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Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival – 2006

Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival: I went to Kingston upon Thames on Sunday September 3 2006 to photograph Kingston Carnival because I hoped to take at least one picture in the town to include in a show, Another London, I was preparing with two friends to take place in Kingston Museum in January 2007, and I made two pictures which ended up in that show.

But both were of Beeraahaar Sweet Combination, a prize-winning Carnival Mas Band based in Stamford Hill, Hackney, miles away in North London and with no real connection to Kingston. Kingston, formerly in Surrey, since 1965 has been a London borough on the edge of London, but until 2020 still home to the central offices of Surrey County Council.

Kingston Carnival began in 2001, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, although this year it was postponed, but is planned to return in 2027.

Later I went to the Regent Street Festival in central London which had a Spanish theme. Below I’ll post with minor corrections what I wrote in 2006 and links to more pictures.

Kingston Carnival

Kingston, Surrey

A little bit of Hackney came to Kingston on Sunday morning to provide the Kingston Carnival. Hard to see why Kingston can’t put up its own carnival, but Beeraahaar Sweet Combination are a fine group that I’ve photographed at Notting Hill and Mardi Gras in Hackney, and even a small group of them gave the event a little atmosphere. Just a pity there weren’t more groups and people from Kingston in the parade to match them.

The stalls around the Guildhall showed there are a diverse range of communities in the area, but the parade didn’t really reflect this. Shipping in a carnival procession provides a little diversion, but surely the whole point of a borough paying for a carnival is to encourage community activities within its own boundaries?

More pictures on My London Diary

Regent Street Festival

Regent St, Westminster

From Kingston I caught the train up to town and to Spain, which was happening in Regent Street, closed to traffic for the day. Of course not closed to shopping, which perhaps rather limits what the organisers could do. I didn’t find the event too exciting, and the large crowds around anything that was going on reflected that too little was happening.

The police, mainly down a side street, were putting on a good show, one of the funniest I’ve seen for a long time, demonstrating how the police are supposed to restrain people, and use weapons such as pepper spray. The gulf between theory and practice is amazing.

I tried out a free sample of a revolting sherry-based drink, watched more Spanish folk dancers than was good for anyone’s sanity, avoided the sand on the ‘beaches’ and decided it was time to go home.

More pictures

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South Africa Crime & I Love Peckham – 2007

South Africa Crime & I Love Peckham: On Saturday 11 August 2007 I photographed a march against crime in South Africa and then went to Peckham for the third ‘I Love Peckham’ festival. I wrote at some length about both events on My London Diary and reproduce that text in full (capitalised and spelling corrected etc) below with links to more pictures on that site.

ACT4SA March Against Crime in South Africa

Westminster

South Africa Crime & I Love Peckham - 2007 — *The march paused in front of South Africa House*

On Sat 11th there was a march organised by ‘Against Crime Together for South Africa’ through London from Temple Gardens next to Temple Underground Station to Whitehall Place. Most of those taking part were young and white, but there were just a few darker and older faces.

ACT4SA is a ‘Facebook’ group of expatriate South Africans living in London, and their aim is to be a non-political group actively working for a safer South Africa. Their attempt, particularly this march, has attracted both praise and criticism from both other expats in Britain and people back home.

Some in South Africa have suggested they should either come back to the country to help in the fight against crime or keep a decent silence about it abroad. A stated aim of the march was to support the South African Police, but at least one police superintendent there has spoken out against it.

After Mark Joubert was murdered in a Durban restuarant in May this year, around 15 of his friends living in London decided they would get together and do something to oppose the violence in their home country. Shannon Joubert, Mark’s sister, addressed marchers briefly at the start of the march, and a minutes silence was observed by the over 600 marchers at the end of the route in Whitehall Place in honour of mark and the “the 50 other South Africans murdered on average every day” in the country.

More pictures

I Love Peckham

Peckham

‘I Love Peckham’ is a festival backed by Southwark Council and based around the centre of Peckham. Although Peckham has had a bad press – particularly over the murder of young Damilola Taylor in November 2000, and more recent violence on the streets, many parts of it are pleasant streets and vibrant shopping areas. Recent investment – particularly since that murder – has led to a number of improvements.

