it perhaps looks more like some high-tech lavatory brush.

This tower was soon dropped from the scheme which was approved in 2010 but building never started. The only aspect of the scheme which did eventually get built was the Northern Line extension from Kennington, partly because of a £100 million contribution from the sale of the site to a Malaysian consortium in 2012 – who ten years later opened the power station building to the public.

The central turbine hall had been open to the elements since the late 1980s when the roof was removed to lift out the machinery.

Local organisations had been formed in the 1980s to oppose unsuitable development and were then still active and asking questions about the proposals. They were concerned both about the loss of the power station as an iconic landmark and also the lack of affordable housing and facilities of any use to local people in the plans. The web site I linked to in 2008 is no longer active and the domain is for sale.

More on My London Diary at Battersea Power Station.

Jesus Army Marches on London – Piccadilly

The Jesus Army describes itself as “an evangelical Christian Church with a charismatic emphasis” while others have labelled it as a sect or a cult. There are certainly ex-members who talk openly about it, and particularly about leaving it as a traumatic experience, while others simply feel that they could not personally give the level of commitment it requires of them.

I found their march through London a dispiriting event, too uniform in many ways and I soon found it depressing to photograph. But as I told the woman who came out of the crowd passing by to hug me, “Jesus loves you too, sister” although I’m sure the guy I’ve read about in the gospels would have had no truck with this organisation. London Transport might have a problem with their logo [on some t-shirts] too!

Jesus Army Marches on London

Bonkersfest – Camberwell Green

Creative Routes, an interdisciplinary arts organisation run by and for those who have survived the mental health system and mental distress, organise the annual Bonkersfest as “a showcase of mad creativity.”

I wasn’t greatly impressed by what I saw happening this year, and left after taking a few pictures, including those of “some enterprising women were making the most of the occasion by organising a yard sale” in front of Brighton House on the edge of the green and a small memorial which had been unveiled in 2007 to the Wright family and four others killed by a direct bomb hit on the shelter here on the afternoon of 17th September 1940.

They had taken shelter while celebrating the wedding of Sidney and Patricia Wright. Bride and groom, Sidney’s parents and five sisters were among the 13 who were killed.

Bonkersfest

I Love Peckham – Peckham Square

There is an energy about Peckham that I really do like, and some of it was on display here, watched by a small crowd including the Mayor of Southwark, Councillor Eliza Mann – in pink.

There were a few things going on for me to photograph, and clearly there had been various other mainly art-related activities by local people, particularly children in the week of the festival, but it seemed to have attracted rather less interest than the previous year when I had photographer the march of the human rights jukebox.

Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco – 2017

Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco: On Saturday 15th July 2017 a rally and march in Whitechapel follow five days of strike by cleaners and porters at the Royal London Hospital and the other East London hospitals in the Barts NHS Trust – Mile End Hospital, Newham University Hospital, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Whipps Cross University Hospital.

Cleaning, portering, laundry, cleaning and security services were outsourced to Serco in 2017 and the workers involved immediately found their conditions being adversely affected. Serco’s first action was to write to them telling they were no longer allowed paid tea breaks; the workers sat in the canteen and refused to move before these were re-instated. But they accused Serco of increasing stress and workload with a climate of bullying, intimidation and fear and a failure to set up procedures for reporting problems with facilities and other issues.

When Serco refused a Unite claim for 30p per hour in line with inflation and cost of living increases in London the workers voted 99% in favour of strike action. Serco illegally brought in poorly trained agency workers to replace them and on the strike days conditions became unsanitary and many patients did not get hot meals.

Barts Trust had put these services out to tender to save money they needed to pay out £2.4million a week because of a disastrous PFI contract made under New Labour. Although It had provided a much-needed new hospital completed in 2016 but with two floors Barts didn’t have the money to fit out, it left them paying these huge sums long into the future. But Barts were attempting to save money at the expense of their workers and endangering patients.

