>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

Grenfell Protest Calls for Justice – 2018

Grenfell Protest Calls for Justice: On Monday 14th May 2018 Parliament were debating a petition with over 150,00 signatures calling for a panel of decision making experts to sit alongside Sir Martin Moore-Bick in the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry.

*A woman who worked in the Grenfell nursery and her mother with placards*

PM Theresa May had 3 days earlier announced there would be two experts appointed for the second stage of the inquiry, but the Grenfell community wanted experts to be included in the first part and were questioning who the experts would be and how they were to be chosen.

*‘When One Neglects Towers, One Will in the End Neglect People’*

The protesters also wanted a promise that the recommendations of the inquiry would be accepted and implemented in full and that those responsible for creating the terrible fire risk to be brought to justice.

Unfortunately the inquiry had been set up to enable the guilty to evade justice. Despite the mass of clear evidence against those responsible it enabled the police to state they had to let it run its course before they could examine its evidence and decide if there should be prosecutions. And the inquiry had no power to start criminal proceeding and would not investigate the very issues of a “social, economic and political nature” that were central to why it happened.

*Clarrie Mendy of Humanity For Grenfell, whose cousin Mary Mendy and her daughter Khadija Saye died in the fire,*

As well as the Tories wanting to protect their own, particularly in the Kensington and Chelsea Council, Labour, including then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn colluded in this deliberate pushing of Grenfell into the long grass, although he also called for further efforts to establish a process to investigate those “broader failings” which Sir Martin Moore-Bick was determined to avoid.

Despite this, as well as many speakers from local Grenfell organisations, there wer also prominent Labour Party speakers at the event – Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor Richard Burgon, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot and then Labour MP for Kensington Emma Dent Coad.

*The Revolutionary Communist Group have supported the campaign to get the truth about Grenfell*

SNP MP Joanna Cherry also spoke, but the event organisers refused to let a more radical speaker from the Revolutionary Communist Group go to the microphone. But the RCG, who had been active in organising protests over Grenfell as well as taking part in the monthly silent walks, had as usual brought their own public address system for their speaker.

Last year after a short, inept and very partial failed “consultation” with Grenfell survivors and bereaved families, then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced that Grenfell Tower would be “brought to the ground” and a memorial set up in its place.

*Then Labour MP for Kensington Emma Dent Coad* *who lost the seat in 2019*

More pictures at Grenfell Parliamentary Debate Rally.

Also taking place outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday 14th May 2018 was a protest by the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party UK calling for the release of their party leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, jailed in February for five years for embezzlement of international funds donated to Zia Orphanage Trust.

Her arrest and conviction was widely seen as a political attack by her rival Sheikh Hasina Wazed, leader of the Awami League; the two women dominated politics in Bangladesh for many years. Khaleda Zia died in December 2025 a month after Sheik Hasina who had been forced to resign in 2024 was sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment. More about this protest at BNP say release Khaleda Zia.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Brian, Bears, Morris and May Queens – 2006

Brian, Bears, Morris and May Queens: On Saturday 13th May 2006 I went to Parliament Square where I photographed resident peace protester Brian Haw and Morris Dancers, going on to more dancers performing in Trafalgar Square as a part of a Westminster Day of Dance. From there the Underground took me out to Hanger Lane from where I walked to Brentham to photograph the 100th anniversary of the first Brentham May Queen crowning.

Brian Haw at Parliament Square

Brian and the Bears

Brian, Bears, Morris and May Queens - 2006

Brian Haw lost the appeal by the government over his protest in Parliament Square, the court deciding that the Serious Organised Crimes And Police Act did apply to his protest after all, despite it having started around 4 years before the act came into force. It seems to be a decision that reflects more on the ability of the government to apply pressure rather than one that suggests an independent judiciary.

At the moment, Brian is still there, his protest now regulated by the police, but it seems rather likely that at some moment the feel convenient they will decide to terminate it. On Saturday morning I went to have a short word with him and take some more pictures, particularly of some of the bears who are with him.

His protest from the start has been about the killing of children, at first by the effects of sanctions, then by the war, and the teddy bear symbolises this (I think of one of the most poignant images from the Second World War, by Cecil Beaton, of a child in a hospital bed with a teddy bear.) I hope to be back to see Brian tomorrow, with a few friends, if he is still there. [He was, and depite constant harassment remained there until ill-health forced him to leave in 2011, dying in a German hospital six mohnths later.]

