Lewisham | >Re-PHOTO

Lewisham, Black Heath and Heathside – 1990

Lewisham, Black Heath and Heathside: Pictures from the final part of my walk on Sunday 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was Deptford, Greenwich and The Point – 1990.

House, 17, West Grove, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-56 — *House, 17, West Grove, Blackheath, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-56*

I came down from The Point onto more or less the top of Point Hill, which rises steeply from Greenwich and turned east into West Grove where a few houses including this one overlook the western edge of the Black Heath – and a short distance across the grass the A2. Different maps show this section as the east section of Blackheath Hill or the start of Shooters Hill, though this section is more or less flat. There are a few trees in the grass which is criss-crossed by footpaths.

This Grade II* listed house, Manna Mead at 17 West Grove, was built around 1800. Although a fine building I think it owes its unusual Grade II* listing at least partly because of its position on the edge of Black Heath and its views. It is divided into flats.

*Dartmouth House, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-34*

I walked along to the well-known Rangers House on the edge of Greenwich Park and taking a few pictures there and on the way, including the listed Conduit Head for the water supply to the Greenwich Royal Hospital, none of which I have yet digitised. I went across the A2 and down Dartmouth Hill to Dartmouth Row.

Dartmouth House was a very substantial house and the sign outside suggests it was in process of being converted into flats. It was built in 1928-9 as a nurses home for the Miller General Hospital. This had been built in the grounds of the Royal Kent Dispensary in 1883 to celebrate the Dispensary’s 100th anniversary and “as a memorial to the Revd Canon John Cale Miller (1814-1880), the founder of Hospital Sunday”. This was an important national collection day every June, established in 1873 to support the work of voluntary hospitals, vital before the foundation of the NHS. Its inception is more generally attributed to London’s Lord Mayor.

Miller was Vicar of St Alfege, Greenwich and had greatly supported the work of the Dispensary. The hospital was closed in 1974 and the home was redundant. It briefly became a home for single mothers and was being converted into 17 2- and 3-bed flats.

This Dartmouth House is sometimes confused with the Grade II listed Blackheath House of the Earl of Dartmouth which was also in Dartmouth Row, just south of the church.

*Church of the Ascension, Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-35*

Dartmouth Chapel was established in 1699 as private chapel for the Earls of Dartmouth so the Vicar of Lewisham could to preach a sermon for the family every Sunday. Traces of the original building may have survived the considerable rebuilding in around 1750 and 1834.

It had served as a temporary parish church for Lewisham in 1774-7 but was consecrated as a separate parish church, the Church of the Ascension in 1883. Much older material was also removed during rebuilding after wartime damage in 1950. The church is Grade II* listed.

View, Council Estate, Morden Lane, 1990, 90-3m-24 — *View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990,*

These flats on the side of Blackheath Hill were the Heathside Estate – Ferguson House, Melville House, Varden House, Glennie House and Travis House – built in 1948 by the LCC. They have since been demolished and the area redeveloped.

Stairs and View, Council Estate, Morden Lane, 1990, 90-3m-26 — *Stairs and View, Heathside Council Estate, Morden Lane, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-26*

Noted for its vibrant community life, this estate on the edge of the London Borough of Lewisham was in a poor state structurally by the 2000s and in 2009 plans were approved for its demolition and replacement by new Heathside and Lethbridge estates.

House, 83, Morden Hill, , 1990, 90-3m-12 — *House, 83, Morden Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3m-12*

A fine example of a 1930s house with its Crittall windows intact. Although many houses like this were built with flat roofs, this had a pitched roof with a large overhang you can see here. The house still looks in good condition now, though the carefully trimmed bushes have gone.

*Railway, Offices, Multi-storey Car Park, Molesworth St, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3n-01*

I began and ended the walk at Lewisham Station and I’m unsure whether I made this image – taken on another camera – at the start or finish of my walk. The picture is made on a footpath that leads over the River Ravensbourne around a quarter of a mile south of the station and was taken from just on the east side of the river looking under the railway line towards Molesworth St. Although central Lewisham has changed drastically in the past decade or so, I think both the buildings in the background remain.

My next photographic walk was in North London two weeks later. Coming here shortly.

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Deptford, Greenwich and The Point – 1990

Deptford, Greenwich and The Point: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was Lewisham and Deptford – 1990.

I walked from Deptford into the area between Deptford and Lewisham, mainly in the London Borough of Greenwich, then up the hills towards Blackheath. As often on my walks there was a good deal of wandering around as I tried to at least look down every street on my way.

