Arbaeen in London: On Sunday 2nd March 2008 I again photographed the Arbaeen Procession by Shia Muslims in London. It was one of various religious events on the streets of London that interested me – along with other processions and events by other major religions – Christians, Sikhs, Hindus etc in public on the streets of London, many of which you can find recorded on My London Diary.
These pictures were a part of my celebration of the multicultural nature of London which has turned what was the rather drab post-war austerity of my youth into a much more vibrant place to live and work. Immigration has enriched our nation culturally and in so many other ways, though it has also produced a racist backlash that has poisoned much of our politics.
Arbaeen is a major event for Shia Muslims around the world, coming at the end of the annual 40 days of mourning for the massacre of the prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussain, together with 72 companions at Karbala. Millions take part in the pilgrimage in Karbala, Iraq which was banned by Saddam Hussein but revived after his downfall.
Shia Muslims regard the Karbala massacre as “the greatest sacrifice make by mankind, for humanity” and the “ultimate standoff between ‘good and evil’“. Hussain had refused to pledge allegiance to the ruler – “Death in honour is preferable to life in humiliation” – and his small band of followers fought to the death against an army of 40,000.
After the slaughter of the men, their women and children were taken captive and paraded through towns and cities on a 750 mile journey to Damascus, along with the decapitated heads of the martyrs, impaled on spears.
As a part of the procession in London there are reenactments of some of the events, prayers of mourning, and expression of grief in various ways including the beating of breasts.
Several thousand Muslims come from across the country to take part in this annual event, organised by the Hussaini Islamic Trust UK, which is the largest Arbaeen procession in Europe.
More From Wandsworth: My walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea with St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea and I had continued into Wandsworth with the post Mont Nod and Old York Road – Wandsworth 1990, ending with a view of York Road from the platform of Wandswoth Town Station.
Wandsworth Tyre Service, 543, Old York Rd, Wandsworth Town, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-52
I didn’t catch a train but came back down the stairs and on to York Road walking west along it. The Wandsworth Tyre Service was on the corner with Tonsley Hill and was one of many shops along the York Road, a kind of minor high street. There are still shops, but their character has changed greatly; this is now Pad Thai Story, the first of three authentic Thai restaurants set up by three Thai friends, here and in Battersea and Hammersmith and apparently highly recommended with, for London, reasonable prices. Back in 1990 I think the culinary peak of Old York Road was probably a fish and chip shop.
Next door, in what was then a doctor’s surgery is now a florist; there are a variety of other food outlets as well as several estate agents and a few more useful shops in a a fairly typical gentrified street.
According to various estate agents, this area, sometimes know as Tonsley for the several streets including this name, is one of Wandsworth’s most sought-after locations. An informative blog tells me “Tonsley Hall, the residence of Sir Richard Blackmore, the physician and poet who died in 1729… was pulled down in about the middle of the nineteenth century” but I cannot find why the house was given the name Tonsley.
The Grapes, 39, Fairfield St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-53
I walked down to Fairfield Street – the fair field was in the area to the north of Old York Road. Merrie England in the Olden Time published in 1841 states:
"Wandsworth Fair exhibited sixty years ago Mount Vesuvius,
or the burning mountain by moonlight, rope, and hornpipe-
dancing; a forest, with the humours of lion-catching;
tumbling by the young Polander from Sadler's Wells; several
diverting comic songs; a humorous dialogue between Mr.
Swatehall and his wife; sparring matches; the Siege of
Belgrade, &c. all for three-penee!
On Whit-Monday, 1840, Messrs. Nelson and Lee sent down a
theatrical caravan to Wandsworth Fair, and were moderately
remunerated. But the “Grand Victoria Booth” was the rallying
point of attraction. Its refectory was worthy of the
ubiquitous Mr. Epps—of ham, beef, tongue, polony, portable
soup, and sheep's trotter memory!
Cold beef and ham, hot ribs of lamb, mock-turtle soup that's
portable,
Did blow, with stout, their jackets out, and made the folks
comfortable!"
