Extinction Rebellion Declaration: On Saturday 31st October 2018 Extinction Rebellion met in Parliament Square for a rally at which they made their ‘Declaration of Rebellion‘ against the British Government for its criminal inaction in the face of climate change catastrophe and ecological collapse.
Greta Thunberg speaking at the rally in Parliament Square
Among those who spoke at the rally were Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg, campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy, Labour MP Clive Lewis and economist and Green MEP Molly Scott Cato.
Charlie X issues a wake up call.ACT NOWDr Gail BradbrookDonnachadh McCarthy
A Bristol University student began the reading of the ‘Delaration of Rebellion’ against the British Government for its criminal inaction in the face of climate change catastrophe and ecological collapse and everyone joined in.
Reading the ‘Declaration of Rebellion’
After the reading of the declaration there were more speeches and people moved to stand blocking the roadway in front of Parliament where the rally continued, including speeches by George Monbiot and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and songs and poems.
George Monbiot speaks to the people sitting in the road outside Parliament
Police tried to clear the road after a few minutes, threatening anyone who remained on it with arrest. There was a show of hands and a unanimous vote to continue to block the road.
Caroline Lucas MP
Police increased their threats, and a second vote was held, with almost every hand raised to stay.
The speeches and singing continued. I went to talk briefly with Greta Thunberg who was sitting in the crowd blocking the road.
Some of the campaigners were now laid out on the road, some locked together and others joining arms, but some of the crowd were beginning to move back into the square and off the road as police moved in.
After XR had been blocking the road for around an hour and a half, George Monbiot made a final address and one of the organisers said that people were free to leave.
Donnachadh McCarthy then got up and said he was going to keep blocking the road and expected to be arrested, inviting others to stay with him. George Barda also suggested that people migtht like to stay – and enough did for the road to remain blocked.
Police surrounded the small group remaining and warned them they might be arrested. After a while they came and grabbed one man and carried him away.
Then they came back to arrest Donnachadh; the protesters had linked arms to make this difficult, but eventually they extracted him and carried him away. There were more arrests and some people got up and left, including George Monbiot who announced he had to pick up his children from school.
Slowly police began to clear the road, and get traffic moving, though some were still locked-on blocking one lane. Police had made 15 arrests by the time I had to leave for home.
Custody Deaths, CCTV, Torture & Halloween: I came to London on Saturday 30 Oct 2010 mainly to photograph the annual UFFC protest calling for justice over deaths in custody. After this I went to a march against the government’s obsession with surveillance and border control, went to a protest against torture in Malaysia and finally on a day when London was invaded by zombies went to the start of the Halloween Dance of the Dead.
United Friends & Families March
Marcia Rigg, sister of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton, tries to deliver a letter at Downing St
The Annual United Friends and Families procession calling for justice for those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prisons and secure mental institutions made its way slowly down Whitehall before a noisy rally opposite Downing Street. The first procession was in 1999 and it had taken place every year since then.
The United Families and Friends Campaign banner ‘No More Black Deaths In Custody!’
This year, 2026, people will be gathering at noon tomorrow on Saturday 31st November at the south side of Trafalgar Square – and everyone concerned with justice is invited to join the event.
Sarah Campbell died because the prison staff didn’t care. Her mother Pauline killed herself on Sarah’s grave
Around two hundred people die each year in suspicious circumstances at the hands of police, and in prisons and secure mental institutions. Sometimes the deaths are a result of a lack of care, but others are caused by excessive force and brutality.
Jason McPherson died when assaulted after arrest in Notting Hill Police station in 2007
The response of police and other authorities seems almost always to be one of trying to cover things up, sometimes to blame the victims but almost always to prevent proper and timely investigation. Proper statements are seldom taken from those involved and in some cases police have instead investigated the families of victims.
