>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

Anti-fascist Solidarity Against Golden Dawn – 2013

Anti-fascist Solidarity Against Golden Dawn: Saturday 19th January 2013 was an international day of action against the fascist Golden Dawn Party in Greece, and around 500 people had come to the Greek Embassy in Holland Park in solidarity with the demonstration against the party in Athens.

Golden Dawn, now described in Wikipedia as “a far-right neo-Nazi ultranationalist criminal organisation and former political party” had its origins in 1980 but only became prominent following the 2008 Greek debt crisis which resulted from the global financial crash and crippling austerity measures imposed on Greece by the EU and IMF.

The founder of the group, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, who called himself ‘Fuhrer’, is an ardent support of Adolf Hitler and a holocaust denier, and the group adopted similar symbolism, slogans, salutes and policies to the Nazis. They wanted to return Greece to a military dictatorship such as that which had ruled the country from 1967-74.

Golden Dawn seized on the existing racism and Islamophobia against immigrants and refugees by forming attack squads against them in the parts of Athens where they had most support, their actions covered by the support of the police who also launched their own operation conducting large numbers of strip searches and detentions – much like the current ICE in the USA.

In the Greek May and June 2012 elections Golden Dawn had got 6.9% of the vote and 18 MPs, with similar results in the 2015 elections. But by 2019 their vote had fallen below the 3% needed for them to have any representation in parliament, largely due to resistance by the working class through strikes and demonstrations and with the rise of the left-wing Syriza party.

In 2020 Michaloliakos and other prominent part members were found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents and were sent to prison.

The London protest was organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and “similar solidarity protests were taking place around the world, including in New York, Sydney, Barcelona, Lyons, Toronto, Dublin, Vienna, Moscow, Canberra, Warsaw, Chicago, Copenhagen, Montreal, Bilbao, Milan, Finland, Slovenia, Derry, Cork, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds and Bristol.”

There were speeches at the protest by some leading members of the British left, including Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn, as well as those from various Greek organisations, and I list some of the speakers in My London Diary. Among the speakers was Gerry Gable, the editor of Searchlight, long a powerful force against racist and fascist groups, who died recently.

*Police stop protesters going down the street to confront the small group of Golden Dawn supporters*

Elizabeth Mantzari of Solidarity with the Greek resistance “had just begun to speak hen there was an uproar down the road, as some of the crowd rushed to protest against a small group of right-wing supporters of Golden Dawn.”

Police quickly formed a line to stop others following them, and then began moving the anti-fascists back behind it away from the 15 ‘British Friends Of Golden Dawn’, some of whom I recognised from former EDL protests. I tried to talk to some of them but was insulted and accused of working for Searchlight – which unfortunately I had never done.

*Anarchist solidarity with the squats banner in front of the Greek Embassy*

The rally opposite the Greek Embassy continued, though I had missed some of the speeches. Clearly as I ended my account, “The protest was a success for the UAF, and yet another humiliation for the extreme right.”

More about the rally and many more pictures on My London Diary at Anti-fascist Solidarity Against Golden Dawn.

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Gaza, Freedom, Syria & Gay Tourism – 2014

Gaza, Freedom, Syria & Gay Tourism: Saturday 18th January 2014 was the fifth anniversary of the end of the 2008/9 Israeli massacre in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead in which around 1,400 people, many unarmed civilians were killed. I also photographed a rather unorganised protest by Anonymous against privatisation, cuts, environmental and other issues, a peace vigil by Syria Peace & Justice and finally Queer Strike and ‘No Pinkwashing’ picketing a beach-themed LGBT tourism event promoting Israel as a tourist destination.

Gaza Massacre 5th Anniversary

Israeli Embassy, Kensington

Gaza, Freedom, Syria & Gay Tourism - 2014

Around 500 people had come to a protest on Kensington High Street opposite the private road leading to the Israeli embassy. The attacks on Gaza in 2008-9, Operation Cast Lead, had shocked the civilised world, though the 1400 largely civilian deaths were on a small scale compared to the current ongoing genocide when over 70,000 have died, with deaths continuing daily since the so-called ceasefire.

As well as continuing Israeli attacks children and old people are now dying in Gaza due to the freezing conditions and inadequate shelter because of the destruction of buildings and the continuing Israeli restrictions preventing much of the humanitarian aid and critical supplies needed to keep people safe, alive and well.

The hundreds who came to the protest in 2014 kept up a noisy barrage of chanting calling for justice for the victims of Israel’s massacre and against the ongoing siege on Gaza for around an hour before a series of speeches.

Among those at the protest were many Palestinians as well as Jews some of whom had been leading the call for a boycott of Israeli goods. It was supported by a wide range of groups and on My London Diary I gave the following list : “Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, British Muslim Initiative, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Friends of Al-Aqsa UK, Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine, War on Want, Unite the Union, Public and Commercial Services Union, Amos Trust and ICAHD UK.”

More at Gaza Massacre 5th Anniversary.

Anonymous March For Freedom UK

Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square

This protest had been called by Anonymous supporters following their large protest on Novemeber 5th, but fewer than a couple of hundred had arrived. Some had instead gone to the Gaza protest, and like me will have arrived rather late for this event.

