Woolwich Riverside and Royal Artillery: More pictures from my walk around Woolwich in August 1994
Waste Land, Woolwich Church St, Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-807-42
This area, previously occupied by engineering works, has now been redeveloped with a luxury development of tall housing blocks on Mast Quay, “A magnificent crafted living space with panoramic views of the River Thames.”
As well as getting a free ferry, Woolwich also got a foot tunnel under the River Thames, opened by the London County Council in 1912. The tunnel is just over 500 meters long and remains delightfully cool on hot summer days.
Many cyclists also use the tunnel despite bylwws prohibiting cyclists. Electronic signs were installed in 2016 which used a computerised system to measure traffic and messaged ‘No cycling allowed‘ in red at busy times but ‘Please consider pedestrians‘ in green when the tunnel was fairly empty. Greenwich council was in favour of changing the bylaws to legalise this, but Tower Hamlets refused and the system was discontinued. Many cyclists still ride.
The tunnel provides a useful route across the river, particularly when the ferry is out of action, but most times I’ve used it one of both of the lifts at each end have not been working. I’ve never counted the steps but there are rather a lot of them, particularly when going up.
River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-21
Downstream from the ferry in what in 1994 was I think an open area, once the site of Woolwich Power Station, demolished in 1978-9 though the coaling jetty in this picture is still there. There is still a riverside walk but most of the site is now occupied by tall blocks of flats.
River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-22
A bridge here links the former coaling jetty with the riverside path.
Steps from Riverside Path, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-809-33
This area is now covered by tall flats, though there is a small segment of parkland with fountains.
I cannot remember exactly where I found this mural of the Thames Barrier in Woolwich and I think it was soon demolished.
Royal Artillery Memorial, St George’s Garrison Church, Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-812-52
Built for the garrison in 1862-3 it was hit by a V1 flying bomb in 1944 and the church was largely destroyed by fire. In 1970 more of the building was demolished but a canopy roof added to protect the apse and its polychromatic Victorian brick and decorations, with a memorial garden added in the former nave. It was listed in 1973. In 2011 it was transferred out of military ownership and since then there has been some restoration work, partly lottery funded.
Cannon, Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-808-32
The barracks was the home of the Royal Artillery from 1776 until 2007. Its 1,000 foot long Georgian frontage is said to be the longest in Europe if not the world. Since 2007 most of it has been rebuilt behind this, and in 2016 the Ministry of Defence announced plans for all army units to move out by 2028.
The cannon is the “17.75-ton Bhurtpore gun, captured by Field Marshall the Viscount Combermere after the 1826 siege of Bhurtpore” and brought here in 1828. When the Royal Artillery moved out they took this and four other cannons with them, doubtless a vital part of our country’s defence.
Hayes in the south-east corner of Greater London in the London Borough of Bromley is at the centre of a tradition that goes back over a hundred years, the London May Queen. At its height in the inter-war period this attracted great publicity and was filmed by Pathé News for showing in cinemas around the country – you can watch some of those films on their site.
The event began in a local school
I came to the May Queens from the posthumous book of photographs by British photographer Tony Ray-Jones ‘A Day Off’, published in 1974 soon after his tragically early death which contained a handful of his pictures from May Queen festivals taken in the late 1960s.
One of these, not one of his better photographs and I wondered why it had made the book, was ”May Queen Gathering, Sittingbourne, 1968‘, which shows around 30 young women all wearing crowns in three rows in front of a maypole. I wasn’t impressed by his picture but thought it seemed an intriguing event to photograph. The location in the caption (written after his death by a colleague) was corrected in a later publication and he had taken it at the annual London May Queen festival at ‘Hayes, Kent’ in London.
The London May Queen festival still follows the design and pattern laid down at its inception by schoolmaster Joseph Deedy in 1913. The Hayes festival at which the London May Queen is crowned is simply the peak of a series of events by various May Queen ‘realms’ each with their own May Queens and retinues from various communities in this area of south and south-east London.
Each realm has its own colour and flower
I’ve often written at greater length about the organisation including several posts on this site such as Ray-Jones & London May Queen – 2005. My work with the May Queens was encouraged by a major London museum who promised me a show – but this was cancelled at the last minute for financial reasons, I think a victim of the 2008 financial crisis. I had hoped we would bring out a book to accompany the show, but in the end I self-published this, bringing out a second edition with minor corrections in 2012, a year before the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen.
