Stop Fossil Fuel Dirty Money takeover of US: The headline I wrote for the events of Wednesday 7th November 2012 could well have been written for this year’s US elections where Trump’s whole career in politics has been supported by fossil fuel companies.
Huge lobbying by these companies and a deliberate campaign of misinformation and pseudoscience, financing studies which cast doubt or contradict the scientific consensus of global warming happening because of fossil fuel use has resulted in US governments not taking effective action against these polluters.
According to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, the Republican Party is controlled by the fossil fuel industry and as well as huge subsidies also gets “the license to pollute for free.”
Under the Democrats the US has finally taken some limited action with promises to phase out fossil fuel use but the government in 2022 still supplied around $15 billion a year in subsidies to the industry.
The protest in 2012 was calling on President Obama “to stand up against the lobbying, dirty money and media lies funded by the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel companies.” He didn’t.
You can read more about the protest, which began outside the London offices of the Koch Brothers, Koch International in Fenchurch St at the heart of the City of London with a huge banner ‘KOCH BROTHERS – DIRTY MONEY – FUNDING CLIMATE DENIAL’ on My London Diary.
A high wind made it difficult to hold up the banner while the protest continued with speeches. But the big banner certainly attracted a great deal of attention, though soon they had to take it down as it became impossible to hold. But there were plenty of placards showing heads of prominent US right wing politicians and media commentators, each with their names and some ridiculous quotations related to climate change, as well as those of Obama and Romney and the two Koch brothers, along with some smaller banners.
There was another big banner of the side of the open-top bus which the Campaign Against Climate Change had hired to take the protesters to the US Embassy.
I went with them for what was probably the most uncomfortable bus journey of my life. It was cold in the strong icy wind and the bus bumped and lurched ridiculously.
It was hard to keep standing as I took pictures and I had to hold on with one hand all the time, using the other to take pictures. There wasn’t a great deal of light and getting sharp pictures at 1/30 f4 (full aperture for my wideangle zoom) was difficult with the bouncing and vibration of the bus.
Somehow I managed, and Phil Thornhill managed to to use the megaphone, at least during some of the halts in traffic. But I was very pleased (and very frozen) when we arrived and got off the bus in Grosvenor Square.
Police at Grosvenor Square tried to herd the protesters into a small pen in a dark corner, but they refused and were finally allowed to go in front of the locked main entrance gates, with those faces and their quotations peering over the hedge from the gardens behind the main actors and speakers.
March on the City: On Friday 10 October 2008 several hundred anti-capitalist protesters, mainly students, took to the streets of the City of London to say “We Won’t Bail Out the Bankers’.
The financial crisis had started in 2007, but reached a climax with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15 2008 which precipitated an international banking crisis.
Wikipedia sets out the causes of the crisis in some detail, but essentially US banks had been allowed to make more risky loans by changes in US laws which loosened regulations and allowed banks to take part in high risk operations such as proprietary trading and investment banking.
In the US one result of this was the proliferation of mortgage loans to people on low incomes who could really not afford the repayments and eventually defaulted. The problems with ‘subprime mortgages‘ particularly given to many in minority communities in the USA came to a head as a boom in US house prices in the early 2000s was followed by a sharp drop in the value of properties which were the security for the loans.
As Wikipedia comments, “governments deployed massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies to prevent a collapse of the global financial system.” This resulted in the widespread feeling that those who had created the crisis were being rewarded for their failures.
In the UK, the New Labour government under George Brown made a massive financial intervention, paying £137 billion to the banks in loans and new capital, some of which was later recouped, but leaving a cost of £33 billion. While some support was necessary to avoid a total breakdown of the financial system, many felt that the government should have taken a firmer line and that those responsible should have had to pay for their mistakes and not to seem to have kept their highly paid jobs.
Both Northern Rock – the first UK bank to fail in July 2007 and Bradford & Bingley were taken into public ownership, and RBS/Nat West into majority public ownership. But RBS still ended up costing us £35.5 billion – and the leading bankers still ended up getting huge salaries and big bonuses. The Royal Bank of Scotland seemed to be getting off scot free.
Part of the problems we still see in financial markets came from changes worldwide in the way that trading now takes place. In the UK Margaret Thatcher had brought in the ‘Big Bang’ which abolished traditional practices and introduced electronic trading, greatly increasing volatility.
