A Private Screening.

You may recall that last week the Maggot Sandwich was published somewhat earlier in the day than is normal; as I mentioned, the reason for this was that I was invited to a private screening of “Star Wars – The Force Awakens” at the CineWorld in Bexleyheath. The event was expertly organised by Maggot Sandwich reader Nav Bhamra, (whom you can see in the Rebel Alliance X-Wing fighter pilot's uniform above). I must admit that not having attended a private screening before, I was not sure quite what to expect. Of the 260 people who attended, I would say that roughly two thirds came in costume; on top of this, a number of the 501st Legion were also in attendance. The 501st Legion are a worldwide group of Star Wars fans who raise a lot of money for charity and good causes; they appear as Imperial Stormtroopers or other characters from the Star Wars universe, and attend both public and private events – they do not charge for their time, but a donation to their local charity of choice is always welcome. The 501st Legion was formed in America in 1997 by a chap called Albin Johnson. It initially began purely as a website for fans of Star Wars who had created their own costumes, but it soon grew beyond that. Within weeks of launching the sites, Johnson was fielding email requests from people across the country and around the world looking to be featured on his website in their own homemade Stormtrooper armour. What he started soon blossomed into a global phenomenon – a fan-based costuming club unlike any other. The Legion ranks swelled, and regional subdivisions called Garrisons, Squads, and Outposts were created to facilitate the organization of events and appearances on a local level. While the Legion was initially based only on the white-armoured Stormtroopers stationed aboard The Death Star, as the group expanded, it grew to encompass every other canon trooper variation, and other villains from the Star Wars saga, such as Sith Lords, and bounty hunters. Custom creations are generally not eligible for membership, and all applicants are reviewed by their local units and Legion Membership Officers prior to approval into the member database. Early events attended (or "trooped") by the Legion were mostly science-fiction and comic book conventions or related to the release of the Star Wars movies in cinemas and on video. But members were looking for more frequent reasons to meet up with their new-found Legion friends and show off their costumes together. Lucasfilm / Disney have granted the Legion a limited use of their copyrighted characters, as long as members of the 501st promised never to use their costumes for personal profit, and that they represent the franchise in a positive and respectful manner. The Legion then became a force for doing good, expanding into a charitable organisation that has been likened to a Rotary or Lions Club for a modern generation. Anyway, the management and staff of Bexleyheath CineWorld pulled out all of the stops. No other films were shown on Sunday afternoon (the box office was closed) – if you were not invited to the private screening, you might as well have gone home. The place was packed, and the atmosphere was amazing. I bumped into a number of readers, and after the film, we all agreed that private screenings were likely to become a regular occurrence when any new Star Wars film is released. Thanks to Nav for inviting me along – I had a fantastic time. If you have not seen “The Force Awakens”, I can heartily recommend the film – and no, I won’t be printing any plot spoilers. The photo below shows a panoramic view of the cinema atrium, giving you a good idea of just how many people turned up for the one – off screening. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Opposite Bexleyheath CineWorld, on the other side of the Broadway is an open piece of land, where Bexley Council offices used to be, before they relocated to the old, former Woolwich Equitable headquarters in  Erith Road / Watling Street. The land was initially purchased by Tesco, who planned to construct a very large superstore on the site. Unsurprisingly (if you know anything about Tesco and their property policy) this did not happen – Tesco did their usual trick of “land banking” the site for a couple of years, until they were eventually forced to sell it on. The new owners are Sports Direct. The Bexley Times have reported that all buildings on the site have now been demolished, with the new land-owners looking to spark regeneration in the town centre. Sports Direct have claim the site will be used for a store and could generate “hundreds of jobs”. Whilst in many ways that will be a good thing, I still have a feeling that there will be plenty of strings attached. Sports Direct have absolutely appalling employment conditions, some of which may actually be illegal. The Guardian recently reported that Warehouse staff at the group, which is controlled by Britain’s 22nd richest man, are required to go through body searches at the end of each shift, for which their time is unpaid, while they also suffer harsh deductions from their wage packets for clocking in for a shift just one minute late. The practices contribute to many staff being paid an effective rate of about £6.50 an hour against the statutory rate of £6.70 – potentially saving the FTSE 100 firm millions of pounds a year at the expense of some of the poorest workers in the UK. The discovery of the low pay being received by Sports Direct workers comes on top of a string of criticisms of the working conditions within the retailer’s warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, where more than 80% of staff are on zero hours contracts. Workers are also: Harangued by tannoy for not working fast enough. Warned they will be sacked if they receive six black marks – or “strikes” over a six-month period for offences including a “period of reported sickness”; “errors”; “excessive/long toilet breaks”; “time wasting”; “excessive chatting”; “horseplay”; and “using a mobile phone in the warehouse”. Banned from wearing 802 separate clothing brands at work, and also have to go through rigorous searches – down to the last layer of clothing, asked to roll up trouser legs and show top of underwear – which typically takes fifteen minutes, because management is so concerned about potential theft. It has got so bad that school teachers in schools near the warehouse have reported that Sports Direct staff often do not come to pick up their children if they become ill during the day, as they are too frightened of being sacked for taking time off to cover the domestic emergency. Do we really want to welcome a company that has such repressive and demeaning working practices opening a store in the area? What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Following on from the release of The Force Awakens, a relatively new type of tourism seems to be taking off in a big way. Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean, a tranquil, moss-carpeted woodland where JRR Tolkien is said to have found the inspiration for the forests of Middle Earth, is reaping the benefits of the Star Wars phenomenon. Parts of Star Wars: The Force Awakens were shot at Puzzlewood and fans seeking an authentic Star Wars experience are flocking to the location in their droves. A week after the film hit the screens, visitor numbers are double the average. Hotels and bed and breakfasts are struggling to meet demand. For a region that has historically found it hard to create jobs, the Forest of Dean’s links to the franchise and a host of others films, notably Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, could prove to be a major asset. Film consultancy Olsberg estimates that “screen tourism” was worth as much as £140m to the UK last year and is likely to increase. Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Tourism, which last week launched a guide to the area for film fans, believes that screen tourism will bring in £50m to the local economy over the next five years. Areas all over the UK are being used for both film and television locations. Locally we have Chatham Historic Dockyard, which is the main location for "Call the Midwife" and was also used extensively in both Guy Ritchie directed "Sherlock Holmes" films, and the movies "Mr Turner" and "Suffragette". Even nearer home, the cast iron Victorian Gothic interior of Crossness Pumping Station has been used for many productions, including the original "Alien", Tim Burton's "Batman" the recently released "Victor Frankenstein", and once again "Sherlock Holmes". Cash-strapped local councils now understand how they can earn large sums from granting permits to film in municipal buildings and spaces. Manchester Town Hall, an impressive gothic building that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Palace of Westminster, doubled as parliament for Meryl Streep’s The Iron Lady. Its impressive stone architecture has also provided the backdrop for Victor Frankenstein, starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe, Sherlock Holmes, starring Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr, and the television series Ripper Street and Peaky Blinders.  

