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Uganda, Green Belt, Olympic Site – 2008

Uganda, Green Belt, Olympic Site: Thursday 9th October 2008 was Uganda Independence Day and I began work at a protest at the Ugandan Embassy in Trafalgar Square against the persecution of gays in that country. In Parliament Square I met protesters who had come from Dorset to bring a petition against a proposed new town on Green Belt land on the outskirts of Bournemouth and Poole. Then as I had a few hours before a meeting it was an opportunity to take another walk to see what I could by then of the fenced off Olympic site.

Demonstration Against Ugandan Human Rights Abuse

Ugandan Embassy, Trafalgar Square

*Peter Tatchell of Outrage! and Davis Makyala of Changing Attitudes in the demo outside Uganda House*

As I wrote in 2008, “October 9 is Uganda Independence Day, but for gay Ugandans in particular there is little to celebrate… “Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and the penalty can be imprisonment for life, and gay rights campaigners have been imprisoned and subjected to torture. The Ugandan Anglican church is a leading force in anti-gay campaigns.”

The Ugandan government intimidates and tortures gay people and excludes them from healthcare. British arms exports have been used against protests there, killing at least three demonstrators by 2008.

*Kizza Musinguzi who was jailed and tortured in Uganda receives the 2008 Sappho in Paradise book prize*

Ugandans fleeing the country because of persecution and seeking asylum in the UK were among those forcibly sent back to the country without proper consideration of their cases under our “fast-track” process which was later declared unlawful.

*Emma Ginn of https://medicaljustice.org.uk/ Medical Justice*

The LGBTQ rights situation in Uganda is now even worse following the passage of ‘the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which prescribes up to twenty years in prison for “promotion of homosexuality”, life imprisonment for “homosexual acts”, and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality“.’

More on My London Diary at Ugandan Human Rights Abuse.

Green Belt Protest Rally

Westminster

People from villages on the outskirts of Bournemouth and Poole had come to protest against the proposed Lychett New Town on Green Belt land in Dorset.

Apparently Hazel Blears, Secretary of State, had told Dorset County Council it must build a New Town at Lytchett Minster with over 7,250 houses in the Green Belt around Poole & Bournemouth, and local residents had set up a campaign about it.

Octavia Hill had first proposed the idea of green belts in 1875 but it was the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act which allowed local authorities to set them up and they were further encouraged to do so by Tory Housing Minister Duncan Sandys in 1955. The idea was to put an end to the unplanned sprawl of ribbon development along major roads leading out from all our cities and provide areas for local food growing, forestry and outdoor leisure.

As I commented, “it has made a valuable contribution to improving the quality of life in our towns and villages and to conserving the countryside.” But as I also wrote, “Many of us feel that the whole of the current planning structure works against sensible and ecological development, but the answer to this is not to relax planning controls but to bring in improved – and in some respects tighter – controls.”

Unfortunately the changes announced by Labour in 2024 which include some Green Belt being re-classified as ‘Grey Belt’ seem largely intended to make things easier and more profitable for developers.

Consultations took place in 2025 over proposals for Lytchett Minster & Upton in the Dorset local plan which lists opportunity sites for over 5000 new homes – and a new petition was set up opposing them.

Green Belt Protest Rally

Stratford Marsh (Olympic Site) & Hackney Wick

*Looking towards the main stadium in left half of picture, along what was once Marshgate Lane.*

“It has always been an interesting walk through Stratford marsh on top of the Northern Outfall sewer, although rather more so in the past when there were so many places one could leave it to explore further rather than coming up against the big blue fence.”

*Bridge over City Mill River from the Greenway*

I commented back then of my annoyance at the statements made by the Olympic authorities that after the Olympics they would be opening up the previously inaccessible area to the public. In fact they were destroying the area where it had always been interesting to wander along the various largely riverside footpaths – many of which had been cleared to make them easier to walk in the 1990s.

*Work by Hackney Wick’s most prolific artist*

You can see many pictures that I took in the area on my Lea Valley website And as a replacement we now have a park which seems rather arid. Perhaps by 2112 it might look better.

In 2008 most of the Olympic area was fenced off, but I enjoyed the walk along the ‘Greenway’ on top of the Northern Outfall Sewer to Hackney Wick where I dound much to interest me and “taking the train back from Hackney Wick to Stratford there were many signs of fairly frenzied activity visible.”

