London Walk January 2006: I now have no idea why I spent around two and a half hours wandering around London on the afternoon of 20th January 2006, but the pictures tell the story of my route. These images are a selection from a rather larger number I actually made. [The pictures are larger than they appear in this post and you may download them, but like all pictures on this blog are copyright; they must be attributed if posted on social media and a licence is required for any commercial use.]
I suspect I was going to some evening event and simply took advantage of some fine weather to go up earlier and take some pictures. The first one shows some of the sculptural detail above the outpatients entrance of the former Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women on Waterloo Road the roundabout close to the station, where I will have arrived by train.
On Waterloo Bridge I took several pictures looking downstream across the River Thames, this one concentrating on the north bank and St Paul’s Cathedral.
And these fine fish on Lloyds Bank Law Court Branch at 222 Strand, then still open as a bank – it closed in 2017. It had been called the most beautiful bank in the country. The fish are presumably because this Grade II listed building was built in 1882 by Goymour Cuthbert and W Wimble for the Palsgave Restaurant for the Royal Courts of Justice opposite and was only taken over by Lloyds in 1894.
Above the doorway at 193 Fleet Street is this figure of statue of Kaled, the page of Byron’s Count Lara by Giuseppe Grandi, dating from 1872. More about it on Ornamental Passions.
The building was built for pawnbrokers George Attenborough and Son in 1883 and has some fine sculptural detail including these winged lions, on either side of the wrought iron support from which originally the pawnbrokers three balls were hung. The Latin motto underneath is ‘Sub Hoc floresco‘, Under This I flourish.
On each side of the clock of St Dunstan’s in the West on Fleet Street are the two mythical giants, Gog and Magog (Corineus and Gogmagog) described in the biblical book of Revelation as the allies of Satan against God when we come to the end of days, but also the guardians of London – and the City is surely on Satan’s side as the money laundering capital of the world. They strike the chimes for the clock here, said to be the oldest public clock in London.
Epiphany Rising Against King: On Monday 7 January 1660 (1661 by our modern calendar – New Year back then was the 25th March) Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary “This morning, news was brought to me to my bedside, that there had been a great stir in the City this night by the Fanatiques, who had been up and killed six or seven men, but all are fled. My Lord Mayor and the whole City had been in arms, above 40,000.”
The Fanatiques – a term used to describe the Fifth Monarches (and other nonconformists) believed that the killing of King Charles in 1649 had brought to an end of the last of the four kingdoms mentions in the biblical Book of Daniel – considered as the end of the Empire of Rome (before that had come Babylon, Persia and the Greeks – though there were many other interpretations) and that the time was near for the second coming and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Their uprising was against the re-establishment of monarchy in 1660.
Led by preacher and cooper Thomas Venner they marched from a religious meeting in Swan Alley to take forcibly the keys to St Pauls Cathedral which they then occupied for some hours. Here the band of around 50 men defeated a much larger body of troops sent to capture them, but then failed to decide what to do next, and went out into the woods at Kenwood north of London. Three days later on 9th January they came back to the City and first forced the soldiers sent to stop them to retreat but were finally defeated by a much larger body of soldiers. Twenty-six of them were killed and twenty soldiers also died.
Venner and around 50 others were arrested and tried. Venner was hanged, drawn and quartered on 19 January 1661. His head and those of 12 others were then displayed on London Bridge.
Pepys has a longer entry in his diary for the 9th January about the insurrection – and on seeing everyone else carrying arms he went back home “and got my sword and pistol, which, however, I had no powder to charge” but after taking a walk into the city he “went home and sat, it being office day, till noon.” Later he was persuaded to go out, but then went home and played his lute then went to bed “there being strict guards all night in the City, though most of the enemies, they say, are killed or taken.”
In January 2013, Ian Bone and Class War collaborated with film-maker Suzy Gillett to film a re-enactment of the events of 1661, including a number of speeches and performances about the original events before setting off behind a banner made for the occasion led by a young woman playing the role of Baptist visionary prophet Anna Trapnel, a Fifth Monarchist best known for her 1653 tract ‘The cry of a stone” which recorded her speaking in a trance in Whitehall at great length, in particular berating Oliver Cromwell who many felt was by then setting up a new monarchy. In it she said “the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus is at hand, all the Monarchies of this world are going down the hill: Now is a time that thine should look off from the fethings, and lift up their head, for their Redemption draws near.”
