The Woolwich Ferry: Continuing my walk in Plumstead and Woolwich in August 1994 I came to the Woolwich Ferry and couldn’t resist taking a ride across the river on it. And since I wanted to continue my walk in Woolwich, rather than in North Woolwich, I stayed on the ferry to come back.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-41
There had almost certainly been a ferry across the Thames at Woolwich at least since the Norman Conquest, though the first written reference by name only came when it was sold together with a house by William de Wicton to William atte Halle for £10. In the early years of the 19th century there were three Woolwich Ferry Acts (1811, 1815 and 1816) establishing a commercial ferry.
These were passed in particular for the movement of troops and supplies from Woolwich Arsenal across the river. From 1846 there was also a rail connection from North Woolwich to Stratford and eventually there were three steam ferries on the route
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-11
After the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was created in 1855 it had taken over toll bridges in West London and made them free to use. People to the east of London in Greenwich and Woolwich argued that they should also be able to cross the river without paying. Eventually in 1884 the MWB agreed and tasked Sir Joseph Bazalgette to oversee the provision of approaches, bridges and pontoons for the ferry. These were built by the still familiar name of Messrs Mowlem in 1887-9. (The company is no longer; having got into financial difficulties it was acquired by its rival Carillion in 2005.)
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-12
The London County Council was established on 21st March 1889, two days before the Free Ferry was due to open and so it was Lord Roseberry, the LCC’s first chairman who led the huge procession and festivities to the new ferry terminal in Woolwich and announced to a crowd of thousands “The free ferry is open to the public.“
There was only one paddle steamer working the ferry that weekend and it must have got very crowded. As well as those in Woolwich , “the Great Eastern Railway Company carried 25,000 people to its North Woolwich terminus, most of whom were intent on riding the ferry.”
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-13
The initial fleet of two paddle steamers soon became three and were replaced by newer paddle steamers in the 1920s. It was these that inspired the story and wonderful illustrations by Charles Keeping in his 1968 children’s classic ‘Alfie and the Ferryboat (1968), very much enjoyed a few years later by myself and my two boys. So of course we had to come to Woolwich and I took my first crossing with them in the early 1980s.
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-11
But by the time that book was published the paddle steamers had gone, replaced from 1963 by the diesel-powered double ended James Newman, John Burns and Ernest Bevin which enabled vehicles to drive up newly built causeways with hinged bridges and drive directly onto the ferries, greatly speeding up the loading. As they were double-ended vehicles could also drive off forwards on the other side and the ships did not need to reverse. They were steered from a central bridge over their roadways.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-12
The ferries in my pictures continued in service until 2018, when the ferry closed down for four months waiting the arrive of replacements. These have had various problems with London May Sadiq Khan apologising and saying the new vessels “aren’t good enough.”
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-13
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-22
I had just missed the ferry and spent it walking around the area and taking pictures.
Woolwich Ferry, Ambulance Station, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-33
All of the pictures before this one have been of a vessel not in use, moored at Woolwich but in this picture you can see one ferry at the North Woolwich terminal and another approaching Woolwich, and I hurried up the approach to catch it. In my next post from 1994 I will include some pictures I made on the ferry.
Good Friday 2nd April 2010 I went to London first for the annual procession on Victoria Street in Westminster and later for the first Passion Play to be produced in Trafalgar Square since 1965.
Crucifixion on Victoria St
Westminster
A man carrying the cross leaves Westminster Methodist Central Hall
There are three major Christian churches on or around Victoria Street in Westminster, Methodist Central Hall, the Catholic Westminster Cathedral and Anglican Westminster Abbey, and for some years there has been a procession, ‘The Crucifixion on Victoria Street’ up and down the street between them.
The procession included clergy and people from other churches and organisations in the area. It was led by a large wooden cross carried by men from The Passage, a project for homeless people. Following this were around 500 people including members of The Passage, children from St Vincent de Paul Primary School, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Duncan Sandys as well as Westminster clergy and members of various congregations.
It began outside Methodist Central Hall before making its way up Victoria St to Westminster Cathedral where on the plaza outside the cathedral it was met by the Most Reverend Vincent Nicholls, Archbishop of Westminster. He became the third Archbishop of Westminster I’ve photographed on these steps.