The protest began on the busy street outside the old Royal London buildings but there were soon too many for the pavement here and we moved around to the side of the hospital for a rally, where speakers including Gail Cartmel of Unite, John McDonnell, then Shadow Chancellor and Unite pickets and other trade unionists including Victor Ramirez of United Voices of the World who spoke forcefully in Spanish – the first language of many of the cleaners – spoke from a balcony above the crowd – and I was able to take some pictures. Some brought greetings and support from other unions.

Serco employ mainly migrant workers in other public sector workplaces as well as running immigration prisons such as Yarl’s Wood where migrant women and families are daily repressed and subject to physical and sexual abuse and some had come to support the Barts workers and also to protest against their activities elsewhere.

Eventually the marchers formed up behind the banner and made there way along Mile End Road to another rally in a small park close to Mile End Hospital, where there were a few more speakers before we all dispersed.

Back in 2003 I’d spent time in several hospitals and had experienced a clear difference between the standards of cleaning and food between those with contracted out cleaners who were allowed insufficient time to clean the wards and one where the cleaners were still a part of the hospital team. It was the difference between dirt and used needles under my bed and a spotless shiny floor.

Protests continued at Barts and in 2023 Serco withdrew early from the contract. Both Unite and Unison claimed victory for the decision by Barts to directly employ the workers under the same conditions as other existing staff.

Labour in opposition were clearly opposed to outsourcing particularly in the public services and promising to outlaw it, but the Employment Rights Bill Implementation Roadmap published this month seems to have drawn back from the earlier promise and contains no explicit reference to outsourcing.

I was pleased with the photographs I had been able to make at the event and as well as the few here there are many more you can see on My London Diary at Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco.

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Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis – 2012

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis: Saturday 14th July 2012 was another day I spent travelling to protests around London. On the Holloway Road Harringey Private Tenants Action Group protested against letting agents who take hundreds of pounds from people looking for homes but do nopthing for them, PETA marched from Waterloo to Marble Arch against bears being killed to make busbys for the guards, a protest at the Bahraini embassy in Belgrave Square against killing and jailing of political prisones. Finally I went to John Lewis in Oxford Street where cleaners were calling to be recognised as partners in the business and to be paid the London Living Wage.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam – Drivers & Norris, Holloway Rd

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis - 2012

I photographed protesters standing in the rain outside letting agents Drivers & Norris on Holloway Road, condemning them for taking over £300 from home seekers and providing nothing return but refusing to return the payment.

Harringey Private Tenants Action Group stated:

Agency ‘fees’, reference ‘checks’, admin ‘fees’, leaving ‘fees’ are all costs that have been created over the past few years by and for Letting Agents like Drivers and Norris, to increase their profits and exploit the basic nee of tenants to find a home. We, as private tenants, will not accept this anymore. We have a right to really affordable, secure and decent housing just like anyone else.

Police came and tried to get the protesters to end their protest, claiming it might distract drivers on the busy main road. The protesters told the police firmly that they were simply trying to suppress lawful protest and if they considered there was any real danger they should divert traffic from the area and that instead of wasting police time here they should be investigating the Drivers & Norris scam rather than harassing protesters.

I commented that there was no real reason for any police presence as there was “unlikely to be any breach of the peace. But I suppose it was an easy number to drink tea in the estate agents“.

On My London Diary I pointed out that agents had profited enormously from high property prices in London, now well above what people on average or lower wages can afford, and that successive governments had weakened the security of private tenants and cut the provision of social housing creating the current dire housing problems. Many new developments were also being aimed at overseas investors to enable them to take advantage of the rapidly rising property prices while often leaving the properties empty.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam

PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March – Marble Arch

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had stated:

It can take the entire hide of one Canadian black bear to make just one cap. Bears can be shot several times before they die, and some escape and bleed to death. In some Canadian provinces, there are no restrictions on the shooting of mothers who have nursing cubs, leading to the slaughter of entire families during hunts.

