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London Sri Murugan Chariot Festival – 2009

London Sri Murugan Chariot Festival: On Sunday 16th August 2009 I travelled to Manor Park in East Ham to photograph this annual festival. A small temple was consecrated here in 1984 but it was rebuilt in 2005 with a 50ft tall marble temple tower in Dravidian style and claimed to be the largest South Indian Hindu temple in Europe. Murugan is the patron deity of the Tamil language and the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the son of the deities Shiva and Parvati and the brother of Ganesha.

Much of the description below is based on the account I wrote on My London Diary in 2009.

The chariot festival here in which Hindu deities are carried around the streets of East Ham was certainly on a grand scale, with the chariot pulled by people followed by a crowd of perhaps 5000 people, members of London’s Tamil community.

Along the route men and women stood in front of their homes and businesses with plates or baskets of fruit to hand to the temple priests riding on the chariot or walking in front for blessings by the Goddess; metal trays bearing fruits were returned bearing a flame and the families held out their hands to feel the warmth.

The chariot had two finely painted prancing horses at its front but was pulled by two ropes, on the right by women and on the left by men, with a large mixed crowd of followers behind. Those on the ropes and between them and many others walked barefoot through the streets, but many others kept their shoes on – and so did I, at least for most of the event.

*The Goddess Gayatri, mother of the Vedas*

The chariot was too tall to pass unaided under some of the telephone wires on the streets and was accompnied by attendants with a long pole with a beam across its top to lift up the wires while the chariot passed beneath.

A group of musicians walked in front of the chariot stopping occasionally to play.

Men walking with the chariot carried short heavy knives which were used to halve the coconuts offered for blessing, and at several places along the route groups of men stood and threw large numbers of coconuts onto the road to smash.

Things began to get a little frenzied as the chariot came back in sight of the temple after around four hours going around the street, with people crowding around anxious to have their plates and bowls of fruit blessed.

Eventually the chariot turned into the large temple yard. I followed it in there and took a few more pictures. There was a very long queue for food and I left for home.

I put many of the pictures I took onto My London Diary and it was very hard to choose which to put in this post. You can see the others at London Sri Murugan Chariot Festival.

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Chariot Festival, Plumstead & Woolwich – 2009

Chariot Festival, Plumstead & Woolwich: Sunday 28th June 2009 I photographed the Hare Krishna Chariot Festival from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square then travelled to Plumstead Common for short visit to the annual Mela there. But I didn’t find much to interest me and instead took a walk down to the Thames at Thamesmead West and then back alongside the river to Woolwich. On My London Diary I wrote at some length about the walk, which turned out to be surprisingly interesting and about how I thought the area could be improved.

Sri Jagannatha Rathayatra Festival – Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square

Chariot Festival, Plumstead & Woolwich - 2009 — *Musicians in the procession as it leaves Hyde Park*

I didn’t write much about the chariot festival on My London Diary in 2009 as I had written at some length about it the previous year – and I won’t say much here either as I posted about the 2012 Rathayatra festival a few days ago.

In 2009 I concentrated mainly on the people rather than the chariots.

More pictures at Sri Jagannatha Rathayatra.

Plumstead & Woolwich – Plumstead, Thamesmead West, River Thames

It was a long walk up the hill from Plumstead station to the common where the Mela is held and I arrived rather tired and was disappointed to find the the event seemed to be only just starting. But I’d stopped to take a few pictures on the way, and found several things of interest on the walk.

So after a short time at the Mela I decided it was too hot to wait around longer and to take a walk instead.

I walked down to Camelot Castle, home of self-proclaimed “celebrity gangster Dave Courtney“, who was made bankrupt in May 2009, owing £400,000 including an estimated £250,000 to HM Revenue & Customs.

Shouldn’t, I mused looking at the St Georges flags, patriots be pleased to pay taxes? I photographed the house and then onto the gates with a giant knuckleduster at their centre. Courtney also awarded himself a blue plaque with the text ‘Dave Courtney OBE lived here’ where the OBE stands for “One Big Ego”.

Soon after I came across Merlin Tyres. Is it coincidence that Merlin was one of the six main characters of Camelot?

The Plumstead Radical Club is a working mens club formed by local Liberals who later became members of the Labour party, but most working mens clubs lost any real political connection, though they still sell cheap beer to members. From Plumstead I walked into Thamesmead.

