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King’s Cross, Excel and a Musical Protest – 2005

King’s Cross, Excel and a Musical Protest: Like other posts in the early years of My London Diary the text and pictures from Saturday 26th November 2005 are rather hidden away and it isn’t always easy to connect pictures with text. And it had seemed at the time a good idea to write the texts all in lower case, which makes them rather difficult to read, so I now like to resurrect some of them occasionally in a more accessible manner, linking back to the original pages for more pictures than in these posts on >Re:PHOTO.

Kings Cross – never again!

King's Cross, Excel and a Musical Protest - 2005 — *Bob Crow (RMT), right, applauds a speaker*

As I walked up the escalator (yes, I was late again) at King’s Cross I remembered the interviews with those who had been caught there in the terrible fire, thinking how hard it would be to find the way out in smoke-filled darkness. Parts of the station still look a terrible mess, though that’s not unusual in our underground system.

Up at ground level was a joint trades union demonstration in memory of the fire, and to defend the safety rules which are currently under attack by management wanting to save costs. Kings Cross – Never Again! was address by a number of speakers including Mick Connolly, John Mcdonnell MP Jeremy Corbyn MP, Keith Norman (ASLEF), Matt Wrack (FBU), and Bob Crow (RMT), all worried by the threat to the public and those who work on the Underground or in rescue services.

Proper safety procedures are particularly vital when as well as accidental disasters such as the King’s Cross fire, the safety of the system is also threatened by deliberate terrorist attacks.

I’d hoped the event would end in time for me to get to a lecture at the ICA, but it was too late. I went that way just the same, getting off the tube at Charing Cross and walking down Whitehall to Westminster station for the Jubilee Line, past the Cenotaph, surrounded now by a low fence. It was still covered by the wreaths of poppies from earlier in the month, now partly covered by the falling leaves from the many London plane trees, another and in some ways more touching symbol of loss.

More pictures from Kings Cross – never again!

Excel and Victoria Dock

*Victoria Dock, Spillers Millennium Mills and Pontoon Dock, with new Riverside Flats in distance, Silvertown, London.*

It was an afternoon of low winter sun, and stormy showers, with impressive clouds in the wide open skies over the expanse of the Royal Docks, and some peculiar colours. The demonstration I’d gone to see was nowhere to be found when I arrived, and I wandered the dock estate marvelling in the views.

In particular the high-level bridge over the dock is one of new London’s more spectacular sights, and a fine viewing platform. Unlike the last time I visited, the lifts were working too. A small group of people with musical instruments began to gather on the top, but they turned out only to be a band coming for a photo session.

More pictures from Excel and Victoria Dock.

East London Against the Arms Trade

*Musicians from ‘East London Against the Arms Fair’ treat visitors to the Excel centre to a musical welcome*

I’d more or less given up and decided to go home at that point when in the distance I heard the brassy notes of the Red Flag, and made my way towards them. By the time I’d arrived at the entrance to the Excel Centre, they were into the Internationale, complete with new words for the occasion (except that no-one was singing them, and I didn’t fancy a solo role):

We are told that profit from the arms fair will
trickle down all over town,
But it’s killing our sisters and our brothers,
it’s their blood that is trickling down.

All people now rally!
No arms fair any place!
The Intenationale unites the human race!

Next came the Cutty Wren, a song from the Peasant’s Revolt, which took my mind back to Fobbing where I’d been ten days earlier.

The Excel centre has hosted several arms fairs which have attracted a number of protests from local groups. One of the local papers, the Newham Recorder, found in a poll that 79% of local residents oppose them, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone has also voiced his opposition. Further arms fairs are already booked for 2007, 2009 and 2011 and the musical protest was one of a number of actions attempting to get the Excel centre to cancel these future events.

More pictures at East London Against the Arms Trade.

And I returned in those later years to photograph many protests agains the arms fairs – and you can find pictures of them on various September pages on My London Dairy.

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Sheds, Turnpike Lane, Saris & Shops – 1989

Sheds, Turnpike Lane, Saris & Shops: You can read the previous post on my walk which began on Sunday 12th November 1989 at Salvation, Statuettes, a Sexy Model, Spendel & More where it starts halfway down the page. It had begun in Walthamstow where I made about a dozen images before catching the tube and returning to Turnpike Lane where I had ended my walk the week before.

