I took the upper of the two photos above back in February 2023. It shows the artist creating the eye-catching mural which is located under the road bridge adjacent to Erith railway station. It was certainly a notable piece of local street art. Early last week I was notified by reader and occasional contributor Miles that the mural had been partially defaced, and was no longer looking like it did. You can see his photo of the changes in the lower of the two images above. Please click on either to see a larger view. At the time of writing, I have no idea who carried out this vandalism. In the nearly 3 years since the mural was created. I have heard no criticism from local people over its installation, and generally the opinions of it appear to be positive. It will be easy to make assumptions about who carried out the defacement of it, but at this stage it is entirely unclear who the perpetrator is. Whether there is any public money to restore the artwork to its original state is also unknown at this point. Comments and feedback as always to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
If you have online video streaming service Netflix, I don't know if you are watching, or indeed have watched Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery, which is currently a very popular show on the channel. I was quite surprised to find out that the central character of the amateur detective Lady Eileen Brent is played by a local actress. Her name is Mia McKenna Bruce, who was born and brought up in Chislehurst and studied dance in Bexleyheath, and also studied performance arts in old Bexley village. She is regarded as a future major TV and film star. In fact, in 2024, she won the BAFTA Rising Star award in recognition of her talents. Certainly one to watch in future, and I can highly recommend the current Netflix based Seven Dials Mystery for anyone who is interested in a 1920s period historical murder mystery drama.
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I sincerely hope that you do not have to see the image above in real life - click on it to see a larger version. It shows the driver's seat and cockpit area of an NHS patient transport ambulance. These are used when people need to attend outpatient hospital appointments but like me, have limited mobility and are unable to use a car or public transport to travel to the hospital for their consultation. The service is free to use and can be booked via telephone, giving details of your hospital appointments and timings. The ambulance will normally turn up at your front door 2 hours before the appointment, as they usually have to pick up two or three other people for appointments at the same hospital at around the same time. Over the last year I've used the service extensively and found it to be reliable and efficient. I took the photo above on Monday morning when I was being transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich for an outpatient appointment with a consultant in the haematology department. The patient transport staff are extremely helpful, polite and caring. I could not praise them any more. As with the rest of the NHS, the patient transport service is completely free at the point of use. I took the photo from the passenger seat closest to the front of the cab and nearest to the driver, as this is the one with the greatest amount of leg room. Being somewhat tall I need all the room I can, as I have very long legs and get cramped without enough space.
Following my historic photograph and memories of the Pembroke Road level crossing last week, Jeff writes:- "Firstly, in the ‘50s, the shop mentioned was known as The Bungalow Stores, it was not dissimilar to several ‘corner shops’ in the area, selling a range of products. At the time I would be interested in confectionery (particularly those aimed at children), which they certainly sold (it was not our nearest shop and, by and large, ‘treats’ weren’t on the agenda. Also, although it was further away, we might be sent to the Co-Op in West Street for the ‘divi’). It was convenient for parents picking up pupils from West Street School. The ‘gates’ were quite often the parting point for a child and their mother (it would invariably be a mother) once they reached the Juniors. On the ‘Church’ side of the railway line there was a small house where the ‘Gatekeeper’ lived, with his family. (I’m not so sure that the hut was little – compared with the house; it was pretty solid as well). If he was in the hut, I passed his papers to him (I was a paper boy in the mid ‘60s) which was good news as their letter box was pretty small, if I recall. I seem to remember having trouble getting some of the papers through – possibly the Erith Observer. My main memory of the pedestrian gates is that they certainly required physical effort to open and you can to be careful not to let go too early, they closed with a vengeance. I would imagine that as car ownership increased, there would be more congestion from the Pembroke Road end if the gates were closed. At West Street we would have a regular (annual) visits from the Police to warn us of the dangers of playing near the railway line. Sealing the crossing reduced the risk of that".