2015 was the year when local newspaper the News Shopper moved out of Petts Wood, where it has been located since 1990. Reporters now mainly work from home – not a real problem nowadays. What has also changed (and in my opinion, for the worse) is the editorial direction of the local paper; what used to be a fairly serious journal of events occurring in South East London and North Kent has now become a bit of a cut price tabloid paper. An example of this can be seen in a recent article that reports on a mysterious noise that has been heard in Belvedere. They write:- "Mystery surrounds a "haunting animal-like howling" which plagues sleeping residents of Belvedere. Sleepy folk claim the "scary moaning" can be heard across Clydesdale Way, Norman Road and Upper Belvedere every night and into the early morning. Chloe Philpot, 25, said: "Over the past month or so I have been hearing an extremely haunting animal-like howling. "It is repetitive but each sound is never the same. "I know a few people in the area have tried to search for the source to no avail. "It's getting scary." Miss Philpot, who likened the "pitiful" screeching to a "mutant owl", took to Facebook in a bid to get to the bottom of the sound. Several people suspect the noise is being made by a fox, however, Jim Morrison puts it down to "the mutant wolf of Belvedere." The article is accompanied by a photo taken from the classic horror movie “An American Werewolf in London” – the whole thing is nothing more than a puff – piece designed to fill column inches. I have heard the “haunting animal – like howling” myself. The reason the sound is “animal – like” is because it is produced by a fox. No drama, no paranormal rubbish – just a rather loud fox marking its territory. This is a total non – story.

