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Limehouse and the City – Panoramas 1994

Limehouse and the City – Panoramas 1994: I made one panorama at the end of my trip to Limehouse in June which is on a film processed in July which I overlooked when posting pictures to Flickr.

DLR Viaduct, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1994, 94-701-51

This was taken from the top floor of John Scurr House on Ratcliffe Lane where there are open balconies leading to the flats it shows both the National Rail and DLR Limehouse stations with the DLR viaduct leading east, with the white tower of St Anne’s Limehouse just visible at extreme right before the top of the brickwork of the stairs.

You can also just see the north side of Limehouse Basin on the other side of Branch Road, and lower right of centre is a small but packed garden centre. A bus goes along Commercial Road and you can see the houses and flats of Limehouse and Bow beyond. Like all the other pictures in this post it was taken with a swing-lens panoramic camera with a horizontal angle of view of over 120 degrees.

Blackfriars Rail Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, River Thames, Southwark, 1994, 94-701-42

Early in July I took a train to Waterloo and walked into the City from there, pausing before I crossed Blackfriars Bridge to make this panorama. This is the only place where the City comes ‘South of the River’ and where I was standing in Rennie Garden I was already in the City of London, though the wall at right and half the rail bridge past it is in Southwark.

While the City boundary for the other bridges is in the centre of the river, for some reason the Blackfriars and Southwark Bridges Act 1867 put the full length and its southern end within the city’s borders, in the parish of St Anne Blackfriars.

The garden here Rennie Garden is named after John Rennie (1761 – 1821) the engineer who built several of London’s bridges but not this one, which was by by Joseph Cubitt, also responsible for the dismantled railway bridge whose red piers remain.

This was the site of the Albion Flour Mills designed by Samuel Wyatt on this site in 1786 to house the machinery of Matthew Boulton and steam engine of James Watt – and it was this steam-powered corn mill, the first major factory in London, which is thought to be the inspiration for William Blake’s ‘dark satanic mills’.

The Albion Mill died by its own hand, burnt down in 1791 by a fire probably caused by poor maintenance when a bearing overheated, but four years earlier Robert Barker had sent his son Henry Aston Barker to sit on the roof of the building to make the sketches for his ‘London from the roof of the Albion Mills‘ which he then added detail, “greatly enlarged and painted in distemper on canvas.” He coined the name ‘panorama’ and in 1787 patented the idea. His panorama, first shown at the Albion Mill shortly before it was burnt down and then shown in various galleries in London.

Sets of aquatints were made by Frederick Birnie which toured Europe and went to the United States and while these survive in various collections the original panorama is lost.

Puddle Dock, Queen Victoria St, City, 1994, 94-701-33

Puddle Dock was a dock and also a sewer outfall and was filled in during the comprehensive reclamation and redevelopment of the area between 1962 and 1972 which created Upper Thames Street as a major road and Puddle Dock linking this to Queen Victoria Street underneath part of Baynard House, a Brutalist office block built for BT and completed in 1979.

As a part of plans to separate vehicle and pedestrian movement in the City it included a walkway leading to Blackfriars Station from which I made this panorama. The dome of St Paul’s can be seen just to the left of the tower of St Andrew by the Wardrobe.

Sculpture, Farringdon Rd, Holborn Viaduct, City, 1994, 94-702-51

Holborn Viaduct was London’s first flyover, connecting the City with Holborn over the deep valley of the River Fleet, which had be culverted here in the 18th century, in part for the building of New Bridge Street. Built in 1863-69 it links Holborn Circus with Newgate Street and was a major redevelopment ‘”the most ambitious and costly improvement scheme of the [nineteenth] century” (White 47), and it involved some outstanding feats of Victorian engineering.‘

Over the years I’ve made quite a few panoramas on and of the viaduct and written about it at some length – here are a few from 1994. You can read a detailed account on the Victorian Web site.

*Sculpture, Farringdon Rd, Holborn Viaduct, City, 1994, 94-702-52*

*Sculpture, Farringdon Rd, Holborn Viaduct, City, 1994, 94-703-11*

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin – 2005

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin: On Sunday 7th August 2005 I began by photographing London’s Latin Americans getting ready for the Carnaval Del Pueblo procession, then went to Parliament Square for an illegal protest against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had come into force on August 1st and among other things restricted the right to demonstrate within a large area around parliament without prior written notice to the police. Finally another illegal protest on Westminster Bridge expressed support for the Tobin Tax, a low rate of tax on currency conversions with the aim of discouraging short-term currency speculation and so stabilising currency markets. Here is what I wrote about the day in 2005 with some pictures and links to more on My London Diary

Carnaval del Pueblo – Southwark

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

Sunday I started off photographing London’s Latin American communities getting ready for the start of their annual Carnaval Del Pueblo procession. This year it was starting from Potters Fields near the GLA headquarters, on an empty site awaiting development, rather than from a street, and this made photography a little more difficult.