They were in one corner of Trafalgar Square and people took turns to speak at an open microphone. As well as those in ‘Anonymous’ masks I recognised many who had taken part in Occupy London.

Eventually someone suggested that they march to Parliament. For once the police facilitated this, suggesting they could walk along the southbound carriageway of Whitehall, and shepherding them across the traffic lights to do so. It “had been organised as a peaceful and family-friendly event, and this was the case, as they marched past Downing St with nothing more than a few shouts and rude gestures and on to Parliament Square.”

When they arrived outside Parliament “it became obvious that this was a protest without leaders, and with no real idea where they were going or what to do.” People – including some police made a number of suggestions but eventually they decided to stop in Parliament Square for a rally.

They were still on the roadway, but after a couple of minutes agreed to police suggestions that they move onto the pavement so that traffic could flow again.

There were then a few speeches followed by some discussion about what they should do next.

One suggestion was that they should stay where they were and party in Parliament Square and it seemed likely that they would do so.

I decided it was time to leave and walked back up Whitehall past a small crowd of police vans. The police were obviously taking no chances and I think probably outnumbered the protesters, although most simply sat in their vans.

Anonymous March For Freedom UK

Peace vigil for Syria

Trafalgar Square

Back in Trafalgar Square I found a small group from Syria Peace & Justice holding a peace vigil “calling for immediate humanitarian ceasefires and the release of all political prisoners and an inclusive Syrian-led peace process.”

The Geneva 2 peace talks were to start the following week and they said that the agenda was being “being set by major foreign powers like the US and Russia” and that only the Syrian government and a Turkey based Syrian group had been invited.

They demanded “an inclusive Syrian-led peace process that includes strong representation from Syrian women, Syrian civil society organisations and various moderate Syrian opposition groups.”

Peace vigil for Syria

Israeli Gay Tourism Pinkwashing

Villiers Street

Queer Strike, Women of Colour, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, and people from the ‘No Pinkwashing’ campaign had come to picket an event promoting Israel as a tourist destination for LGBT people.

*A security man objects as the protesters block the arcade entrance briefly for photographs*

The Gay Star Beach Party LGBT tourism event claimed Tel Aviv to be “one of the best gay cities in the world” and together with the Israeli Tourism Board they were trying to persuade gay people to holiday there.

The protesters say that this is “pinkwashing”, an attempt to divert attention from human rights crimes against Palestinians, using opposition to homophobia to legitimise Israel and undermine support for Palestine. They called on those going to the event to boycott it and not go to Israel until it ends human rights abuses, recognises the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and complies with international law.

They handed out a card with five reasons for LGBT tourists to boycott Israel:

 - the military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967, with over 100 illegal Israeli settlements on land stolen from Palestinians;
  - the violence against Palestinian children, hundreds of whom are arrested each year and held in military detention without access to lawyers, mainly for alleged stone-throwing;
  - the inhuman siege of Gaza, blocking import of food, fuel and medical supplies and preventing the repair of many homes destroyed in the 2008-9 invasion by Israel;
  - the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes and land which began in 19438 and still continues, creating millions of refugees;
 the apartheid system of roads reserved for Jewish Israelis, the apartheid wall and the many check points involving long waits and searches for Palestinians.

The protesters also highlighted Israel’s racist treatment of African people, There had been protests the previous week in Tel Aviv by 30,000 African asylum seekers and refugees demanding that all African refugees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and detention centres be freed and for recognition of their rights as asylum seekers and refugees.

Israeli Gay Tourism Pinkwashing

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Dolphin Massacre & Irish Famine – 2015

Dolphin Massacre & Irish Famine: On Saturday 17th January 2015 I photographed two very different protests. More than a thousand had come to Cavendish Square in the late morning for a march to protest against the bloody annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji cove, Japan and the cruelty of keeping captured dolphins in visitor attractions. I left as they went through Oxford Circus marching to a rally in Trafalgar Square to cover a much smaller protest outside the Channel 4 building on Horseferry Road by people outraged at their plans to produce a comedy series based on the 1840s Irish famine.

Carnival March to End Taiji Dolphin Massacre

Cavendish Square

This had been planned as a carnival march and many of those taking part had obviously take considerable time and effort to dress up and make placards for the event. Some had brought model dolphins and many of the placards featured them.

Obviously those taking part felt very strongly about the cruelty both of the annual slaughter in Taiji Cove, where the dolphins are trapped in the shallow water and killed, their blood turning the sea red, and of the cruelty of keeping captured dolphins in visitor attractions where they have little space to swim and cannot enjoy any natural life.

Having seen the films of the killing I’m also very much opposed to it, and I’ve never liked the caging of animals for entertainment. But when photographing events like this I do often think how good it would be if these people would also put the same kind of effort into protesting over the wars and genocides that are killing millions of our own species.

But the protesters enthusiasm for the cause and the effort they put into visuals do make protests such as this easy and rewarding to photograph – and very different from more political protests which are often rather more soberly dressed and dominated by mass-produced placards.

Another difference is the much greater proportion of women taking part than in most protests, though of course women play a very important part in many of the events I photograph and in my pictures.

*Vanessa Hudson, leader of the UK Animal Welfare Party which has stood candidates in local and European elections*

I was surprised when the march set off from the square that they walked on the pavements rather than taking to the road.

