Stratford | >Re-PHOTO

1995 Colour – Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown

Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown: These pictures come from a number of visits to areas of London working on several different projects and are my final selection of colour panoramas made in 1995. There are a few more colour images, including some panoramas I made in 1995 in the images in the Flickr album as well as many I have not digitised; some very similar to those online, others that I now find of less interest. Some of these were taken as a part of my project on the Greenwich Meridian in London – you can see a set of 16 images from this on the urban landscape web site.

*Bow Locks, River Lea, Bow Creek, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-752*

Bow Locks separate the tidal River Lea from the Lea Navigation and the Limehouse Cut which offers an alternative route to the Thames to avoid the winding and dangerous Bow Creek. First built in 1850 they were remodelled in 1930. At the highest Spring tides water from Bow Creek would overtop the locks and raise the level of the canals here – the locks were modified in 2000 to stop this and avoid the silting it caused.

London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 5p4-743 — *London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 95p4-743*

The Poplar Gas Coompany built a local gas works here in the 1820s at the request of the Poplar Vestry after ratepayers lobbied them to provide gas street lighting. The site was cleared in 2011 and I was commissioned to photograph the removal of toxic earth from the site using barges on Bow Creek. Something around an eigth of the material was removed in this way, tides making the removal of more difficult. The original gasholders had to be built to special safety standards because of their proximity to the West India Dock wall. The last of the gasholders was removed in 2017.

London Galvanizers had modernised their galvanizing plant here in 1983-5 and were one of the most important jobbing galvanizers in London and the Home Counties.

*Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-862*

This street corner is close to the Meridian and I had stood here for some time outside the Chinese restaurant which was having some joinery work done. I liked the contrast between its orange paint and the blue on the opposite corner and the warm brown of the Birkbeck Tavern at right. I think I had made at least one exposure when a young girl in a red coat on roller skates came to see what I was doing – and I made this exposure as a red car come around, filling an otherwise rather empty grey space.

St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841 — *St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841*

The Meridian also passes through this cemetery and I chose a viewpoint which included the cemetery chapel with a fine group of monuments in the foreground, I think all for people of Italian origin.

Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, 1995, 95p4-963 — *Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham,1995, 95p4-963*

I’m unsure what this railway building to the east of the station was, perhaps a 1930s signal box. Parts of this area have now been redeveloped, and this has been behind fences for more than ten years and could stil be there, as least in part.

*King George V Dock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-171*

Finally four pictures from a walk along Woolwich Manor Way, this taken looking westwards along the south side of the King George V Dock. You can see the bridge over the dock entrance at right and the City Airport terminal and Canary Wharf at the end of the dock.

*Royal Albert Dock Basin, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-161*

At left is the old swing bridge that took the road over the dock entrance from the basin. To its right is the elevated DLR and the pumping station at the centre of the Gallions roundabout. Further on only two buildings were standing along the side of the Basin, the Gallions Hotel and the Royal Docks Pumping Station.

*Containers, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-162*

Land to the south of the Royal Albert Dock Basin just east of Woolwich Manor Way.

*King George V Lock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-153*

This swing bridge across the dock entrance is still there.

*Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1995, 95p11-262*

This was taken from Silvertown Way, looking across the Royal Victoria Dock. There are still cranes along the dockside here but the foreground now has flats. The Millenium Mills are still there, but there is nothing in the picture where the Excel Centre now stands and none of the other new developments on the north side of the dock. The council flats at the right have been demolished.

You can see these and some other colour pictures I took in 1995 at 1995 London Colour.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Vedanta, Tampon Tax, Roma, Monsanto & Mental Health – 2016

Vedanta, Tampon Tax, Roma, Monsanto & Mental Health: Saturday 21 May 2016 was another busy day for me covering protests across London. It started with a protest against mining company Vedanta at the Royal Festival Hall, then across the river to Parliament Square where protesters were calling on the government to meet their pledge to axe the tax on tampons and later Roma, Gypsies and Travellers arrived with horses and carts to protest against increasing attacks on their way of life.

A short distance up Whitehall was a small protest against Monsanto, part of a world-wide ‘March Against Monsanto’. My work ended out to the east in Stratford where Focus E15 housing campaigners held a march and rally against the mental health problems that Newham Council’s housing policy is creating.

Foil Vedanta at Jaipur Literary Festival – Royal Festival Hall

Vedanta, Tampon Tax, Roma, Monsanto & Mental Health - 2016

Foil Vedanta were inside the Royal Festival Hall to protest against the sponsorship of the Jaipur Literature Festival taking place there by Vedanta “the most hated company on Earth, causing pollution, illness, displacement, poverty and deaths by its mining operations, sometimes criminal, in India, Zambia, South Africa and Australia” in an attempt to whitewash its image.

