Roadworks.

Both residents and travellers on Manor Road in Erith were surprised this week when a small van parked at the side of the road by a row of Victorian cottages sprouted a very large road stoppage on Tuesday afternoon and early evening. What appeared to be a water leak in the gutter of the roadside had turned into something far more significant and potentially damaging. As a result of this, the entire main road was close to all forms of traffic and the Road was blocked as can be seen in the two photographs above. Please click on either to see a larger version. Ironically a number of residents had informed Thames water of a leak in the gutter as far back as January of this year and a person came out, Inspected the damage. Apparently he looked at what appeared to be a minor leak and left the site with no action taken. It would appear that since then the water leak has got worse and eroded the soil underneath the stone and tarmac of the roadway causing the camber of the road to collapse inwards effectively causing far more serious damage. After speaking to the the site supervisor, I was told that investigation of the damage to the roadway and remediation would take at least one week and potentially far longer depending on what the examination found once the leak site had been exposed after the tarmac and covering layers of road had been removed. Manor Road is quite unusual in that it is both an industrial roadway and and important commuter route used by both business and private drivers along with a primary part of the major 99 bus route between Woolwich and Bexleyheath and the N89 night bus to and from central London, both of which have had to be diverted. On top of this people who rely on supermarket and online deliveries via delivery van have been seriously disrupted. One reader has already commented that she lives in the location of the roadworks and that food delivery cyclists are speeding along the narrow pavements past the roadblock causing serious danger for local pedestrians. This is not something that surprises me. It was quite close to this location where I was knocked down by an electric scooter and rider, causing some quite serious injuries to me a couple of years ago. What has also been quite telling in the early days of the investigation and potential remedial work is how short a time the Thames water workers were on site. On the Wednesday morning they started work at approximately 9:30 a.m. and finished at just after 1:00 p.m in time for lunch. After that the site was empty and closed. In the days since then, workers have started at nine and finished by midday. Bearing in mind, what a vital roadway for commercial traffic, cars and important regional bus routes including the 99. this is, it does seem to me to be irresponsible and also looks very bad for Thames Water. On top of this Manor Road is the main access point for the large Frobisher Road housing estate which regularly needs visits from the emergency services who use Manor Road as their primary way of reaching the houses and flats on the estate. Whilst access from central Erith is unavailable due to the roadworks, any emergency vehicles will have to navigate via Slade Green which potentially could take them far longer, which is extremely undesirable when time is of the essence during an emergency. At the time of writing, the road is still blocked and  may be for several more days. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Last June I wrote at some length about how I had encountered a couple of local (Northumberland  Heath) examples of technical archaeology, in the form of BSB "Squarials" - photo above - click on it  to see a larger photo - antennas once used to receive the long defunct British Satellite Broadcasting Service, that was beaten in business by the technologically simpler, but cheaper and more reliable service from Sky. The satellite age did not really kick-off in the UK until 1989 when a Rupert Murdoch run Sky Television went head-to-head against BSB. The stark difference between the two services was perhaps best symbolised by their radically different satellite dish designs: Sky’s was an ugly, wire-mesh, affair, cheaply made by Amstrad, whereas the BSB squarial was of an elegant white, adhering to that aesthetic so beloved of home make-over programmes – clean, sleek lines. At the time, the Sky service was a very technologically pedestrian analogue FM system, whereas the BSB service was digital from the outset. The BSB Squarial was a technological marvel - it was a phased array antenna - something previously only seen in high end military radar applications. It was very difficult to make, and BSB heavily subsidised the antennas to buyers from the outset. Undoubtedly the BSB squarial was the more technically elegant of the two but whose carried the most popular service? Well BSB offered then state-of-the art D-MAC satellite technology and an eclectic mix of arts, sport and entertainment programming, but for those who chose Sky there was unlimited ALF, 21 Jump Street and The Price is Right. Much in the way that VHS beat the marginally superior Betamax video recorder format a few years earlier. After not very long, Sky bought out BSB, and the D-MAC satellites were decommissioned. Thirty five years or so later, a very few people still have the defunct antennas attached to the outside of their houses.What is the relevance of this nowadays you ask? The replacement of the BSB antennas with the simpler and cheaper sky dishes merely shows something that is happening again now. Once again history is repeating itself. It would appear that terrestrial satellite receiving dishes are going to be phased out over the next few years. Satellite broadcasting is being replaced by internet streaming which is far cheaper to implement. Generally more reliable, although not as ubiquitous in far flung parts of the country. It has been known for several years that a number of major broadcasters had long-term plans to replace standard broadcast, television and satellite television with streaming services is not only were these cheaper and easier to implement. They were also far easier to put behind a paywall in a similar way to streaming only services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. I am aware that this particularly appealed not only to Sky but also to the BBC. I understand that one of the reasons it implemented BBC iPlayer was in the medium to long-term to place it behind a paywall and do away with the controversial licence fee which is increasing in unpopularity and being contested by more and more former licence fee payers. Not only is streaming technology becoming increasingly cheaper and internet connectivity more and more ubiquitous, but many of the currents range of television broadcast satellites are coming towards the end of their service life, some of the Sky satellites Will become life expired within the next 2 or 3 years. A single broadcast television satellite costs something in the region of £50 million, with launch costs on top of this. They have a limited lifespan as the manoeuvring fuel used by the thrusters to keep the satellite on station only have a very finite life before they run out. Once the fuel has run out, the satellite is effectively dead. The costs of launching and maintaining new satellites are becoming prohibitive due to the changes and advances in technology over the last couple of decades. When the first TV satellites were launched for the use by BSB and Sky in the very late '80s and early '90s, there was no public internet or World Wide Web and absolutely certainly no fast streaming. Things have moved on nowadays and for a majority of people streaming is faster, easier and more cost effective both for the consumer and for the broadcaster. The major problem is in remote regions with poor internet connectivity where satellite reception is the only practical solution. More UK households now subscribe to a streaming service than a traditional satellite or cable TV package. This is despite pay -TV services, like Sky, still holding a significant share of the market, largely due to their exclusive rights to live sporting events. However, forecasts suggest that subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) revenues will overtake pay-TV revenues by 2029, a clear indicator of the direction of the market. As the UK's largest satellite TV provider, Sky is at the forefront of this change. The company has been actively encouraging its customers to switch from its satellite-based Sky Q platform to its new streaming services, Sky Glass and Sky Stream. While a new contract with its satellite provider means that Sky Q will remain operational for the foreseeable future (at least until 2029), the company is no longer actively promoting it to new customers. Sky Stream, which only requires an internet connection and a small device, is now its default offering. While Sky Stream offers convenience and doesn't require a dish, some users have noted a few drawbacks compared to Sky Q, such as fewer available channels and the inability to physically record shows. Instead, it relies on a "playlist" feature that simply directs users to on-demand apps like BBC iPlayer or ITVX. The public service broadcasters in the UK—BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5—have also embraced the streaming-first future with the launch of Freely. Launched in 2024, Freely is a free-to-air IPTV service that allows users to watch live and on-demand TV from these broadcasters all in one place, without needing an aerial or satellite dish. It's essentially a streaming version of Freeview - one drawback is that it needs a relatively modern TV capable of receiving it. The UK government has committed to the Freeview DTT platform until at least 2034, but the long-term trend is clear. As maintaining the traditional broadcast infrastructure becomes less economically viable due to falling viewer numbers, a managed transition to an internet-only TV service is the logical next step. The goal is to ensure a smooth transition so that no one, especially vulnerable groups like the elderly or those with disabilities who rely on DTT, is left behind. This will require significant collaboration between broadcasters, the government, and the broadband industry to ensure universal access to reliable internet and TV services in the years to come. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