But this was perhaps one of the last days of the fair.
The pub is still open and is Grade II listed public house described as an early/mid-19th Century building and so was probably there in the closing years of the fair a few yards away.
Gas Holder, Swandon Way, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-54
According to the Wandle Industrial Museum, the Wandsworth Gas Company was established at a meeting at the the Spread Eagle Inn in Wandsworth in 1834 and was producing gas by the following year. By the 1920s it had grown into one of the largest London Gas companies, with coal being brought in barges to the canal basin close to the mouth of the Wandle. From 1906 colliers delivered coal to it on the Thames and the company produced some of the cheapest gas in London – making it particularly popular with balloonists.
At nationalisation in 1949 the company supplied an area of 160 square miles and had a fleet of six upriver colliers bringing over half a million tons of coal a year. Gas production ceased in 1970, but the gas holder continued in use for storage for many years.
Estate agents variously describe this building as being built between 1930 and 1949 or 1967 to 1975, but whatever its date of completion it was built in a 1930s Streamline Moderne style as my picture shows. Its a style which has attracted a large degree of architectural snobbery over the years, including in the great Pevsner Buildings of England series. I suspect it probably dates from the post-war rebuilding of Wandsworth, but would welcome correction.
Wandsworth Town Hall, Fairfield St, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-42
By contrast, the to my mind rather pedestrian Wandworth Town Hall is both Grade II listed and described in detail in the listing and on other web sites. I think the architectural details are of far more interest than the overall building, built in 1935-7 to the designs of Edward A Hunt. I turned away to the east and didn’t then photograph the south side of the building on Wandsworth High Street, perhaps the buildings more interesting aspect with a fine “bas relief frieze depicting events in Wandsworth’s history by David Evans and John Linehan.”
P G Marshall & Sons, Tonsley Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-45
One of the main Tonsley streets, this had a particular interest for me, as although there are many Peter Marshalls, some rather more famous than me, this was possibly the first time I had been greeted by my initials when walking the streets of London. So far as I am aware this P G Marshall was no relative. But the business ‘Purpose Made Joinery‘ also had some resonance – among his many trades, before my father became self-employed he had worked as a joiner around 1920 when motor vehicle bodies were still often made of wood.
Of course the coincidence of initials was not the only reason I stopped to take this picture. The railings with their spears beside the steps and the jagged edge above the side gate also appealed.
Gate, Geraldine Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-24
I crossed East Hill and went down Geraldine Road admiring the brickwork and decoration of the house on the corner (my photo not digitised) which I think was then home to the probation service. I think this wrought iron gate was on the detached house on the corner of Eglantine Road which now has a rather different but still attractive fence and gate and the veranda with slim iron columns.
On the corner of Geraldine Road and Rosehill Road I found this row of harshly pollarded trees stretching down the road with the tall thin Greek Revival tower of Robert Smirke’s Grade II* listed St Anne’s Church, Wandsworth in the distance down Rosehill Road.
My next post about this walk will begin with two more pictures of this church.
London University & Israeli Prisons: On Friday 28th February 2014 I went with students as they hunted in and around Senate House for a meeting of University of London Vice Chancellors to protest against the attacks on students and the idea of a university as these managers have called in police onto the campus rather than engage with students and staff.
From there I went to a protest outside the London offices of security firm G4S who supply services to Israels notorious prisons where many Palestinians have been tortured and prisoners including many children are kept under inhumane conditions.
Students tell Vice Chancellor to Resign
Senate House
Students and many academic staff have been appalled by the actions of London University (UoL) managers under Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Adrian Smith who have called in police to subdue student protests, and were calling on him to resign.
This has led to mass arrests, injuries and blood on the streets. The UoL was shutting down its student union, exploiting and intimidating low-paid staff, leading the lobby for a huge fees increase fees and attempting to prevent protests, taking out an injunction against any student occupation of the University.