Ricky Bishop’s mother. He died in Brixton Police Station in 2001
Investigations into police misconduct are carried out now by the Independent Office for Police Conduct which replaced the totally discredited IPCC, dominated by former police and apparently dedicated to defending them whatever the facts of the case. So far it does not appear to have made a great difference.
Police at Downing Street refused to take the letter the families tried to deliver there for Prime Minister David Cameron, and no one from No10 was prepared to come out and take it. It seemed a deliberate and unnecessary snub. Earlier police had objected to the rally taking place on one lane of the southbound carriageway opposite Downing Street but when the families refused to move it had been allowed to go ahead.
On My London Diary I give a few brief resumes of the cases of a few whose family members where taking part in the even and who spoke at the rally about the deaths of Sarah Campbell, Leon Patterson, Roger Sylvester, Ricky Bishop, Jason McPherson, Azelle Rodney and Sean Rigg.
Juliet speaks at Piccadilly Circus – the main CCTV control centre for the City of Westminster is below these streets
Life is Too Short to be Controlled was the second part of an event organised by London No Borders in protest at the government’s obsession with surveillance and border control.
The protesters met at Piccadilly Circus where the Westminster Council CCTV HQ, which controls many of London’s 10,000 CCTV cameras is under the pavement. From there our movements can be followed on almost every street in the capital.
The cameras allow the authorities to track us with the intent of controlling crime and in particular terrorism but they can also be used to enable control of peaceful protest. The protesters say that despite the widespread use of CCTV, it has has not been possible to show a link between crimes being solved and the use of CCTV.
The march was to end at the St Pancras International Eurostar Terminal which has an actual border of the UK, complete with detention facilities then run by the UK Border Agency.
Speeches before the march pointed out that “until relatively recently the free movement of people was seen as normal and beneficial – in the same way as we now see the free movement of goods around the world. Now border controls result in injustice for asylum seekers and other migrants who want to come here and work and contribute to our society.”
Calais Migrants Welcome Here
Our immigration rules are explicitly racist and No Borders say that anyone should be able to move and live where they want. They say there are no “illegal immigrants”; people are not illegal but some do not have the particular documents that give them the right to live here.
Some passing zombies joined in the protest for a minute or two
The start of the march was delayed as the bike-powered sound system arrived late and I left to briefly photograph another protest before the marchers reached St Pancras. By the time I returned they had been escorted out after briefly occupying the border area, and one person had been arrested.
Protesters opposite the Malaysian Embassy in Belgrave Square
2010 was the 50th anniversary of the Malaysian Internal Security Act, under which more than 10,000 people have been detained without trial. It allows arbitrary detention for up to 2 years without charge and for for people to be held incommunicado for up to 60 days – during which they are often tortured, mistreated and placed under severe psychological stress while being denied access to legal process.
In June 2010 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Malaysia and concluded that the ISA should be repealed and torture in detention ended immediately.
Waiting for the start of the parade of the dead from Hoxton Square
During the afternoon I met and photographed several groups of zombies wandering around the streets near Piccadilly Circus with bloody faces, open wounds and torn clothing – and a few briefly joined the No Borders Protest.
Later after it had got dark I went to Hoxton Square where a street parade, the Halloween Dance of the Dead, was gathering to walk to a Halloween Party at a Gillett Square in Dalston.
This was apparently the fifth year that StrangeWorks Theatre collective had organised the parade which included the Corpse de Ballet and other groups.
Corpse de Ballet
Eventually a samba band, led by a giant skeleton came along from Coronet Street and led the large group of revellers, many carrying bottles, around Hoxton Square and then on to Old Street where I left them going further north. By now I was tired and exhausted and needed to go home rather than party.
Custody Deaths, Vegans & Fracking: Saturday 29th October 2016 I photographed the annual United Family & Friends Procession and Rally against deaths in custody. My day had begun with a protest outside a Barclays Branch in Piccadilly Circus over their support for fracking, and the UFFC march was held up to allow a vegan march to go past to a rally in Parliament Square.
