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North Woolwich Photos – 2006

Monday, June 16th, 2025

North Woolwich Photos: My account of my day on Friday 16 June 2006 is rather short – and manages to include a mis-spelling: “I took a trip to North Woolich and made some pictures there.” And the 45 pictures I posted had only the additional heading “North Woolwich, Thames, Royal Docks & Silvertown” but no captions. I think they deserve more, so I’ll correct that for a few of them in this post.

North Woolwich Photos - 2006
Woolwich Ferry, North Woolwich, 2006

The ferry is the James Newman, built in 1963 and named after a prominent local figure who was Mayor of Woolwich in 1923–25 and was taken out of service in 2018. But I hadn’t arrived on the ferry but had put my folding bike onto a Silverlink service on the North London Line which then ran from Richmond to North Woolwich Station (the section from Stratford to North Woolwich close at the end of 2006.)

North Woolwich Photos - 2006

The building in the background of the second image is North Woolwich Station, though it had by that date been abandoned by trains which stopped being used as a station in 1979, replaced by a considerably less grand and basic structure on its south side. For some years it was a museum and this fine 1854 building is now home to the New Covenant Church. My picture is taken from the riverside path.

North Woolwich Photos - 2006
Old Bargehouse Draw Dock and Causeway

Next came three pictures showing the reverside flats just past the Old Bargehouse Draw Dock and Causeway at the end of Bargehouse Road. Until the Woolwich Free Ferry was introduced in 1889 this was where ferries ran across the river to Woolwich. On this occasion I’d cycled past the remains of the Free Ferry without taking any pictures, probably because I had photographed them on several occasions before. You can see the other two pictures of the flats on My London Diary.

North Woolwich Photos - 2006

I took a few pictures looking across the River Thames most of which I didn’t post on My London Diary and then this one after I’d crossed the lock gates of the King George V Dock entrance and had come to the lock entrance to the Royal Albert Dock Basin. The building here has since been replaced by the flats of Lockside Way.

North Woolwich Photos - 2006

The riverside path – part of the Capital Way – continues north to an abrupt end close to Atlantis Avenue and this view from its end shows the remains of the jetty which brought coal to the Beckton Gas Works. I retraced my path, taking more pictures – some concrete pipe sections, a disused lock gate and a lorry park on My London Diary and then made my way to Woolwich Manor Way.

Royal Albert Dock

Here I could photograph across the dock. At the left are new flats built between the dock and University Way and in the foreground are two yellow towers carrying approach lights for the runway of London City Airport.

A plane takes off from London City Airport

The haze that you see in this picture, taken with a 300mm (equivalent) lens is a little more obvious than in the other pictures thanks to air pollution, which the airport contributes to.

I made some more photographs in North Woolwich – tthere was a Football World Cup taking place in Germany – England were eventually knocked out by Portugal in the quarter-finals.

London City Airport DLR station had opened in December 2005 and I was able to take photographs from there both of the Airport Terminal and of Tate & Lyle’s sugar refinery.

Thame Barrier Park

I took more pictures in Silvertown and Canning Town, some of which you can see on My London Diary, before making my way back to Central London. There I took some more pictures around Brick Lane, some of which I put on My London Diary in a seperate post. It had been a good day for me.

More pictures:
North Woolwich, Thames, Royal Docks & Silvertown
Brick Lane

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Rainham and Hornchurch – 2006

Sunday, May 11th, 2025

Rainham and Hornchurch: On Thursday 11th May 2006 I put my Brompton folding bike on the train for the journey across London to Rainham Station. The journey, around 31 miles in a straight line, though rather longer on the ground, took me almost two hours on three trains, one Underground. As usual I took a book to read and relaxed on the journey.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Containers on Rainham Marshes

Rainham is in Havering, part of Greater London and is the last station out to the east on the C2C rail service where the Travelcard I used covered. I did several rides and walks from here into Essex over the years, but I on this one stayed inside Greater London.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Mural of previous industry in the area and Tilda Rice works

The first part of this bike ride followed the route of the London Loop path around the outskirts of London, which at that date came to a dead and desolate end at Coldharbour Point. The path now continues to end in Purfleet, and if you have the stamina you can continue walking on a riverside path which ends at Tilbury Docks before having to retrace your steps to Grays.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006
Derelict concrete barges in the Thames built for the Mulberry Harbour used for the D-Day landings

I didn’t write much about the ride back in 2006, and I didn’t ride very far. After returning from the end of the path I had a short ride west along the A13, which I don’t recommended as it is certainly not cycle friendly with much fast-moving traffic. The Mardyke Estate, where I went after that is now called ‘Orchard Village’ which at least avoids confusion with the Mardyke, a small river a few miles to the east. I continued roughly north through South Hornchurch, finally ending my ride at the District Line station of Elm Park.