You can read an account of what happened in 2013 on My London Diary at Epiphany Rising Against King or another account by another of those taking part, Paul Brad, also illustrated by my photographs.
St Paul’s, Lord Mayor’s Show, Somalia, Egypt & Abortion: Occupy London were still encamped at St Paul’s Cathedral on the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s Show which made the day a little more interesting than usual. But also on Saturday 12th November 2011 I visited the cathedral, went with Occupy to protest against UK arms supplies to the Egyptian Army and covered a protest about the continuing war in Somalia and a ‘500 crosses for Life’ anti-abortion procession.
The Lord Mayor’s Show & Occupy
After blessing the Lord Mayor, St Paul’s Canon in Residence Rt Revd Michael Colclough came at their request and blessed Occupy LSX in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. Later the camp hosted a ‘Not the Lord Mayors Show‘ festival of entertainment.
Occupy had set up a polling booth close to the route to point out the uniquely undemocratic nature of the City of London, where ordinary voters are outnumbered 4 to 1 by the votes of corporations which results in it promoting “a radical bankers’ agenda at odds with the interests and democratic desire of the British people.”
Occupy also received many more visitors than usual because of the crowds who had come up for the procession and after the official event had ended put on their own ‘NOT The Lord Mayor’s Show’, “a festival for the people, which aims to place the celebratory atmosphere of the traditional event in a non-hierarchical and community-focused environment.”
On the web site a supporter stated “We will not have golden carriages, we will not have military costumes, we will not have a marching band, but we are going to enjoy ourselves. This is about valuing people and community, rather than privileging the undemocratically elected Lord Mayor of the City of London.”
Before I left there was a show with comedians, spoken word artists and singers in a show compèred by stand-up comedian Andy Zaltzman. Later there was to be a special general meeting with speakers including John McDonnell MP. And as it was also Remembrance weekend, in the evening the camp was hosting the UK première of ‘The Welcome’, an award-winning US documentary film about a project for dealing with post-traumatic stress involving ex-soldiers and their family members.
I took some time away from Occupy to photograph the rather strange mix of floats and walking groups that make up the Lord Mayor’s Show.
There were the various groups from London’s guilds – including the Launderers in the picture, though the only laundering that goes on in London these days is of money with London being the world capital for making dirty money seem respectable.
And floats for a wide range of organisations – and there were some which it was rather harder to know quite what they represented with more carnival costumes.
Together with many of those at OccupyLSX who were also watching, I found the marching servicemen, military vehicles and weapons and military bands that are a major element of it disturbing. Like much of the celebration they look back to when Britain ruled the world.
The City of London is of course an anachronism, though now one that hides the ruthless pursuit of profit by any means it can get away with, including the now clearly immoral support of highly polluting industries such as fossil fuels which now threaten the future of many species on Earth including our own.
Entry to St Paul’s Cathedral except to attend services normally costs what they describe as a “small fee”, now £25 per adult, though only £14.50 in 2011. But entry is free on the day of the Lord Mayor’s show (though slightly restricted) and I took advantage of this to go the ‘Stone Gallery’ around the bottom of the dome where photography was allowed.
And I took full advantage of this, making rather a lot of pictures in every available direction, a few of which I’ve put online.
International Day to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian Revolution had begun with high hopes as a part of the Arab Spring and toppled the Mubarek regime, but since then things had not gone well for the coutry, with the army taking charge.
Since then there had been over 2000 trials in military courts, without the ability to call witnesses or access to lawyers in a programme of repression against any opposition. Many have been sentenced to death, and torture remains widespread. Many of those imprisoned are underage and women have been subjected to rapes and sexual assault.
The UK government supported the Egyptian military and UK arms manufacturers supply the army and police there with the weapons needed to maintain their repression.
A group of protesters from OccupyLSX as well as some Egyptians and Sam Weinstein of the US Utility Workers Union left for a ‘march of shame’ to the offices of 3 arms dealers, Qinetiq, BAE and Rolls Royce, who had gone to Egypt with Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011 to sell arms to the Egyptian army.