During the week I was contacted by a chap called Tim, who is related to the late John Downton. Tim was  asking for historical information that I have previously published on his relative, and as there is a strong level of local interest, I thought that I would comply. You may be aware that one of the roads in the (relatively) new Erith Park development is named Downton Road - well, it is not named after the Downton Abbey television series, but after a chap called John Downton - his self portrait is above - click on it to see a larger version.  He was an English artist, philosopher, musician, and poet. Born in Erith on the 27th of March 1906 to Albert Victor Downton (1873 - 1925; an engineer) and Flora Edith (1875 - 1962; née Mitchell) both of Wiltshire, Downton drew well from an early age. He was educated at Erith Convent, followed by Erith Grammar School. At the age of fifteen he won the youth silver medal of the Royal Drawing Society. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge (1925–1928), first in English and then in Art History, and then trained as a painter at the Slade. Downton played the violin all his life, was often invited to give performances, and always participated in the fortnight-long Grittleton Summer School of Music in Malvern, Worcestershire. He also wrote books, such as The Death of Art (1937) and Craftsmanship, Art and Criticism (1983). But it is his paintings for which he is now chiefly remembered. He travelled regularly around Europe, and was particularly happy in northern Italy. His main subject was young girlhood, rendered in the manner of the Italian old masters and with the tempera technique that had been revived by the Birmingham Group. Both his subject matter and his techniques were deeply unfashionable during most of his adult life, and he ceased to exhibit after the start of the Second World War, during which he was a conscientious objector, working on the land in Shropshire and Pitlochry, Scotland. He had two sisters: Hilda (1901 - 2006) and Mary (1903 - 1989). Hilda, who lived to 104, was a talented artist. Her painting of Ightham Mote is owned by the National Trust, and it was she who established the John Downton Award in 2000. Her legacy also provided for a specialist music room at Walthamstow Hall School in her brother's name. John Downton's portrait of Hilda was gifted to the Hull Museum Collection He never married, and lived mostly in Cambridge. On his death in 1991, all his work passed to The Downton Trust. A major retrospective exhibition and catalogue was produced in 1996, and the exhibition toured the UK. His three main masterpieces are: The Battle (1935, now in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery); Portrait of a Girl (1938, now in The Tate); Nora Russell (1935, which was gifted to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth, in 1998). There is an annual John Downton Award for Young Artists, given to those attending secondary schools in the county of Kent. Following the original publication of this article, I received an Email from local historian Ken Chamberlain, with a story about John Downton's sister Hilda, which makes for fascinating reading. Ken wrote:- "I read with interest your article on the Downton's. Shortly before her death I visited her at her house in Sevenoaks. The reason for this  particular visit was that she wanted to donate some of her brothers drawings to the then Erith Museum . This I duly managed to do in company with the then Curator of the Museum Service. Hilda was insistent they should be displayed in Erith. We managed to bring her up for the opening of the display. A bit scary as a couple of us carried her up the stairs, and back down again. Being fully aware that IF we dropped her she would die. No question, but she insisted and all went well. After the closure of the Museum, the Museum Service took them and I presume they are in store somewhere. You rightly mention her mother was a member of the Mitchell family, her brother was Hedley. At her Memorial Service I was given two paintings of her Grandparents, who owned Lesney Farm. They too are with the Museum Service, I HOPE! By the time I  got to know her she was virtually blind, but she was a charming lady, and very proud of her Erith origins, boasting she was the first lady in Erith to own a car. She never married. I  attach a self portrait of her as a young lady. One story she related was she was informed on the 3rd September 1939, by her doctor the Germans would be here the next day The family believed it and immediately moved to Scotland where they bought a house".  

Following my article on  the potential forthcoming end of satellite television, here is a short  video on the subject from radio and TV specialist YouTube channel Ringway Manchester. Please send your comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.