*Wanted – Laura Norder – $5oo Reward – advertising an art fair at Decima Gallery in Hackney Wick*

Many more pictures, particularly around Hackney Wick at Stratford Marsh (Olympic Site) & Hackney Wick.

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West India Dock Road & Limehouse Cut – 1990

West India Dock Road & Limehouse Cut: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is Garford Street Limehouse – 1990. As usual you can click on the images here (except the panorama) to view larger versions on my Flickr pages.

*Shops, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-42*

This area is close to the parish border of Limehouse and Poplar, but in popular imagination was certainly Limehouse, London’s first ‘Chinatown’. But by 1990 Chinatown had almost entirely moved to Soho, though a few elements remained, including the Peking Restaurant – though a few shops down the street is the Poplar Fish Bar.

*Davey & Co, 88, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-43*

“In February 1885 Arthur Christopher Davey began a venture that throughout the 20th century evolved into a culture in the manufacture and supply of marine equipment. From humble beginnings in Leadenhall Street, the company soon moved to its famous address at 88, West India Dock Road, London E14, where it successfully traded for over 100 years.” The company is now based in Colchester.

*Shops, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-45*

The Wah Ying Restaurant was another remanant of Chinatown – and you can see along the road the sign of the Peking Restaurant. In the distance are the warehouses of the West India Docks and beyond them the cranes building Cabot Square at Canary Wharf.

West India Dock Road was laid out at the same time as the West India Docks opened in 1802, a new road to give access to them, which was for many years a toll road. I think these buildings probably date from the 1870s or a little later after the tolls were removed.

The restaurant looks very much closed and the broken windows above suggest it was empty and derelict when I made this picture.

*Blockage, Limehouse Cut, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-46*

The Limehouse Cut runs on a straight route through Poplar but curves around at its southern end. It was blocked here in 1990, possibly in connection with the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel between 1989 and 1993. But there was also work on the Cut around then, with the vertical guillotine gate on the north side of Britannia Bridge across the Commercial Road being removed.

Poplar Mods, graffiti, Railway Viaduct, St Anne's Church, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-32 — *Poplar Mods, graffiti, Railway Viaduct, St Anne’s Church, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-32*

The tower of Hawksmoor’s St Annes Limeouse seen above the viaduct built for the London and Blackwall Railway and opened in July 1840, the second or third railway viaduct to be built in London, after the 1836 London to Greenwich viaduct and the the Hanwell viaduct, technically then outside London. The line went to Brunswick Wharf in Blackwall where passengers could board ferries and boats to other destinations down river or around the world.

I can tell you nothing more about Poplar Mods except that the graffiti tells us they are male “Hammers” fans. West Ham began life as a team for the workers of the last remaining shipbuilders in the area not far away on Bow Creek as the Thames Ironworks Football Club. From 1895 they played at Hermit Road in Canning Town, former home to Old Castle Swifts, Essex’s first professional team which had gone bankrupt, They became West Ham United in 1900 and moved to Plaistow, before in 2004 uniting with the Boleyn Castle football club and moving to their Upton Park ground where they stayed until 2016.

*Limehouse Cut, Railway viaduct, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-21*

I think the next few pictures I made were taken from the block of flats immediately to the east of Limehouse Cut, Kiln Court, a medium rise block built as part of the Barley Mow Estate for the GLC in 1965-8. Back in 1990 many blocks still did not have security doors and it was possible to easily access shared areas.

Here you can see the Cut and the DLR viaduct across the north side of Limehouse Dock with its bridge and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Immaculate & St Frederick on the corner of Island Row and Commercial Road.

I think the buildings on the far bank of Limehouse Cut were temporary offices and accommodation for the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel. The site is now occupied by housing at the end of Island Row.

*Limehouse Cut, Limehouse Dock, Railway viaduct, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-23*

In this picture you can see across to Limehouse Dock with the Hydraulic Accumulator Tower next to the DLR viaduct at the right. At the left is the temporary blockage on the Limehouse Link.

*Limehouse Cut, Limehouse Dock, Railway viaduct, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-24*

Sliding my shift lens to the left gave a view a little further towards the south and shows a little more of the Cut past the blockage and in the distance a small glimpse of the River Thames. This image was taken to create a panorama together with 90-1c-23:

*Limehouse Cut, Limehouse Dock, Railway viaduct, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-23-24*

More from Limehouse Cut in the next post on this walk.

