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Kung Hei Fat Choi & Regicide – 2004

Kung Hei Fat Choi & Regicide: On 25th January 2004 I went with many thousands to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown. In 2001 I had commented on My London Diary “there are too many people and too many photographers at the Chinese New Year celebrations in Soho, but somehow I keep on going” but for various reasons I think the next time I photographed it was in 2004. I was back again in 2005, 2006, 2007 and in 2008 for I think the last time.

Several things finally decided me to give the celebrations a miss. First was simply the crowds with more and more people coming to watch the event which made it difficult or impossible to move around and take pictures.

Then more and more people were photographing – mainly with their phones – and largely lacking any courtesy in doing so, coming to stand in front of me as I was trying to take pictures.

And, like many events, it had become more and more organised, with crowds being controlled and held behind barriers for the more official parts of the celebration.

But I suppose the main reasons were that my interests had changed and that I thought I had done enough on this event; my pictures each year were looking increasingly the same and I needed to do something different.

Also taking place on 25th January 2004 was a parade by reenactors of the execution of King Charles I. While I’m not a puritan (as I think many of my ancestors were) I am increasingly a Republican and while I might not be calling for the public execution of our current monarchy, I do think it is well past time we got rid of them and their privilege – as well as the rest of the aristocracy.

Of course it isn’t just the monarchy I would like to see go, but our whole class system of which they are the leading edge. Its real basis is the seizure of land following the Norman conquest in 1066 and my revolution would call for land reform, with the complete ending of private ownership of land (and water) which would become community resources, with no land ownership but instead could be held in trust to the community. But of course it’s a utopia which won’t happen.

Here’s the short text – with minor corrections – which I wrote in 2004.

The Chinese New Year was celebrated in Westminster on 25th Jan, with speeches in Trafalgar Square, fireworks in Leicester Square and immense crowding in and around Soho’s Chinatown, especially where the police sealed off some of the streets.

Fortunately the speeches were short, and the main point of most was to say ‘kung hei fat choi’, with various degrees of ethnic feel.

Also on the 25th, was a parade commemorating the execution of King Charles 1, who went from St James Palace to the Banqueting House in Whitehall to be beheaded on 30th Jan 1649. It’s an event that brings out the Republican in me!

It was a rather mournful procession, drab and silent, in complete contrast to the lively scenes a few yards to the north.

A few more pictures from the day on My London Diary begin here.

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Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks – 1990

Factories, Flats, Wesley & The Kinks: More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 which began with Around Finsbury Park – 1990. The previous post was More Kentish Town – 1990.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-61*

When the London Borough of Camden was formed in 1965 its architects department was set up headed by Sydney Cook and included many of the leading architects of the day, working for a council that was determined to build better homes for those living in the borough. Over the next 15 or so years they produced a huge number of well-designed and architecturally significant buildings until government cuts brought an end to what has been described as “their golden age of social housing.”

As well as large estates such as Neave Brown’s Alexandra Road, there were also a number of smaller sites such as Elsfield, designed by Bill Forest and built in 1966-70. Most of Camden’s schemes were built “in-house” which had the advantage of better quality work than many private contractors but sometimes led to lengthy delays and cost overruns.

*Flats, Elsfield, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-36*

Later in the day I walked back past these flats and made another picture which shows the whole frontage on Highgate Road with its stepped back profile and prominent painted railings. The wall in front gives ground-floor residents privacy.

*Linton House, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-62*

Once Carkers Lane was just “a footpath across fields and watercress beds and a farm belonging to Mr Corker“. Much of those fields became tracks and engine sheds for the Midland Railway, leaving just a short section of the path to become Carkers Lane.

In 1881 Thomas William Read and John Walter Read bought land here and began bottling spirits and beer; by 1906 they were “the largest buyer and bottler of Bass Ale in the world.” The ‘Dog’s Head Bottling’ adopted its famous Bull Dog trademark as its Company Logo. All this bottled beer was for export, mainly to “Australia, New Zealand, France, the West Indies and South Africa.” The company amalgamated with Kings Cross brewers Robert Porter in 1938 as Export Bottlers Ltd.

The building at the left of my picture on the corner of Highgate Road, then called Linton House (with parking for Norman Linton Only) was built around 1900 as a factory for furniture makers Maple & Co, suppliers of furniture to the royal family, palaces and expensive hotels worldwide as well as selling to the wealthy public through their Tottenham Court Road shop and in Paris and elsewhere. After they moved it it became home to a number of smaller companies, mainly as offices. Developers The Linton Group acquired it and converted it into 50 luxury flats and seven penthouses they lanched on the market in 2016 as Maple House.