Janet Alder whose son Christopher was killed by police in Hull leads the procession from Trafalgar Square
On My London Diary you can read a little more about some of the cases of those who have died while in police custody in suspicious circumstances, in some cases clearly murdered by police.
The first page of the list of over 3000 who are known to have died in custody since 1969
Very few of the cases of 3,180 people known to have died in suspicious circumstances in custody since 1969 have ever come to court. Mostly the official investigations by the so-called independent bodies which investigate the police (formerly the IPCC, now the Independent Office for Police Conduct – IOPC) have failed to carry out their work in a proper or timely fashion almost certainly deliberately to make any prosecutions impossible.
The DPP also appear to have colluded in this with the result that with there has been no justice done. In my post on My London Diary there are just a few of many examples.
Raised fist salutes as the march goes down WhitehallKadisha Brown-Burrell, whose brother Kingsley died in police custody in 2011There was a brief pause for remembrance at the monument to the Women of World War IIThe mother of Amy El-Keria, who died aged 14 in a Kent hospital. An inquest found there had been gross negligence but no one has been prosecuted for her death.
The procession moved at its usual funereal pace down Whitehall, stopping completely numerous times on the way, taking around half an hour to cover the few hundred yards. Families and banners lined the side of the road and speakers from the families spoke in the southbound lane.
Marcia Rigg holds up the letter to Theresa May
I had to leave before the speeches were finished shortly and before a small deputation went to take a letter for Theresa May to Downing St.
The ‘living room’ with a mother and daughter from Ryedal and the fracking rig in front of Barclays
Before the United Families and Friends protest I had gone to Golden Square to meet protesters preparing for a protest outside the Piccadilly Circus branch of Barclays Bank, which is involved in fracking in communities across the country.
Taking Fracking to Barclays Piccadillyand setting up the living room in front of the branch after the doors were shut as they tried to enter
They practised anti-fracking songs and chants around a mock fracking rig before picking this up and walking towards the branch. On their way they met others carrying a a sofa, table and other furnishing.
Protesters inside hold up their banner in the window
Others had gone ahead and entered the bank branch with hidden banners. As the main group came into view security at Barclays locked the door and those inside got out their banners, holding them against the windows.
The protesters outside set up a ‘living room’ on the pavement along with the fracking rig and its operators.
Tea table, Living Room & Fracking Rig at Barclays
“A mother and daughter from Ryedale where fracking has been approved around their home made themselves at home on the sofa with a picture of their house and a framed sampler embroidered with the Barclays eagle and the message ‘Home Fracked Home’.”
Tea was served – and I had a cup as well as a ‘Stop Barclays Fracking’ biscuit
Tea was served and there was a plate of specially baked biscuits with the message ‘Stop Barclays Fracking’. Leaflets explained that this protest, organised by Frack Off London and Divest London with Frack Free Ryedale was part of a series of protests at branches of Barclays across the country against the bank which is hoping to make large profits from its investments in fracking.
A few police came to tell the protesters they were obstructing the pavement, and made sure that there was plenty of space for people to walk past without having to go on the road.
The protest was still continuing when I had to leave to go to the UFFC event.
Vegans march for Animal Rights
The start of the United Family & Friends Procession was delayed for some minutes by police to enable a march by hundreds of vegans to pass on its way to Trafalgar Square.
Organised by London Vegan Actions and Surge their protest called for an end to the exploitation and death of animals for food, fur and leather. They demanded an end to animal testing and for everyone to change to a vegan diet which would end horrific farming practices and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
End All Animal Oppression
Arguments developed as some of the marchers passing those meeting for the UFFC march shouted out ‘White Lives Matter!’ Others on the vegan march, including some Black vegans as well as some from the UFFC event argued with them for being racist, but the UFFC stewards moved to quieten things down and the vegan march passed on.
I’m opposed to farming practices involving animal cruelty but know that many farmers treat their animals well, and commented that although “a shift towards eating considerably less meat would make a welcome contribution to reducing global emissions, I think the world would be a much poorer place if we all took up a vegan diet.