*Eagle, 20, Deptford Broadway, Deptford, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-11*

This terrace of buildings from 17-21 Deptford Broadway dates from the late 17th century and is Grade II listed. The Eagle is perched on top of the Transport Cafe which was at some long past time a tavern. The listing says the building is probably from the late 17th century and still has two original staircases.

*Houses, 25, 27, Blackheath Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3g-14*

Two houses which caught my attention for their verandas. Both were built in the 1840s and are larger than you might think as you can just see they have basements. I wondered if the left hand house of the pair was built for a client with a larger family.

Ditch Alley, Blackheath Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3g-15 — *Ditch Alley, Blackheath Rd, Greenwich, 1990*

Ditch Alley runs from Blackheath Road to John Penn St which gets its name from the engineering works of John Penn & Sons which were begun in 1799 and from 1825 produced marine engines here as well as boilers at its riverside site at Palmers Payne Wharf, Deptford.

The alley went through the centre of the site and I think all the buildings in my two pictures date from 1863 or later. Among other claims to engineering fame the company produced the world’s first wind tunnel in 1868. The company declined as shipbuilding declined in London and was wound up in 1914.

*Ditch Alley, John Penn St, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-62*

John Penn Street was originally known as Cold Bath Lane but was renamed John Penn Street in the 1870s. Parts of the works site were later occupied by the Broomfield Bakery which closed in 1992 (and is still missed by some locals – Gregg’s sausage rolls are not the same), and while Lewisham Council dithered over adding some of the remaining buildings to the Statutory List they were demolished. The site is now occupied by Wickes, Pets at Home and a large car park for these stores along with housing. More details on the Greenwich Industrial History site.

Parry's Dispensing Chemist, Lewisham Rd, Lewisham, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-64 — *Parry’s Dispensing Chemist, Lewisham Rd, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-64*

By 2009 Parry’s Dispensing Chemist’s premises at 6-8 Lewisham Road were occupied by Juliet Q Unisex Hair Beauty Salon but this closed shortly after and I think the ground floor has since remained unoccupied. But although Mr Yip may well have left us, the shop next door at No 4 is still a Chinese Take Away.

*Dutton Street, Maidenstone Hill, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-66*

Although Google Maps calls this Maidenstone Hill, the name on the houses clearly reads Dutton Street, while a newer sign on the other side of the road favours Google’s choice. This is certainly a hilly part of London and I made my way to the top of the hill.

*View, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-51*

The Point has been noted for centuries as a viewpoint over London with wide views to the north and the west, and remains as a small area of public open space. Although now in Greenwich it was formerly in the Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, and was named The Blackheath Point.

On a clear day there is a protected view of St Paul’s Cathedral, but although I had good weather, the city was covered in the usual murk of pollution, atmospheric but hiding it. I think to get a clear view you would need to be up here after a thunderstorm had scrubbed the London air.

*Point Hill, Westgrove Lane, from, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-53*

The land drops away steeply here to a road full of houses for the fashionable and wealthy in the Victorian era – and still now for the rich. These houses are quite a contrast to the working class homes in my Dutton Street picture above.

*View, The Point, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3m-55*

Looking roughly north there are more plebeian residencies close to The Point and in the middle distance a number of large council blocks from the 1930s or 1950s. Beyond them is housing on the Isle of Dogs and the growing development of Docklands, as yet without its towers, though the cranes are busy.

I was coming close to the end of my walk but I took a few more pictures before leaving for home which I’ll post shortly in the final selection from this walk.

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Lewisham and Deptford – 1990

More From Lewisham: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was St Johns Lewisham – 1990.

*Denture Repairs, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-45*

False teeth were still very common when I was growing up. Many if not most adults still went to bed with their teeth in a glass of water beside them on the bedside table like my parents. One of their wedding presents in 1932 from a wealthy relative had been for both of them to be given a ‘full set’, while others were often given the same as a coming of age present for their 21st birthday.

As many of us are still aware, tooth pain can be excruciating and few working-class people could afford proper dentistry. People extracted their own teeth or those of their friends with pliers, or tied strong thread around them and fixed it to a door handle asking for someone to slam the door. With current problems in getting NHS treatment there are again now people resorting to painful and dangerous DIY treatments.

*Denture Repairs, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-32*

Things had improved a little after the war, particularly with the school dental service, and I went regularly to the clinic on Bath Road until I was 16 and no longer qualified for their services. It was around ten years before my teeth saw a dentist again and by then the rot had truly set in. But back then it was simple to find a NHS dentist and become a regular patient.