An open letter by Foil Vedanta and Round Table India signed by around 50 mainly Indian writers, poets, academics and activists had persuaded several authors to withdraw from the event and some others had promised to criticise Vedanta in their presentations.

The protesters took to the stage for a brief presentation of the case against Vedanta and then withdrew to continue protesting inside the venue but outside the area containing the festival stage. They intended to continue their protests for a couple of hours but I had taken enough pictures and left to walk across the river.

Foil Vedanta at Jaipur Literary Festival

End Tampon tax Now Osbourne! – Parliament Square

A massive campaign and lobby had resulted in the removal of regulations preventing the removal of tax, but the government had so far failed to implement the removal. Protesters held a short rally and then marched to Downing Street to deliver their message to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Among the protesters were ’50:50 Parliament’ who call for equal representation of women and men in Parliament. They say that if there were more women in Parliament there would not be taxes such as this – and rather less of the public-school bickering that often dominates the House of Commons.

More at Tampon tax now Osbourne!

‘Dosta, Grinta, Enough!’ – Parliament Square

Roma, Gypsies and Travellers came to Parliament Square on four horse-drawn vehicles to protest against the increasing attacks by governments which make their way of life difficult.

*You are not allowed to bring your horse onto Parliament Square*

Changes have let local authorities stop providing traveller sites and made it harder to find places to stop as they move around the country. And where travellers have bought sites local authorities have used planning laws in a discriminatory way to prevent them using it – as at Dale Farm near Basildon.

They say changes to the planning guidance are an attack on their ethnicity and way of life and they call for an end to 500 years of persecution.

Police and heritage wardens forced them to move off the grass in Parliament Square and they made a few circuits on the road before leaving as a rally began.

I left too, to cover another protest at Downing Street.

More on My London Diary at ‘Dosta, Grinta, Enough!’

March Against Monsanto Rally – Downing St

I’d looked earlier for the ‘March Against Monsanto’ but the march in London – part of a world-wide series of annual protests – was small and I had failed to find them until they arrived for a rally oppposite Downing Street.

Monsanto’s widely used herbicide Roundup was said by the WHO to be “probably carcinogenic to humans” and its neonicotinoid insecticides contribute to the killing of bees and other pollinators. Campaigners also oppose the genetically modified crops which they say are dangerous to human health.

March Against Monsanto Rally

Housing is a Mental Health Issue – Stratford

*‘Your Dream Home Awaits You’ a bus advert for a property show at Olympia. Only for the rich*

As a part of Mental Health Awareness Week, housing campaigners Focus E15 held a rally outside Stratford Station against Newham Council which they say is causing mental health problems for vulnerable people through evictions and placements with insecure tenancies and away from families, friends and support systems in cities and towns across the UK.

*Newham Council has kept some properties on the Carpenters Estate empty since 2004, despite a desperate housing shortage in the borough*

After the rally with speeches, songs and poems, the group marched around central Stratford where new high-rise building to house wealthy newcomers to the area or simply bought as investments and often kept empty is rapidly springing up “while those unable to afford sky high market rents are being forced out.”

These tall blocks also create inhospitable micro-climates at ground level which make areas such as these unpleasant for people at street level – and a sudden gust in front of one block tore one of the banners in two.

The short march ended on Stratford Broadway where despite harassment by police and council staff Focus E15 continue to hold a regular Saturday morning street stall.

More at Housing is a Mental Health Issue.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Cat Meat, Teen Votes, Venezuela, Newham Nag & Monsanto – 2017

Cat Meat, Teen Votes, Venezuela, Newham Nag & Monsanto: My day on Saturday 20th May included a very wide range of protests, beginning in Trafalgar Square with protests calling for an end to the killing of dogs and cats for their fur and meat as well as a protest demanding for votes in all UK elections at 16.

From there I went to a protest outside the offices of The Guardian newspaper against their biased reporting on political events in Venezuela – opposed by a handful of Venezuelans who called President Maduro a murderer.

Housing campaigners Focus E15 were outside Stratford Station handing out copies of ‘The Newham Nag’, based on Newham Council’s information sheet but condemning the council for their financial mismanagement and failure to address housing problems in the borough.

Finally at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square March Against Monsanto were holding a rally, part of an international grassroots movement and protest supported by Bee Against Monsanto.