A march this size doesn’t really fit on the pavements of the West End which are crowded with shoppers, and it made photographing the actual march more difficult, fragmented by tourists and often slowly wandering shoppers. I found myself continually bumping into people and spent more time apologising than taking pictures as well as finding it very difficult to get a clear view.

More pictures at Carnival March to End Taiji Dolphin Massacre.

Irish Famine is no laughing matter

Channel 4, Horseferry Rd

Outside Channel 4 around 50 people had come to protest against a proposed comedy series on the Irish famine, potato blight exploited in 1845-9 as a deliberate genocide by the English establishment, wiping out a million Irish, and forcing more into poverty, starvation and immigration.

The Great Famine or Irish Potato Famine led to the deaths by starvation of around a million Irish people, and also during it and in the next few years to around two million leaving the country, many for America. Roughly one in eight of the country’s inhabitants starved to death, and about a quarter of them emigrated, said by Wikipedia to be “one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.”

*‘Famine Not Funny’, ‘1m Starved’, ‘to Death’, ‘C4’, ‘Genocide’ ‘is Not Funny’. ‘Chasing English Ratings – Chasing Irish Coffins’.*

The UK government knew what was happening – and also knew that they could have avoided most of the deaths by simply stopping the export of large amounts of food from Ireland – as they had during previous times of famine in Ireland – but they decided not to do so. They even stopped ships carrying wheat from reaching the country. The interests of major landlords – mostly absentee landlords – were prioritised over the lives of poor Irish who were said to lack ‘moral fibre’ and some in England regarded the deaths as a ‘divine judgement’.

*Austin Hearney of CRAIC and PCS reads some facts about the Irish Famine*

My account on My London Dairy lists some of the speakers at the even, including its
“organiser Austin Harney, Chair of CRAIC, (Campaign for the Rights and Actions of Irish Communities), Pat Reynolds of IBRG, (Irish in Britain Representation Group), Helen O’Connor of the Socialist Party, Peter Middleton of the Wolfe Tone Society (Sinn Fein), Zita Holbourne from BARAC, (Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts) and Irish traveller Phien O’Reachtign of PAAD.”

More pictures at Irish Famine is no laughing matter.

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Pauline Campbell Protests At Holloway – 2008

Pauline Campbell Protests At Holloway: On Wednesday 16 January 2008, Pauline Campbell was one of a small group of campaigners at the entrance to Holloway Prison following the death of 24-year-old woman Jaime Pearce in the prison the previous month. She was the eighth woman to die in prison in 2025. Only 4 months later in May 2008 I was stunned by the news that Pauline herself had been found dead on her daughter’s grave.

I wrote a lengthy piece about her and her campaigning at the time of the protest at Holloway which I’ll reproduce here, together with a few of the pictures. I had some problems taking pictures, both because of being obstructed and pushed by police and also technical issues with my Nikon flash.

Protest Against Deaths in Prison

Holloway Prison, London. Wednesday 16 January

Pauline Campbell Protests At Holloway — *Police converge on Pauline Campbell as she tries to show her poster to an approaching prison van.*

Jamie Pearce* died in Holloway Prison on 10 December 2007, aged only 24. She was the eighth woman to die in jail in 2007. Eventually there will be an inquest which may provide information about how and why she died. Prisons have a duty to take care of everyone entrusted to them, and any death represents a failure. Marie Cox, aged 34, had also died in Holloway just a few months earlier on 30 June 2007. “To lose both” in such a short time – to borrow a phrase from Mr Wilde, “looks like carelessness.”

A small group of demonstrators gathered at the entrance to Holloway on the afternoon of Wednesday 16 January to display banners and lay flowers in memory of Jamie Pearce, although very little seems to be known about this young woman. [more about her in the written evidence from INQUEST to the Justice Committee.]

Two of those present were mothers whose children had died in jail, the organiser of the protest, Pauline Campbell, and Gwen Calvert, whose son Paul died on remand in Pentonville in 2004. The jury at his inquest gave a damning verdict against the prison, finding “systematic failures, incomplete paperwork, lack of communication, disablement of cell bells, breach of security…”

Sarah Campbell was only 18 when she died in Styal prison in 2003, her death recorded by the prison authorities as “self-inflicted.” Two years later the inquest found that her death was caused by antidepressant prescription drug poisoning and said that there was a “failure in the duty of care” and that “avoidable delays” in summoning an ambulance contributed to her death.

I first met Pauline Campbell when she spoke powerfully about her daughter’s death at the United Families and Friends protest against deaths in custody in Trafalgar Square in October 2003. During the afternoon at Holloway she quoted to me something I had written in October 2006, and which I had actually forgotten. “One small piece of positive news came from Pauline Campbell, whose daughter Sarah Campbell died in Styal prison in 2003. She said ‘After nearly four years of my struggle for justice – in a highly unusual move, the Home Office have finally admitted responsibility for the death of my daughter Sarah Campbell, including liability for breach of Sarah’s human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Don’t give up the fight.”