After hymns, a bible reading by The Reverend Philip Chester, Vicar of St Matthew’s Westminster, a mediation by the Reverend Martin Turner from Methodist Central Hall, a prayer by Mr Mick Clarke, CEO of The Passage and a reflection on peace by the Archbishop the procession went back along Victoria Street for a service in Westminster Abbey, but I left them to get out of the rain then falling steadily.
Trafalgar Square was packed for the The Passion of Jesus, the first Passion Play there since 1965, performed by around 150 devout Christians and a donkey by a group based on the Wintershall estate in Surrey.
Property developer Peter and Ann Hutley, owners of the 1,000 acre estate and retreat centre began staging religious events after a visit to the Catholic pilgrimage centre of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, beginning with a Nativity event in a barn they had just bought in 1989.
They first staged ‘The Life of Christ’ on their estate in 1999, a five or six hour open air production around a lake in the grounds, with over a hundred actors as well as camels and a flock of sheep.
The ‘Passion of Jesus’ in Trafalgar Square was on a slightly reduced scale, but still very impressive and colourful, and a dramatic rendition of the traditional story from the four gospels, with some touches of added spectacle.
As I reported, “Although the flogging of Jesus occurred off-stage and the sound effects were rather unconvincing, the crucifixion that followed was a pretty gory sight.
As in the Gospel narrative, the Jewish hierarchy of the time was typecast as villains, perhaps too typecast, and the resurrection too presents some dramatic problems.”
Wintershall stages performances elsewhere – and I photographed their Staines Passion at Easter in 2014. There is another Passion of Jesus in Trafalgar Square tomorrow, Good Friday 3rd April 2026, with two free performances at 12 noon and 3:15 pm open to all. You can also watch it on Youtube if you can’t get there in person.
Fossil Fools Day: Tuesday 1st April was Fossil Fools Day, a day of protests around the world over our increasing use of fossil fuels, despite the effect they are having on global climate.
The ‘greenhouse effect‘ of various gases in the atmosphere had first been described in 1824, although the actual term only dates from 1901. But already in 1856 American scientist and women’s rights campaigner Eunice Newton Foote had shown that carbon dioxide was very effective in trapping the sun’s energy and warming the atmosphere.
Almost all polyatomic gases are ‘greenhouse gases’ with some such as methane much more effective than carbon dioxide. But its great importance is because of the huge amounts of it formed when carbon-containing fuels are used. And burning wood, coal and oil and their use in powering machines of all types and electricity production became the basis of the industrial revolution and our whole civilisation from around the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Protesters with power station ‘cooling towers’ in Parliament Square
Wood is not of course a fossil fuel, and in pre-industrial times the carbon dioxide produced by burning it was more or less in balance with the amount that was removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis producing new plants, trees and other organisms. CO2 levels remained roughly constant during human history at around 280ppm until they began to rise more and more rapidly after 1850, and increasingly rapidly since then. They are now around 430ppm and rising steeply.
The full effects of the current levels only become apparent over a period of around 50 years, though we are already seeing some of them already, particularly in the global South – though we too are beginning to see the effects on our climate, not just in terms of temperature but even more as instability.
For well over fifty years it has been obvious that we need to take urgent action to stop burning fossil fuels, but that urgency has not led to any really significant action. Talk, investment in renewable energy – but fossil fuel use, even of coal, is still increasing. If life on this planet is to have a future we need to see a rapid drop in the consumption of coal, oil and gas – and also aathe development of ways to use renewable energy to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, as well as increasing natural ways such as planting more trees.
And there is another reason to end the use of oil for fuel, as I first mentioned in the 1970s. These finite resources are of much greater use as a chemical feedstock for producing other essential materials of our modern life, including plastics.
Everything at the moment is still going in the wrong direction – and the huge energy requirements of AI are making things worse.
Fossil Fools Day: No New Coal
Parliament Square
Lighter fuel goes up in flames on the Climate BIll
The focus of the protest by students from ‘People and Planet’ and other climate activists were the plans by E.ON to build a new new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.
