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Krishna Celebrations & A Police State

Krishna Celebrations & A Police State: On Sunday 19th August 2007 I went to photograph a religious celebration in Southall, around 11 miles from where I live. I don’t drive and it takes well over an hour by public transport but I could then ride there on my bike in perhaps 45 minutes. At the time the Climate Camp was taking place near Heathrow at Harmondsworth, but having read their “media policy” I had decided not to go there, but in the event I got drawn into it a little. Here I’ll re-publish, with some slight corrections what I wrote on My London Diary in 2007 together with pictures from from the day, both in Southall and on my way home along the north of Heathrow.

On Sunday I cycled through the light rain to the Shree Ram Mandir (Temple Of Lord Rama) in King Street, Southall, which was apparently the first Hindu temple established in Britain, although recently rebuilt. They were holding their Janam Ashtami Shobha Yaatra, a procession in honour of the birth anniversary of Krishna which this year is on September 4.

I have to admit to finding the Hindu religion confusing, but processions such as this are lively and colourful events even if their full appreciation may require a rather different mindset to mine.

It is easy to share the feelings of celebration and of community, and to feel the welcome given by so many. I also met for the first time the newly elected MP for Ealing Southall who held the seat for labour in last month’s by-election, Virendra Sharma, taking part in the procession; many were eager to pose for their picture with him.

I took a route back from Southall along the north side of Heathrow, close to the Climate Camp at Harmondsworth. On my way to Southall, along the Great South West Road which runs along the south-east of the airport, I’d been stopped and searched by police at Hatton Cross.

Its a power that police are using more and more – on average around 11,000 a month in London now, and one that makes me feel uneasy. We now seem to be in a kind of police state I’ve certainly never voted for and don’t wish to live in.

I won’t appear in the Met’s figures, despite being searched in London, as the two officers concerned had been drafted in from Surrey for the day. They were polite and we had a pleasant enough conversation, but to me it still seems an unreasonable intrusion.

Under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, the police can search anyone in an area designated as likely to be the subject of a terrorist attack – such as airports. they don’t need to have any grounds to suspect you, being there is enough.

Cycling back along the pavement by the Bath Road (a shared path) there were rather more police around, but they were too busy with more likely targets to stop me. As I came along the road I found myself riding along with a woman who was obviously hurrying to get somewhere. We both stopped at the same point, opposite where three activists had scaled the side of a small building with a banner reading “MAKE PLANES HISTORY”.

She jumped over the fence between the two carriageways to approach the protesters, while I stayed on the opposite side from where I had a better view. Later she came back to talk to the TV crew beside me which was talking to one of the protesters – obviously she was proud of her daughter’s action.

And she had every right to be proud. We need action over Heathrow, action to prevent the takeover of even more land for the Third Runway. I’ve long opposed the expansion of Heathrow – and was on the local march against the Third Runway in June 2003. Now there shouldn’t even be a possibility of further expansion, but the government must look at ways of running down the activities at Heathrow, or it will be failing not just West London but the world.

Further along the road I found protesters gathering around the British Airports Authority offices, which were ringed by police. Nothing much seemed to be happening and the media were there in force, so I left the guys to it.

I’d previously been upset by the restrictive media policy adopted by the Climate Camp, which had the effect of preventing sensible photographic coverage of the event. So I was rather less interested than I might otherwise have been in putting myself out to take pictures.

Along the road I met a few groups of demonstrators and did take a few pictures of them, including some on the bridge over the road into the airport, and a couple of the Clown Army being harassed by a police photo team, but my heart still wasn’t really in it.

The British Airways offices had seemed to me a likely place for a confrontation – and obviously the police had thought so too, as teams of black clad figures paced up and down spoiling for a fight, watched over by the guys in uniform and a group of suits. At the top of the mound in front of the offices were a couple of officers on horses.

It was like some painting of the field lining up before a medieval battle, and I wish I’d stopped to take a picture, but they were so obviously looking for trouble I decided I didn’t want the aggravation that this would most likely have caused. For once you will just have to imagine it!

