Andy Burnham | >Re-PHOTO

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed – 2015

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed: The Independent Living fund which enabled many disabled people to live useful and fulfilling lives ended on Tuesday 30th June 2015. After photographing the delivery of petitions ouside Downing St against its ending I went to Poplar for another visit to Robin Hood Gardens where a second attempt to get these important buildings listed had recently been rejected.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony – Downing St to Old Palace Yard

Disabled Lose Independence & Robin Hood Gardens Doomed - 2015 — *John Kelly as Schimmel, the equine star and proud battle horse of the Threepenny Opera*

On the day the Independent Living Fund closed, campaigners for independent living for disabled people led by DPAC, Disabled People Against Cuts, presented petitions to the Prime Minister before marching behind the Threepenny Opera horse to Parliament to continue their fight for dignity and equality.

At the gates of Downing Street protesters wrote slogans on incontinence pads which losing the support means some will be forced to use. Paula Peters had this message for Iain Duncan Smith: ‘I want dignity – I want to be treated as a human – You wear one of these I. D. S. They are awful‘.’

As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions IDS was responsible for the decision to end this support, which had been introduced in 1988 to enable disabled people to live in their own homes and to pay for care, and in particular to employ personal assistants.

They had brought a petition with over 25,000 signatures to hand in and after this they marched to a rally at Old Palace Yard at the end of which a wreath with the message’s ‘RIP ILF’ was laid.

The government lost a legal challenge over ending the ILF but still closed it for new claimants on 1st July 2015. The responsibility for existing claimants in England was passed from the Independent Living Fund to local authorities who became responsible for care provision and all assessments. Support which had been well-administered became a post-code lottery.

DPAC’s ILF Closing Ceremony.

Robin Hood Gardens – Poplar

*The end of the street in the sky – and it looks like the end for Robin Hood Gardens*

Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972 was a nationally important and internationally recognised work of Brutalist architecture. Built for the London County Council with 213 flats, it was designed as two slab blocks, the east 10 storeys and the west 7 storeys on a difficult site next to one of London’s busiest roads – the Blackwall Tunnel Approach – but with a large and peaceful green inside.

*There appears to be a forest between the two slabs of Robin Hood Gardens*

It was very solidly built and the flats were generous, with wide ‘streets in the sky’ outside. Inside the flats next to the roadway you could hardly hear the traffic.

*The East block seen from the decorated wall above the Blackwall Tunnel entrance*

In 1965 ownership passed to Tower Hamlets Council who neglected the site, allowed the green to become overgrown and later actively demonised the estate and housed many problem families there.

*Two tall walls of flats protecting a large open garden area*

Following a visit there in 2009 on an Open House Day tour led by Bridget Cherry I commented it was “in many respects a fine solution to a difficult site with some superb landscaping in the large interior space. Deliberately encouraged to ruin by overcrowding and use as a sink estate by Tower Hamlets, it is now in a sorry state, but the decision not to list it is unfathomable (or perhaps simply political.) I hope the campaign to save it from demolition succeeds. “

Most of the flats in the East block were then still occupied. They are large and desirable properties, but often have been used to house difficult residents.

During the New Labour government the listing advisory committee of English Heritage wanted to list it, but were overruled by the politicians, with then Minister of Culture Andy Burnham issuing a certificate of immunity in 2009 and allowing the local Labour Tower Hamlets council to proceed with plans for demolition and redevelopment of the area. But for the moment it was saved by the financial difficulties.

*A tall concrete wall protected the flats from the traffic on Cotton St*

The immunity expired in 2014 and a further attempt, backed by almost every well-known British architect, was then made to get it listed, but was rejected by Historic England, the body that now control listings.

Parking areas on the outside of each of the two blocks

An open letter signed by Richard Rogers and others stated:

"The buildings, which offer generously sized flats that could be refurbished, are of outstanding architectural quality and significant historic interest, and public appreciation and understanding of the value of Modernist architecture has grown over the past five years, making the case for listing stronger than ever."

Historic England went along with the local council’s views and judged that it “fails as a place for human beings to live“. This wasn’t the impression I got from talking to residents on my visits.

*The top street on the east block* – *the curve is from my fisheye lens*

The defects of this and other soundly built modern estates that have been demolished – such as the Heygate at Elephant & Castle in Southwark can generally be easily and relatively cheaply overcome by refurbishment – improved door security, lift maintenance, window replacement, non-combustible cladding etc. The true reasons for demolition are financial, driven by the profits of the developers and also the financial problems of local authorities.