You may recall that my coverage of the “Funky Clock Scam” got record levels of readership – coming up to 29,000 hits since the article was published; this has had some unexpected benefits. The company behind the scam have now realised that their con has been well and truly rumbled – other websites have also covered the story as well. What I have now uncovered is that certain tabloid newspaper websites, including but not limited to the Star and the Sun have been running adverts, closely created to resemble legitimate technology news websites like the one above. When one compares the text on the web page with that originally used by the Funky Clock Scam, you soon realise that the wording is almost completely identical. The only real difference is that instead of referring to  “Funky Clock” the fake site refers to “Rockyfroggy” – it is the same old fraudulent scam once again, now merely with a new name. As I have stated before, if any website says that you can buy an iPhone 6S for £1.49, you can be utterly certain that it is a con. Don’t be fooled – if it looks too good to be true, then it almost always is.

Did you know that the World Wide Web was twenty five years old last week? On December 20, 1990, a Fellow at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee, had been noodling around with ideas for getting hypertext documents onto public networks so that researchers around the planet could share information. He called it the World Wide Web, and he was given a NeXT workstation to develop his system. Berners-Lee – now Sir Tim – built a very basic website that had further details about his World Wide Web project plus some software for accessing it. The site is still hosted publicly here. (Although the website was built around Christmas 1990, Sir Tim didn’t hook the server up to a public network until 1991.) To call the website basic is an understatement, but it did spread the word about the WWW's protocols. Crucially, the project's designs were published openly along with the source code for servers and browsers, allowing anyone to set up on the web without having to pay a penny in royalties or licenses. It's probable that this was the biggest boost to mankind's ability to share information since the invention of moveable type. Now there are websites for everything and anything. Sir Tim freely admits that he did not get everything right at the start; Sir Tim was also focused on text; the initial proposal states: "Where facilities already exist, we aim to allow graphics interchange, but in this project, we concentrate on the universal readership for text, rather than on graphics." Marc Andreessen told The Register website that Sir Tim called him while Andreessen was developing the Mosaic web browser, and castigated him for supporting images in the program – saying that adding more than words at this stage was pointless. Security, or rather the lack of it in the original HTTP standard, is another area that Sir Tim admits to getting wrong. Now he'd like to see all web traffic and email encrypted, although he acknowledges that there are times when investigators legitimately need access to encrypted data for criminal prosecutions. Sir Tim has been steering the development of the web since its inception, and has drawn flak from all sides for some of his views. He supports the adding of anti-piracy mechanisms, aka DRM (Digital Rights Management), to HTML5, saying it is needed for high-value content, and some companies wish he would stop defending net neutrality so vociferously. I actually encountered Sir Tim almost by accident four years ago. I attended a meeting at The Royal Society in Carlton House Terrace, London. As I came out from the meeting room and headed into the reception area, I noticed a tall figure waiting close to the main entrance; he was wearing a long and rather impressive drover style coat. I recognised him, but could not recall his name. I then realised that there was a life - sized portrait of the same person on the wall, right next to where he was standing in real life. The penny then dropped. I must admit that I was tempted to go up to him and say hello, but fearing I would only make myself look like an idiot, I thought better of it and left the great man alone. 