More details of all these and more pictures on My London Diary at the links to them below.

End dog and cat meat trade – Trafalgar Square

Cat Meat, Teen Votes, Venezuela, Newham Nag & Monsanto - 2017

Apparently it was ‘Fight Dog Meat Kindness and Compassion Day‘ and there were protests across the world calling for laws to protect animals, especially dogs and cats, who are cruelly killed for their fur and to be eaten.

Cat Meat, Teen Votes, Venezuela, Newham Nag & Monsanto - 201

More pictures End dog and cat meat trade.

Teen Voice says votes at 16 – Trafalgar Square

Teen Voice, who last year protested over 16-18 year olds having no say in the Brexit vote, came to Trafalgar Square to call for votes in all UK elections at 16. Had young people been given a vote we would almost certainly have voted to remain in Europe.

They say it is unfair that while they can work, pay taxes and even join the armed forces they have no say in votes which effect their future to an arguably greater extent than anyone who is allowed to vote in elections at the moment.

There were a few short speeches before I had to leave but the group were still waiting for other teenagers to join them. Probably holding a protest early on a Saturday morning was not the best idea.

More at Teen Voice says votes at 16.

End Media Lies Against Venezuela – The Guardian

People protested outside The Guardian in London calling for an end to the lies and censorship of the UK press about the events in Venezuela.

They say that the current unrest is a right-wing coup attempt to overthrow President Maduro and the working class Bolivarian revolution, backed by the US, which the privately-owned Venezuelan press misrepresents as ‘pro-democracy’ protests and fails to report their attacks on hospitals, schools and socialist cities which have led to many deaths.

More on My London Diary at End media lies against Venezuela

Focus E15 launch The Newham Nag – Stratford Station

*The protesters had to keep telling people their ‘Nag’ wasn’t from the council and so was worth reading*

Housing campaigners Focus E15 launched their latest handout, ‘The Newham Nag’, based on Newham Council’s information sheet, handing it out outside Newham Station.

Police came and harassed them and Newham Council staff handed out a fixed penalty notice of £100 for alleged obstruction of the highway in the very wide public pedestrian open space in front of the station.

Newham’s use of risky and expensive long-term loans had resulted in 80% of the income from Newham’s council taxpayers going directly to the banks as interest payments. And one in 27 Newham residents are homeless – the largest proportion in any local authority in England. They say the council led by Mayor Robin Wales has failed in its duty to provide housing for residents.

More at Focus E15 launch The Newham Nag,

March Against Monsanto – US Embassy, Grosvenor Square

he March Against Monsanto protest outside the US Embassy was a part of the international grassroots movement and protest supported by Bee Against Monsanto.

Speakers addressed various issues around the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Roundup, a glyphosphate herbicide, dangerous bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides, and the need for improved protection victims of multinational corporations.

Campiagner Linda Kaucher speaks about the danger of trade deals such as TTIP which override national laws which protect our health and safety and endanger the integrity of our food supplies.

March Against Monsanto

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

More Around the Meridian – 1995 Colour – Part 3

More around the Meridian – It’s seldom possible to actually walk for more than a few yards actually on the Greenwich Meridian in London and while planning my Meridian Walk I often wandered around considerably, having to make detours and also looking for the more interesting routes. So not all these images are exactly on the Meridian, but most were taken within a short distance from it.

*Greenway, Abbey Lane, Abbey Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1151*

When I began this project the Meridian was not marked on the Ordnance Survey or Street maps, and one of may first tasks was to get a ruler and pencil it on to them. In 1999 it was added to the OS maps of the area, but does not seem to be on the latest versions. In 1995 there were no smart phones with online maps and GPS which would have made things so much easier.

*Greenway, Abbey Lane, Abbey Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1152*

The Greenway was the recently rebranded path above the Northern Outfall Sewer which rans across East London from Hackney Wick to the sewage treatment plant at Beckton, going under the road here close the the bridge over Abbey Creek on the Channelsea River, where Abbey Lane becomes Abbey Road. You can see the bridge at the left of the picture.

*Greenway, Channelsea River, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1153*

The Greenway is a great traffic-free cycle route for pedestrians and cyclists, running straight and level and this picture gives some evidence of that.

*Channelsea River, Long Wall, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1111*

I’m not sure what this pipe was for, perhaps for taking gas across the river. Not far away on the other side of this tidal creek was one of the largest gas works in London – and you can still see its listed gasholders, though the view is likely to change soon with the site being redeveloped.