*A large enclosed playground at the south end of the site*

Demolition of sound buildings like this with the expectation of many years of useful service should be criminal. It represents a huge wastage of resources and an incredible carbon footprint both in the actual demolition and also for the rebuilding. The west block was demolished in 2017-8. The east block took around nine months to demolish and this was only completed in March 2025.

More at Robin Hood Gardens.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Save the Whittington Hospital – 2010

Save the Whittington Hospital: On Saturday 27th February 2010 I joined around two thousand people at Highbury Corner to march the two miles to the Whittington Hospital in a protest against planned cuts in A& E and other services at the hospital under a rationalisation plan initiated by Lord Darzi, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Health from 2007 to 2009. In 2008 he led a review of the NHS titled High Quality Care for All.

The proposals for North London arose out of this review and led to plans to would see A&E services downgraded at the Whittington and Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield as well as at either Barnet or North Middlesex Hospitals. He argued that by concentrating emergency services in a few highly-equipped hospitals with specialist facilities a better service can be provided. But the changes were also motivated by the forecast of a large forecast future NHS North London deficit of around £860 million in five years time.

As speakers at the rally pointed out, these changes would lead to much longer journeys for patients through the congested streets of north London in emergencies, which would cost lives. The Whittington, close to the major junction at Archway and with good transport connections is a good place for a hospital and its part or eventual full closure would release a highly desirable and lucrative location for developers.

Among the marchers were several local MPs for the area served by the hospital, including David Lammy, MP for Tottenham and Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, who pledged his support for the hospital and all its services, revealing that he had been born there.

Frank Dobson who was Secretary of State for Health from 1997 to 1999 also gave a powerful speech in support, as did Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green. MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry were also at the event, as well as Terry Stacy, the leader of Islington Council. A number of celebrities with links to the hospital also supported the protests against its closure.

It was doubtless the celebrity support that gained the battle to save the Whittington much greater publicity across the media than most protests, though as usual the BBC did its best to minimise the protest, its web site “being deliberately misleading when it states that “hundreds of protesters” gathered for the march“.

I’d actually stopped and counted the marchers as the walked past me and although my count might have been a few tens out, there were just under 2,000 when it left Highbury Corner. More joined it on the march and others went directly to the rally at the Whittington where the organisers estimated 5,000 attended, though my guess was a little fewer.

In April 2010 after huge local opposition, Labour health minister Andy Burnham had cancelled planned cuts at Whittington Hospital at Archway in North London, along with other planned cuts at North Middlesex and Barnet Hospitals. Shadow health minister Andrew Lansley praised his decision to call “for a stop to the flawed plans by NHS London to shut down local hospital“.

In July 2024 another Labour health Secretary, Wes Streeting, commissioned Lord Darzi to carry out an independent investigation into the NHS in England, which was published without any public consultation in September 2024. I imagine we will soon be fighting to stop more hospital closures.

More at Save the Whittington.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

On the IWGB ‘3 Cosas’ Battle Bus – 2014

On the IWGB ‘3 Cosas’ Battle Bus: On Tuesday 18th January 2014 I got up uncharacteristically early and joined a packed rush hour train into London, something I usually like to avoid. The bus to Russell Square was also slow, held up in busy traffic, but even so I joined the morning picket at the east gate to the entrance to the Senate House car park before 9am and was taking pictures.

It was a bright winter morning, but not much above freezing and not the kind of day anyone sensible would go on an open-top bus ride around London, and though I’d layered up well for the event it was still chilling.

But those on the picket line on the second day of the 3 day strike by the IWGB for union recognition and better conditions had already been there since 5am, beginning while I was still sleeping in a warm bed and were still in good spirits. Cleaners, maintenance and security staff who work in the University of London were joined by student leaders and students from the University. Of course many of the workers would normally have been at work in the early hours.

Although these workers work at the university and carry out work essential for the running of the university, the university does not employ them. Most low paid workers – cleaners, maintenance and security staff, catering workers and others – at the University of London are no longer directly employed by the University, but work in the University on contracts from contractors.

Outsourcing these workers enables the University to evade its responsibilities towards this essential part of their workforce who suffer from poorer conditions and pay and aggressive management from the contractors that any responsible employer would be ashamed to implement. Most were only getting the legal minimum in terms of pay, pensions, sick pay and holidays, well inferior to comparable fellow workers directly employed by the University.