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Horseman’s Sunday, Wallenberg & Car-Free Festivals 2004

Horseman’s Sunday, Wallenberg & Car-Free Festivals: Sunday 19th September 2004 was a rather strange day for me with some very varied events across London.

Horseman’s Sunday

Horseman’s Sunday is apparently celebrated at several places in Surrey including Tattenham Corner at Epsom as well as in central London at the Church of St John’s, Hyde Park Crescent,where the The Hyde Park Pony Club met for the occasion.

Despite being ‘Horseman’s Sunday’ there were relatively few men taking part, mainly children and a few women along with the befrocked celebrants. As I noted on My London Diary, “fortunately the rite was Anglican, so everyone left the singing to the choir, avoiding scaring the horses.”

This was a curious example of the different world inhabited by the rich and priveleged in London. I’ve not felt moved to go back to photograph the event since.

more pictures

Raoul Wallenberg Memorial

Just around the the corner, a small group was remembering one of the heroes of the Second World War, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved perhaps a hundred thousand jews from the Nazi holocaust in Budapest, himself dying in a Russian jail.

There are monuments to him around the world including this one outside the West London Synagogue and close to the Swedish Embassy.

Hackney Mare De Gras Cancelled

I travelled out to Dalston, where I found a notice that the Hackney Mare De Gras Procession had been postponed because of a murder in Mare St.

Shoreditch Car Free Festival

I walked down Kingsland Road to Shoreditch where a festival and car-free day was getting underway, with the London School Of Samba dancing through the streets and other events including the Secretsundaze Sound System.

On the way I took a few pictures including some of the graffiti which by 2004 seemed to be covering most of the walls in Shoreditch.

On Curtain Road people were trying out various different designs of bicycles, particularly recumbents. Though these may be comfortable and efficient I’ve never been attracted to riding at the level of vehicle exhausts and feel the low riding position gives a very restricted view compared to a normal bike, dangerous in city traffic. Perhaps if I lived in a remote area with empty roads I’d try one.

Part of the street was a carpeted area with benches where you could sit and enjoy tea from an anarchist tea bar with a revolutionary tea urn.

The Shoreditch Golf Club was set up for a chess competition, though I didn’t see anyone actually playing chess, and there were various theatrical performances on the street – and of course more graffiti to photograph. I spent some time taking pictures there before tearing myself away to catch the tube from Liverpool St to Leytonstone.

Many more pictures on My London Diary.

Leytonstone Car-Free Festival

“Leytonstone was also enjoying a car-free day, and one of the highlights there was the Rinky Dink cycle-powered sound system, bringing back memories of April’s march to Aldermaston, where this accompanied us on the last few miles.“

There was more music too, as well as various a childrens’ arts project and entertainment, and a rather unrelated political element from protesters against the Chinese persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

More pictures

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Stratford, Shoreditch & Racist Immigration Laws – 2009

Stratford, Shoreditch & Racist Immigration Laws: On Saturdy 27th June 2009 I took a few pictures from a high viewpoint arooss Stratford , then photographed graffiti in the streets of Shoreditch before going to a protest against the UK’s racist immigration laws a Communications House, close to the Old Street roundabout.

Olympic Update II – Stratford, London.

There is a little of a mystery for me over these pictures as I don’t state the location I took them from, simply state I was in Stratford for a meeting on Saturday and took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the Olympic site from a high viewpoint.

I no longer have my 2009 diaries and cannot remember any such meeting which from the views I think must have been on one of the upper floors on top of the shopping centre. I possibly made my way onto the roof area after the meeting.

The lighting and weather were not at their best but they do show some of the buildings on the Olympic site as well as Westfield under construction and Stratford Station.

Olympic Update II

Shoreditch

My train to Liverpool Street arrived in time to allow me to make a leisurely and rather indirect walk to Old Street for the protest there.

Back in the early 1980a, Shoreditch was a run-down area of warehouses and small workshops which were closing down and being taken over by artists for cheap studios, including some who were forced to move out of Butler’s Wharf which in the 70’s had become the largest artists’ colony in England. Over half moved out following the firein late 1979, but the 60 remaining were all given notice to quit in January 1980. Some formed a new community in the Chisenhale centre in Tower Hamlets, but quite a few found cheap premises in Shoreditch.