More pictures on My London Diary:
Janam Ashtami Shobha Yaatra
Heathrow Climate Camp Protestors

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Wimbledon Chariot Festival – 2010

Wimbledon Chariot Festival: On Wednesday 18th August 2010 I went to Wimbledon to photograph one of London’s more colourful annual festivals, the procession by the Tamil community from the Shree Ganapathy Hindu Temple around their local streets.

The temple was opened here in Effra Road, in a building that had been built as a mission hall by Trinity Presbyterian Church, a ‘Scottish Church’ founded in Wimbledon in 1883.

In 1887 they had set up a mission Sunday School in South Wimbledon and numbers grew so they built St Cuthbert’s Hall on Effra Street in the mid 1890s. Around 194 this became St Cuthbert’s District Church. On my 2010 post I wrongly called it Anglican rather than Presbyterian.

The Church was still a party of Trinity when falling membership led to the decision in 1956 to sell the building to the Sir Cyril Black Trust, who renamed it Churchill Hall. Black, who died in 1991, was MP for Wimbledon from 1950 to his retirement 1970 and was a strict Baptist, known for his far right views and opposition to liberal reforms, but strongly supportive to the local community and a founder of the Wimbledon Community Association.

The hall in 1981 became the Shree Ganapathy Hindu Temple and its church hall the Sai Mandir prayer hall.

As I noted in 2010, “As well as traditional temple activities for its Tamil community, the temple has a “more holistic approach to providing for the spiritual, moral and emotional needs of our devotees” with various talks, classes and health seminars. Together with the Sai Mandir it also takes part in a wide range of community projects in the London Borough of Merton and more widely, including meals on wheels, food for the homeless, and conservation work as well as welcoming local children, students, teachers and others to come and learn about Hinduism. In recent years it has also worked to support Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka.“

On My London Diary as well as the many pictures there is quite a long introduction about the event which involved a procession around the area with statues of three of the Temple deities, two on chariots and one on a palanquin.

The chariots are pulled by crowds of worshippers, there are musicians, women with bowls of flaming camphor and huge numbers of coconuts, many of which were flung onto rocks in large wooden boxes and shatter, while others ricochet dangerously. All of us were soon covered in coconut milk.

Men stripped to the waist roll along the street holding coconuts in front of them. People present baskets of fruit and coconuts to the Temple priest on the chariot to be blessed and the priest distributes flower petals and other gifts.

It took a couple of hours for the procession to travel what would have been at most a ten minute walk, after which celebrations were to continue inside the Temple

I and my colleague who was also photographing the event were made very welcome at the festival and invited to continue inside and eat a meal, but we had to leave. I’ve not returned as I felt my coverage in 2010 had probably covered the event sufficiently and I would only been repeating myself. This year, 2024, the festival was on Sunday 11 Aug 2024.

Much more on My London Diary at Wimbledon Chariot Festival, where there is also an account of another Tamil Chariot Festival in Ealing.

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Blackstock and Brownswood

Blackstock and Brownswood: Continuing my walk from Sunday 1st October 1989 which began at Finsbury Park and continued to the Nags Head before returning to Finsbury Park. The previous post to this ended on Blackstock Road.

*Gillespie Neighbourhood Office, Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-63*

The buildings at the right of this picture are those on the left of the final picture in my previous post. Here I wanted to contrast the deco style of the Gillespie Neighbourhood Office at 102 with that of the solid Victorian house next door and its more utilitarian infill at 98.

The border between Hackney and Islington runs here along the centre of Blackstock Road and this is on the Islington side, though I was standing in Hackney to take the picture. I was in Hackney’s Brownswood Conservation Area, but the more interesting side of the road here is not in a conservation area and this Art Deco office does not even appear on the local list.

*House, Brownswood Rd, Wilberforce Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-52*

The development of this area was delayed by the setting up of the park in the area as in the early years of its planning the actual boundaries were not fixed. So much of the area was built up in the 1870s, giving it a unusually homogeneous architecture.

Brownswood Road runs though the area with two peculiar staggered junctions and this picture was made at one of these.

*Frinton Metal Ltd, 145a, Brownswood Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-53*

I think the house number is from Blackstock Road – the scrap metal and Gold and Silver buyer was in the back yard of the house at the left, 145 Blackstock Road. Although there were no ‘TO-DAYS PRICES’ listed for Gold & Silver and the shop was closed on a Sunday, there is a light on inside and I think it was still in business.