Not only would many become less healthy, as a varied diet is good for us, but animal farming is a vital part of our way of life and has largely formed our landscape. An England without sheep, cows, chickens and pigs would be a very different place, and these animals only exist because we breed them for meat and diary products.”
UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession: On the last Saturday of October each year The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of of people whose family members have been killed by police and in prisons, immigration detention and secure psychiatric hospitals make a procession of Remembrance from Trafalgar Square to a rally opposite Downing Street. In 2017 this was on Saturday 28th October. This year, 2026, will be the 27th Annual Memorial Remembrance Procession and it starts at noon in Trafalgar Square this Saturday, 31st October 2026.
People and banners on the slow march down Whitehall
The pictures in this post were all taken by me at the 2017 procession, and you can read more about it on My London Diary at UFFC annual remembrance procession. Here I’ll post the text of the release from the UFFC about this year’s event. I hope that Andy Burnham will respond more quickly than his predecessor to this year’s letter.
The main banner ‘Police Have Licence to Kill’
Memorial Procession announced for Oct 31st 2026
On Saturday 31st October 2026, UFFC will march to Downing Street for our 27th Annual Memorial Remembrance Procession. We assemble to remember our loved ones, demand accountability, and break the silence surrounding the alarming rise of deaths in state custody across the UK.
For nearly three decades, our coalition of bereaved families has led this solemn procession. Our collective pressure has historically forced major changes – from the rollout of body-worn video cameras to the enactment of Mental Health Units Use of Force Act (Seni’s Law). Yet, despite these hard-won reforms, state violence persists, and families continue to face a wall of silence.
27 Years of Tragic Delays: Slow Justice is No Justice
This year’s procession takes place against a backdrop of deep political frustration. It took Prime Minister Keir Starmer 21 weeks and 5 days to respond to a letter hand-delivered by our families. The response we finally received, penned by Minister of State for Justice Lord Timpson, offered mere platitudes. While Timpson praised our efforts to ensure bereaved voices are heard, the government entirely ignored our explicit call for a direct meeting.
While the state references the proposed Hillsborough Law Bill, reforms on ‘seriously improper acts’, and promises of legal aid funding for inquests, we are left asking: When will these laws actually be implemented? and What about our unresolved cases?
The Fight Continues
Marcia Rigg whose brother Sean Rigg was killed by Brixton Police in 2008
Many UFFC families, such as Celia Stubbs (partner of Blair Peach, killed by police in 1979), have been campaigning for nearly half a century with agonisingly little acknowledgment. These families have also been spied on by the state (See Spycops). Much like the survivors of the Hillsborough disaster and the Post Office scandal, our families are forced to expend years of energy, emotional trauma, and funds just to demand basic truth.
Ajibola Lewis, the mother of Olaseni Lewis killed by police in 2010
Justice delayed is justice denied. Join us on 31st October to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the families, break the cycle of state impunity, and demand immediate action from the government.
You can find pictures and accounts of most of the other UFFC processions from the first I attended in 2003 until 2019 and 2021 on My London Diary and from more recent years in my Facebook albums.
Blockade at Aldermaston: On Monday 27th October 2008 I cycled with Linda from Reading to join the CND Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which together with nearby Burghfield makes Britain’s nuclear bombs.
It isn’t a huge distance to cycle – I think around 12 miles taking the same route as the 2004 Aldermaston march. It was good weather for cycling and there was only one really difficult hill on the way. At Aldermaston we cycled around the outer fence of the huge site – over 4 miles – and then I cycled a little to and fro to take pictures before cycling back to Reading, perhaps covering a little over 30 miles in all. A shortish and pleasant ride, though some was on dirt tracks and jumping on and off to take photos also made it more tiring.