The artists preserved much of the area’s properties and made it a much more attractive place to live. For most of them this meant the rents grew rapidly to far more than they could afford and they had to move to more outlying areas. But Shoreditch had become a trendy place with clubs and nightlife and the new graffiti – much inspired by New York street art began to cover almost every available wall.

Shoreditch

Support Migrants – Fight Racist Immigration Laws – Old St

The Campaign Against Immigration Controls had organised the protest outside the Immigration Reporting Centre Communications House where many refugees are processed before they were taken to detention centres and deportation.

After the SOAS management and employers ISS had colluded with the Home Office over a dawn raid on their cleaning workers on 12 June 2009 in reprisal for their successful campaign for a living wage and trade union recognition, it was here that the SOAS 9 were brought before their deportation.

The first speaker at the protest was Laureine Tcuapo who had fled to Britain to escape repeated rape and abuse from a relative in the Cameroon police force. On Friday 12 June at 7am, immigration police kicked down the door of her Newcastle house and took her and her two young children forcibly to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Prison, intending to deport here to Cameroon. Action by Tyneside Community Action for Refugees and No Borders North East managed to prevent her deportation and get her release from Yarls Wood on 25th June but she is still under threat of deportation.

The protest also supported the continuing hunger strikers in Yarls Wood over the inhumane conditions there. In a press release from TCAR Tcuapo stated “Families were separated; people were being beaten up by guards. It just felt to all the asylum seekers that we were less than animals… I still think about my time in Yarlswood. It was very traumatising. I can’t even imagine how things are at the moment for people inside. They’re counting on us because inside, they have no rights.“

We also heard directly from some women in Yarls Wood who were able to use mobile phones to speak at the protest. Much of what is still happening at places such as Yarls Wood has been condemned by official inspections and is clearly against the laws of this country as well as EU Human Rights legislation and attention needs to be drawn to it. Our treatment of migrants, especially asylum seekers offends against justice and humanity.

More at Support Migrants – Fight Racist Laws

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Fighting Brixton Gentrification – 2015

Fighting Brixton Gentrification – On Saturday 25th April 2015 the local community in Brixton held a day of activities to reclaim its social & cultural diversity, threatened by increasing rents and property development that are forcing out local businesses and residents.

I’d arrived early for main ‘Reclaim Brixton’ event in Windrush Square and first made my way to Atlantic Road where long-established local businesses were being forced out from the railway arches which line one side of the road. They were under threat from Network Rail who with support from Lambeth Council were carrying out a refurbishment programme which would result in their shops being closed and the rents for the shops after being three times as high, pricing the low cost local businesses out of the area.

All the stores were closed for two hours across lunchtime in protest, and mural artists had been invited to work on their metal shutters. In 2015 I wrote: ‘On Stella’s Exclusive Hair & Beauty Salon an artist was working on a mural for the United Families and Friends campaign, celebrating Cherry Groce, Sean Rigg and Ricky Bishop, all killed by Brixton police. All the shops on both sides of the arches were closed, and most had white sheets with the name of the business and a punning message about the evictions. Some of them have traded here for many years – Denmay Fabrics since 1948, and L S Mash and Sons have been fishmongers here since 1932. Their message to Network Rail – ‘Don’t rip the soul outta my place”

Street theatre groups walked past on their way to ‘Reclaim Brixton’ some in exotic dress carrying cardboard homes and others with posters against the threat to Communities, Homes, Businesses from Lambeth Council.

I walked along to the gentrified Brixton Village, an extensive arcade between Atlantic Road and Coldharbour Lane, to find that police and security were keeping out protesters who, led by London Black Revs, had planned to go through the market in a peaceful march.

I found Class War at Brixton Station and walked back with them to Brixton Village, where other campaigners including some from the Ayslesbury Estate where I had photographed the previous day making their banner and other South London housing campaigners were arriving for the march.

Rather to my surprise the march when it finally started was a short and fairly direct one to Windrush Square, turning off Coldharbour Lane to enter the square via Rushcroft Road.

Close to the mansion flats which had been squatted for 32 years before residents were violently evicted in July 2013 people accompanying the long black banner of B.A.G.A.G.E (Brixton Action Group Against Gentrification and Evictions) with its message ‘Refuse to Move – Resist the Evictions – Support your Neighbours’ and others let off several red flares.

