Hackney | >Re-PHOTO

Hackney Million Mothers March against Violence

Hackney Million Mothers March against Violence: London is a relatively safe city compared with most large cities around the world. It’s murder rate of 1.38 per 100,000 population compares favourably with most others, and it is nowhere close to those in the top 50 -which all have rates over 28 times as high.

It is also considerably lower than any large city in the United States – which occupy eight places in the worst 50 cities for murders – with New Orleans at 70.56 near the top – only lower than some Mexican cities.

I’ve walked the streets of London carrying expensive cameras since the 1970s and fortunately have yet to be mugged or attacked. I have had my pocket picked a couple of times, seen drug dealers at work and refused offers from them and women offering me a good time, been threatened and assaulted by right-wing thugs and policemen (part of the job if you photograph protests) but generally London is a safe city.

It annoys me when some Americans keep asking about ‘no go’ areas in London (or other UK cities.) There are none. London is a city you can generally safely go anywhere in the public realm, though of course if you ask for trouble you can find it.

London isn’t crime-free. And there are some people who are more at risk than others. Women walking alone at night in lonely places do sometimes get attacked by male sex offenders. Many are sexually assaulted and a few are horribly killed. Some of these murders make the national headlines, such as that of Sarah Everard, killed by a police officer. But rather more women are killed in their homes, most often by men they know – a problem of male violence rather than London streets.

In one recent year there were over 18,000 reports of sexual assaults in London. But sexual assaults often go unreported, and it is difficult to know how many of these were on our streets. And although it is a disgracefully high figure it actually shows London as below the rate for the country as a whole.

Most at risk of being murdered on London’s streets are teenage males. Most are stabbed in crimes relating to gangs and drugs. There were 12,786 knife offences in London in the year ending March 2023, a little down on the figures for 2017-2020. The figures include those carrying a knife, owning a banned knife, trying to buy a knife if you are under 18, and/or threatening, injuring or fatally wounding someone with a knife. 63 of these offences killed someone in London.

Of course one murder is one too many, and all result in the waste of a life and a great deal of grief for the families and friends of those killed. There have been various local initiatives and groups set up to try to cut down the deaths, and some have at least some small effect but generally the numbers keep rising – though Covid saw a fall. Various newspaper articles and TV investigations have covered aspects of the subject, such as this in a series from Channel 4 News.

I’ve photographed a number of the protests and marches, often organised by bereaved families and its not possible to be unmoved, though sometimes I’ve felt that the solutions some of those speaking suggest would have little or no effect.

Knives are important in all of our lives, and in the average kitchen you can find quite a set of knives which could easily be used to kill. We need to change society more generally and importantly the way we raise, teach and occupy young children, giving them a better purpose in life and a sense of their own worth and abilities.

All the pictures here come from the Hackney Million Mothers March on Sunday 23rd August 2009, taking place as a part of an international peace parade to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mothers Against Violence, mothers from bereaved families who are having a real impact in reducing gun, gang and knife crime, and to pledge action in Hackney over the issue.

The march was organised by Songololo Feet, Friend’s Charity, Hackney Council for Voluntary Service (HCVS), International Action against Small Arms (IANSA), St. John’s Church and The Crib, a local community group which “delivers creative and inspiring projects for young people in Hackney”.

More pictures at Hackney Million Mothers March. You can also read about a related event I photographed the day before this on 22nd August 2009 at LIVE & FAME Against Knife Crime.

LD50, Picturehouse, Guinness, Khojaly & Dubs Now

Saturday 25th February saw me travelling around London to photograph unrelated protests in Dalston, Leicester Square, Brixton and Westminster.

Shut race-hate LD50 gallery – Dalston

LD50, Picturehouse, Guinness, Khojaly & Dubs Now

People protested outside the small LD50 gallery in Dalston just off the Kingsland Road which they say has promoted fascists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, racists and Islamophobes in one of London’s more diverse areas.

The gallery gets its name from the does of any substance which kills 50% of those taking it, and the protesters said it “has been responsible for one of the most extensive neo-Nazi cultural programmes to appear in London in the last decade.”

One man, “dc miller“, came to argue that it was a matter of free speech and the right to freely discuss ideas, even repulsive ones, should be defended. He got considerable verbal abuse from the protesters and eventually police came and advised him firmly to leave, and later wrote a number of articles about the gallery and the protest.

The protest didn’t immediately close down LD50 despite the claims of the protesters and a couple of months later it put on a show of defiance called ‘Corporeality’, though it is now permanently closed.

Perhaps an article in the Baffler by Megan Nolan, Useful Idiots of the Art World best expresses the position in this quote:

LD50 is a real place, in a real neighborhood, filled with people who are directly threatened by the vile speech of the very real racists who were invited into it. Repeatedly, the defense mounted by the gallery has been that it was attempting to have an open discussion about reactionary ideologies. The implication is that LD50 were engaging in some sort of completely neutral anthropological consideration of current events, rather than extending a fawning welcome to alt-right lynchpins.