Demonstrators at the Tadley Gate
The blockades had been an overnight event, with actions beginning in the early morning and we arrived far too late for them. They had closed the main road and several gates of the site for some hours, and around 30 people being arrested. Many of those taking part in them had already left for home by the time we arrived.
Entertaining the protesters and police at the main gate
Linda had come to demonstrate with Christian CND and was hoping to join them for lunch at the North Gate and continue with them on a procession of witness around the large site, holding a liturgy at each of the 8 gates.
Their procession had started earlier than expected and they had left before we arrived there, so we continued on our bikes making our own circuit of the site. A long hill leads up from Aldermaston Village and we caught up with Christian CND at the Construction Gate.
Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhists – who had walked all the way from London to Aldermaston for the event
With them were several Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhists who had walked all the way to Aldermaston from the Battersea Park Peace Pagoda. Linda joined the group and walked with them to hold short services at each of the remaining gates.
Dancing the ‘Shackle Shuffle’ to Seize the Day’s ‘Club X-Ray’ which gives a new perspective on Guantanamo Bay
I cycled on to photograph at other places and on to the Main Gate. Here there was a Quaker silent vigil and I found “the mobile bicycle-powered Rinky-Dink sound system and musicians were entertaining a small crowd. Seize the Day’s great Guantanamo number ‘Club X-Ray’ soon had everyone doing the ‘Shackle Shuffle’ to its Latin tinge.”
I went with Rinky Dink back to the Tadley Gate where I met with Linda and the Christian CND ending their final liturgy of the long day of protest. Everyone was now packing up and leaving and we began our ride back to Reading.
The Christian CND procession around the base ends with the sharing of the peace
We started back the way we had come, but on reaching the Kennett and Avon Canal north of Burghfield decided to join National Cycle Route 4, a long distance cycle route from Greenwich in London to Fishguard in Wales.
Fortunately we chose the right direction, but it did result in a rather lengthy detour on our way into Reading station as well as slowing our ride on the poorer surface.
Around London – January 1993: Although I continued my walks around London at the end of 1992 and in January 1993 I made very few colour pictures in that time. On the 28th December I had been in Islington and on 3rd January I went to Hammersmith, later in the month continuing to South Kensington. January 24th I got on my bike to go to Colnbrook and Slough and on the 29th I cycled to Brentford. But from all those dates I can only find a handful of colour images – with just a few more similar frames to those here that I’ve not digitised. I’ve no idea why this was.
This scene looked very familiar to me and trying to locate it was part of the reason for my looking up the details of my movements above. Unfortunately the street name on the end of that rather unusually shaped block is almost lost in film grain but eventually by looking at it at 100% on the negative I was able (with the help of some Natural Intelligence and memory) to decipher it as Rheidol Terrace. The Rheidol Terrace block is on the corner with St Peter Street and I think my picture was taken from the edge of the Packington Estate, described in an Islington Tribune 2019 article about its regeneration as “A VAST network of walkways offering a safe space for drug dealers to hide along with few green spaces for children to play.” The area has changed significantly since then.
Imperial Dragon, Chinese Takeaway, Hammersmith, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1993, 93c01-02-33
There is still an Imperial Dragon on Fulham Palace Road and I think this picture was probably taken at the same place in 1993. It is now ‘Chinese & Pizza’.
I’m not sure the exact location of this small play area, but the distinctive church tower is that of St Paul’s Hammersmith, rebuilt in Victorian Gothic in 1882–1891, architects J P Seddon and H R Gough. The railway had brought more development to Hammersmith and a larger parish church was needed. It got its Grade II* listing mainly on account of the fittings and monuments inside from the earlier church and a pulpit from Wren’s church of All Hallows-the-Great.
I walked more of less past this Laundry most months on my way to visit friends in a council flat in Kennington and occasionally photographed it as the paintwork increasinly decayed, though more often in black and white than in colour. It was never open as I visited them on Sundays, but I could not decide when it actually went out of business.
This and the bookies next door are now an art gallery.