One student earlier in the week had been convicted of criminal damage for chalking “sick pay, holiday, pensions now” on a foundation stone at a protest in support of low paid staff last July. She was was ordered to pay £200 towards prosecution costs and £810 to cover the cost of repairs to the stone – almost certainly the most expensive wipe with a damp cloth in history. Fortunately a video of her arrest made clear that police were lying when they accused her of assaulting an officer when she was arrested.
The gates to the undercroft were locked
The protesters met outside the University of London Union (ULU) and then walked towards Senate House, where security guards locked the gates to the area under the building in front of the entrance.
A samba band ensures the protest is heard inside Senate House
After a short and noisy protest there, they decided to walk to the pavement outside the south side of Senate House as they thought the meeting would be taking place in one of the rooms there. After another short protest there they walked back to the east side of Senate House where again the gates were locked.
A few students were inside the building and they managed to unlock one of the side doors into the building and I went inside with some of the students.
We wandered around the corridors without finding the Vice Chancellors, although the building was in use for various other meetings and events. Eventually the protesters came to the balconies above the Crush Hall where some other conference delegates were taking lunch and explained to them from above why they were taking action.
Security were standing in front of the Vice Chancellor’s Office, possibly the most likely location for the Vice Chancellors to be meeting. One of the security men assured them it wasn’t there and they did not try to push past.
They went down the the lobby in front of the main entrance and managed to hold the gates open as security officers tried to close them so more of the protesters could come inside, managing to push their way back into the building for another tour. But again they could not find the meeting.
Some students climbed through a window to a balcony at first floor level around the side of the building; I didn’t go with them but made my way out of the building. The main entrance was closed and anyone wanted to leave had to make a long detour through a basement corridor to neighbouring Stewart House.
Students were still walking along the balcony when I arrived at street level outside, and were walking back into the building through an open window that I was told led into one of the Vice Chancellor’s rooms.
It seemed unlikely I would be able to get inside the building to take more pictures and I left to photograph another event.
It was International Israeli Apartheid Week and Inminds Human Rights Group were protesting outside the offices of G4S, the worlds largest security firm, complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and gross human rights abuses, including torture of men, women and children.
One of their banners gave details of the tiny cells in which child prisoners are held, about 2 metres by 1 metre, with a just a mattress and behind a low concrete wall a hole in the ground toilet. There are no windows, and food is delivered through a flap in the door. The light is kept on 24 hours a day and the walls have sharp protrusions to prevent them being leaned on.
Children as young as 12 have been kept in solitary confinement in these cells for up to 65 days, being taken out only to be interrogated while shackled hand and foot for up to 6 hours at a time. Some complain of having been sexually assaulted.
This mistreatment is continued until they confess to such crimes of throwing stones at Israeli army vehicles – for which they can be sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Placards showed the five Hares boys, and leaflets were handed out telling their story. After Israelis from an illegal settlement complained that stones had been thrown at them when they stopped their car to change a tyre, 50 children from Hares were arrested by Israeli soldiers with attack dogs, and 19 of them taken to the G4S secured children’s dungeons at Al Jalame, locked in solitary for up to 2 weeks.
There they were violently tortured and threats made against female members of their families to force confessions from them. Five of the boys were then each charged with 25 counts of attempted murder, despite the occupants of the car being unharmed. At the time of the protest their trial by military court had been postponed month by month, probably because of a lack of any evidence.
In January 2016 the five Hares boys were each sentenced to 15 years in prison following a plea deal “that involved ‘fines’ of NIS 30,000 (appr. €7,100 or $7,750) per boy to be paid to the settler driver as ‘compensation’” Otherwise they would have received longer sentences despite the only evidence against them being their ‘confessions’ extracted under extreme torture.
Stop Trident March & Rally: Britain first deployed submarines carrying nuclear missiles in the Polaris programme from 1968, and these were replace by Trident in 1994-6. In 2006 Tony Blair won a vote on the principle of renewing the Trident system in the House of Commons with the support of the Tory opposition, though 95 Labour MPs rebelled.