This part of Thamesmead West had failed to make good use of its location and what should have become a vibrant area at Broadwater was derelict and depressing.

But soon I reached the Thames path and photographed this woman cycling along it with the recent flats of North Woolwich around a third of a mile away on the opposite bank of the wide river.

And there are plenty of new riverside flats on the south bank too, with residents enjoying riverside views. These flats are perhaps less of an eyesore than some.

Woolwich Arsenal had three piers – this was the one in the middle, known as the Iron Pier, and you can see why from my picture. To the east was the Coal Pier, the lower parts of which still remain – built in 1917-20 it was used to bring in around 1500 tons of coal a week and is fenced off as a dangerous structure, The largest of the three piers, the T Pier has I think gone completely though there is now a Uber Boat pier.

In the Woolwich Arsenal site I came across a group of aliens, ‘Assembly’ by Peter Burke (b1944) placed here in 2004. I stopped to photograph them before heading to Woolwich Arsenal station for a train.

More on My London Diary at Plumstead & Woolwich.

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Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists – 2012

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists: On Saturday 9th June 2012 after a rally against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement outside Europe House in Smith Square I went to Hyde Park Corner where cyclists were preparing for the London World Naked Bike Ride, an environmental protest against a society based on oil and the domination by cars.

Rally Against ACTA

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

Current debates on intellectual property in 2025 are mainly concerned with protecting the rights of individual creators from being used without permission or compensation by companies developing AI which could then use the data taken to create new works which would mimic their work, essentially producing counterfeit works.

Back in 2012 the protests were against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement put together in secret talks between the USA, Europe, Japan and some other major governments to protect the copyrights, trademarks and patents held by major multinational companies.

Wikileaks had released the secrets of these talks, deliberately set up in private to exclude the views of civil society and developing countries. They proposed putting draconian powers in the hands of major corporations without the need for allegations of abuse to be properly tested.

Now in 2025 the government is attempting to put into law an act which would legitimise the production of ‘fakes’ by the major AI companies, though the fight against this is being carried on largely in the House of Lords rather than on the streets or on the web. As usual laws are largely about protecting and advancing the interests of the rich and powerful – whose donations and lobbying keep our legislators on side.

As well as preventing much sharing of material on the web – some legitimately – ACTA would also disrupt much-needed generic medicines to majority world countries, where indiscriminate raids had already disrupted some legitimate supplies. And many musicians and other content creators feared it would be used by the major corporations to prevent or inhibit their ability to profit through distributing their own work via the Internet.

On 4th July 2012, 478 MEPs in the European Parliament voted against ACTA, 39 in favour, and 165 abstained, meaning the agreement did not enter into force in the EU.

More about the protest and about ACTA, along with more pictures on My London Diary at Rally Against ACTA.

Naked Cyclists Ride Against Oil

Around a thousand cyclists in various states of undress, some wearing nothing but shoes, took part in the World Naked Bike Ride, an annual environmental protest touring central London, much to the astonishment of many tourists. Shoes are required, but otherwise the dress code is “as bare as you dare.”

*People gathered at Hyde Park Corner for the start of the ride*

Public nudity is not illegal in Britain and the ride seems to cause a great deal of hilarity from some onlookers but little or no offence. Most of those on the pavements were tourists and eagerly taking photographs of the event.

Although there had been many earlier naked bike rides organised as naturist or political demonstrations, the first World Naked Bike Rides were organised in 2004 and now take place in many cities around the world. The rides are a protest against dependence on oil and other forms of non-renewable energy and “expose the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians” in modern cities.

In 2012 there did seem to be a rather clearer environmental message than in some other years, and my pictures here – and in the many more on My London Diary concentrate on this rather than the nudity, and on the many with body paint, sometimes solely for decoration but often expressing an environmental message, contributing to the purpose of the ride to “deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world.”

Back in 2012 there were similar rides in 20 countries around the world ands well as others in Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester, Portsmouth, Southampton and York.

After photographing the riders on the grass at Hyde Park corner I set off with them on foot, rather dangerously as other traffic was still driving around the busy roundabout and along Piccadilly. But I soon got out of breath and had to rest.

Later I took the tube to Westminster and met the cyclists again coming down Whitehall, going with them across Westminster Bridge. I left them to go to Waterloo Station on their way to the City and then back trough Holborn to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park Corner.