More pictures at Shut race-hate LD50 gallery

Picturehouse recognition & living wage – Leicester Square

I rushed down to Leicester Square where workers from four Picturehouse cinemas at Brixton, Hackney, Wood Green and Picturehouse Central were holding a rally outside the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square to campaign for recognition of their union BECTU and to be paid the London Living Wage.

The Empire was recenetly acquired by Cineworld the owners of Picturehouse who have refused to recognise trade unions, but instead set up a company run staff forum.

They are not paying staff in London a living wage and offer poor conditions of service despite making large profits from cinema-goers paying £13 or more to see a film in central London. I’d arrived late and had to leave before the speeches to get the tube to Brixton.

More pictures Picturehouse recognition & living wage

Stop Unfair Eviction by Guinness – Brixton

The Guinness Trust was set up in 1890 by Sir Edward Cecil Guinness, then head of the family brewing business, to provide better housing for working class Londoners. One of the estates they built was the Loughborough Park Estate in Brixton.

Betiel Mahari had lived on that estate and moved into a new Guinness Trust flat, but the rent on this was more than doubled, increasing from £109 to £256 a week, although some of her neighbours are paying around a weekly rent of £100 less.

Beti has problems paying the new rent and because she works on a zero hours contract here housing benefit claim is constantly being reassessed leading to delays and errors in payment, leaving her in arrears. Guinness are not taking her to court to evict her and her two young sons. Supporters of the ‘Save Beti Campaign’ including Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and Architects for Social Housing were campaigning outside Brixton Station collecting signatures for a petition to oppose the eviction of Beti and other tenants threatened by estate demolition.

I had time in Brixton to take a little walk around, particularly going to look at the railway arches where many long-standing local businesses are being evicted, though some are still trading.

More at Stop Unfair Eviction by Guinness.

25th anniversary of Khojaly Massacre – Westminster,

Back in Westminster the Justice for Khojaly Campaign were marching, calling for justice 25 years after the Khojaly Massacre in Azerbaijan where on the night of 25-26 February 1992, Armenian forces brutally killed 613 civilians, including 106 women and 83 children.

The call for an official apology from the Armenian govenment with full reparations and those responsible for this war crime to be brought to justice. The massacre was the larges in the war that folloed the secession of the majority Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh region to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic which ended in 1994 with an uneasy truce.

More at 25th anniversary of Khojaly Massacre.

Dubs Now – let the children in – Downing St

My final event of the day was at Downing Street, where Help4Refugee Children was calling on the Government to honour its promise to let unaccompanied Syrian children into the UK after it reneged on its pledge earlier this month.

*Theresa May’s high heels tread on a child*

When Parliament had passed the Dubs amendment it had been very clear that this should happen and the government’s shameful and heartless decision overturned this, leaving many vulnerable young children forced to continue living in intolerable conditions. Many local councils say that they had made offers to take the children but these have been ignored by government.

Dubs Now – let the children in.

Before the Olympics – 2007

Five years and a few months before the London 2012 Olympic Games took place much of the site was still open although businesses had been moved out and some of the buildings were becoming derelict. I’d had an invitation to a party at a site there the previous evening but hadn’t been able to attend, but on Sunday 11th February 2007 I took my Brompton on the trains to Stratford Station for a tour of the area. It began as a rather gloomy day but the weather at least brightened up later.

I did return to parts of the area in later months as the close down was taking effect – and even led a two-day workshop at the View Tube in April 2010. And in June I was there to photograph workmen putting up the blue fence to keep us out of the whole Olympic area until well after the games were gone.

Before the Olympics - 2007 — *Footbridge to railway works over Waterworks River, Stratford Marsh.*

Here’s what I wrote on back in 2007 about my ride around the area, much of which I spent pushing and carrying my Brompton bike along footpaths. But it did make it possible for me to cover rather more ground than would have been possible on foot. I’ve corrected the capitalisation etc. There are several pages of pictures with the original on My London Diary, just a few of which are shown here.

2012 Olympic Site – Stratford, Sunday 11 Feb, 2007

Sunday I went to the Olympic site again, keen to photograph before the area becomes ‘fortress Olympics’ and is destroyed. Many of the businesses have now moved out and some of the small industrial estates are looking pretty empty. Tate Moss, who occupied a site by the City Mill River had staged their final event the night before, but the partying didn’t keep going long enough for me to look in and the place was deserted.

*Marshgate Lane under the Northern Outfall Sewer is blocked with old tyres*

Some of the riverside paths were open again after the test borings that have been going on, although several were fenced off over a year ago. The gate to the path by the waterworks river from the Greenway wasn’t locked, so I took a walk up this, but I knew that it was no longer possible to get out onto Marshgate Lane so had to retrace my steps.

*The Marshgate Centre and Banner Chemicals from the Greenway*

The route back up to the Greenway from Marshgate Lane was almost completely obstructed by heaps of old car tires, and I had to carry my Brompton for a few yards and climb up onto a grass bank where the steps were completely blocked. Parts of the road were no longer open to cars too.

