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Focus E15 Mums at City Hall

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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.

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.

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.

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1994 London Colour – City, Limehouse & Canning Town

1994 London Colour – City, Limehouse & Canning Town: More of my colour pictures made in July or the start of August 1994, in the City of London, Limehouse and at the Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town.

I can no longer remember where I saw this circle of chairs, left after a celebration of some kind. Reflected in the background I can see myself looking in, probably from one of the highwalks in the City, with a whole range of buildings behind me, none of which I can immediately recognise. I am standing in sunlight, which shines on the foreground chairs, but the back of the room is in fluorescent lighting, giving it an unnatural blued-green tint. A single empty glass on the decorated table and a stubbed out cigarette on the floor remain from the earlier gathering.

Fleet Place is immediately east of City Thameslink Station and this is one of London’s private pedestrian areas – like Broadgate and Canary Wharf – where various activities, including photography are not permitted.

I took a few pictures in Fleet Place on several occasions but was usually then approached by the private security men and told that photography was not allowed. But I generally work fairly quickly, though using the panoramic camera is rather slower than a normal camera as it needs careful levelling. But usually by the time I was told I could not take photographs I had already done so and was happy to leave the premises. But I think I took this in rather a hurry and underexposed it – perhaps seeing the man approaching.

*Demolition, Tower Block, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-803-43*

A skeleton around the spine of a tower block in Limehouse, with the wall paper and paint of the flats that were once attached.

Car Sales, Royal Navy, pub, Salmon Lane, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-803-44 — *Car Sales, Royal Navy, pub, 53 Salmon Lane, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-803-44*

Car sales and the typical bunting around them on the corner of Condor Street aand Salmon Lane. The Royal Navy pub at 53 Salmon Lane was open by 1856 but closed permanently in 1999 and was converted into flats four years later.

*Tidal Basin Pumping Station, Tidal Basin Rd, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-803-51*

The Tidal Basin Pumping Station designed by Richard Rogers and built in 1998 is one of the three pumping stations that prevent the former marshy areas to the north of the Royal Docks from flooding, pumping out surface water into the Thames, allowing their redevelopment by the LDDC. It was built in a colourful post-modern fashion in a deliberate attempt to provide a colourful accent in the area.

*Warehouses, Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-723-25*

The part of the dock in the left foreground has now been built over, but six cranes remain on the dockside.

Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham , 1994, 94-803-61 — *Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-803-61*

Spillers Millenium Mills were “designed and built by millers William Vernon & Sons of West Float, Birkenhead in 1905” and were the last of the large mills built on the dock, following those of the Cooperative Wholesale Society and Joseph Rank. All the mills were damaged by the 1917 Silvertown explosion. Spillers took over the mill in 1920 and rebuilt it “as a 10-storey concrete art deco building in 1933.” Badly damaged by bombing it was again rebuilt after the war, reopening in 1953. The dock closed in 1981, and the other buildings in the picture have since been demolished.

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Regents Park & Beckton Alp – 2008

Regents Park & Beckton Alp – 2008: On Wednesday 30 January 2008 I took two walks in London. The first took me to Regents Park around noon, but I can remember nothing about it – all I have are the pictures that I took with their EXIF time stamps. But I was soon the Tube and the DLR, taking some pictures on my way to Beckton, a visit I wrote about on My London Diary and I’ll reproduce that account below. But first some pictures from Regents Park.

Regents Park, Park Square & Park Crescent

*The gardens in Park Square are private, but it isn’t far to go to walk in Regents Park.*

More pictures at Regents Park, Park Square & Park Crescent.

Beckton Alp and DLR Beckton Branch

Beckton, Newham

So on Jan 30 as it was a rather nice day I took a walk in the alps, or rather the singular alp that London has on offer, at Beckton. Theoretically there are two, but the other is more of a pimple, while the northern alp is 36 metres high.

*A strikingly decorated shed at Gallions Reach*

The gasworks started by Simon Adam Beck on agricultural land in 1868 became the largest in Europe, but closed down in 1967. The LDDC bulldozed all of the rubbish from the site into the two mounds, put a 2m capping, mainly of clay on top, and the larger one became a dry ski slope in 1989.