On My London Diary I give a fairly full account of the actual protest which started at Bank where some protesters tried to storm into the Royal Exchange – long just a prestige shopping centre – and the Bank of England but were easily stopped by police.
There then followed a slow march around parts of the City, with police attempting to stop them at various points and the marchers pushing their way through police lines.
As my pictures show, there was some rather forceful policing at times and some of the press also suffered with the protesters. As I write, “I got a few bruises and my glasses were damaged when police rushed in as I was taking pictures in Lombard St.” But there was none of the confrontational use of trained riot squads that have led to extreme violence at some protests policed by the Met. Policing here was by the City of London Police – along with a guest appearance by one French cop.
Eventually there was a short rally with a few speeches on the corner of Bishopsgate and London Wall after which the demonstrators dispersed. Police seemed fairly relaxed at the end of the protest and I saw no arrests.
I don’t think the protest got much if any coverage in the mass media and most accounts I read on-line were confused, with many suggesting it went to the Stock Exchange. While that might have been a logical place to protest, the marchers actually went in the opposite direction.
A Walk in the City: Take a walk around parts of the City of London with me and my camera five years ago on Wednesday 7 Aug 2019. The first part of the walk I was on my own, but later I met up with a couple of friends and we continued to walk around but visited several interesting City pubs before ending up with a meal at what must be the worst Wetherspoons in Greater London at Cannon Street Station. Though I suppose it’s handy if you want to catch the train.
I’d taken a bus from Waterloo to the City and got off at St Paul’s and walked down to St Andrew’s Hill where I wanted to retake digitally an image I had made on film over 30 years ago.
Taken from the steps of St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe Church, the view of St Andrew’s Hill and the Cockpit pub was a taxing subject on film with the foreground in Wardrobe Terrace, and I never quite managed what I wanted. Using digital gave me a rather better result with no problems.
I walked on down to the River Thames and made some views along the river with the Millennium footbridge and the Shard now rather dominating the scene.
The tide was very low and I went down the steps onto the foreshore, though I needed to be careful walking on the stones and mud as I was only wearing a light pair of shoes which were very much not waterproof. I walked along under the Millennium Bridge and on towards Queenhithe, taking quite a few pictures.
The foreshore can be dangerous and the tide comes in rapidly. Although anyone is free to visit it, searching in any way – metal detecting, ‘beachcombing’, scraping and digging etc requires a https://pla.co.uk/thames-foreshore-permits PLA permit. You are advised to wear sensible footwear and gloves – which of course I wasn’t – and to watch out for hazards including raw sewage, broken glass, hypodermic needles and wash from vessels. I stepped very carefully.
Buried below the sand and mud at Queenhithe are the remains of part of London’s Roman harbour and the later medieval quay. A scheduled ancient monument, it is probably the only existing Saxon harbour in the world, presented by King Alfred the Great in 883 AD to his brother-in-law Ethelred. It got the name Queenhithe later when the harbour dues became the property of the wife of Henry I, Queen Matilda. The dock was still in use mainly by the fur trade in the early 20th century, and there were still fur shops in the area around in the 1970s.
I didn’t stay long on the foreshore and couldn’t remember where the next set of steps up from it were, so went back onto the Thames Path where I had come down and walked east towards Monument Station where I was meeting two photographer friends.
One of my friends had planned this walk and I was just a little surprised to find we were going back to one of the places I had visited earlier, St Andrew’s Hill, though less surprised when we went into the Cockpit pub.
The pub is on a historic site, originally part of one of the gatehouses of Blackfriars Monastery. There was a pub here when Shakespeare bought a house nearby. And undoubtedly there was somewhere here where cock fights took place until cockfighting was banned – along with dog fighting, bear baiting and badger baiting – in 1835. But this is a Victorian theme pub, rebuilt around 1865, though some at least of its interior decoration almost certainly came from actual cockfighting venues. But punters never stood in the closed galleries here to watch fights. Now firmly on the tourist circuit it is still worth a visit, if just for a pint of Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter.
Our walk continued through more of the streets in this area and then across New Bridge Street and on to Bride Lane and St Bride’s Passage and The Old Bell Tavern, once very much part of Fleet Street, the Street of Shame. The Old Bell Tavern is on the site where it all started, when in 1500 Wynkyn de Worde who had worked with William Caxton set up the first print shop on Fleet Street. The building is apparently derived from one that Christopher Wren knocked up for his masons when they were building St Brides, the journalists’ church.