*Carr Portable Buildings, 66-68, Hoe St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11c-44*

On my way to Walthamstow Central I took this picture on Hoe Street on the corner of Gaywood Road where sheds like these were still being sold by Carr Portable Buildings Ltd until around 2008 and a couple of years later by Garden Design Services, though the site gradually became empty and was looking derelict by 2014. Two floors of flats above a ground floor shop built in 2018 now occupy the site.

I liked the horizontal divide with its upper level of sheds and plant containers which seemed to be a new ground level above the lower sheds.

*Turnpike Lane Station, Turnpike Lane, Haringey 1989 89-11c-36*

On reaching Turnpike Lane I spent some time wandering around the station and bus station area. admiring the 1930s architecture designed by Charles Holden.

The station opened in 1932 and was the first Underground station in Tottenham. Previously the line had ended at Finsbury Park with further extension north having been vetoed by what had become the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). But the LNER lacked the funds to introduce better services on their lines and a campaign by residents of North London together with the Underground in the 1920s eventually led to the extension to Cockfosters being approved by parliament in 1930.

At Turnpike Lane Station the development also included a tram terminus – later used as a bus station and a number of shops. I think it is probably the largest of Holden’s many fine station projects on the line.

*Saris, Shop Window, Westbury Ave, Turnpike Lane, Haringey 1989 89-11c-33*

One of the many shops in the area around Turnpike Lane station which caught my attention particularly for the stylized ‘hair’ and eyes of the three mannequins iin the shop window. I covered the window glass with my hands and arms to prevent reflections but the chimneys of the street opposite intrude slightly at top centre and there is a strip of light at far right. I quite like the effect.

*Shop window, High Rd, Wood Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-34*

This was a strange shop display and one which I still cannot quite understand, with at least one ghostly pillar as well as those more obvious ones, with the foreground brightly lit one having a dim but otherwise identical repeat to its left. It’s hard to tell from my image what the goods on display are, some looking like buttons and others like earrings and jewellery. wit at extreme right perhaps some clothing.

*Scales SuperMarket, West Green Rd, West Green, Haringey 1989 89-11c-22*

A rather more down-market shop on West Green Lane a little to the south in Duckett’s Green – one of the other names considered when Turnpike Lane station was in planning.

I particularly liked the hand=drawn partly 3D lettering of the shop sign. Clearly this shop has been visited by supporters of Newcastle United – probably lost on their way to or from White Hart Lane.

There are still many small shops along West Green Road, but I think this particular one has gone. I didn’t walk far down West Green Road before returning to Turnpike Lane where this short walk ended as I had a meeting to attend.

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Students Protest Fees & Cuts – 2010

Students Protest Fees & Cuts: On Wednesday 24th November 2010 several thousand students set out to march from the University of London Union in Malet St through Whitehall and then on to the Lib-Dem HQ in Cowley St.

The protest was called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and Revolution and was a part of a national day of action after the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding had advocated a huge increase in tuition fees, allowing them to rise from £3,290 to £9000 a year – £27,000 for a three year course. The increase was approved by Parliament in December 2010.

Living costs were also increasing and by 2010 a typical student in London needed around £5000 each year. With the increase in fees that meant those students who relied on loans would end their three year course owing over £40,000.

The government had also anoounced the previous month that the Educational Maintenance Allowances for 16-18 year old students in full-time education from low income homes were to be scrapped. Many youger students from schools and colleges had come to the protest along with those in higher education.

Universities were also being hit by the coalition government cuts in funding for arts and humanities courses. Many departments were being shut down, greatly reducing the opportunities for students.

So there were many things for students (and anyone concerned about education) to be angry about, but the march had begun peacefully and most of those taking part were not out for trouble.

The students intended to march to Trafalgar Square and then down Whitehall past Downing Street and on through Parliament Square to the Liberal-Democrat headquarters in Cowley Street, a short distance to the south.

But it soon became clear that the Metropolitan Police had other ideas and were out to confront the students and stop the march. When the marchers turned into Aldwych a line of police stopped them continuing.

The students then surged down towards Temple Station and marched west along the Embankment, then up a side street onto Strand and on to Trafalgar Square. On Whitehall and met another group of students who had started their march at Trafalgar Square but had been stopped by police just before reaching Parliament Square.