*The London Eye is one of many London buildings easily seen from the slopes of the Beckton Alp*

Despite the odd landslide the ski slope continued in use until 2001, and there were then plans for a ‘Snowdome’ with real snow on the site. But the developer went bust, leaving the site in a dangerous condition with some exposed waste – which includes various nasty chemicals – acids, volatile hydrocarbons – including carcinogens such as benzene, cyanides.

*From the Beckton Alp, looking roughly east with the flood barrier on Barking Creek at left of picture. The gasholders are from the old Beckton works*

Meanwhile the LDDC had faded away, having done its job of diverting large amounts of public wealth into private pockets, and had handed its problems to the local authority – in this instance, Newham, although the ski slope area is owned by Cresney who have had various ideas, including a possible hotel development on part of the site. It was also one of the shortlisted sites for a large scale artwork in the Channel 4 Big Art project to be shown in April 2008. [Antony Gormley’s plan for the site was never realised.]

*The retail park, with East Beckton and the University of East London*

Although there is still access to the public open space around the alp, the ski slope site and the top of the alp is surrounded by a large fence. However there was a rather convenient hole in this, and since there was no notice telling me to keep out – and a very well-worn path on the other side I went through it.

I carefully made my way to the summit to enjoy the views, before continuing my walk along the northern outfall sewer and then down along various paths through East Beckton to Manor Way and the Gallions Roundabout, where I took my life into my hands to dash across Royal Docks Way to the DLR station

[You can read more detail about the Beckton Alp in a 2023 post ‘What’s in the Beckton Alp‘ on the Reimagining Waste Landscapes site.]

More pictures on My London Diary at Beckton Alp and DLR.

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DLR – Bow Creek and Poplar Panoramas 1994

Bow Creek and Poplar Panoramas: It was before Christmas that I posted the previous set of panoramic images I made in July 1994 along the DLR between Poplar and Beckton, DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994. Here is the final set I made then.

*Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-11*

Another picture taken from the East India Dock Road, looking down at Wharfside Road and the sawmills with their address on Barking Road. The road layouts here have changed with the building of Newham Way flyover and I think Barking Road which earlier began at the ‘Iron Bridge’ over Bow Creek now only starts at the roundabout about 250 yards or so to the east.

As the noticeboard states the entrance to the site is from Wharfside Road on the opposite side of the road, and any driver unfortunate to read the sign would be faced with a long detour to reach it.

M&J Reuben Ltd was founded in 1895 and seems to have moved from the area in 2004 when the then managing director David Reuben retired. London Sawmills Ltd also had timber sheds at Hercules Wharf in Orchard Place closer to the mouth of Bow Creek.

Bow Creek appears on both sides of this roughly 130 degree view, upstream at right, flowing under the bridges and in a long loop and coming up at the left past Pura Foods where London City Island now is, before turning round the other side of Pura foods to flow down to the Thames.

*Bow Creek, East India Dock Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-12*

Moving a few yards to the west along East India Dock Road I made this picture standing on the bridge. The Iron Bridge, built in 1810, was the first road bridge to use cast-iron columns and made a new lower route across Bow Creek. It has now been replaced and the current bridge is concrete.

On the left of the river is Essex Wharf, with the sawmills out of picture to the left. The first bridge on the river, a pipe bridge for a large gas pipe, was demolished soon after, but its brick piers remain. The second bridge is now the ‘Blue Bridge’ though in my picture it is grey. A third, a disused single track rail bridge, is hidden by those in front.

*Construction work, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-721-62*

A little further on but I think still on or close to the East India Dock Road I made this picture looking across a construction site, the DLR, Bow Creek and Pura Foods. I think that the tunnel which connects East India Dock Road to Aspen Way is under the site here.