We need to send a clear message to the Ministry of Defence that the slaughter of wildlife for The Queen’s Guards’ ceremonial headwear is unacceptable and that the time has come for them to go fake for the bears’ sake.

I’d called in to the start of the march next to the Shell Centre at Waterloo before going to Haringey, but hadn’t taken any pictures, deciding instead to meet them at the end of the march. It took them much longer than they had expected and I’d almost given up when I saw them coming up Park Lane and rushed to take pictures.

It was perhaps a too regimented protest with so many identical placards and bear masks provided by PETA which made it difficult for me to find anything really different to photograph.

They had also been asked to wear black clothes, but at least had been told to bring their own teddy bears.

More pictures at PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March

Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners – Bahraini embassy, Belgrave Square

The Al Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since the late 1700s and in 1820 made a treaty with Britain – since renewed on various occasions, becoming a British protectorate. The country became independent in 1971 – when the USA took over what had previously been the Royal Navy base – and the family is still in power.

Various attempts to extend democracy in Bahrain led to little change in the ruling family’s control and to an uprising in 2011 with large protests and a brutal crackdown with many protesters tortured and around 120 killed. Mohammad Rahdi Mahfoodh was one of the ‘martyrs’ and was hit by a police vehicle and died from deliberate lack of care in a military hospital and mourners at his funeral were attacked.

Speakers at the protest including Jeremy Corbyn were there and people were still arriving for the protest opposite the embassy which was just beginning when I had to leave for my next event.

More pictures at Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners.

John Lewis cleaners step up protest – Oxford St

The flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street is cleaned by people employed by Integrated Cleaning Management (ICM) who employ them on far worse conditions than if they were directly employed by John Lewis, and on the legal minimum wage, then more than two pounds an hour below the London living wage.

Unlike others who work in the store the cleaners do not take part in the bonus scheme in which John Lewis shares its profits with its workers (the ‘partners’) although their work is essential to the operation of the store.

The cleaners also complain about poor management by ICM with discrimination and abuse at work, and are currently threatened by a 50% cut in their hours.

They had been long campaigning for equality of treatment and to be directly employed by the company they actually work for – John Lewis – and had held a one-day strike the previous day which had ended with a rally and a brief invasion of the store, though had caused no damage. But this perhaps explained the large numbers of police present, with small groups around each of the shop entrances.

John Lewis senior management watched the noisy but peaceful protest from inside the store. The management were still refusing to talk with the cleaners Union, and another one-day strike was caused the following week.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at John Lewis cleaners step up protest.

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Anti-Racist & Migrant Rights reclaim Pride – 2017

Anti-Racist & Migrant Rights reclaim Pride: On Saturday 8th July 2017 Pride stewards stopped the Migrants Rights and Anti-Racist Bloc from joining the Pride procession in London.

Instead the Bloc reclaimed Pride as protest, gate-crashing the route at Oxford Circus and marching in front of the official parade along the route lined by cheering crowds.

Pride had changed drastically over the years since I first photographed it in the 1990s and had “degenerated from the original protest into a corporate glitterfest led by major corporations which use it as ‘pinkwashing’ to enhance their reputation.” It now “includes groups such as the Home Office, arms companies and police whose activities harm gay people in the UK and across the world.”

This year, 2025, there are reports that much of the corporate money behind these changes has dried up as companies and major organisations are finding times harder, and Prides in towns and cities are feeling the pinch, with at least one having had to cancel this year’s event.

In 2017 the organisers had decided to “strictly limit those who could take part in the procession, with only those who had applied to take part officially and been granted permission being issued with armbands allowing their members to go on the route.”

Until 2017, the event had been open to “open to anyone who wished to take part, who could join on towards the end of the parade as the Migrant Rights and Anti-Racist bloc did” in 2016.

I’d met the Bloc as it gathered on Oxford Street and walked with them as they made their way to Oxford Circus where they had hoped to walk up Regent Street towards the back of the procession. Stewards and police tried to stop them as they marched through a gap between police vans and lifted barriers to make their way into Oxford Circus but failed.