More pictures

Westminster Morris Dance Day

St Margarets & Trafalgar Square

For several years there has been a dance festival in Westminster in May, with teams of Morris Dancers from around the country. I caught up with them briefly dancing in front of St Margaret’s Church next to Westminster Abbey, then a little later in Trafalgar Square.

Although i’ve never had a great desire to take up Morris myself, it certainly is one of our English traditions, going back at least 500 years – the first written record of it is in 1448.

It was still alive in many villages in the nineteenth century and a revival started in the early twentieth century particularly through the work of Cecil Sharp, who collected over 170 different dances around the country and started the English Folk Dance Society in 1911. Sharp and Mary Neal published books of dances, and in the 1920s and 30s, country dancing became a part of most young school children’s week. How I hated it in the 1950s!

It is perhaps that enforced participation that led to Morris Dancing being thought of as something false and lacking in credibility. In a curious anomaly, our Arts Councils refuse to support English ethnic dances while (quite rightly) giving aid to foster dance and related activities among minority ethnic groups. Despite this, Morris Dancing has continued to grow both in the UK and now increasingly abroad, particularly in Canada and the USA.

All the teams in Trafalgar Square were men, although there are also many women dancers. One of the things that comes out in my pictures is that the dance is at times a very athletic event. Many of the traditional dances use swords or staves and have a link to martial arts. Morris also has a strong link to another English tradition, the ale house.

More pictures

Brentham Centenary May Day Festivities

Brentham Estate, Ealing

May continued for me with another May Queen. Last year (2005) I had photographed the oldest continuing May Queen event at least in the London area, the Merrie England and London May Queen Fayre at Hayes, Kent, held continuously since 1913. This year I went instead to Brentham, where a May Fayre with maypole dancing was held in 1906, and its centenary was held this year.

For this event, the organisers had managed to find and invite along many former May Queens, including some from the 1950s. Some had come long distances to be there, including one now living in America.

Brentham was one of the earliest “garden village” estates, built by ‘Ealing Tenants’ a co-partnership housing scheme started in 1901 and largely completed by 1915. The road layout was designed by Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, and it was in many ways a model for other and better known garden villages.

The Brentham May Queen is less formalised that the south London events, with little or no long speeches and ceremonies (unlike Hayes it was not set up by a Dulwich schoolmaster.)

As well as the May Queen Elect and previous May Queens, each with a small group of attendants, there is also a herald who leads the parade (aided today by a brass band) Brittania, Sailor and Soldier, and, leading the large group of around 150 young girls dressed in white with flowers, a Jack In The Green, covered with leaves, with just bare legs and sandals visible.

*The crowning of the 2006 Brentham May Queen*

After the parade around the area, there was a short ceremony in one of the fields by the River Brent in which last year’s May Queen crowned the new queen, and a very short speech. Following this were country dances and dancing round the maypole, but I left before this began.

Many more pictures begin here.

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Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year – 1998

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year: Back in May 1998 I went to the celebrations of the New Year taking place in a crowded Brick Lane and photographed the people on the streets, mainly in black and white and a few in colour.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-513-66

I’ve recently digitised the more interesting of these pictures and have posted 35 black and white and a few colour pictures on Flickr.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-512-46

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-515-62

Of course I was then working with film. I can’t remember exactly which two cameras I was using that day, but I think most likely one would have been my favourite Minolta CLE with a 28mm lens. Minolta had previously worked with Leica to produce the Leica CL, a more compact Leica using Leica M lenses, but for some reason two companies had parted company for the improved version of this, which came out under Minolta’s name. Perhaps its improved metering made it seem too modern for Leica.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-512-14

The Minolta 28mm M-fit lens was a fine performer, actually out-performing its Leica equivalent. Sadly I had to bin it years later as fungus growth within it had damaged some of the internal glass beyond repair when I had hoped to use it with an appropriate adaptor on a Fuji digital camera.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-513-41

Konica were another company that produced a modernised rangefinder Leica, the Hexar RF using their version of the Leica M-mount which accepted all Leica lenses. The viewfinder was perhaps not quite as bright as a Leica, but was better for 28mm lenses, and it not only had a good autoexposure system but also motorised wind-on of film and rewind. But that only came out a in 1999 after these pictures were made, when it became my ‘Leica’ of choice.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-514-51