But behind me when I made this picture was the Abbey Mills sewage pumping station and on the edge of the creek below were the storm outfalls where sewage would be released after heavy rains. With the changing tides it would flow downstream a little and then could be taken miles upriver along the Prescott channel and the River Lea.

Gasholders, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1332 — *Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321*

I think the Meridian went through the centre of the taller gas holder at Poplar Gas works.

*Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321*

Another view with the gasholders in the background.

*Clove Crescent, East India, DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1273*

My pencilled line for the Meridian shows it going through both the water in the dock and the brick building at left which was the former Blackwall Power Station in both of these pictures.

*Clove Crescent, East India DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1263*

South of the East India Docks the line crosses the River Thames above and between the two bores of the Blackwall Tunnel, closer to the original western tunnel now used by northbound traffic. I couldn’t take photographs in the tunnel – though it was possible for those on foot to take a bus across, but these would have been rather boring in any case.

*Blackwall Tunnel Entrance, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1672*

This picture shows the southern entrance to the tunnel with its 1897 Grade II listed gatehouse by the London County Council’s Superintending Architect Thomas Blashill. In front of it a less ornate red and white striped arch with heigh and weight restriction signs and hangers to hit any overtall vehicles and hopefully prevent damage to the gatehouse.

*Dorringtons, Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1551*

One picture not I think actually on the Meridian but not far from it, taken from the long footbridge over the Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1762*

My path continued south along the riverside path, with the Meridian going into the River Thames on the extreme left of this picture.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1742*

I kept to the land continuing along a path I’ve walked many times and making a few more pictures.

*Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1743*

Like much of London’s riverside almost all of the industry has now gone, but some relics remain, though most of this part of my route is now lined by rather boring flats.

I rejoined the Meridian where it made landfall in Greenwich – where I made some of the pictures at the end of my earlier post.

More colour work from 1995 including some more panoramas in a later post.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

1995 Colour – Part 2 – Greenwich Meridian

1995 Colour – Greenwich Meridian: The second of a series of posts on my colour work, mainly in London, from 1995, 35 years ago and when I’d been working extensively with colour negative film for ten years, though still continuing to work with black and white.

*Obelisk, Trig Point, Pole Hill, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-841*

In 1992 I began making colour panoramas using a Japanese Widelux F8 swing lens panoramic camera – and later I used a Russian Horizon which gave similar results. Both worked with normal 35mm film but produced negatives that were a little under 60mm wide rather than the 36mm of normal cameras. Both use clockwork to swing the taking lens around a third of a circle exposing the film through a narrow slit behind the lens. The film was held in a curved path – again around a third of a circle – with the lens at the centre of the circle so that the lens to film distance remained constant.

Peacham Hall, King's Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411 — *Peacham Hall, King’s Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411*

This arrangement avoided the change in distance from the lens to film that gives some stretching of the subject towards the edges of the frame – and begins to become very noticeable in ultra-wide lenses, particularly wider than around 18mm focal length on a 35mm camera.

95p03-552-Edit — *Level Crossing, Highams Park*, *Waltham Forest, 95p03-552*

Using the curved film plane avoids this distortion and enables a much wider field of view, while using a fairly moderate focal length – the Widelux has a 26mm f2.8 lens and gives negatives 24x56mm with a horizontal angle of view of 123 degrees.

*Bridges, North Circular, Hale End Rd, Hale End, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-463*

But there is a downside. Creating the image in this way gives a curvature to objects which is unlike our normal vision which is particularly noticeable on any straight lines, though lines parallel to the axis the lens rotates around remain straight – so if you hold the camera level, verticals will remain straight. But other lines become curved with the effect increasing away from the image centre, giving what is often called a “cigar effect“.

*Raglan Rd, Lea Bridge Rd, Whipps Cross, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-373*

This is a constraint which makes composition far more difficult using a swing lens camera, and was not helped by a rather poor viewfinder on the Widelux. Usually for landscape work I tried to visualise the effect of the curvature and chose a suitable camera position, levelled the camera on a heavy Manfrotto tripod using the spirit level on the camera top plate, lining the camera up using two arrows on the top plate to show the extent of the view (more accurately than the viewfinder) and then pressing the cable release to make the picture.

Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford,, 1995, 95p4-922 — *Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-922*

For photographing events and some creative effects this is a camera you can use handheld, but you have to remember that even when using its fastest speed of 1/250 second the camera actually takes quite a lot longer to scan around the curved film.

Crowley's Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672 — *Crowley’s Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672*

These pictures are from a project I began in 1995 with the approaching Millennium in mind. It seemed to me to make sense to carry out a project based on the Greenwich Meridian.