Windrush Square in front of the Tate Library and opposite Lambeth Town Hall was a few years earlier re-landscaped by Lambeth Council, who deliberately turned what had been a popular place for locals into a bleak and unwelcoming windswept area to discourage the informal gatherings that took place there.

Perhaps it was partly due to this that the event taking place there seemed to lack any real cohesion with various groups doing their own thing in different parts of the large area and largely ignoring the speeches and performances at the Unite Community stage.

After an hour or so with not very much happening, activists decided it was time for a march and took to the road blocking traffic and walked up Brixton Road.

They stopped for a while outside Brixton Underground, drumming and dancing and shouting.

Then they marched along Atlantic Road and rather to my surprise returned directly to Windrush Square along Coldharbour Lane.

*Marcia Rigg, Sean Rigg’s sister, still fighting for justice for her brother’s killing by Brixton police in August 2008 and friend*

I hung around for a while in Windrush Square where nothing much was still happening slowly and things seemed peaceful. I decided I had done enough for the day and left.

This was a mistake. Shortly after (probably when Class War came out of the pub) sthings kicked off and some people stormed and briefly occupied Lambeth Town Hall, a large window at Foxton’s estate agents was broken, and a few activists went into Brixton Village with banners.

Many more pictures on My London Diary:
London Black Revs ‘Reclaim Brixton ‘march
Reclaim Brixton celebrates Brixton
Take Back Brixton against gentrification
Brixton Arches tenants protest eviction

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St George’s Day 2005

St George’s Day – I’m not sure if I will be doing anything to celebrate St George’s Day today. Most of the celebrations around London seemed to be taking place on Sunday. I was planning to attend an event fairly close to where I live, but I started the day with one of my more impressive nose bleeds and decided to stay home rather than risk dripping blood over the streets.

So instead of pictures from a couple of days ago, today I’m posting some from 23rd April 2005, 19 years ago. I began that day with a visit to Tate Modern and a walk along to Clink Street where I photographed some stencilled graffiti -including one by Banksy – before crossing the river and heading to the celebrations taking place in Covent Garden.

St George's Day — *‘IT HAPPENED ANYWAY’ – Millions on the street failed to stop the Iraq invasion*

With the pictures is the rather tongue in cheek text that accompanied them in 2005 on My London Diary, edited to respect normal use of capital letters and any spelling errors. There are a few more pictures on My London Diary.

St George keeps busy as a patron saint of Canada, Catalonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Palestine and Portugal, as well as a number of cities including Moscow and Venice, a whole raft of trades including farmers and soldiers, as well as herpes and syphilis. It’s perhaps surprising he still has time for England, although until recently you would hardly have noticed it in any case.

St George Until recently was left to the nutters, football supporters and racists (three highly overlapping groups.) Those elites who run the country generally found patriotic display about Englishness rather beneath them – only our Celtic fringe and ethnic groups have a ‘culture’, the rest of us are too modern and intelligent for such primitivism.

Its the kind of thinking that led the Arts Council to refuse to support Morris Dancing, while pumping thousands into steel drums (as they should – but there is nothing wrong with supporting our English heritage as well.)

This year, the Royal Society Of St George (posh patriotic nutters with the Queen as their patron, started in our American colony around the 1770s) were organising celebrations in Covent Garden, and after a morning at Tate Modern I went to see.

Although I think Morris ought to be supported, I’m not a great fan of the dancers, though its OK outside the pub on a sunny day for half an hour a couple of times a year so long as I don’t have to take part.

The Moulton Morris, performing as a part of the event were more impressive than most, both for their costume and the dancing, and also for the half a dozen young people taking part. Somehow there seemed to be less beards and sandals than most sides.

More pictures on My London Diary

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Walking the Olympic Area – 2012

Walking the Olympic Area – Unless my memory has failed me (which it often does these days) the two day course I ran on Saturday 21st April 2012 and Sunday 22nd was my last formal teaching session. I think I have turned down a few requests to run workshops since as they are rather tiring.

I can’t remember exactly how the course came about, but the venue was the View Tube, now run by Poplar HARCA for the local community, which had opened on the Greenway overlooking the London Olympic site in 2010, as a cafe and education centre. A set of bright yellow boxes it then had an upper floor viewing area overlooking the building site.