Our walk more or less finished there, though we took a bus to Cannon Street Station for cheap food at the Wetherspoons, though I found it very disappointing. Spoons do much better almost everywhere else. I caught a bus from St Paul’s Churchyard, sat in the front seat on the top desk and it had unusually clean windows so I took a few more picture on the way back to Waterloo.
Climate Justice, Congo & London – On Saturday 3rd December 2011 there was an Xmas shopping event in the City, normally pretty dead at weekends and Occupy were holding climate justice workshops before joining Campaign Against Climate Change’s annual march. That took me past a protest at Downing Street against the vote-rigging in the recent election in the DRC. I’d taken some pictures earlier as I was going around London and took a few more in the dark later on my way to an event in Acton.
City Xmas Celebrations – Bank
A live musical box
There was a special Xmas Saturday shopping event in the centre of the City of London which usually closes down for the weekend, but I think it was aimed more at the wealthy 1% than me.
Santa had come with real reindeer
I wouldn’t normally have gone but it was on my fastest route to St Paul’s Cathedral and it was the first time the City had held such an event. Though unless there were rather more visitors later in the day it would probably be the last. I didn’t feel welcome and didn’t stay long.
Occupy LSX Climate Justice Workshops – St Paul’s Cathedral steps
Occupy London was still camping next to St Paul’s Cathedral, having been there since 15th October, and they were holding workshops when I arrived about various aspects of climate justice and campaigning, and preparing banners and posters for the Climate Justice march later in the day.
They planned to make their way to the start of the march in a ‘Climate Walk of Shame’ around the offices of various climate change villians (‘unsavoury sites of climate criminality’) in the City.
As often with Occupy, the plenary session went on longer than anticipated. Many people wanted to contribute and some at rather greater length than necessary and the walk began rather late.
I’d hoped to be able to go with them, but only went as far as their first stop at one of the banks in St Paul’s Churchyard before I had to leave to make my own more direct way to the start of the march in Blackfriars.
Stand Up For Climate Justice – Blackfriars to Old Palace Yard
Around a thousand people gathered at Blackfriars for the march organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change to a rally opposite the Houses of Parliament.
Climate talks were taking place in the 17th UN conference in Durban, but seemed unlikely to make much progreess as the US were continuing to refuse to accept mandatory limits on carbon emissions. It seemed likely this would prevent any progress on global reductions in emissions, and seemed certain to lead to catastrophic increases in global temperature. Or, as I put it “bluntly, our planet is going to fry.”
While Barbara Boxer the head of the Senate environment committee was pointing out that the US is the world’s largest historic emitter and thus has a moral obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the US right, and the ‘Tea Party’ movement in particular, were still denying the existence of climate change and vehemently opposing any restrictions on the emissions of US industry.
By 2011 there had long been no serious scientific debate about the reality of climate change, though still some controversy about the exact magnitude and the timescales involved. But all informed opinion agreed that urgent action is needed, though the heavily funded fossil fuel lobby was still spreading lies and opposing any action.
Since 2011 things have become even more clear and the effects have become worse than even the more pessimistic scientists then predicted. But still politicians are not taking the urgent actions needed, and limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C now seems impossible.
Among many speakers was John Stewart of HACAN who pointed out that while the richest 7% who cause 50% of the world’s pollution, aircraft use, one of the major sources of emissions, is limited to an even more limited group of the world’s population, with only 5% of the world’s population ever having flown.
Congolese Protest Against Kabila Vote-Rigging – Downing St
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is both blessed and cursed by its immense mineral resouces, probably the richest of any country in the world, including 80% of the world’s cobalt reserves, and between 65-80% of coltan, the mineral from which tantalum capacitors, vital for mobile phones, games consoles, computers and other electronic devices are made.
Despite this wealth of the DRC, the people remain some of the poorest in the world, and because of these minerals the country is one of the most corrupt in the world. The move towards renewable energy and the increasing need for batteries for electrical vehicles has led to increased geopolitical competition over the DRC’s cobalt resources.
The area has been the subject of various wars and there is still conflict as well as widespread violation of humanitarian and human rights law, including the sexual abuse of women and children.
The Kabila regime has been kept in office by western interests who have now turned a blind eye to the widespread vote-rigging violence and fraud in the elections. The opposition later claimed to have outvoted Kabila with 54% of the vote to his 26%, while Kabila claimed to have won by 49% to 32%.