It was a fight that took Pauline to many protests around the country on behalf of other women who have died in prison and numerous arrests, with recognition by the 2005 Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her campaigning. She also became a trustee of the Howard League for Penal Reform. After one of her 14 arrests she was brought to a criminal trial in September 2007 and acquitted when the judge threw the case out of court.

Since Sarah Campbell’s death in 2003, forty women prisoners have died. We’ve suffered for many years under successive governments who have courted tabloid approval for being ‘tough’ by criminalising and banging up many more women and men with little regard for worsening conditions in prisons. Positive ideas and programmes have largely been sidelined, and the incredible number of prisoners with mental health problems largely brushed under the carpet. It’s a system that is failing, one one whose failings actually greatly compounds the problem by increasing re-conviction rates.

*This time she was pushed with considerable force and and ended on the ground. I was also being jostled by police*

An inspector and seven police officers lined the roadway leading into Holloway, restricting it to a small area of pavement – and then periodically complained that the pavement was being obstructed. They did allow an adjoining area of pavement normally open to the public but apparently on prison property to be used briefly for photographs, but then made their own job considerably harder by insisting that the demonstrator and press moved back onto the relatively narrow pavement.

At intervals through the long afternoon, SERCO vans came to bring more prisoners to jail. As they did so, Pauline Campbell rushed forward with her double-sided placard demanding ‘HOLLOWAY PRISON LONDON JAMIE PEARCE, 24 Died 10 DEC 2007 WHY?’ and the line of police stopped her.

The first time this happened she was pushed very forcefully by the Inspector, sending her flying to the ground. It looked for a moment as if we were going to see a repeat of the disgraceful treatment given to her at the p;revious year’s demonstration here (I wasn’t present, but I have watched the video and seen the photos) but the police appeared to have rethought their approach, keeping hold of her and preventing her going through the police line rather than pushing her away.

The atmosphere during the demonstration was quite unlike any other I’ve been to; in many ways it was more like some soirée with Pauline Campbell as an attentive host, talking to people, introducing everyone to the others present and keeping track notes of everyone’s details in her notebook. The police too came in for a great deal of her attention, although some seemed rather resistant to her attempts to educate them. Some at least resented being taken away from other duties to police this event.

*Gwen Calvert and Pauline Campbell together*

But at least some of the blame for what is happening must fall on police and prison staff who run the business and are in a position to observe its many failings first hand. It’s hard to see why prison governors, chief constables, leaders of the various professional associations for prison workers and police aren’t far more active in campaigning for reform – and it would be good to see some of them standing beside Pauline Campbell.

More pictures on My London Diary at Protest Against Deaths in Prison

* Later Pauline found that the prison had not even got her name right on the death certificate and that she was JAIME Pearce. What does it say for ‘prison care’ if they do not even care enough to enter prisoners names correctly?

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More Kentish Town – 1990

More Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

*Raveley St, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-31*

This substantial house on the corner of Raveley St and Fortess Road is at 112 (and 114) Fortess Road, with a shop on the corner and behind this in Raveley Street a rather grand doorway to the housing (now flats) above, with a rear extension being 1 Raveley Street.

It appeared to have been an antique shop and although it looks as if it had shut down and its name was no longer legible had the rather strange almost circus-like construction and what appeared to be a stained glass panel above the window on the corner, with some of its stock visible inside. All of this is long gone, with the corner being rebuilt with a plainer frontage. For some years it was the Café de la Paix, and then became the Cinnamon Village café.

*Doorway, 10, Lady Somerset Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-34*

A short distance down Lady Somerset Rd, on the west corner with Oakford Road is this doorway up a few step from the street with at left a strangely grinning ghoul-like face rather at odds with the more delicate decoration. The house and the door are still there, with a railing now on top of the concrete beside the steps, but the face has gone.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-24*

I went back to Fortess Road. As I walked I thought again about one of the pictures I had taken in Fortess Grove. Of course I was shooting on film so had no way of actually reviewing the image, but I didn’t feel happy about an image I had taken of a house there with two artificial birds, so I went back to retake it. Unusually I took another four frames until I was satisfied, with that row of white fence posts against the black background creating an optical tension.

Shops, Fortress Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13 — *Shops, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-13*

I liked the unusual roof line above these shops at 14-18 Fortess Rd. These were described on the draft local list as a “Terrace of four late 19th century houses with shops at ground floor and a gated carriage entrance at the end” and it mentions the “Unusual architectural approach with the restrained elevations separated by terracotta pilasters, and a tall roof parapet surmounted by two broken pediments located on the party wall line between the pairs“. The “historic shop front” at No 14, now the NW5 Theatre School, is still in place.

*Kentish Town Parish Church, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-14*

At the end of Fortess Road I turned sharp right up Highgate Road to photograph the Grade II listed Kentish Town Parish Church of St John the Baptist at 23 Highgate Road. The Kentish Town Chapel, a small chapel-of-ease dating from 1449, was pulled down to built a new church to the designs of James Wyatt in 1783. That in turn went, though some of its walls were retained when the church was rebuilt and extended by J H Hakewill in 1843-5.

It’s always seemed a little threatening and spiky to me, slightly sinister. Three years after I made this picture the churchby then in poor condition, was declared redundant and stood empty for some months, apart from being used for occasional all-night raves. In 1994 it was bought by the Nigerian-based Christ Apostolic Church UK who continue to worship there.