People from Bradford had arrived with their own Trident missile, painted with the message ‘Trident – Immoral, Obsolete, Militarily Useless’
Research into the replacement continued and this march came a few months before a House of Commons vote in July 2016. Again there was a significant Labour revolt, with 41 MPs voting against and 41 not voting, but 140 Labour MPs backed the Conservatives and it passed by a large majority.
Rev Gyoro Nagase and another from the Nipponzan Myohoji order at Battersea’s Buddhist Peace Pagoda
Around 60,000 marched through London on Saturday 27th Feb 2016 to a mass rally in Trafalgar Square against the plans to replace the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons at a cost of £180 billion or more.
They say Trident is immoral and using it would cause catastrophic global damage with a global nuclear war possibly bringing all human life on the planet to an end. These weapons of mass destruction don’t keep us safe, though they do hugely enrich the arms companies and their shareholders.
Lindsey German, Stop the War, Kate Hudson, CND General Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, SNP First Minister, Scotland and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas
Many argued that the use of nuclear weapons was illegal under international law, and a year after the decision to update Trident was taken the UN adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Nicola Sturgeon takes a ‘selfie’ of herself with Kate Hudson
So far 74 countries have signed up to the TPNW which “prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons” and for those already possessing them it gives “a time-bound framework for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination” of their nuclear weapons.
Of course no countries which currently have nuclear weapons have so far signed the treaty, and Britain continues on its program to extend its capabilities. In June 2025 Keir Starmer announced the RAF is to buy at least 12 new F-35A fighter jets which can drop nuclear bombs as a part of its commitment to NATO.
As well as increasing the risk of nuclear war, these new nuclear aircraft hugely divert more much needed money from essential spending on services like the NHS, schools and housing.
Costs of the Trident replacement over its 30 year lifetime are currently estimated to be at least £205 billion and the MoD estimate for the F-35 programme of £57 billion is bound to be subject to the usual huge cost overruns.
There was a long list of speakers at the rally, too many to list here, and I think I photographed most or all of them and put them on-line.
You can read more about the 2016 march and see many more pictures from the march and the rally on My London Diary at Stop Trident Rally and Stop Trident March.
Police Farce at Poor Doors: The protest outside the ‘rich’ door of One Commercial St on Thursday 26th February 2015 was just another in the regular series of weekly protests by Class War against the separate entrances to the building – one into a spacious foyer with a reception desk, comfortable seating, flowers and works of art on the walls for those in the privately owned flats and the other a long empty corridor from a door down a side alley for those in social housing.
But a larger contingent of police had turned up than usual and they had come determined to show they were in charge.
As soon as Class War arrived and unrolled their banners a police officer, Sergeant C, came to tell them that the ‘Party Leaders’ banner was offensive and they must remove it.
They were told that nobody had objected to it and so according to the law it was not an offence to display it, and it remained on display. Sergeant C and a woman police officer then began stopping people passing by and entering and leaving through the rich door and trying to get them to say it was offensive.
It seemed to me unacceptable behaviour for police to try and manufacture an offence in this way, and I was pleased when person after person responded with either ‘No’ or ‘Not particularly’ or words to that effect or said they found it amusing rather than offensive. But eventually after around ten minutes of asking people they found three young men going into the rich door who were willing to be prompted to agree that they found it offensive, and came back to the protesters.
Triumphant, Sergeant C then returned to those holding the banner and told them that unless they put the banner away they would be arrested. The protesters rolled it up and continued the protest.
The police should have known better. In 2010 police had raided the home of a photographer a mile of so away for displaying the posters the banner was based on in the windows of his house, forcing him to take them down. He did, then replaced them with the word ‘wanker’ replaced by ‘onanist’. Later the police apologised for their action, upholding the right to to freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act and paid compensation for the raid on his home.
For some reason police don’t find the Lucy Parsons banner offensive
Sergeant C also warned Ian Bone he would be arrested if he continued to use offensive language, in particular the ‘f’ word. As Bone told him, this this was now commonly heard in almost all situations, but perhaps his contributions became just a little more muted.