In 2019, the son of the candidate thee protesters say won the 2011 election became President in the first peaceful transition of power since the DRC became independent but the early years of his presidency were still with governments dominated by supporters of Kabila. In 2021 he was able to form a new government which among other measures has promised to reverse deforestation in the DRC by 2030.
I’d taken a few views of London as I walked with the Climate March.
And in the early evening I went to an event in North Acton, walking to the venue from Willesden Junction. There are just a few more on-line at London Wandering.
Carnival of Dirt: People from more than 30 activist groups from London and around the world met on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday 15th June 2012 for the Carnival of Dirt, a funeral procession for the many killed by mining and extraction companies, powerful financial organisations whose crimes are legitimised by the City of London.
‘POVERTY IS FILTHY’
Although little mining now goes on in the UK, London remains the mining capital of the world with many of the largest and most powerful mining and extraction companies listed on the London Stock Exchange and trading on the London Metal Exchange. The Carnival of Dirt named some of them as major criminals, including Xstrata, Glencore International, Rio Tinto, Vedanta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, BP and Shell.
Many activists around the world have been murdered for standing up against the interests of these companies, whose greed has led to crimes against humanity on a huge scale around the world. As I wrote in 2012, “They lie behind the millions who have died in wars in the Congo and elsewhere, behind the torture and rapes and other human rights abuses that are used to drive people off their land, behind the huge areas of land poisoned by toxic wastes, forests and whole mountains destroyed, ecocide on a truly massive scale.”
Many of these crimes have been well-documented but these companies are still supported by our pension schemes and protected by our government, as well as being allowed to get away with avoiding or evading millions or billions of pounds in UK taxes.
Many of those who came to the carnival were dressed in black, and the funeral procession had a New Orleans style theme. The cortège “included a large snake, a turtle and a tortoise, a reminder of XStrata’s criminal diversion of the McArthur River, destroying the ecosystem and despoiling the sacred sites of Australian aborigines.”
There were a number of coffins to represent the dead, naming some of the companies involved with messages such as ‘Glencore Values – Toxic Assets, Toxic Environments‘. Another read ‘XStrata – X-Rated on Human Rights‘ and pointed out the CEO Mick Davis “Gets £30 million to stay in job while 2 Dead 80 Injured protesting at Tintaya mine in Chile.’
The more than 18,000 child miners in the Phillipines were represented by a small coffin. One read ‘10 Million Dead Through Conflict in 16 years equals a 9/11 every 2 days‘. Red drops for blood ran down the side of a black coffin with the messages ‘Resist Corporate Terrorism’ and ‘London Metal Exchange – Setting the Global Standard in Bloodshed‘ . Another coffin testified to the genocide in West Papua where Indonesian troops have torched villages.
Some of the protesters walked with photographs of a few of the better-known activists murdered for standing up to corporate terrorism, and a leaflet named some – “Valmore Locarno, Fr Fausto Tentorio, Victor Orcasita, Alexandro Chacon, Fr Reinel Restropo, Dr Gerry Ortega, Armin Marin, Dr Leonard Co, Elizer Billanes, Jorge Eliecer, Floribert Chebeya, Raghunath Jhodia, Abhilash Jhodia, Damodar Jhodia, Petrus Ayamiseba.” Other placards showed unnamed and horribly mutilated victims.
After brief speeches the procession moved off from St Paul’s towards the Stock Exchange behind the marching band, but they were blocked by barriers and private security staff at Temple Bar, preventing them going into the now privatised Paternoster Square. After a short protest there it moved off, walking along public streets to the north entrance of the Stock Exchange on Newgate Street.
The entrance was blocked by a line of police but the protesters stopped from a short rally, listening to a speech by Benny Wenda who managed to escape to the UK after being arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Indonesian troops. There were heavy showers and we all got rather wet, though some protesters were fortunate to be carrying black umbrellas with slogans on them; the slogans ran in the rain but the umbrellas kept those underneath rather drier.
From there the cortège moved on to protest in front of the Bank of England, where there were several speeches from researchers and activists. From there we moved to a final rally at the London Metal Exchange, where we heard a longer exposition of the various trading activities which cause a great deal of death and unnatural disaster across the globe.