Wallpaper manufacturer Shand Kydd moved to the site in 1906 to mass produce their wallpapers and around 1920 Sanderson’s wallpaper joined them. Both had moved out by around 1960.

The estate also became home in 1973 to the International Oriental Carpet Centre, formed by Oriental rug dealers who had previously been in the Cutler Street warehouse complex owned by Port of London Authority but were given notice to quit when the PLA decided to sell this for redevelopment. The IOCC lease expired in 1994 and most of the dealers left.

Carkers Lane is now home to Highgate Studios, a huge largely office development and the Highgate Business Centre.

*Factory, Carkers Lane, Highgate Rd, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-33*

Again as I walked back past Carkers Lane later in the day I made another picture

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-66*

Little Green Street is a short street between Highgate Road and College Lane which takes you back to the 1780s. The ten Georgian houses here were seen even in the 1890s as “old-fashioned cottages” by Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London. The street provided the background for The Kinks dressed as old-fashioned undertakers carrying a coffin in the 1966 official music video for Dead End Street, one of the earliest music videos.

The wooden post at left has gone and the cobbled area at its left is now a walled garden for the house on the corner of the street.

*Houses, Little Green St, Kentish Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-53*

These Grade II listed cottages were in something of a dead end street, leading only to College Lane, on the other side of which was the Staff Hotel for the London Midland and Scottish Railway until this was replaced by Camden Council’s Ingestre Road Estate, designed by John Green for Camden Architects’ Department and built in 1967–71, a small part of which you can see at the left edge of this picture.

*Tyre swing, Highgate Rd, Dartmouth Park, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-55*

At the end of Little Green Street I think I turned left and walked along under the railway bridge which also features in The Kinks video to Denyer House, a large 1930s London County Council block set back from Highgate Road. The tree is still there but the swing is long gone.

*Wesleyan Place, Gospel Oak, Camden, 1990, 90-2i-45*

Crossing Highgate Road I went down Wesleyan Place. This street was laid out in 1810 and was the site of a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in a converted farm building from Richard Mortimer’s farm here. The Methodists moved out in 1864 to a new chapel in Bassett Street.

This early/mid nineteenth century terrace of four houses was Grade II listed in 1974. The street leads to Mortimer Terrace.

I’ll write and post the final part of this walk shortly.

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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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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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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.

Houses, a Club, Ghost Sign, Blouses and Baths – 1990

More from my walk on Sunday February 25th 1990 continuing from Around Finsbury Park – 1990.

*Houses, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-22*

A long terrace of three-storey houses on Prah Rd built in 1876-1878 – and there are others in a similar style on nearby Romilly Rd. There is a long and detailed section on Prah Road and its early occupants cited in an essay by John Bold and Charlotte Bradbeer; Booth’s investigators described these and neighbouring streets as having a higher class of occupant: ‘clerks, city men, some mechanics and a great many railwaymen of the better sort, head ticket collectors etc‘.

*Doorway, 1, Prah Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-24*

The Finsbury Park Conservative Club opened at 1 Prah Road in 1886 but there was little to show its presence when I photographed its decorative entrance. Later it had a Carlsburg sign added above the doorway, still there though faded although the club closed in 2015. The building was sold in 2016 for over 1.65 million, but completion was delayed as the building was squatted. It is now residential.

*Shops, Berriman Rd, Seven Sisters Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-25*

I walked north towards Finsbury Park Station and then turned left down Seven Sisters Road towards Holloway, taking few photographs as I had walked this way before. FINSBURY PARK was then fairly clear at the top of the ‘ghost sign’ on the Berriman Road side of 158 Seven Sisters Road, but I cannot make out the rest of the wording, though the next line could be GENERAL.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-26*

Fosby Of London Ltd were at 3-5 Thane Villas, a few yards down the next turning south off Seven Sisters Road after Berriman Road. The company, established in 1977, made luxury high quality ladies blouses and shirts with “a feminine, elegant feel” which still sell on vintage clothing sites, but the building is now student accomodation.

