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Christmas Walks

Christmas Walks. For many years we have had a family get-together on Boxing Day and we will do the same today, but it will be a little different as for the first time for many years we will not be walking the five or six miles to it.

Staines to Runnymede Walk

We always needed that walk to work up enough appetite for a large meal in the middle of the day after a little overindulgence on Christmas Day. I’ve posted some pictures from our Boxing Day walks here in previous years, But as we got a little older they became simply a matter of the shortest route- a pleasant stroll along the Thames Path rather than any of the slightly longer and hillier variations that use to add interest.

And in late 2023 the Environment Agency found an unsafe 90 year old footbridge across a small creek close to Runnymede Bridge and fenced of this short section of the Thames Path in February 2024. Almost two years later it remains fenced off with work yet to start. The diversion isn’t a great deal longer but makes the walk less interesting.

We’d also go out on at least one walk between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day on a longer walk with whichever of our family were staying with us. But now our house seems to have shrunk as our children’s families have grown and we go away to stay with or near them. But I think we will still make some walks.

In 2019 we made three walks between Christmas Day and the New Year and I posted about all three on My London Diary.

The first, our walk on Boxing Day 2019 from Staines to lunch in Old Windsor was cut a little short, not by the Environment Agency but by the weather. We made it roughly two-thirds of the way to the café at Runnymede when the heavens opened – and we rang to be collected.

Staines to Runnymede walk

Wimbledon to Richmond walk

The second walk, two days later, followed an invitation on the Christmas card from the father of my younger son’s wife to join a walk he was arranging from Wimbledon across the common and through Richmond Park. We hadn’t intended to go, but it was a fine day and we decided at the last minute to join them, though we had to leave before the lunch they had planned at the café in Richmond Park.

More at Wimbledon to Richmond

Matlock & Matlock Bath

The next day we took the trains to briefly visit my elder son and family in Milton Keynes and from there were driven up to Matlock by my younger son to stay with them for a couple of days. And the next day we walked what was described by one sensationalist article in a tabloid newspaper as the “most dangerous footpath in England” around the face of High Tor to Matlock Bath.

Of course it is no more dangerous than many other paths on cliffs around the country – and even has a handrail to hold on the narrowest section, as well as a short ‘one-way’ section to reduce the risk where passing others could be dangerous.

Matlock Bath is in parts tourist hell, full of fish and chips and ice cream shops, and a mecca for bikers, but it does have at least one decent pub – where we ate and went to look at some very large specimen fish before visiting the Mining Museum.

Coming out, I and my younger son started to climb up the hill on the west side of the valley while the rest of our party decided to take the short train journey back to Matlock. The climb of the valley was steep and exhausting, but once we had reached the top it was fairly easy going, with more great views at times of the Derwent valley as the light was beginning to fade.

By the time we reached Matlock I was thinking I should have taken the train.

Matlock & Matlock Bath

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No Snow in Derbyshire – 2010

No Snow in Derbyshire: I’ve just looked at the weather forecast for Christmas this year and found we are expected to have day temperatures of around 13°C, dry and cloudy with a bit of sun. But back in 2010 the last ten days or so of December was considerably more Siberian and a week before Christmas we trudged through a few inches of snow with more still falling in London as we made our way to St Pancras for the trip to Belper in Derbyshire for a brief visit to our younger son and family.

For once there was no snow in Derbyshire, and the thin white sprinkling on open ground was simply frost and the streets were clear. Fortunately there was little wind and wrapped up well we went out for walks on both Sunday 19th December and Monday 20th December. As usual I took a few pictures, both in the town and on the hills around.

I’ll post a few here, but there are rather more on-line.

The daytime temperature didn’t quite reach zero – 0°C (32°F) – during our visit and the frost was building up to an unusual degree for the UK

We walked over the hills to Milford and then I think caught the train back.

Strutt’s North and East Mills on the River Derwent in Belper are a part of the of the Derwent Valley Mills given UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2001.

And the Grade II listed houses on Long Row where my son was then living close to the top of the steeply sloping street were built by the Strutts for their mill workers in a rather odd internally interlocking design.