The London May Queen at this event
The book preview at the link above shows the whole book, including my fairly lengthy texts and over 70 pictures, mainly from London May Queen.
Crowning the Hayes May QueenThe Hayes Common May Queen is crownedThen came the Hayes Village May Queen
Although the event may seem rather quaint with queens, pages and other positions in the realms, the activities are designed to be fun for the young girls but also to develop their confidence and self reliance. And there are teas with cake.
Some girls drop out as they get older, and progress through the various levels of the realms and of the London May Queen group to which the realm queens move up is determined solely by seniority in the organisation.
Altogether for the project I took over 12,000 pictures, adding a few more when I was later invited back to photograph her crowning by one of the later May Queens. All the pictures with this post are from 19th April 2008 in Hayes.
Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL: Saturday April 18th 2009 was another varied day for me, beginning at the City of London Police HQ with a protest over their policing of demonstrations – including the killing of Ian Tomlinson on April 1st, then a chance meeting with a Shakespeare event close to where he died. In Westminster I photographed a continuing Tamil hunger strike and went on to the Dutch festival in Trafalgar Square before photographing the annual Loyal Orange Lodge Parade, leaving them in Whitehall to finally go home.
Protest Against London Police
City of London Police HQ, Wood St
The carnival-themed protest in London on April 1st was met with an extraordinary display of police violence “police chiefs and politicians had spent the previous week ramping up the temperature and predicting violence.”
Three and a half Horsemen of the Apocalypse outside the Police Station on Wood St
As I reported on the April 1st protest: “Many of the police, particularly the TSG, came along to the event psyched up and spoiling for a fight” and their violence was not restricted to the small number of protesters who had come to cause trouble, but was also directed at the great majority of peaceful protesters – and to the press who were photographing the event.
Many police officers had removed or hidden their ID numbers to avoid being identified by protesters or recorded in photographs, a clear sign that they were intending to break the law.
Videos taken of the police attacks on the crowds show ‘people being attacked simply holding up their arms to protect themselves as police assault them with batons and riot shields used as weapons, people standing there and chanting “We are not a riot” and “Shame, shame, shame on you.” ‘
Protesters call for a “lights out” hour on Friday evening for Ian Tomlinson and all others killed in police custody
The protesters called for police to remember they are there to serve the public and for an end to the wholesale “kettling” of protests, the disbanding of the TSG and for proper training of police in handling demonstrations. They called on senior officers to enforce proper discipline and regulations and a complete end to all officers turning a blind eye when their colleagues behave illegally.
Flowers and posters remembering Ian Tomlinson around the Cornhill Fountain
At the end of the protest I walked to the display on Cornhill set up around the Cornhill Fountain a few yards from where Ian Tomlinson died, staggering there after being assaulted by a police officer while making his way home after work, with police refusing to give him medical attention until too late.
I was standing there when to my surprise a group of around 20 people, each holding a red flower came towards me, led by a woman with a badge saying ‘Steward.’ They stopped for a short performance exactly where Tomlinson died, where there was a picture of a woman and some flowers
They then stopped and a man read a short piece, which sounded vaguely familiar. As the group left I asked him about it “and found that this was one of around 20 groups each being taken on a guided walk around the city to various sites with similar performances to this of one of the sonnets to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday next Thursday.”
Eight days earlier I had visited the hunger strike by two young Tamil men over the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had begun their hunger strike on 6th April and the hunger strike was still continuing on the 18th, with a dozen of so others joining them each day for a one day fast, and a crowd of around 500 more Tamils beside their pen in support.
They protesters all supported the Tamil Tigers in their fight for an independent homeland and called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka, with full access for the UN, the Red Cross and other agencies, as well as the international press, along with an opportunity for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to have a free and independently observed referendum on their future.”
Not long after, in May 2009, the fight by the Tamil Tigers for independence ended in defeat. Since then Tamils have been subjected to continuing human rights violations although their situation is reported to have improved somewhat since 2015.