*Greenwich Boating Pond, Park Vista, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1431*

So I set about walking the Meridian, photographing it at various points in London and used some of these pictures in an attempt to get public funding for a Meridian Walk with some markers in pavements and a web site and publication. Panoramic images seemed a very appropriate format for illustrating the line.

*Greenwich Meridian, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1242*

Unfortunately my grant application as usual was unsuccessful, but I did go on to take some more photographs. In 2009 others produced a Greenwich Meridian Long Distance Path covering all of the Meridian in England from Peacehaven to Sand La Mere which of course goes through London and we also have The Line Sculpture Trail. Quite a few more Meridian markers were also added in London since I made this walk.

Many more panoramas from my Meridian project and other colour images from 1995 in the album 1995 London Colour.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Around the Olympic Site – January 2007

Around the Olympic Site: Thursday 4th January, 2007 looked like being a pleasant enough day for a bike ride around the area where preparations were getting into full swing for the London 2012 Olympics to see how things were going in the area. So I wrapped up warm and put my folding bike on the train to make my way to Stratford.

Most of the central area of the site was already closed off to the public, but I was able to cycle to various parts of the perimeter and take photographs, though I was disappointed to find large areas where nothing was yet taking place already fenced off. From Stratford I went around in an anti-clockwise direction and on My London Diary you can read a fairly long piece about where I went and my opinions about what was happening.

It was becoming more and more clear that many of those who lived and worked in and around the area were being very shabbily treated, with nothing being allowed to stand in the way of the Olympic juggernaut. People were being lied to, promises being made and then abandoned.

Probably the worst case of this was with the 430 residents of the Clays Lane Housing Co-Operative who were first promised they would be rehoused in conditions “as good as, if not better than” their present estate but were later told “at least as good as in so far as is reasonably practicable.”

The tenants there had already suffered from their cooperative estate with its strong community being transferred against their wishes to Peabody Housing following an adverse Housing Corporation inquiry, losing their mutual status. After their eviction under the Olympic Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) they were dispersed and many found they were having to pay much higher rents and living in worse conditions in places that lacked any of the feeling of community of Clays Lane.

*Carpenters Lock and part of the closed area*

I’d hoped to visit the Eastway Cycle Circuit and the Bully Fen nature Reserve, but both were fenced off, as were some of the footpaths I had hoped to cycle down, resulting in some fairly lengthy detours. Some of the closures claimed to be “temporary” – but some were still closed ten years later.

*Samuel Banner, inventor of white spirit, founded the company in 1860. It relocated to Teeside*

I commented “Parliament smooths the way for the Olympic Delivery Authority at the expense of people and environment, enabling them to slough off the inconvenience of democracy and justice. The situation for some of the local people – particularly those living in Clays Lane – can only be described as Kafkaesque.”

I rode down Marshgate Lane and went onto the Greenway and then returned and went on to Hackney Wick, pausing to eat my sandwich lunch in a sheltered suntrap by the lock on the Hertford Union Canal before riding on the Greenway, turning back where this was blocked and coming back to the Lea Navigation towpath and on to Stratford High Street.

*Bridge over Pudding Mill River to Marshgate Lane, Stratford Marsh.*

From here I was able to go along a short length of footpath next to the Waterworks River before returning to the Greenway on the other side of the High Street, past some more areas covered by the CPO.

*Bow Back River. Both sides in the foreground are part of the CPO area*

By now the light was beginning to fade, but I rode on to Canning Town and took a brief look (and some rather dark pictures) of the Pura foods site then being demolished before riding over the Lower Lea Crossing to the station for the Jubilee Line back to Waterloo.

*Parts of Pura Food had yet to be demolished.*

Many more pictures begin a short scroll down the January 2007 page of My London Diary.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Serenading the Bomb Makers – 2008

Serenading the Bomb Makers: Given the current increased tension over the possible nuclear escalation of the Ukraine war – something that would be disastrous to us all and totally insane and irrational, but if NATO keep poking the Russian Bear with a stick could be provoked – it seems appropriate to remember the lunchtime tour around the London offices of some of the companies involved in making the UK’s nuclear weapons on Friday 12th December 2008.

I don’t think I can improve on the piece I posted on My London Diary in 2008 – except by adding the odd word that somehow got missed out, so I’ll copy that here, with some of the pictures from the event. I got too cold standing around and left after an hour and went to take a short look at the work taking place on the Olympic site at Stratford Marsh as the light was beginning to fade.