Aspen Way, East India DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-720-51 — *Aspen Way, East India DLR,* South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-720-51

East India Dock Station on Aspen Way, looking west. At left is the Telehouse South and the Blackwall Tunnel ventilation shafts. Then along the horizon some 1930s council flats and buildings aroudn Canary Wharf including the tower. On the other side of the DLR viaduct is the Grade II listed former hydraulic pumping station in Naval Row and over the dock wall the ugly 1990s buildings on the former East India Dock.

*DLR, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-721-11*

Finally a view through the rear window of a DLR train on its way from Poplar to Canary Wharf. Poplar Station can just be seen under the long footbridge across the DLR and the Wes India Dock Road. At left is the DLR line towards Tower Gateway.

The next post in this series of my colour pictures will feature pictures made in July 1994 here and elsewhere using a normal camera.

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DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994

DLR – Connaught Rd & Bow Creek 1994. Continuing my panoramic images made along the path of the DLR in July 1994.

DLR, near Connaught Bridge, Custom House, Newham, 1994, 94-721-33 — *DLR, Connaught Rd, Custom House, Newham, 1994, 94-721-33*

The road layout in this area has changed completely since 1994, but you can see at right the DLR Beckton branch going over the concrete lead-up to the Connaught Bridge. I think GATE 30 at extreme left is to the Excel site and the Connaught Tavern is hidden by the trees in the centre of the picture – and so this road was the old Connaught Road which led to the old swing bridge. I think where I was standing is now the middle of a hotel car park.

*Bridges, Bow Creek, East India Dock Rd, East India, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-719-61*

I moved around a mile and a half west and four stops along the DLR line to Canning Town and one of my favourite areas around Bow Creek, which here does two more or less 180 degree turns before flowing into the Thames. These two ‘bridges’ are a few yards south of East India Dock Road and I think both were built as pipe bridges to carry gas across the river.

Only the brick end supports of first remain on each bank. The metal bridge in the centre of the image is also a footbridge, now painted blue and leading across the river to the ecology park. Just beyond it, almost completely hidden is a third bridge, a long disused rail bridge. At left are the sheds of a timber yard.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-719-52*

Further East on the East India Dock Road I made this panorama with a sawmill in Wharfdale Road. Beyond that road is a train on the DLR line, and over the top of this you can see the Pura Foods factory on the site where London City Island now is.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-31*

A few yards further east on East India Dock Road gave this view of Bow Creek, curving 180 degrees around Pura Foods. Locals were pleased to see this London City Island factory go as you could smell it across much of Canning Town.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-32*

And a similar view but including a DLR train.

*DLR, Bow Creek, Wharfside Rd, Canning Town, Tower Hamlets, Newham, 1994, 94-720-23*

A few yards away I used a crane to frame the image of Pura Foods on its not quite island site. At right of the picture is a bridge across the DLR leading to a riverside walk to Canning Town Station. Although I managed to walk across Reuben’s Bridge several times, it has been mainly locked for the last thirty years, despite being a useful short cut to the riverside station entrance.

Apparently it was closed because people were throwing stones from it onto the DLR, and more recently in 2019 a survey determined that it is non-compliant with current Health & Safety Legislation, Building Regulations, British Standards and associated supplementary guidance.

The initial plans were for the riverside walkway to lead all the way to Trinity Buoy Wharf at the mouth of Bow Creek – and a competition was held and awarded for a new footbridge to enable this – but then the plans were dropped. Until a new bridge was built for London City Island the riverside entrance to Canning Town station only led to two dead ends.

More to come.

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Panoramas Around Albert & Victoria Docks – 1994

Panoramas Around Albert & Victoria Docks: More panoramas I made in July 1994 on and around the Beckton Extension of the DLR, getting off the train at each stop, taking a walk around and making a few pictures before boarding the train again

*DLR, Roundabout, Royal Albert Way, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-718-33*

One of the few pictures I made with a deliberate tilt of the camera in order to get the whole circle of the roundabout in the image. As you can see this results in a curved horizon.

*DLR, Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-719-11*

The DLR stations on the elevated line often provided a useful viewpoint. Along the horizon here at left you can see the church at Silvertown, then the Silvertown Flyover. Around the centre are the mills on Royal Victoria Dock, then the more distant Canary Wharf and past that the Grade II listed 1881 Connaught Tavern. At right is the Compressor House, built in 1914 as a cold store for the dock.