The protesters brought three large white ‘cooling towers’ and many had cutout masks of Gordon Brown’s face as they shouted out advice to him over the ridiculous Draft Climate Change Bill which would have resulted in an increase in carbon emissions.
The launch of ‘ev-eon Unnaturally Carbonated Water’
They were joined by a group with the spoof launch of ‘ev-eon Unnaturally Carbonated Water’ a new carbon capture technology to be used at E.ON’s Kingsnorth Power Station.
“‘Ev-eon’ uses the CO2 from coal burning to carbonate water which you then swallow. And if you can swallow the governments coal-fired policy you can swallow anything. And of course with Ev-eon, should you burp, breathe or otherwise release that CO2 you’ve swallowed, global warming is all your fault – and not E.ON’s.”
As a result of this and other environmental protests and criticism by a wide range of organisations E.ON eventually dropped the plans.
Campaign against Climate Change protest at the offices of Argent Group PLC in Piccadilly over the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, run by Miller-Argent.
The manager of Albany talks with the demontrators, taking some information for Argent
As well as the at least 30 million tons of CO2 of carbon dioxide from the coal the mine was expected to produce over the next 15 years, this mine was also only 36 metres from the nearest houses – compared to the Scottish Safety standards of 500 metres. The Welsh Office delayed the implementation of a Welsh safety standard to enable the mine to go ahead.
Locally it produced years of misery and health hazards through air-borne dust, diesel fumes and noise to the 70,000 or so people who live in Merthyr. A Health Impact Study commissioned by the authorities was so damning they refused to accept it.
The initial scheme for the mine had been approved by the Welsh Assembly in 2005 despite huge local objections and residents took it to the High Court which quashed it – but this was reversed on appeal in 2006.
The mine licence expired in 2022 and an appeal for an extension was refused with the mine shutting down in November 2023.
National Gallery, Trayvon Martin & Dykes: Saturday 31 March 2012 I began outside the National Gallery were the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) were demanding that the gallery stopped hosting events for the arms trade. From there I went to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square for a protest about the US failure to prosecute the killer of black teenager Trayvon Martin. Finally I went to London’s first Dyke March since the 1980s.
Disarm The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
Around 20 protesters had come to Trafalgar square as ‘artists’, dressed in blue paint-stained smocks and equipped with moustaches, berets, paint brushes, palettes and easels with large sheets of paper and a smattering of Franglais.
They erected their easels in a line on the North Terrace in front of the National Gallery and painted the letters D, I, S, A, R, M, T, H, E, G, A, L, L, E, R and Y anbefore standing with them in front of the gallery.
There also brought other anti-war artworks to display and handed out postcards for onlookers to sign calling on Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery, to end his support of the arms trade.
The main entrances of the gallery were closed during the protest and a long queue built up at the lower entrance. Many in that line were amazed to find that an art gallery was supporting arms sales. As the postcard says – and people overwhelmingly agreed – Art and arms don’t mix.
The Disarm the Gallery protest was organised by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) as the during the DSEi arms fair the previous September, weapons manufacturer Finmeccanica had paid the gallery £30,000 to hold events there.
DSEi is the worlds largest arms fair with buyers and sellers from around the world including many corrupt and tyrannical regimes, selling the equipment used by dictators around the world to equip armies and police to keep order and fuelling conflicts which kill thousands if not millions.
Marcia, sister of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton police station speaks at the US embassy protest
Black teenager Trayvon Martin was walking back from a local convenience store to the house in Florida where he was staying with this father when he was stopped and then shot dead by George Zimmerman, a self appointed neighbourhood watchman who claimed he had felt threatened by a black teenager wearing a hoodie.
He had gone to the shop to buy a soft drink and some Skittle sweets and many at the protest wore hoodies and carried packets of Skittles and soft drinks.
Lee Jasper and Zita Holbourne of BARAC
Florida police backed Zimmerman’s story that he had acted in self-defence and refused to arrest or charge him. Later the pressure from protests like this across America and around the world led to him being brought to trial, but a Florida jury acquitted him.