Google Maps labels this section of Brownswood Road as Lydon Row and there is no sign that there ever was a business here.

*Mountgrove Garage, 115, Finsbury Park Rd, Finsbury Park, Hackney, 1989 89-10b-56*

I walked a little further on down Blackstock Road and then turned down Mountgrove Road. The house at right is on Mountgove Road and that on the left – along with the garage – in on Finsbury Park Road. Rather to my surprise Mountgrove Garage is still there, now offering ‘MOT Tyres Servicing Bodywork’ and claiming ‘ALL VEHICLES REPAIRED HERE’, though all of the notices in my picture have been replaced. I think it looks rather less impressive now.

*Shops, 162-176, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-41*

Back on Blackstock Road I photographed this nicely detailed row with ground floor shops and facing more of the same on the opposite side of the street. I chose this one for the sign which I think at the top read OFFICIAL BOOKING OFFICE with MOTOR COACHES between the first and second floors and lower down ALL ROAD ROUTES and RAIL SEA AIR.

That sign has I think been restored since 1989 and is clearer now, but the uppermost word, already difficult to read in my picture has disappeared. Rather than a booking office the shop is now a book shop.

*Head, 198-200, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-42*

A little further down Blackstock road was this head above BESTOCK FURNISHING, a secondhand furnishing shop, the kind of place we bought chairs and tables when we were poor, and on the shop front of RITEMARKS LTD FOOTWEAR MANUFACTURERS a variety of symbols – a sunflower and two leaping fish. I think the window between these is a reflection of the building in my next picture.

*217, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-43*

Built as Highbury Fire Station by the LCC in 1906 it was one of many closed in 1920 after the replacement of horse-drawn engines by motorised fire engines meant that stations could serve a wider area.

As a young man around 1920 my father worked for a short time at Dennis Brothers Limited in Guildford. He was (among other trades) a carpenter, having grown up working with his father making horse-drawn carts, and they were then still making wooden fire engines, as well as ‘charabancs’ – open motor buses. Cutting the curved doors for these was a tricky three-dimensional job and he did it freehand.

Since I photographed it this Edwardian Arts & Crafts locally listed building has been converted into the Little Angel Day Nursery with flats above.

Marikana Massacre Remembered – 2017

Marikana Massacre Remembered – Two events in London on Wednesday 16th August 2017 marked the 5th anniversary of the massacre when 34 striking miners were shot dead by South African police at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine.

As well as those killed in what “was the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976” at least 78 miners were injured and around 250 were arrested.

A press statement three days ago from SERI, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa gives more details of the event and the failure of the government to compensate many of those involved and the continued denial of criminal responsibility.

This states that “of the 315 claimants, about 129 people have received nothing, including all eleven family members of the murdered Thobile Mpumza” and accuses the police of attempting to tamper the evidence in the criminal cases. Although there are six officers on trial for an event in which three miners and two police officers were killed three days before the massacre, “No one has been charged for the events of 16 August.”

The mine was in 2012 owned by the UK based Lonmin plc, formery Lonrho plc, which became notorious under the leadership of CEO Tiny Rowlands from 1962 until 1993. It was a company at the heart of the British establishment. Duncan Sands, the son-in-law of Winston Churchill and a minister in several Tory governments, became is chair in 1972, and Sir Angus Ogilvy, the husband of Princess Alexandra was a director until he had to resign after the company’s involvement in breaking the sanctions against Rhodesia was revealed – described by then Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1973 as “an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism.”

Lonmin was acquired by multinational mining and metals process group with its headquarters in Johannesburg in 2019 Sibanye-Stillwater, making the group the worlds largest producer of platinum and rhodium among its other precious metals and other interests. It is one of the four largest private employers in South Africa.

In August 2017, Lonmin was still in charge, and protesters met outside its London offices in Mayfair for a lunchtime protest.

They held up large photographs of the dead and called for a public apology by Lonmin and the ANC government, particularly Cyril Ramaphosa, in 2012 on the board of Lonmin and now President of South Africa, of as well as the payment of reparations to the dependent of those killed and those injured and arrested, both on the 16th August and at the police killing and injuring of women a month later. Ramaphosa had urged the police to take firm action against the strikers before the masscre.