*DLR, Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-721-22*

A view through the front window of a DLR train which shows the Compressor House next to the Royal Albert Dock Station and the long stretch of the Royal Albert Dock. At the left are the houses of West Beckton. At right is London City Airport with a couple of planes.

*DLR, Connaught Crossing, Custom House, Newham, 1994, 94-721-42*

A view from the side of the train as it goes across Connaught Road looking over the recently built cable stayed swing bridge with reinforced concrete approach viaducts, opened around 1990. It replaced an earlier swing bridge built in 1904 to carry both the road and the North Woolwich Railway across the Connaught Passage between the Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks. The small octagonal building to the left of the bridge pumps water from the Connaught Tunnel, originally by hydraulic pumps but now by electric pumps. This was replaced by a larger circular structure when the tunnel was rebuilt for the Crossrail.

*DLR, Victoria Dock Rd, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-718-53*

The DLR line runs beside Victoria Dock Road and this picture was made from Custom House Station and shows the junction with Freemasons Rd. Further along Victoria Dock Road you can see The Missions to Seaman Institute, Flying Angel House, built in red-brick Art Deco style in 1936. It closed in 1973 and after being used for some time as a college was converted into flats.

*Royal Victoria Dock, Canning Town, Newham, 1994, 94-718-41*

The western end of Royal Victoria Dock which closed in 1981. This picture was taken roughlky from where the cable car ride now has its northern terminal. The dockside sheds have been replaced by tall waterside blocks – around 17 storeys. There are still some of the old cranes on the quayside.

More panoramas from 1994 to follow.

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More From Beckton, Cyprus and Silvertown – 1994

I spent a long day in July 1994 travelling up and down the recently opened Beckton Extension, taking some pictures from the trains but also getting off at every station and explouring the area around the stations, sometimes at some length. The previous set of pictures, DLR – Beckton Extension – 1994, began from around the end of the line at Beckton, and these images start with those from a walk from the next station along, Gallions Reach.

In the 2000s there was a plan to extend the DLR from here to Dagenham Dock, but these were cancelled in 2008; now plans have been approved for an extension to a Beckton Riverside station and on under the Thames to Thamesmead.

DLR, Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13 — *DLR, Gallions Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13*

From the Gallions roundabout you can go north and south along Woolwich Manor Way or take the more recent roads, Royal Albert Way, Royal Docks Road and Atlantis Avenue. My picture was made from Woolwich Manor Way looking roughly north. In the centre of the roundabout is a pumping station, which I think is a 16-sided building, though I always lose count. On top in its centre is a small 8 sided pimple. Locally listed, it was built for Thames Water in 1974.

*Ruins, Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-61*

Beckton Gas Works were built on the East Ham Levels from 1868-1870 by the Gas Light and Coke Company which had been founded in 1812 by Frederick Albert Winsor and was not only the UK’s first gas company but the first public gas company in the world. It was for some years the largest gas works in Europe and until 1969 produced gas for industry and homes across much of East London.

The site was named Beckton after then company chairman Simon Adams Beck and covered a huge of 550 acres. As well as giving room for the huge works, its site on the Thames well to the east of London meant that larger colliers could bring coal to it than to the gas works closer to the city.

As well as town gas, the site also contained the Beckton Product Works which became the largest UK manufacture of tar and ammonia by-products. Beckton was a huge local employer, providing jobs for as many as 10,000 men.

For many years after it closure the site remained derelict and was used in a number of films, most notably Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War film ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Back in 1994 there was little left on the site which is now largely a retail park.

I’d taken a few pictures in the area in black and white and colour ten years earlier when more of the works where still there – such as this one:

Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984 81-NorthWoolwich-008 — *Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984*

[If you open the image you can browse a few more on Flickr.]

Royal Docks Rd, Galions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52 — *Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52*

A view made from underneath Gallions Reach Station looking roughly north-east towards the former gas works site.