“There were now perhaps 5000 students milling around in a small area, some chanting slogans (rather than the rather ordinary ones about education and cuts many favoured “Tory Scum, Here we come” and a long drawn out ‘David Camero-o-on’, answered by the crowd with ‘F**k off back to Eton’) but most just standing around waiting for something to happen. “

“Police had thoughtfully left an old police van as a plaything for the protesters outside the treasury. Perhaps because the tread on its tyres was so worn it would have been a traffic offence to move it – and it looked very unlikely to pass an MOT.”

“The stewards told the protesters it was obviously a plant, and certainly the press I talked to were convinced. This didn’t stop a few masked guys attacking it (and I was threatened with having my camera smashed for photographing them doing so) despite a number of students who tried to prevent them, some linking hands and forming a chain round it. It was possibly the same small group who earlier had smashed the glass on the bus stop across the road.

A few protesters managed to burst through the police lines, but most of those there “were probably well-behaved students on their first demonstration, and although the police line was breached a number of times most of them just stood around wondering what to do rather than following them.”

On My London Diary I try to describe the confused and dangerous situation that developed as police began threatening protesters and some making rather indiscriminate use of their batons. I was shocked at the police tactics which appeared designed to create public disorder by kettling – and a small minority of the students rose to the bait. The great majority of the students had come for a peaceful march and rally and to exercise their democratic right to protest, but the police, almost certainly under political pressure, had decided not to allow that.

Eventually I’d had enough and it seemed that the protesters would be kettled for some hours, and I decided to leave in order to file my pictures and story.

Students Protest Fees & Cuts

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Salvation, Statuettes, a Sexy Model, Spendel & More – 1989

Salvation, Statuettes, a Sexy Model, Spendel & More: Continuing my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 from Green Lanes where the previous post, Stroud Green to Grand Parade had ended I walked some way down West Green Road before taking my next picture.

*Salvation Army, 2, Terront Rd, West Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-16*

The Salvation Army building is still there on Terront Road though I think no longer in use by them. I was clearly attracted both by this building and by the car on a trailer to its left, rather dramatically marked with large Xs.

I wondered if this car might be connected with the clearance of the Harringay stadium site, about a kilometre away. Stock car racing and Banger racing were among the events held at Harringay Stadium from the 1950s on. The stadium had opened as Britain’s third greyhound racing stadium in 1927, adding speedway the following year. The stadium finally closed in 1987 and was acquired by Haringey council and some years later demolished for housing and a Sainsbury’s superstore.

It was only the 5th November so the Salvation Army were perhaps getting in rather early with advertising a Christmas Bazaar to be held on 18th Novemeber.

*Shop window, West Green Rd, West Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-62*

And perhaps this pair of Greek statuettes were the ideal Christmas Gift for someone, though I think it would have to be someone you didn’t like. But as you can tell from the price label they were quite small, and at £2.49 definitely a gift.

I decided not to make a great effort to correct the overall flare which renders their upper regions rather diffuse when making this digital copy from the original negative.

*Shop window, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11c-64*

My walk was coming to an end and I walked back towards Turnpike Lane station finding another shop window which caught my interest on Green Lanes. There was something unusually real about this heavily made-up mannequin, wig, pose, and clothing, a sexual energy whose spell was only really broken by the clearly visible joint on her lower left arm and a rather porcelain quality to the highlights. I think this was probably in the window of a shop selling wedding dresses.

*Spendel, Hairdresser, Langham Rd, Turnpike Lane, Haringey 1989 89-11c-66*

I took a number of pictures of this shopfront, which was I think part of the extensive station and bus station development. Most were in colour apart from this and a slightly tighter cropped black and white image. At least one of the colour images – also on Flickr – shows the the entire shopfront dominated at the top by the large word ‘HAIRDRESSER‘. In very small type at the top of the window it states ‘GENTS SALOON’ and scattered on the surface at the base of the windows in front of the shutters are boxes containing tubes of related products including Ingram shaving cream.

The window at left of the entrance contains two rather unhealthy looking pot plans and behind them is a poster for the pantomime Aladdin starring Michael Barrymore and Frank Bruno.

My walk on 5th November ended at Turnpike Lane, where I caught the Piccadilly Line to make my way towards home. But a week later I was back in the same area, returning first to Walthamstow – an easy journey on the Victoria Line before returning to Turnpike Road. I think I had gone back to Walthamstow to retake some colour images, hoping to find better light.