Dentistry never really became a proper part of the NHS and NHS dentistry is now in dire straits, though there have been great advances in dental treatment – and so little need for shops such as this. I’m fortunate still to have a NHS dentist with regular check-ups and still enough of my own teeth to just about eat. And although the NHS charges increase regularly it remains cheap compare to private practice. But sorting it out should be another item on Andy Burnham’s list.

*R Holt, Crash Centre, Thurston Rd, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-33*

Car crashes are still common and there are still garages offering crash repairs, though I think rather more cars now get written off after crashes, partly because of changes in the way cars are built but also because of stricter safety laws. MOT testing was introduced in the 1960s but the tests are now much more detailed and rigorous.

Behind the yard is a row of trees at the edge of the site and a railway viaduct on the line to Lewisham station. This yard is long gone and the street is lined with tall flats.

*R Holt, Crash Centre, Viaduct, Thurston Rd, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-34*

The crashed cars on the lorry close to my camera make those by the fence look like toy models. I think many these cars would have been cannibalised for parts and then sold as scrap as they look beyond repair, even by specialists such as R Holt. The picture also gives a better view of the railway viaduct.

*Crescent House, Bliss Crescent, Lewisham, Greenwich, 1990, 90-3g-22*

A bridge over the River Ravensbourne leads to the flats of Crescent House, a large 1950s council development. A few years later the DLR extension to Lewisham from Island Gardens was built through here, opening in 1999. The Elverson Road DLR station is a short walk away.

*Carrington House, Brookmill Rd, Deptford, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-24*

Built for the London County Council in 1903, Carrington House was a lodging house which replaced several small doss houses on the site. It was based on the Rowton Houses founded by Lord Rowton to provide cheap lodging for working men and named after Lord Carrington, chairman of the LCC’s Housing of the Working Classes Committee.

*Carrington House, Brookmill Rd, Deptford, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-26*

It provided cubicles for 800 men to sleep in and communal facilities including washrooms, dining, reading and smoking rooms. During the Great War it housed refugees, afterwards returning as a lodging house, continuing in this at least until the late 1970s and possibly still when I took these pictures.

In 1995 it was converted into social housing flats and renamed Mereton Mansions. The railings are said to be made from wartime stretcher frames.

More to come from Deptford.

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St Johns Lewisham – 1990

St Johns Lewisham: More pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990. The previous post on this walk was More From Brockley.

I walked up Malpas Rd, taking a few pictures on my way that I’ve not digitised, and on to Lewisham Way, where I turned into Friendly Street, wondering how it got that name. No one seems to know. There is also a Friendly Place in Lewisham, some distance away.

Clarendon Cottages, Scotts Coachworks, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-61 — F H Pierce, Friendly Upholstery, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-16

Friendly Street was built as a part of the Deptford New Town development which had begun in around 1795, though the earliest existing buildings in Friendly Street (earlier named Dog Kennel Row and then George Street) date from 1806 and most from the 1840s. Its name was apparently officially changed from George Street in the early years of the twentieth century to avoid confusion with other George Streets in London.

Friendly Upholstery at No 2 and Boot Repaier F H Pierce at No 4 have long closed. No 2 still has the shopfront but that at 4 has been replaced and both properties are now residential.

This property at 3 Friendly Street is still standing though that on the left has been replaced by a new building. The open area to the right is Friendly Gardens, an area cleared after bomb damage in the Second World War.

The Deptford New Town estate was developed on land owned by the Lucas family, who grew rich from building and running rice mills in the USA. Many of the early residents were shipbuilders and sailors. The opening of the railway in 1836 with a station at New Cross Gate in 1839 with trains to London Bridge prompted further development in the area as a commuter suburb. St Johns got its church in 1855 and its own station in 1873.

*Bank, Lewisham Way, Friendly St, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-63*

The former bank at 293 Lewisham Way was acquired by Barclays in 1918. The building was Grade II listed in 1994 and according to this: “The London and South Western Bank – New Cross Branch at 293 Lewisham Way was acquired by Barclays in 1918. ” and was “designed in 1885 and built in about 1886 by J and J S Edmeston.”

It appeared to have closed as a bank by the time I made my picture and has been converted into residential apartments.

*Stone House, Lewisham Way, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-64*

Grade II* listed house built 1771 – 1773 designed by architect George Gibson the Younger (or possibly his father, also George Gibson) as built as his own residence, it was known in the 19th century as the Comical House for its unusual design.

