Going to Southall to photograph the start of a protest against hospital closures – Thousands March to Save Hospitals – brought back many memories for me. Some from the distant past, when in short trousers I used to cycle to the long footbridge over the Great Western lines (though I suppose it was really British Rail Western Region by then) and stand in awe as Kings, Castles, Halls and the rest thundered past beneath me, steam, smoke, grit, sparks and fire.
In the community kitchen at Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, 2005
Others more recent of going with Indian colleagues to eat fine food in often disreputable-looking rooms – hardly restuarants or cafés – where I was sometimes the only English-born customer; the best of these long gone upmarket or disappeared. Though there is still plenty of good Indian food, not least at the Gurdwara where it is free.
Janam Ashtami Shobha Yaatra – Shri Krishna’s Birthday, Shree Ram Mandir, Southall, 19 Aug 2007
Of religious festivals, Hindu and particularly Sikh, with the streets particularly densely packed for the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa in 1999, but many others, of visits to temples and the Gurdwara, including a memorable wedding, and of various protests I’ve photographed there in more recent years.
Gate Gourmet strikers protest in Southall, December 4, 2005
I wasn’t there the infamous day in 1979 when Blair Peach was killed – as the Met finally admitted 31 years later – by an elite riot squad officer, though I was in Southall for a march commemorating his life some years later, and also for various other protests over the years, including by the strikers from Gate Gourmet.
Thousands March to Save Hospitals – Southall Park, 2012
The Gate Gourmet workers were there at the hospital protest with their banner, and there were others I recognised too among the 1500 or so who had turned up here – and more elsewhere – for the march to a rally in Ealing. There was a banner for Blair Peach also, and I tried to include him in the crowd of people listening to the speakers.
Thousands March to Save Hospitals – Southall Park, 2012
More about the plans to cut hospital services in West London and of course more pictures in Thousands March to Save Hospitals on My London Diary.
Thousands March to Save Hospitals – Southall Park, 2012
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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