“In Trafalgar Square, the Dutch were holding a festival to prove their lack of understanding of popular music and to sell cheese, chips and beer. The cheese did look quite attractive. The only thing missing seemed to be a windmill, but I probably just didn’t look hard enough.”
On My London Dairy you can read more about the Orange Order which takes its name “from William, Prince of Orange who landed in Devon in 1688 to restore parliamentary democracy and prevent the imposition of the Catholic religion by James II. This was the ‘Glorious Revolution’ which forced James II to flee and made William king as William III.“
It led to greater freedom for dissenting nonconformist Protestants but Catholics were denied the right to vote, be MPs, become army officers or marry the monarch. That marriage is still out.
The Worthy Mistress of Corby First Ladies LOL53 unveils a new banner before the start of the march
The regular Orange marches in London are largely uncontroversial, but in Northern Ireland they still perpetuate the division between the Protestant and Catholic communities which led to the ‘troubles’.
Banners are lowered as a mark of respect as they march past the Cenotaph
I photographed them laying wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and marching past but theen left as they went on to the the statue of of “King Billy” in St James’s Square.
I’ve often been threatened and made unwelcome when photographing Orange marches, because of my political views or possibly those of a photographer who worked for Searchlight magazine which gathers information on the far right they have confused me with. Others taking part in Orange Order marches have congratulated me for my pictures.
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: In 1974 the Palestinian National Council approved April 17th as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, choosing the date as the anniversary of the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel – when Fatah militant Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi who had been captured by Israel six years earlier was released.
In 2008 the 20th Arab Summit adopted it for all Arab countries as a day in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained by Israel. Human rights organisations say many prisoners are denied visits, subjected to mental and physical tortures and denied proper medical care. Many are held without trial under ‘administrative detention‘ while Palestinians “are tried by Israel’s military courts and often held in Israel, in conditions that violate international humanitarian and human rights conventions“.
In 2014 the World Council of Churches had issued a Palestinian Prisoners Day call to churches worldwide to pray and act for justice which “resolutely confirms our solidarity with the nearly 5000 Palestinian men, women and children languishing in Israeli prisons” and called for churches to press UN Member States to put pressure on Israel to end arbitrary detention, meet its obligations over human rights, provide apt medical care and end athe use of torture.
Bill Gates End Support Of Israeli Child Torture
Cardinal Place, Victoria
On 27th April 2014 I photographed the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest in Westminster, where protesters met on the plaza outside Westminster Cathedral for a ‘mystery protest’.
There they put together a mock prison cell and gave a briefing that the protest was to be at the Europe and Middle East Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Portland House, just across the road inside the Cardinal Place shopping centre.
We crossed the road with the prison cell and some protesters, one with a Bill Gates mask and they tried to deliver a petition from the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah which monitors and provides legal support to Palestine prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian jails.
“By holding shares in G4S, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is complicit in Israel’s detention without trial and torture of Palestinians.
As people that share your belief that every life has equal value, we call on you to divest from G4S immediately.”
The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest shareholders in G4S and Addameer say it “is legitimising and profiting from Israel’s use of torture, mass incarceration and arbitrary arrest to discourage Palestinians from opposing Israel’s apartheid policies.”
Addammer point out that their investment makes a mockery of the foundation’s aim to use its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives“.
A few protesters who tried to enter the building were quickly ejected by security and the protest continued outside with speeches, chanting and music. They promised to leave after someone came down from the Gates Foundation office to receive the petition, but no one came in the 20 minutes while I was there before leaving to cover another Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest at the G4S offices a short walk away.
The Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign – which began twice-monthly London protests against companies supporting Israel’s prisons in 2012 – had arrived outside the G4S offices before me and set up their banners. They were handing out leaflets about the terrible conditions under which prisoners are held and calling for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
British multinational G4S is the worlds largest security contractor and provides security services for many prisons in Israel where Palestinian men, women and children are tortured and caged.
After around 25 minutes we were joined by some of the protesters who had been at the Gates Foundation and their cage.
After a few minutes some of the protesters walked into the foyer of the offices and I followed them to take photographs.
They brought in the ‘cage’ as well.
And there was soon a prisoner in the cage with a smiling ‘Bill Gates’ and another protester holding it. There were some short speeches about why they were there protesting against G4S and some chanting, but the foyer is large and the protest did not interfere with people entering and leaving the building – which contains other offices as well as that of G4S.