*House, 70, Loampit Hill, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-53*

One of four similar highly ornamented houses built late 1850s by local architect Alfred Cross who also built one for himself at No 62, now particularly notable for its vibrant colour scheme – and which I photographed on several occasions in colour.

*House, Loampit Hill, St Johns, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-55*

A closer view of one of the houses, largely hidden by greenery shows a little of the decorations.

90-3g-42-Edit — *Grover Court, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-42*

*Grover Court, Loampit Hill, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3g-44*

Grover Court was built as a luxury Art Deco estate of 51 residential flats in 1938, on the site of Ellerslie House, built in the 1790s for the brothers John and Henry Lee who owned the neighbouring brickworks. A large house, after the Lee family moved out in 1860 it became a private girls preparatory school.

More From Brockley – 1990

More From Brockley: Pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990 in Brockley. The previous post on this walk was Nunhead and Brockley. The pictures in this post are all from a small area of Brockley.

*Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-31*

Two men walk around a street corner into the sun, their shadows clean on the pavement behind them. Like many who lived# in the area the two men are black.

This Brockley Cross at the north end of Mantle Road and it slopes down under a railway bridge to Brockley Station. Two railway lines cross here and I think the 4 aspect signal was on the line from London Bridge to Brockley. The other line, according to Edith’s Streets, was a goods line and the area behind the hoardings was Martin’s sidings with room for 36 coal waggons. This was on land belonging to Martins Dairy at 4 Endwell Road, leased to leased to the London North West Railway and sub let to coal merchant Charrington Warren Ltd.

The steps at right lead to the side entrance to Endwell Court, a block features in my previous post.

*Josies CAFE, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-34*

Josies Cafe was next to the railway bridge on Mantle Road which is at the right of the picture. There was still a café here (no longer Josie’s) until around 2010, but since then this has been a small empty plot.

*Josies CAFE, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-23*

Josies Cafe seen from the opposite side of Mantle Road with the grassy bank leading up to the goods line which crosses Mantle Road here.

*Brockley Paper Co, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-35*

I think this building housing the Brockley Paper Co was next to Josies Cafe, and has been demolished and replaced by a block of flats with shops on the ground floor. One of these at 1a Mantle Road is now the London Print Shop.

O'Shea, Low Cost Flats, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-36 — *O’Shea, Low Cost Flats, Mantle Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-36*

This small row was just south of Foxwell Road and you can see the railway bridge in the distance at right and the sign for Josies Cafe.

This block which included The Maypole Inn whose sign can be seen was demolished before 2008 – the pub closed in 2006. A block of flats was built on the northern part of the site around 2012, but I don’t know where the ‘low cost flats’ advertised here were located.

*Free Winston Silcott, Harefield Rd, Brockley Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-24*

I walked to the other side of Brockley Station over the station footbridge and along Coulgate Street to Brockley Road and into Harefield Road. The building in the centre background is the back of a house on the corner of Foxberry Street and Coulgate Street,.

This post began with two men, so I’ll end it with two women who walked in front of me to cross the road as I was looking at the graffiti on the wall at the read of the corner shop.

This had the message ‘FREE WINSTON SILCOTT’ above a lot of less legible scrawls. Silcott was one of the ‘Tottenham 3‘ convicted in 1987 for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham in October 1985, but had been nowhere near the scened. All three convictions were quashed in 1991 after it was found the police had fabricated their confessions. He remained in jail as he was convicted for an unrelated murder of a boxer and nightclub bouncer and was only released in 2003.

Nunhead and Brockley

Nunhead and Brockley: Pictures from my walk on 18th March 1990 in Nunhead and Brockley.

*Beer and Wine Trade Homes, Nunhead Green, Nunhead, Southwark, 1990, 90-3e-25*

The Beer and Wine Trade Society decided in 1851 to provide an asylum for its elderly poor members and purchased land on the north side of Nunhead Green, launching an appeal to its members to build these almshouses. They were built at at a cost of around £3,000 as a terrace of seven dwellings to house 13 people. The Metropolitan Beer and Wine Trade Society almshouses, architect William Webbe, opened in 1853.

The accommodation was on a generous scale, with each having four rooms and a kitchen and a part of the garden behind to grow vegetables. As well as the accommodation the residents also received a weekly allowance.

The almshouses are Grade II listed and are now private homes.

*Nunhead Library, Gordon Rd, Nunhead, Southwark, 1990, 90-3e-26*

Nunhead Library was designed by Robert Whellock of Camberwell in an Arts and Crafts style and built in 1896. Since 1965 in the London Borough of Southwark where it is one of four libraries which were founded by philanthropist John Passmore Edwards and is still in use as a library. Edwards founded another 11 libraries in London, most no longer in use.