It was good to see so many groups taking part, although I found it very difficult to sort out the different nations, and found myself unable to recognise most of their national flags.

This procession, making it’s way to Burgess Park where there is a Latin-American Festival, is one of London’s most colourful events, with some costumes to rival those seen at the much larger annual Notting Hill event at the end of the month.

I was sorry not to be anle to go on to the festival, especially since there was to be a short period of silence to mark the tragic shooting by police of the innocent Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, on a tube train at Stockwell Station the day following the second round of bombings in London.

I followed the procession up to London Bridge Station where I needed to get on a train to get to Westminster.

More pictures

The Right to Protest – Parliament Square

*Police arrest a demonstrator in Parliament Square, London. The crime? Holding a protest banner. Welcome to Britain, the police state (not that I think the police particularly welcome it.).*

Britain once had a deserved reputation as a haven for free speech and the rights of the citizen. A number of acts by our New Labour government have seriously curtailed these freedoms – including introducing a number of measures that they had opposed before they came to power.

Some of these measures have just been a part of the general trend to central control begun under Thatcher, but others have been brought on by the threat of terrorism and even more by the growth of opposition to government policies, and in particular to the war on Iran.

Formerly a life-long supporter of the party it saddens me, and angers me. One of the signs that Brian Haw holds in a picture is a quotation from a speech by Condoleeza Rice in January 2005, when she said “if a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a ”fear society” has finally won their freedom.”

New restrictions have been brought in that move Britain into that realm of a “fear society”.

This afternoon I saw five people arrested for simply peacefully holding banners supporting the right to protest. It happened on the square opposite our Houses of Parliament, and it made me feel ashamed to be British.

Although the law was passed largely to get rid of Brian Haw, it turns out not to alter his right to be there, as his protest started before the act became law and is thus not covered by it. Rather a lot of egg on government faces there.

[The High Court decision that agreed Haw was not covered by the Act was overturned by the Court of Appeal in an alarming decision in May 2006.]

More pictures

The Westminster Tea Party – Time for Tobin Tax

*Holding up tea bags on Westminster Bridge*

In 1978, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin proposed a uniform world-wide tax at a very low level – perhaps only 0.2% – on all foreign currency exchange transactions. The aim was to deter speculation on currency movements, thus giving the elected governments greater control over their fiscal and monetary policies, and reducing the power of unelected speculators (who include some of the larger multinational companies) to affect the markets.

Exporters, importers and long-term investors would all benefit from less volatile exchange rates, and the revenue raised by the tax could make a significant contribution both to the revenue of national economies and also for international development projects.

As a small gesture of support for the Tobin Tax, another illegal demonstration took place in Westminster this afternoon, unnoticed by police. A small group of demonstrators, again following an example from Boston – although this time from 1773 – chose tea as a way to symbolise their protest. Each threw a teabag, produced by one of the giant corporations, from the middle of Westminster Bridge into the River Thames below.

A couple more pictures at the bottom of this page on My London Diary.

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Tories Out March – 2017

Tories Out March: Around 20,000 met outside the BBC in Portland Place on Saturday 1st July 2017 to march to Parliament Square demanding an end to the Tory government under Theresa May.

Most were supporters of the Labour Party and in particular of the then Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had narrowly failed to win the recent general election, defeated not by the Tories but by sabotage within the party by the Labour right who controlled much of the party mechanism.

The Labour right had been shocked and appalled by Corbyn’s victory in the leadership contest and had done everything they could since then to get rid of him, with orchestrated cabinet resignations and the stoking up of false antisemitism claims combined with behind the scenes actions to ensure the failure of his attempts to improve the way the party tried to deal with such allegations.

We had seen on television the relief felt by some of them as the results came out when after it had begun to look as if Labour had a chance of victory it became clear that the Tories would hang on to a small majority. The last thing they had wanted had been for Corbyn to have won.

Theresa May had scraped in but had then had to bribe the DUP, a deeply bigoted party with links to Loyalist terrorists to give her a working majority.

Her austerity policies had been largely rejected by the electorate and the recent Grenfell Tower disaster had underlined the toxic effects of Tory failure and privatisation of building regulations and inspection and a total lack of concern for the lives of ordinary people.

*A woman poses as Theresa May with a poster ‘We cut 10,000 fire fighter jobs because your lives are worthless’*

The protesters – and much of the nation – knew that the Tories had proved themselves unfit to govern. The marchers and the people wanted a decent health service, education system, housing, jobs and better living standards for all.