But Martin Wright took up the challenge, giving a spirited discourse on the words he found offensive such as ‘poverty’ and ‘war’ and using various terms related to sex and bodily functions which were not. The police took no action.
Class War had brought out their posters with the message ‘YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALDGATE’ and they invited the police to leave, offering them safe conduct out of the PRA. The police failed to take up the offer.
As the protest was coming to an end there was “a moment of pure farce after an orange flare had been set off, when Sergeant C and another officer tried to put it out in a puddle.
Unsurprisingly this had little effect. It was burning out fairly harmlessly in the puddle on the pavement, the red smoke mainly blowing along the pavement parallel to the road when the sergeant decided to pick it up and carry it to a bin at the side of the traffic lights.
Red smoke continued to pour out of the bin, now being blown into the traffic, and some of the rubbish in the bin appeared to catch fire, though fortunately it went out.”
One of the protesters then mime the police action in dealing with the flare in the puddle and the others were soon in stitches, along with the security man; some of the police were unable to hide their amusement, trying desperately hard not to laugh.
It was time to go home, and I left with the impression that Class War had rather decisively beaten the police on this occasion.
But clearly the local police had an obsession with the ‘Political Leaders’ banner – and a few months later – as I wrote here in Police nick Class War banner – seized it at another Poor Doors protest, arresting one of those holding it. They took the banner back to the police station and then ‘lost‘ it.
Student Fees & Ash Wednesday: After photographing the National Student March on Wednesday 25th February 2009 I went to the Ministry of Defence where Pax Christi and Christian CND have held an Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance every year since 1982.
National Student Demonstration
Malet St – Kings College
Students listen to speakers at the rally outside SOAS
The National Student March was rather smaller than some this year as it was not supported by all student organisations but still around 750 took part, including many who had come from around the country.
In 2009 there were a number of student occupations of colleges and universities around the country over the Israeli army attacks on Gaza; some were still continuing and this may also have meant fewer people came to the march.
In 2009 I pointed out how financially things had changed since my student days, when UK students did not pay course fees and those like me from low income families got grants which gave us enough to live on.
Back then students were expected to study and generally not allowed to have jobs during term times – now many need to do so to live.
The grants were means-tested and those like me who got a full grant were better off than some from wealthier families who often failed to give their sons and daughters the full expected parental contribution.
The marchers demanded an end to course fees and a living grant for every student, calling for a higher education systems based simply on need and not on the market.
In Tavistock Square a group of school children applauded the march – to the annoyance of their teacher
There were speeches before the march giving support from school students, the youth parliament, university teachers and others as well as from students.
At the junction of Southampton Row and Theobalds Road some of the marchers sat down blocking the road, but most got up and marched on after a few minutes when a steward told them that police intended to surround them, move them off the road and possibly arrest them.
A smaller group, mainly the autonomous block, remained, but got up quickly and moved on when a large and vigorous looking squad of police approached.
Student fees were capped at £1,000 per year when first introduced by New Labour in 1998 but had been increase to £3,000 in 2004 and were £3,225 a year, rising to account for inflation. But after the Browne review there was a huge rise to £9,000 in 2012, with almost all courses at all universities charging the maximum allowed new rate.
Black and purple ribbons were tied to a cross and prayers offered for victims of war and violence.
I left the student march before it ended to rush to the Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance at the Ministry of Defence in protest against the continued reliance on nuclear weapons. Pax Christi and Christian CND have held this service every year since 1982.
I met the in Embankment Gardens where around 70 Christians, also including members of Catholic Peace Action, were in a circle. Sticks of charcoal were blessed and the heads of those taking part marked with a cross of ashes.
They then processed behind a white cross for a short service at the Old War Office where black and purple ribbons were tied to a white cross while prayers were said for those killed in wars.
Police surrounded the building to stop the protesters marking the walls with charcoal crosses, though I think some did so later after the police had moved away. There was also a large police presence when the worshippers moved to the Ministry of Defence.