From there I moved on to Hackney Wick and Waterden road, and I finished the day as the light was getting low on Hackney Marshes, one of the areas in which locally important sporting facilities will be lost at least for a few years, perhaps for good.

Original text on the February 2007 page (you will need to scroll down.)

My article back then ended with the paragraph above, but my ride didn’t – I had to get back home. It had previously taken me to a number of places just outside the condemned area, including some that were to be demolished for Crossrail, and it didn’t actually end on the Hackney Marshes, as the pictures on My London Diary demonstrate.

I decided to ride back to Stratford to get the train home, and that ride took me back past Clays Lane, where the estate was to be demolished for the athletes’ village and I stopped several more times on my way to take more pictures in the gloom. Even when I arrived at Stratford around sunset there was still enough light for a few final images.

You can see many more pictures from the entire ride on My London Diary

Extinction Rebellion Hackney Street Party 2019

Extinction Rebellion, XR, was founded in May 2018 by a small group who met in Stroud, including Gail Bradbook, Simon Bramwell and Roger Hallam along with others from the direct action network Rising Up. I’d photographed some of these people before at protests against Heathrow expansion and over air pollution on the streets of London.

Roger Hallam in particular had played a leading role in the ‘Stop Killing Londoners’ protests which perhaps had some influence on getting Sadiq Khan to take some action on this with the setting up of low emission zones, whose planned extension to the whole of Greater London is now exciting considerable controversy. I’d also photographed him at his campaign to get King’s College to divest from fossil fuel companies and supporting the campaign for better pay and conditions for low paid workers at the LSE

Police arrest Roger Hallam at the LSE — *Police arrest Roger Hallam for decorating the LSE, April 2017*

Since helping to form XR, Hallam has gone on to take part in other high profile protests and spent time in prison over breaching bail conditions by holding a toy drone without batteries close to the airport. The whole plan to fly drones in the Heathrow exclusion area had been a publicity stunt, never a serious attempt to disrupt or endanger flights, but gained a huge amount of media publicity, which perhaps helped to increase public awareness of the contribution to climate change and pollution of air transport.

XR continues to attract wide support for its non-violent protests highlighting both the devastating effects of global heating and the continuing failure of governments including our own to take action on the scale needed to combat it. It’s large public protests began with a mass reading of its ‘Declaration of Rebellion‘ in Parliament Square in October 2018 with Greta Thunberg as one of the speakers and continued with mass protests in London and elsewhere, becoming a global movement.

Its announcement at the start of 2023 that it was taking a rest caused some consternation among its supporters, but XR soon made clear that this was for a ‘100 days’ campaign to prepare for ‘The Big One’ on 21 April 2023, https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/ when they intend that 100,000 people will gather outside the Houses of Parliament “To demand a fair society and a citizen-led end to the fossil fuel era.”

The street party in Hackney on Saturday 9th February 2019 was rather smaller, with perhaps a thousand taking part. Unlike in some later protests the police decided to facilitate the event rather than try to block or disperse it, closing the road and setting up diversions for traffic as people blocked the usually busy A10 for two hours with speeches, music and spoken word performances, t-shirt printing, face painting and free food, with dancing to a samba band.

At the end of the two hour party after a brief march up and down a short section of the road, the protesters moved off the street to continue their protest party in Gillett Square, and shortly after this I went home.

Police after all do facilitate other large events which block our streets, in particular sporting events such as the London Marathon, some cycling events, the Chinese New Year, Notting Hill Carnival and more. But later XR protests have been more widespread and longer lasting and clearly the police’s political masters have put considerable pressure on the police to take a more draconian approach – and at times to go beyond the law to do so.

The response of the government has been to produce new laws. The Public Order Bill currently going through parliament gives much more extreme powers to police and courts, including Serious Disruption Prevention Orders which will restrict the movement of people, who they can meet and even their use of the internet, an expansion of stop and search powers, enabling them to search without any suspicion, various new protest-related offences, some vaguely defined allowing almost anything to be an offence and even police powers to shut down protests before they begin.

The Public Order Bill re-introduces most of the amendments that were rejected by the House of Lords in January 2022 and so did not form part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

*The march ended in Gillett Square, freeing the road for traffic*

Many more pictures at Extinction Rebellion Hackney Street Party on My London Diary.

Asylum Protest and Bow Walk – 2008

I went up to London on Tuesday 8 January, 2008 for two reasons. To photograph the monthly protest outside one of our asylum reporting centres and to collect three pictures that had been in a group exhibition. I took advantage of this to have a walk around Bow starting at Limehouse DLR station and after collecting the four pictures continuing to Canary Wharf to catch the Jubilee Line back to Waterloo.

Defend Asylum Seekers: Monthly London Protest – Communications House, Old Street

Communications House on the south-west corner of the Old Street roundabout a few yards from Old Street station has now been demolished and replaced by newer offices, and asylum seekers now have to report at either Lunar House in Croydon or Eaton House out to the west on Hounslow Heath.