Nunhead had been a part of the ancient parish of Camberwell but became a separate parish in 1878 and became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in 1900, which became part of the London Borough of Southwark in 1965.

Shops, Gibbon Rd, Nunhead, Soutwwark, 1990, 90-3e-16 — *Shops, Gibbon Rd, Nunhead, Southwwark, 1990, 90-3e-16*

Nunhead Railway station is in Gibbon Road and this Gents Hairdresser at 52 and Launderette at 54 (and the Fish & Chip shop at 50 whose frying times are in the corner of their window) are just past the bridge north of the station entrance. Rather to my surprise there is still Gents Hairdresser and a Fish and Chip shop here, though the Launderette closed around 2010 and is now two homes at 54 and 54a.

The two people sitting reading outside – before the age of mobile phones – are doubtless waiting for their washing to finish inside the launderette.

*Prefabs, Temporary Housing, Drakefell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-51*

I went down Gibbon Road and turned left into Hathway Terrace, which turns into Kitto Road and leads on to Drakefell Rd. Somewhere here was this path with a broken-down fence leading to an area of prefabs.

In 201 Elisabeth Blanchet and Jame Hearn from the Prefab Museum photographed the interior of a prefab in Drakefell Road and posted a video of the resident, John De’Ath, who had moved in when these prefabs were new in 1948 and stayed there until his death in 2017, a very satisfied resident. You can read more about London’s prefabs and see a photograph of one of them in a GLIAS Journal, when in 2024 the two last prefabs there were awaiting demolition.

*Telegraph Hill Park, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-55*

The 10 acres site the hill top on Kitto Road was created in 1894 thanks to George Livesey, chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company and a local philanthropist. It has good views to central London and south and east towards Croydon and Shooters Hill, which made it a great side for a semaphore station which was built around 1795 – as one of a series which formed an optical communication system from London to Dover and Southampton with large arms which could be moved to different positions to convey letters or codes.

The French had invented the system for their military and we copied it – and it was able to speedily deliver the new of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo (among many other messages over the years) back to London. The signal station was out of use by 1823, but the name it gave to what had previously been ‘Plowed Garlic Hill’ stuck.

Rather than take the views, I decided to make a picture that showed a hill. I don’t think it shows the part of the park which once had the telegraph station.

*Endwell Court, Mantle Rd, Endwell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-45*

Mantle Road and Endwell Road meet at Brockley Cross, just to the north of Brockley Station, which is just down the hill which goes under the railway bridge at the left of Endwell Court. This rather isolated block appears to have been built as a mansion block with perhaps four flats and looks very similar now.

*Houses, 169, 171, Drakefell Rd, Brockley, Lewisham, 1990, 90-3f-46*

A small group of three semi-detached houses on the north side of Drakefell Road close to Brockley Cross have some rather unusually detailed ornamentation. This end of Drakefell Road was Penmartin Road until 1902, and I think these houses probably date from a few years before then. The houses are now flats.

As always, comments and corrections are welcome. More from Brockley in a later post.

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Clock House to Olympic Site – 2005

Clock House to Olympic Site: Thursday October 27 2005 was a fine late autumn day and I decided to go for a bike ride, putting my folding bike on a couple of trains to my start point, Clock House station. This is in south east London, halfway between Penge and Beckenham and just inside the London Borough of Bromley.

The Chaffinch Brook runs close by and joins with the River Beck to form the River Pool (aka Pool River) a mile or so north and a footpath going north from there is now part of a national cycle route. Parts of the Pool River which were once culverted have now been restored to an open stream, which will help prevent flooding downstream. The river’s main claim to fame is that four years after my ride then London Mayor Boris Johnson fell into it on an official visit to encourage volunteers who were cleaning the river up.

The Pool River is a tributary of the River Ravensborne and I had planned to continue along this as closely as I could to Deptford Creek where it joins the Thames. But I ran out of time, so took the Docklands Light Railway at Lewisham rather than Greenwich to cross the river to Canning Town.

My ride then continued with a loop around Bow Creek and over the Lower Lea Crossing back through Canning Town and on to Stratford Marsh where work was then just beginning to turn this whole area into the Olympic site.

It wasn’t a long ride – probably around ten miles in all, perhaps a little longer with all the small diversions I took. All the pictures here were taken on this ride and there are more on My London Diary, along with the account below that I wrote back in 2005. As usual I’ve made a few small corrections.