Rainham and Hornchurch - 2006

The sculpture in the river facing the barges and the Tilda Rice plant is Diver: Regeneration by local sculptor John Kaufman, who died in 2002, not long after it was placed here in the mud in 2000. Some of the funding for it came from the landfill company which carried waste here to raise parts of the marshes above sea level.

Waste Transfer Jetty – Landfill is raising much of the below sea-level marshes

My pictures don’t reflect the nature of the area which has large areas of open with marshes and country parks and two rivers flowing through it, the Beam River and the Ingrebourne which flows into the Thames at Rainham Creek. I think it is also an area which has seen considerable regeneration since 2006 in the London Riverside area of Thames Gateway redevelopment.

Coldharbour Point and the barbed wire where the London Loop then ended

Here’s my account with the usual minor corrections from 2006:

Rainham is at the eastern edge of London, an area of marsh, industry, warehouses, container stacks, dereliction and landfill on the Essex (north) bank of the Thames, cut across by the elevated A13 trunk road which sweeps across the creek and on over the marshes to Purfleet, alongside the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Rainham Creek from the A13

One day the Thames Path will continue past Coldharbour Point, but for the moment it’s a dead end. I eat my sandwiches and then turn back, making my way up onto the elevated roadway, but the views are disappointing.

Mardyke Estate, South Hornchurch

At the next roundabout west I take a look around, leave the main road and then head north, past disused areas of the Ford Dagenham site and up through the Mardyke Estate and South Hornchurch.

At Elm Park the heat of our first hot day if the year – 25 Celsius in the shade, but I’ve been constantly in sun – gets to me and I give up and take the Underground towards home.

One of many houses decorated for the Cup Final. Unfortunately West Ham lost to Liverpool

The heat has buckled some of the rails and the District Line train has to crawl along, more or less at my cycling speed, but at least I can just sit and rest.

There are more pictures from the ride here.

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Workers, May Day March & Police Party 2006

Thursday, May 1st, 2025

Workers, May Day March & Police Party: May 1st is of course May Day, International Workers’ Day, and I will be at Clerkenwell for the annual May Day march in London, and perhaps some other events to celebrate the day. For Catholics it is also dedicated to Saint Joseph the Worker, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus and approopriately in 2006 my day started outside Westminster Cathedral with the launch of the London Citizens Workers’ Association. Here is what I posted back on May Day in 2006 – with the usual corrections and links to more pictures on My London Diary.

London Citizens Workers’ Association – Westminster Cathedral

Workers, May Day March & Police Party

May 1st saw the launch of the London Citizens Workers’ Association, a new organisation to support low-wage and migrant workers across London, backed by faith organisations, trade unions and social justice organisations. May 1 is the feast of St Joseph the Worker and the event began with a procession into the cathedral and a ‘Mass For Workers’, but I didn’t bother to get up in time for that.

Workers, May Day March & Police Party

After the mass was a ‘Living Wage rally’ outside the cathedral, with speakers including Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor (then leader of the Catholic Church in England & Wales), Sir Iqbal Sacranie (Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain), and Jack Dromey (General Secretary of the TGWU) along with representatives of other unions and faiths, and of the new association.

Workers, May Day March & Police Party

The association aims to fight a campaign for a living wage for low paid workers as well as training them to organise and campaign and providing free advice on rights at work and legal support. Workers in low paid jobs often also lack decent working conditions and there was in 2006 little trade union representation*. It will also provide english classes.

Workers, May Day March & Police Party

Several large employers who have already taken steps to improve conditions were awarded ‘Living Wage Employers awards’ at the rally, but I didn’t wait around for this.
more pictures

[* Since 2006 we have seen the rise of several grass roots trade unions taking a strong stance for the rights of low paid workers, particularly migrant workers, including the United Voices of the World and the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain.]

London May Day March – Clerkenwell

Workers, May Day March & Police Party

Around half of London’s tube network seemed to be down for planned engineering works, and getting around was a bit like playing Mornington Crescent to some very special rules. But the Victoria Line and Thameslink got me to Farringdon well before the start of the annual May Day parade.

This seemed larger than in previous years, with a few more trade unions there, with particularly strong support from the RMT, but many others also took part, including my own – the NUJ (and there were many of us members covering the event as well.)