The protesters condemned the violence against the people of Egypt and called on the UK government to withhold support to Egypt and stop arms sales until a civilian government dedicated to freedom and civil rights is in power in Egypt.
I left them at Ludgate Circus on their way to the offices.
Somalis Protest Obama’s War – Old Palace Yard, Westminster
I paid a brief visit to Old Palace Yard opposite the House of Lords where a protest had been announces against the US-backed proxy war by Ethiopia against Somalia.
But when I arrived at the time the protest was supposed to start I found only three men and a boy there, with a number of placards. The men assured me more would arrive later, and I did return two hours later but found the place deserted. I think by then the protesters might have left to protest at the Ethiopian embassy in Kensington rather than outside an empty Parliament.
But my return to Westminster was not fruitless as I came across another protest, with several hundred people carrying white crosses in an anti-abortion ‘500 crosses for Life’ prayer procession.
This had started at Westminster Cathedral and when I met it was leaving Old Palace Yard and walking towards its end at Westminster Abbey.
I went with them in the fading light around 4.30pm and took some pictures. As I wrote back in 2011, “I don’t share the views of the Catholic Church on abortion and find the use of the term ‘pro-life’ by those opposed to abortion to describe themselves offensive. It’s an area where we need clear and unpredjudiced thinking and where all – whatever their view on abortion – are concerned with life and the quality of life.”
A speaker at the rally gave thanks for the activities of those in Germany who were protesting outside abortion clinics. I’m pleased by the recent announcement that these activities are now to be severely restricted in England and Wales with safe access zones.
In 2011 I commented “isn’t harassing women who go to clinics at what is almost certainly for them a very stressful time morally offensive, a demonstration of an un-Christian lack of love as well as a statement of lack of faith in the power of prayer?”
Occupy London Begins: On Saturday 15 Oct 2011 over 2000 protesters came to St Paul’s Cathedral as a part of a world-wide ‘Occupy’ protest “Inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, and answering to the call out made by the Spanish Plataforma ¡Democracia Real YA! in May 2011 for a Global Day Of Action” and Occupy London began.
Similar protests were taking place in “Spain, Rome, New York, Portugal, Chile, Berlin,Brussels, Zageb, and many more … inspired by the example of Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring.”
Although people from various groups were present, including the Education Activists Network, Socialist Workers Party, Anonymous, Right to Work, UK Uncut, South London Solidarity Federation and there were several well known figures present who spoke including Peter Tatchell and Julian Assange, the whole movement deliberately lacked overall organisation with all decisions being taken by General Assemblies with the slogan ‘No Leaders, No Hierarchy’.
A General Assembly on 9th October on Westminster Bridge plans the occupation
The event had actually come about from one such assembly on Sunday 9th October at the end of the ‘Block the Bridge NHS Protest‘ when a ‘General Assembly’ of several hundreds had come together at the north end of Westminster Bridge to discuss and endorse a planned occupation of the London Stock Exchange area.
In response to this the Stock Exchange obtained a High Court injunction to prevent public access to Paternoster Square, one of the increasingly large areas which appear to be public space in the city but are actually now privately owned, although previously Paternoster Row was a public street and police were present in force to enforce this injunction.
Most of the several thousand protesters were intent on an entirely peaceful protest, calling for a democratic revolution to “fight for a new political and economic system that puts people, democracy and the environment before profit.” They saw that “Our political elites have chosen to protect corporations, financial institutions and the rich at the expense of the majority.“
After a few short speeches a few hundred protesters, led by the banner of the Education Activist Network made and attempt to enter the square through Temple Bar, but police on foot and horses were waiting for them, and the relatively narrow entrance of the Bar, moved here a few years ago, was designed to be easily defended.
They then made a tour around the block containing the Stock Exchange but found the narrow passages leading to Paternoster Square heavily defended by police. When finally they found one with only a thin line of a thin line of police, the protesters hesitated for long enough for the police to bring up reinforcements. It was probably for the best as they would have immediately been easily kettled inside the square had they got in.