DLR, Approaching Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43 — *View from Gallions Reach DLR, Station, Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43*

I went up to the station platform and made this picture as I waited for a train to arrive. At right you can see the Thames Water pumping station in the middle of the Gallions roundabout. On the left others waiting on the platform can be seen in a mirror. Beyond that is the Royal Albert Dock and in the distance the hills on the other side of the Thames. In the sky is a plane shortly after take-off from London City Airport.

DLR Station, Beckton Park, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31 — *Beckton Park Station, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31*

I can’t remember if I got off the train first at Cyprus station or continued directly to the next stop, Beckton Park. The two stations are fairly similar and both are in the centre of roundabouts in the Royal Albert Way, built for the LDDC and opened in 1990.

*DLR, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-11*

I got back on a train to go to the next stop on the line, Royal Albert, where I took a walk around the area beside Royal Albert Dock dock, making this picture from its west end looking east down the dock. In the distance is a DLR train approaching and to the left is the road leading the the Connaught Bridge. I think the brick structure at left of picture is a ventilator for the railway tunnel below.

Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12 — *Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12*

I made this from a temporary footpath across the channel between the Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks a few yards to the west of the Connaught Bridge. Under the bridge is the full 1.75 miles of the Royal Albert Dock, built in 1875-80 and opened by the Duke of Connaught. The dock finally closed to commercial traffic in 1981.

In 1984 I got permission to go onto the site and photograph the remaining buildings – virtually all now demolished. They had no great architectural value but were an important part of London’s history. You can see some of the black and white pictures I took in the book The Deserted Royals – there is a good preview with over 40 pictures on the website and the PDF version is reasonably priced – and rather more, including colour work on Flickr – in the two albums 1984 London Photographs and 1984 Docklands Colour.

More Docklands colour from 1994 in my next post in this series.

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DLR – Beckton Extension – 1994

DLR – Beckton Extension: One of the earliest projects I had used a panoramic camera on was the building of the Docklands Light Railway Beckton extension which had been a part of a transport show at the Museum of London in 1992. I had made these pictures on black and white film – you can view these along with many other pictures in my Flickr album ‘1992 London Photos‘

*DLR, Train, Station, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-715-11*

So when the Beckton branch from Poplar opened at the end of March 1994 I made a note to myself to return there and make more panoramas along the completed route, but this time working in colour. But I was busy with other things and it was only in July 1994 that I finally managed to go and take some new pictures.

*Station Entrance, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-715-13*

I began by taking a DLR train to the end of the line, Beckton Station, and then walked out to make a few pictures in the area surrounding the station.

*Horses, sculpture, Brian Yale, Beckton Bus Station, Woolwich Manor Way, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-62*

I’d first visited Beckton in 1981, and had gone back briefly when I was working on the DLR construction in 1982, but by 1994 things were very different to my first visit. Then Beckton was still a largely uninhabited area, noted for its gas works – then mainly in ruins and for being at the end oof London’s Northern Outfall sewer.

*Station Entrance, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-51*

There had also been a large postwar prefab estate, but that had been swept away and plans to build large council estates to help solve Newham’s huge housing problems were swept away with the advent of the London Docklands Development Corporation, who sold off most of the land for private housing. The LDDC also commissioned the Horses sculpture by Brian Yale, who had worked for many years as an artist and environmental designer for the architecture department of the Greater London Council, creating “designing murals, sculptures, public art works and play spaces for GLC housing estates and schools“. He was also commisioned by them to produce the long 50 panel The Docklands Frieze at Prince Regent Station.

*Robert, Steam Engine, Winsor Terrace, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-32*

Robert, a 0-6-0 tank engine was built in 1933 for the Staveley Coal and Iron works and worked in their sidings until 1969. It then went to various preserved railway sites, at one of which it gained its name. Kew Bridge Steam Museum in 1993 restored it to look like a Beckton Gas Works engine (presumably for the LDDC) and it was placed here. After some vandalism Newham Council took Robert over and moved it close to Stratford Station. The engine was again moved during building works assocatied with the 2012 Olympics and finally came back to a different location outside Stratford Station in 2011. It was still there when I last went to Stratford a few weeks ago.