As usual, the most colourful aspect of the march was provided by the various Turkish communist parties, with strong youth wings. MKLP (and its KGO youth), the DHKC, the TIKB, the TKP/ML and probably more. There were some powerful reminders of the repression in Turkey in the portraits of some of those who have died in terrorist actions or death fasts.

Movements in a number of other countries were also represented, including Iraq, Iran Greece and Sri Lanka as well as the Kurds. Also taking part was the African Liberation Support Campaign Network.

Gate Gourmet strikers marching behind their banner chanted “Tony Woodley – out out!” denouncing the attempts of the TGWU to force them to sign the compromise agreement which waives their rights to further work or legal redress. Others demanded that Remploy factories be kept open. There were protests over the Dexion and Samuel Jones pension outrages, and other causes.

More or less bringing up the rear of the march were around 500-1000 in the Autonomous Bloc, an anti-capitalist grouping marching against ‘precarity’, the working environment of late capitalism.

Increasingly there is a polarisation of the employment market in our service-based economies, characterised at one end by poor conditions, lack of job security, temporary employment, use of migrant labour at one extreme, and at the other by increasing encroachment of work into the private lives of more highly paid employees, making them into company property in exchange for their security.

In contrast to the relatively low-profile police presence for the rest of the event, this bloc was flanked on both sides by a line of uniformed police. Many of the marchers in this section wore scarves covering the lower half of their faces, and some carried anarchist flags. Leading the block were a number of bicycles, and a pedal powered sound system.

The march continued on its way to Trafalgar Square, where people stood around mainly looking pretty bored. I didn’t catch much of the speeches but if what I heard was typical I could understand why.

more pictures

Autonomous Bloc in Trafalgar Square

When the Autonomous Bloc arrived at the square, the police barred their entry on the grounds of public order and seized the sound system. More than half those marching left at this point, with the police making little attempt to stop individuals who wandered into the square.

The rest of the bloc stayed on the road, with a few short speeches over a loud hailer, then moved up the side of the square towards the national gallery, where there was another short meeting. This was interrupted by the news that the police tactical support group was on its way, and they soon surrounded the relatively small group who had decided to stay.

I walked through the police line at this point, and they seemed to be making little attempt to stop anyone leaving, or at least didn’t detain them for more than a few minutes.

Pictures from the autonomous bloc on the main march here, but there are more pictures from Trafalgar Square here.

Space Hijackers Police Victory Party – Bank

While the marchers were walking to Trafalgar Square, I took what was left of the tube to Bank and the ‘Police Victory Party‘ organised on their behalf by the Space Hijackers.

There I watched Tony Blair and some rather more attractive than usual police (and with pink fluffy hand-cuffs) being watched by some other police. A couple of the latter walked away when asked if they would mind being photographed, but some others seemed to be rather amused by the proceedings.

Of course, the police (both lots) were taking lots of pictures of the events too, and I can imagine some of them causing amusement at section house parties.

There was a ‘pin the blame on the anarchist’ game, a pinata (ta for the mini Mars bar) and some dancing before I had to rush off to make the gig at Trafalgar Square. Where the politics were perhaps less serious.

more pictures

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Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope – 2006

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope: The day after the Fools Paradise Parade against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act exclusion zone in yesterday’s post I was back in Parliament Square for another protest in defiance of that restriction on our freedom to protest. Milan Rai and Maya Evans from the Justice Not Vengeance anti-war group had organised an event on Sunday 2nd April 2006 to mark the second anniversary of the major US assault on Fallujah which had begun on 4th April 2004.

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope - 2006
Maya Evans had been the first person to be arrested under SOCPA in October 2005

The US having used overwhelming military force was eventually able to claim victory over the few hundred Iraqi militants, but it was a propaganda disaster for them in terms of opinion both in Iraq and around the world, both because they killed roughly three times as many civilians – mainly women and children – as militants, and because the Iraqi militants they were fighting and the civilians were largely opposed to Saddam Hussein and his party.

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope - 2006

Here with the usual proper capitalisation and minor corrections is my piece from My London Diary written in 2006, along with another short post on Polish Catholics in London marking the first anniversary of the death of the much-loved Polish Pope John Paul II.

Naming the Dead: 2 Years After Fallujah

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope - 2006
People took turns to read a page of the names and descriptions of those who were killed.

Sunday’s demonstration on the second anniversary of the US attack on Fallujah on April 4, 2004 was a larger and more somber occasion.

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope - 2006
Brian Haw at the protest

It was also organised as an “unauthorised” demonstration in the Westminster Exclusion Zone, and illegal under SOCPA; the organisers and those taking part risked fines of up to £1000.