The advert above, for Erith - manufactured Burndept radio receivers was taken from the very first Christmas edition of the Radio Times, from back in 1923, the cover of which you can also see above - click on either picture for a larger image. Back then it was all very different to today's multi-channel, on-demand world. There was only radio, and London station 2LO had a meagre five-and-a-half hours of programmes on Christmas Day. But to some extent, the first Christmas Radio Times issue set many traditions which have prevailed for decades in various guises. The cover was a warm splash of colour and very festive in tone, while the publication's austere masthead was festooned with snow and holly. John Reith, who went on to become the BBC's first director general, was given the first page to deliver a message to listeners, in which he deliberated the meaning of Christmas and then inevitably talked about the joy of broadcasting and the "first Wireless Christmas". "The loud speaker is such a convenient entertainer," he wrote. "He doesn't feel hurt if a cracker is pulled in the middle of a song, or offended if the fun grows riotous during his performance". While Reith was keen to talk up the virtues of broadcasting, the magazine was packed with adverts for radio sets and cartoons about the joys of consuming radio programmes. Considering the BBC had already got a reputation as a rather austere, straight - laced organisation, the original 1923 Radio Times makes for quite an easy read. You can download a free PDF copy of the 1923 Christmas Radio Times by clicking here; it makes for fascinating reading.

Many readers may be able to take part or all of the Christmas as a holiday break. I had one reader drop me a line, knowing my interest in radio, asking about something different for her to listen to. Initially I recommended my old station, Radio Caroline, who broadcast 24/7 online - you can listen to them by clicking here. Another station I personally spend a lot of my free time listening to is Radio Seagull - a radio station that was started back in the 1970's as Caroline's album - based overnight service. Nowadays Radio Seagull broadcasts live via DAB+ in the Netherlands, and worldwide online from a converted light ship - the Jenni Baynton which is (legally) moored in Harlingham Harbour in the Netherlands. The station is run by volunteers, and plays a lot of music that you simply don't hear on other radio stations. The Daily Telegraph said of the station "As if to prove that the spirit of Sixties-style pirate broadcasting never really died, this charming music station broadcasts from a ship moored in Harlingen Harbour in the Netherlands. Prog rock is the predominant flavour, with plenty of Genesis, Pink Floyd and the like; but genres as diverse as UK blues, world music and jazz also get a look in." You can visit the Radio Seagull website here.

Something that seems to have startled the property journalists at the London Evening Standard, but which I feel will be of much less surprise to local people is the news that Old Bexley village has emerged as the hottest property market in Greater London. The well-kept secret emerged in new research, by Savills, which examined the price performance street by street within London’s best performing boroughs of the last twelve months. Hillingdon, Enfield, Bexley, Newham, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham have all seen price growth of between 12 and 13 per cent – but within these boroughs are pockets of dramatic outperformance led by Old Bexley (sometimes known as St Mary’s) which saw property prices grow a resounding 31 per cent to an average price of £423,383. It is not really surprising, the village is very close to the A2 into London, or down to the South Coast. It has numerous bars and restaurants, and some very good pubs too. The only real fly in the ointment is the disruption being caused by the well - overdue work to improve the railway bridge in Bexley High Street, which is going to cause local traffic disruption for goodness knows how long.  Personally I would not like to live in Bexley Village, as the constant day and night traffic flow, and the subsequent noise would drive me to distraction. It is a pretty town, which has good resources, but even if it was not out of my budget, it just does not tick enough boxes for me. 

Just for once we have a deserving Christmas number one single. As pretty much the whole country knows, the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir charity single "Bridge over You" topped the Christmas chart. If the video of the single below looks familiar, much of it was shot in and around the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.  I have to declare an interest; one of the charities that will benefit from the money raised by the NHS Choir is Carers UK, with whom I have a close association as part of my "day job".  Give the video a watch below and let me know what you think.

The Homeleigh hoax.