Eventually a couple of police arrived, and took a look at what was happening and decided just to watch. More protesters arrived and some brought their banners into the foyer.
Outside the protest also continued, with people handing out detailed leaflets about the conditions in ‘G4S Israeli Dungeons’ in which men, women and children are tortured.
You can read some of the details and in particular about the case of the 5 Hares boys on My London Diary.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3b-25
I found it hard to drag myself away from this spot on the path beside the River Wandle where the previous post had ended and took several more pictures before moving on, including this one.
Tyres, River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-53
I didn’t move far, just a few yards further on before taking the picture above, which shows the same heap of tyres and the same covered pipe bridge – but from the other side. I think most of these pipe bridges date from the time the east side of the Wandle was occupied by the gas works.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-65
Much of the former gasworks site was then occupied by the concrete plant I wandered back and forth for some time taking pictures and cannot now remember the exact locations as the area has changed so much. This area is now a huge building site with a tall residential tower now going up.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-54
This is where the River Wandle and Bell Lane Creek rejoin, running to the right of this picture into the Thames just a few yards away. The tide was low and you can see there is little or no water running out from the Wandle with all the flow all going down Bell Lane Creek. The Shell Oil Terminal Site was in Osiers Road and this and adjoining sites have now been redeveloped with blocks of flats of various heights, the tallest around 15 storey. One gain from this is that there is now a walkway by the Wandle leading to the Thames; the previous diversion was not without interest – but had an overpowering strong smell of oil.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-55
Here I think I was looking roughly south I think over or through a fence at the north edge of the cement works where there is a cement lorry. I think this may be part of the works, possibly a water intake or perhaps a settling tank for water used for hosing down the lorries and plant, but that is simply guesswork. But as often with my pictures I did record a six-figure map reference – 257752.
River Wandle, The Causeway, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3c-56
Also taken from The Causeway a few feet west from the previous image you can see the gasholder in the background – and at right the railway viaduct.
Finally I dragged myself away from the Wandle and made my way west to Point Pleasant where my next post on this walk will begin, coming back to those oil storage tanks beside the Wandle.
Vaisakhi Procession, Slough: On Sunday 15 April, 2007 I decided at the last minute to rush to Slough, picked up my rumāl and arrived just in time to photograph the Vaisakhi Procession as it left the Gurdwara. Two years later in 2009 I returned and was able to cover it more thoroughly and you can see the results on My London Diary – but in this post I’ll stay with the pictures and text from 2007. As usual I’ve made the text easier to read, correcting the capitalisation and typos etc.
Vaisakhi in Slough
Slough, Berkshire
I’d hoped to relax a bit on Sunday, have a day off from working with a camera, catch up with things. But Linda heard something on the radio about Vaisakhi in Slough, so I looked on the web, found the procession started at 10.30 and jumped on my ancient bike.
By then it was 10.15am, and according to the AA, the 9.5 miles should have taken me 27 minutes by car (and you could probably add a bit for parking etc onto that.)
So 40 minutes wasn’t too bad going, and I arrived just before the procession started to move off, just before 11.00am.
By the time I left two hours later, the procession carrying the Sikh holy scriptures and led as always by Khalsa carrying flags and swords was just around the corner a couple of hundred yards away in Shaggy Calf Lane (though it had taken a rather longer route than me to get there.) And as well as photographing the event and many of those taking part, I’d also had a very enjoyable free lunch.
I made my way home rather more slowly. One of the great advantages of travelling by bike is that you can stop exactly where you like to take photos.
As well as a few buildings in Slough, and what remains of a landmark garage at the west end of the Colnbrook Bypass (now sold and doubtless to be redeveloped) I spent some time in Horton, which in my youth really was a country village, and still retains some of that feeling, before returning to Staines via Wraysbury.
Hizb Ut-Tahrir & Grenfell Protests: On Saturday 14th April 2018 I photographed a protest at the Turkish Embassy by the now proscribed group Hizb Ut-Tahrir and later went to Kensington Town Hall where I photographed bikers on a ride for Grenfell and the silent walk 10 months after the tragic fire.