Fallujah, SOCPA & the Polish Pope - 2006
When Freedom is Outlawed only Outlaws will be Free

At least 572 people, mainly civilians, were killed in this first of two assaults on Fallujah, including over 300 women. During the four hours of the demonstration their names were read out. People came to the centre of the circle three at a time and each read a page of the names. As no megaphones are allowed to be used in the restricted area they had to shout to make themselves heard.

Placards aren’t allowed either, so people had posters with names and pictures of the dead and hung these around their necks. There were also some giant puppets representing Iraqi people. As well as the reading of the names, there was also a short play, and some readings of testimonies from people who were there.

The Iraqi people also ask questions

The proceedings carried on through some heavy downpours, interspersed by bright sun. When I made a count, there were about 300 present, although some came and left throughout the period.

There were only a few police around, largely staying on the perimeter of the area, with a small group a little closer taking notes and a police photographer with a long lens taking pictures. Otherwise they seemed to be taking little notice, although I’ve since seen a report that the man dressed as Charlie Chaplin [Charlie X] and carrying a placard reading “not aloud” (see pictures of him in the Fools Paradise Parade post), had his details taken and was cautioned and told he may be prosecuted. It is also possible that the police may use evidence gathered during the afternoon to issue summonses later.

There were quite a few media photographers present, and at least one TV crew paid a visit, so the event may get rather more publicity than most other demonstrations.

At four o’clock, the police noted that demonstrators left the square, but they apparently ignored the unauthorised – and thus illegal – march that took place behind a coffin up Whitehall to opposite Downing Street, where a short ceremony with readings took place. I had to leave before it had finished.

More pictures

Anniversary of Death of Pope Jean Paul II

Also taking place during the afternoon was a march by 2000 Polish catholics to mark the first anniversary of the death of the Polish Pope John Paul II. The procession was addressed briefly by a priest from the steps in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square before setting off down Whitehall on its way to Westminster Cathedral.

A number of people in the procession carried Polish flags or pictures of the late Pope, and many had flowers which would be left in his honour at Westminster Cathedral.

Driving rain soon made photographs difficult, though it stopped and the rain came out when we were halfway down Whitehall.

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Fools Paradise Parade 2006 & Police State 2025

Tuesday, April 1st, 2025

Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone: Another of my old posts on My London Diary that I’ll capitalise appropriately and make minor corrections is on the Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone which marched from beside the London Eye to Parliament Square on 1st April 2006. As well as the few pictures I’ll post here there are many more on My London Diary. And I’ll end with a dramatic illustration of our shift towards a police state as we have moved over my lifetime fromthe welfare state to a warfare state.

April Fools Day was a good day to demonstrate against the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005 exclusion zone, which bans democratic protests within a kilometre of the the Houses of Parliament unless they have previous permission, as well as greatly restricting what protesters can do. It’s a peculiarly foolish piece of legislation, rushed through to try and tidy up Parliament Square and protect the government from the embarrassment of seeing Brian Haw and other peace protesters on their patch of grass in Parliament Square.

Even more foolish in that, at least so far, it hasn’t worked, although the authorities have appealed against Brian’s legal victory to be allowed to remain.

Attacking the pinata in Parliament Square, Westminster, London

April Fools were those who stuck their head in the sand and ignored the Calendar Change in 1752, which was accompanied by a shift in the New Year from March 25th (the Feast of the Assumption) to Jan 1st (the Feast of the Circumcision, latterly renamed the Solemnity of St Mary, Mother of Jesus.) The Inland Revenue still celebrates the old date (augmented by the 11 lost days of the Calendar Change and another that got lost in 1900) by starting the new tax year on April 6th.

The Fools Paradise Parade started on the Victoria Embankment next to the London Eye, with police taking only a friendly interest, but an argument with security men who told us we were on private property. Nice to know that its yet another bit of London that someone has flogged off, but it is public right of way, and we weren’t doing anything that could legally be objected to.

Tony Blair won the vote to lead the march

The main problem they had seemed to be that people were photographing them, which demonstrated their lack of training in their job, as did their attitude to the members of the public.

The Queen was soon telling Mr Blair exactly what he could do.

Eventually the parade made its way along the riverside path and across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, where there was a bit of a party, with a pinata stuffed with presents being attacked and destroyed by the children.

Charlie X

In Parliament Square the parade was greeted by Brian Haw, still continuing his protest despite SOCPA. April 1st also marked the start of our very own FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency which seems likely to be used against political opposition as well as serious crime.

Parliament’s incompetence in drafting the law so it failed to ban Brian Haw was corrected in a rather concerning court appeal decision where basically the judgement said that it didn’t matter what the law said as it was clear what parliament had intended.