I’d been photographing the area on and off since 1982 – and you can see many of the pictures I took on a web site, The Lea Valley. I think the course will have begun with me showing some of those pictures and talking about them before taking the participants out for some fairly short walks around Stratford and Stratford Marsh, or at least those areas still open to the public. The pictures here are all from the two days of the course.

Travelling across London to the area I had to give myself plenty of time in case there were any travel delays, so I arrived well before the course was due to start on both days and was able to walk around and make a few pictures then.

While leading the students around the area I was mainly involved with facilitating them making images, but did manage to make a few for myself, and I think I also stayed on a little after the day finished for some more.

On the Saturday we went along the southern edge of the site and into Stratford Westfield and up to the John Lewis viewing area before returning for a lunch break for the students when I made some panoramas close to the View Tube while eating my sandwiches. Parts of the area were quite crowded with others who had come to view the site. Fortunately there were considerably fewer on the workshop than in this picture.

After lunch I took everyone along the Greenway, into Fish Island, across Old Ford lock, down the towpath to Bow Flyover and then to Pudding Mill Lane station.

We met again on Sunday morning at Pudding Mill Lane station. Again I’d arrived early and had already made some pictures before the walk began up the Greenway to Hackney Wick, through Fish Island to White Posts Lane before returning over Old Ford Lock to the View Tube.

I had requested those taking part to work with digital images – and I think almost all had done so. Lunchtime gave them a chance to review the pictures they had made and we then were able to see and discuss the work, though unfortunately we could only see the pictures rather dimly as the teaching area, although it had a nice large touch screen, had no blinds on its windows.

You can see more of the pictures I made on the two days on My London Diary, including some of the panoramic images. All my pictures were taken on a Nikon D700 camera, I think all with the laser-sharp Nikon 16-35 f4.0 lens. The panoramas were made with the same lens, taking a series of 5-10 exposures and digitally stitching these together using PTGui software, probably the most powerful and flexible photo stitching application available. Photoshop now does a decent job with simple panoramas but has fewer options.

Panoramic images don’t display well on this blog, so apart from the one at the top of the post showing the View Tube you will need to go to My London Diary to see more. Most of those I took showing the actual Olympic site on these two days are panoramic.
Olympic Course Day 1
Olympic Course Day 2

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Battersea Park, Flour Mill and Somerset Estate

Battersea Park, Flour Mill and Somerset Estate continues my walk on Friday 4th August 1989 in Battersea from the previous post, The Raven, Villas, Mansion Flats & A Bridge. The walk began with Council flats, Piles of Bricks, A House Hospital and Brasserie.

*Battersea Park, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-12*

I’m not what was happening in Battersea Park, and perhaps I had arruved too early.

*Battersea Park, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8a-21*

A tree close to the tent had a rather odd piece of fencing around it and I also photographed this, both with the tent and on its own, though I’ve not put that on-line. I walked on to the Peace Pagoda and took another three pctures – again not posted online, because it was rather better in colour – I think there are eleven images in the colour album for 1989.

*Insect, Battersea Park, London, 1989 89-8c-73*

And I still can’t tell you what was happening in the park, but here is a picture I think I took a little later before I decided to leave and continue my walk.

*Josie 4 Arnie, Battersea Church Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8b-55*

I returned west towards the centre of Battersea. Back in 1989 the riverside at Battersea was still lined with industry and there was no path west beside the river and I had to go back from the park along Parkgate Rd and then cross Battersea Bridge Road and walk along Battersea Church Road.

There my eye was caught by this rather odd graffiti – back then there was far less on walls in London. I couldn’t decode what the drawing on the wall was meant to represent and I still can’t. On one side of the dark box in the corner was a cartoon rabbit with two terms of affection ‘Hun’ and ‘Snoocums’ with more the more comprehendible message across its door with a heart and ‘JOSIE 4 ARNIE’. At right was an open gate and there were also some interesting shadows.

*Rank Hovis Ltd, Battersea Church Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8b-42*

On Battersea Church Road was the still busy factory of Rank Hovis Ltd although much of the other industry including the Morgan Crucible Company had already gone and its site replaced by housing, beginning at Morgan’s Walk estate in 1984.