Hizb Ut-Tahrir protest against Turkey
Turkish Embassy, Belgrave Square
Men stand at the front of the protest opposite the Turkish embassy
Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain had come to protest criticising Turkey for their role in supporting President Assad in regaining control of Syria.
Women were in a separate block at the back of the protest
They say Turkey since the end of the Ottoman state in 1922 has been a secular state “whose role is to protect the colonialist’s interests in our lands” with Turkey recognising the Zionist occupation of Palestine in 1949.
They accuse President Erdogan of strengthening Turkish military and economic ties with Israel, “defending and strengthening our enemies who murder us in Syria and Palestine“.
The protest took place on the night in the Islamic calendar when the Prophet made a night journey to al-Aqsa (Jerusalem) and it called on all Muslims to support the Palestinians in their fight “against the illegal occupation, as they are mercilessly killed by the Zionist regime.”
Hizb Ut-Tahrir are a Sunni Muslim group who call for the restoration of the Khilafah Rashidah, the “Rightly Guided” rule of the four caliphs who succeeded the Prophet in a 30 year reign from 632 -661 AD when Muslim armies conquered much of the Middle East.
The organisation was banned in January 2024 after a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in which they called upon Muslim armies to attack Israel. Previous calls under Tony Blair and David Cameron to ban the organisation had been opposed by the UK government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation and the Home Office as Hizb Ut-Tahrir did not advocate violence.
Bikers, including Muslim bikers Deen Riders and others took part in a United Ride 4 Grenfell from the Ace Cafe on the North Circular to Parliament and then came to Kensington Town Hall demanding action and justice for the victims of the Grenfell fire.
People gathering from the monthly silent march for Grenfell cheered and applauded them as they rode past and then began their march. Among them were many of the survivors from the fire.
‘Tories have blood on their hands’ but the silent walks seemed to have had little impact
The Grenfell fire was a tragedy waiting to happen because of decisions made by Kensington and Chelsea Council who had approved the fitting of unsafe cladding to cut costs, had ignored residents complaints about safety in the building, and more. Government too share some of the blame for their cutting ‘red tape’ policies that had hugely compromised safety, including the privatisation of fire inspections.
The contractors they employed to carry out the cladding – and those they had employed had not done the job properly – but the council had failed to oversee their work properly and the reduced safety regulation regime allowed them to get away with improper installaion.
Kensington & Chelsea is a borough of extremes of wealth, and its Tory council is largely run by and for its wealthier residents. Both in the way in which it ran its social housing leading up to the fire and its failure to deal effectively with its aftermath it showed little concern for the poorer in the borough. Ten months after the fire there were still survivors who were not properly rehoused.
And now, almost nine years after the fire on Wednesday 14 June 2017, we have still seen no justice, despite a long and hugely expensive inquiry. As so often the authorities seem to have been more interested in protecting the guilty, kicking things into the long grass. I doubt there will ever be any real justice – if it comes it will be far too little and far too late.
More From the Woolwich Free Ferry: I went on the ferry across to North Woolwich, taking pictures while I was on the ferry, I think mainly in black and white.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-51
Taken while I was waiting at Woolwich for vehicles and passengers could come off the ferry.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-811-42
At North Woolwich while vehicles were still driving off and foot passengers were boarding for the journey to Woolwich.
Riverside Path, River Thames, North Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-12
I got off the ferry at North Woolwich and took a short walk along the riverside path, making this picture and then returning to catch the ferry back. This screw was in the path. The ferry terminal is at right.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-32
I don’t know whether the pictures below on the ferry were made on the outward or return journey.
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-33
Woolwich Ferry, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-810-41
Soon I was back in Woolwich and taking more pictures there – to be in a later post.
End Iraq Invasion: Saturday 12 April 2003 saw another protest (there had been one a week earlier) against the invasion of Iraq which had begun on 20th March 2003 with US troops supported by those from the UK, Australia and a few from Poland.
Before the invasion UN weapons inspectors had reported that they had found no evidence of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. But US and British politicians still insisted Iraq had these, but had just hidden them well. We now know that there were none. It was an invasion and war fought on known lies.