So asylum seekers no longer have to enter the dingy entrance down a side street, Mallow St but many have longer and less convenient journeys to make their regular visits. They still know when they enter that these may be their last steps as free persons on British soil, and they may emerge in the back of a van on their way to a detention centre to wait for a flight back to possible imprisonment and torture in their country of origin.

Few of those who walked past the protest knew what went on in the rather anonymous building on their lunch break knew what went on inside, and those who bothered to listen or take leaflets from the protesters, were surprised when they were told, with many stopping to add their names to the petition. The monthly protests here were organised by London Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) but others including some asylum seekers came to speak.

I commented back then: “It is hard to take the claims that this is a Christian country seriously when you look at the way we treat those who are seeking asylum here, or indeed other migrants who are here. With the recent news frenzies about Tony Blair becoming a Catholic my thoughts were that he should be spending some awfully long and difficult sessions in the confessional, and his policies towards the asylum seekers would be one of many difficult items. And surely that father in the manse that Mr Brown likes to parade should be screaming “Gordon, Read your effing Bible!”

Neither the Church of England nor the Roman Catholic authorities have taken the kind of firm and clear public stand they should to oppose the UK’s increasingly racist policies over immigration. There have been statements by the leaders of the churches and others but these are soon lost in the media. But there has been a lack of the concerted action and a failure to arouse popular opinion to bring about an end to the ‘more racist than thou‘ race between the parties to appeal to the right – and our right-wing billionaire press. Fewer people than in past years populate the pews, but if mobilised they could still be an important body, forcing governments to provide safe routes and fair treatment rather than trying to simply send back people to where they had fled persecution and fly asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Defend Asylum Seekers

Bow and Roof Unit

Rood Unit is a working space for photographers and was then based in a former furniture (or soap or perhaps both) factory in Bow, later moving to a floor above the Four Corners photography gallery in Roman Road. I had been invited to take part in a show they were presenting, Roof Unit Foundations, at [space] in Hackney and had shown four colour pictures from around River Lea in the 1980s.

This was one of them – and the others as well as a review of the show are in a post on this blog at the time, ROOF UNIT at [ space ]. And you can see these and many other of my pictures of the Lea Valley and the Lea Navigation in my River Lea web site, as well as in my book ‘Before the Olympics‘.

I took the DLR to Limehouse and made my way rather indirectly to their studio in Pixley Street on the corner with Copenhagen Place. The old factory is still there, though Roof Unit have moved out. I spent a short time talking with some of the photographers and was taken up onto their roof terrace where I took some more pictures, all using my Nikon D200.

I couldn’t resist adding the factory chimney to those at Canary Wharf as another tower, and the long arm of a crane made a little of a border across most of the top of the image. But I took quite a few more pictures – a few of which are in the post on My London Diary.

Fortunately my exhibition prints were quite small, 30x20cm, and unframed on dibond aluminium, so it wasn’t hard to carry them, though I didn’t stop to take many more pictures before the short bus ride to Canary Wharf. By now the light was beginning to fade, but I took a short walk around – and a few more pictures – before getting the underground back to Waterloo.

Bow and Roof Unit

Clean Air and Fair Pay – 2019

Clean Air and Fair Pay – 2019. Two protests on Friday 12th July 2019 over different issues in different parts of London meant I had to leave the first before the rally at the end of the march.

XR East London marches for clean air – Bethnal Green

The march from Paradise Gardens at the centre of Bethnal Green to Hackney Town Hall was the initial event in a weekend of play, protest and education which Extinction Rebellion East London had organised under the title ‘East London Uprising’.

Paradise Gardens was an obvious and appropriate if ironic meeting point for this march calling for the urgent action on the environment we need if the planet is to remain habitable. Although this has been protected commonland since 1678, this public green space is a thin and rather neglected strip between the busy Cambridge Heath Road and Paradise Row, a narrower street lined mainly by Grade II listed houses. It used to be simply a part of Bethnal Green Gardens which are on the east side of the main road but got its current name from Paradise Row – and the northern part of the gardens across the traffic-clogged road became Museum Gardens.

Until shortly before this protest this small area of park had been closed as it was being used by contractors for nearby construction work, with the proviso that they restore it after their work was finished. This appeared to largely have been done, and had not affected the main attraction of the area, the dozen or so large trees along both edges.

When I arrived, people were still getting ready for the march, though most were simply standing around and waiting, some were getting their faces painted while the marching band were practising playing together, and the march stewards were getting their instructions. But finally people lined up behind the main banner with its message ‘THE AIR THAT WE GRIEVE’ and moved onto the fume-laden Cambridge Heath Road.

Air pollution is a huge problem in London, with many areas well above the EU’s legal limits for various pollutants much or all of the time. Traffic is a major source both of gases such as nitrogen oxides and also particulates, and moving towards electric vehicles, though an improvement will not solve the problem as much of the most dangerous particulates come from tyres and brakes. We need to cut traffic, by reducing the need for movement, shifting hugely to public transport and moving to using bicycles, electric bicycles and scooters particularly for shorter journeys.