An illegal political placard just somehow slipped out in front of the houses of Parliament

But the provisions on protests in the area around parliament were later repealed and replaced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which instead “restricts certain “prohibited activities” in Parliament Square garden and the adjoining footways. The police have used these powers to confiscate pizza boxes, tarpaulin and umbrellas from protesters in Parliament Square.” It was rather a case of one step forward, two steps back and almost killed Barbara Tucker who had by then taken over from Brian Haw.

Since 2006 we have seen many further restrictions on our right to protest and draconian prison sentences given to peaceful protesters. Some of the restrictions have been brought in by the Tories prompted by the success of protests by grass roots unions against companies particularly in London paying poverty wages and badly treating workers while others reflect the success of protests in promoting public awareness of issues including climate change and Israeli genocide in Gaza.

More pictures on My London Diary

The move towards a police state we are now witnessing was dramatically illustrated last week when when on 27th March more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into the Quaker Westminster Meeting House, searched the entire building and arrested six young women holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

As the Quakers state:

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalised many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.

Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protesters’ ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power.

Their statement concluds:

“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”

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Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love – 2006

Tuesday, February 11th, 2025

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love: On Saturday 11th February 2011 I went to an industrial archaeology meeting in the morning at Three Mills, one of the country’s most important surviving early industrial sites on the River Lea in Newham on its border with Tower Hamlets, then went back into central London for a rally against Xenophobia followed by a free Valentine street party at Piccadilly Circus. I wrote about all three on My London Diary, with of course photographs but like all posts on that site at the time this is a little difficult both to find and read – so I’ll repeat it here with proper capitalisation, minor corrections, a few extra links to add context and links to all the pictures.

Three Mills, Bromley-by-Bow

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love - 2006

Saturday I was up early on my way to a meeting at Three Mills, Bromley-by-Bow. These mills are almost all that will be left standing in this area of the Lea valley by the development for the 2012 London Olympics and a huge growth in housing. If you want to see the Lower Lea Valley, you’d better get down there soon before it all disappears. The plans are not so much regeneration but more a total replacement.

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love - 2006
Sugar House Lane, Stratford from the Miller’s House

I arrived early so I could take a short walk and a few pictures, and after lunch was able to take some pictures from the upper floors of the Mill Owners House. The whole area is one that played an important part in the development of many industries, and is littered with sites of interest to industrial archaeologists, while buried beneath these are doubtless important remains from medieval and earlier times. An important part of our heritage, and all likely to be bulldozed with at most a token report being made.

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love - 2006

I first visited the Lea Valley in the 1980s. You can see a few of my pictures from it on my unfinished site River Lee – Lee Valley, although this covers a rather wider area than the Olympic site. There are also some pictures from the area elsewhere on this site – use the search box.
more pictures

United Against Xenophobia – Trafalgar Square

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love - 2006

Meanwhile, back in Trafalgar Square, around ten thousand people, mainly British Muslims, had gathered in a rally organised by the Muslim Council of Britain to demonstrate they were united against xenophobia. As well as showing their disapproval of those cartoons depicting Muhammad, they were also determined to disassociate themselves from more extreme Muslim groups.

Three Mills, Xenophobia & Infinite Love - 2006

It was a gathering of decent people, behaving decently, listening to decent speakers speaking decently, carrying only the approved decent placards, overwhelmingly decent. Somehow it hardly seemed a real demonstration.
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Reclaim Love 3 – Operation Infinite Love, Eros, Picadilly Circus

But I had a date with Eros, and wandered along to Piccadilly Circus where St Valentine was being honoured with a gathering by O-I-L, Operation Infinite Love.

“In response to the growth of confusion and fear in the world… we have decided to send love and healing to all the beings in this world, many of whom are suffering today.”

Venus CuMara the organiser of the events calls everyone to form a circle and hold hands

This is the third such annual event, and also carried the point that you didn’t need to buy expensive gifts, giving love was what mattered.

After some highly spirited samba from the Spirits Of Resistance everyone present made a large circle to “send love out from the bottom of our hearts to the whole world and all the beings upon her“.

Then the sound system started up and everyone was dancing.

I stayed at the event taking pictures until the light began to fade and then went home, taking with me one of the hundreds of free t-shirts that were given out by Venus and her friends.

I photographed most of these free annual Valentines street parties over the years until 2019. Although a few people have tried to get them going again since Covid I think few people have turned up to party.