My route on my bike to Slough took me through Poyle and Colnbrook and I detoured rather to look at the industrial sites at Poyle.
The Poyle Trading Estates (Britannia Trading Estate, Mckay Trading Estate, Trident Industrial Estate, Colne Trading Estate, Skyway Trading Estate, Poyle Industrial Estate) developed largely after the opening of Heathrow Airport in 1946, only a short distance away. Previously there had been a large explosives factory set up by Cogswell & Harrison in 1906 (and earlier still I gunpowder mills on the River Colne.)
Some of these early buildings from the late 1940s, though very much in a 1930s style, still remain in use among the many more modern industrial and commercial buildings, but the railway line that served the area – with two stations in Poyle – was closed to passengers in 1965. I remember going to Poyle on the diesel railcar from Staines West station (now offices). Goods traffic ceased around 1981 and some of the line was removed for the building of the M25.
Works, Willow Rd, Poyle, Slough, 199393c01-02-23
Another of the 1940s factory buildings on Willow Road in the Poyle Industrial Estate.
Transport Café, Colnbrook Bypass, Colnbrook, Slough, 1993,93c01-02-24
Colnbrook was one of the first villages to get a bypass, its narrow and crooked High Street clearly not suitable for the increasing motor traffic on the Bath Road. The Bypass opened in 1927.
Colnbrook High Street had been littered with coaching inns where horses could be changed and travellers served with refreshment. Though legend says that for some wealthy travellers in the 17th century their night in the Blue Room at the Ostrich Inn would be their last, as after eating and drinking well, once asleep a lever tilted their four-poster bed, tipping them into a vat of boiling liquid in the kitchen below. Publican John Jarman and his wife are alleged to have murdered at least 60 for the money they carried with them to carry out their business in those days.
But I think there was only one café on the bypass – and the lorries that called in churned up the car park which seemed always full of huge puddles. Back in 1993, Sunday was still a quiet day for business and transport and the car pack was empty – and the café possibly closed, though I did stand beside a lorry to make this picture.
Vertical Vienna, Rail Cuts & Occupy London: Tuesday 25th October 2011 performers from Vienna were performing on a huge vertical wall in Trafalgar Square to promote tourism, but which left with a feeling of vertigo. I came down to earth outside Parliament where rail unions marched from a lunchtime rally in Central Hall to protest against the government plans to cut rail jobs, raise fares and close ticket offices. I then visited Finsbury Square where Occupy London had set up a second camp. There wasn’t a great deal actually happening there and after taking a few pictures I walked back to the camp at St Paul’s and took a few more. But I had to leave before the events there were to start at 5pm.
Vienna From a Different Angle
Trafalgar Square
The Vienna Tourist Board had brought a huge 21 metre vertical stage to Trafalgar Square on which dancers on ropes performed a series of tableaux as they were slowly lowered. Some were clearly linked to Vienna, with waltzes, cafés and Klimt but failed to inspire me to want to visit the city, rather giving me a crick in the neck and a feeling of vertigo.
Vienna Now Or Never – I suspect like much of London it has gone already, but daren’t go to find out in case I have to walk down a very tall wall
As I commented “it would have been far more effective (and cost less) for them to have handed me a coffee or better still a glass of Grüner Veltliner along with a slice of Sachertorte.”
But perhaps Nelson was pleased to have some human company rather than just pigeons up there, though he did keep his back turned on them.
Rail privatisation was implemented in a way that made no sense but satisfied Tory dogma
Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and other unions along with passenger groups walked from a rally in Central Hall with their banners past Westminster Abbey to Old Palace Yard to pose for photographs outside the Houses of Parliament.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crowe poses with union members as he leaves the rally
They say the proposals in the review are the greatest threat to the rail network since privatisation and will increase our rail fares – already the highest in Europe because of the huge amounts taken out of the system for investors.
The proposed cuts increase the break-up of our rail system and hand over greater power to the private companies that operate it. They cut safety standards, losing safety-critical jobs such as removing guards from trains and will involve the closure of 600 ticket offices.