Cemetery, Queen's Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11c-52 — *Cemetery, Queen’s Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11c-52*

I’d photographed a large angel on my previous walk in the cemetery and this time I took a picture of a rather smaller one, but my main interest was in the shadows cast on a couple of the stones, one of my head and shoulders as I made the picture along with the fence and to the right a clear cross on a rather less clear fence shadow. I think I was probably standing outside the cemetery fence looking in.

Queen's Rd, Lansdowne Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11c-53 — *Shandar, Queen’s Rd, Lansdowne Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989 89-11c-53*

The Shandar Take Away Restaurant at 65 on the corner of Queen’s Road and Lansdowne Road had a colourful mural along its Lansdowne Road side, and most of the pictures I took of it were in colour, but I stood a little further away on Queen’s Road to make this picture including a van with an open rear door parked on the pavement in front of a shop on the opposite corner.

Shandar is a name used by a number of Indian restaurants, a Hindi word implying excellence or high quality, which could be translated as ‘Splendid’ or ‘Grand’.

More from my walk on 12th November in a later post.

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Budget, Mugabe & Turkish Gays 2017

Budget, Mugabe & Turkish Gays: Wednesday 22 November 2017 was Budget Day and as usual there were protests around Parliament, and I photographed people protesting about Brexit, housing, student fees and the NHS. Outside the Zibabwe Embassy there were people celebrating the resignation of President Mugabe, while people came to the Turkish Embassy in a protest against a ban on LGBTI cultural events in Ankara.

Budget Day Brexit Protests – Old Palace Yard

The usual Remainers had come to protest with some new Budget Day slogans, ‘What’s the Budget for Brexit’ and the punning ‘Brexit spreads Sheet Everywhere’, a reference to Chancellor Philip Hammond’s nickname ‘Spreadsheet Phil’. New independent analysis published in 2024 tells us that Brexit has cost the British economy almost £140 billion.

They had EU flags and also that curiously discreet sign of distress, the upside-down Union Jack (for pedants Union Flag). The opposing Brexiteers accused them of being unaware of which way up to fly the flag.

Political artist Kaya Mar joined them briefly hold his painting of the Chancellor sitting on a floating mine with his computer holding up a sinking Theresa May as the ship of Britain sinks in the background.

Budget Day Brexit Protests

Homes for All Budget and Others – Parliament Square

Housing campaigners from various groups had come to a protest called by ‘Homes For All‘ demanding the government commit to building more homes to be let at social rents. After a long rally in Parliament Square they marched briefly to Downing Street.

The housing crisis is worst for the poorest in society but almost all the schemes brought in by governments this century have been aimed at subsiding those on middle incomes to become home owners. As well as not building social housing there had been a failure to bring in the regulations needed to control the private rental sector to provide greater security of tenure, control rents and ensure properties are kept in habitable condition. Perhaps because many MPs are also landlords.

Only a programme that allows local authorities to borrow money and build home can deliver housing at a cost that those on lower incomes can afford to live in – and that still provide a good return on investments – they point out that by 2010-2011 councils were paying more than £700 million to government in surpluses from council housing.

As well as attacking the government’s record on housing they also blamed the Labour Party for allowing Labour councils to demolish council housing and combining with developers and housing associations to provide new housing at market prices, unaffordable so called “affordable’ properties and and high rents without long-term security of tenure.

They pointed out the need for government funding for necessary fire safety work to avoid another Grenfell disaster including the replacement of dangerous cladding on all tall blocks, the enforcement of fire regulations and a return to proper fire safety inspections which had been abandoned as unnecessary ‘red tape’.

New Labour and London Labour Councils were blamed for demolishing council housing and combining with developers and housing associations to provide new housing with a great reduction in properties at social rents, with homes for sale at market prices, unaffordable so called “affordable‘ properties and at high market rents without long-term security of tenure.

A speaker from Haringey told us the Labour council is giving away £2 billion of council property to a private developer who will build properties the current council tenants and leaseholders will not be able to afford – with a small amount of high-priced ‘affordable properties‘. Like on previous schemes he was confident the developers will get accountants to arrange the books and get them out of most of their obligations to include low-cost social housing. Opposition to the scheme led to some Labour councillors losing their seats and the plans being stopped, though the future remained unclear.

In College Green there were a few people with placards calling for greater funding for the NHS who would also have been disappointed by the budget. Some of them came to join the housing rally, as also did some who had come to protest against the cuts and student fees.

There was also a man with a bell and placards about public debt, though it wasn’t quite clear exactly why he thought ‘The End Is Nigh’.