People stressed that the killing of Trayvon Martin very much reflects the treatment of black people not just in the USA but elsewhere including the UK
The embassy protest was was chaired by Merlin Emmanuel, brother of Smiley Culture, killed by police in his own kitchen, and speakers included Marcia, the brother of Sean Rigg, murdered in Brixton Police Station. Other speakers also brought up cases of deaths and discriminaton by police in the UK.
Stella and Lucy of DIVA magazine in Soho Square for the London Dyke March
After a rally in Soho Square over 600 women marched through Soho and Trafalgar Square to the National Theatre.
The march was the first dyke march since the 1980s and set out to support dyke visibility and welcomed “dykes, queers, bisexuals, transwomen, genderqueers and allies” and “all folk who want to support dykes to march with us” in “a grassroots, non-commercial, anti-racist, community-centred, accessible, inclusive event.”
Speakers at the rally “were Kirstean Hearn, the chair of Inclusion London and someone who as a member of Equality 2005 gives disability equality advice to government, Lady Phyll Opoku, co-founder and Managing Director of UK Black Pride, journalist and founding editor of METQ magazine Paris Lees, Shi tou, an artist and film-maker who was the first lesbian to come out on Chinese TV and one of China’s most prominent lesbian activists, and Clare B Dimyon, awarded a MBE in 2010 for her work supporting LGBT people in Central and Eastern Europe.”
You can view many more pictures of the march and rally on My London Diary, including pictures of most or all of the speakers at London Dyke March 2012.
Stop The War – Hands Off Iraq: The protest in London against the US plans to invade Iraq on Saturday 30th March 2002 was I think the first of the really huge protests in London and across the world against the invasion then being planned by U.S. president George W Bush following the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States.
George Galloway MP at the start of the march in Hyde Park
The Stop the War Coalition had been formed shortly after the 9/11 attacks and had organised this protest together with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain.
Air guitar – hyde park
It is hard to give any accurate estimate of the numbers taking part in protests as large as this, but I think there must have been well over a hundred thousand marching – much smaller than the well over a million that marched in London 11 months later in February 2003, but still a very significant number. It received very little coverage in the mass media and so it is now still difficult to find anything about it online.
Helen Salmon and students, Hyde Park
By March 2002 the initial huge public sympathy with the USA over the 9/ll attacks had given place to a feeling that Bush and his “war on terror” was determined to attack Iraq at all cost even though it seemed unlikely that there was any real link between Iraq and Al-Qaida, and there was little if any evidence that Iraq still possessed “weapons of mass destruction“.
Tony Benn and Dr Siddiqui at Hyde Park
Iraq had ended work to produce biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons in the 1990s and most or all of its stockpiles had been destroyed. In November 2002 Saddam Hussein had allowed UN inspectors search Iraqi facilities for WMDs and they found none. The US alleged that Iraq had hidden them – and forged documents were produced about uranium. No WMDs were found during the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003-2011 and US secretary of state Colin “Powell and George Bush eventually admitted Iraq had not had them.”
Stop The War – Hands Off Iraq – 2 Mar 02 – Park Lane
Despite then known facts, Tony Blair had decided to support the US invasion against the huge opposition from the British public. He and his government lied to parliament, most notably with the “Dodgy Dossier” and other documents. The dossier, “sexed up” by Alistair Campbell was largely plagiarised from a thesis by a graduate student at California State University, and contained many errors and unchecked statements, and contradicted much of actual evidence from intelligence sources. It should have ended the political career and any credibility for both.
PiccadillyTrafalgar Square
Back in 2002 I was working with both black and white and colour film, but it was difficult for me to digitise the colour work – and I only posted black and white images on My London Diary. I still have only digitised a few of the many colour images I made at that time.
Included in this post are all of the images I posted on My London Diary and below is the short text I wrote to go with them. The files are small and they were posted across several pages as many then still accessed the web on slow dial-up modems. They are reduced versions of the images I filed to my agency, made by scanning black and white prints.The original post is still online, but adds nothing to this post.
The Stop the War, Hands off Iraq demonstration on 2 March was a large sign of public opinion. People were still leaving Hyde Park at the start of the march when Trafalgar Square was full to overflowing two and a half hours later.
Police estimates of the number were risible as usual – and can only reflect an attempt to marginalise the significant body of opinion opposed to the war or a complete mathematical inability on behalf of the police.