Eventually a General Meeting began on the steps of St Paul’s. There were a few minor scuffles when police pushed protesters around, which could probably have been avoided had police explained clearly that they only intended to clear a path to clear a path into and out of the cathedral at one end of the steps. Several people were arrested then and later.
I decided to leave, as it really seemed unlikely that anything much more would happen for some time. As I was leaving, police decided to block Ludgate Hill, but along with a group of several hundred protesters I managed to get through their line as it was forming.
The General Assembly takes a show of hands to remain at St Paul’s
Police continued to clear protesters from the steps of St Paul’s and urging people to leave the area, but many set up tents on the level area of St Paul’s Churchyard and the occupation had begun – and was to remain in place until finally removed on 28th February 2012. You can read a great deal about the occupation in the Occupy London web site which includes the various statements agreed by consensus at Occupy London General Assemblies. Unfortunately Wikipedia’s article on Occupy London is unusually poor and misleading about the events of 15th October.
Occupy & Women’s Equality – On Saturday 19 November 2011 Occupy London was in full swing in St Paul’s Churchyard and elsewhere and the Fawcett Society were protesting against government cuts that were reversing the movement to greater equality for women.
Don’t Turn The Clock Back – Temple to Westminster
The Fawcett Society were angered by government’s cuts which they said were putting the clock back on the advances which women have made towards equality since the 1950s, and had organised a march in protest with a 1950s theme.
Many of the marchers, mainly women, had come dressed in 1950s styles “ranging from the most elegant of Paris fashion of the day to aprons, hairnets and curlers. Others carried brushes or brooms, wooden spoons or other kitchen implements as symbols of what they felt was the only role our government can envisage for women, the ‘good little wife’.”
Many women had been particularly angered by the sexist and patronising putdown in parliament made by then Prime Minister David Cameron, a man who a few days ago made a surprising return to a leading role in UK politics. Probably insulated as he has been from normal life by an education at Eton and Oxford and wealth he thought little about his sexist and patronising put-down ‘Calm Down Dear!’ to Labour’s Angela Eagle in the House of Commons, but it enraged at least half the nation.
On the march people chanted ‘Calm Down Dear!’ followed by the deafening response ‘No We Won’t!‘ The marchers also had some caustic comments directed at the press (though not us journalists covering the march) for their “belittlling labelling of some groups of women in public life – such as ‘Blair’s Babes‘ – as well as the general predominance of semi-pornographic imagery and demeaning attitudes to women.”
But it was the cuts that really were the focus of the march, particularly the cuts in public services. A majority of those who will lose their jobs are women, employed in the NHS and elsewhere. And women depend more on the various services that will be cut, and will also have disproportionally to provide unpaid services such as care to make up for those cut. Finally the cuts in pensions will also have a larger effect on women who were already seeing a raise in their pension age.
The Fawcett Society was founded in 1866 to campaign peacefully for votes for women and remains a powerful campaigning organisation for equal rights. It had called on a wide range of speakers for its rally including journalist Tanya Gold, Estelle Hart, NUS Women’s Officer, comedians Kate Smurthwaite and Josie Lond, Heather Wakefield of Unison, Vivienne Hayes from the Women’s Resource Centre, Chitra Nagarajan of Southall Black sisters. Aisha Mirza from UK Uncut and a spokesperson for the Turkish and Kurdish Refugee Women’s group.
I’d visited Occupy in St Paul’s Churchyard briefly before going to photograph the Fawcett Society march and returned later in the day to visit the ‘Bank of Ideas’ in Sun Street and Occupy Finsbury Circus before returning to St Pauls to hear a range of speakers on other campaigns both in London and around the world, including news of the Occupy movement from the USA and Bristol, where the occupation seems not to have attracted the opposition shown by the City authorities and sections of the church in London.
A meeting in progress in the Bank of Ideas
The Bank of Ideas was an empty former UBS bank building in Sun Street that was occupied and used for a wide range of meetings and discussions.
Occupy Finsbury SquarePeople listen to a wide range of speakers on the steps of St PaulsJeremy CorbynVivienne Westwood
Later a group who had taken part in the non-Stop Picket of South Africa House started by the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group on 19 April 1986 shared some of their songs and their experience.