More on My London Diary at Homes for All Budget protest.

Zimbabweans celebrate Mugabe’s resignation – Strand

Zimbabweans had come to the London embassy where they had been protesting every week for over 15 years to celebrate the resignation of President Mugabe.

But although there was much dancing and singing with joyful delight at his going they had no trust in his likely successor Emmerson Mnangagwa. Regular protests still continue at the Embassy and they have vowed they will continue until there are free and fair elections in Zimbabwe

Zimbabweans celebrate Mugabe’s resignation

Protest at Turkish LGBTI+ ban – Turkish Embassy

Protesters met at the Turkish Embassy in Belgrave Square to read a statement in solidarity with Turkish LGBTI+ people after Turkey last Sunday imposed an indefinite ban on all LGBTI+ cultural events in its capital, Ankara.

They say the ban is illegal, homophobic and transphobic and which they say risks criminalising LGBTI existence and endangering public safety and that it is based on an extremist Islamic morality and violates the Turkish constitution.

Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey since the last half of the century under the Ottoman Empire and under the modern Turkish Republic which came into existence in 1923.

Protest at Turkish LGBTI+ ban

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IWGB Protests to the Princess – 2017

IWGB Protests to the Princess: The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and supporters protested outside Senate House while University of London Chancellor Princess Anne was visiting on Foundation Day. They called for all workers in the university to be directly employed by the university and IWGB members in the security staff had held one of a series of one-day strikes.

Although many of those who were attending the event with the princess had to walk in past a noisy protest, she was brought in by another entrance, and although they marched around when they heard this was happening they missed seeing her. But she will certainly have heard the protest.

The protest was one in a long series by outsourced low paid staff at the University to gain the same conditions of employment as directly employed staff in what was known as the ‘tres cosas campaign’ – sick pay, pensions, holidays. They wanted to end the University outsourcing their jobs in the University to private companies who employ staff on far worse conditions and pay than those they employ directly.

The protesters say the use of outside contractors to employ staff is discriminatory as outsourced workers including security, cleaning and catering staff are predominantly migrant and BME workers and it results in them being on far worse terms and conditions than other staff and also subjected to harassment and bullying.

A fairly large crowd had come for the protest to support the out-sourced workers. Among them were students from the University of London, including students from the LSE who were campaigning for their cleaners to be properly treated and brought in house. They also included members of other trade unions including the UCU London Region, strikers from the Picturehouse cinemas and McStrike fast food workers demanding a living wage.

There were also speakers from other IWGB sector branches and Sandy Nicholl from SOAS Unison who has led a ten year fight there against out-sourcing. A samba band made sure the protest was heard both outside and inside the building so the princess will have been very aware of what was happening.

In 2020 the IWGB web site recorded that “After almost 10-years of fighting with the IWGB to be brought in-house, cleaners, porters, and security guards at University of London won their ‘tres cosas’ campaign in a historic victory. Workers fought tirelessly to achieve their demands, which were aided by the Senate House Boycott movement and the support of many students and staff across University of London.” I’m pleased to have been able in my small way to have helped the union to achieve this result.

But the IWGB went on to state “Although the University of London still refuses to recognise us, we continue to be the majority union at the university, representing all workers – from cleaners to professional services staff.” Under current unfair employment law employers can continue to recognise the larger and less effective trade unions rather than those who the workers chose as they are more effective in getting results such as the IWGB.

More text and pictures about the evening’s protest at IWGB protest London Uni outsourcing.

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March for Clean Water, London, 3 Nov 2024

March for Clean Water: On Sunday 3rd November 2024 I joined thousands of marchers gathering at Vauxhall overlooking the River Thames for a march demanding urgent action to end the pollution of our rivers and sea.

Much of this pollution is by illegal discharges of sewage by the privatised water companies who have failed to make the investments needed since the regional water authories were sold off to private companies in 1989.

Opinion polls then showed that just under 80% of the UK population were against water privatisation back then, and now over 80% are in favour of bringing them back into public ownership.

Back in 1884, Joseph Chamberlain got it right when he argued “It is difficult, if not impossible to combine the citizens’ rights and interests and the private enterprise’s interests, because the private enterprise aims at its natural and justified objective, the biggest possible profit.”