The photos above show both sides of a promotional postcard from the multi award - winning Bexley Brewery, which is based on the Manford Industrial Estate in Manor Road, Erith, just at the foot of the Erith Wind Turbine. As many longer term readers will already know, I am keen to encourage and promote independent local businesses.  The Bexley Brewery is run by husband and wife team Cliff and Jane Murphy; they brew a range of very high quality, easy - drinking real ales, which they sell all over London and the South East. You can see exactly where their beer is available on this fully interactive map by clicking here. I have been contacted on several occasions by Google (who own Blogger - the blogging platform the Maggot Sandwich uses) to try and persuade me to take commercial advertising, but I refuse; it would make me lose my independence, and would make me beholden to the advertisers. The only companies that I promote are those with strong local links, and I promote them completely for free.

An interesting, albeit slightly disturbing case developed last week; a Maggot Sandwich reader contacted me out of the blue, to ask if I had heard anything about the former Homeleigh care home in Avenue Road, Erith. You may recall that I wrote about the Homeleigh care home back in May, when the story of how Bexley Council were planning on converting the building into a hostel for homeless people first broke. Since the Spring the story had gone quiet, and I must admit that I had thought very little more about it. The reader who contacted me told me that rumours were circulating locally that Bexley Council were planning on moving fifty families of Syrian refugees into the former care home, and did I know anything about it? This immediately sounded suspicious to me; the Homeleigh building is just not large enough to accommodate that number of people, and I had a gut feeling that the story was quite likely to be a malicious hoax. I contacted a few people who were in a position to know about such things, and I soon discovered that the story was indeed a hoax - that had apparently been started by extreme right wing group the English Defence League (EDL) on their Facebook site and that the Police were now involved. Thanks to fellow local blogger and investigator Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers for getting the hoax confirmed. It strikes me as somewhat of a coincidence that only last week I wrote about how some people will believe almost anything that is posted on social media, and an insight into the psychology of why this is the case. Not everything you see on the Internet in general or social media in particular is gospel truth. Sometimes interesting or gratifying or controversial facts, posts and memes are complete fabrications. The fact that tens of thousands of people have ‘Liked’ an article doesn’t prove that it’s true. (Though it doesn’t prove that it isn’t, either). The fact that one or more of your very intelligent and well-informed friends posted it isn’t conclusive proof that it’s accurate, either. Sometimes, very bright people fall for bogus messages because they want to believe them: for instance, because they fit with their political views, or offer some exciting gift, or refer to some threat that they don’t have the technical knowledge to recognise as improbable. Intelligence and omniscience are not synonyms. Sometimes, people just don’t care: they like the story the message tells too much to check it for factual accuracy.  The late scientist and philosopher Professor Carl Sagan produced what he called his “baloney detection kit” – a series of rules to employ when encountering any potential guile or manipulation. “1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.” 2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view. 3. Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts. 4. Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives, the hypothesis that resists disproof in this Darwinian selection among “multiple working hypotheses,” has a much better chance of being the right answer than if you had simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy. 5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will. 6. Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging. 7. If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them. 8. Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler. 9. Always ask whether the hypothesis can be, at least in principle, falsified. Propositions that are untestable, unfalsifiable are not worth much. Consider the grand idea that our Universe and everything in it is just an elementary particle — an electron, say — in a much bigger Cosmos. But if we can never acquire information from outside our Universe, is not the idea incapable of disproof? You must be able to check assertions out. Inveterate sceptics must be given the chance to follow your reasoning, to duplicate your experiments and see if they get the same result." Certainly some very thought provoking principles. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