The came a reading of the names of some of the prominent murdered activists, each name being followed by the protesters shouting ‘Present’ or the Spanish ‘Presente’ to show they were still a part of the living, in the hearts and minds of those mourning them. At the end of the list there was a two-minute silence in the memory of them and the millions of others killed for the profits of the mining companies. After throwing ashes at the building the procession continued to its finish at Altab Ali park.
By this time I was very wet, and so were my cameras and lenses, with condensation steaming up on inner glass surfaces. Many of the later images were taken with a wideangle fisheye, a single focal length lens that was more resistant than the two zooms I use for most of my work. I was tired and needed to get somewhere to dry out, so while many were planning to go on to further protests in Green Park and on the Embankment it was time for me to go home.
Intercity (East) Ltd, Clothing, Shop, City, Tower Hamlets, 1989 89-3e-42
I was on my way to the East End, and I’m no longer sure where this shop was located, although my contact sheet has Cutler Street, it also has a question mark in front of this. I will have marked up the contact sheets while I still remembered my route (and had probably marked this on a map more or less after I got home) so I will have walked this way towards Leyden Street where I made the next picture. But all I can find on Google about Intercity (East) Ltd is not about clothing stores but trains.
Cutler Street begins on Houndsditch and I think both corners there have been demolished and rebuilt since 1989. It has two more corners where it turns 90 degrees to the right in front of Cutlers Gardens, again both now occupied by more recent buildings.
From Cutler Street I went up Harrow Place and crossed over Middlesex Street into Cobb Street, going out from the City of London into Tower Hamlets. Much of the area I went through has since been redeveloped but unfortunately I took no pictures.
Blue Bird, a wholesale children’s clothing cash and carry was a shopfront I also photographed in colour on this same walk. This building remains, though was extensively renovated internally around 2020 and 6 at right, Dunmow Trading, is again apparently in the clothing trade, though perhaps the renewed shopfront is a nod to the past hiding some completely different activities.
This was a frontage I passed and photographed several times over the years, but never went inside. Founded in 1854 in Leman St, the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor moved to Brune Street (then Butler St) in 1902 and eventually closed in 1992, its work being carried on by Jewish Care in Beaumont Grove, Stepney. I had assumed it was now longer operating when I took this picture in 1989.
Another shopfront I photographed on several occasions and in colour, and it was hard to decide which if any of the businesses were still in operation. Now the whole area has been tidied up and shops like these converted to slightly twee ‘period’ residential properties.
This early 18th century Grade II listed terrace house was sold in 1998 for £236,000, probably just before or after conversion, and in 2021 sold for £3.5million.
The fine row of houses on the south side leading up to Christ Church was still I think occupied and possibly in use by firms in the clothing trade, with M Lustig & Co, Manufacturers of Superior Mens Clothing, Dilal Fashions at No 10 and Gale Furs at 8. Though their days were clearly numbered and all are now high priced residential properties and maintained in considerably better condition. I think all of the street is Grade II listed.
Christ Church is one of Hawksmoor’s masterpieces, built 1723-9 and Grade I listed.
Established in 1902 and supplying textiles and trimmings to the fashion trade, in 1998 J Minsky sold its warehouse premises and began to focus on property investment, selling the textile business in 2005. This was 48 Fashion Street, which is a part of a listed building, but it is very difficult to recognise in this picture, which managed to avoid its more distinctive features, with just the slightest hint on its upper edge.
I returned to Bank and photographed some men working on the street there on the corner of Lombard St. I think they were working on one of the entrances to Bank Station but the boarding made it hard to see. They did have some very big buckets.
Recently there has been yet more work to improve access to Bank Station, with a new entrance opening a couple of days ago on Cannon St. Bank is a very busy station during the weekday rush hours, even with more people now working at least some days from home. But on Saturdays and Sundays the City is still something of a ghost town, though rather more tourists can now be seen wandering around, lost souls searching in vain for an open pub or restaurant.
Cherubs, King William St, Bank, City, 89-3d-35
At the start of King William Street and I think part of the magnificent St Mary Woolnuth I photographed this doorway with three cherubs which was later used on a book cover, but somehow I had lost the digital image of that. Having spent around half an hour searching for it on my computer and various hard drives I decided it would have been faster simply to produce it again from the negative. I think I may have also havephotographed it on a previous occasion. The doorway was rather dim and this image isn’t quite as sharp as I would like.
Lombard St, City, 89-3d-36
While I had the negatives out of the file, I digitised this one as well. Again it’s a view which I had previously photographed, possibly on several occasions, with the splendid cat and fiddle sign which is still there, though the TSB’s castle has gone. I don’t mourn the loss of the depressing distant block, though rather wish its replacement had been better.