Almost certainly both the US and UK authorities at the time of invasion knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq, but the US had been planning and working up to the invasion for several years and were not going to let the facts get in the way of their war. The US had also carried out a long campaign to link Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks although there was no evidence for this and later “assertions of operational links between Iraq and al-Qaeda have largely been discredited by the intelligence community.”
Bruce Kent
The British public were also clear we should not go to war, with the largest protest ever in London in February 2023 demanding we not not invade Iraq. This had followed a unprecedented long campaign across the country with many local groups out on the streets in protest.
Regime Change Begins At Home – a call to get rid of warmonger Tony Blair
There were similar protests in other countries, with the largest of all in Rome where over three million took to the streets – roughly twice as many as in London.
This was a protest with flowers for the dead
Many of our allies also came out against the invasion – including France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand, but Prime Minister Tony Blair was determined to support the invasion – using misleading claims and lies to persuade MPs to back it – including that infamous ‘dodgy dossier’.
The insurgency continued after the US pulled out of Iraq in 2011, eventually resulting in the rise of ISIS. Various studies and experts conclude that the invasion and occupation resulted in a huge rise in Islamic terrorism and the global Juhadist movement.
In 2004 “UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the invasion illegal under international law, as a breach of the UN Charter.” It was an event that showed the US’s contempt for a rules-based international order or at least their assertion that the rules did not apply to them, operating under the simpler principle that US might is US right.
Aldermaston2004 – Sunday: I took part in and photographed the 2004 London to Aldermaston march against the next generation of nuclear weapons, though I only marched part of the way. I photographed the rally in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday and marched the short distance to Kensington before leaving.
I had other commitments the following day when the marchers went on from Southall to Slough, but got on my bike on Sunday morning to meet them as they came into Maidenhead on their way to Reading. And on the Monday I marched with them from Reading to Aldermaston. Below are some of the pictures I took on the Sunday, with text from 2004 on My London Diary and links to the pictures from Friday and Monday.
Aldermaston March 2004
I met the marchers on Sunday morning as they came into Maidenhead
Aldermaston2004 was jointly organised by CND, the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Campaign and Slough4Peace.
There was a rest and refreshments outside Maidenhead Methodist church
The ‘Stop The Next Generation Of Nuclear Weapons’ march from London to Aldermaston started on Good Friday, 9 April 2004, from Trafalgar Square, where there was a ‘No New Nukes’ rally.
The March heads out of Maidenhead towards Reading
Aldermaston and nearby Burghfield are at the centre of the UK’s atomic weapon programme, and the march was a protest against the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. In 1958 the dangers of nuclear war were clear to most of us, and almost fifty years of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among members of the ‘nuclear club’ make them even more of a danger now.
Bristol Radical Cheerleaders keeping our spirits up
Since 1958 we have seen another almost 50 years of lies and deception dressed up as security and national interest. For example we still haven’t been told of the nuclear warheads kept by our American allies at Lakenheath.
Pat Arrowsmith with vintage CND placard and CND badges, striding along the road in Maidenhead
Saturday, the march continued from Southall to Slough via Uxbridge. I had other things to do in the East End, but managed to catch up with the march on Sunday morning at Maidenhead Bridge with some furious bike riding.
Bristol Radical Cheerleaders and Sheffield Samba Band
By then, some problems with Thames Valley Police had emerged, with the police trying to force the march on to the pavement, while some marchers insisted on keeping to the road. In the end a compromise emerged, with the police tolerating those who wanted to stay on the road walking close to the edge of the pavement.
Sheffield Samba Band plays the march into lunch at Knowl Hill
From Maidenhead it seemed a long walk to Knowl Hill for a rather late lunch stop. There we were greeted from a distance by the sounds of the Sheffield Samba Band who piped the march in to lunch.
I regretted not bothering to pick up my meal tickets, but was really too busy to stop to eat. I photographed the column of marchers setting off for Reading and then started a more lonely walk back to Maidenhead and my bike.
Washing up
The pictures in this post are all from my walk with the marchers from Maidenhead to Knowl Hill on Sunday 11th – there are a few more here.
The march heads off from Knowl Hill with around 9 miles to go to Reading
More about the 2004 Aldermaston March on My London Diary with many more pictures from both the ‘No Nukes Rally’ and the final day of the march on Monday 12 April: Friday’s pictures in London Reading to Aldermaston