Probably the black and white images were made with an earlier Konica camera, the Hexar F, a 35mm fixed-lens, fixed focal length autofocus camera. Film loading, advance and rewind was motorised and automatic. It wasn’t promoted much in the UK, and I had to order mine from the USA, I think in 1993. The 35mm lens was superb, but I did have some self-made probelms with this camera, mainly due to my fingers. It was all too easy for them to wander over the exposure senor on the front of the body, causing extreme over-exposure, and I often managed to get greasy fingerprints on the front of the lens which had no lens hood.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-514-31

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-515-12

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-516-46

Brick Lane was full of sound for the Baisakhi Mela, but both the Minolta CLE and the Hexar F were quiet in operation and the Hexar even had a ‘silent’ mode that made it hard for even me to know if I had taken a picture – so I seldom used it. Many of those in these pictures would have been immersed in the event and so unaware that I was taking their photographs, though others were and were clearly happy to be photographed.

Baisakhi Mela, Bengali New Year, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, 10 May, 1998, 98-512-52

The picture above is the first black and white picture from the Mela in the album, and clicking on it will take you to Flickr where you can then go through all 35 black and white pictures.

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LSE Cleaners Strike For Equality And Dignity – 2017

*‘Life NOT Money at the LSE’ protesters chalked on the roadway and lay down, blocking the street*

LSE Cleaners Strike For Equality And Dignity: The protest by cleaners at the LSE on Thursday 11th May 2017 was just one more in a long series of weekly one-day strikes demanding parity of terms and conditions with other staff there who were directly employed by the LSE.

The cleaning was outsourced to cleaning contractor Noonan, who employed cleaners under considerably inferior terms – pay, holidays, pensions etc – compared to those workers employed on the site by the LSE. I had been at the meeting in September 2016 when with their union, the United Voices of the World, they began their campaign for parity of treatment and had also photographed their protests.

The UVW were eventually successful after a series of strikes featuring “flashmobs, salsa, zumba, poetry, art sessions, teach-outs” and “after 10 months of struggle, and the then largest cleaners strike in UK history and the highest number of strike days of any group of outsourced workers in UK higher education – outsourcing was ended and all cleaners were brought in-house as LSE employees! Their fight against institutional racism was the first “to force a British university to end the practice of outsourcing cleaners!“

My post told the story of the event in picture and captions which describe the harassment by police and others of some of the supporters, particularly those from Class War. Here is a brief edited version.

*Noonan employs the cleaners at the LSE and the cleaners get low pay, low status and terrible management*

*They work in the same place and deserve equal treatment. Their claims are supported by students and LSE staff. Trenton Oldfield brought his daughter with him to show solidarity with the cleaners.*

*LSE Security have closed the area in front of the library normally open to the public. The road is a public highway*

One police officer starts harassing Sid Skill of Class War who has come to show solidarity. Sid refuses to talk to him and moves away – and eventually fled fearing arrest followed by two police officers, escaping them by jumping on a bus as the doors closed

A woman who works in the LSE comes to tell the cleaners they are making a lot of noise and disturbing her day and then hugs the police officer and smiles when she sees I am photographing her. The cleaners say they have to make a lot of noise as the LSE management refuse to talk with them and their union.

Cleaners make a noise – they want management to talk to them and to recognise their union. They also want to be treated with dignity and respect at work, a living wage and equal pensions, sick pay and other benefits.

A man comes to complain to Class War about their support for the cleaners. He says that they don’t have any right to be there. Jane Nicholl puts him right. He seems to have no idea what class war is and no understanding of class solidarity. And as I suspect Jane put it is a stupid prick. Though she may have been less kind.

The protesters march around the campus to visit a couple of other sites from brief protests in Lincolns Inn Fields and then Sardinia St before going to the Student Union, where there were speeches an poetry from Grim Chip of Poetry on the Picket Line.

Meanwhile Life Not Money at the LSE had been at work, painting their message in chalk on the road and then sitting down on the Portugal St in front of Old Building, stopping lorries entering or leaving the LSE building site.

You can read the full version with more pictures and text at LSE Cleaners strike.

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Goodbye to Wandsworth – 1990

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

It wasn’t of course the last time I went to Wandsworth – I was even back there a couple of weeks ago, walking through the same areas, though much of it now hardly recognisable.