Private water companies were largely taken over by local authorities by the start of the 20th century and under the 1973 Water Act passed by a Tory government under Edward Heath these were amalgamated into the 10 Water Boards each based on the basin of one of our major rivers, “responsible for water extraction, water supply, sewage treatment and environmental pollution prevention,“

Unfortunately government failed to provide them with the money to properly carry out their functions, and the situation was made much worse after Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 when she made it very much harder for the water boards to borrow money for capital projects.

This left the water authorites unable to meet the new EU standards for “river, bathing, coastal, and drinking water quality” which would have required according to Wikipedia “from £24 to £30 billion.”

In light of this, the Conservatives went ahead with privatisation despite the huge public opinion against it. It was hardly a sale, more a getting rid of their liabilities at a token price of £7.6 billion, at the same time taking over the existing debts of £5 billion and gifting the companies a present of £1.5 billion. So the sale only raised £1.1 billion.

Privatisation made England & Wales the only countries in the world to have “a fully privatised water and sewage disposal system.” Something we have been both paying for and suffering from, SInce privatisation water prices have risen by 40% above inflation and in 2017 “research by the University of Greenwich suggested that consumers in England were paying £2.3 billion more every year for their water and sewerage bills than they would if the water companies had remained under state ownership.”

And while we have paid more, the shareholders of at least some of those water companies have done very well out of it – as have many of the top managers who have got huge bonuses despite the many failings of the companies they have run.

Since privatisation investment in the water industry has decreased by around 15% and the companies have built up debts of over £60 billion – rather less than their payouts to shareholders of £78 billion. Huge amounts of treated water is now lost through leaks as our water systems have not been properly maintained and expanded to meet new demand.

And sewage. More and more untreated raw sewage has been dumped in our rivers. What was supposed only to happen when unusual rainfall overwhelmed the sewers now appears to have become a normal occurence in some areas. We should have been investing in increasing separation between drainage and sewage, particularly in new developments but nothing has been done.

We are still largely working with a Victorian system of drainage with a hugely increased population, installed when few homes had baths, washing machines and showers were unheard of and far fewer homes had even one flushing toilet. Demand for water has increased greatly per person.

The march in London on 3rd November was organised by River Action, “an environmental charity on a mission to rescue Britain’s rivers from the deluge of pollution that has left the majority of our waterways in a severely degraded ecological condition” and it reflected this, backed by a long list of other organisations.

Although sewage outflows are the major source of this, agricultural wastes particularly from intensive animal farming are a huge source of pollution in our rural areas and there are still some other industries which pollute our rivers.

We need to bring the water companies under public control and also reform or replace Ofwat and the Environment Agency which have clearly failed in their roles.

You can see more pictures from the march in my album March for Clean Water.

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No to Heathrow Expansion – 2016

No to Heathrow Expansion: When Zac Goldsmith was elected as MP for the Richmond Park constituency in 2010 he had promised he would resign if the government support a third runway at Heathrow. And when they did so in October 2016 he kept his word, forcing a by-election in which he stood as an independent candidate. The election took place on December 1st 2016, a couple of weeks after this rally.

As a part of his campaigning against Heathrow Expansion – and his election campaign around this issue, he called a public meeting on Richmond Green on Saturday 19th November 2016.

Many groups campaigning against airport expansion came to support, including Richmond Heathrow Campaign, Teddington Action Group, SHE (Stop Heathrow Expansion), Residents Against Aircraft Noise(RAAN), Chiswick Against the Third Runway and others campaigning against the noise, pollution and catastrophic climate change the third runway and expansion of aviation would cause.

But also at the meeting where Green Party and Lib-Dem supporters. All major candidates in the by-election were strongly opposed to Heathrow so although many admired Goldsmith for keeping his promise Heathrow was not really at issue in the election. The Green Party, strong in the area, did not put up a candidate as the local party instead voted to support the Lib-Dem candidate Sarah Olney, who beat Goldsmith by 1872 votes. Her major campaign issue was opposition to Brexit, which Goldsmith supported.

The Conservative Party had also not put up a candidate, feeling correctly that to do so would result in a large split in the Tory vote, leading both to to a humiliating defeat for any official Tory candidate as well as giving the seat to the Lib-Dems. Although Goldsmith was standing as an independent, many leading Tories backed him.

A few of Goldsmith’s supporters objected to me taking pictures, insisting it was a private meeting, which was of course total nonsense – it had been called as a public meeting and was taking place in a very public place. One man followed me around trying to get me to stop. Perhaps they realised that although the rally showed considerable opposition to Heathrow there was little if any support for their candidate.