Leadenhall Market, City, 1989 89-3e-61
I walked along Lombard Street and up Gracechruch St and then turned into Leadenhall St and then into Whittington Avenue where I photographed the entrance to Leadenhall Market, a nice piece of Victorian exuberance, though of course finance by our crimes of Empire.
I’d photographed the quite a lot before, often in colour, put I think this was the first time I’d photographed this entrance. I walked through to Cullum Street taking a few more pictures of buildings in the area including some more of the Lloyds Building but little really new for me, and none I selected to put on-line.
Fen Court, City, 1989 89-3e-41
From Fenchurch Avenue I turne into Fen Court, where as usual I was fascinated by the trees wiggling in front of the austere offices of the Pan Atlantic Insurance Company and others. I’d taken two frames without any people when a man walked across carrying some hefty paperwork and I made this third exposure as he moved into the space between the two brick and stone beds.
This garden is the site of St Gabriel Fenchurch, burnt down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was re-landscaped in 2008, with the addition of the sculpture ‘The Gilt of Cain’ by Michael Visocchi which commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
I was on my way towards the markets just to the east of the City, where the next installment of this walk will continue.
My walk in the City of London towards the end of March 1989 began at Bank Station, perhaps because the Bank of England is in many ways the centre of the City, but probably also because until 1994 the Waterloo and City line was a part of our railway network and I could travel there as a “London terminus” on my rail ticket. In 1994 it became part of the London Underground (they paid £1 for it) and from then on I needed to pay them for the journey. I think back then there were no services on the “drain” on Saturday aftenoons or Sundays.
War Memorial, Bank of England, City, 1989 89-3d-64
Over the years I’ve taken many slight variations on this picture with the London Troops War Memorial and the Bank of England. The memorial to the troops of London who died in the Great War was designed by Sir Aston Webb, with carving and lettering by William Silver Frith and the bronze figures by sculptor Alfred Drury and was unveiled on the day after the second anniversary of Armistice Day on 12th November 1920.
Later a further dedication to those who died in the Second World War was added. The quality of the statues and carving and overall its design make it one of the more impressive of war memorials. Grade II listed when I made this picture it was upgraded to II* more recently for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
The memorial stands in the triangle of public space in front of the Royal Exchange but this picture was taken from the side to include the Bank of England as the background. It’s perhaps slightly unfortunate that I included the sign for the public toilets at the bottom edge, useful though they were – and then like others in the City – free to use.
George & Vulture, George Yard, City, 1989 89-3d-52
The George & Vulture describes itself as a City institution and there has been an inn on this site since 1142 or 1175, depending on who you believe – or 1600 according to my picture. Before the 1666 Great Fire there were supposedly two inns here, the earliest The George and a later establishment, The Lively Vulture, but they were amalgamated in the rebuilding.
It gets numerous mentions in Dicken’s Pickwick Papers and has been the headquarters of the City Pickwick Club since it’s inaugural dinner in March 1909 when it was founded incorporating his earlier Pickwick Coaching Club by Sir James Roll. Initially limited to 30 members that has increased over the years and in 2009 was raised to 100; they still meet for dinner there four times a year, and it is also host to other Dickens events.
Rather than a pub it is now a City chop house or restaurant, though open some evenings for cold plates and drinks; run by Samuel Smiths Old Brewery it offers a full range of their beers as well as other drinks.
Fountain, George Yard, St Michael’s Alley, City, 1989 89-3d-53
The City’s alleys have long fascinated many, and I’d first explored them before I was taking many photographs, following walks from one of many guides to London. It’s still easy to get a little confused in following them, particularly when some parts such as George Yard has changed rather.
You will search in vain for this fountain which then stood in the open area at the end of George Yard and St Michael’s Alley (though you could also reach it from Bell Inn Yard or Bengall Court and it was just a few steps from the end of Castle Court.
Fountain, George Yard, St Michael’s Alley, City, 1989 89-3d-42
Both the George & Vulture and the the Church of St Edmund the King in the background of this picture remain, but much of the rest around here has been replaced.
Fountain, George Yard, St Michael’s Alley, City, 1989 89-3d-43
I assume the statue was of St Michael and to me it and the mosaic floor have a look of the 1950s or 60s about them, but neither this statue nor the fountain in which it stood get a mention in any of the books about London I own. Most of my pictures were of the mermaids who obviously appealed to me more.