*Fosby, Blouses, Works, Thane Villas, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-13*

A closer view shows some of the fine detailing on the Grade II listed building built in a Queen Anne style in 1909 as factory, offices and wholesale showroom for manufacturing pharmaceutical chemists Fletcher, Fletcher and Company Ltd. Grace’s Guide lists their specialities: ‘”Vibrona” the Ideal Tonic Wine, of which they are the proprietors; is largely prescribed by the medical profession as a Tonic Restorative. ” Bronamalt,” an Ideal Tonic Food for delicate Children and Invalids. Also proprietors of Fletchers’ Syrups of the Hydrobro mates and Fletchers’ Concentrated Liquors, all of proved value. Are the patentees of Fletchers’ Thermo-Hydrometer and Fletchers’ Autometric Stopper, also of Endolytic Tubes for Clinical Diagnosis.

Other products included Effico tonic, Flexaphyll deodorant tablets, Aperigran laxative granules and Rubelix cough syrup. They called the buildings Vibrona House and remaines there until the 1960s when it was bought by Vortex Jersey Ltd.

The building was only listed in 2007, and the listing text comments: “The building has been little altered and retains several features of note including panelling, a glazed partition, a fireplace and rare historic automatic door, an unusual feature in commercial buildings of the era. The difference between the manufacturing and commercial spaces is clearly marked by two staircases which are both of special interest: the utilitarian stone staircase with metal balusters providing access to the factory and the grand timber Jacobean staircase serving the offices and commercial areas.“

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-14*

At the next crossroads I turned north up Hornsey Road and photographed the Hornsey Road Baths – Grade II listed in 1994. Another Queen Anne style building, this was built in 1891-2, designed by architect Alfred Hessell Tiltman (1854-1910).

When opened it had two pools for men and one for women, but such was demand that the baths were enlarged in 1894 and a second women’s bath was added in 1900. The listing text concludes by mentioning the “remarkable neon Diving Lady on the South flank elevation, one of 12 such illuminated features placed on swimming pools and lidos in London in the 1930’s and now believed to be the only survivor.”

*Hornsey Rd Baths, Laundry, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2f-16*

The frontage of the baths has the text ‘PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH HOUSES’ incised across it. The wash houses or laundry were added in 1894 and had a large drying room; they became self-service in 1965. The baths were refurbished at a cost of £1.5 million in 1985 and as the board shows were still in use for swimming, warm baths and a sauna when I took these pictures. But lack of funds led to the closing of the baths and laundry the following year.

From 2002-9 the baths were redeveloped, retaining the listed entrance block on Hornsey Road and the chimney but providing 200 apartments, some at affordable rent and others for private sale, an office building for Islington Council and a Sure Start Centre for parents and children.

12 Days of Christmas – July

12 Days of Christmas -some of my favourite pictures from those I made in July 2025.

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DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994

DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994. Continuing my panoramic images made along the path of the DLR in July 1994.

DLR, near Connaught Bridge, Custom House, Newham, 1994, 94-721-33 — *DLR, Connaught Rd, Custom House, Newham, 1994, 94-721-33*

The road layout in this area has changed completely since 1994, but you can see at right the DLR Beckton branch going over the concrete lead-up to the Connaught Bridge. I think GATE 30 at extreme left is to the Excel site and the Connaught Tavern is hidden by the trees in the centre of the picture – and so this road was the old Connaught Road which led to the old swing bridge. I think where I was standing is now the middle of a hotel car park.

*Bridges, Bow Creek, East India Dock Rd, East India, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-719-61*

I moved around a mile and a half west and four stops along the DLR line to Canning Town and one of my favourite areas around Bow Creek, which here does two more or less 180 degree turns before flowing into the Thames. These two ‘bridges’ are a few yards south of East India Dock Road and I think both were built as pipe bridges to carry gas across the river.

Only the brick end supports of first remain on each bank. The metal bridge in the centre of the image is also a footbridge, now painted blue and leading across the river to the ecology park. Just beyond it, almost completely hidden is a third bridge, a long disused rail bridge. At left are the sheds of a timber yard.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-719-52*

Further East on the East India Dock Road I made this panorama with a sawmill in Wharfdale Road. Beyond that road is a train on the DLR line, and over the top of this you can see the Pura Foods factory on the site where London City Island now is.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-31*

A few yards further east on East India Dock Road gave this view of Bow Creek, curving 180 degrees around Pura Foods. Locals were pleased to see this London City Island factory go as you could smell it across much of Canning Town.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-32*

And a similar view but including a DLR train.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-23*

A few yards away I used a crane to frame the image of Pura Foods on its not quite island site. At right of the picture is a bridge across the DLR leading to a riverside walk to Canning Town Station. Although I managed to walk across Reuben’s Bridge several times, it has been mainly locked for the last thirty years, despite being a useful short cut to the riverside station entrance.