*West Hill Primary, School, Broomhill Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-25*

The school building is locally listed and its address is 5 Merton Road, but this is the view from Broomhill Road.

*London Theatre School, Chapel Yard, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-26*

On a second image I made of this building I can just about make out the inscriptions on the frontage as at left ‘Erected 1573, Enlarged 1685 and on the right ‘Repaired 1809 – 31, Rebuilt 1882’. You can read all four plaques lower on the building on the London Remembers site.

This is Wandsworth Chapel and possibly the site was first used by Huguenots, though perhaps only rather later than this. Another plaque lower down mentions a Dutch congregation but from 1713-87 this was the ‘French Church.’ Later from 1809 it was Congregational and a plaque states they continued to use it for mission work until 1939 after moving to a new church on East Hill in 1860. Its history reflects the many immigrants who settled in Wandsworth and set up industries along the Wandle using its water and the power it could generate.

The current building with a hall which could hold 500 people opened in 1883 and is locally listed. Since housing the London Theatre School it became the National Opera Studio.

*Pizza Delivery, Scooters, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-65*

Pizza Delivery began in the UK in the mid-1980s, but back in 1990 you had to phone for a pizza, with on-line ordering only becoming widespread in the late 1990s. It was still fairly unusual in 1990 and HIPPO PIZZA with this row of five scooters ready and waiting for a call was something of a pioneer.

*Entrance, Car Wash, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-66*

‘Welcome, Please Drive In’ for a ‘Guaranteed Complete Clean’. At at right someone sits waiting. There is still a ‘HAND CAR WASH’ here on the High Street.

*Gas Holder, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-51*

I walked up Ram Street again to Armoury Way and took a few more pictures of the gas holder – which I’ve written more about in earlier posts about this walk.

*Gas Holder, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3e-53*

I think I then looked at my watch and hurried to Wandsworth Town Station taking no more pictures to catch a train rather than have to wait another half hour for the next one.

Finally, here is just one picture from the area I made on my last visit in April 2026, looking across where Bell Lane Creek and the River Wandle join. On ‘The Spit’ is a sculpture, ‘Sail’, by Sophie Horton placed there in 2003, financed by the Wandsworth Challenge Partnership. It was inspired by the sail of a dinghy, though I don’t think these have ever sailed up here. But perhaps in the new Wandle Riverside they will.

The flats are part of a new development on the former site of the Wandsworth Gasworks. And where I was standing to take this picture where there is now a riverside path leading to the River Thames was, back in 1990, part of the Shell Oil Terminal.

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Atos Kills Disabled People – 2011

Atos Kills Disabled People: On Monday 9th May 2011 I photographed a London protest in a ‘National Week of Action Against Atos Origin‘ organised by disability activists, claimant groups and anti-cuts campaigners and supported by over 50 groups around the country.

There were around a hundred people, many with disabilities at the protest when I arrived outside the offices of Atos Healthcare in Triton Square, London. The coalition government was replacing Incapacity Benefit by Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Atos were being paid by the government to carry out computer-based tests to assess whether disabled people were capable of working. Many people clearly unable to work were being labelled as ‘fit to work’ and their benefits stopped.

The tests were designed to misrepresent the situation of claimants, not recording their actual responses to questions but giving the people carrying them out a choice of stock phrases. Often the replies chosen did not properly reflect the situation of the claimant.

A report commissioned by the government had found that Atos was not carrying out the tests properly, but their contract was still renewed. Many of those carrying out the tests were not qualified doctors, and are only allowed a short time to reach a decisions on what are often complex cases. They were also set clear targets for the proportion of claimants they must fail.

The design of the tests and the way they were being applied clearly discriminated against those suffering from mental illness and those with intermittent or fluctuating conditions. Many who are failed and refused ESA go to appeal and after some months a majority get their benefits restored – only to have them taken away again by another round of Atos testing. This cruel system had led to a number of those who had been refused benefits taking their own lives.

Among the groups taking part in the action were Disabled People Against Cuts, London Coalition Against Poverty, Mad Pride, Right to Work, Winvisible and Solidarity Federation.

Many disabled people are unable to travel to protests like this because of their disability and the failure of our Underground and train systems to provide support for disabled travel. The support needed is still very patchy and often unreliable. As well as physical protests such as this, there were also on-line protests taking place during the week of actiona.