Air pollution is said to be responsible for almost 10,000 premature deaths in London each year, and a much larger number suffer from serious lung and other conditions from it, greatly reducing their quality of life and creating a heavy burden and costs for our healthcare system. But encouraging people to adopt healthier means of transport needs much more spending on making these safer and more convenient.

The march up one of the area’s busier roads was largely uneventful, though it will have delayed many on their journeys through the area, but it will also have made many people in the area more aware of the problems. Those who drive in London are used to delays, with an overcrowded system in which any minor problem can cause lengthy delays – and as a bus passenger it isn’t unusual I often find myself getting off and walking when I’m in a hurry.

I left the march shortly after it moved across the border from Tower Hamlets into Hackney and was going up Mare Street towards the Town Hall. I was sorry to have to miss the childrens’ assembly which was to take place there at the end of the march, but wanted to be sure to be in time for the protest at Senate House in the centre of London.

More pictures: XR East London marches for clean air

IWGB welcome new Vice Chancellor – Senate House, University of London

Most of the workers carrying out essential but low paid jobs at the University of London are not employed by the university but by contractors who provide their services to the university. This outsourcing results in the workers being poorly paid, often bullied and employed with only the minimum legal conditions of employment.

For years they have been protesting to be employed directly by the university and so get the same pay and working conditions as other staff in similar jobs that are on the payroll. In particular they want the same sick pay, holiday pay and pensions, and of course the London Living Wage.

Their campaigns have met with some progress – and three years on many have been brought in house, but the university dragged its feet for many years, spending large amounts on extra outsourced security staff and refusing to talk with the unions representing the low paid workers. Although trade union legislation means that as employers have to recognise unions, neither the contractors who employed these workers nor the university in whose premises they worked were willing to recognise or negotiate with their unions.

Progress has only been made by direct actions such as this by the grass-roots trade union IWGB, and by strikes by the workers. They had tried to meet with the new Vice-Chancellor Wendy Thomson but their request had simply been ignored.

After a rally at the main gates and a protest outside Student Central (the former University of London Union, closed down by the University because it supported the workers) the protesters returned to Senate House. A small group pushed down some flimsy barriers with the extra security unable to stop them and the rest surged in after them to dance noisily in protest in the yard in front of the locked entrance to Senate House.

More at IWGB welcome new Vice Chancellor

Car Spares And Fly Tipping In Hackney Wick

The final few hundred yards of my walk in Hackney on a Sunday in October 1988 took me to Hackney Wick station and I made a few views using the height of the footbridge across the East Cross Route and also from Hackney Wick station where the railway line runs on a viaduct. The previous section of this walk is Homerton to Hackney Wick.

Footbridge, Hackney Wick, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-56-Edit_2400 — *Footbridge, Hackney Wick, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-56*

Looking roughly north you can see the tower blocks of the Trowbridge Estate. Some had already been demolished by 1988 – the programme had been started in 1985 and was completed by 1996.

Car Spares, Hackney Wick, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-42-Edit_2400 — *Car Spares, Hackney Wick, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-42*

Coming down the footbridge I got a better view of the large car spares yard on Rothbury Road, past which you can see the embankment carrying the North London Line. At right is the top of a cafe and towering above the railway the remaining towers of Hackney Wick’s Trowbridge Estate. Perhaps given its history my my confusion with Trowbridge and the accident-prone frigate HMS Troutbridge in BBC radio’s long running series with Lesley Phillips, Jon Pertwee, Ronny Barker and others, The Navy Lark was understandable.

*Car Spares, Rothbury Rd, Hackney Wick, Tower Hamlets, 1992, 92-8d-41*

I didn’t photograph the front of the car spares site on Rothbury Road on this occasion – it had been a long walk and I was tired and just wanted to get to the station in time for a train towards home. So here are a couple of pictures from around four years later, when little had changed.

*Fence, Car spares, Rothbury Rd, Hackney Wick, Tower Hamlets, 1992 TQ3684-009*

And one in colour.

Fly tipping, Rothbury Rd, Hackney Wick, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-31-Edit_2400 — *Fly tipping, Rothbury Rd, Hackney Wick, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-31*

The area at the Hackney Wick end of the footbridge was a favourite with fly-tippers, sometimes making it hard to use the bridge.

Wallis Rd, White Posts Lane, Hackney Wick, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-34-Edit_2400 — *Wallis Rd, White Posts Lane, Hackney Wick, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-34*

The whole right hand side of White Posts Lane at the right of this picture was redeveloped in 2018-9, but the low section of wall from earlier demolition in my picture was still there after that though now – like much of Hackney Wick, highly decorated with graffiti. A considerable amount of graffiti in the Wick was removed in tidying up the area for the 2012 Olympics but was soon re-stablished. Wallis Road at left led me to the station.