But not all were happy with Labour policies either, although the great majority of them joined in with the sycophantic chanting in support of Corbyn. But there were significant groups who were also protesting against the housing polices being pursued by Labour-dominated local authorities, particularly in London Boroughs including Labour Southwark, Lambeth, Haringey and Newham.

Huge areas of council housing had been demolished or were under threat of demolition largely for the benefit of developers, selling off publicly owned land for the profit of the developers and disregarding the needs of the residents and of the huge numbers on council housing lists.

*Class War protest the devastation of the estates where the poor live*

One example was “the Heygate at Elephant & Castle, a well-designed estate deliberately run down by the council over at least a decade, but still in remarkably good condition. It cost Southwark Council over £51m to empty the estate of tenants and leaseholders, and in 2007 had valued the site at £150m, yet they sold it for a third of its market value to developers Lendlease for £50m.”

The estate had been home to over a thousand council tenants and another 189 leaseholders. Around 500 tenants were promised they would be able to return to to homes on the new estate – but there were just 82 social rented homes. The leaseholders were given compensation of around a third of the price of comparable homes in the new Elephant Park – and most had to move miles away to find property they could afford.

In 2017 Haringey was making plans to demolish around 5,000 council homes, roughly a third of its entire stock under what was known as the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV) with developers Lendlease. Plans here prompted a revolt in the local area led by Labour members in the pro-Corbyn Momentum group who gained control of the council in 2018 and scrapped the HDV.

*A giant-headed Theresa May outside Downing St*

Among those leading protests against Labour’s Housing Policy was Class War who have been active in many of the protests over housing. I photographed them having a little fun with the march stewards, but unfortunately missed the scene at the rally in Parliament Square when Lisa Mckenzie confronted both Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn asking them the simple question ‘When are you going to stop Labour councils socially cleansing people out of London?’.

*Class War lift up their banner in front of a police officer videoing protesters*

Both men ignored her, walking past without pausing to answer and “the small Class War group was surrounded by Labour Party supporters holding up placards to hide them and idiotically chanting ‘Oh, Je-re-my Cor-byn! Oh, Je-re-my Cor-byn!’. But eight years later, now in power led by Starmer and Angela Rayner, Labour seems determined to make much the same mistakes in its housing policy.

More at Tories Out March.

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Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party – 2017

Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party: Saturday 24th June 2017 was a long day for me, beginning with a march by the English Defence League and the anti-fascists who came to oppose it, moving on to another extreme right protest by the Football Lads Alliance on London Bridge then returning to Whitehall for a protest against the ongoing talks between Theresa May and the Ulster DUP to provide support for her minority government. In Parliament Square there was a picnic and rally against our ‘unfair first past the post’ voting system. From there I went to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square where supporters of North Korea were calling for the US to withdraw its troops from South Korea. Finally I went to Burgess Park in South London where cleaners from the LSE were celebrating a successful end to 8 months of campaigning.

EDL march against terror – Whitehall

Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party - 2017

The EDL march followed closely after the 3 June event when three Islamists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge killing eight people and injuring many more before being shot by police. Earlier in the year a police officer had been stabbed at the Houses of Parliament and a suicide bomber had killed 22 and injured over a thousand at the Manchester Arena.

Tempers were running high and just five days earlier a right-wing activist had driven a van into a Muslim crowd at the Finsbury Park Mosque. The Met were taking no chances and had issued strict conditions on both the EDL for their march and rally and for those who had come to oppose them, and had the police on the ground to enforce them.

The EDL were meeting outside (and inside) the Wetherspoons close to the north end of Whitehall and I joined them on the pavement. There were quite a few police in the area and the protesters were mainly happy to talk and be photographed. Eventually they were escorted by a large group of police to the starting point of their march, the police taking them through some back streets to avoid the counter-protesters who had previously been restricted to the corner of Northumberland Avenue.

EDL march against terror

Anti-fascists oppose the EDL – Northumberland Avenue

Several hundred Unite Against Fascism supporters had come to protest against the EDL march but although there were a few minor scuffles as EDL protesters made their way to the pub, a large police presence kept the two groups apart.

Police again handed out copies of the conditions opposed on their protest. A small group of protest clowns taunted the police but there was no real attempt to break the police conditions. Eventually the UAF held a rally opposite Downing Street kept by police well away from the EDL rally taking place at the same time on the Embankment.

Anti-fascists oppose the EDL

Football Lads Alliance at London Bridge

Well over a thousand supporters of the recently formed Football Lads Alliance marched to the centre of London Bridge to protest what they see as the UK government’s reluctance in tackling the current extremism problem. I arrived late when the march was over but was able to photograph some of those taking part as they posed with wreaths at the centre of the bridge.

