Tag: super sewer

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms – 2018

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms: On Thursday 21st December 2018 after photographing a protest at the BBC by the Climate Media Coalition over the BBC failures in presenting the climate emergency and their programmes which encourage climate wrecking activities I took a few pictures of the nearby Noah’s Ark Earth Rescue display before going to the US Embassy to cover a protest there. Unfortunately although I and the police made it on time the protesters failed to turn up. I took a walk around the area – London’s largest development taking a few pictures and when after an hour only a single protester and another photographer had arrived I went home.

Extinction Rebellion at the BBC – Broadcasting House

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018

Climate campaigners from Extinction Rebellion came to the BBC to tell it to stop ignoring the climate emergency and mass extinction taking place and promoting destructive high-carbon living through programmes such as Top Gear and those on fashion, travel, makeovers etc.

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018

The BBC had long misused its policy of impartiality to give huge prominence to a small group of climate deniers, largely fossil fuel lobbyists, to give them equal airtime to the warnings supported by the huge body of scientific evidence on global warming caused by our increasing consumption of coal, oil and gas with the associated rise in greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018

The protest had been organised by environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy and the Climate Media Coalition and they had brought with them mannequins wrapped in white sheets to represent the 27 climate victims from the Greek Village of Mati, burned alive by a wildfire. They were among a hundred people are known to have died in Greece in the fires caused by global warming. They set these out in front of the BBC for a vigil at the start of the protest

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018

Later there were angry protests at both entrances to the BBC site which which was closed off by barriers and security staff. It took a couple of minutes through the local streets to get between the two and I was at the other one where two protesters had superglued their hands, one to the steps and another to the door, when Donnachadh McCarthy attempted to climb over the security banners and was arrested.

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018
A woman spreads superglue on her hand on the steps in front of the police guarding an entrance to the BBC’s Wogan House.

You can read more about the protest along with many pictures and captions on My London Diary at Extinction Rebellion at the BBC.

Humanity Face Extinction – Great Portland St

The protest at the BBC was continuing when I walked towards the tube to travel to a protest sceduled at the US Embassy in Nine Elms and stopped to take a few pictures of the Noah’s Ark Earth Rescue display.

This was deserted probably as those usually here were all at the BBC protest. The display was a part of the “eco-warriors’ worldwide publicity campaign to save the South Pacific island nations from vanishing beneath the rising sea levels and offering genuine solutions to save humanity from being driven to extinction by global warming as a result of the burning of fossil fuels.”

More pictures at Humanity Face Extinction

Nine Elms Wander

I arrived at the US Embassy at the time given on the press release and the Facebook event page for a protest against Trump’s announcement of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria to find two police vehicles but no protesters.

After waiting around ten minutes I took a walk around the area, part of a huge redevelopment between the former Battersea Power Station and Vauxhall which I’d been watching for some years from the train as I came into London and had often photographed through the train windows.

Under the River Thames construction was also taking place for London’s new super-sewer, the 16 mile long Thames Tideway Tunnel expected to be fully operational in 2025 and the first major upgrade to London’s sewage systems since Bazalgette in 1875.

I went back to the embassy an hour after the protest was due to start. By now one man had arrived also looking for the protest, and a second photographer. I walked back up to Vauxhall Station to see if I could find any protesters on their way, but met none and so I caught the train home.

More pictures at Nine Elms Wander.

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Kirtling Street to Battersea Power Station & the Dogs – 1989

Kirtling Street to Battersea Power Station & the Dogs continues my walk which began at Vauxhall on Friday 28th July 1989 with Nine Elms Riverside. The previous post was More from Nine Elms Riverside.

Works, Kirtling St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-36
Works, Kirtling St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-36

The riverside path still ends at Kirtling Street but Greenham’s aggregate wharf has now been replaced by the central site of the Tideway 25km London super sewer project underneath the River Thames due for completion in 2025, when it should prevent 95% of sewage spills in London entering the river. It was here that the two tunnel boring machines were lowered 50 metres below ground to make their way east and west to produce the central section of the tunnel between Fulham and Bermondsey.

T & W Farmiloe, paint factory, Cringle St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-21
T & W Farmiloe, paint factory, Cringle St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-21

This bricked up entry in a tall brick wall on the corner of Cringle Street was for many years all that remained of the 50-year-old glass, lead, paint and sanitary ware manufacturing company which had opened a large 4-storey factory here in 1884 with a frontage on Nine Elms Lane. The Farmiloe brothers had set up in business in Westminster in the 1840s as glass cutters and taken over the Island Lead Mills in Limehouse in 1885, and expanded with a brass foundry on Horseferry Road, a varnish works in Mitcham and this large warehouse in Nine Elms, producing everything a plumber could need. In the twentieth century their main business moved to sanitary ware and paint, including ‘Nine Elms’ white lead paint which was made at this white-lead factory built around 1910. I think the company which had trademarked ‘Nine Elms’ had long vacated the site before it was dissolved in 1988. The trademark passed to Akzo Nobel and expired in 2005.

Works, Sleaford St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-23
Works, Sleaford St, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-23

Sleaford Street was on the eastern side of one of the earliest developments in the area, Battersea New Town, begun in the 1790s and was first developed on its west side the by Southwark butcher William Sleford. Apparently later “One side of Sleaford Street was formerly derided as Ginbottle Row, while the other was called Soapsuds Bay, presumably because it accommodated laundresses.”

I can find no signs of the building in this picture and most of the west side of Sleaford Street is now occupied by a large block of flats extending back from the corner with Nine Elms Lane completed around 2008. John Oswald and Sons had a foundry in the street from 1871 and this may be their building.

At the left of the picture you can see the Battersea gasholder, demolished 2014-7 and at right Battersea Power Station.

Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-24
Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-24

A slightly unusual view of the power station six years after its final closure. Planning permission was obtained for it conversion to a theme park, but the scheme was halted when money ran out in March 1989. By this time the roof had been removed, presumably by McAlpine whose name adorns the building, which led to considerable subsequent deterioration of the steelwork and foundations.

After various failed redevelopment plans the power station was eventually refurbished as an expensive tourist destination surrounded by new homes, a hotel, shops and restaurants and a new London Underground station. McAlpine was the construction manager for the final phase three of the development.

Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-25
Battersea Power Station, Battersea Park Rd, Nine Elms, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-25

Another view of the wrecked power station, along with a rather unconvincing double at the right with a view of the abandoned scheme.

Battersea Dogs Home, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-11
Battersea Dogs Home, Battersea Park Rd, Battersea, Wandsworth, 1989 89-7l-11

Then there was no way back to the riverside before reaching Chelsea Bridge at the north end of Queenstown Road. A long detour away from the river around the power station and gas works site took me past Battersea Dogs Home where I took this picture with one dog begging on the top of the wall and another emerging from the Exit to the building. There is now a rather larger building on the site and it has added ‘and Cats’ to its remit.

The description of my walk will continue in a later post.

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