Hackney Wick, Hackney Wick Station, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-36-Edit_2400 — *Hackney Wick, Hackney Wick Station, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-36*

From the footbridge at Hackney Wick station there were views over the surrounding area. The station has been rebuilt since I made this picture, and now has an entrance on the south side of the line.

This was the end of my rather long walk in the London Borough of Hackney in October 1988 which had begun at the southern end of Stoke Newington in the post South Stokey & Hornsey Detached.

Homerton to Hackney Wick

Homerton to Hackney Wick – This walk I made in October 1988 continues from where my previous post Morning Lane, Paint, Handbags and Printers ended.

Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-01-Edit_2400 — *Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-01*

Immediately east of Mackintosh Lane on the south side of Homerton High St at No 178-84 was an unusual arched brick wall, which attracted my attention. Thistle House at 178-82 was a hostel with 33 rooms in multiple occupation. Part of the wall shown in this picture has now been demolished to allow storage of large rubbish bins. The wall goes in front of two distinct houses, both of which have one circular window – but in the joined house it is above the second floor window.

Barnabas Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-63-Edit_2400 — *Barnabas Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-63*

Barnabas Rd runs south from Homerton High Street past Homerton Station. In 1988 the premises of printers Alan Moor & Co at No 24 was up for auction. It is still there and remains a handsome villa – my photograph doesn’t really do it justice. I suspect it dates from around 1860 when Barnabas Road was called Church Road, (it was renamed in 1936) but can find no details. The rather ugly porch has I think been extended since 1988.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary & St Dominic, RC, Church, Kenworthy Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-64-Edit_2400 — *The Immaculate Heart of Mary & St Dominic, RC, Church, Kenworthy Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-64*

Originally called the The Church of the Immaculate Heart and St. Dominic it was designed by C A Buckler and built on what was until 1939 Sidney Rd two years after a mission was founded here in 1873. The church, completed in 1883, was badly damaged by bombing and fire in 1941 and was rebuilt in 1955-57. My picture shows it with shops on the corner of Wick Rd, where there is still an Indian takeaway.

Hackney Hospital, Homerton High St, Kenworthy Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-65-Edit_2400 — *Hackney Hospital, Homerton High St, Kenworthy Rd, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-65*

I went up Kenworthy Road back to Homerton High St, stopping on the corner of Ward Lane to make this picture of the East Wing of Hackney hospital, which I think is Pavilion B, built in 1880-82, designed by William Finch, a typical design for the time with long airy ‘Nightingale Wards’ and towers at the corner containing sanitary facilities. (I stayed on a similar ward in a south London hospital in 2003 just before it was demolished – and collapsed in the disconnected sanitary area after an operation, fortunately in reach of the red emergency cord which I came around sufficiently to pull and bring medical staff running to my aid.) Although Hackney Hospital closed in 1995, parts are still in use for mental health services and a notice calls this the John Howard Centre, which provides low and medium secure mental health services for North East London.

Shops, Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-66-Edit_2400 — *Shops, Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-66*

These buildings are still there at 201-205 Homerton High Street, though in different hands. Back in 1988 a Bookmakers next to a Turf Accountant (a rather upmarket term for the same thing) seemed excessive, while F A MURRELLS business was completely hidden by shutters. It seemed to be some kind of miniature business, the whold width of the property perhaps around 7 ft with a tiny door only suitable for a slim child in the shutters. Whatever was going on inside – or rather had once gone on inside – obviously involved something of some value, worth protecting with an AFA Burglar Alarm, perhaps a jewellers or pawnbrokers? But this tiny shop had obviously been fairly recently sold – and now appears to be a residential property.

The Adam & Eve, pub, Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-51-Edit_2400 — *The Adam & Eve, pub, Homerton High St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10d-51*

There has been an Adam & Eve tavern in Homerton High Street since at least 1735, but its fine frontage is dated from 1915 and was recently restored. Its cream terracotta front includes a large relief showing very chastely the couple before the fall but underneath an apple tree. In 1988 it was a Taylor Walker pub (though Taylor Walker had been taken over and closed in 1960), now it is described as a gastro-pub, with fresh food from the farm daily and offering “CURING – MICROBREWERY – ALLOTMENT”. The Taylor Walker pub sign was rather better and had above the field gun that came from the Clerkenwell Cannon brewery they took over in 1929.

East Cross Route, Hackney Wick, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-55-Edit_2400 — *East Cross Route, Hackney Wick, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-10d-55*

The East Cross Route was a part of the disastrous Ringways plan for concentric motorway rings around London. This was one of two major parts of the of the innermost Ringway 1 which actually got built between 1967 and 1973. The cost and environmental devastation caused by the building of the Westway in North Kensington led to a huge backlash which led to the cancellation of the remaining parts of the scheme.

The East Cross Route was less controversial, partly because it was in East London and most politicians and others didn’t much care about what happened there, but also because it largely replaced an existing rail line which had long separated the communities on each side. For much of its length there was in any case little between the road and the natural boundary of the River Lea and the Lea Navigation.