Here they held a longer service, in which sackcloth was laid on the pavement and the letters R E P E N T marked out on it with ashes. Others taking part came and added more ashes.
Police kept a narrow passage to allow people to leave and enter the building. The protesters offered them leaflets but nobody took one.
Class War’s Lambeth Walk & More London: On Saturday 24th February 2018 Class War celebrated their win in the High Court against the Qatari royal family over their right to protest outside the Shard, where ten £50 million apartments remain empty. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures around the 13 acres of London around the then City Hall, now private land owned by the State of Kuwait, the inappropriately named More London.
Class War’s Lambeth Walk for housing
Southwark
Class War and friends met at Potters Fields next to City Hall and facing Tower Bridge, for a protest celebrating their court victory and a part of their ongoing campaign for more social housing to meet the needs of the people of London.
Ian Bone, Class War
London councils have huge waiting lists for homes, private rents are hugely expensive and house prices out of the reach of those even in many professional jobs let alone most working people.
Martin Wright
But increasingly London councils – particularly in boroughs including Southwark, Lambeth and Newham but across the city are carrying out schemes with private devlopers to demolish council estates – such as the Heygate and Aylesbury estates in Southwark and replace these with expensive private developments with token amounts of affordable properties – which at up to 80% of market cost – are not affordable to the mass of London’s population.
Many properties on these new developments are sold across the world to private investors, many even before they are built, advertised and strongly promoted particularly in the Far East. The rapid increases in London property prices makes them a highly profitable investment. Many of these investment properties are left empty, or perhaps visited for a few weeks a year.
London desperately needs more housing, but not empty boxes. As the speakers at the rally in front of City Hall pointed out, what it needs is social housing that Londoners can afford.
The campaigners called for the thousands of empty buildings in London – and across the country – including those empty £50 million flats in the Shard – to be taken over and used to house the homeless.
’10 Floats at £50 Million each sit empty in The Shard. 26,000 flats over £1 Million each about to be built in London … while thousands are sleeping on the streets – NO MORE HOMES FOR THE RICH – Class War’
Class War had brought their ‘Lucy Parsons’ banner with the message from the famous American anarchist “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live“, but they were instead calling for them to be used to house the poor. Among those who joined them were the the RCG – Revolutionary Communist Group – with their banner banner with its message ‘HOUSING IS A RIGHT – NOT A PRIVILEGE‘.
Among the speakers was Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright who pointed out that the coming cold snap next week will probably be “another Grenfell“, likely to kill at least 80 people of the thousands who are sleeping on the streets.
The protesters had intended to dance the Lambeth Walk from the rally at City Hall to another at the Shard, led by ukuleles, but only one ukulele player turned up and so they simply marched with banners.
Because of the cold, the rally opposite the Shard was a short one and ended with Class War amusing themselves by mounting a mock charge on the offices of Murdoch’s News UK, publishers of The Times and The Sun, pulling up sharply just in front of the row of security staff on its steps.
Property developers named the large area once occupied by warehouses and wharves a few yards upstream from Tower Bridge on the Southwark bank of the river ‘More London‘ although the site is owned by Kuwait and the public is allowed to use it, but under some restrictions they set down – as our royals do for London’s Royal Parks.
The Shard from More London
Their large real estate interests in London are run by the English sounding St Martins Property Group – it was founded in 1924 as the St Martins-Le-Grand Property Company Limited but is now wholly owned by the Kuwait sovereign wealth fund, Future Generations Fund.
Among their rules are bans on photography and protests. But with thousands or tourists walking its open pathways the photography ban is seldom enforced, though should you look too commercial you are likely to be approached by security personnel who will tell you to stop.
And while they have prevented some protests from taking place and have imposed restrictions on others, protests such as the one on this day by Class War have continued.
At least Tower Bridge is still owned by the City of London
City Hall, in More London was leased from the Kuwaitis from 2002-2021 as the former home of London government, County Hall at Westminster, had been stolen from it by the Thatcher government back in the ’80s. I wrote that I found it shameful that London did not own its own seat of government, and at least the move to The Crystal in the Royal Docks has put that right, unsuitably remote though it is.
