8,000 or more of us queued up along both banks of the thames from westminster to lambeth bridges and beyond to take part in a mass lobby for trade justice. people continued to queue, some for four hours and more to see talk to their members of parliament, despite a long wait in often heavy pouring rain. we arrived at westminster around 12.15 and it was almost 5pm before my wife was able to meet our mp.
others were more fortunate, with a number of mps from all parties coming out onto the street and into victoria tower gardens to meet their constituents. the lobby aimed to make clear the difference between 'fair trade' and 'free trade' and to stress the necessity to make trade fair so that economically weak nations have a chance to develop.
despite the lousy weather (not good for photography or queuing) spirits
were high among those waiting, and there were some street theatre performances
that helped.
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i always enjoy walking in london (despite my knee still not being 100%)
and from bank to the museum of london is a journey i make pretty regularly.
on foot, there are many different routes you can take without making much
difference to the distance, although if i'm not in a hurry i'll often take
an even longer route. on armistice day, friday11, i went through guildhall
yard, and saw the row of limousines lined up for some event, then up to
london wall and on to the high walk.
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saturday i was back opposite guildhall for the start of the annual lord mayor's parade. although i've been to it on several occasions, i've never tried to photograph the actual event and people taking part in a straightforward way. usually the things that happen before and after and on the fringes are of more interest to photographers (cartier-bresson photographing that guy sleeping it off on a pile of paper as the coronation procession moved by has a lot to answer for.)
after the end of the parade had passed the guildhall, i took a short cut to st pauls to watch the blessing of the lord mayor and his lady, but unfortunately the crowd barriers holding back the public were too far away for a decent view, though I did take a few snaps. it is a tightly policed event, very different from the notting hill carnival parade, perhaps organised more with television in mind than letting those present actually take part - you go to watch, and in the more crowded parts, often get a poor and distant view. then i found a seat in the sun outside the new stock exchange and ate my sandwiches before photographing some of the fairground around the cathedral.
then it was time to see the parade returning, and a short walk took me
to opposite st andrew-by-the-wardrobe. i'd meant to stay on for the fireworks
later, but i'd been standing up too long for my knee and decided to go home
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we had some fine weather in the middle of the month, which got me out on my bike again to take a ride around the north side of the thames estuary, from stanford le hope - where joseph conrad lived and wrote for a couple of years along to corringham village, then on to fobbing and past vange marshes to pitsea station.
the first miles were on low-lying farmland, with the skyline dominated by the oil tanks and refinery at coryton (named for the cory brothers who bought the site in 1923). the old village at corringham is on a low hill, and parts remain very picturesque. fobbing has some more serious hills, its main street falling sharply from the church down to the marshes. i took the bike a short way on the footpaths across the marsh, but it wasn't a suitable surface for riding.
large-scale development is expected in the area, as the former shell haven site, just to the west of coryton, is to become a large container port, london gateway.
in the recreation ground at fobbing is a memorial arch. in may 1381, a tax collector, thomas bampton, came to the village to demand unpaid poll tax from the peasants of fobbing, stanford and corringham; his demands were so unreasonable that this caused a riot and the villagers threw him out. by the following day, three of bampton's men had been killed and the revolt was spreading through essex and further afield. news doubtless travelled across the river to kent, where john ball had earlier been arrested for his radical views, and kent peasants also revolted. the arch was erected for the 600 anniversary in 1981.
north of the village, marsh lane is a bridleway leading out onto the marshes. there had been rather too much rain recently to make cycling along it easy, with large puddles and tractor-churned mud. after around three quarters of a mile, the track became just a grassy footpath and i turned round and made my way back up to the main road on the higher ground overlooking the marsh.
vange is now very cut-off from its marshes, both by the railway line and
the a13 road. i'd hoped to explore the marsh a little more, but my when
my front tyre got a puncture decided to make directly for pitsea station
and the train home.