I went on to photograph the many flowers and messages that had been put their by people in the days since the attack.

Football Lads Alliance at London Bridge

Women protest DUP/Tory talks – Downing St

Back at Downing Street women concerned over abortion rights, housing activists and others had come to protest against the talks taking place with the Democratic Unionist Party and the concessions Theresa May would make to get their support for her government after the 2017 general election had resulted in a hung parliament.

Many protesters were in red for the blood of lives lost without access to reproductive rights, but others came to protest about those who lost their lives at Grenfell tower because they were considered too poor or black to need safe housing, for the disabled who have died because of cuts and unfair assessments, for innocent civilians bombed overseas and by terrorists here, for the blood shed in Northern Ireland before the peace process and for the decision to gamble the rights, health and safety of LGBT+ people.

Women protest DUP/Tory talks

Time for PR – Save Our Democracy – Parliament Square

At the end of the rally at Downing Street I walked down to Parliament Square, where Make Votes Matter and Unlock Democracy had organised a picnic and rally after the recent election had again demonstrated the unfairness of our current voting system. The rally used various colours of balloons to represent the percentage of the vote gained by different parties.

Prime Minister Theresa May had called a snap election but failed to get the 326 seats needed for an overall majority with only 317 Conservatives elected. Her party had received 42.3% of the total votes. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn had improved its position and had gained 30 seats but was still well behind at 262 seats and 40% of the total votes. They had failed to gain some key marginals where the party right had managed to stop the party giving proper support to candidates or probably the party would have won the election. By making promises to the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP who had won 10 seats in Northern Ireland, May was able to remain as Prime Minister.

Time for PR – Save Our Democracy

Withdraw US troops from Korea – US Embassy

The UK Korean Friendship Association marked the 67th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, never officially ended, by a protest outside the US Embassy calling for the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and an end to sanctions on the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, one of the least democratic countries in the world, a highly centralised authoritarian state ruled by the Kim family now for over 70 years, according to its constitution guided “only by great Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism.”

Withdraw US troops from Korea

LSE Cleaners Victory Party – Burgess Park, Southwark

*Mildred Simpson shows off the ‘Masters of Arts’ certificates that were presented to the cleaners at the protest*

Finally it was good to meet with the cleaners from the LSE and other members and friends of the United Voices of the World and Justice 4 Cleaners who were celebrating the end of their 8 months of campaigning at the LSE. I had been at the meeting when the campaign was launched as a part of the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival organised by Lisa McKenzie, then a research fellow at the LSE, and had photographed many of their protests and it was great to celebrate their success with them.

*Class War had supported the cleaners in their protests and some came to celebrate*

Their actions, including 7 days of strike, had achieved parity of terms and conditions of employment with directly employed workers and a promise that they would be brought in-house by the Spring of 2018.

Several of the cleaners spoke at the party and the cleaners were “presented with ‘Masters of Arts’ certificates with First Class Honours in Justice and Dignity.”

*Petros Elia, UVW General Secretary runs to organise everyone for a group photo*

The final part of the dispute was settled a month later in July 2017 when Alba became the 5th cleaner to be reinstated at the LSE in a year with the UVW “winning a groundbreaking, precedent setting tribunal hearing today which declared Alba’s dismissal not only unlawful but profoundly and manifestly unfair.”

LSE Cleaners Victory Party

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Peckham Fight the Developers – May 2025

Peckham Fight the Developers: Last Saturday, 31st May 2025 I went to a protest in Peckham against the proposals for the redevelopment of the Aylesham Centre in the heart of Peckham by developers Berkeley Homes.

Their proposals shocked local residents in various ways. They include a 20 storey tower over 250 ft tall, and while the site would included 877 new homes, only 77 of those would be ‘affordable‘. Only a quarter of the number required in the new London Plan which calls for 50% – and for these to be ‘genuinely affordable‘, something that there is no clarity that any of those meagre 77 would be. The plans also include a supermarket and car park, some space that could be used to provide various services or offices as well as shops and a “Drinking Establishment”.

Because of the widespread opposition, apparently including all three local councillors as well as various local community groups which have come together in the umbrella group of housing campaigns and activists from across Southwark – SHAPE – Southwark Housing And Planning Emergency – it seems likely that Southwark Council will reject the application. In which case Berkeley are almost certain to appeal.

Given the Labour Party’s new policies on planning it seems unfortunately likely that in the case of an appeal Levelling Up Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner is likely to wave their proposals through despite their obvious failings and disatrous effect on Peckham.