I have no idea what happened to these sculptures, and have been unable to find any more information about them. The yard is now home to rather Dalek-like structures, surrounded by seats and flower beds, presumably provided ventilation for areas below. The whole site on the west side of Gracechurch Street south of Bell Inn Yard which was the headquarters of Barclays Bank was redeveloped shortly after I made these images, with the distinctively curved 17 floors of 20 Gracechurch being completed in 1994.
Sculpture, Lombard St, City, 1989 89-3d-46
I walked out onto Lombard Street where I made several exposures of this Grade II listed bronze ‘Chimera with Personifications of Fire and the Sea’ by Francis William Doyle-Jones from 1914 on the 1910 bank building. I was at the time thinking of putting together a compilation of pictures of London’s ‘topless’ women.
Sculpture, Lombard St, City, 1989 89-3d-33
A wider view taken from the corner with Birchin Lane, where the view today is little different to that in 1989, except that the hanging TSB 1810 sign on Falcon House at left, there until 2016, has since been replaced by one peculiarly illegible one for Falcon Fine Art.
My walk around the city continued, though I’ve digitised relatively few pictures from it and soon moved away further east towards Spitalfields, as you will see in my next post on it.
Movement Against Xenophobia – Old Palace Yard, Westminster. Tue 22 Oct 2013
Lee Jasper speaks
The Movement Against Xenophobia (MAX) was a new campaign aimed at countering the vicious anti-immigrant discourse of mainstream politics in the UK. The rally outside parliament was in protest against the Immigration Bill 2013 which was debated later in the day.
Speakers attacked the Bill, which removed the great majority of the grounds on which foreign nationals can lodge appeals against deportation, puts a requirement on banks and landlords to check immigration status of those setting up accounts or becoming tenants, increases the fines for employers who hire anyone without the right to work here, and includes new powers to check driving licence applicants are in the country legally. The bill also imposes a levy on temporary migrants to allow them access to free NHS care.
They also opposed the existing draconian restrictions on bringing spouses to this country that are splitting many families, with a minimum income level required that half the population cannot meet, causing real hardship and heartache for many.
Governments have competed with oppositions over the years to convince the right wing press that their party has a tougher line against immigrants, with the racist vans and e-mails sent by the then Home Secretary Theresa May being an clear example of how low our politicians will sink.
Jeremy Corbyn, MP
Report after report has shown that migrants make a substantial positive contribution to the economy, enrich Britain’s culture and improve the standard of its public services. MAX demanded that politicians and the media end the use of language that incites racism and xenophobia and for the political parties to reject the ‘numbers game’ politics of immigration and replace it with a fair system built on human rights and the needs of the UK.
MAX was a coalition of existing groups who have come together to challenge anti-immigrant discourse, such as the continual use of the term ‘illegal immigrant’. As they point out, no one is illegal, and these are more correctly people who do not have the legal right to live here – they are undocumented migrants. MAX and its supporters want to live in a civilised society where people, irrespective of background, are valued and treated with respect.
In London’s Chinatown, virtually all restaurants and shops closed for two hours for a rally and march against frequent raids being carried out there by the UK Borders Agency who have entered premises and interrogated people inside demanding to see evidence that they have permission to live in the UK.
Many of those questioned are British citizens or have leave to stay, while others are here visiting relatives on valid tourist visas. A small number have been found to be without proper documentation but the raids appear to be carried out in a random fashion on the off-chance that there might be so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ working in the premises – ‘fishing raids’.
These raids had no proper legal status in the UK as we are not required to carry ID and can simply refuse to answer questions and walk away. There was no requirement to give our name or address as a flier that was being handed out advised.
As the start of the two hour protest approached, more and more shops and restaurants turned customers away and put up signs in windows and doorways stating ”No Entry to UKBA fishing raids’ and there was much furious blowing of whistles. A small group protested noisily for a few minutes outside the only business still open on Gerrard Street, but soon moved away to the rally by the Two Lions statue.
Leading members of London’s Chinese community spoke at the rally against the UKBA raids. Some also made clear that there need to be easier ways to bring workers skilled in Chinese cooking to this country if they were to maintain their traditional practices which are vital to keep Chinatown truly Chinese.