They called for the government to bring back the system into public ownership as franchises come up for renewal and begin to reintegrate rail into a publicly owned system run for the benefit of passengers rather than the shareholders, highly paid consultants and lawyers of private companies.
Bombardier’s rail business was sold to French rail manufacturer Alstom in 2021
The sheer idiocy of the privatised system has led to some of this now having happened, with all the train running franchises being slowly brought back into the public – but much is still to be done. Almost none of the train operating companies actually own any trains, and huge profits are still being taken out of the system by the Rolling Stock Companies they lease them from. We need to move to a system where the operators own and maintain trains.
There wasn’t much actually happening in the afternoon and I took a few pictures of the tents, banners, posters and the yurt.
The square also has a drinking fountain given to the parish in memory of their mother Martha Smith (1825-1908) by Thomas and Walter Smith – the family that invented the Christma Cracker. Like most other public water fountains it no longer works, having failed modern hygiene standards.
I’d been there on Westminster Bridge where a general meeting had decided to Occupy the Stock Exchange, and again when they had been prevented from doing and had set up instead at neighbouring St Pauls, but I’d been too busy to take part actively in Occupy London (and too much in need of home comforts to camp.) I’d looked in at the camp since and did so again on my way home, taking quite a few photographs.
Occupy London were later forced to stop using the Underground logo by legal threats, although there seemed little danger of them being confused with London’s transport provider. The ban on alcohol was observed by many residents, but OccupyLSX attracts and supports some of the drinkers who live on the City streetsThe Food Tent – Stone Soup
The camp was looking very tidy and there were a lot of people about, both residents and visitors – it was clearly becoming something of a tourist attraction. There wasn’t a a great deal happening while I was there, and events were listed to start at 5pm when I was due to be home.
Afghanistan – Bring the Troops Home: A large march on Saturday 24 October 2009 from Hyde Park to a rally in Trafalgar Square demanded that British troops be brought home from Afghanistan now.
On the march in Piccadilly
British forces have a long record of failures in Afghanistan, beginning with the disastrous British retreat from Kabul at the end of the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1842. The Helmand Campaign in 2006–2014, the most active part of British intervention following 9/11, was also something of a disaster. Between the 1001 invasion and the final withdrawal of British troops in 2021, 457 killed and over 600 seriously injured. Our military intervention there cost around £40 billion and Afghanistan after we left was in a worse state than when it started.
The march, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was of course entirely peaceful, with much noisy chanting and live music from The King Blues.
Joe and Clare Glenton
Among those at the front of the march was serving soldier Lance Corporal Joe Glenton with his wife Clare, already facing court-martial for refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan and defying an order not to take part in the protest.
Peter Brierley who told Tony Blair “you have my son’s blood on your hands.”Pat Arrowsmith
There were other anti-war military family members marching including those whose sons had been killed in Afghanistan, as well as veteran peace campaigners including Pat Arrowsmith and Hetty Bower, then 104.
Hetty Bower
Speakers at the rally in Trafalgar Square included Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Omar Deghayes, Tariq Ali, George Galloway MP, Lance Cpl Joe Glenton and others.
Glenton had deserted in 2007 after being told he would be sent back to Afghanistan after only a brief break following his first tour of duty. He had eventually returned to the UK in 2009 to campaign against the war and hand himself in. In March 2010 he was sentenced to 10 months in a military prison, but was released after serving four months.
Lumsdale & Matlock: There are quite a few places I’ve been to which claim to be where the industrial revolution started, but Lumsdale near Matlock where I went for a walk with Linda on Wednesday 23 October 2019 perhaps has a better claim than most apart from the nearby Arkwright mill in Cromford built in 1771, the first modern factory.
Water from the Bentley Brook powered the early days of the industrial revolution
Lumsdale is a steeply sloping valley with a small stream the Bentley Brook tumbling down it, apparently never running dry. It housed industrial mills from the 17th century on and is a site of national archaeological and historic importance. Among the industries that worked there were lead, textile, paint and timber.