But in 2018 I commented “Also shameful that many if not most of the government buildings in Whitehall now have overseas owners, some of them by UK tax dodgers in overseas tax havens. ‘Taking our country back’ from the EU will certainly have little effect at restoring Britain to British ownership.”
Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour: Many thought that the driving force behind the US invasion of Iraq, shamefully assisted by the UK and a few others, was oil. It was clear that there were no real ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and by 2008 it had become clear that the only rational basis “was a desire to open up the Iraqi economy to economic exploitation by the multinationals, with oil as the chief goal.”
As I wrote in 2008, “Few liked Saddam, but the oil giants had a particular reason to get rid of him. As long as he was dictator, oil would remain a public sector industry in Iraq. Now Shell, BP and other majors in the oil business are pressing for the spoils of victory, production sharing agreements that will give them effective control over Iraqi oil for the next 25 years…. Under the occupation laws are being imposed, regulations changed and institutions set up to ensure that US and multinational companies can profit from and dominate the Iraqi economy.”
The Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour of London was a part of an international campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people against the corporate theft of Iraq’s oil, and it was also rather a fun piece of street theatre with pirate costumes and a samba band, pointing out various London-based companies that were involved in the theft of Iraqi oil.
I met the protesters as they were getting ready for the tour and walked with them down Oxford Street to the New Bond Street to a mock battle outside the offices of Erinys International Limited, a private military security company with a reputation for using excessive force which provides security services in Iraq as well as training Iraq’s Oil Protection force.
A short walk took us to BP in St James’s Square. “Former BP CEOs worked as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, and their advice was (what a surprise) to let companies like BP come in a make vast profits. They helped to draft the Iraqi hydrocarbon laws and have plans for giant oil fields. “
We stopped briefly outside the National Portrait Gallery – earlier in the day there had been a brief protest inside there as their major wards are sponsored by BP.
Around the corner in Duncannon Street they protested at the offices of the International Tax and Investment Centre, paid by the big oil companies to lobby for a free-market approach which would let them dominate Iraqi oil.
There were two venues the protesters ran out to time to visit: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office employed former oil executives as advisers on economic policy to work on the new Iraqi laws in support of BP and Shell and Development Program Worldwide Ltd (previously Windrush Communications) promotes private enterprises in areas such as conflict zones where there are few controls over their activities and no effective government to represent the public interest.
We crossed the river over the Jubilee footbridge to the Shell Centre and a slightly longer rally. Shell has played a leading role in the re-purposing of the Iraqi oil industry from a state asset to a multinational profit opportunity and have plans for three major oil fields there.
Thames Riverside – Erith: The Thames Path National Trail was only inaugurated on 24 July 1996 and then stopped at the Thames Barrier, but years before I had often walked along much of it in or near Greater London as well as much further east towards the Estuary.
It had taken a long time since 1947 when the towpath along the Thames was identified by the Hobhouse Committee on National Parks as one of six long distance and coastal recreational walking routes. Work began seriously in 1973 but there were many problems to be overcome, particularly in the upstream areas where much of the towpath had deteriorated, ferries closed and more.
The Thames Path still ends at Woolwich but it now joins the England Coast Path, but long before that it was possible to simply keep on walking beside the river – and I did along the south bank as far as Cliffe. Further on it became difficult to access using public transport.
These pictures come from Monday 1st August 1994 when I took a train to Erith as my starting point. I began by taking black and white pictures of buildings in the town centre, then walked east out of the town as far as the saltings and Erith Yacht Club. The town has changed considerably since my visit. The first industry developed on this side of town, but I think there is now a large supermarket with huge car park in the almost all the former industrial area. In the 1930s the area in my picture above, on Crescent Road or ManorRoad was a part of the British Fibrocement Works.
Erith Yacht Club, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-53
I turned around and came back through Erith to the Riverside Gardens close to the centre of Erith and then walked upstream beside the river to Belvedere before turning around and coming back to take a few more black and white pictures on the west side of Erith before taking the train home.