Many more pictures

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London Walk January 2006

Monday, January 20th, 2025

London Walk January 2006: I now have no idea why I spent around two and a half hours wandering around London on the afternoon of 20th January 2006, but the pictures tell the story of my route. These images are a selection from a rather larger number I actually made. [The pictures are larger than they appear in this post and you may download them, but like all pictures on this blog are copyright; they must be attributed if posted on social media and a licence is required for any commercial use.]

London Walk January 2006
© 2006, Peter Marshall

I suspect I was going to some evening event and simply took advantage of some fine weather to go up earlier and take some pictures. The first one shows some of the sculptural detail above the outpatients entrance of the former Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women on Waterloo Road the roundabout close to the station, where I will have arrived by train.

London Walk January 2006
© 2006, Peter Marshall

I then walked on to Waterloo Bridge, pausing to take a picture of the National Theatre, with the roof of the film museum in the foreground.

London Walk January 2006
© 2006, Peter Marshall

There was an exhibition ‘after the wave’ on square pillars in front of the National Theatre which rather seemed to echo the shape of the building.

London Walk January 2006
© 2006, Peter Marshall

On Waterloo Bridge I took several pictures looking downstream across the River Thames, this one concentrating on the north bank and St Paul’s Cathedral.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

A wider view shows boats moored in the river and the skyline of London, now rather more crowded.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

Another with St Paul’s at the left .

© 2006, Peter Marshall

On Strand I photographed this lion and two Chinese men relaxing above Twinings, providers of tea to the Queen.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

And these fine fish on Lloyds Bank Law Court Branch at 222 Strand, then still open as a bank – it closed in 2017. It had been called the most beautiful bank in the country. The fish are presumably because this Grade II listed building was built in 1882 by Goymour Cuthbert and W Wimble for the Palsgave Restaurant for the Royal Courts of Justice opposite and was only taken over by Lloyds in 1894.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

Some fine ironwork and a beehive above the doorway to the bank.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

Above the doorway at 193 Fleet Street is this figure of statue of Kaled, the page of Byron’s Count Lara by Giuseppe Grandi, dating from 1872. More about it on Ornamental Passions.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

The building was built for pawnbrokers George Attenborough and Son in 1883 and has some fine sculptural detail including these winged lions, on either side of the wrought iron support from which originally the pawnbrokers three balls were hung. The Latin motto underneath is ‘Sub Hoc floresco‘, Under This I flourish.

© 2006, Peter Marshall

On each side of the clock of St Dunstan’s in the West on Fleet Street are the two mythical giants, Gog and Magog (Corineus and Gogmagog) described in the biblical book of Revelation as the allies of Satan against God when we come to the end of days, but also the guardians of London – and the City is surely on Satan’s side as the money laundering capital of the world. They strike the chimes for the clock here, said to be the oldest public clock in London.

My walk continued – and I’ll post some more from it at some later date. You can already see some of the pictures on My London Diary.

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Borough Market & Apprentice Boys – 2006

Monday, October 21st, 2024

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys: On Saturday 21st October I went to the 250th anniversary celebrations at Borough Market and then to a march celebrating the closing by apprentices of the gates of Derry to the forces of King James II in 1688 which led to the siege of Derry the following year. Here are my accounts of both events from My London Diary in 2006 with a few minor alterations to make them more readable and links to more pictures on the site.

Borough Market: 250th Anniversary – Southwark

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys

Borough Market started with the Romans a couple of thousand years ago, and around a thousand years ago was thriving on and around London’s only bridge across the river Thames. In the next few centuries it moved a little south into Borough High Street, and in 1550 received a royal charter, although like all London markets it was under the control of the City of London.

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys

Increased congestion in Borough High Street lead to the first of nine Acts Of Parliament about the market’s activities in 1754, which moved it out of the road a few yards west to its present site. The agreement with the city authorities, which established the new market was made 250 years ago in 1756. Every year the Lord Mayor of London visits the market and collects fruit for the poor. It is now the only remaining wholesale and retail market in London.

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys

The market is now officially a charity, but has always existed to support the residents of St Saviour’s Parish. Any surplus made by the market now goes to Southwark Council and the residents of the former parish get a rebate on their council tax.

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys

The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers have also been celebrating the 400th anniversary of their Royal Charter in 1605. They had been inspecting (and levying duty) on London’s fruit and veg since 1292 or earlier, and received ordinances in 1463.

Borough Market & Apprentice Boys

Until recently, Borough Market was a wholesale market, but its small size and transport problems meant that ten years ago it was almost empty and in a very poor state. Since then it has grown as a retail site for high quality food and drink, with many small specialist suppliers, as well as other small businesses. Two small parts of the site have been sold to provide money to rebuild and improve the market.