Peckham Fight the Developers - May 2025 Anna Minton — *Peckham, London, UK. 31 May 2005. Journalist and author Anna Minton*

One of the speakers at the event was authour and Guardian journalist Anna Minton, invited to speak after her article last week, A new kind of gentrification is spreading through London – and emptying out schools which had the subhead “Thanks to ‘placemaking’, thriving communities are hollowing out, to be replaced by luxury apartments and expensive restaurants.”

Much of her article looked at the consequences of the demolition and replacement of another area of Southwark, the Heygate Estate at Elephant and Castle. This large council estate was replaced by developers Landlease with ‘Elephant Park’ with many flats being sold off-plan to international investors. Lendlease made big profits but Southwark council actually lost both a hugely valueable asset in land as well as actual money in the process.

The new site had more homes than the old, with around 2,000 largely still council-owned flats and houses being replaced by 2,704 of which only 82 are social housing. There 25% were ‘affordable’ but at up to 80% of market rent unaffordable to most locals including the previous residents of the area – and only a small fraction of the site being ‘affordable’. Replacing family homes by luxury flats has led to a large drop in births in the area, forcing the closure of the local primary school at the end of the current term. It was an exercise in ‘ethnic cleansing’ with most forced out of the Heygate having to move long distances further from the centre of London to find properties they could afford.

Minton comments “The positive rhetoric and branding of placemaking is that it transforms run-down areas into vibrant and economically successful parts of the city. The reality is that it creates sterile places, emptied of so many of the essential aspects of urban life, except the expensive activities.”

*Peckham, London, UK. 31 May 2005. Outside the Aylesham Centre*

Rye Lane on which the Aylesham Centre stands was described in 1934 as “the Oxford Street of South London” with no rival outside of Central London. At the north end of this “Golden Mile of shops” was a whole block containing the department store Jones & Higgins of which only a small part containing its clock tower remain – and under risk.

Jones & Higgins closed in 1980 and in 1985 most of it was demolished to build the Aylesham Centre. Most of the other fine shops of the past have left, but their buildings mainly survive in new uses, and the street is now remarkably vibrant largely with small shops serving the area’s multicultural community. Rye Lane remains one of London’s busiest shopping streets and I always enjoy walking along it. Off to the side are several small street markets and the amazing Copeland Park and its former cricket bat factory the Bussey Building, now a cultural centre, along with Peckham Levels, a transformed multi-storey car park, though its Derek Jarman memorial garden was in a poor state when I last visited a few years back.

The Aylesham centre is perhaps now the low point on the street and its demolition would certainly be no loss, but it would be terrible for it to be replaced by yet another sterile ‘white Elephant‘. It is a site that could offer much to the local community, including making a significant inroad into the roughly 12,000 families on the local council’s housing waiting list.

More pictures from the rally and march in my Facebook album People vs The Developers – Peckham takeover – and if you don’t have a Facebook account (still free) you can view some of them on my Alamy portofolio page.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Southwark, Bermondsey & Rotherhithe – 2007

Southwark, Bermondsey & Rotherhithe: On Thursday 3rd May, 2007 I took a walk “south of the River” in Southwark, Bermondsey & Rotherhithe.

I was going to meet a few photographer friends in the evening, but when I’d finished lunch the weather looked so good and I had nothing vital to work on that afternoon so I took an early train to Waterloo, and then started to wander for the nexy three hours or so, taking a few pictures as I went.

Most of the area had been familiar to me since I began photographing London seriously back in the 1970s – some of my earlier pictures then were along parts of the riverside walkway much of which later in 1977 became part of the Silver Jubilee Walkway or later the Thames Path.

But I started away from the Thames on Southwark Street, turning down Redcross Way to the gates of Crossbones Graveyard, decorated with ribbons and strips of fabric in memory of the ‘Winchester Geese’, young women licensed by the Bishop Of Winchester to work within the liberty of the clink, where activities such as brothels, theatres (including Shakespeare’s Globe), bull and bear baiting were permitted to entertain gentlemen who were rowed across from the City.

The graveyard closed for burials in 1853, by which time there were thought to have been as many as 15,000 buried there, graves for those the church would not bury in consecrated ground, including many of the prostitutes and their young infants, but latterly many too poor to afford a proper burial. In 2007 much was still a building site but now there is a memorial garden there.

I continued in Southwark past the Charterhouse-in-Southwark Mission, on the corner of Crosby Row and Porlock St – demolished in 2011 to build affordable housing and along Long Lane to Bermondsey.

Years earlier I had written and published a folded A4 leaflet for an industrial archaeology walk around here, printing and selling several hundreds of copies on my dot-matrix printer which were used for a number of guided local history walks around the area, particularly those led by now the late local historian Stephen Humphrey. You can still download a free PDF, West Bermondsey – The leather area though parts of it are now out of date and the dot-matrix pictures are primitive but still recognisable.