‘Muriel Lesters’ Serenade the Bomb Makers

Serenading the Bomb Makers - 2008 — *Lockheed Martin, Carlisle Place – A man sprawls in memory of the many deaths caused by atomic weapons; security men look bored.*

Ten activists turned up in Victoria, London on Friday for a festive protest outside the offices of the US company behind the production of the UK’s nuclear weapons and the huge expansion of bomb production facilities at Aldermaston – costing £6,000,000,000 – which has never been debated or approved by Parliament.

They were the ‘Muriel Lesters*’, a London affinity group of Trident Ploughshares. Dressed in Santa suits, white nuclear inspector overalls and festive hats they called for an end to bomb production at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

Appropriately, their renditions of festive songs and carols with modified anti-nuclear lyrics were largely less than tuneful (one taking part was hear to say “I’m a Quaker, we don’t sing” and who could contradict him?) They called for a stop to the illegal activities of these companies in making weapons.

First to be serenaded by the group were the offices of the US arms giant Lockheed Martin, makers of ‘bunker buster’ and ‘cluster’ bombs, the worlds largest exporter of weapons and the leading member of the consortium set up to produce the nuclear warheads for the UK Trident replacement at Aldermaston.

After an hour or so of leafleting and displaying banners on Vauxhall Bridge Road just around the corner, the group moved to the front door of the building housing Lockheed Martin and several other companies in Carlisle Place for their half hour carol ‘concert’. It was a site I knew from the ‘Merchants of Death‘ tour by CAAT earlier in the year. A number of people came in an out of the building while this was going on and some took leaflets while others hurried past, often to waiting taxis.

Half way through the performance, a police car pulled up and dropped off two constables who came to talk to the protesters. They asked who was in charge (and of course nobody was) and for a mobile number they could use to contact the group, saying “it’s standard practice for protests“. Oh no it isn’t! They were handed a leaflet with the Norwich details of Trident Ploughshares, but that wasn’t what they had in mind.

The police were informed that the real criminals were in the Lockheed Martin offices, carrying out the vast expansion in UK nuclear arms, a breach of the UK’s obligations under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that they were involved in an illegal conspiracy with some groups we could name down the road in Whitehall. The police chose to ignore this vital evidence but eventually they went away, reminding the protesters that while they supported the right to demonstrate, it was important to keep the pavement clear.

As they left, one member of the group stretched out “dead” on his back on that pavement as a symbol of the many victims of nuclear weapons, including those killed in nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “bomb test veterans, and victims of leukaemias, lymphomas and cancers caused by exposure to radioactive discharges from AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield in Berkshire, Sellafield in Cumbria, Rolls Royce Raynesway in Derby and other sites“

I left the group as it packed up and decided to take a short break before going on for a similar protest at the London offices of Jacobs Engineering and Fluor Corporation, two other US companies who are competing for the stake in the AWE bomb-making contract currently filled by the British Nuclear Group. The third player in the contract – the only remaining UK involvement – is SERCO.

A few more pictures here

Muriel Lester, (1883–1968), born in Leytonstone, was a leading Christian peace campaigner and writer. Among many other things she founded Kingsley Hall in Bow, was a friend of Gandhi, Travelling Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and was detained for ten weeks in Trinidad and then several days in Holloway Prison for her activities during the Second World War.

Olympic Site – Stratford

A few more pictures from around the London 2012 site.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Stratford to Upton Park – December 2024

Stratford to Upton Park: On Wednesday 4th December I walked with two friends from Stratford Station to the site of the former West Ham football ground at Upton Park.

Though really it wasn’t the football connection that interested us, but the fantastic late Victorian pub on the corner close the the ground which we had seen some pictures that prompted this fairly short walk, one of occasional strolls we meet to take in London which always end in a pub.

Having photographed London since the 1970s I’d been down all the streets we walked along before at various times, in early years on my own. And much of our route I’d walked down with groups of protesters more recently, protesting over housing with Focus E15 and marching from Stratford to protest at the DSEI arms fair.

We met outside Stratford Station and walked through the indoor market to Stratford Broadway where I stopped to take a couple of pictures. On the Broadway we stood by the obelisk erected by fellow parishioners and friends in 1861 to Quaker banker and philanthropist Samuel Gurney (1786-1856). Gurney came from a Norwich banking family and made a hugely successful career in banking in the City of London. But his later years were largely occupied with a wide range of philanthropic causes, including penal reform, the abolition of slavery, support for Liberia, education, the Irish famine, peace with France and more.