*Pool River and Ravensbourne (left) join*

The Brompton folding bike is really an ideal form of transport for London, an essential tool for the urban photographer. It’s short wheelbase is great in slow-moving crowded traffic, and it can be folded in 15s to travel by tube, rail, taxi or even bus. [I’ve never put mine in a taxi.] The only problem is that they are highly prized by cycle thieves. [They are fairly expensive and slip easily into a car boot.]

*Bridges over Bow Creek, River Lea, Canning Town, London*

The weather forecast was for a fine summery day, so I took the opportunity to check up on a few things and fill in some little gaps, where I’d not quite managed to photograph things before. First I wanted to go along the footpath at Bell Green, next to Sainsbury’s, so I decided to make a slightly longer trip of it by starting at Clock House Station. There is a good, almost traffic-free route north from there along the Pool River, then the River Ravensbourne, at times surprisingly rural.

Taking photographs slows you down, as does stopping to sit in the sun and eat sandwiches, so at Lewisham I decided to get on the DLR with the bike to travel to Canning Town.

*DLR extension, Millenium Dome and Canary Wharf from Silvertown Way.*

Perhaps one day the riverside walkway by Bow Creek from the station will open [it did, but only to go across a new bridge to City Island – the route south still comes to a dead end], but it seems unlikely to be in our lifetime. I went round the creek, over the Lower Lea Crossing and on to Silvertown Way to see how the new stretch of DLR was progressing. [It opened north of the river at the end of 2005.]

Then I cycled up to Stratford to take a look at Stratford Marsh again before work starts in earnest to demolish the existing businesses and create the Olympic waste. It was getting later and noticeably darker by the time I was there, although the day felt like summer, it gets dark rather earlier at the end of October.

*The Greenway goes under the railway line on Stratford Marsh.*

What really makes no sense at all is to put our clocks back to make it even darker still, as we were going to do in a couple of days time. If I were in charge, we’d move to the same time as France and the rest of our neighbours across the channel. I don’t like dark mornings, but it would be much better than having it get dark in the middle of the afternoon in winter. Orcadians or even Scots would be welcome to have their own time zone if they really must, but its about time they stopped imposing it on the rest of us. The sun set around 5.30, and next week that means it will be 4.30pm.

More pictures start here on My London Diary.

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NHS at 65, Lewisham & the DLR – 2013

NHS at 65, Lewisham & the DLR: Friday 5th July 2013 was the 65th anniversary of the founding of our National Health Service and I photographed three events connected with this, two in Westminster and one opposite Lewisham Hospital where campaigners were fighting to keep services. And on the way back from Lewisham I took some pictures though the window of the DLR train, mainly as we went past Deptford Creek.

The National Health Action Party was a publicity stunt and single issue parties such as this are never likely to make much widespread impact on British politics. But given the strength of the recent Labour rebellion over Starmer’s attack on the disabled I wonder if a new left of centre political party might result in a radical change in our political system, with possibly a significant number of Labour MPs deserting the sinking ship in favour of a party which represents traditional Labour values. We could then have two different parties fighting out the next election.

NHS 65: GMB – Westminster

The GMB trade union came with three vintage ambulances to protest outside Parliament where trade unionists in vintage ambulance uniforms posed with MPs including Dennis Skinner and Sadiq Khan warning that the NHS is at risk.

I’m afraid I’ve forgotten who the other MPs were, but you can see a couple more in the pictures on My London Diary I took as the photographer for the GMB posed and photographed them. I have a personal antipathy to posing people, though I might occasionally deliberately attract their attention and even very occasionally ask them to keep still or look at me. But generally I see my role as recording what is happening rather than directing it. And here what was happening was that people were being photographed.

Later I went with them (and the ambulances) as they took 65th Birthday cards for the NHS, with the message inside “Do Not Pension Off Our NHS’ to the Ministry of Health, then still in Richmond House on Whitehall.

More at NHS 65: GMB.

NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital

In the memorial garden opposite the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign were holding a lunchtime party to celebrate the 65th Birthday of the NHS, and as a part of their campaign to keep this busy, successful and much needed hospital open.

The plans for its closure were not related to the hospital’s performance in any way but because the health authority needed to make drastic cuts to meet the disastrous PFI debts of a neighbouring hospital.

There had been a massive community campaign to save vital NHS services at the hospital, backed by “Patients, NHS staff, Lewisham Council, MPs, schools, pensioners, families, businesses, faith groups, charities, unions, students and health campaigners” – the whole community including the Millwall Football Club.