Among those taking part were Primrose Nokulunga Sonti and Thumeka Magwangqana from the Marikana women’s organisation Sikhala Sonke (We Cry Together) who had come to the UK asking to meet with Lonmin representatives – but were ignored. They tried to take a letter into the offices for Lonmin but were refused entry, eventually giving the letter to the receptionist who promised to deliver it.

In the early evening there was the annual vigil outside the South African High Commission in Trafalgar Square on the anniversary of the massacre, organised by the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum (PACSF) and Marikana Miners Solidarity Campaign.

People again held the pictures of the murdered miners which also had their names and a brief description. Some had come with yellow flowers and these were handed out to those who had come to take part in the vigil.

Among those who spoke at the event were the two women from Sikhala Sonke who gave a powerful presentation about the effects of the massacre. I had to leave as this ended and before the pictures were taped to the locked gates of the High Commission and people came to lay flowers.

More on My London Diary at Justice for Marikana vigil and Marikana Massacre Protest at Lonmin HQ.

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Nags Head to Blackstock Road – 2019

Nags Head to Blackstock Road: Continuing my walk from Sunday 1st October 1989 which had begun at Finsbury Park and then gone along Seven Sisters Road to the Nags Head in Holloway.

*Coleridge Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-12*

I turned around at the Nags Head and walked back towards Finsbury Park, taking a little detour down Hornsey Road, Tollington Road and Medina Road befor returning to Seven Sisters Road and photographing from the opposite side of the road I’d walked along earlier.

These shops at 218-230 Seven Sisters Road are those I had photographed earlier in the walk but had mistaken for some further down the street but the location is clear from this picture. They have been more greatly altered since 1989 than those further down, and those at the right, closer to the camera demolished.

You can also see the ‘Sisters Gowns’ doorway featured in the previous post at the right on Coleridge Rd.

*Shops, 220-224, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-13*

A view of some of the shops in the row. At the centre of the picture you can see the sky through two of the windows. I think these shops were still all open, though closed on the Sunday morning when I took the picture although the buildings are up for sale. There are lights on in HARRY .O. Fashions and FANTIS BUTCHER still has its shop fittings and scales.

The middle shop was I think a café with a price list at the right, although like many in the area I think was probably more of a social club. When I went past when many of these small cafés were open there were a small group of men drinking coffee around a table and having animated conversations and it would have been rather daunting for an outsider to enter.

*Rainbow Theatre, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-14*

Built as Finsbury Park Astoria in 1930 it became a music venue as The Rainbow Theatre, finally closing in 1982. When built it was an entertainment venue and its interior included bars, cafés and there were concerts and variety shows as well as films on offer. It was Grade II* listed in 1974 largely for its interior which was described as a Hispano-Moresque fantasy.

From 1956-82 it was a music venue, featuring performances by Tommy Steele, Duke Ellington and many others. The Beatles Christmas Show had a short season here in 1963-64 and it was here that Jimmy Hendrix first burnt a guitar. In the 1970s almost every name in pop music played concerts here.

For some years it was then largely unused, with occasional unlicensed boxing matches taking place. Plans to convert it to a bingo hall came to nothing. When I made this picture it seemed to be empty and unused but had been bought by an evangelical church, The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God who are still using the building.

*Man at Telephone Kiosk, Police Box mural, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, Hackney, 1989 89-10a-15*

One man makes a phone call, while the murals show Dr Who running out from his Police Box and a Hokusai inspired wave. The notes on my contact sheet locate this on Blackstock Road. I think it was the wall in front of a Victorian college which was demolished and replaced by the City And Islington College, Centre for Lifelong Learning which opened in 2005.

*Shops, 56-58, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-16*

You can still just make out the sign above 60 Blackstock Road, though it has faded significantly since I made this picture. Then there was no doubt it had once been a CHEMIST and it is now a dentists. But 58 is still a coin operated laundry although it has changed from Launderama to LAUNDERETTE, and the sign between the first and second floor windows has been refreshed to reflect this.

