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Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival – 2006

Kingston Carnival, Regent St Festival: I went to Kingston upon Thames on Sunday September 3 2006 to photograph Kingston Carnival because I hoped to take at least one picture in the town to include in a show, Another London, I was preparing with two friends to take place in Kingston Museum in January 2007, and I made two pictures which ended up in that show.

But both were of Beeraahaar Sweet Combination, a prize-winning Carnival Mas Band based in Stamford Hill, Hackney, miles away in North London and with no real connection to Kingston. Kingston, formerly in Surrey, since 1965 has been a London borough on the edge of London, but until 2020 still home to the central offices of Surrey County Council.

Kingston Carnival began in 2001, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, although this year it was postponed, but is planned to return in 2027.

Later I went to the Regent Street Festival in central London which had a Spanish theme. Below I’ll post with minor corrections what I wrote in 2006 and links to more pictures.

Kingston Carnival

Kingston, Surrey

A little bit of Hackney came to Kingston on Sunday morning to provide the Kingston Carnival. Hard to see why Kingston can’t put up its own carnival, but Beeraahaar Sweet Combination are a fine group that I’ve photographed at Notting Hill and Mardi Gras in Hackney, and even a small group of them gave the event a little atmosphere. Just a pity there weren’t more groups and people from Kingston in the parade to match them.

The stalls around the Guildhall showed there are a diverse range of communities in the area, but the parade didn’t really reflect this. Shipping in a carnival procession provides a little diversion, but surely the whole point of a borough paying for a carnival is to encourage community activities within its own boundaries?

More pictures on My London Diary

Regent Street Festival

Regent St, Westminster

From Kingston I caught the train up to town and to Spain, which was happening in Regent Street, closed to traffic for the day. Of course not closed to shopping, which perhaps rather limits what the organisers could do. I didn’t find the event too exciting, and the large crowds around anything that was going on reflected that too little was happening.

The police, mainly down a side street, were putting on a good show, one of the funniest I’ve seen for a long time, demonstrating how the police are supposed to restrain people, and use weapons such as pepper spray. The gulf between theory and practice is amazing.

I tried out a free sample of a revolting sherry-based drink, watched more Spanish folk dancers than was good for anyone’s sanity, avoided the sand on the ‘beaches’ and decided it was time to go home.

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Church of the Good Shepherd, Synagogue & Stamford Hill – 1989

Church of the Good Shepherd, Synagogue & Stamford Hill: Continuing my walk on Sunday 8th October which had begun at Seven Sisters Station from where I had walked south down the High Road. The previous post, South Tottenham & Stamford Hill had ended on Rookwood Road.

*Church of the Good Shepherd, Ancient Catholic Cathedral, Rookwood Rd, Castlewood Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-34*

This Grade II* listed church was built in 1892-5 for the Agapemonites, aka the Community of the Son of Man, a group founded by former Church of England minister Henry Prince who set up the Agapemone community whose name means ‘Abode of Love’.

Various scandals ensued when it emerged that this love was sometimes rather more than spiritual. Prince died in 1899 and John Smyth-Pigott became leader of the sect and his relations with numerous female followers caused greater scandal. In 1902 Smyth-Piggot declared the Second Coming had arrived and that he was Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.

An angry mob chased his carriage across Clapton Common and he retired to Somerset where he died in 1927.

*St Luke, Ox, St John, Eagle, Church of the Good Shepherd, Ancient Catholic Cathedral, Rookwood Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-36*

The church was built by Joseph Morris and Sons of Reading, the sculptures were by A G Walker and the church apparently has remarkable stained glass by Arts & Crafts artist Walter Crane. When the last Agapemonites died it became in 1956 the Ancient Catholic Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd and in 2007 the Georgian Orthodox Cathedral Church of the Nativity of Our Lord.

*St Mathew, St Mark, lion, Church of the Good Shepherd, Ancient Catholic Cathedral, Rookwood Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-22*

Another picture of the sculptures on the church by A G Walker. The stained glass which I was unable to see was by Walter Crane. There is a lengthy description of the building in its Grade II* listing, first made when it was the Church Of The Ark Of The Covenant.

*New Bobov Synagogue, Egerton Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-24*

Built around 1914-15 in an Edwardian Baroque style the Grade II listed New Synagogue was bought in 1987 by the Babov Community Centre from the United Synagogue. The Bobov congregation (Beth Hemedrash Ohel Naphtoli) was founded in Poland but now has its headquarters in New York and is Strictly Orthodox Ashkenazi.