Many more photographs at Naked Cyclists Ride Against Oil.

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Lord Maruga, Portugal Day & Khalistan – 2008

Lord Maruga, Portugal Day & Khalistan: My day on Sunday 8th June 2008 very much reflected the multicultural nature of London, beginning with a Hindu Festival in Thornton Heath, moving on to a Catholic Mass celebrating Portugal Day in Kennington and finally a march by Sikhs remembering the 1984 massacre and calling for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan.

Lord Muruga in Thornton Heath

Hindu God Lord Muruga is particularly popular with the Tamils of southeast India (Tamil Nadu), Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and several hundred from the Sivaskanthagiri Murugan Temple in Thornton Heath celebrated him by pulling a chariot carrying his representation through the local streets.

The procession was led by musicians, and by women carrying pots of burning embers on their heads and in their arms. As the chariot made its way along the street, people brought offerings of good to be blessed, and these were returned to them flaming.

Lord Muruga is the son of Agni, the fire god. He also carries a spear and a staff with a picture of a cockerel, and rides on a peacock. He is noted for the help that he gives for devotees who are in distress and the procession in particular visits those who cannot come to the temple because of their poor health or other disabilities

The flames are from camphor, widely used in Indian rituals and thought to eliminate negative energies. This waxy white solid burns with a relatively cool flame and emit little smoke.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Lord Muruga in Thornton Heath.

Portugal Day in Kennington Park

Also known as Camões Day, Portugal’s National Day marks the anniversary of the death of its greatest poet and writer, Luís de Camões, on 10 June, 1580. He died in the year that Portugal became part of Spain, and the date of his death (the day of his birth around 1624 is not recorded) was celebrated as a national day after Portugal regained independence in 1640.

His great epic poem ‘The Lusaids’ centres on Vasco da Gama’s voyage to discover a sea route to India which was the foundation of the colonial explorations that brought the country great wealth and it made him a symbol of the nation.

Fascist dictator Salazar who ruled Portugal from 1932 to 1968 made the day a celebration of a fictional Portuguese ‘race’, but it is now simply a day for celebration by Portuguese communities around the world – and London has the largest Portuguese community outside Portugal, centred in Stockwell close to Kennington Park. The celebrations in the park includes entertainments and considerable eating and drinking after the initial open-air Catholic Mass I photographed.

Portugal Day in Kennington Park

Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally

Sikhs remember the massacres at Amritsar by the Indian Army and the mob killings encouraged by the Indian government following the assassination of Indira Ghandi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

Sikh interests were ignored by an ignorant and incompetent British administration led by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India Lord Mountbatten who were responsible for the partition of India in 1947.

This annual rally and march in London calls for the establishment of an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan in the Punjab and possibly incorporating some nearby areas of India and Pakistan.

Some Sikhs had been calling for an independent state since the 1930s and the movement continued to grow after partition with various militant Sikh groups including Babbar Khalsa, proscribed in the UK. Violent repression by Indian police led to a decline in the 1990s, but repression continues against Sikhs and in particular against those campaigning for separation and has increased in recent years. This makes it very difficult to determine how much popular support there is for the Khalistan movement in the area.

Data in the UK suggests that only a small fraction of British Sikhs support the establishment of Khalistan. In 2018, India asked UK to ban Sikh Federation (UK) who organise these events for its anti-India, pro-Khalistan activities, including proscribing the organisation but this has not happened.

More at Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally.

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Shakespeare and East Ham Vaisakhi – 2007

Shakespeare and East Ham Vaisakhi – for me Sunday 22nd April 2007 was very much a day of two halves, with a morning spent at the Shakespeare’s Birthday celebrations around the Globe Theatre in Southwark and the afternoon with Sikhs celebrating in East Ham.

Shakespeare’s Birthday – Globe Theatre, Southwark

Shakespeare was born in April 1564, but the exact date is not known, though he was baptised on April 26th. Conventionally his birthday is celebrated on St George’s Day, April 23, so although this event was a day earlier it was just as likely to be his actual birthday.

Unusually I didn’t write anything on the April 2007 page of My London Diary about either of the two events I photographed on this Sunday, other than the links to to pages of pictures, but there are some captions with the pictures that give the story of the day.

People met on Montague Close at the north entrance to Southwark Cathedral for the start of the carnival procession. Among them were the Pearly King of Bow Bells & Blackfriars and the Pearly Queen of the Old Kent Road, as well as a very splendid large dragon, who was accompanied by a man in a harlequin costume and mask of diamonds of blues, greens, yellows and reds.