I left after most of the campaigners had spoken and before various local government representatives spoke. All but one of the local authorities in the area are against the third runway. You can read more about the rally and the speakers in my account – with many more pictures on My London Diary.

Climate Crisis rally against Airport Expansion – Heathrow

*Harmondsworth resident Neil Keveren of Stop Heathrow Expansion speaks again at Heathrow*

I left before the end of the rally on Richmond Green to get to a protest taking place at Heathrow by public transport.

Activists from Rising Up were blocking the Heathrow spur from the M4 and local campaigners were holding a family-friendly demonstration in support on the Bath Road overlooking the airport.

Campaigners met at the Three Magpies on a part of Bath Road which would disappear under the Third runway and I had time for a quick pint and a few words with the barmaid who I knew from previous Heathrow campaigns before we walked the short distance to the Bath Road bridge over the airport spur from the M4

Police would not allow me through to photograph the road block, which I could just see in the distance with police vehicles surrounding the activists who were blocking the road into the airport – too far away to photograph with any lens I own – and we could hear their sirens.

There was a large police presence at the rally on the pavement of Bath Road which organisers had made clear would be entirely peaceful and legal. This seemed a considerable waste of police resources, and more like an attempt to intimidate the protesters rather than as police usually claim is their role – to facilitate the protest and ensure safety.

Most of the speakers at the rally were those I had already heard on Richmond Green earlier in the day, although there were none of the Conservative Goldsmith supporters who were presumably still busy campaigning in Richmond. But there were also others, including from Grow Heathrow who were still in occupation of a derelict local nursery, from Occupy and environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy.

Speakers argued that expansion at Heathrow would mean the UK breaking its own laws on reducing carbon emissions, and undermine the Paris agreements. The new runway would devastate local communities with many families losing their homes bring chaos to transport already highly stressed in a wide area around. It would increase the dangerous levels of air pollution both from the flights as well as the traffic increase in a wide area, as well as noise pollution across much of London under the flight paths.

They pointed out that as well as the actual runway the development would need a huge spending on infrastructure in the area with important roads having to be re-routed – and that Heathrow was expecting the taxpayer to pick up almost all the bill, which Transport for London predict would be around £18 billion. And the actual cost of all such large projects always turns out much higher than projected.

*Local resident Christine Taylor of Stop Heathrow Expansion*

As I wrote then, “We need to totally rethink the aviation industry and evaluate the contribution it makes to our economy, and to remove its privileged status and subsidies which currently allow it to expand and pollute for the benefit of its shareholders and the convenience of rich frequent flyers. The industry greatly inflates the contribution it makes to the economy while refusing to acknowledge the many problems it creates.“

But even more importantly as I also pointed out, “We don’t just need to stop airport expansion, but to reassess much of they way we live. We need System Change if we are to avoid the disastrous effects of Climate Change.”

Eight years later there has been no start on expanding Heathrow, but there is very little evidence that this reassessment is taking place, and the election of Trump for a second term makes it even less likely that the world can avoid an unthinkable disaster. Perhaps the only question now is when rather than whether it will happen.

More about the two protests with more pictures on My London Diary:
Climate Crisis rally against Airport Expansion
Rally against Heathrow Expansion

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Die-In and March for Palestine, London, 2 Nov 2024

Die-In and March for Palestine: Saturday 2nd November saw another huge march in London in support of the Palestinian people calling for urgent action by the by the international community to end brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools in Gaza and an end the deliberate starvation of Palestinians.

On the 14th November the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices released a new report stating what has been clear to most of the rest of the world for many months.

Examining what had happened from October 2023 to July 2024 in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan they state: “Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life — food, water, and fuel, These statements along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid make clear Israel’s intent to instrumentalise life-saving supplies for political and military gains.”

“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population.”

You can read more about the report on the UN web site. It is to be presented to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly today – 18 November 2024, calling on “all Member States to uphold their legal obligations to prevent and stop Israel’s violations of international law and hold it accountable.”

Doubtless there will be a few countries including the USA and Britain who will uphold the freedom of the state of Israel to continue its genocide and keep on supplying the weapons that enable them to do so.

I was intending to write something more about what is happening in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere – and about the urgent need for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the start of longer term negotiations to bring about a just and permanent solution which would enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace.

But it would largely be repeating things I’ve written many times before and I’ve decided to leave it to the UN committee and a few of the many pictures I took on the march to tell the story.