The Lord Mayor arrived with a small guard of pikemen and there were a few speeches. The fruiterers provide fresh fruit for a number of shelters for the homeless. The Lord Mayor and his party then toured the market, which had some fine displays of produce as well as its normal superb foods.

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Apprentice Boys of Derry March – Westminster

The Apprentice Boys Of Derry is a protestant organisation dedicated “to maintaining the spirit of liberty” displayed by the 13 apprentices who closed the gates of the city to the approaching army of the Catholic King James II in 1688. He demanded that the city surrender, receiving the now famous reply “No surrender!” The association which now organises parades to commemorate this was founded in 1814.

As well as in Derry itself, there are Apprentice Boys Clubs around the world, and each year there are several marches in London. At times their marches by or through largely Catholic areas have been extremely contentious, and the banning of their Portadown march in 1986 led to serious riots. Recent events in today’s calmer climate have caused fewer problems.

The march started near Victoria Station and went through Parliament Square to the Cenotaph in Whitehall where a wreath was laid. I left them at Trafalgar Square, on their way to a service at the Independent Congregational Church in Orange Street, behind the National Gallery, followed by a social evening.

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Sack Parliament 2006 and the End of Freedom

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024

Sack Parliament on Monday 9 October 2006 was more a demonstration by police of their determination to protect the status quo following protests earlier in the year and the continuing saga of the Parliament Square peace protest which had led to their performance being criticised by politicians and our largely right-wing press than any real protest by the few who had come to protest against the increasing restrictions on our freedom to protest.

It was Brian Haw’s permanent peace protest in Parliament Square which led to the Labour Government including in the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 severe restrictions on the right to protest in a large area around Parliament and giving police new powers to control protests.

Sack Parliament 2006 and the End of Freedom

Media frenzy about this protest was whipped up in the days before at least in part by police briefings, and the police clearly saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate that they could control events such as this. I wrote and published an unusually long piece on My London Diary about the event – reproduced here with some minor corrections.

Sack Parliament on Monday 9, and event to mark the return of MPs to Westminster, was of course only ever an amusing idea rather than a serious chance of a Ukrainian-style Orange Revolution. As the large press turnout showed, it was one that had caught the attention of the media (Mondays perhaps tend to be slack) but unfortunately not that of the demonstrating classes.

Sack Parliament 2006 and the End of Freedom

It got off to a bad start with the planned ‘Critical Mass’, which failed to gather more than a handful of cyclists. Heavily outnumbered by the police bike posse, they faded away, a couple cycling down the side of the National Theatre and the other 3 or 4 carrying their bikes up the steps to Waterloo Bridge.

Sack Parliament 2006 and the End of Freedom

At Parliament Square, things were little better. At the advertised start time, apart from the normal Parliament Square Permanent Protest there were perhaps 25 demonstrators and rather more press, along with what must have been around a thousand police, counting those sitting in vans around the area as well as the impressive number standing around.

Sack Parliament 2006 and the End of Freedom

Twenty minutes later the numbers had been more than doubled, mainly by the arrival of a group dressed largely in black. And soon after they made a charge at the police line into the road towards the Houses of Parliament.

From the start it seemed a pointless gesture. The line held, and pushed them back, and soon the two sides were standing a few feet apart and glaring at each other. After a few more attempts to push through the police, the demonstrators ran back onto the grassed area of the square where they were surrounded by a cordon of police.

One of the photographers, an NUJ member I’d been talking to a few minutes earlier, was apparently pushed by police as they rushed the demonstrators. He fell and received a neck injury which left him with no feeling from the waist down. Police medics were on hand to give him first aid and to call an ambulance. Later I was pleased to hear he had been allowed home from hospital, and the injuries were apparently less serious than we feared.

I was inside the cordon to start with, but the police made no attempt to stop me as I decided to walk out, not even asking to see my press card (they had checked it earlier.) Around the square, small teams of police were rounding up anyone looking vaguely like a punk or a hippy and dragging them inside the cordon. Some of those they picked on seemed genuinely to have no connection with the protest. Eventually there were perhaps around 150 in there, including quite a few press, along with a few who clearly had little idea what the whole thing was about.

Apparently others who looked like possible demonstrators were stopped and arrested in Whitehall, or turned back on other roads approaching the square.

Outside the cordon, the normal demonstrations in the square went on, with the occasional interruptions by the police, nit-picking about where the demonstrators are allowed to stand and being largely ignored or abused.

Occasionally there were scuffles inside the cordon as demonstrators made an attempt to breach the police line, or police teams moved in to grab individuals. There were also occasional arrests around the square, including some of those who protested loudly they were simply bystanders.