Tony Benn told us it wasn’t worth taking his picture – “It won’t get in the papers unless I go and kick a policeman” but he didn’t and was quite right.
Courthouse Community Centre, 11, Garratt Lane, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-42
This was built in 1858 apparently as one of the first courts under the 1846 County Courts Act and is Grade II listed.
It was alleged to be near-derelict in the 1970s when it was first Grade II listed and was handed over to Wandsworth Council, becoming a community centre for the Arndale Estate. Then it became the Wandsworth Museum but that was closed in 2008 to turn it into Wandworth Library. The museum was moved West Hill Library then closed in 2015. In 2014 the council decided to move the library and to sell or let the building . I think it is now offices.
Salvation Army Citadel, Ram St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-43
I crossed Wandsworth High Street and walked up Ram Street. stopping to take this view of the Salvation Army Citadel, built in 1907, but now replaced in 2008 by a more modern building. Doubtless a much more functional building its rounded lines have nothing of the military features of the old with its castellated tower.
The Wandsworth Gas Company gasholder is no longer visible. Gasholders such as this were still in use for storage and to regulate gas pressure for some years after the changeover to natural gas and the closure of our gas works. Once a common feature of our townscapes, most have now gone, with just a few of the guide frames of particular interest being listed and saved, some converted to contain flats.
I think this one was dismantled around 15 years ago, but at least until recently its base could be seen from the railway line to the north.
Gas Holder, Swandon Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-54
A closer view of the gasholder which clearly shows the three sections which would be lifted up inside each other by the gas as more gas was pumped into the holder (and were known as lifts.) The first ‘telescopic’ gasholder was invented in 1824. This example was built in 1972 and was said to be the largest of its type in the UK. Gas was stored at only a little above atmospheric pressure
Gas Holder, Houses, Barchard St, Ram St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-44
Controversial plans were approved by Wandsworth council for the redevelopment of the gas works site to include a 29 storey tower – rather taller than the old gasholder. I think that the massive concrete base which held the water to seal the bottom of the gas holder is to be retained to save the huge environmental cost of its removal.
I rather liked the way the old gasholders – here and elsewhere – contributed to the townscape, and they were certainly local landmarks. But the Wandsworth Society and other objectors are correct to point out the main tower block of the development with a height of 29 storeys, “is quite ‘out of context’ next to the River Wandle. The site of the tower cannot be considered to be a ‘town centre’ site nor is it close to a ‘cluster’ of buildings of a similar nature. The application cannot be considered to ‘make a positive contribution to local character and context’“.
Gas Holder, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-31
A final picture of the gas holder.
Ram Brewery, River Wandle, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-12
The rest of the area north of the town centre has also seen massive redevelopment, though at least the major historic elements of the Ram Brewery have been retained – and now contain the Sambrook Brewery.
Here you can see one of the more modern parts of the brewery, which looked more like a chemical plant than how I imagine real beer being made.
The area is now covered by large bocks of around 4-7 storeys and I think the only thing visible in this image that remains is the brewery chimney. There is now a walk alongside the Wandle, but little of interest to see from it.
Ram Brewery, River Wandle, Wandsworth High St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-15
Young’s beers are now brewed by Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company in Bedford, though they have re-branded them to include London in their names.
River Wandle, Armoury Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-32
World leaders were to hold the G20 London Summit at the Excel Centre in Docklands beginning on April 1st (a date some thought highly appropriate), with the stated themes “Stability, Growth, Jobs“, and chaired by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Countries and organisations taking part, included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the USA, as well as the European Union and organisations including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organisations.
The ‘Put People First’ march was the first of several major demonstrations aimed at influencing the meeting and was backed by a very wide range of over 150 organisations, both from this country and abroad.
As well as trade unions, charities, and pressure groups there were also many other less organised groups and individuals.
Those marching were calling for a new approach to social justice for the world as a whole, and for urgency in action by world leaders not just to find a solution for the current financial problems, but to tackle the even deeper problems of global inequality and of climate crisis.
But the G20 went ahead very much to prop up the banks and financial institutions that had caused the financial crisis, though agreeing on the need for greater regulation, making none of the wider changes that this and other protests demanded. If anything it worsened those deeper problems.