They were now just ahead of the official head of the procession but the stewards were adamant that they could not walk up Regent Street towards the rear where they wished to join it, and with the help of police were able to prevent them.

The Anti-Racist & Migrant Pride bloc were refused entry to the official march but were on the road in front of it and were not going to move out of the way.

Some minutes of threats of arrest and negotiations followed, but the Bloc stayed on the road preventing the Pride parade from starting. Eventually police decided to let the bloc march along the route in front of the main march – which otherwise was unable to move.

They got a lot of cheers from the waiting crowds – and some puzzlement – but a lot of people took photographs as they went past, and a few managed to come and join them.

They let off smoke flares as they went down Regent St, in the lead the 2017 Pride march in London, and as I walked with them I was able to photograph many of the people cheering them on.

They marched to the end of the route in Whitehall, where most then left the road, but a group of No Pride in War protesters lay down on the road. By now the head of the official parade had reached Trafalgar Square, but had to stop there and wait while police slowly tried to get them to move.

After around 15 minutes the people lying “on the floor got up after police threatened them with arrest if they stayed.“

“They had made a very effective protest and had reclaimed Pride as protest. But somehow all of the mainstream media covering the event managed to avoid seeing several hundred people leading the protest and setting off flares.” Our mass media operate a very effective censorship on behalf of the establishment.

It was hard to choose just a few pictures from the event for this post – there are so many more on My London Diary as well as more about the event – from which the quotes above come – at Anti-Racist & Migrant Rights reclaim Pride.

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Pride in 2002

Pride in 2002: Back in 2002 Pride was still in black and white, or at least the pictures I posted on My London Diary were, as were those I took to the picture library I was then working with. They still only worked with black and white prints and colour transparencies and I was working with colour negative.

It would have been possible for me to convert those colour negatives into transparencies, but it wasn’t worth the time and expense in the hope of possible sales to do so.

For my personal use and to exhibit work I could make colour prints – and I had crammed a colour processor into my darkroom so could feed the exposed Fuji paper in at one end, shut the lid and let the machine do the rest before I took the print to the print washer.

I had a smart colour enlarger with a linked probe that at least almost got the necessary filtration somewhere close, though I always ran at least one test strip – and often 2 or 3 – before making the final print. Making prints was a rather tedious business working in near total darkness with just a very, very dim sodium light.

The way forward was obviously to scan negative film to provide digital files, but in 2002 the equipment I had was fairly primitive and the scans I produced in 2002 looked rather poor, which is probably why I only posted the black and white images on My London Diary at the time. Scanning the black and white 10×8″ press prints gave rather better results.

Back then I only wrote two short paragraphs about the event in My London Diary – and here they are in full (with the usual corrections):

July started for me with the annual Pride march. This year it was probably the smallest I’ve attended, and was a rather sad event compared to previous years.

It was enlivened a little by some visitors from Brazil, but the whole thing seems to be more of a commercial event now. Much less fun and joy.

For this post I’ve revisited some of those 2002 scans and improved them significantly with the aid of some smart sharpening and other minor adjustments to post here. You can click on these colour images to see them larger.

Most of the colour images are of the same subjects as I took in black and white, and at least for some I still prefer them in black and white. But generally I think the event is best seen in colour.

More black and white pictures start here on My London Diary.

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Tories Out March – 2017

Tories Out March: Around 20,000 met outside the BBC in Portland Place on Saturday 1st July 2017 to march to Parliament Square demanding an end to the Tory government under Theresa May.

Most were supporters of the Labour Party and in particular of the then Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had narrowly failed to win the recent general election, defeated not by the Tories but by sabotage within the party by the Labour right who controlled much of the party mechanism.

The Labour right had been shocked and appalled by Corbyn’s victory in the leadership contest and had done everything they could since then to get rid of him, with orchestrated cabinet resignations and the stoking up of false antisemitism claims combined with behind the scenes actions to ensure the failure of his attempts to improve the way the party tried to deal with such allegations.