In the past these precarious employees had belonged, if at all, to traditional unions such as Unison, who had taken their fees but done nothing to improve their conditions, often seeming to them to only be concerned in keeping the differential between those on the lowest pay and higher paid staff.

It was only when these workers, many of them Spanish-speaking, joined the newly formed grass roots union, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, that they were able to achieve some gains thanks to noisy public protests and strong negotiating by the union which by 2013 had won them the London Living Wage, considerably more than the national minimum wage. They achieved this despite both the University of London and the employers refusing to recognise the IWGB, continuing to recognise the more compliant Unison to which few if any of these workers belonged.

In 2013, having won the London Living Wage and started the now famous 3 Cosas or “three things” campaign for sick pay, holiday pay and pensions, as well as continuing to press for union recognition.

This 3-day strike, following another strike the previous November, was the latest action in this campaign. Union recognition was particularly important for those working at the Garden Halls of residence in Bloomsbury which the university was intending to close in the coming Summer. The IWGB was demanding these workers be given priority for vacancies that arise elsewhere in the university, with preference being given to those with the longer periods of service, but the employers were refusing any cooperation.

Waiting for us in the driveway was an open-top bus, and after I had been there around an hour most of the strikers and supporters boarded this ‘battle bus’ to go on a protest tour of various sites in London, with just a small picket remaining. I had been invited to go with them on top of the bus to take photographs.

“The sun shone on the workers as the bus drove away, followed by a group of student supporters on bicycles. I was on the upper deck taking photographs as the workers waved their red IWGB flags, chanted and listened to IWGB Branch Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee, Branch Chair Henry Lopez, President of the Independent Workers of Great Britain Alberto Durango, Branch Vice-Chair and leading member of the 3 Cosas Campaign Sonia Chura and University of London Union Vice-President Daniel Cooper as they used a powerful public address system to address the public and workers about the fight for union recognition for the IWGB and comparable conditions of service with directly employed University of London workers for outsourced workers at the university.

In between the various speeches and chants, including some in both Spanish and translated into English, there was loud music to draw attention and also to keep the strikers happy.”

The first stop was in Cartwright Gardens outside the University’s Garden Halls of residence where there were several speeches from the top of the bus. Somehow we went on to drive past the Unison headquarters on Euston Road in both directions, to booing from many of the workers, and on the second pass an IWGB flag was caught in the branches of a tree and left flying in front of the Unison building.

The route had been planned to stop outside the offices of The Guardian, but it, like most London buses, was running late due to traffic congestion, and it continued on to go very noisily through Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, before a complete circuit of Parliament Square before stopping to let us get off outside the Supreme Court.

There was then a rally on the pavement in front of Parliament, with short speeches by Labour MPs John McDonnell, Andy Burnham and Jeremy Corbyn who had come out to join us.

We marched to the Embankment and boarded the bus again for a short journey, leaving the bus just around the corner from the Royal Opera House, where everyone kept quiet as we approached the building and then rushed in. The IWGB had been campaigning there for some time for the London Living Wage.

This is another workplace where the management had refused to recognise and have talks with the IWGB, preferring to recognise Unison. The IWGB were confronted there by the Unison Health & Safety rep who told them the management had now agreed to pay cleaners the Living Wage but hadn’t yet told them. Doubtless this was another victory for the protests by the IWGB, though of course he refused to acknowledge this.

We piled back onto the bus and went to the offices of the new employer of the outsourced workers, Cofely GDF-Suez, who had taken over from Balfour Beatty Workplace in December. Police were there and the front and back gates were both locked. The workers held a brief rally outside the gate in Torrens Place.

I was invited to go back on the bus to a late lunch with the workers at the Elephant & Castle – but it was already after 2pm and I didn’t relish the thought of another long bus ride. So I said goodbye and began my journey home to work on and file some of the many pictures I had taken over the day.

You can read more about this in posts on My London Diary, where there are also many more pictures.
‘3 Cosas’ Strike Picket
‘3 Cosas’ Strike Picket and Battle Bus
IWGB at Parliament
IWGB in Royal Opera House
IWGB at Cofely GDF-Suez

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

People’s March For The NHS And More – 2014

On Saturday 6th September I was in London mainly to cover the final stage of the People’s March for the NHS which had begun in mid August in Jarrow, but also photographed Mourning Mothers of Iran, people on a Rolling Picket against Israeli violence and a protest against children being taken for families by social workers and family courts.