Unsurprisingly it was a very large march with probably several times the official police estimate of 35,000 taking party.
Most police attention was on a relatively small ‘autonomous’ block of around 800 people in the middle of the march which had a strong police escorted. They objected to the police behaviour, particularly very obtrusive photography by FIT teams and some sat down in the road blocking the march behind them for around half an hour.
Police had bullied the front of the march to set off at a cracking pace, hard for photographers to keep up with and the march soon spread out over much of the route.
I wanted to photograph as many of the marchers as I could, walking slowly and letting them go past me as they walked along the Embankment, up Bridge Street and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. Then I rushed to get to the rally in time.
On My London Diary you can read more about the rally, and see pictures of many of the speakers. This protest was “a well ordered event with at times a carnival atmosphere, which made some of the police prognostications look rather silly.“
Politicicans and Businessmen are not ignorant – they are intelligent and corrupt. They break our legs and expect us to say thankyou when they offer us crutches
One of my fellow NUJ members filming the ‘autonomous’ block rally was stopped and searched, and he and others reported a mysterious ‘man in black’ rushing into this alternative rally and emptying half a dozen small tightly wrapped packages from a black bin bag at the bottom of the stepladder from which people were speaking before exiting rapidly stage left.
Someone kicked one of these packages open and found it contained a catapult, and all the packages were quickly kicked away under a fence into an area under maintenance behind the speakers. Around 20 minutes later, a policeman entered that area and collected the packages; the anarchists saw what was happening and rapidly dispersed.
As I ended my post on My London Diary: “Earlier in the week a police spokesman had given a widely broadcast media interview in which he predicted that there would be violence – and that some protesters would use catapults. It seems as if someone was determined to make this loony-sounding prophecy come true.”
Plumstead is a hilly place, rising quite steeply from the River Thames as I remember from my first visit to the area when still in short trousers, trudging up a long hill holding my mother’s hand to visit some distant relatives, whose names I no longer remember, nor exactly where they lived. Their back garden went up steeply behind the terrace house.
I don’t think it was this road was the one I walked up back then, but it was still hilly and you can see the houses going down on both sides and I think in the distance to trees and buildings on the other side of the river.
Park, Plumstead Common, Plumstead, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-61
The previous picture was taken just a few yards from Winn’s Common, one of several areas also including Bleak Hill and The Slade which make up Plumstead Common. I think this is close to Lakedale Road and shows the foundations of a building with beyond it the rose garden in the next picture.
Park, Plumstead Common, Plumstead, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-13
I made several other pictures on Plumstead Common, though I can’t remember exactly where on the common this was and can find no traces now of this sunken garden with walkways which must once have been covered by plants and flowers but seem to have left in a semi-derelict state, though there are still some rose bushes.
Here I deliberately tilted the panoramic camera to give a curved horizon rather than try to level it with a spirit level as I usually did, partly to include the lower edge of the bushes and small trees, but also to create a kind of enclosed space.
Across the common is a pub, the Woodman, one of the 5 Plumstead Common Idlers, ‘the Woodman who never felled a tree’ at 35 The Slade.
“The Star which doesn’t shine in the sky, the Woodman who doesn’t cut down trees, the Ship that cannot sail the seas, the Mill which doesn’t grind corn, and Who’d a Thought it!”
Radnor Crescent is some distance to the east on the edge of Winn’s Common and I’m not sure exactly which direction I was looking to make this picture, perhaps looking towreds Shooters Hill.
Waste Land, Woolwich Church St, Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-42
From here I walked to Woolwich and the Woolwich Ferry. More pictures from Woolwich in a later post.
Teachers march past Parliament on their way to a rally at Central Hall Westminster
In 2024 Dr Stephen Burley wrote in ‘School Management Plus’ “The impact of the Govian education reforms has been unremittingly negative. Content heavy GCSEs have squeezed Key Stage 3, with many schools using Year 9 to cover over-burdened specifications. The EBacc, in the state sector, has devastated uptake in the creative and technical subjects, with music and DT fairing worst. Learning has narrowed to focus much more on memorisation as students cram for final exams.”