I took a long walk around Beckton, and made quite a few normal format images in black and white, but relatively few colour panoramas, mainly close to the station, then walked rather futher around the area making more panoramas, only relatively few of them on-line at Flickr – two of those in this post are online for the first time including ‘Link Road, Beckton’ below.

*Link Road, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-11*

I this was part of one of the ring road schemes around London that was never built, Ringway 2, which was planned go under the River Thames at Gallions Reach in a new tunnel between Beckton and Thamesmead. When I made this picture it simply came to a dead end not far on.

More panoramic pictures from around the DLR Beckton branch in a later post.

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Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing – 2016

Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing; On Friday 28th October 2016, Housing For All activists from Focus E15, two dressed as cockroaches, went together with residents from the Boundary House hostel in Welwyn Garden City to the offices of Theori Housing Management in a Halloween-themed protest at the terrible living conditions for residents in their hostel.

The main statutory housing duty of local authorities is to provide temporary accommodation for those who are homeless, eligible, have a priority need and are not intentionally homeless. Priority can include living with a child, being pregnant, domestic abuse or emergencies such as flood and fire. Most of those who qualify have suffered some fairly traumatic experiences and deserve suitably careful treatment and adequate accomodation, but many do not get it.

Council make use of hostels run by companies such as Theori Housing Management who run hostels providing temporary accommodation such as Boundary House which provides temporary housing for residents from London boroughs including Waltham Forest and Newham for these vulnerable people for months or even years.

Those living in Boundary House say that rooms there have leaking roofs and mould on the walls, are infested with cockroaches, have upper floor windows that children could easily fall out of and dangerous faulty appliances. Several of them had come to the protest but most others were either scared to do so or could not afford the £15 off-peak rail fare into London. This also makes it impossible for those moved to the hostel to continue with any work they had in London as well visits to their doctors or clinics and for children to attend their former schools.

As I wrote in 2016, “Residents who make complaints are hung up on, placed on hold for hours and called liars, ignored, insulted and patronised.” So the campaign had come to bring their complaints to Theori.

Campaigners from Haringey Housing Action Group who were also at the protest “also have experience of poor hostel accommodation, provided by Haringey Council, and we know how hard it is try to go about your daily activities – going to work, taking kids to school – when you are living in cramped conditions, with little or no cooking facilities.“

Residents who have complained to their local authority housing departments complain they are not listened to and no action is taken. The campaigners call on boroughs to stop using companies like Theori who provide sub-standard housing and fail to keep it in good order, and say councils should house Londoners in London where they have schools, friends and jobs.

Focus E15 come from Newham, where Mayor Robin Wales has said that those who can’t afford it should not be living in the borough, where vast luxury housing developments are welcome, but social housing is hardly on the agenda.

They point out that Newham, a Labour stronghold, has hundreds of empty properties in what was a popular estate, the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford. These homes had then been empty and boarded up for more than ten years while the council has been trying to sell off the whole area for various development schemes. They also point out that Newham has taken out ill-advised loans which have resulted in incredible repayments of interest.

The campaigners tried to enter the Theori offices, pushing against the doors which were held by men inside, and Theori called the police. The two officers who arrived were obviously rather amused at having to talk to a cockroach. The protesters stepped away from the door to that one of the police could enter the office while the protest continued on the pavement outside.

They then held a Halloween party on the pavement outside the office before finally lining up for photographs.

More at Cockroaches at Theori Housing Management.

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Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford – 2015

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford: Housing activists marched through Stratford on Saturday 19th September 2015, with a short occupation of estate agents Foxtons by Class War ending with a rally by Focus E15 outside the flats on the Carpenters Estate they had occupied a year earlier.

Focus E15: Rally before March – Stratford Park

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford - 2015

Two years earlier Newham Council had tried to close the Focus E15 hostel housing young mothers in Stratford, but they had fought the eviction which would have seen them dispersed across the country into private rented flats with no security of tenure and in some cases hundreds of miles from family and friends.