Apparently it was closed because people were throwing stones from it onto the DLR, and more recently in 2019 a survey determined that it is non-compliant with current Health & Safety Legislation, Building Regulations, British Standards and associated supplementary guidance.

The initial plans were for the riverside walkway to lead all the way to Trinity Buoy Wharf at the mouth of Bow Creek – and a competition was held and awarded for a new footbridge to enable this – but then the plans were dropped. Until a new bridge was built for London City Island the riverside entrance to Canning Town station only led to two dead ends.

More to come.

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Scrooge Debenhams & Bikelife – 2018

Scrooge Debenhams & Bikelife: Striking cleaners in the Independent Workers Union – CAIWU – protest outside Debenhams in Oxford Street with a noisy rally on Saturday 22nd December 2018, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. While I was there a large group of boys and young men on bikes rode past, some pulling wheelies.

Debenhams Pay Your Cleaners

Oxford St

*Debenhams Cleaners who belong to CAIWU call for a real Living Wage*

The workers who clean the Debenhams store were not employed by them but are outsourced, working forInterserve, a company who have the cleaning contract with Debenhams.

Interserve are lousy employers, treating the cleaners badly and paying the minimum legal wage and conditions, interested only in making as much as they can for their owners or shareholders. The minimum wage isn’t enough to live on in London and reputable employers pay workers at least the London Living Wage – an amount determined every year and roughly 30% above the legal minimum.

*As well as a living wage, workers also want to be treated with dignity & respect – as a passing bus puts it ‘*Recognising me as someone not something*‘.*

The workers belong to the Cleaners & Allied Independent Workers Union, CAIWU, but Interserve refuses to recognise the union or to have any talks with them about their claim for the London Living Wage. CAIWU is one of several small grassroots trade unions which has been very successful in getting better pay and condition for low paid workers.

*Organiser Alberto Durango spoke occasionally to tell shoppers why the cleaners at Debenhams were on strike and in Spanish to the cleaners (and some tourists)*

Reputable companies such as Debenhams would be ashamed to pay their workers so little or treat them so badly and by using companies like Interserve they claim they have no responibilty for the people who work inside their shops to keep them clean.

*Several people stopped for a while to dance when the cleaners played Latin-American music*

Many of the shoppers walking by took leaflets and showed support for the cleaners and were surprised that Debenhams could legally evade their responsibilities to the workers in this way.

The cleaners had begun their picket in the early morning and were still protesting when I had to leave.

More pictures

London Bike Life

Oxford St

While I was outside Debenhams a group of several hundred mainly boys and young men rode past on bicycles, some balancing just on the rear wheel of their bikes. They were obviously having fun but it looked rather dangerous as they wove in and out of traffic.

I had heard there was going to be some sort of bike ride in London that day, but could not find any of the details in advance. And when it did arrive it came as a surprise and I didn’t have time to think about my camera settings but took the pictures at the same ISO and shutter speed as I had been using for the protest on the pavement – which meant many of my pictures were blurred and unusable.

I didn’t have time to choose a different position either, though I think the yellow ‘bananas’ bus was quite appropriate.

*The guy getting a lift on the handlebars was one of the few wearing a cycle helmet*

Later I found that these ‘UK Bike Life Wheelie Rides’ begin somewhere south of the river perhaps at Tower Bridge, Druid St or Leake St, around lunchtime. They have fun swarming around the city, showing off with wheelies, stopping traffic, riding on pavements as well as roads, ignoring traffic lights, forcing drivers to stop and generally behaving badly on bikes. Several missed me by inches as they sped past while I was taking pictures.

Some certainly displayed an impressive degree of skill, but it still seemed dangerous both to themselves and to other road users and pedestrians – and an activity that gives cycling a bad name.

London Bike Life

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Christmas Decorations – 2003

Christmas Decorations: Twenty-two years ago I was younger and fitter and my doctor had told me to take plenty of exercise, which for me meant riding a bike. On one of these rides at the start of December I came across a house which had been decorated for Christmas and took a quick snap with the little Canon Ixus which was always in my pocket. I decided it would be an interesting project to photograph, particularly at night. I posted on a CIX photography forum asking for information about where there were houses worth photographing, but found a few others myself.