Those reforms were only a part of his ill conceived actions as Education Minister which included a rapid expansion of academies and multi-academy trusts and the introduction of ludicrous changes to the curriculum – such as ‘fronted adverbials’. He probably would have liked to see all those primary children seated in neat rows going through those ‘times tables’ as I spent so much time doing in the 1950s – and actually stated they should be learning the names and dates of the Kings and Queens of England.
He seldom if ever missed an opportunity to denigrate the work of dedicated teachers and clearly showed a fundamental distrust for the views of teachers and educationalists, relying instead in the strange and unsupported advice of a few often working outside their areas of academic competence.
Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary
The strike on 26th March 2014 came after Gove continually refused to engage in meaningful discussions with the unions over the changes his department is pushing through over pensions, performance related pay and the dismantling of a national pay structure.
I was fortunate to have left teaching after 30 years well before Gove and in my last years to teach mainly on courses not approved by the Ministry of Education (Ofsted inspectors didn’t come to judge my teaching but had to request my permission to observe and learn) and to teach other courses that were largely or entirely teacher assessed where students learnt by doing and creating rather than regurgitating.
Thousands came to London on their stike day, March 26th 2014 calling for Gove to resign or his attacks on their pay, pensions, conditions and job security and his denigration and undermining for their professional status, and I felt a great deal of empathy with them.
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: Bicentenary. Events on Sunday 25th March 2007 commemorated the 200th anniversary of the passing of an Act of Parliament to end the slave trade. The previous day I had photographed a Church of England walk of witness to mark the abolition, but on Sunday I covered events in Brixton and Clapham. Sunday was the actual anniversary of the Act which marked a change from Britain being a major partner in the slave trade to opposing slavery worldwide, though it was not until 26 years later in 1833 that slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. The text below is basically what I wrote in 2007 accompanied by a few of the pictures I made.
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: Bicentenary
There is no escaping that all of us who live in Britain – whatever the colour of our skin or our personal history – are now benefiting from the proceeds of the trafficking of African people and their forced labour in our colonies over around four centuries. Fortunes made from slavery helped to build many of the institutions from which we still benefit, including our many of our great galleries and museums. Slavery founded many of our banks and breweries and other great industries, and made Britain a wealthy nation.
But it is also true that the same wealthy elite that treated Africans so callously exploited the poor in Britain. My ancestors were thrown off their land and probably some were imprisoned for their religious beliefs by these same elites. Almost certainly my forebears were a part of the movement that campaigned against slavery and called for an end to the trade in human beings, although equally certainly they had little or no political power at the time, and probably no vote.
Of course that in no way diminishes the horror of the trade, but it does colour my personal attitude to the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the abolition. The abolition movement was an important turning point in the history of our empire and the world leading to the act banning the trade in people and later in 1833 the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. The abolition movement changed Britain from being a country that enslaved millions in its own colonies to one that opposed slavery worldwide.
Slavery of course still exists, even in Britain, and we still need to oppose it in all its forms. Much of present day slavery here only flourishes because of our current immigration policies and their implementation, which makes many immigrants illegal, and impoverishes them, denying them human rights or making them afraid to claim them.
Clapham Commemoration Walk
One of the three groups at the probable site of the African Academy
For the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Slave Trade Act on 25 March 2007, I went to Clapham, the spiritual and physical home of the abolition movement, where the London Borough of Lambeth had organised a commemoration walk. This started at Holy Trinity Church, where the Clapham Sect at the centre of the movement, including William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, John and Henry Thornton, John Venn, Zachary Macaulay and others had worshipped.
Holy Trinity, Clapham, the home of the Clapham Sect
Steve Martin, our guide for the walk emphasised that Clapham was also home to many who had made fortunes from the trade and opposed the abolition, with both sides worshipping in the same parish church.
Nearby, at 5 The Pavement, now occupied by an ‘Evans’ shop, an LCC plaque marks the home of Zachary Macaulay, and also of his more famous son, Lord Macaulay.