*Town & Country Club, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-15*

Immediately south of the church in 1990 was the Town & Country Club, now the O2 Forum Kentish Town.

This was built as a cinema, The Kentish Town Forum Theatre, designed by John Stanley Beard & Alfred Douglas Clare and opened at the end of 1934 but months later was taken over by Associated British Cinemas, though it was only in 1963 it took the ABC name. It had a single screen and seating for over 2,000. In 1970 it closed to become a bingo hall, and later it was a ballroom and a concert hall/theatre named the Town & Country Club, This closed in 1993 and it became the Forum Theatre again and later it was yet again renamed as the O2 Forum Kentish Town. The building was Grade II listed a couple of months after I took this picture.

My walk continued – another post shortly.

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Dance Against Cuts & Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4 – 2011

Dance Against Cuts & Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4: Two protests on Friday 14th January 2011 had little in common except that both were in part against the violence, lies and deception of the authorities, both here in the UK and in Greece.

Dance Against The Deficit Lies

Royal Exchange, Bank

Campaigners against the savage cuts in arts and community funding by the Tory-led coalition government in the UK came to perform outside the Royal Exchange and Bank of England in a way deliberately planned to avoid confrontation with police, limiting their protest to exactly and hour and making it “playful with purpose, (so) that any aggression whatsoever (police kettles or the tiny few protesters who throw stuff) will simply look preposterous.”

The location was one “with resonances for many protesters, where some of the worst excesses of police violence and over-reaction took place at the protests against the G20, and close to where Ian Tomlinson was attacked by a police officer and died.”

At the centre of the City of London it was also appropriate for cuts that reflected the huge rescue package given to bail out the banks after their irresponsible behaviour, and to protest about their continuing excessive salaries and indecent bonuses.

It was a relatively small protest, with almost as many spectators and photographers as the hundred or so taking part, and enlivened by performances and dance rather than angry chanting. And the police for once simply stood back and watched.

The organisers pointed out that Britain is still revered for around the world, and that it brings in money to the country. “Cuts to the arts are idiotic and short sighted.” They questioned why the levy on banks was “being reduced, and why the government is not imposing measures such as the Tobin or Robin Hood tax on financial transactions that would not only being in much-needed income to reduce the deficit but would provide a beneficial stability by dampening speculation.”

Dance Against The Deficit Lies

Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4

Greek Embassy, Holland Park

Back in June 2003, a number of protesters were arrested in a violent police attack on an anti-capitalist protest against an EU summit in Thessaloniki, Greece. They included the English anarchist, Simon Chapman, a supporter of various anarchist groups including Class War.

Seven of them, including Chapman, had later gone on hunger strike against their arrests and were finally released at the end of November 2023, following a huge solidarity campaign across Europe. Among those calling for their release were 28 EU MPs and Amnesty International. All charges against the prisoners were dropped and Simon came home to England.

Photographic and film evidence proved beyond and doubt that Chapman had been framed, charged with having three black bags containing Molotoff cocktails and dangerous weapons (a hammer and a pickaxe handle.) Photographs showed that when arrested he was carrying a blue bag, and a film clearly showed Greek police planting these black bags on him after his arrest.

But despite this the Greek state was not prepared to drop the cases, and after “repeated appeals from the Greek state prosecutor the charges against four of the original seven were re-instated.” And despite the evidence in 2008 all of these four were found guilty.

“Under the threat of a European Police Warrant … Simon was forced to return to Thessaloniki in 2010 to appeal the conviction.” But this time the evidence resulted in all the major charges being thrown out, with all four instead being found guilty of a “minor defiance of authority” to justify the time they had previously spent in jail. And Chapman came back to England and Class War.

But the Greek experience had scarred Chapman and he never really recovered from being arrested and his treatment in prison, and the health effects of the lengthy hunger strike, dying at only 40 in 2017.

*Class War with their banner in memory of Simon Chapman – May 1 2017*

Class War came to the May Day march that year at Clerkenwell Green with a new banner in his memory, and also copies of a new Class War newspaper to sell. When the march set off for Trafalgar Square they “marched only the few yards back to the pub, where I joined them later” to celebrate Simon’s life.

Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4

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Tufnell Park and Kentish Town – 1990

Tufnell Park and Kentish Town: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began at Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990.

*Flats, Pemberton Gardens, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-64*

This long run of flats – numbered 1-64 is St John’s Park Mansions.

Sir James Pemberton was a goldsmith and Lord Mayor of London in 1611, and was one of the eight freeholders of the Manor of Highbury. The street was developed around 1870 on land owned by the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, a charity set up in 1655 by merchants of the City of London and priests of the Church of England to support clergy who had lost their livings thanks to Oliver Cromwell – and which still (now as the Clergy Support Trust) supports Anglican clergy and they named it after him. The street was renamed Pemberton Gardens in 1895.

These flats were built in 1899-1900 and have nine blocks extending out to the rear to accommodate 32 flats as well as the 32 in those in the buildings on the street.

*House, Cathcart Hill, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-66*

I continued my walk down Junction Road, turning briefly into Cathcart Hill to photograph this house where considerable building work was taking place. The house probably dates from the 1860s and I think is 1 Cathcart Hill. Although the web page for the Cathcart Hill Historical Society is dedicated to the history of numbers 1-16 Cathcart Hill, it has as yet no information about No.1.

Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54 — *Boston Arms, pub, 178 Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-54*

This pub designed by Thorpe and Furniss was built in 1899 for Bass & Co Ltd replacing an earlier earlier building, there in 1860, the Boston Arms Tavern on the corner with Dartmouth Park Hill. A few years later it changed its name to simply ‘The Boston’ and this was the name when it was rebuilt, though it is now ‘Boston Arms. It was Grade II listed in 1994 and remains in use.

*Boston Arms, pub, Junction Rd, Tufnell Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2h-56*

Attached to the pub – but not in my pictures – is the Boston Music Room, also Grade II listed. It was built in 1884 with a ground floor 60ft swimming bath and above this an assembly hall. In 1909 the swimming bath was converted into a second assembly hall and used as a cinema, called the Electric Theatre, later the Stanley Theatre. After this closed in 1916 it became the Tufnell Park Palais, used for wrestling and concerts.

It reopened in 1981 as an independent music venue, with the upstairs called The Dome and downstairs The Boston Music Room. Among those appearing there have been Coldplay, Bring Me the Horizon, Blur, Primal Scream, Noel Gallagher,Madness, The White Stripes, U2, Florence & The Machine, and Cradle of Filth.

*Surroundings Ltd, Burghley Rd, Tufnell Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-55*

Opposite the west side of the pub on Dartmouth Hill Road (and so in the London Borough of Camden) is Burghley Road where a few yards down at No 118 I photographed Surroundings Ltd, a company which appears to have disappeared without trace. The building is now residential.

*Montrose Products, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-44*

Turning back to Dartmouth Hill Road I walked the few yards down to the junction and then continued down Fortess Road to photograph Montrose Products at Nokeener House, No. 28-34. This private limited company, L.& M.(MONTROSE PRODUCTS)LIMITED was incorporated in 1954, moved its registered office from here in July 1990 and was finally dissolved in 2024. A mail order company it occupied the first floor while at street level was Everbond Limited, who I can find nothing about. More recently the ground floor was occupied by Major Travel.

This was built as a factory for piano makers T & G Payne who began here in 1891 and it has has some interesting decorative detail. In 2012 permission was granted for its conversion into luxury flats as The Piano Works, retaining most of its external features.

*Fortess Grove, Fortess Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2h-45*

Fortess Grove is at the north side of the old piano factory and twists here around the side of the Fortess Works, then occupied by L C Bennett (Mechanical Handling) Ltd. Later it became home to vehicle repair shop M. & A. Coachworks but since the end of 2015 has been transformed into “a modern, flexible, and contemporary work environment” called Fortess Grove and some housing.

The street still continues past it more or less as in my photograph, a charming little curved cul-de-sac of early Victorian (or possibly late Georgian?) small houses.

This walk continues in later posts.

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Toys, Taverns, Timber & More – 1990

Toys, Taverns, Timber & More: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990.

*Works, Nugent Road, Spears Rd, Crouch Hill, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-34*

A factory here was established here next to the house in Lambton Road of William Britain (1828-1906). The company grew greatly and the factory expanded after in 1893 his son William Britain Jnr found a way of casting three-dimensional hollow-cast soldiers in 1893 using an alloy of lead, tin and antinomy. Previously toy soldiers had been flat, two-dimensional.

Sales slumped during and after the Great War for Britains Ltd and at Christmas 1921 they introduced Britains Model Home Farm, which became a big seller; later they also made zoo and circus figures.

In 1931 they expaned with a new factory, the North Light Building in Walthamstow. They finally left this Crouch Hill factory and moved completely to Walthamstow in 1968. That closed in 1991 with production being moved to Nottingham.

*Shops, 471, Hornsey Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-35*

This building on the corner of Hornsey Road and Fairbridge Road offering timber, building materials and electrical supplies to the trade and for DIY use clearly had had a rather different past with this rather grand entrance. I had photographed the building the previous year and commented on it but had not found out much about its history.

According to Edith’s Streets it was orginally a coffee tavern, the Jubilee Hall, and from 1905 until 1937 was the premises of Newton and Wright, electrical and scientific instrument makers. They were the makers of The British Snook Machine, a “1920s gas filled or cold cathode medical X-ray tube with a collimator extension of the anticathodeode“. If like me you are totally mystified you can find out more and see pictures on The Hornsey Road blog.

*E D Elson, Timber, Fairbridge Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-22*

E D Elson had a yard at 169 Fairbridge Road for 43 years from when they were founded by Eddie Elson in 1968, along with branches in north London and Hertfordshire – presumably including Barnet. They relocated to St Albans in 2011 and were quickly replaced by a new block of ground floor shops with flats above.

Geo F Trumper, Perfurmer, Sussex Way, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-23 — *Geo F Trumper, Perfurmer, Fairbridge Road, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-23*

Although the street sign is Sussex Way, the doorway at right is 166 Fairbridge Road and Geo F Trumper‘s perfumery is on Fairbridge Road. This is the head office of the company which was established in 1875 by George Francis William Trumper as a gentlemen’s barber shop in Curzon Street, Mayfair. It sells a range of men’s fragrances and personal grooming products, none of which I have ever tried.