Later at the end of July 2013 the High Court ruled in favour of the Judicial Reviews by the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and Lewisham Council and quashed the Government’s closure plans. And ten years later in July 2023 on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NHS a newly engraved community bench was unveiled to celebrate the victory. I’m sorry I wasn’t present to record that occasion.

More at NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital.

DLR Views – Deptford-Canary Wharf

I decided to travel back from Lewisham into central London by taking the DLR to Canary Wharf where I could change to the Jubilee Line because I could try to take some pictures from the train, particularly on the section where the viaduct goes alongside and over Deptford Creek.

There are many problems in taking pictures from trains. Finding a reasonably clean window is the first, and avoiding reflections another. It was easier back in the 1970s when there were windows you could pull down and lean out! And now apparently AI can remove reflections, though I’ve yet to try it.

DLR Views

NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon – Westminster

On the 65th Birthday of the NHS, Dr Clive Peedell began a 65 mile ultramarathon to David Cameron’s Witney constituency to bury the NHS coffin and launch the National Health Action Party plan by doctors and health professionals to revive the NHS.

Dr Clive Peedell posed in a Cameron mask with the coffin and wreath and had come with a small group of supporters, including one wearing a mask of his coalition partner Nick Clegg. Campaigners accuse both of deliberately running down our NHS, with more and more NHS services being delivered by private healthcare companies.

After posing in front of the Ministry of Health, the campaigners crossed Whitehall to stand in front of the gates of Downing St before processing behind the coffin to Parliament for more pictures, ending with some street theatre involving severed hands and speeches by several distnguished health professions including the Chair of the Royal College of GPs in Old Palace Yard.

I left before Dr Peedell and two others set off on his long run – though I’m sure others would be carrying the wreath and coffin. The event had clearly been set up to attract the media, but received little publicity.

On My London Diary you can read a long statement by Dr Peedell about how the “2012 Health and Social Care Act, will result in the NHS being increasingly dismantled and privatised” with the Labour Party whose “previous pro-market, pro-privatisation reforms, actually set the platform for the current changes” had failed to sufficiently oppose. Health professionals had “formed the National Health Action Party to raise awareness and inform the public about what is happening to their NHS” and had today “set out our own 10 point plan to reinstate, protect and improve the NHS“.

Much more on My London Diary at NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon.

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Land Army, Charity Pull & Rosary Crusade – 2005

Land Army, Charity Pull & Rosary Crusade: Saturday 8th October 2005 was a day of considerable variety as well as some tricky travelling around London for me, beginning in Whitehall with the women of the Land Army, rushing to Lewisham for a charity event organised by the Mayor and then back to Westminster Cathedral for a religions procession.

Commemoration of the Women’s Land Army – Cenotaph, Whitehall

During the Second World War many women joined the Women’s Land Army. First set up in 1917 during World War One, it was reformed in June 1939 when World War Two seemed inevitable, before the war actually began at the start of September.

During WW2, over 200,000 Land Girls worked in the Women’s Land Army, playing a crucial role in feeding the nation at war – and it continued for some years after the war ended in 1945, finally ending in November 1950.

For many joining up was a healthy alternative to working in munitions or joining the other services, less regimented and offering a wide range of activities. Few had any previous experience in agriculture, but “they ploughed, grew produce, milked cows, caught rats, drove tractors – and much more.”

But the war had ended 50 years earlier and they were now in their 70s and 80s when I met them opposite the memorial to the Women Of The Second World War which had recently been unveiled near the Cenotaph.

Some I talked to had been at the unveiling of that memorial and were extremely scathing about it and had been and were disappointed that the Queen had not spoken at all at the event.

They were a sprightly and feisty group despite their age. A few had come in 1940s dress but most wore some of their uniform often with a number of medals. They marched to the Cenotaph where wreaths were laid and a bugler sounded ‘The Last Post’. After which I rushed away to Charing Cross to catch a train as the event had run late.

More pictures

Lewisham: Mayor’s Charity Vehicle Pull

Every year like most Mayors the Mayor of Lewisham has a charity appeal and for some years a Charity Vehicle Pull from Downham to Lewisham was organised as a way of raising money for this.

I’d got a later train than I’d hoped, so sat on the train trying to work out where the vehicle pull would be by the time the train arrived in the area. I left the train at Ladywell and rushed from the station to Lewisham High Street and fortunately found my guess had been correct.