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i arrived in london a little early for the demonstration on saturday, and
sat in the sun in the gardens by the embankment eating my lunch, and walked
round a little, photographing some of the buildings and monuments.
the deportation of asylum seekers often seems inhumane, with officials apparently ignoring the fears of reprisals and other measures against those who are sent back, as well as sometimes making quite unreasonable demands for documents that people leaving their country in a rush in fear for their lives could hardly be expected to have.
especially when the proceedings take some years to go through, children of those involved may well have settled in schools here, made friends, learned the language and really be more english than anything else. some will have been born here. it seems particularly cruel to knock on the door of their homes in the middle of the night and bundle them off without warning to the airport, as happens to some families living here.
also on the march were men from iraq, who clearly felt their lives were
in danger if they return. one man's wife was assassinated after he left,
but apparently the immigration service don't feel that he would be at risk
if they forcibly deport him.
sunday i went to the open studios of a painter next to the canal south of victoria park. again it was good weather, so having waited a few minutes at a bus stop close to bethnal green station, as the bus came along i changed my mind and decided to walk.
it took a little longer than i expected, as i took the towpath along the hertford union from its junction with the regents canal, only to find that the first exit from it was several hundred yards further than i intended to go, at three colt's bridge.
on the way back, having exchanged some photos for a watercolour and enjoyed
a couple of cups of tea, the low winter sun shining through a slight haze
was giving the towers on canary wharf a bright orange-red gleam. i walked
into the part and then onto the roman road canal bridge, where i stood for
the next quarter of an hour just watching the sunlight slowly fade.
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thursday evening i met paul in wimbledon to photograph their christmas parade, through the centre of the town. we were just a little late coming out of the pub and perhaps missed the best chances of photographing the participants preparing in the church hall, but were there well before it moved off.
i've still to master using the nikon flash system at night, and there were some tricky subjects with white fur and gloves that over-exposed far too readily, as well as the usual pitfalls of fluorescent security jackets.
after the parade i rushed off, although there were a few things going on,
there was the opening of a photography show at photofusion i didn't want
to miss.
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as i walked up the escalator (yes, i was late again) at king's cross i remembered the interviews with those who had been caught there in the terrible fire, thinking how hard it would be to find the way out in smoke-filled darkness. parts of the station still look a terrible mess, though that's not unusual in our underground system.
up at ground level was a joint trades union demonstration in memory of the fire, and to defend the safety rules which are currently under attack by management wanting to save costs. kings cross - never again! was address by a number of speakers including mick connolly, john mcdonnell mp jeremy corbyn mp, keith norman (aslef), matt wrack (fbu), and bob crow (rmt), all worried by the threat to the public and those who work on the underground or in rescue services.
proper safety procedures are particularly vital when as well as accidental
disasters such as the king's cross fire, the safety of the system is also
threatened by deliberate terrorist attacks.
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i'd hoped the event would end in time for me to get to a lecture at the ica, but it was too late. i went that way just the same, getting off the tube at charing cross and walking down whitehall to westminster station for the jubilee line, past the cenotaph, surrounded now by a low fence. it was still covered by the wreaths of poppies from earlier in the month, now partly covered by the falling leaves from the many london plane trees, another and in some ways more touching symbol of loss.
it was an afternoon of low winter sun, and stormy showers, with impressive clouds in the wide open skies over the expanse of the royal docks, and some peculiar colours. the demonstration i'd gone to see was nowhere to be found when i arrived, and i wandered the dock estate marvelilng in the views.
in particular the high-level bridge over the dock is one of new london's more spectacular sights, and a fine viewing platform. unlike the last time i visited, the lifts were working too. a small group of people with musical instruments began to gather on the top, but they turned out only to be a band coming for a photo session.
i'd more or less given up and decided to go home at that point when in the distance i heard the brassy notes of the red flag, and made my way towards them. by the time i'd arrived at the entrance to the excel centre, they were into the internationale, complete with new words (except that no-one was singing them, and i didn't fancy a solo role):
we are told that profit from the arms fair will
trickle down all over town,
but it's killing our sisters and our brothers,
it's their blood that is trickling down.
all people now rally!
no arms fair any place!
the intenationale unites the human race!
next came the cutty wren, a song from the peasant's revolt, which
took my mind back to fobbing where i'd been ten days earlier.
The Excel centre has hosted several arms fairs which have attracted a number
of protests from local groups. one of the local papers, the newham recorder
found in a poll that 79% of local residents oppose them, and london mayor
ken livingstone has also voiced his opposition. further arms fairs are already
booked for 2007, 2009 and 2011 and the musical protest was one of a number
of actions attempting to get the Excel centre to cancel these future events.
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some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.
this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at
london pictures
londons industrial history
and you can read what I think about photography at
the peasant's revolt
some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.
this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at
london pictures
londons industrial history
and you can read what I think about photography at