Zachary was a former plantation manager in Jamaica and governor of Sierra Leone who had become an abolitionist. As a part of a project to return freed Africans to Sierra Leone he brought 21 boys and 4 girls back from Sierra Leone and set up an African Academy in Clapham to educate them to return to run their country. The walk took us to two possible sites for this school, as well as to a nearby church cemetery, as unfortunately many of them died of measles and were buried there.
Measles killed most of the African students who were buried in this churchyard.
Down Matrimony Place we came to Wandsworth Road, and turned along it to a former brewery and the pub next door. One local family that had made considerable fortune from plantations worked by slave labour were the Barclays (later they became abolitionists and freed their slaves much to the anger of other plantation owners.) When they sold their plantations, the money went into businesses including breweries and banks.
At the Hibbert Almshouses
One of those most prominent in the campaign against abolition was George Hibbert, chairman of the West India Dock Company which profited hugely as the slaving ships brought back the produce of the plantations to London. The Hibbert Almshouses on Wandsworth Road were built to house elderly poor residents of Clapham by his two daughters.
At the end of the walk there was some argument about whether the Tate fortunes depended on slavery
As we turned back up towards Clapham Common, Steve informed us that the street along which we walked had been built on what were once the back gardens of the houses of these wealthy traders in human beings who lived in the extensive houses facing the common on Clapham Northside. The tour ended outside no 29, once the home of George Hibbert (Robert Barclay lived next door at 31), a couple of hundred yards from Holy Trinity, where our walk had started.
Across the middle of the Clapham Common is of course a dividing line – between the London boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth. It would have prolonged our walk to take in the plaque to Wilberforce in Broomwood Road (Broomfield where he lived was demolished in 1904) or to Battersea Rise, the ‘home’ of the Clapham Sect where he lived earlier with his friend and fellow MP Henry Thornton (the house there was demolished in 1908 despite a campaign and public appeal to save it because of its connection with the abolition movement.)
I could find no mention of the bicentenary on the London Borough of Wandsworth site, although the mayor was to attend a church service at All Saints organised by the local churches on 31 march. One of the bas-reliefs on Wandsworth Town Hall shows Wilberforce with the act in his hand, next to Macaulay. Rather to my surprise I found Wandsworth Museum, instead of celebrating its contribution to abolition, was currently showing a Museum Of London travelling show, ‘Queer Is Here’ which in their words included “Peter Marshall’s dynamic black and white photographs capturing a decade of the annual London gay pride event” – which you can still see on line on My London Diary.
Brixton Commemoration – Windrush Square
Earlier in the day I’d been at another Lambeth event, in the centre of Brixton, outside the Tate Library.
At the end of the Clapham walk there had been a fairly intense argument about whether Tate’s sugar fortunes had come, at least in part, from slave labour on Brazilian plantations after the abolition in the British Empire.
Sozo House of Praise Gospel Choir performing.
Organised by the Brixton Society, the commemoration of the abolition took place next to Windrush Square and the site of the proposed Black Cultural History Centre in Raleigh Hall. It was opened by an African drummer and singers from the Sozo House Of Praise gospel choir. There were then some speeches mainly concerned with commemorating the abolition of slavery from the Mayor of Lambeth, Cllr Liz Atkinson, local MP Keith Hill, and Superintendent Paul Wilson for Metropolitan Police in Lambeth.
A woman with a remarkable record as a foster parent speaking
Those present were then invited to plant bulbs in the grass as a permanent memorial, after which Rev Stephen Sichel of St Matthew’s with St Judes across the road led prayers.
Dr Floella Benjamin, OBEplants a bulb
Norma Williamson, the treasurer of the Brixton Society introduced a the next section celebrating the contribution of those of Black Afro-Caribbean origin to life and culture in Britain now. Floella Benjamin, OBE gave a very powerful address particularly stressing the need for black kids to get educated to empower themselves. It was a hard act for Derrick Anderson, CBE, Lambeth’s chief executive, and Devon Thomas, the chair of Brixton Business Forum to follow.
Linda Bellos, former leader of the Labour group on Lambeth council, but rejected by the party as a candidate for a local parliamentary seat gave another powerful performance, putting the issue strongly into its political perspective. Power isn’t just about race, it’s also about class, and gender. The event closed with more fine gospel singing from the Sozo House Of Praise choir.