They had defied defied the attempts of British police, the British government and the South African embassy to remove them for almost 4 years until Mandela was released in 1990. There had been around a thousand arrests, but 96% of the cases brought to court were dismissed. Before this they had organised a number of shorter non-stop protests outside the embassy, the first of which in 1981 lasted 86 days and resulted in South African political prisoners including David Kitson being moved to better conditions.
The official Anti-Apartheid Movement opposed their actions and expelled them from the movement, warned trade union and local anti-apartheid groups not to have anything to do with them and asked Westminster Council to remove them. It wanted to avoid any confrontation with the British Government and opposed the City of London group’s support for other African liberation movements as well as the African National Congress.
I did some travelling around Central London on Saturday 19th November 2011, from the City to Westminster mainly to cover various aspects of Occupy London, but also to a march about women’s rights organised by the Fawcett Society.
Saturday Morning Occupy London – St Paul’s Cathedral, Saturday 19 November 2011
My work began at St Paul’s Cathedral, where five weeks earlier I had come with Occupy who were intending to Occupy the nearby Stock Exchange. Police had managed to deny them access to the ‘private’ public Paternoster Square in front of the Stock Exchange, and they had instead set up camp at St Paul’s, where they were still in occupation.
For various reasons, not least my age and health, I hadn’t felt able to take part in this occupation though I felt a great deal of sympathy with its aims, and living on the edge of London had not been able to commit myself to photographing it like some other photographers, but I had kept in touch and had called in a number of times at St Paul’s and to the related occupation at Finsbury Square, as well as meeting people from Occupy taking part in other protests.
There was nothing particular scheduled for my visit on this Saturday morning – it was rather more a social call and an opportunity to find out more about what would be happening later in the day. The occupation at St Paul’s continued until the end of February, and I was sorry to be on a hillside in the north of England when I got a phone call from Occupy LSX asking for me to come and take pictures of the anticipated eviction and unable to make it.
Don’t Turn The Clock Back – Embankment to Westminster, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
I walked from St Paul’s to Temple, where around a thousand people, mainly women, were preparing to march from Temple past Downing St to a rally next to the Treasury in King Charles St, calling to the government not to turn back time on women’s equality though the cuts they were making.
The Fawcett Society who had organised the march say the cuts will put the clock back on the advances which women have made towards equality since the 1950s, and called on those taking part in the protest to come in 1950s style, variously interpreted by those taking part from Paris fashions to carrying brushes or brooms, wooden spoons or other kitchen implements as symbols of what they felt was the only role our government can envisage for women, the “good little wife.”
When the march neared Downing Street the slogans changed to ‘Calm Down Dear!’ with the deafening response ‘No We Won’t‘, repeating David Cameron’s sexist and patronising put down directed at Labour MP Angela Eagle in the House of Commons.
There were criticisms of the press for their belittling labelling of some groups of women in public life – such as ‘Blair’s Babes’ – as well as the general predominance of semi-pornographic imagery and demeaning attitudes to women. But most of the criticism was aimed at the government for the cuts which will affect women disproportionally as many more women than men in the NHS and other public sector services will lose their jobs and women are more dependent on these services than men.
As well as the Fawcett Society, founded in 1866 to campaign peacefully for votes for women and still a powerful campaigning organisation for equal rights, many other organisations were represented on the march from across society and politics, including journalists, trade unionists, and campaigning organisations including Southall Black Sisters, UK Uncut and the Turkish and Kurdish Refugee Women’s group.
Bank of Ideas & Finsbury Square – Sun Street & Finsbury Square, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
Occupy had set up The Bank of Ideas in a disused bank building, empty for several years, on Sun St and there I was able to listen to one of many talks taking place – an interesting and detailed presentation and question and answer session on the surveillance society.
I walked the short distance to Finsbury Square and made a few pictures of the tents in the Occupy camp there, but there were very few people around and little was happening.
I was told most of the residents had either gone to take part in events at the Bank of Ideas or at St Paul’s, where I then also made my way to.
Speakers At Occupy London – St Paul’s Cathedral, Saturday 19 Nov 2011
On the steps of St Paul’s I joined a crowd of a few hundred listening to speakers giving news from other occupations including those in New York and Bristol.