In East London he was responsible for the first hospital for workers injured in dock accidents in Poplar and St Paul’s Stratford, founded as a mission by him in 1853. While Gurney is long forgotten, his sister who he worked with on prison reform, Elizabeth Fry, remains famous.

We crossed the Broadway and continued down West Hame Lane, past the housing association building where I photographed Focus E15 Mothers partying against their eviction in January 2014 at the star of their long campaign for “Housing for All” and on towards Church Street.

All Saints West Ham Church was Grade I listed in 1984 and has been a place of Christian worship since around 1130 though it was rebuilt in Early English style later in that century and has had various additions since, with its interior very much altered in Victorian times by George Dyson and George Gilbert Scott. In !857 Lord Grimthorpe added a clock to the tower whose mechanism was the model for Big Ben.

We walked around the churchyard – the church like most in urban areas was locked, though I visited it on Open House Day some years ago – and then went to visit The Angel pub a little way down the street.

There had been an Angel pub here probably since the 16th or 17th century in a old unspectacular timberframed building but it was rebuilt in its present half-timbered fantasy form by its landlord in 1910. Closed and boarded up in 2003 it re-opened shortly after as The Angel Cabaret & Dance Bar, described as a “Trashy run-down Stratford gay dance bar” whose license was revoked in 2010. Plans to turn it into a church were dropped around 2014 and the building is now empty and in a very poor state, with an application in October this year for a possession order.

We continued on down West Ham Lane, looking down from the bridge at Plaistow Station to Willow Cottage, the grade II listed former lodge to the demolished The Willows, dating from 1836. This is one of only four listed buildings in Plaistow North Ward, along with a library and two public houses, neither still open as pubs.

But one older unlisted public house remains in business and was well worth a visit. The Black Lion was certainly there in 1742, and though it was largely rebuilt in 1875 still seems ancient.

By then my colleagues were flagging and it was approaching twilight. Two buses took us to the junction of Green Street and Barking Road where we admired the outside of the Boleyn Public House, built in 1899-1900 by W G Shoebridge and H W Rising. A huge and remarkable pub with fine etched glass and internal furnishings, though it was still closed when we arrived.

That gave us time to photograph the bronze memorial celebrating the 1966 World Cup victory with Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Ray Wilson, and to walk up to the pathetic Boleyn Ground Memorial Garden on Shipbuilding Way, a circular patch of bare grass and a small playground area. There didn’t seem to be anything to record the history of the site. Back in Augest 2015 I’d photographed local campaigners calling for West Ham’s Boleyn ground to be developed for some of the 24,000 on Newham’s housing list rather than as 838 luxury apartments with no social housing. The site has no real social housing but includes 25% of so-called “affordable housing“.

Waiting outside for the Boleyn to open we met a long-term Hammers fan and customer of the Boleyn. The pub closed in 2020 for refurbishment and has been restored lovingly to “something like its former impressive Victorian glory. Various skilled workers employing traditional methods have been sourced to reinstate Victorian cut glass, lay marble and tiled floors and recreate the wooden screens that divide up the 7 bars which include the Saloon Bar, Public Bars and the much sought after ‘Carriage Bar’ and ‘Ladies Bars’…”

As they say “The Boleyn Tavern conjures up the look of a grand Victorian Gin Palace and is truly a sight to behold.” And we spent some time comfortably doing so.

See more pictures from this short walk here.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Olympic Site & Budget Cuts – 2012

Olympic Site & Budget Cuts: Wednesday 5th December 2012 was a cold day in London, with the temperature just three or four degrees above freezing during the day, but there was plenty of blue sky with a few clouds and it seemed ideal weather to wrap up and go and see what progress had been made in restoring the Olympic site, still largely off-limits some months after the end of the games. And later in the early evening I returned to Westminster for a protest against the cuts which had been announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in his autumn budget statement.

Olympic Area Slightly Open – Stratford Marsh

Much of the area around the Olympic site had been closed to the public in May, including the Greenway, the elevated footpath on top of the Northern Outfall Sewer which runs close to the Olympic stadium, but this was now re-opened in part.

The section between Stratford High Street and the main railway lines which run from Liverpool Street station to Stratford and on further east was however still closed and would remain closed for years as work was now taking place for Crossrail – opened as the Elizabeth Line in 2022.

I started my walk in the early afternoon around the Bow flyover where the Bow Back rivers were still closed to traffic with a yellow floating barrier, but the footpath along the Lea Navigation had been re-opened. One improvement made presumably for the Olympics was a pathway and footbridge taking walkers under the busy road junction and across the canal.