In the distance you can see the housing around Chandlers Drive, one of the first residential devolopmens on the river here, which had previously been highly industrial.
Riverside Path, River Thames, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-803-33
River Thames, Flats, Chandlers Drive, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-22
Jetty, River Thames, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-805-53
One of a number of jetties here, this more colourful than most, but I think no longer in use. On the opposite bank I think the hills are where rubbish has been brought out from London and tipped to build up what was previously marsh.
Jetty, River Thames, Erith Oil Works, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-13
The jetty of the Erith Oil Works, still in business. It was set up on Church Manorway in 1908 and is the the largest vegetable oil mill in the UK. My next post in this series will have more pictures of the Oil Works and other industry on the riverside, again mainly panoramas made with a swing lens camera.
All pictures here and more from this and other walks in 1994 are in my Flickr album 1994 London colour and you can view them larger by clicking on them in this post.
I’d first met the young mothers facing eviction from the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford around a month earlier when I had gone with them into the offices of East Thames Housing Association to occupy the show flat there and hold a party in protest against the threat of being evicted from their nearby hostel because Newham Council had decided to cut its funding.
Newham Council seemed clearly to be failing these mothers and children and were trying to move them away from Newham into private rented accommodation, sometimes hundreds of miles away from their friends, families, colleges, nurseries and support networks in Newham in order to evade their responsibility for them.
Clearly the council, then led by Newham Mayor Robin Wales, had not expected these young women to put up much if any fight against this unjust treatment, but the Focus E15 women were determined not to move away from London. Their continued protests, always powerful and colourful attracted media coverage and made their case into a national scandal, and they revealed the serious mismanagement of the council.
‘Boris Build More Homes’
Stratford was at the centre of a housing boom, particularly around the former 2012 Olympic site but this was largely for private sale, which many flats being bought up by investors, many from abroad wanting to cash in on London’s housing price boom, despite Newham having the highest waiting list for social housing in London.
Focus E15 and others pointed to the Carpenters Estate, a well-designed and highly popular council estate in a highly desirable location next to Stratford Station and the Olympic site where there were large numbers of empty flats and houses – some having been left empty for 10 years. Rather than seeing this as successful housing for the people of the borough, the council had regarded it as an asset to be sold off.
In February 2014 the mothers and children were still all living in the Focus E15 Mother and Baby Unit despite having been served eviction orders the previous October – East Thames had promised they would not be forced out until they had alternative accomodation. And they hired an open-top bus to bring themselves to City Hall.
Green Party GLA member Jenny Jones visited the protest
City Hall has now moved out to the Royal Docks, but in 2014 was in an unusually shaped Norman Foster building on Queens Walk next to the Thames on the privately More London office development owned by the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund (Ken Livingstone called it a ‘glass testicle’.) And although Focus E15 were allowed to protest by the security there, they were told they must not hand out leaflets. And no one at City Hall was prepared to accept the card the mothers signed for Boris Johnson.
The card for Boris
Their protests did result in them being rehoused in London, but the women didn’t stop there, developing into a ‘Housing For All’ protest, including an occupation of empty flats on the Carpenters Estate which achieved national news coverage. Locally they fought for others, going with them into Newham’s housing office and demanding the council meet its legal requirements and also stopping evictions.
They set up a housing advice and support stall every Saturday on Stratford Broadway and more. I’m sure that it was due to their activities that eventually the local Labour party turned against Robin Wales, getting rid of him.
Assistant director of the affordable homes programme in London, Jamie Ratcliff came to meet the E15 Mums
Their Focus E15 campaign, still continuing and still demanding ‘social housing, not social cleansing!’ became the most effective housing campaign in the country. I’m pleased to have been able to give them some support.
The mothers take their card for Boris into City Hall, but staff refused to accept it
The pictures on this post are all from Friday 21st February 2014 and there are more together with the text I wrote in 2014 at Focus E15 Mums at City Hall.