The last mills in Belper closed in the 1990s. Until 2022 the North Mill, Grade I listed and one of the world’s first fireproof buildings was Strutt’s North Mill Museum, but then lost its funding due to Tory cuts meaning the local authority could no longer fund it. The building was Save Britain’s Heritage ‘Building of the Month‘ in September 2023 and campaigners and local residents hope it can be saved and reused.

There had been unusually low minimum temperatures – a few days earlier it had gone down to -18 C (0 F)

Many more pictures on My London Diary in Derbyshire Walks.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Peckham and East Dulwich 1989

*Courtyard, Peckham Rye Station, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-35*

The day after my walk around King’s Cross, in part on a walk led by GLIAS, on Sunday 9th April 1989 I was back in London on my own, south of the river for a walk beginning in Peckham.

People have often asked my why I photographed the areas of South London, and although I tell them I also photographed the North, East and West, my interest was certainly was certainly inspired by a remarkable book, London South Of the River, by Sam Price Myers, published in 1949, illutstrated by some fine wood engravings by Rachel Reckitt.

Back in 1989 there was relatively little graffiti in the area, but much of the walls in the 1930’s building at the centre of the picture where an arcade leads left towards Rye Lane was covered fairly colourfully last time I visited. You can just see a little of the station at right through the first arch. The second arch on Station Way leads to Blenheim Grove,

*Courtyard, Peckham Rye Station, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-36*

Myers does not have a great deal to say about Peckham, but has an engaging enthusiasm for the subject matter. His short section on the area does, like me start at Peckham Rye Station, though I had probably not arrived by train but on a bus to Peckham from Vauxhall. The book also contains some decent photographs, though greatly weakened by the rather pallid reproduction of the era, by a number of photographers including Ursula Hartleben and Bernard Alfieri.

My copy, bearing the stamp of the Illustrated London News Editorial Library, was certainly £4 well spent, and I find a copy in rather better condition now offered for sale on the web for £555; the advert shows several of Reckitt’s illustrations, and another was posted by a friend on Twitter. You can still find copies of the book in similar condition to mine for a rather more reasonable price.

This picture is looking north up Station Way from outside the station entrance towards Holly Grove. My interest on this occasion was obviously rather more in the 1930s building than the Victorian station,

*Shop, Blenheim Grove, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-21*

This was another part of the 1930s development in front of the station between it and Rye Lane, here with shops and flats above. I walked the few yards east into Rye Lane and continued south down this, taking few pictures as I had photographed this area on previous walks.

*Matrix Gym, Rye Lane, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-23*

Continuing south, Rye Lane merges into Peckham Rye, and I often confused the two. The numbers on the door frame here are 257-261 and this was a part of the former Co-Op building at the bottom of Rye Lane, now demolished and replaced.

*Lock, Peckham Rye, Peckham, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-12*

The giant lock with its legend YALE LOCKS was became labelled the entrance to Ezel Court (which I think was just the flats above the shops), but I assume that at one time either 56 – here dealing with pets – or the shop to the left had sold locks. In recent years these have become a Mini Super Market and a restaurant. I had photographed this earlier in the year and another picture appears in my post Peckham Rye to Goose Green – 1989.

*Houses, Kelmore Grove, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-13*

I continued down Peckham Rye to the junction where I turned to the west along East Dulwich Road. In 1879 this there were really substantial villas along the south of East Dulwich Rd, but by the early 90s Oakhurst Grove, Kelmore Grove and The Gardens at the back of these had been laid and lined with substantial family homes.

These beautifully decorated late Victorian houses are on the south side of Kelmore Grove, with slightly plainer examples on the other side of the road. Although only two storey, these are substantial semi-detached houses with a wide frontage with a large room on each side of the central hallway.

*Houses, Oakhurst Grove, East Dulwich, Southwark, 1989 89-4h-14*

The houses in Oakhurst Grove have alternate bays and rather curious towers in what are semi-detached three storey houses. The two doors in each pair are adjacent with only a room on one side and although taller they are less grand than those in the picture above. But they also have some fine brickwork and decorative elements.

This walk will continue in later posts.