They were followed by a number of others who had come to give their support to Occupy, including among others Jeremy Corbyn, Vivienne Westwood and the now retired Methodist minister David Haslam who has been involved with many campaigns over the years.
City of London Anti-Apartheid Group At Occupy London – Saturday 19 November 2011
Also visiting St Paul’s to give support were a group who had taken part in the Non-Stop Picket of South Africa House started by the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group on 19 April 1986 who defied attempts by British police, the British government and the South African embassy to remove them for almost 4 years until Nelson Mandela was finally released in 1990. Over a thousand arrests were made – including of Jeremy Corbyn, but 96% of these were dismissed by the courts.
The picket gained widespread support around the world but were attacked and disowned by the official leadership of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, because of their support for revolutionary movements other than the ANC, and because the official movement wanted to avoid confrontation with the UK government. The group had been expelled from the AAM around a year before their long non-stop protest began, after carrying out a number of shorter protests. The group came and spoke about the protest and also sang – singing played an important part in keeping up their four year non-stop vigil outside South Africa House.
Epiphany Rising Against Monarchy Relatively few nowadays observe the 12 days of Christmas which come to an end on January 6th with Epiphany. Traditionally in the UK and some other countries it was when Christmas decorations were taken down, but also a feast day celebrating the arrival of the Three Kings with their gifts. Nowadays most seem to put up decorations even before the start of Advent and often take them down by the New Year.
Ian Bone holds a picture of Thomas Venner
Epiphany gained a new importance in literature and moved to entirely lower case in the work of James Joyce, where his hero Stephen Daedalus defines it as “a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself.” Epiphanies are moments of revelation that change the the way a character or person sees life or a particular situation, suddenly seeing things in a new light. I think all great photographs are epiphanies.
Ian Bone speaks
But getting back to the 6th of January, and in particular the 6th of January 1661 which was the subject of a partial re-enactment on the 6th of January 2013, we need to remember the centrality of religion in those times. Though many might now protest against the monarchy, particularly in recent days over the ennobling of a war criminal and the alleged criminal acts against minors by one of the royal family, few would now do so for the kind of religious reasons that led Thomas Venner and his fellow Fifth Monarchists to carry out a bloody armed insurrection in the City of London.
As I wrote in My London Diary:
The Fifth Monarchists were an important religious movement in England during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, seeing the execution of King Charles as being part of the fulfulment of the Biblical prophesy in the book of Daniel about the end of the four kingdoms of history being followed by the “rule of a son of man” for a thousand years (which they took as the rule by the Pope) after which would come the Christ’s reign on earth. For this to happen, the old order had to be ended by violence – as had begun with the beheading of the king.
They included three of those who had signed the execution warrant, but they soon become disillusioned with Cromwell, who they saw as trying to make himself a king and they began to agitate against him. Thomas Venner was imprisoned for several years for plotting to overthrow Cromwell, but released when Richard Cromwell became Protector.s
They were incensed by the restoration of the monarchy, and in particular by the savagery shown by the new order against the ‘regicides’, including Fifth Monarchist Major-General Harrison who showed great bravery during his gruesome public execution by hanging, drawing and quartering.
Like Venner’s the re-enactment began at Swan Alley (now Great Swan Alley) and with around a similar number of his 50 or so followers, and were variously armed with pikes and other weapons. The event in 2013 began with a speech by Ian Bone about the history of the earlier event, followed by several other anarchists and socialists whose comments related the it to our current times. The event was for a short film, Epiphany, with Ian Bone as writer working with director Suzy Gillett.
I suspect Venner’s address was rather more fiery, but we did have a very fine banner, with a heraldic lion and the text ‘Who shall rouse him up?’, and as in 1661 the mob was led out of the yard by a young woman bearing a pike and the battle cry “King Jesus and the heads upon the gates“. Among those taking part was Sam, grandson of Philip Sidney Noakes, the last of the Muggletonians, another of the radical seventeenth century religious movements with his daughter Rachel.