We had seen on television the relief felt by some of them as the results came out when after it had begun to look as if Labour had a chance of victory it became clear that the Tories would hang on to a small majority. The last thing they had wanted had been for Corbyn to have won.

Theresa May had scraped in but had then had to bribe the DUP, a deeply bigoted party with links to Loyalist terrorists to give her a working majority.

Her austerity policies had been largely rejected by the electorate and the recent Grenfell Tower disaster had underlined the toxic effects of Tory failure and privatisation of building regulations and inspection and a total lack of concern for the lives of ordinary people.

*A woman poses as Theresa May with a poster ‘We cut 10,000 fire fighter jobs because your lives are worthless’*

The protesters – and much of the nation – knew that the Tories had proved themselves unfit to govern. The marchers and the people wanted a decent health service, education system, housing, jobs and better living standards for all.

But not all were happy with Labour policies either, although the great majority of them joined in with the sycophantic chanting in support of Corbyn. But there were significant groups who were also protesting against the housing polices being pursued by Labour-dominated local authorities, particularly in London Boroughs including Labour Southwark, Lambeth, Haringey and Newham.

Huge areas of council housing had been demolished or were under threat of demolition largely for the benefit of developers, selling off publicly owned land for the profit of the developers and disregarding the needs of the residents and of the huge numbers on council housing lists.

*Class War protest the devastation of the estates where the poor live*

One example was “the Heygate at Elephant & Castle, a well-designed estate deliberately run down by the council over at least a decade, but still in remarkably good condition. It cost Southwark Council over £51m to empty the estate of tenants and leaseholders, and in 2007 had valued the site at £150m, yet they sold it for a third of its market value to developers Lendlease for £50m.”

The estate had been home to over a thousand council tenants and another 189 leaseholders. Around 500 tenants were promised they would be able to return to to homes on the new estate – but there were just 82 social rented homes. The leaseholders were given compensation of around a third of the price of comparable homes in the new Elephant Park – and most had to move miles away to find property they could afford.

In 2017 Haringey was making plans to demolish around 5,000 council homes, roughly a third of its entire stock under what was known as the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) with developers Lendlease. Plans here prompted a revolt in the local area led by Labour members in the pro-Corbyn Momentum group who gained control of the council in 2018 and scrapped the HDV.

*A giant-headed Theresa May outside Downing St*

Among those leading protests against Labour’s Housing Policy was Class War who have been active in many of the protests over housing. I photographed them having a little fun with the march stewards, but unfortunately missed the scene at the rally in Parliament Square when Lisa Mckenzie confronted both Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn asking them the simple question ‘When are you going to stop Labour councils socially cleansing people out of London?’.

*Class War lift up their banner in front of a police officer videoing protesters*

Both men ignored her, walking past without pausing to answer and “the small Class War group was surrounded by Labour Party supporters holding up placards to hide them and idiotically chanting ‘Oh, Je-re-my Cor-byn! Oh, Je-re-my Cor-byn!’. But eight years later, now in power led by Starmer and Angela Rayner, Labour seems determined to make much the same mistakes in its housing policy.

More at Tories Out March.

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Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed – 2015

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed: The Independent Living fund which enabled many disabled people to live useful and fulfilling lives ended on Tuesday 30th June 2015. After photographing the delivery of petitions ouside Downing St against its ending I went to Poplar for another visit to Robin Hood Gardens where a second attempt to get these important buildings listed had recently been rejected.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony – Downing St to Old Palace Yard

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed - 2015 — *John Kelly as Schimmel, the equine star and proud battle horse of the Threepenny Opera*

On the day the Independent Living Fund closed, campaigners for independent living for disabled people led by DPAC, Disabled People Against Cuts, presented petitions to the Prime Minister before marching behind the Threepenny Opera horse to Parliament to continue their fight for dignity and equality.