Easter Pictures

Easter is of course the major Christian festival of the year, but here in the UK is seldom one that lends itself to photography. There are rather more public events around Good Friday, some of which I have photographed over the years, but we have never had the kind of large-scale Easter Parades like that in New York and some other cities overseas.

So Easter has usually been a rather quiet time for me, sometimes with an outdoor almost-dawn service and perhaps a long walk later in the day or on Easter Monday. This year for obvious reasons it will be a little quieter than normal, though perhaps I will take my allowed daily exercise with a walk or bike ride.

Two exceptions to my normal pattern in have both involved visits to Aldermaston with CND. In 2004 I began on Good Friday in Trafalgar Square, where there was a ‘No New Nukes‘ rally, with speakers including Tony Benn, Jenny Jones, Pat Arrowsmith, Jeremy Corbyn and many more.

The march proper began at Hyde Park, with around 2,500 people beginning the first leg, and I started with them, but soon gave up, leaving them at Kensington High St station to come home and file pictures while they made their way towards Slough.

I had a day off on the Saturday as my son was visiting us and we went on a family walk in the lower Lea Valley – and I forgot to put any pictures from this on my web site.

On Easter Sunday I got on my bike and rushed to Maidenhead where I locked my machine up and met the marchers who were arriving after an early morning start from Slough. There were now only several hundred walking the full distance, and they took a brief break for tea and coffee and then continued on their way towards that evening’s stop at Reading. I walked with them for the next few miles until their lunch stop, and photographed them from a footbridge over the road as they walked on towards Reading. I had a rather long walk back to Maidenhead for my bicycle and then the ride home.

On Monday I was feeling tired and rather than the heavy camera bag with the Nikon D100 and a film camera I took just a small knapsack with a water bottle and a lightweight Canon Digital Ixus 400, all of 222g. This took only 4Mp jpeg files, though at 2272×1704 these were not hugely smaller than the 3024×2008 of the Nikon. It had a useful zoom range, equivalent to 36-108mm, but the autofocus was sometimes rather slow, giving a highly unpredictable shutter lag. I sometimes found I had given up and moved the camera away from the subject by the time it fired.

The results were generally quite acceptable, and could produce an excellent A4 print, with the jpegs which were generally bright and sharp, often looking rather better than some from the larger Nikon files taken using RAW. In 2004 RAW conversion software was at times rather primitive and probably I was even less skilled at using it.

I took the train to Reading, along with my wife and one of our sons, and we walked the 12 miles or so to Aldermaston where I photographed the rally and then walked at least halfway around the perimeter fence of the large site. Fortunately we then got a lift to the station for a train back to Reading.

In 2018 it was the 60th anniversary of the first Aldermaston March, and on Easter Sunday I joined the crowds there for a rally. As well as calling for the UK to abandon its ridiculously expensive and totally useless nuclear weapons (our so-called deterrent) it also had something to celebrate – A UN treaty banning nuclear weapons which was finalised in 2017 and had then been signed by 122 nations.

This time I put my bike on the train to Reading and enjoyed a pleasant country ride in good weather to the rally and then back from Aldermaston.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

My London Diary – May 2019

May always starts with a busy day on May Day, and there were plenty of things happening later in the month, but I’m trying hard to cut down on what I do, partly because I often get rather tired.

Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick
City and Spitalfields walk

Youth Strike for Climate
Canary Wharf
City Churches Christian Aid Walk
Brexiteers support Trump
10 Years since Mullivaikkal massacre

Wood Green Universal Credit protest
Veterans demand end of NI prosecutions
Bethnal Green Canal Walk
XR tell Hackney stop killing insects

Tamil Genocide Hunger Strike
XR International Mothers’ Day March
Anti-Abortion ‘March for Life UK’
March for Choice defends women’s rights

National Demonstration for Palestine
Guardian lies about Venezuela
Regent’s Canal – King’s Cross
Drivers shut down Uber
Highgate to Stoke Newington
British Museum Stolen Goods Tour

Yellow jackets continue protests
Algerians press for regime change
Camden
Fridays For Future climate protest
Die-In against Nuclear Weapons celebration
Wapping and the Thames
London May Day Banners
London May Day

London Images

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All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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