Fortunately for the dragon I think St George was saving his appearance for the following day, although later there was a man carrying his flag, and perhaps the man himself arrived after I had to rush away at noon.

There were musicians with large drums and small whistles and others in some kind of medieval dress as well as a large posse of masked children as we made our way west past Pickfords Wharf and along Clink Street to the riverside and Bankside in front of the replica Globe theatre were we were welcomed by Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole, who invited us all – including the dragon – into the theatre.

Given the Globe is a wooden structure which would burn rather well this was perhaps foolhardy, but the dragon did seem rather short of fiery breath and on his or her best behaviour and posed for photographs rather tamely and demurely on the stage with the children and others. No children were eaten or maidens ravaged at least while I was there.

I was sorry to leave, but there’s a time for all things, and my time on Bankside ran out fast, and the journey to the Gurdwara in East Ham from London Bridge to West Ham and then East Ham and the walk to Rosebery Avenue took me around an hour.

More pictures on My London Diary.

Vaisakhi – East Ham – Gurdwara Dasmesh Darbar

The street was densely crowded as I got close to the Gurdwara, but people were very welcoming and let me through, though I stopped to take a few pictures of them.

As I arrived the organisers were giving people at the front of the crowd handfuls of flower petals which were thrown as the Guru Granth Sahib – the sacred Sikh scriptures and eternal Guru – was carried on cushions on its bearers head, sheltered by a saffron and blue umbrella, to be placed on a float.

The came the Khalsa, carrying Sikh standards and with the five in saffron robes holding their swords.

There were prayers and the five had flower garlands placed around their necks and loud blasts from a splendid curved metal horn, a Narsinga announced the start of the procession, with the congregation joining behind the float carrying the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Khalsa walk barefoot with holding their swords upright and looking ahead rather than at the ground and a team of sweepers, also barefoot, sweep the roadway in front of them.

The procession moved onto the main road, High Street North, which was soon packed as far as I could see in both directions. I waited for the end of the procession to pass but did not follow it on the long procession around the area which takes several hours.

There are many more pictures on My London Diary

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SOAS Cleaners and Denmark Street Squat

Two unconnected events on Thursday 29th January 2015.

SOAS Cleaners demand Dignity & Respect – SOAS, London University

SOAS Cleaners and Denmark Street Squat — *‘Justice for Cleaners – Bring us in House – Dignity and Respect’ – Unison Branch Rep Sandy Nicholl*

Cleaners working at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies – SOAS – held a rally calling for improved conditions of service and an end to being treated as a second-class workforce. Supported by students and staff they continue their campaign to be employed by the University rather than cleaning contractor ISS.

SOAS is a university with an international reputation for its progressive views on political issues around the world and exposing the detrimental effects of neo-liberalism, but its management had failed to acknowledge the beam in its own eye, its disgraceful treatment of cleaners.

Most of those who keep the SOAS building clean and working smoothly are immigrants to the UK, mainly with Spanish as their first language. Instead of putting these people on the SOAS payroll and treating them as employees with similar rights to all the others who work in the same building, SOAS contracts out its cleaners. This denies them care and protection and leaves them open to exploitation and abuse by cut-price cleaning contractors.

Even worse in June 2009, SOAS management collaborated with the Home Office by calling a 6am “emergency meeting” of the cleaners which was in fact an immigration service raid, resulting in the deportation of nine cleaners. The raid came shortly after the SOAS Justice For Workers (J4W) had a successful campaign to achieve union recognition and the London Living Wage and was widely seen as a spiteful retaliation by the SOAS management following this victory.

The immigration raid is remembered at SOAS every year on its anniversary in June. The J4W campaign led by the SOAS Unison Branch continued and on 29th of January their protest for direct employment under the slogan ‘One Workplace, One Workforce’, supported by students, teaching and administrative staff as well as other trade unionists and organisations.

Eleven long years of protest, as well as work to show SOAS the advantages to the organisation of employing the cleaners directly finally resulted in a victory in 2018, when SOAS sent a letter to all staff, unions and support staff stating, ‘Our current staff in central facilities teams will be directly employed by the university. This means that they will be on equal pay and conditions with existing SOAS employees’.

More pictures at SOAS Cleaners demand Dignity & Respect.