There were relatively few roads which ran across the area, and the links across the new road were maintained with both Wick Lane and Wick Road still leading to Hackney Wick. Olf Ford Road no longer led to Old Ford, except by a footbridge, but for vehicles the detour was relatively short. The bridge I was on when I made this picture carries a footpath across Victoria Park from Cadogan Terrace to Rothbury Road in Hackney Wick. The Trowbridge Estate built in 1965-9 had 7 rather striking 21-storey tower blocks. Demolition of these had begun with Northaird Poiont in 1985 and all had gone by 1996.

The final post in this series, appearing shortly, will include my pictures from Hackney Wick where my walk ended.

Morning Lane, Paint, Handbags and Printers

Morning Lane, Paint, Handbags and Printers – continuing my walk in October 1988 from where I finished the previous post, Shops, Houses, A Library, Car Sales 1988 on Morning Lane in Hackney.

Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-33-Edit_2400 — *Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-33*

This row of shops is at 163-173 Morning Lane, a few yards west of Ponsford Street, and still looks much the same, although 173 at right, derelict in 1988 and its doors and windows covered with corrugated iron sheeting has been rebuilt with two extra floors, one set back in the roof, and has lost or covered up the rather attractive doorway between it and 171. Surprisingly Sang Kee is still there, with a rather brighter shop front, though the CHINESE FOOD TO TAKE AWAY is no longer advertised as HOT. The bookmakers and Property Consultants have closed, and although there were various fast-food outlets which replaced the Morning Lane Fish Bar I think these properties are now residential.

Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-35-Edit_2400 — *Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-35*

This rather attractive building 1930s building on Morning Lane was demolished in 2008-9 to build the Cardinal Pole Catholic School. The school was named for the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginal Pole, archbishop from 1556 to 1558; the new building brought together the school which was previously on Parin three sites and was a part of the Hackney Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. When I photographed it was in use by Hackney Council and the row of posters outside warned of the dangers to local public services of government rate capping.

Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-21-Edit_2400 — *Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-21*

Bergers came to Hackney from Shadwell in 1780, making dyestuffs and became a major manufacturer of paint and varnish from the 1860s. After various mergers etc they became Berger, Jensen & Nicholson and finally a part of Crown Paints, but they left the area in 1970. Most of their extensive buildings were demolished, but this handsome 1934 laboratory building at 205 Morning Lane survived until 2008, being used as a health centre and later taken over by Hackney Social Services.

Persaud Handbags Ltd, Rosina St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-24-Edit_2400 — *Persaud Handbags Ltd, Rosina St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-24*

There is still a carwash on Rosina St, a short cul-de-sac south of Homerton High Street, though it looks rather different, and rather to my surprise the factory building behind is still standing, its front entrance in Shepherd’s Lane, and looking rather more dilapidated. Spitalfields Life ran a story, At Persauds’ Handbag Factory in 2011 showing work continuing in the building still run by the Persaud family under the name J&R Designs. Unfortunately the company was wound up in 2016, though the works appeared to be still in use in 2021.

Sedgwick St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-11-Edit_2400 — *Sedgwick St, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-11*

Sedgwick St also leads south from Homerton High St, with a footpath at its end leading under the North London Line at Homerton Station. I think everything in this photograph has now been demolished.

St Barnabas Hall, School. Church, High Street, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-13-Edit_2400 — *St Barnabas Hall, School, Church, High Street, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-13*

St Barnabas Church was built on Homerton High St in 1845-7, designed in a late medieval style in Kentish Ragstone by Hackney-born Arthur Ashpitel (1807-69). The adjoining St Barnabas Hall and Schools were added in 1884, also in ragstone but in a Tudor style. According to its Grade II listing, part of the costs were provided by “Joshua Watson (1771-1855), the leader of an influential group of Evangelical churchmen known as the Hackney Phalanx.” The vicarage, forecourt wall and war memorial have separate Grade II listings.

Mackintosh Lane, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-15-Edit_2400 — *Mackintosh Lane, Homerton, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-15*

Mackintosh Lane is a narrow road parallel to Sedgwick Street a few yards to the east, with the two streets joining at the southern end immediately north of Homerton Station on the North London Line, now a part of London’s Overground. The buildings on the left – the east side of the street – which have a hanging sign for a printing works called either MB or M3 Printers have been replaced by flats, though one building just visible at the end of the street remains. Those at the right remain, extensively refurbished around 2013.

In 1940 the east side of Mackintosh Lane as listed on London Wiki was home to the following
1 Apex Insulation Co Ltd, insulating material manufacturers
1 Excelvac Flask Co, vacuum flask makers
1 Gainsborough Sheet Metal Works
3 Rowlands (Homerton) Ltd, leather goods manufacturers
5,5A & 6 Hirst Harold, leather manufacturer
6 Richford & Co Ltd, iron founders
Orcene Co Ltd (The), detergents
7 Parapads Ltd, tailors padding manufacturers
Cornish & Holland, pianoforte key manufacturers (Nestor works)
Marshall F H, cabinet maker.