*Sitting on an already rather full sofa in front of the beach*

One of the more successful regeneration projects has been in the Bellenden Road area which is home to a number of artists including Tom Phillips and Antony Gormley, both of whom have been involved in brightening up the streets.

But there are still estates with corners that can hide dangers, and times when its wise to cross the road to avoid the dealers in their cars. It’s an area where it pays to be streetwise.

As well as the activities in the square by the Library and at the top of Rye Lane there were also other events, including a series of shop window displays.

Like the other folks carrying built-in cameras on their latest mobile phones I did photograph some of these, but often felt that some of the other windows which had their normal displays were more interesting. But then I’ve always had an interest in shop windows, which feature strongly in my projects such as ‘Café Ideal , Cool Blondes and Paradise‘.

On the main stage by Peckham Library were performances by Indian musicians, a samba group and some young dancers from Peckham. Around the square were a number of sofas specially decorated for the occasion, many of which were greatly appreciated.

This was the third annual I Love Peckham festival, but the previous ones had been blighted by British weather; today the sun shone on us at least most of the time, and the beach at times looked almost tropical.

I stopped off on the way home at the South London Gallery, where the installation of Isa Suarez’s Human Rights Jukebox was coming to an end with a party. I was pleased I’d stopped by to watch the video of the event and to have a beer and talk to a few of those involved with the project, including Isa herself. I still find it mildly amusing to see myself on film, and there were glimpses of me (mainly my back) taking pictures, walking in the march, generally scurrying around and rather too lengthy a shot as I munched on a wholemeal sandwich.

Despite these few moments, it was interesting to see the event again and from a different viewpoint. I was sorry I had to rush off to be home with friends.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at i love peckham.

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An Afternoon At The Seaside – Saundersfoot

An Afternoon At The Seaside: Last week I was staying with friends in a holiday cottage in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, and on Sunday 1st September after a late lunch we drove the roughly seven miles down to the coast at Saundersfoot.

Saundersfoot is a small seaside resort a few miles from its much larger neighbour Tenby but despite its size seems to have everything needed for a day at the seaside, including something that seems rare these days, sewage-free bathing, with a good sandy beach that gets cleaned by every high tide. But none of us swam there.

There were at least five coal mines in the area in the nineteenth century, producing some of the finest quality anthracite, with tramways bringing it down to the beach for shipping out. In 1829 Parliament gave permission to the Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company for the building of a harbour to export coal and other local goods, bringing in iron ore to produce pig iron.

The mines have long closed but the harbour is still there, now with private moorings, and still used by a few fishermen and for pleasure trips around the bay, as well as the sailing club.

Saundersfoot is also almost on the railway, with a station over a mile to the north bearing its name, but with so few trains to be almost useless. And in winter the trains are often replaced by buses.

We were able to park on the seafront, with just a footpath between us an the beach and decided to walk the short distance to the harbour.

We walked along the pier to the mouth of the harbour, then back to the town where we found a shop selling proper ice cream in a number of interesting flavours.

Then we walked along the other side of the harbour to the harbour mouth. There is another smaller beach to the south of the harbour.

Back in town (or rather large village) we followed the map on the detailed leaflet we had on Saundersfoot to look at its three nineteenth century chapels. The Congregational one is now converted to residential use, the Wesley Methodist still in business and the Baptist had a small notice announcing a temporary closure and inviting people to instead worship with the Methodists.

On our way into the village we had passed the parish church around three-quarters of a mile from the beach but didn’t stop to look at this Grade II* building with a medieval tower.

When we returned to the beach and lent on the promenade railings to look at the beach, now almost all covered by the sea. I took a few last pictures, though it’s now probably regarded as a crime to photograph people – particularly children – enjoying themselves at the seaside.

The previous day we had shared a rail replacement taxi from Carmarthen with a woman who was travelling to visit her daughter in Kilgetty, the next village to Saundersfoot and probably the only person apart from our group in Pembrokeshire that we knew. We found her looking out over the sea from same railing as us and had a short conversation.

More pictures from Saundersfoot.