The mills at Lumsdale were on a smaller scale than Arkwright’s Cromford Mill and are now only ruins – I think the last closed in 1927.
The area is now owned by the Arkwright Society and can be explored on a permissive footpath. Parts have been fenced off since my visit for safety reasons and I think some of my pictures were taken in these. But it remains an area where you need to take great care near steep drops, especially if like me you sometime suffer from a little vertigo.
A large single stone bleaching vessel
Although there is little or no parking in the area there have always been quite a few visitor in my several visits to the area. In 2014 it became a scheduled Ancient Monument.
I played a little with various shutter speeds by decided I like it best with those that more or less stopped movement rather than blurred itThe Lower Pond built in the 1850s has been restored several times, most recently in 2014This was the site of the oldest mill in Lumsdale, a former lead smelting mill which was converted to a bone mill around 1600. Bones were heated and then crushed to be used as pigments. The mill only closed in 1920.
Linda and I were in Matlock to look after grandchildren and walked up from Matlock after taking them to school. After exploring the valley we walked across to the top of Matlock for an unexciting pub lunch and then walked on to the top of Matlock Bank.
Former tram depotThe hill drops steeply
We walked around a little at the top of the Bank then came down the steep hill to the bridge over the Derwent. In 1893 when Matlock was a popular spa town a cable-hauled tramway was built to take people up and down the 300ft hill. The fare was 2d up and 1d down. It felt a little mean to me charging for taking people down as I think their weight would actually be helping to pull people up. But the tramway closed in 1927, being replaced by a bus service. So far I’ve always walked up, but usually feel by the time I near the top I should have taken a bus.
And back down to the River Derwent. I think we remembered to collect the kids from school.
The Jewish East End & Al-Quds Day: On Sunday 22 October 2006 I went on a morning guided walk around parts of the formerly Jewish East End, one of the activities of the now long gone (and still missed) London Arts Café. The name was rather misleading as it never achieved its aim to open a cafe dedicated to London and the arts in the city, but did organise some interesting talks as well as exhibitions at various venues showing painting and photography of London and walks and visits such as this. Some record of these is still on-line although the organisation closed down in 2007, though was continued as a short-lived Meetup group.
After lunch I went to Marble Arch for the start of the annual Al-Quds Day march. I didn’t stay long as it began to rain heavily.
Here (with minor corrections) is all I wrote in 2006 and a few of the pictures. You can still see more at the links to My London Diary.
The (formerly) Jewish East End
Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, built in 1899 and one of the very few synagogues still open then in the East End.The synagogue was sold in 2015, and is now a mosque
On Sunday morning I took a walk with members of London Arts Cafe through the once Jewish areas of London’s East End. We were fortunate to be able to go in both the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, as well as the Bevis Marks Synagogue, Britain’s oldest standing Jewish place of worship, built in 1698, where unfortunately, photography is not allowed, but you can see some other pictures from our walk.
The famous Jewish portrait photographer ‘Boris’ (Boris Bennett)worked from this building.An emblem by Arthur Szyk in Arts and Crafts Style marks the former offices of the Jewish Daily News.
The External Security Organisation of Hizbullah was proscribed in the UK in 2001, but it was only in 2008 that the whole of its military wing was proscribed. But Hizbullah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party with around 12% of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament, and operates a vast social services network in the country including schools and hospitals, as well as a satellite TV station. The party flag covers both the civil and the military wings of the party, and so its display was not an offence after the 2008 proscription. There were probably more Hisbullah flags on display than usual in 2006 because the march took place just a couple of months after the Israeli invasion and occupation of parts of Lebanon in July-August 2006.
Following years of lobbying the proscription was extended to cover the whole organisation in 2019 and it is now an offence to carry the flag. My pictures are a historical record and do not imply any support for the organisation.