Now Googling Mackingtosh Lane reveals a non-profit art gallery and “a truly unique wedding venue” in a”1950’s building … once a print factory loading bay”. Times change.

Shops, Houses, A Library, Car Sales 1988

Shops, Houses, A Library, Car Sales 1988 – a walk around Lower Clapton, and Hackney which continues from post Jews, a Bishop and the Sally Army.

Gulluoglu, A & A Jewellers, Golden States, Chinese Takeaway, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 88-10b-11-Edit_2400 — *Gulluoglu Bakery, A & A Jewellers, Golden States, Chinese Takeaway, Lower Clapton Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 88-10b-11*

Shops at 63-67 Lower Clapton Rd two of which are still under the same names in 2021. Even the jewellers is still a jewellers though under a different name. Some businesses are more essential than others and family businesses like these often survive longer than some others.

Median Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-13-Edit_2400 — *Median Rd, Lower Clapton, Hackney, 1988 88-10b-13*

I stood shocked and wondering how these three houses, at 61-65 Median Road had got into the state they are in. I imagine the when built 61 and 63 had similar windows – and what had possessed someone to replace those of 61 something so much plainer. Was it a matter of bomb damage or owner derangement. Equally a sore thumb was the cladding imposed on 61, quite out of character. These houses have changed little since I took the picture, though fortunately the trees in the trangle in front of them have grown considerably and they are rather less visible.

I turned around and walked back into the centre of Hackney, probably mainly to buy a snack to keep me going.

*Hackney Central Library, Mare St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-01-Edit_2400*

Hackney Central Hall and Library was built in 1907, its architect Henry A Crouch, and was still in use when I made this picture. Hackney now has a new library just across Mare Street, appropriately at 1 Reading Lane. The building was converted into a music venue and community arts centre, the Ocean at a cost of £23m (including a £15m Arts Council grant) and opened in 1999. Music events were supposed to fund the community projects, but failed to do so and Ocean Music Trust and Ocean Music Enterprises ceased trading in 2004. In 2010 it was leased to City Screen who converted it into the Hackney Picturehouse which opened in autumn 2011.

Clarence Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-65-Edit_2400

I’m unsure whether these shops were in the part of Clarence Road (then called Back Street) which were built by 1821 as Down Terrace or were built later in the century. At extreme left is a part of No 22 and at the left is No 42.

Almost all of these except those at the far left have been extensively re-furbished or rebuilt since 1988 and only a couple remain with shop fronts, the rest of the row being simply housing, with an added second floor stepped slightly back.

Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-41-Edit_2400 — Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-41

Sutton House is a Grade II* Tudor manor house owned by the National Trust, built in 1535 for Sir Ralph Sadler who was the Principal Secretary to Henry VIII and an aide to Thomas Cromwell. Although the building was later given a Georgian frontage its interior retains many Tudor features.

Its name is the result of a mistake, named after Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School who lived not in this house but next door. His house was demolished in 1806. As the plaque on the wall records, W A Robertson gave money as a bequest in memory of his two brothers killed in the First World War which was used to buy the house. Although it bought the property with his money in 1936, the National Trust appears not to have been very interested in it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/petermarshall/50581050732/in/album-72157715589148871/

Sutton House, Homerton High St, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-42

From the 1930s it was leased to various tenants including the ASTMS trade union. After they left in the 1980s it fell into disrepair and was squatted in the mid-80s as the Blue House, holding parties and music events. After the squatters were evicted it continued to decay until the Save Sutton House Campaign, founded in 1987, campaigned for its renovation and it was first opened to the public in 1991, though only fully in 1994. You can now book guided tours.

Mehetabel Rd., Hackney, 1988 88-10c-43-Edit_2400 — *Mehetabel Rd, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-43*

Mehetabel means ‘how good is God’ and was the name of the wife of Hadar in the biblical book of Genesis and a patriach in Nehemiah. One of John Wesley’s six sisters was the poet Mehetabel Wesley Wright (1697–1750.)

Mehetabel Road is a short street with close to its centre the Chesham Arms pub, declared in 2013 as Hackney’s first Asset of Community Value to protect it when the owner wanted to convert it into flats. The houses at the far left are in Isabella Road.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/petermarshall/50580922666/in/album-72157715589148871/

Morning Car Sales, Off Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-45

Morning Car Sales is in one of the railway arches of the North London Line, I think Arch 200 is just to the left of Link St, where the ‘Hackney Walk’ fashion development opened in 2016 – and is now ‘To Let’.

Car showroom, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-46-Edit_2400 — *Car showroom, Morning Lane, Hackney, 1988 88-10c-46*

Inside the office were a strange selection of pictures, including Maria Whittaker from the Sunday Sport along with a pastoral riverside and a more maritime painting, with a couple of calenders for September 1988 and a table with tea-making facilities. Although pictures such as this half-naked woman might not now be suitable for Parliament, they were common in many workplaces back then.

The walk will be continues shortly. You can see a larger version of any of the pictures by clicking on it to go to my album 1988 London Photos.