*Works, Boothby Rd, Ethorne Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-11*

This building was the Holloway Mills dating from around the 1870s as a steam saw mills for W Betts, the son of J.T. Betts who had founded the company in Bordeaux in 1804. They made boxes and packaging and later became specialists in metal packaging. The company was taken over in 1960 and other businesses moved in. More recently the building has been in use by a a number of artists organisations.

*Byam Shaw School of Art, Ethorne Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-12*

The Byam Shaw School of Art was opened as an independent school of fine art in Kensington in May 1910 by John Liston Byam Shaw and Rex Vicat Cole, and was at first called the Byam Shaw and Vicat Cole School of Art.

It moved to these larger premises in 1970 and in 2003 was absorbed into the art establishment as a part of Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design.

According to a Facebook post by Matt Crandall, this 1920s building was the factory for G Leonardi Ltd, Leonardene Co, and Leonardene Art Models, all founded by Giuseppe Leonardi, an ex-pat Italian, in the 1920s. They were “primarily makers of Art Deco pieces in the 1920s and 1930s including figures, lamps, and wall masks. Their quality far surpassed the usual plasterware items produced at the time, highly detailed and beautifully painted. Many Leonardi designs were reproduced by other companies into the 1970s.” They apparently had a Disney licence from “sometime in the 1940s, which ran at least through 1953“

*Archway Tavern, Archway Rd, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-13*

Where I was standing to make this picture is now called Navigator Square , part of a new gyratory road system. The Archway Tavern is still standing and opened again as a pub after being closed in 2014 over licencing issues. There has been a pub on this site since the 1700s. It was rebuilt in 1860, and then this larger building replaced it in 1888.

Behind at right is the Holborn Union Building, another historic landmark, designed by Henry Saxon Snell which opened on Archway Road as the The Holborn and Finsbury Union Workhouse Infirmary with 625 beds on 1879. More recently it was a campus for University College London and Middlesex University. Vacant since 2013, controversion plans for redevelopment including a 23 storey student housing tower were turned down by Islington council but the called in by London Mayor Sadiq Khan whose decision is still awaited.

*The Royal London Friendly Society, Insurance, Junction Rd, Archway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-14*

The Royal London Friendly Society was launched by Henry Ridge and Joseph Degge in 1861 and in 1908 became a mutual, owned by its customers. Now just Royal London, it “is among the top 30 mutuals globally, and is the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK.”

This fine building for the society at 32 Junction Road dates from 1903, architects Holman & Goodham and was still in used by Royal London Insurance in 1990. Later it became solicitors offices, but since around 2015 has housed a series of cafés, and is currently Dune Brasserie and offices above.

Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration – 2007

Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration: A protest on Thursday 11th January 2007 outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square marked the 5th anniversary of the setting up of the illegal US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay where almost entirely innocent prisoners were held and tortured without trial for many years. Over the years around 780 men were brought to the prison and by 2025 almost all had been released without charge. Around nine have died there, most alleged to have committed suicide, but 15 are thought to still be held there at the end of 2025, largely because there is no country to which they can safely be released.

Every year from 2006 to 2019 I photographed protests against the camp, particularly on 11th January, but also on other occasions through the year, particularly covering the long-term campaigns for the release of those British prisoners held there. Protests here became less regular after the release of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident to be held there on 30 October 2015.

*The flag was flying but American Embassy staff kept hidden away from windows throughout the event*

The protest I photographed on 11th January 2007 was the first I knew about on the actual anniversary of the establishment of the camp, and the pictures here and the text below are from that. Then we naively thought that the USA could sink no further, but current events are proving how wrong we were. As usual I’ve made some minor corrections to the text including restoring normal capitalisation and I’ll give a link to the original post were you can find more pictures

Close guantanamo 5th anniversary demonstration

Amnesty International: US Embassy, London. Thur 11 Jan, 2007

*American guard’, ‘Prisoners’, Police and Embassy.*

*Amani Daghayes, sister of Guantamo captive Oscar Deghayes, a British resident*

Orange seems to be a colour fatally linked to America’s disgrace in the modern world through human rights and related abuses. Agent Orange spread dioxin-related birth defects over the vast tracts of south-east Asia it was used to defoliate, and orange boiler-suits have become the symbol of the fatal American own goal in the fight for freedom, the illegal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Amnesty International marked the fifth anniversary of this blot on the free world with a world-wide series of protests, in New York, Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Tunis, Tel Aviv and London. I entered Grosvenor Square to see a long line of around three hundred people in orange boiler-suits spreading a quarter of the way around the large square. They were soon formed into groups and marched by those dressed as camp guards into a small pen in the road directly in front of the US Embassy.

In a re-creation of the Guantanamo Bay camp more or less on the embassy doorstep, the ‘guards’ patrolled, issuing arbitrary orders and generally abusing the prisoners, subjecting them to the infamous kneeling ‘submission posture’ with the occasional incident of casual ‘violence’ thrown in for greater authenticity. The hour-long vigil there ended with a display of defiance as the ‘prisoners’ joined together in clapping.