After a number of speeches there was then a march around Chinatown before returning to continue the rally, though some workers were leaving to prepare for the reopening of businesses at the end of the two hour closure.
Fossil-Free London Lobby Tour – Bank & Stock Exchange, Tue 22 Oct 2013
Climate campaigners from People & Planet and 350.org toured some City sites which lock us into a fossil fuel dependent economy, stopping to make brief speeches and perform poems and songs. They carried balloons to represent carbon dioxide, which had all been intended to be black, but they couldn’t find enough black balloons so had to use some purple ones as well.
Police talked to them at the start of tour, and seemed happy with the tour, though they continued to follow them on the tour, which began in front of the Bank of England (and the Royal Exchange, now just expensive shops.)
From there they walked to the Stock Exchange, stopping first at the entrance on Newgate Street for a short rally before walking around to the main entrance in Paternoster Square.
Here there were more speeches and another song – ‘Buddy Can You Spare a Dime’ – and the balloons were popped as a small group of police and a security officer from the Stock Exchange looked on from a few yards away.
The tour then moved off to visit other ‘carbon criminals’ in the City, but I left them on the corner of Gresham St to go home.
Solidarity protests on Friday 10th October 2014 and some extreme wide angle views in the City of London.
Solidarity for Care UK Strikers – Care UK, Southwark
Protesters outside the offices in Great Guildford St
The protest by members from the National Shops Stewards Network, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition and Southwark Unison was one of many around the country in a nation-wide day of solidarity with Doncaster Care UK workers who had been on strike for 81 days after huge cuts in pay and services were made by a private equity company who have taken over this part of the NHS.
Care UK is now owned by Bridgepoint, which also owns businesses including Fat Face and Pret a Manger. The workers are on strike not just over cuts in their own wages, but also against the changes in how Care UK is allowed to operate by the new bosses. What was formerly a values-based health service able to address the needs of those with learning disorders in their own community has been radically altered to providing minimum standards of service at the lowest possible cost to get the greatest profits for Bridgepoint, and for the company they will be sold on to once the private equity company has slimmed services and pay to the bone.
The current unrest in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police’ for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly, so that some of her hair was visible is unprecedented, but women there have been oppressed by religious police since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
An Iranian woman who cannot go back to Iran
In 2014 former SOAS Law student Ghoncheh Ghavami was arrested and detained with other women for going to try to watch a volleyball match in Tehran. At the time of the protest outside SOAS University of London she had been held for 104 days and had been on hunger strike for 10 days. The protesters included a number of Iranian students one of whom told the protest she could not return to Iran as the TV coverage of a volleyball game in Rome had shown her reacting to a score.
The rally was supported by staff and the SOAS staff unions UCU and Unison, as well as by the SOAS Student Union, and some students took part in a day’s hunger strike in solidarity and there was a candlelight vigil. Ghavami was released on bail on 23 November 2014 and later sentenced to a year in jail and a two-year travel ban for “propaganda against the regime”.
I had an hour or two to spare before the next protest I was to cover and spent some of this walking around the city and making some extreme wide-angle photographs.
Although these pictures have a normal aspect ratio, they have a horizontal angle of view of over 145 degrees and a vertical angle of around 90 degrees, only possible by using a lens which does not give the more normal ‘rectilinear’ perspective but represents the scene with some curvature.
The Palestinian Prisoners Campaign continued their campaign against Hewlett-Packard, which boasts of ‘a massive presence’ in Israel and are the IT backbone for the Israeli war machine with a picket outside their London offices.
Police watched the protest across the street from HP’s offices carefully and umbrellas in the colours of the Palestinian flag and large banners made the protest very visible. Speeches and posters taped on the pavement gave details of HP’s involvement in the oppression and imprisonment of Palestinians which were also stated on the leaflets the protesters handed out.
Solidarity with the Umbrella Revolution – Chinese Embassy
Umbrellas were also on display at the protest around the doorway of the Chinese Embassy on Portland Place organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts in solidarity with the ‘umbrella revolution’ of the students and workers of Hong Kong in their fight for democracy.
Most of the umbrellas were on posters and placards, though some protesters carried small yellow paper umbrellas and there were just a few full-size ones too.
Police tried to move the protesters to the other side of the road, but they refused to move. They called for the immediate release of all the arrested, an end to the suppression of peaceful assembly, replacing the “fake universal suffrage” formula with the genuine political reform workers have been demanding, and the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying.