At the gates of Downing Street protesters wrote slogans on incontinence pads which losing the support means some will be forced to use. Paula Peters had this message for Iain Duncan Smith: ‘I want dignity – I want to be treated as a human – You wear one of these I. D. S. They are awful‘.’

As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions IDS was responsible for the decision to end this support, which had been introduced in 1988 to enable disabled people to live in their own homes and to pay for care, and in particular to employ personal assistants.

They had brought a petition with over 25,000 signatures to hand in and after this they marched to a rally at Old Palace Yard at the end of which a wreath with the message’s ‘RIP ILF’ was laid.

The government lost a legal challenge over ending the ILF but still closed it for new claimants on 1st July 2015. The responsibility for existing claimants in England was passed from the Independent Living Fund to local authorities who became responsible for care provision and all assessments. Support which had been well-administered became a post-code lottery.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony.

Robin Hood Gardens – Poplar

*The end of the street in the sky – and it looks like the end for Robin Hood Gardens*

Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972 was a nationally important and internationally recognised work of Brutalist architecture. Built for the London County Council with 213 flats, it was designed as two slab blocks, the east 10 storeys and the west 7 storeys on a difficult site next to one of London’s busiest roads – the Blackwall Tunnel Approach – but with a large and peaceful green inside.

*There appears to be a forest between the two slabs of Robin Hood Gardens*

It was very solidly built and the flats were generous, with wide ‘streets in the sky’ outside. Inside the flats next to the roadway you could hardly hear the traffic.

*The East block seen from the decorated wall above the Blackwall Tunnel entrance*

In 1965 ownership passed to Tower Hamlets Council who neglected the site, allowed the green to become overgrown and later actively demonised the estate and housed many problem families there.

*Two tall walls of flats protecting a large open garden area*

Following a visit there in 2009 on an Open House Day tour led by Bridget Cherry I commented it was “in many respects a fine solution to a difficult site with some superb landscaping in the large interior space. Deliberately encouraged to ruin by overcrowding and use as a sink estate by Tower Hamlets, it is now in a sorry state, but the decision not to list it is unfathomable (or perhaps simply political.) I hope the campaign to save it from demolition succeeds. “

Most of the flats in the East block were then still occupied. They are large and desirable properties, but often have been used to house difficult residents.

During the New Labour government the listing advisory committee of English Heritage wanted to list it, but were overruled by the politicians, with then Minister of Culture Andy Burnham issuing a certificate of immunity in 2009 and allowing the local Labour Tower Hamlets council to proceed with plans for demolition and redevelopment of the area. But for the moment it was saved by the financial difficulties.

*A tall concrete wall protected the flats from the traffic on Cotton St*

The immunity expired in 2014 and a further attempt, backed by almost every well-known British architect, was then made to get it listed, but was rejected by Historic England, the body that now control listings.

Parking areas on the outside of each of the two blocks

An open letter signed by Richard Rogers and others stated:

"The buildings, which offer generously sized flats that could be refurbished, are of outstanding architectural quality and significant historic interest, and public appreciation and understanding of the value of Modernist architecture has grown over the past five years, making the case for listing stronger than ever."

Historic England went along with the local council’s views and judged that it “fails as a place for human beings to live“. This wasn’t the impression I got from talking to residents on my visits.

*The top street on the east block* – *the curve is from my fisheye lens*

The defects of this and other soundly built modern estates that have been demolished – such as the Heygate at Elephant & Castle in Southwark can generally be easily and relatively cheaply overcome by refurbishment – improved door security, lift maintenance, window replacement, non-combustible cladding etc. The true reasons for demolition are financial, driven by the profits of the developers and also the financial problems of local authorities.

*A large enclosed playground at the south end of the site*

Demolition of sound buildings like this with the expectation of many years of useful service should be criminal. It represents a huge wastage of resources and an incredible carbon footprint both in the actual demolition and also for the rebuilding. The west block was demolished in 2017-8. The east block took around nine months to demolish and this was only completed in March 2025.

More at Robin Hood Gardens.

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