2026 marks the year when the excellent Museum of London opens its doors at its new location. The museum was originally situated in the Barbican Centre in 1976, prior to much of the other parts of the centre opening in 1982. The museum is currently closed, as it is relocating into West Smithfield into two of the original historic general market buildings, and will open later this year. It covers the complete history of London and its surrounding areas. In my opinion, one of the most interesting London characters that is extensively detailed in the museum's collection is one that I featured quite a few years ago on the blog, and I'm going to revisit now, as I feel his story will become increasingly relevant, especially when one considers the number of unusual and quirky diets that have been promulgated online and through social media over the last decade or so. I think his story gives a really good background to this, and may act as a bit of a cautionary tale of the "Less Protein" man - Stanley Green. He used to patrol Oxford and Regent Street in the West End, holding aloft a large board proclaiming the evils of eating too much protein, and “sitting”. He used to sell self published tracts explaining his rather unique world view. Stanley Green was a true British eccentric, and became somewhat of a tourist attraction in the 1980's. By all accounts, Stanley was a difficult character. He never settled in a job, never married and lived with his parents in a council flat in Northolt for most of his life. His campaign against eating protein began after his mother’s death in 1967. I can recall seeing him on an almost daily basis when I worked for Silica Shop in Tottenham Court Road. Stanley Green, one of 20th century London's best-known characters. For 25 years he was a regular sight on Oxford Street, warning people about the dangers of eating protein. There he would share his ideas for improving the physical and psychological well being of the country, based primarily on the idea that the consumption of too much protein led to the moral turpitude he had first encountered in the Navy during the War and which had then infected the whole country. He would wander up and down Oxford Street in his recognisable peaked cotton cap, preaching his gospel in his soft but resonant tone, with his placard clearly visible above the pedestrians’ heads and his shoulder bag full of his curious little booklets. On Saturdays he would decamp to Leicester Square to spread the word there, selling his pamphlets and presenting his placard to the cinema-going public. He began his crusade at the age of 53, then stuck at this resolutely for fully quarter of a century. His message evolved just once, to incorporate his belief that too much sitting was almost as big a problem as the eight ‘passion proteins’. According to his theory, these were “Meat, Fish, Bird, Egg, Cheese, Peas, Beans and Nuts”. These were the raw materials of the ‘Protein Wisdom’ that was the subject of his eccentric pamphlet. His placard, by now a common sight bobbing over the heads of the people milling around Oxford Circus, now incorporated an additional sign beneath the main banner, warning of the dangers of sedentary life. Too much sitting, he argued, just formed more protein. He believed it made people uncontrollably passionate, and that this was a source of anarchy in the world. From 1968 to 1993, Stanley Green could regularly be seen in Oxford Street campaigning against the dangers of eating protein. When he died in 1993, the Museum of London acquired his placards and a complete set of his hand printed booklets - "Eight Passion Proteins". Stanley had paraded up and down London's Oxford St for the last 25 years carrying a placard warning against the dangers of lust and passion caused by "fish, meat, bird, cheese, egg, peas, beans, nuts and sitting", and selling his leaflets at 12p each - later the price was raised to 20p, as his printing costs increased. Until he qualified for his free travel pass, he would cycle the 15 miles from his home in Northolt to Oxford Street, with his placard on his back. He recalled with pleasure that motorists used to toot their horns and wave as they passed, and on occasions, whole coachloads had stood up and cheered him. His own diet was porridge, fruit, steamed vegetables, lentils, home-baked bread and barley water mixed with milk powder. Stanley Green died back in 1993, ironically it is thought of malnutrition due to his poor diet. By the end of his remarkable life, Stanley Green claimed to have sold some 87,000 of his pamphlets. He had been embraced by (most of) the people of London as one of the city’s eccentrics and had even taken part in a fashion show for Red or Dead at the invitation of Wayne Hemingway.
Over a year ago, I wrote an article about dark kitchens. These are food outlets that are not open to the public, but purely exist to cook food to be delivered by the likes of Just Eat and Deliveroo - amongst others. There are many problems with these, including but not limited to the fact that they are often located within structures such as converted shipping containers within industrial estates, and they are not subject to the strict hygiene and safety rules that High Street food shops are. Quite often there is no Scores on the Doors, star hygiene rating for them, and commonly they are completely anonymous. Not only this, but in many cases, these dark kitchens cook food for many different companies in different styles, and it is entirely possible for cross-contamination to occur. This does just not mean when food is bad or infected but also when a customer has an allergy such as with peanuts. They could order food from one apparent company, and have it delivered, but in fact it was produced in the same kitchen by another apparent company. All under the banner of the dark kitchen, and end up with anaphylactic shock or worse. At the time of writing, dark kitchens have virtually no accountability to the authorities, or to the general public. They rely on the anonymity of delivery services. Because they are often located on industrial estates, rather than in high streets, their overhead costs are often quite considerably less, and thus their profitability can usually be greater. It is not uncommon for the big commercial catering chains to employ such methods. There are also questions to be asked about the level of both health and safety, and remuneration for the staff working in the kitchens. I'm aware that there have been occasions where there have been legal issues over those working in these, apparently anonymous catering establishments.
The end video this week is of Erith Model Railway Society's annual exhibition, which was held last Saturday in Thamesmead. Comments and feedback as always to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