*C Richards & Son, 98, Blackstock Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10b-62*

C Richards & Son, next to the entrance to Blackstock Mews at left, were Typefounders and makers of printing machinery. The house is still there but the entrance at right and the two floors above it have gone, along with the Honda garage, replaced by modern housing and I think the house is now simply residential.

Seven Sisters Road – 1989

Seven Sisters Road: on Sunday 1st October 1989 I took the Victoria Line tube to Finsbury Park (a couple of pictures here) and walked through the park to its most easterly corner, the junction between Green Lanes and Seven Sisters Road at Manor House.

*Finsbury Park, The Manor House, Manor House, Haringey, Hackney, 1989 89-10a-53*

A view from beside the wall to Finsbury Park by the gate. This area was know as Woodberry Down before the Manor House Tavern was first built here on 1830-4 at the crossroads with Green Lanes, a turnpike or toll road, after a 1829 Act of Parliament had allowed the building of Seven Sisters Road.
Local builder Thomas Widdows had owned and lived in a cottage on the site and saw a business opportunity, though it is unclear why it was given the name Manor House – probably because it sounded posh.

It opened as a ‘public house and tea-gardens’ in 1834 and its first landlord advertised it, writing “The Grounds adjoining are admirably calculated for Cricket, Trap-ball, or any other amusement requiring space. There is likewise a large Garden and Bowling green, good Stabling, lock-up Coach-houses, &c. Dinners for Public and Private Parties.

The original pub was demolished in 1930 when the road was widened and the Piccadilly line Manor House station built here, and replaced by this attractive Flemish style building with just a hint of Art Deco. The pub and tube station led to the area becoming known as Manor House, with the name Woodberry Down being revived for the large post-war housing estate built a little to the east by the LCC from 1948-62.

You can learn more about its interesting history and varying clientele – including its time as a major Blues venue in the 1960s – in the Wikipedia article cited. The pub closed around 2000 and its ground floor became a supermarket in 2004.

*Shops, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-42*

Finsbury Park was a rather run-down area in 1989 and some friends were worried about my safety as I walked around the area carrying a bag full of expensive camera equipment, but I had no problems. People were friendly though sometimes clearly thought I was mad to be taking photographs of their streets and shops.

At left is KYPRIAKON KAFENEION, shown more clearly in my next picture. Between the shops are decorated pillars and above them rather odd decorated stone balls. I think the shops were probably added a few years later to the mid-Victorian houses behind.

*Cypriot Social Club, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-43*

You can still see this row of shops on Seven Sisters Road, in the parade between Yonge Park and Medina Road*, and I think this Cypriot cafe is now a dentists. In 1989 there were many Cypriot businesses in the area, but the area is now more diverse and has a large Muslim community. None of the businesses in my previous picture are still present.

* I have now decided that these shops are those at 218-230 Seven Sisters Road which can clearly be seen in a photograph I took later on this walk. They were very similar to those further down the street but have been more altered since 1989, and some demolished.

*Sisters Gowns, Coleridge Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-44*

Sisters Gowns, a few yards down Coleridge Road was also clearly a Cypriot business, and one of many clothing manufacturers in the area, which has now become one of London’s most vibrant fashion areas, particularly around nearby Fonthill Road.

This doorway could still be seen iin a derelict building n 2008, but the whole corner site was demolished soon after, although the site was still empty in 2022.

*Shop Interior, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-31*

I think this busts and bodies were for wale along with other pieces of equipment for use in shop displays, but it looked to me like some kind of kinky torture chamber. Though shopping for clothes is often a torture, particularly when accompanying others who are looking for them. I’m not sure what the football is doing here.

*Shops, Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1989 89-10a-32*

An extremely motley assortment of buildings from different periods, including BANGS, established in 1907, but I think the frontage at least is from the 1930s.

Rather to my surprise, these buildings are still there, though the shops have changed and below BANGS rather than JANE CAST LTD is now a Tesco. Even the building at the right of the row which appeared in my photograph to have no visible support is still there as well as the pub surrounded by scaffolding have survived. The Eaglet, built in 1869, was apparently badly damaged by a Zeppelin in 1917 but recovered and is still open.