‘Tin Pan Alley’ 12 Bar club faces eviction – Denmark St

Denmark Street is a short street linking St Giles High Street with Charing Cross Road, first developed in the late 17th century and named after Prince George of Denmark. When I first went down it in the 1970s it was a one-way back-street with little or no traffic, and both sides were lined with shops, offices and studios connected with the music industry.

*Squatters outside the Royal Courts of Justice on 28th January 2015*

This was Britain’s “Tin Pan Alley” where session musicians and artists gathered, meeting each other and looking for work. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album here and David Bowie recruited his first band in a bar. The Sex Pistols lived in the street and recorded their first demos here – and so much more. It became a huge centre for musical instrument sales; I came here to look in windows full of guitars and saxophones I couldn’t afford and later came her to buy a professional Roland keyboard for my sons.

*Outside the club in Denmark St, 29 January 2015*

But above the mainly early 20th century shop fronts were the houses, some dating from from the original buildings of 1686-9, and others not much later. Eight were Grade II listed, two as early as 1951 and the others in 1974. The street is one of very few, if not the only, one in London with such early facing terraces on both sides.

*In the alley at the side of the club was a free musicians noticeboard*

Listing ensured that the redevelopment of the street as a part of the Crossrail development around Tottenham Court Road would keep the facades, though much behind them is now new, and most of the old businesses have gone – many moving earlier as the music business changed and rents had rocketed. A petition with 10,000 signatures opposed the redevelopment asking for the street to be given full heritage status.

*Redevelopment had already begun behind the bar*

The 12 Bar Club had been running as a small live music venue since 1994 at 26 Denmark Street, in a listed building that began life in 1635 as stables but had in the early 18th century become a terraced house. The club closed in January 2015, and was then squatted by a group of musicians and supported opposed to its loss.

*Everyone on the music scene at some time played at the 12Bar*

I went there on 29th January when the squatters, #Bohemians4Soho had called for a street festival of resistance against their expected eviction the following day, having met and being invited by some of the squatters on the 28th as they demonstrated at the Royal Courst of Justice where a court case over their eviction was taking place.

Shortly before I arrived to take pictures they had been served with an IPO (interim possession order) giving them 24 hours to leave before they were committing a criminal offence. They left as the bailiffs arrived the following lunch time.

*The Ligaments – Nicola ‘Nitro’ Itro, Jake Maxwell & Zel Kaute – had played the last night of the 12Bar and came back to play during the occupation*

The listed building was stabilised, then lifted by crane for redevelopment to take place below it, after which it was lowered back into place. The old 12 Bar club room is now a part of a larger venue at the site.

More pictures: ‘Tin Pan Alley’ 12 Bar club faces eviction.

Students Lead The Way 27 Sept 2019

Two years ago school students and supporters were in Parliament Square campaigning at the end of a week of Global Climate actions and the start of a worldwide General Strike for climate justice and against extinction.

We had another Global Climate Strike last Friday (24th Sept 2021) though I was unable to photograph it for pressing family reasons, but although we now hear much more about the terrifying consequences of carbon emissions increasing global temperatures and have begun to feel them, there has been relatively little action. The UK government has learnt to talk a little of the talk, but is still pressing ahead with highly environmentally destructive plans – supporting new oil, gas and coal fields, subsidising destructive wood-burning and backing projects such as HS2 and Heathrow expansion.

It is hardly a good record for a government that is urging others do more, whether by the Prime Minister speaking at the UN or other diplomatic meetings leading up to COP26 in Glasgow. “Do as I say not as I do” is seldom a productive approach. Like other such meetings it seems almost certain to end with too little and too late.

The schoolkids get it – they’ve heard and understood the message from Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough. The scientists get it and have published reports which make it clear. Even some politicians across the parties get it, but not those in ministerial offices and Downing St. The real problem is that any effective policies would threaten the status quo which they have been put in charge to protect. They want business as usual, which is exactly what has got us in this mess.

I haven’t entirely abandoned hope, though it is getting very thin, rather like the hope of a revolution or a second coming, which is now about what would be needed to avert disaster. Things are certain to get very much worse than at present, perhaps enough to force our leaders to see sense before it is entirely too late, though I think it unlikely I will live long enough to see it.

*Environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin, arrested for protesting against Shell with Extinction Rebellion*

It wasn’t just the schoolkids who were on the streets in 2019. Later in the day I went with some of them to Trafalgar Square where artists, designers, musicians, cultural workers and others were talking about their own creative individual and collective responses to the climate emergency in a ‘Climate Rally for the Imagination.’

Although many of these were inspiring I left feeling depressed as it all seemed so divorced from our mainstream culture, which is dominated by the billionaire owned press and major TV stations which largely take their lead from those same publications. It would take a major miracle for Murdoch to convert from protecting his profits to protecting the earth, but that’s the kind of change we need for survival.

Climate Rally for the Imagination
Students Strike for climate justice

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

A Hero Remembered, Olympics and Iraq

Some photographers love to travel, but I relish the great variety of events I have been able to photograph in London, (as well as the city itself.) Saturday 4th August 2012 demonstrates that well.

Raoul Wallenberg was clearly one of the great heroes of the twentieth century, and played a huge role while working as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest in 1944-5. Historians now question the popular claims that he saved as many as 100,000 Jews and suggest the actual figure may be between 4,500 and 9,000, but as one of them commented, his “fame was certainly justified by his extraordinary exploits.”

Wallenberg and his fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger issued thousand of official-looking “protective passports” identifying the bearers as Swedish citizens and rented over 30 buildings in Budapest which he declared to be Swedish territory. According to Wikipedia these eventually housed almost 10,000 people. The money for these came from the American Red Cross and it was apparently at US request that Wallenberg was posted to Budapest.

Wallenberg was not the only diplomat in Budapest issuing protective passports to save Jews, with others being provided with Swiss, Spanish and Portuguese documents. He is also said to have persuaded the Germans not to blow up the Budapest ghetto and kill its 70,000 inhabitants, though the Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca who was posing as the Spanish consul-general claims that it was his intervention that saved them

*Swedish Ambassador Nicola Clase speaks about Wallenberg*

Wallenberg disappeared on 17th January 1945 after being summoned to see the commander of the Russian forces encircling the city to answer charges he was involved in espionage. He was taken to Moscow and little definite is known about him after than although the Soviet Government in 1957 released a document stating he had died in prison, probably of a heart attack on 17 July 1947. But there were later reported sightings of him. Documents released in 1996 by the CIA show he was working with their wartime predecessor.

Wallenberg was born on August 4th 1912, and a ceremony took place in his honour around the Wallenberg memorial, sculpted by Philip Jackson outside the Western Marble Arch Synagogue. It was a moving event, led by Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld with Rector Michael Persson from the Swedish Church in London reading Psalm 121 and giving an address about Wallenburg who he called an ordinary man who was brave when the time came and had followed the Lutheran ideal of living, a calling to be yourself and to do good for other people. The Swedish ambassador also spoke about him.

Earlier I had been at the Olympics. Not the thing on Stratford Marsh, but a rather smaller event organised by War on Want outside Adidas on Oxford St, claiming that workers making clothes for the official sportswear partner of London 2012 get poverty wages are not allowed to form unions and have little or no job security.

War on Want point out that around the world thousands of workers producing clothes for Adidas are working for poverty wages that do not cover basic essentials like housing, food, education and healthcare. Many have to work beyond legal limits, up to 15 hours a day to scrape a living. And workers who try to organise trade unions face harassment and sacking.

The games began with badminton, and then moved on to hurdles, but police told them it was too dangerous on the pavement in Oxford St. They were made to move around the corner. Adidas sent along someone from their PR Agency to give misinformation to the press, but there was damning information on the War on Want web site on wages and conditions in factories in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and China producing goods for Adidas. I don’t expect things have changed that much for these workers since 2012.

Finally I made my way to Iraq Day 2012, “organized to celebrate the games with a hint of Iraq flavor” by the Iraqi Culture Centre in London and sponsored by Bayt Al Hekima- Baghdad in conjunction with the Local Leader London 2012 program.

There were some unplanned and fairly dramatic events on stage, and one of the performers stormed off the platform, furious at what she felt was cultural discrimination against the Kurds, and a group of Kurdish musicians were told they had to leave the stage, but generally it lacked much interest for me.

I was sorry for the many Iraqis and others who were unable to eat the Iraqi food that was on offer – for this event was taking place during Ramadan. I had been asked to photograph a fashion show that was a part of the programme, but for some reason it didn’t take place when it should have, and I had to leave before it happened.