The mill here had begun in 1788 with an unusual horizontal windmill built by Thomas Fowler to crush linseed for the oil for paints, but a few years later became used for grinding corn and barley. Around 1825 the mill was taken down and replaced by a steam engine. The mill grew and was eventually taken over by the Mayhew family in the 1890s as Mark Mayhew Mill.

*Rank Hovis Ltd, Battersea Church Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8b-44*

In 1914 the Mayhew’s business was bought by Joseph Rank and became run by Rank’s second son Rowland who used his father’s Hull architects Sir Alfred Gelder and Llewellyn Kitchen to reconstruct and enlarge the site. They managed to get the LCC to waive regulations on building heights to construct the largest grain silos in London so that a whole lighter full of grain could be unloaded at a time.

In 1962, Ranks acquired Hovis McDougal, becoming Rank Hovis McDougal, though by 1989 the McDougal seems to have disappeared. The mills were updated and produced up to 10 tonnes of white flour an hour, using mainly UK wheat delivered by lorry, though some came from Canada and was delivered by barge from Tilbury Docks.

The mills only finally closed around 1992, and were demolished in 1997; the site is now occupied by the tall triangle of Richard Roger’s Montevetro riverside flats, covered at some length by the Survey of London.

*Dimson Hall Social Club, Battersea Church Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-8b-46*

Across the road to the south of the road in 1989 was the very different triangle of the Dimson Hall Social Club, part of the extensive Somerset Estate begun by the GLC in 1962 and completed by the London Borough of Wandsworth. This community centre was named after GLC councillor Gladys Dimson who was the GLC housing chair from 1973-77. A colleague of Ken Livingstone, she was also involved with both Shelter and the settlement of Toynbee Hall in East London.

Currently flats on the Somerset Estate are advertised at around almost couple of a million pounds less than their near neighbours in Montevetro.

The riverside developments on the river in Battersea although often controversial do mean there is now a riverside path along virtually the whole length. Back in 1989 there was I think no access for the public between Battersea Bridge and St Mary’s Church where the next post on this walk will begin.

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Pancakes, A Farm & Another London – 2007

Pancakes, A Farm & Another London: My working day on Shrove Tuesday, 20th January 2007 began in Guildhall Yard in the City of London, where by permission of the Chief Commoner the Worshipful Company Of Poulters were holding their annual charity pancake races. The Poulters got their charter to regulate the sale of poultry and small game in 1368, but their pancake races are a rather more recent tradition, first run in 2005.

Music for the event came from the Worshipful Company Of Musicians (1500), time-keeping was by the Worshipful Company Of Clockmakers (1631) and a starting cannon for each of the many races was provided and fired by the Worshipful Company Of Gunmakers (1637.)

Although this is a charitable and fun event it fully demonstrates the competitive spirit at the heart of the city. More pictures on My London Diary.

From Guildhall I rushed to another pancake event on the edge of the City, the Great Spitalfields Pancake Race at the former Trumans Brewery, arriving very out of breath just in time to see the finish of the final race and to photograph some of those who had taken part in fancy dress and the prize-giving.

As I commented, “the atmosphere was considerably less restrained than in the City.” More pictures.

From there a short walk took me on a visit to Spitalfields Urban Farm, one of a number of urban farms set up in the 70s and 80s (1978 in this case) on waste land. This area had formerly been part of a railway goods depot next to the line out of Liverpool Street. It now provides an environmental education and a great deal of enjoyment to people of all ages in the local community.

I was meeting with other photographers later in the day, and still had time to stroll in a leisurely fashion through Spitalfields to Shoreditch to catch the bus, making a few photographs on the way. Back then there was relatively little graffiti on the walls around the disused Spitalfields station and Brick Lane, but now its hard to find a square inch of wall not covered with it. I was photographing in a dark alley leading through to Bishopsgate when a hooded figure strolled past me. Despite the media stereotyping of ‘hoodies’ I couldn’t feel he was in the least threatening; if anything rather more like a monk. More pictures on My London Diary.

I met a group of photographer friends for a meal at an Italian cafe in New Malden and then we went on together to Kingston Museum, where the show ‘Another London‘ including my work along with that of Paul Baldesare and Mike Seaborne was then showing. Of course it closed years ago, but the web site featuring work from it is still on-line.