*Newsagent, Used Cars, Stamford Hill, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-11*

The Hill Candy & Tobacco Stores Ltd at 141 Stamford Hill was well covered with advertising for Camel, Marboro and others as well as sensational posters for the Evening Standard, ‘LONDON MURDER SPARKS ‘RIPPER’ FEAR. Tabloid journalists were probably the only people in London who were affected by this particular anxiety.

The shop is now an off-licence. The used car sales with its bunting at right is no longer but there is a parking area in front of the offices there now. The Turnpike House pub just visible in the distance on the corner with Ravensdale Road closed in 2021 and is now boarded up.

*Eshel Hotel, Stamford Hill, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-12*

Eshel is the Hebrew for Tamarisk. Genesis chapter 21 verse 33 states that Abraham planted one at Beersheba and prayed there to Yahweh in thanks for God’s covenant with him. That species of tamarisk is a slow growing desert tree and at some times in the year it secretes a sticky honeydew which some think was the manna which provided food for them in the wilderness.

I think this building is now offices for Orthodox Jewish organisations. The delicate wrought iron gates and railings with the menorahs in them were replaced a few years ago by rather more secure fencing.

My walk continued to Stoke Newington – another instalment shortly.

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South Tottenham & Stamford Hill

South Tottenham & Stamford Hill: Continuing my walk on Sunday 8th October which had begun at Seven Sisters Station from where I had walked south down the High Road – the pictures start some way down my post Abney Park & South Tottenham.

On the High Road in South Tottenham I found another of the 20 images which were a part of my web site and book ‘1989’, ISBN: 978-1-909363-01-4, and above is the page from that.

The Emerald Bar, St Ann's Rd, 1989 South Tottenham, Haringey, 1989 89-10d-63 — *The Emerald Bar, St Ann’s Rd, South Tottenham, Haringey, 1989 89-10d-63*

I turned from the High Road into St Ann’s Road and a short way down came to this sign for the Emerald Bar. Now disappeared this was obviously an Irish bar (the Shamrock as well as the name was a clue!) and only a short walk from St Ignatius Catholic Church on the High Road. It appeared to be in a part of the yard of St Ignatius Primary School.

The brickwork at the entrance and the rather curious design of the sign both had a curiously amateur feel. On the large noticeboard below the bar’s name I could just make out the words STRIPPER and HERE; there were a few other letters but nothing I could make sense of.

*High Rd, Stamford Hill, 1989 89-10d-52*

I took another picture on St Ann’s Road (not online) but soon returned to the High Road and continued south, where this road becomes Stamford Hill, past Phililp Kosher Butcher at 292 (picture not online) crossing the busy road to photograph some rather grander houses which I think are actually at 11-15 High Road on the border of Haringey and Hackney.

*The House of Value, Ravensdale Rd, Stamford Hill, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-53*

Back on the other side of the street was the turning into Ravensdale Rd where above Beeny’s Fresh Fish is still one of London’s best-known ‘ghost signs’. When I made this picture most of the signs for Yager’s Costumes were covered by two large billboards and only the YAGER’S, BUY YOUR WINTER COATS HERE AND SAVE MONEY and THE HOUSE OF VALUE could be read.

*The House of Value, Ravensdale Rd, Stamford Hill, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-54*

I think the Yagers who owned Yager’s Costumes were probably a part of the Yager family, Jews with Austrian/Romanian parents who came to England at some time before the 1901 census. By 1911 they were living not far away in Downs Park Road Hackney. Harry Yager started a number of businesses including a timber merchants and Park Royal Coachworks. He had a hall named after him at Stamford Hill Synagogue. But the family history has no mention of a clothing company.

A company, Yager’s (Stamford Hill) Ltd, Company number 23013, was apparently registered in 1928 but dissolved by 1932 but Companies House records available online do not go back far enough to find information.

Benny’s Fresh Fish is now a shop offering shoe repairs and key cutting and the rest of the shop is a café.

*Rookwood Court, Rookwood Rd, Castlewood Rd, Clapton, Hackney, 1989 89-10d-43*

I continued down Stamford Hill and then turned east along Clapton Common. On reaching the grass and trees I went to there left along Castlewood Road where after some rather dreary postwar blocks I came to this fine 1930s block of flats, Rookwood Court, on the corner of Rookwood Rd. These private flats with a view (for some) across the common were built in around 1936. New windows installed around 2011-12 doubtless make the flats more comfortable but have lost some of the appeal of the building.

Next door to them you can see the tower and spire of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rookwood Road, now the Georgian Orthodox Church. More about that in the next post.

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