Other disabled people fear taking part in protests might prejudice their Atos assessments with assessors concluding if they were fit to protest they are fit to work. If better support was provided more would be keen and able to do so.

You can read more about the protest on My London Diary and see more pictures at Disabled Protest Calls Atos Killers

Southbank Centre

*Urban Fox sitting on the edge of the gallery*

On my way home from the protest I stopped and took some pictures here.

More at Southbank Centre.

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Rain Hit May Queen Festival – 2010

Rain Hit May Queen Festival: Saturday 8th May 2010 was a day of cold rain in southeast London, and the organisers of the London May Queen Festival had to abandon the usual procession by several hundred girls around the village of Hayes.

Instead the ceremonies went on in a crowded Hayes Village Hall, though there was room only for the London May Queen’s retinue, the 26 realm queens and small groups of their attendants, along with their family members. I’d photographed a number of previous events had been invited by one of the mothers to come and take photographs.

Photography was a little of a challenge as the light was fairly low and rather mixed, with cloudy daylight coming through the windows of the hall and long fluorescent tubes coming down from the roof of the hall. Though I did take some pictures by available light, the great majority of these were made using flash as the main source. Fortunately the Nikon SB-800 Speedlight with its i-TTL through the lens metering was an incredible advance on older flash systems and performed (with a little help from me) admirably.

Because we were packed into the hall, most of the time I was working very close to at least some of the people I was photographing and using my Nikon wide-angle zoom. This creates problems with uneven lighting – a person 1 metre away from the flash will receive 9 times the light of someone 3 metres away.

The main hall didn’t have a ceiling I could use to bounce light from (I could in some side rooms), but I did have a small diffuser and sometimes was able to angle the flash away from the near subject to give greater illumination on people further away. Edge fall-off from flash is normally a problem in wide-angle pictures, but sometimes you can put it to use.

Nowadays it is far easier to apply some compensation for uneven lighting in post-processing, but then it was still rather tedious and I don’t think I did so on any of these. As usual I took all pictures as RAW images, adjusting them in software (Lightroom) for contrast, colour balance and exposure. I think all are uncropped; it isn’t a religion for me, but I do like to get things framed right when I expose.

In my account on My London Diary for 2010 at Merrie England & London May Queen I give a fairly detailed description of the day. You can find out more about the history of the event and the texts of the event in earlier posts (or in the preview of my book London’s May Queens) and pictures of the event as it took place in fine weather in other years including 2005 elsewhere on this site.

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Barnes Cray & the Cray – 1994

Barnes Cray & the Cray: Panoramas made with a swing-lens camera on a walk in September 1994 from Barnes Cray to Crayford Marshes in the London Borough of Bexley.

In 1750 Miles Barne, son of a wealthy London banker of the same name, inherited the large May Place Estate on the death of his father-in-law. Various members of the Barne family played important roles in the development of the area, with their names incorporated into Barnehurst and Barnes Cray.

Barnes Cray House had an interesting life not least when it was home to a farmer who went to the High Court to stop neighbouring land being used as a firing range by the company which became Vickers. Vickers eventually bought the house as a home for the man in charge of their Cray works, but when their factory moved away gave it to the local council who opened it as a maternity hospital. This closed in 1936 and the house was demolished.

River Cray, Crayford Flour Mill, Barnes Cray Bexley, 1994, 94-907-23

Industry came to the area in the Victorian era with a calico printing works using water from the River Wansunt, later making rubber goods, felt and finally making ‘Brussels Carpets’ – patterned carpets which have the loops of the pile uncut before being demolished in 1890. The Wansunt is a tributary of the River Cray which it joins close to here.

*River Cray, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-61*

The First World War led to a great expansion in the arms industry and Vickers built thousands of homes in Barnes Cray to house its huge workforce – at one point almost 15,000. The development was of good quality homes for workers with a nod to the ‘Garden Village’ vision. The development took the name Barnes Cray.

*Crayford Flour Mill, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-32*

An iron mill on the Cray was replaced in 1735 by a saw mill which in turn became a flour mill. In 1927 this began making Vitbe flour, with added wheatgerm to increase its Vitamin B levels, widely used by many bakereries including those of the Aerated Bread Co. In 1956 the company was renamed Vitbe Flour Mills Ltd and it was acquired by Associated British Foods in 1961.