“I took a few pictures – there isn’t a huge lot you can do with an event like this – and then got on the top floor of a bus which was travelling along the open lane inside the event, hoping to overtake them. It would have worked, but for an illegally parked vehicle that was blocking the lane.”

Rosary Crusade of Reparation – Westminster Cathedral

At Lewisham Station I’d missed the Victoria train, and had to run under the subway to jump on a Charing Cross service just as the doors were closing, changing at Waterloo East to Southwark Station on the Jubilee line, then at Green Park to the Victoria line to Victoria.

I hurried the short distance from Victoria Station to Westminster Cathedral arriving just at the right time for the start of the Rosary Crusade of Reparation.

The Rosary Cruade had started in Vienna in 1947, with a series of processions with the statue of ‘Our Lady of Fatima’.

The Virgin Mary appeared to Portuguese children at Fatima in 1917 and had asked for prayers and penance to avoid further wars and achieve world peace. This call was renewed in the Rosary Crusade by Father Petrus Pavlicek following a vision during his visit to a Marian shrine in 1946.

The processions became an annual event, held on or around 12th Sept, the Feast of The Name of Mary (which celebrated the defeat of Turkish armies surrounding Vienna in 1683), and soon spread to other countries.

When Russian troops left Austria in 1955, many Austrian catholics ascribed this to their prayers in the rosary crusade.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Goodbye & Good Riddance 2023 – December

Goodbye & Good Riddance 2023: Apart from a protest by Just Stop Oil against the way their protests are being policed and non-violent protesters being given lengthy prison sentences because of political pressure by our government which has continued to move away from our ideas of liberal democracy towards a police state, all but one of the other events I photographed were about the continuing genocide of the people of Gaza. More and more civilians – men, women and especially children – were being killed every day, more forced to move out of their homes with nowhere safe to go, and an increasing humanitarian crisis – with many workers for relief agencies also being killed by Israeli forces.

The situation in Brixton was rather confused and I got different stories from different people. The police too were arguing with each other for much of the time before a Senior Commander arrived, stopped another officer who had been trying to calm the situation and brought in reinforcements. There were at least two arrests, one for carrying a placard which I think compared in some way the actions of Israel in Gaza with those of the Nazis and the second for damaging a police vehicle.

**Gaza Ceasefire Rally, Elephant**, London, 16 Dec 2023.
The Gaza Ceasefire Now! rally in Elephant Square was one of many across the country in a day of action for Palestine as rage grows over the increasing death toll, with over 18,600, mainly women and children, now having been killed by Israeli attacks. Hundreds came to a rally to demand a permanent Ceasefire now, and for an end to British complicity in Israeli apartheid before marching to join a vigil by medical staff at St Thomas’s Hospital.
Peter Marshall

**Gaza Ceasefire Rally, Whitechapel.** London 16 Dec 2023. The
Gaza Ceasefire Now! rally at the Tower Hamlets Town Hall was one of many across the country in a day of action for Palestine as rage grows over the increasing death toll, with over 18,600, mainly women and children, having been killed by Israeli attacks. Several hundred came to demand a permanent Ceasefire now, and for an end to British complicity in Israeli apartheid and were supported by many drivers who hooted as they drove past on the busy road.
Peter Marshall

**Gaza Ceasefire March, Lewisham**. London 16 Dec 2023.
The Gaza Ceasefire Now! march in Lewisham was one of many events across the country in a day of action for Palestine as rage grows over the increasing death toll, with over 18,600, mainly women and children, having been killed by Israeli attacks. A large crowd possibly around a thousand met at New Cross to march demanding a permanent ceasefire now, and for an end to British complicity in Israeli apartheid.
Peter Marshall

**Vigil for the children of Palestine, Ilford**. London 16 Dec 2023.
A vigil for the children of Palestine in Valentines Park was one of many events across the country in a day of action for Palestine as rage grows over the increasing death toll. Adults and children spoke, some reading poems and we heard about the lives of a few of the many murdered children. The protest condemned the genocide in Gaza, calling for a permanent ceasefire now, and for an end to British complicity in Israeli apartheid.
Peter Marshall

It was almost the end of the year. Christmas too was overshadowed by the news of new killings and increasing suffering in Gaza. Christmas festivities were cancelled in Bethlehem, and the Nativity scene at the The Evangelical Lutheran Church there showed the newborn Jesus wrapped in a kaffiyeh an a heap of rubble to show solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Like many others I greeted the passing of 2023 at the end of New Year’s Eve with thanks that 2023 was over and the hope that 2024 would see a better year for us all. But perhaps that hope was realistically only a glimmer.

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