I found quite a few buildings of interest in Bermondsey Street, I think all I’d photographed on previous visits, but some only previously in black and white. And some other things I had photographed, particularly in some of the alleys off the main street were either gone or changed completely, now tidily gentrified.

*The view of Tower Bridge I took from here is now blocked by buildings*

I came back to the river – or one of its creeks, St Saviours Creek at Dockhead, often said to be the mouth of the River Neckinger. It was probably never that though possibly of a very minor destributary with the main course of the river running alongside George Row several hundred yards to the east. The creek is simply that, a tidal creek, which possibly may have been used as a landing place for Bermondsey Abbey and the tide mill in this area.

Any connection with the Neckinger was lost when London’s sewers were reorganised by Bazalgette and the trickle sometimes visible into the creek is local drainage.

Going down Mill Street took me to the Thames and Bermondsey Wall West where I joined the riverside path, though mostly on the land side of warehouses, going past the huge Chambers Wharf on Chambers St with a huge cold store on the land side of the street before reaching the river again.

The path then runs beside the river to Rotherhithe, with view across the river to the City and Wapping as well as downriver to RRotherithe and Canary Wharf.

Near the well-known Angel pub was Diane Gorvin’s 1991 three part sculpture “Dr. Salter’s Daydream” which showed the doctor, his daughter Joyce who died as a child of scarlet fever, and their cat. Salter became the local MP and ran a pioneering local health service 20 or more years before the NHS. He died in 1945.

His wife Ada became the first woman mayor in London and the first Labour mayor in Britain in 1922. In 2011 the statue of Dr Salter was stolen for the metal in it. A local campaign raised £60,000 to replace it and a new statue of Ada was added to the group.

On the grass south of the riverside path are the low ruined walls a small of a small then moated manor house built by King Edward III around 1350. After his death the house was given to the abbey of St Mary Graces by the Tower and in 1399 it passed to Bermondsey Abbey.

A few yards east is the Angel pub, one of only two buildings standing on this long section of riverside. A short distance along is the second, sometimes called ‘The Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe’, four storeys tall and only around 11 foot wide. Once part of a long row of adjoining buildings it was more or less the only one left standing by bombing during the Blitz. It was the offices of lighterage firm Braithwaite & Dean, where lighters would pull in to get their orders and, importantly, their pay. They sold it in the early 1990s.

Finally I arrived in Rotherhithe where there were more pictures to be made – including several buildings and another sculpture, this showing Brunel driving a staem engine which now appears to have disappeared.

More pictures at Bermondsey & Rotherhithe.

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Just Shares, Riverside & No to the Crook, the Toff, The Fascist or Cop 2008

Just Shares, Riverside & No to the Crook, the Toff, The Fascist or Cop: Friday 2nd May 2008 was the day the results came out for the election for London Mayor and it turned out to be a sad day for London. Earlier I’d covered a protest calling on the City of London to move away from its unjust economic prcarices and then gone to an exhibition and walked along the riverside while I waited for the mayoral declaration, though it came after I had given up and left for home

Just Shares Take On The Bank – Royal Exchange, Bank

‘Just Share’, “a coalition of churches and development agencies seeking to engage with the City of London on issues of global economic injustice” and to “address the widening gap between rich and poor in the global economy” based at St Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside had organised a protest in the heart of the City, in front of the Royal Exchange and at the side of the Bank of England.

I don’t think anyone at the Bank was listening to Ann Pettifor, Guardian economist Larry Elliott or the others as they spoke on the steps of the Royal Exchange, or took seriously the seminar later by Pettifor in one of Hawksmoor’s finest churches, St Mary Woolnoth, where former slave captain John Newton, writer of ‘Amazing Grace‘, preached his last 28 years.

She argued that current global debt-based financial systems are unsustainable and that structural change is necessary which gives proper regard to actual production, and the rediscovery of the insights of earlier Christian (and of course Muslim) traditions.

more pictures

London Riverside – South Bank and Southwark

After visiting an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank next to Waterloo Bridge I walked slowly along the riverside and took a few pictures.

I was on my way to London’s City Hall, then close to Tower Bridge, owned by the government of Kuwait. In 2021 City Hall moved to a GLA-owned property in Newham, some miles to the east. The results of the London Mayoral Election were expected to be announced there in the early evening.

A few more pictures.