As the introduction on the site states, the show features “the London of the suburbs, of its deprived areas and of its various ethnic groups” with work by myself an Paul “in the tradition of ‘street photography‘” and Mike’s panoramic urban landscapes some “using the viewpoint offered by the front seat of London buses.”

Another London

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Bonnington Square and Kennington Lane – 1989

Bonnington Square and Kennington Lane – The final set of pictures from my walk on 19th July 1989 which began with Stockwell Park, Bus Garage, Tower and Mason. It continues from my post More From Stockwell & South Lambeth.

*Vauxhall Grove, Bonnington Square, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-31*

At the end of Langley Road I came to a remarkable area of Vauxhall. Built in the 1870s for railway workers Bonnington Square was in the late 1970s compulsorily purchased by the GLC who intended to demolish it and build a school. But one resident, a Turkish shopkeeper, took legal action to prevent the demolition and eventually the GLC gave up. Squatters moved in to occupy almost a hundred emptied properties, setting up a vegetarian cafe, a wholefood shop and bars and a community garden.

*Bonnington Square, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-32*

The squatters formed a housing co-op and eventually negotiated a lease and in 1998 were able to buy the buildings from Lambeth Council. Most are now still owned by low-rent housing cooperatives. A few are privately owned, I think including some where the GLC had not managed to get residents to move out. The gardens are still collectively run, as was the café.

*Bonnington Square, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-33*

The story is told in The Mavericks of Bonnington Square which also includes a 20 minute film produced around 2011 which gives an interesting view of the area and the incredible transformation made by those who moved in, and also includes many of their photographs from the early days. People had more or less to rebuild many of the properties and developed an incredible community spirit in doing so. The area is now described as a “botanical oasis hidden in the midst of Vauxhall” and includes two community gardens, one on an area destroyed by wartime bombing.

I went to Bonnington Square quite a few times, often taking a short wander through on my way from visiting friends who lived in a council flat close to the Oval to Vauxhall Station, not to take pictures but just because it was an interesting diversion if I had a few minutes before my train came, and I also went to some of the festivals there.

*St Peters, Vauxhall, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-26*

I often walked past St Peters Church and went inside a few times, including to a service led by a trendy young cleric in black leathers. Now I think worhips there is rather different. The Grade II* listed church built in 1863-4 was the first major town church by the renowned British Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson. It has magnificent interior and a fine exterior; shortages of cash meant the church was rather plainer than Pearson’s orginal plans, probably much to its advantage. The site was given free by the developer of Vauxhall Gardens on the provision that all seats in the church should be free and not rented. It has a fine acoustic and now hosts concerts as well as services.

Around the corner linked to the side of the church are the schools built a few years earlier (also designed by Pearson) to train local children to be draughtsmen and artists for Maudslay’s engineering works and Doulton’s pottery factory nearby. The wall at the left of the picture is of another building by Pearson, though you can see little of it in this picture, his St Peter’s Orphanage and Training College for the daughters of clergy and professionals and also Grade II* listed, now converted into flats as Herbert House.

*Shops, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-25*

A lively row of small shops is still present here on Kennington lane, although now rather less useful and perhaps a little more run-down. I stood regularly at the bus stop here for buses to Camberwell and Peckham as well as walking past on another longer route to see my friends or to take my cameras in for repair at Fixation down the road, and made a few photographs here over the years.

*Window display, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-11*

This was part of the window display in one of those shops in July 1989., including two Edward Weston posters of Clark Gable and Grouch Marx. The Marilyn Monroe image was her first of her to appear on the cover of LIFE on April 7, 1952, taken by Philip Halsman, and it was later published widely, including again inside LIFE in 1962 at the time of her death.

*Happy Birthday Nicaragua, Harleyford Rd, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, Lambeth, 1989 89-7h-24*

On the corner of a very busy traffic junction just yards southeast of Vauxhall Station this white wall was a good site for graffiti, though in my picture it is partly obscured by the street furniture. I think I chose the viewpoint to make sure that the message ‘Happy Birthday Nicaragua – 10 years of liberation – (and a long way from Thatcher)’ was clear.

The Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua in July 1979, ending long years of dictatorhsip by the Samoza family who had been put into power there by the US who occupied the country from 1912 until 1933. Thatcher was only prime minister from 1979 until 1990 but it seemed much longer and caused a decisive shift to the right and towards an emphasis on individual greed rather than social responsibility that continues to this day.