The Ixus wasn’t really up to this – as I wrote then, “they are .. very difficult to photograph well. In full darkness the contrast between the lights and the rest of the scene is too high. If you want to take pictures, then try and do so at twilight, when there is still enough light around to see clearly. The lupine hour is the best time for most ‘night’ photography.” There were just a few where I found a little flash could help but more often it ruined the effect.

During December 2003 I loaded the bag on my Brompton with my 6Mp Nikon D100, the first really affordable digital SLR and tied on a large Manfrotto tripod and either rode from home or went by train to various areas of London, riding around an taking photographs in late afternoon or early evening.

And of course I posted some of the pictures on My London Diary and wrote a piece about Christmas and the pictures – which is below- with minor corrections.

Christmas is on its way, and houses all over Britain are beginning to display the signs, some more tastefully than others. Some I’ve found are rather impressive, others I find amusing, but your opinions may well differ.

Christmas has almost completely lost the connection it had to the nativity, and the ‘Christmas Story’ is now one of cash registers and a Santa Claus who owes as much to advertising as to Saint Nicholas.

Originally of course this was a pagan festival from over 4000 years ago, the feast of the Goddess of Nature, an occasion for drinking, gluttony and gifts, so perhaps we really are getting down to our roots for once. Many celebrations, especially those for Yule (the ‘wheel’ or sun) were on the Winter Solstice – the shortest daylight, usually on Dec 21 or 22, when the rebirth of the sun was celebrated.

Pope Julius I decided it would be a good idea for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25 back in 350AD, so that Christians could go on celebrating yule and not feel bad about it, celebrating the birth of the Son of God while others were celebrating the birth of the sun. Though Christmas as we knew it only came in around the 1500s in Germany, many of its customs only really coming here when Victoria married Albert.

Our modern picture of Santa developed in the USA in the mid nineteenth century, particularly in the drawings of Thomas Nast for ‘Harpers’ magazine, and the jovial fat bearded man in red and white was well-established before Haddon Sundbloom annexed him for his fantastically successful coke adverts. Although Coke didn’t invent Santa, it was largely the power of their advertising that sold him to the world.

These decorated houses, often an attempt to go one better than the Joneses, have become an urban folk art. One of the glories of folk art is that it is seldom polite or tasteful, sometimes incredibly kitsch and over the top. Despite my misgivings on grounds of religion, ecology, upbringing and reserve I love them. at the very least they add a little colour to our lives.

Ruislip, Eastcote and West Drayton

The 15th was a glorious December day, cold but with a clear blue sky and sun. I took the Brompton on the train to Angel Road, then spent a couple of hours around there before heading north to Ponders End, further up the Lea Valley. around here there are still some of many industries that once filled much of the lower lea.

Lea Valley pictures

As it got dark I went to Enfield, in search of some houses I’d been told about, then on to North Tottenham and New Southgate and finally West Finchley. Somewhere I tried to cycle where the council had left a flower bed in the pavement and went flying, with rather painful results, but fortunately I don’t seem to have broken anything.

North London pictures

The weather was still good a couple of days later as I reached Rotherhithe in late afternoon, with a post-sunset glow along the Thames. Much of the Surrey Docks redevelopment seems sadly suburban and the new riverside flats depress by their lack of imagination, but there are some fine views along the river: even Canary Wharf can look good from a distance.

River Thames and Rotherhithe

Here were a couple more houses with Christmas decorations worth photographing, before I leapt onto the east london line to new cross. Unfortunately there diddn’t seem to be any trains running to Hither Green from there (despite the timetable) but it was only a couple of miles to cycle.

Rotherhithe

The lights in Newstead Road are perhaps the most impressive of any I’ve seen, but I can’t really find a good way to photograph them, and there are too many people around. Apparently last year they raised £3000 for charity.

Newstead Road

Back on my bike to the station, train to Waterloo and then another to Raynes Park and a cycle down Grand Drive to Lower Morden Lane, with fingers cold because I lost a glove on the way to Rotherhithe. This street is impressive for the number of houses with decorations, and the queue of cars driving slowly past to admire them. but none of them are really exceptional, and there wasn’t a lot to photograph.

So its back on the Brompton to Raynes Park and a couple of trains home. It was great to come in and find a hot dinner in the oven waiting for me.

Lower Morden Lane

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