At 14.13, roughly 40 minutes after the protesters had been imprisoned in the cordon, Police Superintendent Peter Terry (responsible for the taking away and destruction of most of Brian Haw’s property from the square and alleged by demonstrators to have lied in court) read from a handwritten statement telling the protesters that they were being detained in the square because he believed that their continued presence in the area would lead to a serious breach of the peace!

Around 15.00, police began to distribute notices to those outside the cordon warning them “we believe that you may be, or are about to be, involved in a demonstration located within an area subject to the provisions of the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act 2005” and moving press and spectators well back from the cordon. There seemed to be little chance of getting further photographs, so I went to get on with work elsewhere.

According to a press report later in the evening, there were 38 arrests made. Those caught in the cordon who were not arrested at the event were apparently required to provide evidence of identity and address before being allowed to leave. SOCPA continues to be a blot on human rights in this country, and this protest, despite its apparent pointlessness and lack of support has underlined this point.

I’m one of a generation who grew up believing in British justice and a sense of fair play. We were rightly appalled at those countries where protest was banned, and demonstrators could be arrested. It sickens me to see this happening in front of what used to be a powerful symbol of freedom, the Houses of Parliament.

In 2007 the Labour Government, then led by Gordon Brown began a consultation about managing protest around Parliament which looked at different ways of imposing restrictions and those in SOCPA were repealed in the coalition’s by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. But they were replaced by giving police new powers to control a wide range of activities in the area.

Even more draconian powers allowing police to restrict protests across the UK cane into force under the Tory Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 which seriously impact free expression, freedom of speech and the right to protest in the United Kingdom, and further powers and increased sentences for protesters were enacted by the Public Order Act 2023. We now have non-violent protesters serving lengthy jail sentences, with a Labour government which appears to be in no hurry to repeal these repressive police state laws.

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St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf – 2006

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024

St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf: Sunday 24th September was an unusual day for me, at times verging on the surreal as you can see from the pictures and the text below, a slightly corrected version of what I wrote at the time on My London Diary.

St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf

When I got up Sunday it poured with rain. What with that and the replacement bus service instead of trains, I almost stayed home, but I was glad I didn’t. By the time I arrived at Turnham Green, the sun was shining and four St Michaels were laying into a single angel with their plastic swords.

St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf

This was the Patronal Festival of the Anglican Church of St Michael And All Angels, a part of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, begun in 1875. The event was complete with a not very fierce looking dragon and a colourfully dressed set of clerics and choristers.

St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf

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St Michael, Gorillas, Pearlies & Urban Golf

From there I rushed off on the District Line to photograph gorillas running through the centre of London. This was raising money for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund which helps to save the world’s last remaining gorillas from poachers, civil war, human disease and deforestation.

Running 7km in a gorilla suit isn’t my idea of fun, and by the finish the contestants – even those who had taken off their masks for the run – were swimming in sweat inside their costumes as they tucked into the free bananas and fruit smoothies.

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Things were a little more sedate at the Guildhall for the annual Pearly Kings And Queens (or Costermongers) Harvest Festival. As well as the pearlies and what looked like a pretty full set of inner London Mayors, along with a few donkey carts and a produce lorry there were people in various iinterpretations of Victorian dress, Chelsea Pensioners, and others of a vaguely traditional London character. The fairground organ looked good, although its music soon palls.

A colourful note was added by Donna Maria’s Maypole Dancers. Donna Maria was apparently a London May Queen having served her time in one of the South-east London realms. She revived maypole dancing with her group of girls dressed in flower costumes who give demonstrations at many events each year.

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The golfing event of the weekend was not of course the Ryder cup (where Europe were thrashing the USA) but the Shoreditch Urban Open Golf Tournament. 18 holes covering most of Shoreditch between the City Road and Great Eastern Street make it the only par 72 urban course in the world.

There are certain local rules that the Shoreditch Golf Club imposes, with the biggest change from the normal game being in the balls, which are considerably softer and lighter, to avoid damage to property and persons. Probably the greatest risk to both players and spectators (and photographers) were in the generously available free drinks thanks to the sponsors Jameson.

It was a nice afternoon, with a lot of people having fun, mainly watching the golfers. Some of the players looked very professional, a few even played as if they were, though I was please to see others obviously holding a club for the first time in their life. The caddies included some considerably more glamourous than you’d see at St Andrews.

The course seemed well-planned, with a pub or bar more or less at every green (and a few in-between.) I’m surprised there weren’t more golfers taking advantage of the opportunity, as this must be the best course in the country (or at least in the City.)

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