The Focus E15 campaign had attracted wide support and gained national headlines when they had occupied a small block of flats on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford. They succeeded in getting rehoused in London but continued with a much wider ‘Housing For All’ campaign for proper housing for the people of London who are facing being replaced by a new and wealthy population.

The campaign has continued, with a weekly stall on Stratford Broadway and protests to stop evictions in the borough. Their actions enraged the then Mayor of Newham Robin Wales and led to various attacks by him and council officials including the issuing of penalty notices and the farcical “arrest” of the table they used as their stall. These almost certainly played a part in his downfall in 2018 when local party members in this Labour stronghold turned against him.

The march brought together housing activists from around 50 different groups around London including many from council estates under threat of development under the guise of regeneration, private tenants facing eviction or huge rent hikes, and some political groups. Fortunately not all spoke before the march. You can read a long list in my account on My London Diary at Focus E15: Rally before March.

Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’ Stratford

It was a large and high-spirited march from Stratford Park and around the busy centre of Stratford with banners, placards and much loud chanting, demanding Newham Council end its policy of gentrification and use local resources to house local people and an end its policy of social cleansing, moving them out of London.

Housing has always been a problem in London, at least since the industrial revolution led to a great increase in the population and enlargement of the city. From the late Victorian period various charities and philanthropically minded commercial enterprises began to construct housing – mainly blocks and estates of flats – for the working poor, and from around 1900 they were joined by local municipalities and importantly the London County Council.

After the First World War, the Addison Act in 1919 to build “homes for heroes” and later housing acts led to 1.1 million council homes being built in the years before the Second World War.

From the 1950s, London Councils led by all parties built large amounts of council housing, with many finely designed estates, providing much higher quality homes than those in the lower end of the private sector, where much of the population was housed in poorly built and maintained overcrowded slums. At least rents were relatively low – until rent control was abolished in 1988.

That was only one of the changes made under Margaret Thatcher that hugely worsened housing for the majority. Council housing, earlier seen as a way of providing decent housing at reasonable cost for that majority became seen as simply a provision for the failures in our society who were unable to get onto the “housing ladder” and buy their own homes.

Her introduction of ‘right to buy’ was a disaster for public housing and new council building was almost entirely ended – 5 million council houses were built between 1946 and 1981, but only 250,000 have been built since. And her abolition of the GLC largely ended any overall planning for housing in London.

The march stopped in front of Newham’s Housing Offices where they put up the banner ‘Newham Stop Social Cleansing – Keep us in London’ banner on Bridge House and held a short rally before continuing to the Carpenters Estate.

More pictures at Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’.

Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons

Housing policy under New Labour and since has been largely determined by estate agents including Savills and Foxtons who have been leaders in the gentrification of many areas of London.

Class War seized the opportunity to rush into Foxtons as the march went past and I followed them before the police managed to stop others joining them.

‘*Fuck Food Banks – Eat the Rich’ and the Class War banner ‘We have found new homes for the rich’*

They caused no damage and left shortly after police came inside and talked to them, rejoining the march.

More pictures at Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons.

Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation

It was two years after the Focus E15 campaign had begun and a year since they occupied 4 flats on the Carpenters Estate.

For the event the pictures of people from Focus E15 put on these flats with the message ‘This home needs a family‘ in June 2014 were up again

*Jasmin Stone of Focus E15 speaks at the rally*

I had gone into the flats with them that afternoon and seen perfectly good properties in fine condition which had been simply closed up and left after the tenants were moved out. On one wall was a calendar from 2004 they had left behind.

Despite a huge housing shortage in the borough they had remained unoccupied for ten years. Since the occupation by Focus E15 these four flats now have residents, but only 28 empty properties on the had been re-let a year after Newham had been shamed by their action.

There were a few speeches and then a party began. Some people had climbed up to the roof of the shops with the ‘These people need homes’ banner, but it was time for me to go home, stopping briefly at the pub with Class War on the way.

More at Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation.

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