News stories published in both the Times and the London Evening Standard this week report that there is a distinct chance that recently closed power stations may have to be brought back online to cater for the increased demand for electricity. Several major power plants were recently decommissioned due to their not meeting new and very strict environmental pollution standards. One of the power stations that may be affected is Littlebrook D in Dartford. Littlebrook D Power Station was closed down in March 2015. Littlebrook was actually a series of four separate power stations adjacent to each other, located on the south bank of the River Thames, next to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel. The first power station on the site – Littlebrook A, was the coal-fired Littlebrook A Power Station, built by the Kent Electric Power Company in the early 1930s. It was opened in 1939. Coal was initially brought to the station by rail, until a riverside pier was completed. The station was later converted to burn supplementary oil over coal, and remained in use until it closed in 1973.  The construction of Littlebrook B Power Station was delayed by the Second World War, and came into use between 1949 and 1950. Like the A Station, it originally burned coal, but was later converted to burn oil instead. It had a capacity of 120 MW and remained in use until 1975. Littlebrook C Power Station was opened between 1952 and 1956 by the Central Electricity Board, and had a total generating capacity output of 240 MW. Like the two earlier plants, it was originally coal-fired, but was converted burn fuel oil by 1958. The station continued operating until it was replaced by the D Station in 1981. This 'Station was built in response to a rapid demand for electricity as the Country emerged from austerity of the post war years.  The most recent station, Littlebrook D was an oil-fired power station and was built by the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. The station was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company with construction starting in 1976.  The first unit commissioning underway by 1981. The 1980s still saw a potential threat from the Cold War, and as such the CEGB designed Littlebrook D as a robust station with high plant redundancy, meaning that the station would form a pivotal role should disaster have struck the city of London. At this time, London was still dependent on several smaller generating stations within the city itself. Littlebrook D was one of a number of stations throughout the UK with black-start capabilities, meaning that it was able to start generating without an external power supply - the station would be one of the first to start generating should the UK experience a partial or complete blackout. Littlebrook D played a vital role in restoring power supplies to the South East of England in the days following the storm force winds of October 1987. As well as providing a black-start power supply to the country, the fact that they could synchronise and ramp up to full load in under five minutes means they were used to generate at the request of the National Grid Company (who operated the UK electricity grid system) to deal with short-term peaks in demand. Such peaks typically arise during the winter months, where evening demand is higher due to lighting and heating requirements. A modification was made to one of the boiler units which allowed for alternative fuel trials. Several were trialled at the Littlebrook D site as part of ongoing research into generating energy from more sustainable fuel sources. One of the main alternative fuels tested was wood chippings, but the energy density these supplied was far lower than fuel oil, so a far larger bulk of chippings was required to create a similar output of electricity. This was deemed to be unacceptable, and the trial was a failure. The station was finally owned by RWE nPower which is owned by the German utility company, RWE. They decided that Littlebrook would "opt-out" under the Large Combustion Plant Directive, an EU law aiming to deal with air pollutants created by the combustion of fossil fuels. This essentially meant that Littlebrook D would have to cease to generate after 2015 in its final configuration. The station ceased operating on 31 March 2015. Now the demand for peak power is such that there is a distinct possibility that Littlebrook D may be brought back on line to satisfy the increased demand. How many of the former staff could be brought back is debatable; many took early retirement, or have taken jobs in other industries by now. If one looks Eastwards along the River Thames towards Dartford, at night you can clearly see the red warning lights that outline the power station's chimneys has a warning against low flying aircraft. Whether we actually see smoke from the chimneys in the future is something that at present still remains undecided. What has been decided, however is that the power station site will be used as the location for a very large disaster recovery exercise in the New Year. The power station will provide the set for a significant building collapse involving a train station and mass casualties, after a deal between the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and Littlebrook owners RWE. The Exercise Unified Response, which has been a year in the planning, will take place at the disused building between February 29th and March 3rd  next year. No doubt more details will become available closer to the time.

One relatively new occupant of the high street is very much a Kentish invention; this year marks the tenth birthday of the Micro Pub. The very first Micro Pub – the Butcher’s Arms, was opened back in 2005 in Herne Bay; since then over two hundred Micro Pubs have opened – many in Kent and South East London, as well as plenty all over the country. Locally we have three – the Broken Drum in Westwood Lane, Blackfen, the Door Hinge in Welling High Street, and the Penny Farthing at Waterside in Crayford, conveniently situated right next door to The Crayford Tandoori - a match made in heaven if ever there was one. The massive popularity of Micro Pubs does pose the question, just what exactly is a Micro Pub? The definition of a Micropub is difficult. It is a set of ethics rather than a set of rules A 'Micropub' according to the Micropub Association is defined as follows: 'A Micropub is a small freehouse which listens to its customers, mainly serves cask ales, promotes conversation, shuns all forms of electronic entertainment and dabbles in traditional pub snacks' There may be differences between the pubs; they may or may not have a bar, they might serve beer straight from the cask or through hand pumps. But they are united in one philosophy. A simple pub with the focus on cask beer and conversation for entertainment. The basic premise is KIS, KIS – Keep It Small, Keep It Simple. The landlord of the Butcher’s Arms, and the person credited with creating the entire concept, Martyn Hillier said “The Micropub Association will be a place where like-minded real ale lovers can share their Micropub experiences. The Micropub Association will also be a platform for the new Micro Pubs to tell the beer drinking community about themselves. A successful Micropub is based upon good ale and lively banter and I want this to come across through the Micropub Association. Ultimately I’d like to think that we could become a useful lobby group to support the likes of CAMRA and SIBA, promoting the real ale experience”.