No to the Crook, the Toff, The Fascist or Cop -City Hall, Southwark

I sat on a wall close to City Hall reading John Updike’s novel ‘Terrorist’ which is perhaps why I attracted quite so much attention from a Metropolitan police FIT team (Forward Intelligence Team) photographer who took a number of photographs of me sitting there. I don’t object to being photographed, but was a little surprised when later I put in a Freedom of Information request to find the Met claimed they had no pictures of me, despite having photographed me working at many protests.

Protesters from various anarchist groups including Class War had come to City Hall to wait for the new London Mayor to be announced, though they were clear that they were against all the candidates – who they described as the Crook, the Toff, The Fascist and the Cop (there were six others also standing including Green Party candidate Sian Berry who got more votes than “the fascist” BNP candidate.

The protesters were allowed to protest in front of City Hall for around 35 minutes until Fitwatch went into action to frustrate the FIT teams (who could really use a little more intelligence) enclosing one of them in their banner.

Police called up their waiting reinforcements and the TSG arrived four minutles later and began to push the demonstrators, along with some bystanders, mainly tourists, towards the waiting pen which had been set up a short distance away.

One French woman was bemused. “But why are they just letting themselves be pushed” she asked me as I took photographs. “Because this is England and not France” I replied.

I watched as police told a man leaning peacefully on the river wall watching that he had to move as he was “obstructing the highway“. Clearly he wasn’t (though the police were) and he refused to move. They dragged him from the wall, claimed he was struggling (visibly he wasn’t), handcuffed him and led him away to one of the over 40 police vans parked nearby.

I showed my press card and for once was allowed through the police line obstructing the riverside path and made my way to a public balcony overlooking the area. “Cannier protesters had moved away faster, and were able to display their banner” for a couple of minutes but as I arrived they saw the police coming after them and made a run for a nearby pub.

“The police obviously couldn’t be bothered to chase them, and contented themselves with moving the innocent public away from the balcony, and after a short time, also moving the press.” I joined the protesters in the pub for a drink before leaving for home.

By the time I arrived home Boris Johnson (the Toff) had been announced as the winner and London suffered from a dysfunctional mayor for the next 8 years as he was again elected in 2012. Later those the police had penned were allowed to go home.

Many more pictures.

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Pictures from London – April 2003

Pictures from London: On Thursday 24th April I had booked to go to an event in the evening and as it was a nice day went up earlier and took a walk around and a few pictures. Some of these along with others taken when walking to, from and between events at around the same date I posted later on My London Diary – without any captions.

Here are some of those and you may like to guess exactly where in London they were taken – some are glaringly obvious, but others are difficult for me now to place, though I think I can still do so.

If you can place all twelve you are doing very well. There are rather more pictures on My London Diary which may provide some more clues. I’ll try to remember to post the answers – I’ve numbered the pictures – in a comment in a few days time if others have not done so.

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Diamonds, Peace & St George – 2016

Diamonds, Peace & St George: St George’s Day, 23rd April, celebrates the death of this Cappadocian Greek soldier in the Roman Army martyred on this day in AD 303 for refusing to recant his Christian faith. We know little about his life, but can be sure that he never killed a dragon.

As I commented back in 2005, “St George keeps busy as a patron saint of Canada, Catalonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Palestine and Portugal, as well as a number of cities including Moscow and Venice, a whole raft of trades including farmers and soldiers, as well as herpes and syphilis. It’s perhaps surprising he still has time for England, although until recently you would hardly have noticed it in any case.“

It is also at least 23 other national days around the world, a few of which are related to the birth of Shakespeare who was most probably born on April 23, 1564. But I won’t be celebrating National Talk Like Shakespeare Day, World Table Tennis Day, National Cherry Cheesecake Day or any of the rest, though I suppose there is just an outside chance I might dabble with German Beer Day (though I’m more partial to British Bitter, increasingly a rare species, which has its day on June 15th.)

My day began with two protests against the selling of blood diamonds from Sierra Leone at leading London stores, before I went to Trafalgar Square to briefly visit the unimpressive St George’s Day event there. I ate my sandwiches in the Peace Garden at the Imperial War Museum before going to a St George’s Day procession in Southwark from St George’s Cathedral to the church of St George the Martyr, and finally went to a pub in Southwark with a couple of friends where I met and photographed two St Georges.

Sierra Leone Blood Diamonds at Selfridges – Oxford St

Diamonds, Peace & St George - 2016 — *Octea mine diamonds in Sierra Leone, Tiffany sell them in Selfridges and children in Kono die*

People from the Kono district of Sierra Leone protested at Selfridges on Oxford St as part of a global demonstration against the financial partnership of Tiffany & Co with Octea, the largest diamond mining company in Sierra Leone. They say people in Kono suffer and die because of Octea’s diamond mining.