North London Drapery Store, Axminster Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10a-35 — *North London Drapery Store, Axminster Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989*

Built in 1938 as North London Drapery Store this Art Deco store was damaged in the war. In 1989 it was used by a variety of businesses including London International College. It has recently been converted to provide 118 expensive flats, with shops on the ground floor.

*Nags Head Market, Enkel St, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1989 89-10a-36*

According to ‘Streets With A Story‘, “Robert Enkel from 1830-49 owned property and
occupied the nursery until 1834 when Cornelius Crastin and his family took over and continued as nurserymen until at least 1890. The street name disappears by 1975.” Enkel’s family came from Holland and his name was given to the street which dated from around 1875-6. As you can see the street name was actually still there in 1989.

There is still an Enkel Arms pub a few yards away on Seven Sisters Roadm but Enkel Street disappeared with the development of the Nags Head Shopping Centre in 1992. And there is a Nags Head Market indoors at 22 Seven Sisters Road, apparently since 1975.

More to come from Seven Sisters Road.

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Kashmiris and Cows – 2019

Kashmiris and Cows: On Saturday 10th August 2019 I photographed three events, two of them by Kashmiris after the article of the Indian Constitution which guaranteed some autonomy for their state was revoked. Completely unrelated was a small protest by vegans against diary farming.

Kashmiris protest at India House and Trafalgar Square

When the partition of India took place at independence from Britain in 1947, the state of Kashmir was an anomaly. Although this was a majority Muslim state it was not included in Pakistan as the then ruler decided it should become a part of India.

Kashmir has three regions, Jammu and Kashmir the largest, became a part of India, the Northern areas are under Pakistani administration and a smaller region on the east is controlled by China. The whole area has been disputed by India, Pakistan and China since 1947.

The special status of Jammu and Kashmir was recognised by Article 370 of the Indian constitution. This gave it “the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.“

Many Kashmiris objected to becoming a part of India and campaigned for independence with a brief rebellion leading to war between India and Pakistan in 1948-9. Various other conflicts came in later years and in 1989 an armed insurgency began, at first calling for independence but soon taken over by groups calling for merger with Pakistan.

The uprising has been suppressed over the years by a huge Indian military presence in Kashmir with an occupying force of around 800,000 military and paramilitary personnel and extreme levels of human rights abuses, including torture, deliberate blinding and killings.

In August 2019, under the government of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Presidential Orders were made revoking Article 370, making Jammu and Kashmir a part of India on exactly the same basis as the rest of the country. They also split Jammu and Kashmir into two different areas, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Like many, the Kashmiris say Modi is a Hindu fascist and his action has united the country against India.

A large and noisy protest took place on the pavement in front of the Indian High Commission, after which the protesters marched to continue their protest in Trafalgar Square.

More in My London Diary at Kashmiris protest at India House and Kashmiris protest in Trafalgar Square.

Vegans Protest Diary Farming – Trafalgar Square

Protesters stood in a small block wearing cow masks in Trafalgar Square calling for an end to diary farming which they claim is inherently cruel, with milk being stolen from cows and male calves being slaughtered soon after birth.

Vegan protesters call cows ‘mothers‘ and calves ‘babies‘, and they say that we ‘steal‘ the milk that the cows produce for their calves, failing to tell people that dairy cows have been bred to produce far more milk than their calves can consume, perhaps 7-10 times as much. And we only have cows in our fields because farmers breed them to produce milk for us to drink. We need to get away from emotional arguments and concentrate on the facts.

Traditional farming treated animals with care and respect – they were (and are) important assets. Some modern intensive practices are certainly cruel and should be condemned, both here and in other countries which mainly have even less strict animal welfare regulations. We could have a dairy industry which treated animals better and many of us would be prepared to pay more for the milk it produced.

There are good reasons to eat less meat and less diary products, but protests like this trivialise the issue. Good reasons why some people become vegans, but also good reasons why we should farm some animals to produce milk and meat. It would be a disaster for the environment if we all became vegan.

Vegans Protest Diary Farming

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Ministry of Justice cleaners protest – 2018

Ministry of Justice cleaners protest: On Thursday 9th August 2018 United Voices of the World (UVW) cleaners and supporters celebrated the end of their 3-day strike with a rally outside the Ministry of Justice in Petty France with a lively protest despite pouring rain.