People’s March from Jarrow for NHS

When the NHS was founded back in 1948 it was an integral part of the welfare state, a social welfare policy to provide free and universal benefits. It was opposed at its start by the Conservative Party, and met with opposition from some doctors and other medical professionals worried that it would cut their earnings from private practice.

Particularly because of the opposition from doctors, the initial scheme had to be fairly drastically changed, with compromises being made by Minister for Health Aneurin Bevan. And dentistry was never really properly and fully brought withing the system.

Since 1948 much has changed. We’ve seen a huge growth in private hospitals, partly driven by many employers providing private healthcare schemes as a perk for their better paid employees, but also by public funding being used to pay for NHS services provided by the private sector.

We’ve also seen the introduction of charges for NHS prescriptions and more recently the NHS has decided on a fairly wide range of common conditions for which it will no longer provide treatment or prescriptions, sending people to the chemist for both advice and over the counter medicines.

There have been huge advances in medical science too, and more of us are living to a greater age than ever before, making more demands on the NHS. Our NHS is costing more, though still the total spending on health in the UK is significantly less than in many other countries as an OECD chart on Wikipedia shows – less than Japan, Ireland, Australia, France, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Switzerland – and well under half of that in the USA.

Yet for some years many leading Conservatives have advocated the UK moving to a system based on the US model. It would not make our health any better, but would make it much more expensive. And lead to huge profits for healthcare companies – many of them US-based – which are already beginning to take large bites of our own NHS spending. Involving private companies in providing NHS services has not generally led to better services – and in some cases has certainly made them worse, unsurprisingly as it diverts money to shareholders rather than using it for patients. Some services have become more difficult to access.

GP surgeries have always been private businesses, but when these were run by the doctors they provided more personal services than those run by some private companies where patients are unlikely to see a ‘family doctor’ and far more likely to see a locum – if they can still get an appointment. The NHS also spends over £6bn a year on agency and bank staff which would be unnecessary if we were training enough staff.

The need to put services out to tender is time-consuming and wastes NHS resources, one of several things which has produced a top-heavy management. And accepting low tenders often leads to poorly performing services such as cleaning, as I found when I was in my local hospital and found staff simply were not allowed time to do the job properly.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was the most extensive reorganisation of the NHS to that date and Lansley has been widely seen as getting things wrong, and it replaced the duty on the NHS to provide services with one to promote them, with delivery possibly by others, opening up the entire health service to privatisation.

I walked with the marchers from a rally in Red Lion Square to Trafalgar Square where there was a final rally with speakers including Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andy Burnham and London Mayor Sadiq Kahn. In 1936 the Jarrow Crusade marchers in 1936 – who were shunned by the Labour Party but captured the hears of the British population – had been given a pound, along with a train ticket back to Jarrow, but failed to get any significant action from the government and Jarrow was left without jobs. Those marchers who had walked the whole 300 miles from Jarrow were presented with medals incorporating a pound coin.

People’s March from Jarrow for NHS

Mourning Mothers of Iran – Trafalgar Square

On the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square I found a group of mainly Iranian women standing in a silent vigil to support the Mourning Mothers of Iran.

Now renamed The Mothers of Laleh Park, these are women who hold vigils in the park in the centre of Tehran after their children were killed or imprisoned following a crackdown on members of the opposition after the 2009 Iranian election, and call for the release of political prisoners. Many of the women in Iran have been arrested for protesting and for talking to foreign journalists.

Mourning Mothers of Iran

Rolling Picket against Israeli violence – Downing St

At Downing Street I photographed a group protesting against Israeli violence towards Palestinians and clalling for a boycott of Israeli good.

After a brief protest at Downing St they marched up Whitehall and protested outside McDonalds before going for another short protest outside the Tesco facing Trafalgar Square. Police intervened to move them away when they tried to block the doorway there. I left them on their way to make further protests outside shops supporting Israel on their way to Tony Blair’s house off the Edgware Rd.

Rolling Picket against Israeli violence

Stolen Children of the UK – Parliament Square

This group say that many children in the UK are removed from families by social workers and family courts for no good reason. They allege that there is systematic, systemic institutional abuse of around a thousand children a month being removed in this way and then abused by paedophile rings. Although there may be children wrongly taken from families there appears to be no firm evidence for such abuse.

These conspiracy theories are a world-wide phenomenon and in 2017 became the core belief of QAnon, the US extreme right wing conspiracy theory political movement.

Stolen Children of the UK