Sam, grandson of Philip Sidney Noakes, the last of the Muggletonians, with his daughter Rachel
There were other anarchist banners and black and red flags and banners and people shouted some of the old slogans, ‘King Jesus‘, ‘Heads On Pikes‘ and ‘Nobility In Chains’. Though some were carrying axes and hammers, certainly illegal offensive weapons, none were put into use into what was a rather tame stroll with a number of stops to allow the film director Suzy Gillett to move the camera into position on the way via the Guildhall to the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.
There the group were content with posing for photographs, rather than following Venner’s example and storming in and holding it for several days, along with other parts of the city, until finally the army was sent in against them. Most were then killed and the others captured after a long and bloody fight. Venner himself was wounded in 19 places before he was finally overpowered.
Together with ten others after a brief trial he was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered; the sentence was carried out in front of the meeting place of his congregation in Swan Yard on 19 Jan 1661. Many other Fifth Monarchists who had taken no part in the rising were hunted down and hung or imprisoned, and draconian laws were enacted against dissenters but this did not end the movement.
Ten years ago was a very busy day for me in London. Saturday 12th November was the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s Show, which I’d photographed occasionally in previous years, but probably would not have bothered with, but it was made far more interesting this year by the presence of the Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral.
I went up quite early to photograph the camp where later in the day Occupy LSX were to hold there own alternative ‘Not the Lord Mayors Show’ festival of entertainment, and wandered around talking to people and taking a few pictures.
I also went to take photographs of some of those preparing to take part in the Lord Mayor’s Show, and then took pictures as the parade began. As I commented, “I found the marching servicemen, military vehicles and weapons and military bands that are a major element of it disturbing. Of course the event as a whole reflects earlier times, with the city aldermen and liverymen in quaint costumes, but it would be appropriate for it to present a rather more civilised face to the world.
As in other years, the Lord Mayor’s coach stopped at St Pauls for him to be blessed by the Canon in Residence Rt Revd Michael Colclough. Occupy LSX asked the cathedral staff if the Canon would bless them too, and though the staff were very doubtful, the Canon came to talk with the people from Occupy and then blessed them too.
Entry to St Pauls, other than to take part in services usually involved paying a fee – back in 2011 it was £14.50 – but is free on the day of the Lord Mayor’s Show, and I took the opportunity to go in and up to the ‘Stone Gallery’ around the base of the dome (the higher ‘Golden Gallery’ was closed because of the crowds) and take some pictures there.
I took the District Line to Westminster for an advertised protest against Ethiopia’s war against Somalia, only to find there were only three men and a small boy at the advertised starting time, though they had a number of placards against what they describe as genocide and ‘Obama’s Proxy War’. They assured me more people would arrive and that the protest would continue for five or six hours, but when I came back again two house later there was no sign of it.
I returned to the City, where some protesters were setting off from the OccupyLSX camp at St Paul’s Cathedral for a ‘tour of shame’, visiting the offices of 3 arms dealers, Qinetiq, BAE and Rolls Royce, who went with David Cameron to Egypt in February to sell arms to the Egyptian army. This was a part of the International Day to Defend the Egyptian Revolution which had toppled the Mubarek regime, but the army had taken charge and there had been more than 12,000 trials in military courts, without the ability to call witnesses or access to lawyers in a programme of repression against the people. They called on the UK government to end support for the Egyptian military and stop selling them arms which might be used in further massacres such as that in Maspero a month earlier when soldiers opened fire killing 27 Coptic Christians and injuring over 300.
I left the marchers at Ludgate Circus and walked back to see what was happening with Occupy SLX at St Paul’s, then took the District Line again to Westminster to see if the Somali protest had grown. There was no sign of it, but I found another protest just leaving Old Palace Yard for a rally outside Westminster Abbey. This was the ‘500 Crosses for Life’ prayer procession, organised by EuroProLife UK, a “European ecumenical initiative” based in Germany with the full title “European Voice of the Unborn Children: Protect Our Life”, and there were several hundred people carrying white crosses.
They had walked from Westminster Cathedral to a rally here and a speaker at the rally was describing and applauding protests outside clinics in Germany where abortions take place. I found this disturbing – and commented on My London Diary “People have a right to their views on abortion, and to hold peaceful protests such as this and of course to pray about the matter. But isn’t harassing women who go to clinics at what is almost certainly for them a very stressful time morally offensive, a demonstration of an un-Christian lack of love as well as a statement of lack of faith in the power of prayer?”