Cleaners from the UVW had also been taking part in the 3-day strike at Kensington & Chelsea Council and hospitals and outpatient clinics in London run by Health Care America. They were all demanding the London living wage and better conditions of employment.

I’d been with them a couple of days earlier at Kensington Town Hall where, after the council had withdrawn a promise made to the cleaners earlier in the day to take them into direct employment, they interrupted a council planning committee public meeting to state their case.

The cleaners and supporters left the council offices then after they had been promised further talks the following morning, but their strike continued.

All these cleaners – like many others across the country – are not employed by the companies and organisations whose premises they clean. Instead the cleaning is outsourced to contracting companies who generally pay the minimum wage and fail to provide the kind of sick pay, pensions and other conditions of service that directly employed workers normally get. Often they are bullied by management and not treated with the dignity and respect we all deserve.

It was raining as the protesters gathered outside the Ministry of Justice, but there was a yard or so of shelter at the front of the overhanging building where people lined up with banners. But soon it was really pouring down and everybody was getting wet.

Among those coming to support the UVW were another union which fights for low-paid workers, the Independent Workers Union, IWGB, Class War and other trade unionists.

Austin Hearney of the PCS came out to give support from his members working in the Ministry of Justice, and Shadow Justice minister Richard Burgon arrived to give the Labour Party’s support.

Workers were entering and leaving the building for lunch, and most took the flyers the protesters were offering with some expressing support, though a few seemed to be angered by the protest.

At one point when people were getting really wet, Petros Elia, co-founder and General Secretary of the UVW tried to lead the protesters into the building, but was stopped by security and police officers and the protest continued in driving rain.

I was getting very wet, and my cameras too. One of the protesters kindly held an umbrella over me for some minutes so I could continue to work. While there was space for some protesters to keep out of the worst of the rain, I had to stand in it to photograph them.

The rain eased off a little towards the end of the protest and people moved further out into the street – most of them were pretty wet already.

The had brought a pink pinata, a pig labelled with the initials of employers RBKC and MoJ and began hitting it with folded umbrellas and fists until it burst open releasing its multi-coloured contents onto the pavement.

There were celebrations and several coloured flares were set off, though the effect was rather dampened by the rain. There were more speeches and more flares and poetry from one of the Poetry on the Picket Line.

By no the rain had stopped and the protesters were dancing on the pavement and in the road as the protest came to an end.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Ministry of Justice cleaners protest.

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A Walk in the City – 2019

A Walk in the City: Take a walk around parts of the City of London with me and my camera five years ago on Wednesday 7 Aug 2019. The first part of the walk I was on my own, but later I met up with a couple of friends and we continued to walk around but visited several interesting City pubs before ending up with a meal at what must be the worst Wetherspoons in Greater London at Cannon Street Station. Though I suppose it’s handy if you want to catch the train.

I’d taken a bus from Waterloo to the City and got off at St Paul’s and walked down to St Andrew’s Hill where I wanted to retake digitally an image I had made on film over 30 years ago.

Taken from the steps of St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe Church, the view of St Andrew’s Hill and the Cockpit pub was a taxing subject on film with the foreground in Wardrobe Terrace, and I never quite managed what I wanted. Using digital gave me a rather better result with no problems.

I walked on down to the River Thames and made some views along the river with the Millennium footbridge and the Shard now rather dominating the scene.

The tide was very low and I went down the steps onto the foreshore, though I needed to be careful walking on the stones and mud as I was only wearing a light pair of shoes which were very much not waterproof. I walked along under the Millennium Bridge and on towards Queenhithe, taking quite a few pictures.

The foreshore can be dangerous and the tide comes in rapidly. Although anyone is free to visit it, searching in any way – metal detecting, ‘beachcombing’, scraping and digging etc requires a https://pla.co.uk/thames-foreshore-permits PLA permit. You are advised to wear sensible footwear and gloves – which of course I wasn’t – and to watch out for hazards including raw sewage, broken glass, hypodermic needles and wash from vessels. I stepped very carefully.