The photo above shows part of the river front factory in Erith High Street once used by electronics manufacturer Burndept. This looks to have been taken shortly before the building was demolished; the former Erith Riverside Swimming Baths can be seen in the foreground. Burndept once had another, larger manufacturing facility located in the former Vickers-Maxim munitions factory in St Fidelis’ Road, off West Street and close to the railway line and where Bronze Age Way now runs through. Burndept built all sorts of electrical and electronic devices, and did a lot of sub – contracting work for other companies. During the war Burndept produced military communication equipment until April 1941, when the Erith factory was almost completely destroyed by a German incendiary raid, forcing the company to relocate production to a former jute mill in Dundee. However, after the war, Burndept returned to Erith, where they set up business in Erith High Street and St Fidelis Road. During the 1960s, the company manufactured the SARBE lifejacket beacon for the RAF and a number of Commonwealth and foreign air forces. The beacon sent an automatic and continuous transmission of a homing signal as soon as the life jacket entered the water. They also built mobile two way radios for industrial and commercial use. The St. Fidelis Road factory shared premises with Vox musical instruments, maker of the world famous Vox AC-30 guitar amplifier, as used by pretty much every major band in the 60’s and 70’s. in fact, Burndept made the chassis and cases for many Vox organs and amplifiers. By 1965 Vox and Burndept (who by this stage were largely owned by the same parent company) were pretty much different departments within the same umbrella organisation. Later, the Vox brand was sold off to Japanese musical instrument maker Korg, and it is now no more than a label. Burndept struggled on into the late 1970’s, until finally becoming part of the Ever – Ready group. All operations in Erith ceased, and the final Erith High Street factory was demolished shortly after the photo above was taken.