*Landfill site, Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-22*

*Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-11*

I went for a lengthy walk on the Crayford Marshes, taking many panoramic images, but cannot remember the exact locations. Here is one of them but there are quite a few others on Flickr – you can browse this by clicking on this or other images in this post.

*Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-31*

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Kings Cross, Israel and Anti-Zionists – 2002

Kings Cross, Israel and Anti-Zionists: Like the rest of the country I was appalled by the stabbing in Golders Green a week ago, clearly by a very disturbed individual, who had earlier in the day carried out another attempted murder in Great Dover Street in Southwark. But I was also shocked at the reactions of some politicians; clearly Wes Streeting’s interview that day on Radio 4 can only be described as ‘hate speech‘.

At least in part the increase in tension has been caused by political tirades against supporters of the Palestinian cause and the many peaceful protests they have carried out, with the repeated condemnation of them as ‘hate marches’ for calling for a just peace in Palestine.

Something politicians and the media should reflect on is that all of these marches have been attended by large number of Jewish protesters, present in a much greater proportion than their overall presence in the country.

Some of them have marched in a Jewish bloc to make their presence obvious on the marches – though the media generally and the BBC in particular have apparently decided to fail to notice this. But many others are there with other groups or as individuals – always an important part of the British left. And of course there always is a small group of highly visible ultra-orthodox anti-Zionists.

We need to defend free speech and the right to protest – including those by those whose views we find abhorrent, although there are limits which most of us support against clear incitement to violence and illegal acts. But our government seems bent on moving the goalposts on these limits – for example in its proscription of Palestine Action.

Back on the Early May Bank Holiday Monday in 2002 I came to London to cover a large pro-Israel rally, taking the opportunity also for a short walk before the protest, as well as covering an anti-Zionist counter-demonstration. I was working mainly with film cameras – black and white and colour – and there are still quite a few pictures I have yet to digitise.

I hadn’t by May 2002 made the plunge to buy a professional digital camera. The colour pictures here were taken on a small consumer digital camera, a 2.2Mp Fuji MX-2700. The quality wasn’t bad, certainly fine for web images, and I had some pictures to post immediately. I think I also took some pictures on colour negative film that I’ve yet to digitise 24 years later.

“6 May was Bank Holiday Monday and I started with a walk round Kings Cross to see how the redevelopment there is going. The site which used to have the famous gas holders was just an empty hole in the ground.

“Then to Trafalgar Square for a large pro-israel rally on . It was quite crowded and I was pleased to see evidence that some of those attending were trying to take a balanced view.

“There were a few arguments and scuffles, but the largest surprise for me was the almost total lack of black coated Orthodox Jews in the crowds.

“Then I went to photograph the counter demonstration at the south-west corner of the square, only to find a group of Orthodox Jews arm in arm with the Palestinians and others demonstrating against Zionism.”

More pictures from both protests on My London Diary for May 2002.

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Manchester – May 2017

Manchester – May 2017: On Friday 5th May and Sunday 7th May 2017 we stopped in Manchester for a couple of short walks around the centre of the city on our way to and from an event in Rochdale. I had lived in Manchester from 1963-70 but hadn’t really looked at the city since I left.

*Two canals (Bridgewater and Rochdale) and four railways make this site exemplify Manchester’s contribution to the industrial revolution*

One major change since the 1970s had been the opening up of the canals, including those which run through the centre of the city. These had played a large part in the industrial revolution which had really established the city and on the Friday we went for a walk along the Rochdale Canal from close to Piccadilly Station where our train had left us and along to the Bridgewater Canal – the first canal in Britain which did not follow the path of an existing river, and the second ‘modern’ canal in our industrial revolution. It opened on 17th July 1761 to bring coal from the Duke of Bridgewater’s mines at Worley to the then rapidly expanding cotton town of Manchester.

On My London Diary you can read more about our walk and our return to the centre of Manchester which we had hoped to make beside the River Irwell, but had to detour where paths were closed.

*St Georges Island and Bridgewater Canal*

It was perhaps this walk which decided us to return the following year to stay in Manchester for a few days and see more of the city.

We had less time on our way home on Sunday and spent an hour at the highly recommended People’s History Museum but I did take a few more pictures as we walked to the station.

More pictures on My London Diary at Manchester.

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