Other amnesty supporters held placards and banners calling for an end to the travesty of justice at Guantanamo Bay and other illegal detention centres and the illegal rendition of prisoners. They called for the release of all those held illegally, and in particular the British residents still in Guantanamo. These included Omar Deghayes, whose sister Amani Deghayes was present at the demonstrations. The lack of any effort by the UK government to press for the release of these British residents is a continuing and senseless disgrace.

*Detainees’ clap at end of demonstration.*

This was a high-profile media event, although I didn’t hear it mentioned on the BBC radio news later in the day, press and TV from London and abroad were covering it. Unlike some earlier events I’ve covered at the same location, the policing was a model of good practice, allowing the press to get on with the job, and proportionate to what was happening.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990

Along Hornsey Road, Holloway 1990: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post on this walk was Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990.

DON'T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM, Andover Medical Center, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-65 — *DON’T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM, Andover Medical Center, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-65*

The Andover Medical Centre is at 270-282 Hornsey Road a short distance north from the Hornsey Road Baths and I made my picture from the corner of Hornsey Road and Newington Barrow Way which leads to the Andover Estate, a large council estate begun in 1938 but greatly enlarged in 1973-9.

The graffiti ‘DON’T BE SCARED OF FREEDOM’ which attracted my attention is of course long gone. So too is the sprawling bush and there are no some car parking spaces in its place.

Bavaria Rd, Hornsea Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-66 — *Bavaria Rd, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-66*

I continued walking up Hornsey Road for well over a quarter of a mile before making my next picture looking across the road and down Bavaria Road. Here a sign high on the wall at 395 Hornsey Road announces the Alexandra Coffee Tavern and above the modern street sign is the former name of the street, Blenheim Road. Before becoming a temperance tavern this had been a pub, the Blenheim Arms, opened (and built) probably in 1869, but by 1881 it was the Alexandra Coffee Tavern, part of a then growing temperance movement.

The name Alexandra probably came from Princess Alexandra of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg who married the son and heir of Queen Victoria in 1863 and became a popular royal very much involved in charity work as Princess of Wales until 1901 when she became queen.

I was also attracted by the signage for the locksmiths then in the former pub, particualr the four different types of keys shown above the shop at right. The Victorian building had been incorporated into a more modern structure both on Hornsey Road and Bavaria Rd. Since 1990 an extra storey has been added to the building which now houses The Pelvic Academy offering Physiotherapy and Wellness.

*Replica House, 37, Bavaria Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-51*

I walked a short distance down Bavaria Road to photograph Replica House, built in 1883 as a chapel to seat 450 on what was then Blenheim Road to the designs of architects Lander & Bedells, possibly replacing an earlier chapel here. By 1916 it was known as Blenheim Congregational Mission Hall. According to British History Online it had closed by 1954. The street had become Bavaria Road in 1938.

Replicards Limited who occupied it at the time of my picture had renamed the building Replica House. They were a graphics design studio incorporated in 1967. At the right of their sign are the letters ‘Exhibitic’, perhaps where the end of the sign had been at some time truncated with that ‘c’ really being part of an ‘o’. Had it been moved from a slightly wider building where it had once said ‘Exhibitions’?

*Hanley Arms, Hornsey Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-52*

Back on Hornsey Road I photographed a long terrace of shops with The Hanley Arms pub at the left, roughly opposite Bavaria Road looking to the south. This Grade II listed pub was apparently in place here by 1827 although the ground floor frontage dates from around 1900. It closed as a pub around 2007 and 440 Hornsey Road is now an Islamic mosque, Masjid-e-Yusuf.

*Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-54*

I continued up Hornsey Road to Marlborough Road where I made this picture close to the corner, but I think this building with its flower motifs above the doorway has been demolished.

*Crash Repairs, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-43*

Marlborough Service Station, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, — *Marlborough Service Station,* *Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-54*

A little further down is a splendid garage building I think from the 1920s or 30s, Marlborough Service Station, still there and very much in business in 2025.

*Megatron Photometers, Marlborough Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-45*

The building at 165 Marlborough Rd is still there and has been sympathetically remodelled on the ground floor with a extra door and two new windows in what was then a blank area of brick.

Megatron was a company that I had some dealings with, as from 1984 until the company was liquidated in 2010 they made – among many other products – the legendary Weston Master photographic exposure meters. When I broke the very thin glass over the needle on mine I sent it back to Megatron for repair. It wasn’t cheap, and when I broke it again I decided instead to replace the glass with a thin sheet of acrylic, superglued in place.

As well as still photographs, many professional movies were shot with the aid of a Weston light meter in various models since the 1930s. Later models came with a white plastic ‘Invercone‘, an inverted cone which fitted over the metering cell to allow accurate measurement of incident light – the light falling onto a scene – as well as the more normal reflected light measurement. The Weston meters have a large selenium cell which generates an electric current when light falls on it and do not need batteries.

*Car Breakers, Grenville Rd, Upper Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2g-46*

Grenville Road is a turning on the east side of Hornsey Road a short distance north from Marlborough Road, just before the bridge over what is now the Suffragette Line of the Overground, then known as the Gospel Oak to Barking or Goblin line. I’m unsure exactly where on the road Astoria Auto Breakers was, but I liked the skeletal nature of the racked cars and the leafless tree.