The following article was sent to me by a regular Maggot Sandwich reader, and occasional contributor who chooses to remain anonymous. He’s of the opinion that the issue may well become contentious, and I have to say that I am bound to agree.  Here is what he brought to my attention:- “The future of the Skylark as a breeding bird in Bexley, and the survival of the Corn Bunting both here and in London as a whole – both of which species are red-listed due to major declines – will be in the hands of Bexley Council over the next couple of months as planning applications threaten key habitat both at Crossness on Erith Marshes, and on Crayford Marshes. At Crayford Marshes, a renewed planning application for a huge ‘logistics hub’ was due to be submitted to Bexley Council this month. If approved this will destroy a substantial part of the southern section, classified in the Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) review as Crayford agricultural and landfill, which is Metropolitan Open Land. Both Bexley and Dartford Councils opposed the original application, which was turned down, but permission was granted on appeal to the Government. The previous owners of the site, Prologis, failed to commence the development within the five years allowed, and have sold up to an outfit called Roxhill which is reheating the proposal. Freight on rail sounds all very nice and ‘sustainable’, but the reality is that this is essentially a speculative scheme that’s about shunting ever more ‘stuff’ around the country and around the globe, is most likely going to result in a net increase of heavy lorry movements in Bexley and has nothing to do with reducing carbon emissions or resource consumption to truly sustainable levels, quite the opposite.  A condition of the original scheme was that monies would be made available for managing what was left of the rest of the marshes, but this is robbing Peter to pay Paul, with the logical outcome of basing conservation policy on such thinking being very little wildlife habitat left in Bexley at all.  The 2013 SINC review document says: ‘The extensive area of the site and its proximity to two Sites of Metropolitan Importance (Crayford Marshes and the River Thames) further increase its value.’ Indeed when taken together with the SINC cited as Crayford Marshes, of which it is geographically and functionally a part, it forms the largest such site in the Borough. Moreover, when taken in conjunction with neighbouring Dartford Marshes, the area delivers an expanse of open space and big skies no longer available anywhere else in Bexley. The 2010 Lawton Review of UK nature conservation policy made it clear that bigger, better-connected sites are required, not more diminution and fragmentation.  The SINC review recognised that this lower part of Crayford Marshes is ‘used as a high-tide roost for gulls, redshank [amber-listed], curlew [amber], lapwing [red] and ringed plover [amber], and supports breeding skylark [red] and corn bunting [red] and large numbers of finches in winter.’  According to Bexley Bird Report compiler Ralph Todd, some 230 Skylarks were counted on the former landfill area in December 2010, but very few birds still breed in Bexley. Indeed Skylarks now hang on as a breeding bird in Bexley only on agricultural land near Chalk Wood (status unknown), as a pair or two at Upper College farm where dogs running off-leash and human disturbance are threats to this ground-nester and at Crayford Marshes and Crossness where access restrictions give them a chance of rearing young successfully. The ‘Birds of London’ (2014) had Corn Bunting down to 20 pairs in the whole of the capital, whilst the 2013 London Bird report recorded it from six sites, down from 11 the year before, and apparently in inexorable decline. Our information is that Corn Bunting is now breeding within the boundary of the proposed ‘development’ area. Furthermore, we understand that Cory Environmental are submitting a planning application, before Christmas, proposing industrial development on the Cory/Borax fields at Crossness Nature Reserve, which lie either side of the Norman Road vehicle access road. These fields are within the gated boundary of what’s left of Erith Marshes, and are a key part of this fantastic habitat as far as the wildlife is concerned.  ‘Development’ here will have devastating consequences for the nature reserve, not least because it simply could not be any closer. The north field will bound the nature reserve on 3 sides, and the field south of the access track will bound it (and water vole-populated ditches) on 2 sides. The proposed development will put the entrance to the nature reserve smack bang in the middle of an unsightly industrial area if, indeed, continued access is permitted. More crucially, these maturing former brownfield areas (now valuable open mosaic habitat) have breeding Ringed Plover and Skylark upon them. Little Ringed Plover have been seen on them also with a chick seen, and photographed, this year. This year the Barn Owls chose to breed in the pole-mounted nest box in the Norman Road Field, perilously close (approx. 200m) to the proposed development areas. The very rare Shrill Carder Bee was discovered at Crossness in 2014. There are only 7 UK populations, of which the Thames Corridor (and thus, Crossness) is one. Given that they are brownfield specialists, the probability of them breeding on the Cory/Borax Fields is incredibly high. Indeed the London Plan has a target for provision of such habitat.  Building on these fields will also add to the increasingly hemmed in feel of what is left of Erith Marshes, which have been repeatedly chipped away at in recent years, with no attempt made to give anything back to nature where older industries have closed down and an opportunity has arisen to rebuild the size this fantastic site.  Cynics will also note that the Crossness (Erith Marshes) and Crayford Marshes planning applications are being submitted shortly before Christmas, and will recall that although Cllr. C. has still not given a precise sign-off date on the SINC review, it looks increasingly likely that it will be after these applications are considered. The review recommends Crayford agricultural and landfill for promotion from a Grade 2 to a Grade 1 site". It will be interesting to see what actually happens; I feel that the pull of relatively cheap land in close proximity to London will be strong for developers and the rapacious Bexley Council alike. 

The short film below compares the very earliest colour footage shot in London, back in 1927, with some contemporary footage that has been filmed shot for shot in the same location, only eighty six years later. It makes for fascinating viewing. Let me know what you think - either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.