Buried below the sand and mud at Queenhithe are the remains of part of London’s Roman harbour and the later medieval quay. A scheduled ancient monument, it is probably the only existing Saxon harbour in the world, presented by King Alfred the Great in 883 AD to his brother-in-law Ethelred. It got the name Queenhithe later when the harbour dues became the property of the wife of Henry I, Queen Matilda. The dock was still in use mainly by the fur trade in the early 20th century, and there were still fur shops in the area around in the 1970s.

I didn’t stay long on the foreshore and couldn’t remember where the next set of steps up from it were, so went back onto the Thames Path where I had come down and walked east towards Monument Station where I was meeting two photographer friends.

One of my friends had planned this walk and I was just a little surprised to find we were going back to one of the places I had visited earlier, St Andrew’s Hill, though less surprised when we went into the Cockpit pub.

The pub is on a historic site, originally part of one of the gatehouses of Blackfriars Monastery. There was a pub here when Shakespeare bought a house nearby. And undoubtedly there was somewhere here where cock fights took place until cockfighting was banned – along with dog fighting, bear baiting and badger baiting – in 1835. But this is a Victorian theme pub, rebuilt around 1865, though some at least of its interior decoration almost certainly came from actual cockfighting venues. But punters never stood in the closed galleries here to watch fights. Now firmly on the tourist circuit it is still worth a visit, if just for a pint of Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter.

Our walk continued through more of the streets in this area and then across New Bridge Street and on to Bride Lane and St Bride’s Passage and The Old Bell Tavern, once very much part of Fleet Street, the Street of Shame. The Old Bell Tavern is on the site where it all started, when in 1500 Wynkyn de Worde who had worked with William Caxton set up the first print shop on Fleet Street. The building is apparently derived from one that Christopher Wren knocked up for his masons when they were building St Brides, the journalists’ church.

Our walk more or less finished there, though we took a bus to Cannon Street Station for cheap food at the Wetherspoons, though I found it very disappointing. Spoons do much better almost everywhere else. I caught a bus from St Paul’s Churchyard, sat in the front seat on the top desk and it had unusually clean windows so I took a few more picture on the way back to Waterloo.

More pictures from the day at City & Thames.

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Hiroshima Atomic Victims Remembered – 2014

Hiroshima Atomic Victims Remembered: Ten years ago today on Wednesday 6th August 2014 I was in Tavistock Square for a ceremony close to the Hiroshima Cherry Tree on the 69th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb remembering the victims past and present of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

I hope to be there again today, as I have been in most recent years. The roughly hour-long ceremony organised by London CND begins at noon and follows more or less the same pattern each year. Everyone is welcome to attend and if you missed it this year you can put a reminder in your diary for next. And if you are not in London, there are other events in other towns and cities across the world – and some also in other parts of London.

The dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the beginning of a new age where the USA showed it had the power to unleash unprecedented levels of death and destruction. Some other nations were quick to develop their own atomic weapons, including our own and of course the USSR, and all developed bombs of much greater power than the two which devastated the Japanese cities.

Currently nine countries have nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. When the USSR was split up, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine transferred the nuclear weapons on their territory to Russia, but apart from this only one country, South Africa has actually given them up.

Wikipedia quotes the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as estimating in 2023 that the nuclear weapons states held a total of 12,119 total nuclear warheads. Far more than would be needed to destroy the planet, or at least human life on it.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted by the UN in 2017 and came into force in 2021. By January 2024 of the 197 states recognised by the UN, 97 countries had signed the treaty although 27 had still to ratify their signatures. None of the states which hold nuclear weapons have signed.

In Tavistock Square there were songs, speeches, prayers and performances introduced by Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn and messages from Hiroshima and Nagasaki were read.

As well as remembering the many victims of the bombs we also were reminded of peace campaigner Hetty Bower, who became a pacifist during the First World War and attended many of these ceremonies and other peace events and had died earlier this year.

The event closed with two minutes of silence for the victims of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and all victims of war, during which people came up to lay flowers and wreaths at the foot of the Hiroshima cherry tree.

You can read more about the event – and see more pictures on My London Diary at Hiroshima Atomic Victims Remembered.

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