Dorset Rise runs up from Tudor St towards Fleet Street, changing its name further up to Salisbury Court and lies at what was the heart of the newspaper industry in ‘Fleet St’. This building at 1-2 Dorset Rise dates from the 1930s and was reclad around 1985. In 2012-3 it was converted into a Premier Inn hotel.
Dorset Rise, City, 1987
3 Dorset Rise is a high quality 10 storey office building, sometimes said to have been built in 1985 but probably dating from the 1930s and like the hotel at 1-2 given a new shiny pink brown granite facing in that year. I am unsure if the deco touches at the top of these blocks date from the 1930s or were added in 1985.
Kingscote St, City, 1987
I had forgotten where Kingscote St is and had to look for it on Google Maps. Its a short street, around 50 metres long, between Watergate and Tudor St, a short distance west of New Bridge St. One side is occupied by a hotel and the other by a large shared office building. I think this doorway, now slightly altered was at the rear of 100 Victoria Embankment, better known as Unilever House, where Watergate meets Kingscote but if so the sculpture I photographed has gone.
Blackfriars House, New Bridge St, City, 1987
Blackfriars House on New Bridge St is a rather dull building with some fine detail and perhaps surprisingly is Grade II listed, the text beginning “1913-16 by F. W. Troup. Steel-framed commercial building with white majolica facing. 7 storeys, the rectilinear structural grid expressed in the facade which is, however, divided in a classically-derived manner.” My picture I think makes it look a far more interesting building than it really is. It is now a hotel.
The Blackfriar, New Bridge St, Queen Victoria St, City, 1987
The Blackfriar is a fine pub built around 1875 on the corner of Queen Victoria St, part of the site of a former friary. But it only got the decoration which gave rise to its Grade II* listing in the early years of the twentieth century, beginning in 1905, with work by architect Herbert Fuller-Clark and sculptors Frederick T. Callcott & Henry Poole. Sir John Betjeman led a campaign to save it from demolition in the 1960s and CAMRA has published a couple of books about historic pub interiors which feature it.
I think the huge and extremely boring block of the Bank of New York Mellon at 160 Queen Victoria St now blocks this view of St Paul’s Cathedral. It might be possible, but difficult to design a building of less architectural merit.
City Golf Club, Bride Lane, City, 1987
I don’t think any golf was ever played at the City Golf Club and there were never any balls on the fairway in its left-hand window. The two people standing talking in its doorway are I think clearly employees rather than golfers. The Golf Club in Bride Lane a few yards from Fleet St was a members only drinking club much frequented by journalists at a time when pubs closed in the afternoons.
Daily Telegraph, Fleet St, City, 1987
Perhaps surprisingly the Daily Telegraph building dates from only 4 years before its near neighbour at the Daily Express. The Telegraph building has some Art Deco touches with Egyptian decorations which accord with its date of 1928, designed by Elcock C Sutcliffe with Thomas Tait, but seems rather old-fashioned and staid, with a monumental colonnade perhaps in keeping with its assumed gravitas, but seems to me despite its decorations a decidedly Edwardian building. Pevsner gave it a one of his more scathing reviews, “neo-Greco-Egyptian imitation has turned modernist, with much fluting, fancy iron-work and little to recommend it”. It was Grade II listed in 1983.
Probably my reason for photographing this building was that the Daily Telegraph had just moved out to offices in Victoria – and you can see the boards up in front of its ground floor as it was being made ready for occupation by investment bankers Goldman Sachs on lease until 2021. They moved to Plumtree Court in nearby Shoe Lane and the property, now owned by Qatar, is being again revamped.
Daily Express, Fleet St, City, 1987
The Daily Express had moved to their new building designed by Ellis and Clarke with Sir Owen Williams, very much in the modern movement of the age in 1931. It was the first London building where the outer wall was a non-structural ‘curtain wall’ and was Grade II* listed in 1972. Like its similar offices in Manchester it was known as the Black Lubyanka. When I made this picture in 1987 the newspaper was still produced here, moving out two years later in 1989 across the Thames to Blackfriars Rd. It came back to the City in Lower Thames St in 2004.