As usual there was a Jewish block on the protest as well as many Jewish indivuals elsewhere in the march, along with the small group of anti-Zionist Jews who have always supported freedom for Palestine. There was also a small protest against the march at the north end of Vauxhall Bridge which curiously included those calling for he release of hostages – which a ceasefire and negotiations has the strongest chance of acheiving.

*London, UK. 2 Nov 24. Neterei Karta Anti-Zionist Jews*

You can see many more of my pictures of the march and of the die-in at Downing Street before the march at Die-In and March for Palestine, London, 2 Nov 2024.

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Stroud Green to Grand Parade, November 1989

Stroud Green to Grand Parade: Continuing my walk on Sunday 5th November 1989 from where the previous post left me on Stroud Green Road close to Finsbury Park Station.

*Boys Entrance, Stroud Green Primary School, Ennis Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-46*

The Girls Entrance to Stroud Green Primary is still there on the corner of Perth Road and Woodstock Road, but the BOYS was recently removed from above the gate at the other end of the school site in Ennis Road, where extensive building work was taking place – so perhaps it will return. The two entrances were over a 100 metres apart, an unusually safe distance. There is also a similar gate for INFANTS on Woodstock Road.

I think most of the school dates from 1897, although Google’s AI unhelpfully told me “Stroud Green Primary School was established in 1997” when I asked when it was built. The Grade II listing text for Woodcock Road School begins “Late C19 building of shallow U-shape with projecting gabled wings and slightly projecting 5 bay centrepiece under higher hipped roof crowned by cupola.” The area had fairly recently been developed with housing, some of which had to be demolished to build the school.

*Oxford House, Oxford Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-33*

I turned left into Woodstock Road and then right into Oxford Road, heading for the Oxford Road Gate to Finsbury Park.

On the right just before the gate is Oxford House. In the 1960s this was the cinematographic film processor Kay Laboratories, later absorbed into MGM (possibly via Rank Xerox). For some years it was a studio and office space and housed a private college. For some years this 1930s Art Deco building was in a poor state but has recently been refurbished as offices and co-working space.

Pipe Bridge, New River, Houses, Endymion Rd, Haringay, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-23 — *Pipe Bridge, New River, Houses, Endymion Road, Harringay, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-23*

I walked through Finsbury Park on what is now part of Section 12 of the Capital Ring a circular walking route around London, first put forward as an idea the following year but only completed in 2005, but turning north onto the New River Path to exit onto Endymion Road where the houses on this picture are.

*Houses, Endymion Rd, Stroud Green, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-24*

These south-facing houses on Endymion Road were lit by early afternoon winter sun. The road was the first constructed in the area after Finsbury Park was established and the development was begun by the Metropolitan Board of Works around 1875. The road goes around the northwest and north sides of the park, giving the houses attractive views over it. Development of the area to the north, West Harringay, began shortly after.

Endymion was in one of several Greek myths a handsome shepherd prince who moon goddess Selene fell in love with and persuaded Zeus to make immortal and to put in eternal sleep so she could visit him every night. John Keats wrote a famous extremely long poem in four sections, each around a thousand lines base on the myth and first published in 1818.

But the name more likely came to Harringay from HMS Endymion, “the fastest sailing-ship in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail“, built in 1797 and in active service during the Napoleonic Wars and until the First Opium War around 1850 and only finally broken up in 1868.

*Building, Green Lanes area, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-25*

I think this building was probably on Warham Road, just a few yards down from Green Lanes, but if so there is no trace of it now. I wonder what it was built for, but there are few clues in the picture – perhaps someone local to the area can tell us in the comments.

*Shop Window, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-11*

The Grand Parade on the east side of Green Lanes of shops with middle class flats above them was developed by J C Hill and completed in 1899, with its relatively consistent facades interrupted only by an earlier bank, built five years earlier.

I can’t think who the peculiar bedroom suite in the window of this shop might appeal to, but it seemed like something out a a peculiar nightmare to me, but I guess it was someones’ dream.

*Tory Scum, Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, 1989 89-11d-13*

Also and rather more prosaically on Grand Parade on an empty shop front, fly-posting and the carefully stencilled graffiti:

TORY SCUM
OFF OUR BACKS
WE CAN’T PAY
WE WON’T PAY
NO POLL TAX

My walk continued, and I’ll post more soon.

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