Octea, wholly owned by Israeli billionaire, Benny Steinmetz is operated by former mercenaries and has been allowed to operate without a licence and tax free. The protesters say it’s operation defies all national and international legal norms and ethics.

Sierra Leone Blood Diamonds at Selfridges

Sierra Leone Blood Diamonds at Tiffanys – Sloane Square

From Selfridges the group went on to Tiffanys. Police told them they could not protest on the wide pavement there but must go across to protest in a pen set aside for them in the square opposite.

After some argument they did so, although there seemed to be no reason other than lessening the impact of the protest for the police to move them. Why UK police should take the side of Tiffany and support illegal diamond mining by Octea that defies all national and international legal norms and ethics is hard to understand.

Sierra Leone Blood Diamonds at Tiffany

St Georges Day in Trafalgar Square

St George was there and you could have your picture taken with a dragon and the square was filled with long tables where you could sit and eat food from the many stalls set up around the edges of the square.

Everyone got handed little St George’s flags, but there seemed to be little going on and little real atmosphere. Perhaps things might have picked up later in the day, but I didn’t feel like returning.

St Georges Day in London

Peace Garden

Instead I ate my sandwiches in the Samten Kyil (Garden of Contemplation) in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park commissioned by Tibet Foundation, designed by sculptor Hamish Horsley and opened by the Dalai Lama in 1999. A few yards from the Imperial War Museum it was conveniently just across the road from where my next event was to start.

Peace Garden at War Museum

St George in Southwark Procession – St George’s Cathedral to St George the Martyr

A procession for St George’s Day, led by St George, a Roman Emperor, the Mayor of Southwark and others and with a dragon at its rear made its way from the St George’s RC Cathedral to the Church of England St George the Martyr in Borough High Street. It was a part of ‘A Quest for Community’ with the aim of ‘Taming the dragon of difference’ and was followed by a play outside St George the Martyr telling the true story of St George, a Roman solider from Palestine who chose death rather than give up his Christian faith.

*From right to left: St George, Emperor Diocletian, the priestess or haruspex and the emperor’s daughter*

I’d not been inside this building before and we had an interesting tour of the building before the procession. Designed by Augustus Pugin it was gutted by incendiary bombing in 1942, left it with only walls and one chapel standing but was rebuilt to the same plan, finishing in 1958.

The route was an interesting one and along streets I had previously photographed – and went past the blue plaque where photographer Bert Hardy was born – and I was able to tell the Mayor something about one of Southwark’s more famous.

We arrived rather late at St George the Martyr and I had to leave shortly after the beginning of a play about St George being performed there by local children – possibly something of a relief.

St George in Southwark Procession

St Georges in the Kings Arms – Newcomen Street

Two of my photographer friends had been going to come to the St George procession, but had apparently been unable to find St George’s Cathedral. Instead we had arranged to meet afterwards at the King’s Arms, a traditional British pub just off Borough High Street.

Among those drinking there were not one but two St George’s and I photographed both of them, one with his fortunately rather friendly dragon.

Pictures at the bottom of the My London Diary page St Georges Day in London.

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Deptford & Greenwich – 2005

Deptford & Greenwich: Some pictures from two bike rides in April 2005, the second cut rather short by a puncture, around one of my favourite areas of London, mainly along the southern bank of the River Thames. The area has changed fairly dramatically in recent years with new blocks of riverside flats replacing riverside industry, much of which had already ceased work by 2005. I first photographed here around 1980 and it still now makes an interesting walk (or ride) and I’ve done most or all of it a few times since 2005.

As usual I’ll post a slightly amended version of what I wrote at the time on My London Diary together with links to that site which has some more pictures. But I didn’t write anything about the actual pictures except the captions.

It was a fine sunny day on Thursday 21 April 2005 and I put my Brompton folding bike on the train to Waterloo, then cycled east from there to Deptford and Geenwich, taking another trip along one of my favourite riverside paths around the Greenwich Peninsula.

North Greenwich is still interesting, although the area by the Dome is now rather bleak. Time went surprisingly quickly, and I had only got just past the Dome when it was time to make my way back.

Just over a week later I tried to take up the ride from where I left off, but only made it as far as the footbridge over Deptford Creek, when I heard a loud bang as my rear tyre punctured. I should have stopped, mended the puncture and gone on, but I couldn’t face it.

I wheeled the bike to Greenwich station, got on the train and came home. One of my few gripes about the Brompton is that mending punctures is a bit of a pain; the small tyres are hard to take off and even harder to replace, and if you want to take the rear wheel off, it is a rather tricky business that I’ve yet to master. I have tyres with kevlar inserts that are supposed to be puncture-resistant, but they don’t seem very effective.