Finding the new entrance to the Greenway meant walking between fences on the Crossrail site down Pudding Mill Lane, and probably I would have abandoned the route had it not been for signs put up by the View Tube café – though when I finally reached this I found I was the only person to have done so and the cafe was deserted.

There were still fences everywhere as you can see from my photographs but I was able to walk along the Greenway to Hackney Wick and then along the towpath beside the navigation. But the footpath beside the Old River Lea was still blocked off.

By then the light was beginning to fade and the Olympic stadium was gaining a golden glow. I walked a little further along the towpath and photographed the Eton boathouse as the sun was setting setting before crossing the canal and making my way to Hackney Wick station.

Many more pictures, both normal and panoramic views on My London Diary:
Olympic Area Slightly Open.

Osborne’s Budget Cuts – Strand to Whitehall

Several hundred students, trade unionists, socialists and others marched with UCU London Region down the Strand and into Whitehall shouting slogans against public service cuts, the rich, David Cameron and George Osborne in particular.

Opposite Downing Street they joined with others already protesting there including CND and Stop the War who were calling for the government to stop wasting money on the war in Afghanistan and vanity projects supporting the arms industry such as Trident and its planned replacement.

“The Afghanistan war — which everyone knows is futile and lost — is costing around £6 billion a year. The yearly maintenance costs for Trident are £2.2 billion a year. The cost of renewing the Trident system — which this government is committed to do — would cost up to £130 billion. Two aircraft carriers are being built at a cost of £7 billion. Then there’s the £15 billion to be spent buying 150 F-35 jets from the US, each of which will cost £85 million plus an extra £16 million for the engine.”

The rally began shortly after the marchers arrived. By now it was only just above freezing and speakers were asked to keep their contributions short because of the temperature.

Among the speakers were John McDonnell MP, Kate Hudson of CND, author Owen Jones, Andy Greene of DPAC, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and others including a nurse from Lewisham Hospital threatened with closures, from the NUT, UK Uncut and other trade unionists.

*Kate Hudson CND and Romaine Phoenix Coalition of Resistance/Green Party*

Many of the speakers called on trade unions to take effective action against the cuts. calling for union leaders to stop simply speaking against them and take the lead from their members and start organising strike action. But of course few did and the cuts continued unabated.

More at Osborne’s Budget Cuts.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Lea Navigation & Olympic Site

Lea Navigation & Olympic Site: Saturday 1 October 2011 was a fine day and I decided to go early to Stratford and take a photographic walk around Bow & Stratford Marsh, before a meeting at the View Tube on the Greenway overlooking the Olympic site.

I took the Jubilee Line to Stratford and then walked over the footbridge leading to the Carpenters Estate and then on to Stratford High Street. A great deal of new building was taking place there, including a new bridge to carry the Olympic crowds across the busy road on a route from West Ham station along the Greenway. The bridge was demolished shortly after the games ended.

This section of the Greenway – the path on top of Bazalgette’s Northern Outfall Sewer rebranded in the 1990s – was closed off by fences and I kept on walking down the High Street. A few yards along was one of the few remaining commercial sites, though by then derelict and for sale. It was demolished and the site flattened for the Games, though it was only five years later than penthouses on the new block here were offered for sale.

A few yards off the High Street was City Mill Lock, now behind a row of flats. I continued on to the Lea Navigation. The industrial sites on the High Street had now been cleared and there were now huge advertising structures.

I had come mainly with the intention of making panoramic images, but these don’t display well on this blog, but you can see them larger on My London Diary. A footway now carries the towpath under the Bow Flyover and the High Street and then across the canal where the towpath continues on the opposite bank.

I made far too many pictures around this part of the canal before I could drag myself away, although the sky was not at its best for panoramic images and I would have prefered more distinct clouds rather than the large areas of blue. Only the first section of Cook’s Road was still open, but I could walk along beside St Thomas’s Creek to Marshgate Lane and then make my way to the bright yellow View Tube.

Here I was one of five photographers taking part in what was billed as a ‘Salon de Refuse Olympique‘, showing our artistic responses to the area. It was interesting to see the very different work that the five of us presented. You can read more about this in a post published here two days after the event in 2011, Northern Outfall Sewer 1990, 2005, 2010… which includes the three pictures I contributed for a forthcoming book as well as a lengthy text based on my presentation.

The Olympics have certainly changed this area, and the changes which were showing back in 2011 have continued. Many more pictures – both panoramic and normal aspect ration – in my post on My London Diary at Lea Navigation & Olympic Site.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos