The mystery of the vanishing scrap vans.

The photo above was taken at around half past eleven yesterday morning in the main assembly hall in Trinity School, Erith Road. It was the site of the second consultation event undertaken by the property developers and their public relations consultants in respect of the proposed housing and school development on the old Erith Quarry site, that has lain fallow and unused for at least thirty five years. A mock - up of the proposed layout of the new development can be seen below.

The turnout of local visitors to the event was impressive; when I arrived and took these photos the doors had only just been opened, and the event was due to run until around 4pm. I had detailed discussions with the development consultants, and was given the very strong message "we are in this for the long run". Subsequent to the first consultation event a couple of months ago, the feedback was generally very positive, but some concerns were expressed about the sheer number of houses and flats that were going to be constructed on the site; the number has consequently been reduced from 700 dwellings to 600, and the amount of space dedicated to open land and woodland has been proportionately increased. The circular structure that you can see on the mockup above (click on the photo for a larger view) is the proposed primary school. The green area next to it will be the school's all - weather sports pitch, underneath of which will be the staff and visitors car park - a very clever space saving design.

Most of the visitors were broadly in favour of the development of Erith Quarry, well aware of the jobs and opportunities that the former loam and gravel pit development would bring; one rather senior lady was having none of it though - she was walking round the room trying to get visitors to sign her petition to get the development banned. When I saw it, she had two signatures, one of which I suspect was her own. I suggested to her that she would probably be better off helping the campaign to prevent the Upper Belvedere water splash park from being closed by the council - all to save a measly £20,000. She thought this was an excellent idea, and left with a spring in her step. Sometimes it does not take much. What do you think of the proposed development? Leave a comment below or Email me on hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Since June, the road traffic around Erith and the surrounding towns has changed markedly since then. I was chatting to my builder whilst he carried out some work in the kitchen at Pewty Acres and he commented on how the once very familiar scrap collecting vans had all disappeared, almost overnight. He was entirely correct; before the start of June, the roads of Erith were flooded with “Scrappies” – small vans, usually based on a Ford Transit chassis that were crewed by a wide variety of people – but always men. I have never seen a female scrap van driver. If you walked down Manor Road at around 7am on a weekday morning, you would see whole convoys of these vehicles as they left their depot on the Wallhouse Industrial Estate on the Slade Green Marshes. The biggest local scrap company by far was City Scrap; I would have said that prior to June, around eighty five percent of scrap vehicles in the area were theirs. As you may recall I wrote at the time, Police and Revenue and Customs officials raided the offices and yard of City Scrap after finding strong evidence of a series of frauds and tax evasion, including an insurance fraud worth around £30,000. On top of the list of forty five offences the owners were charged with were making a false statement to obtain insurance, perverting the course of justice, and making a false statement to obtain  a scrap metal licence. I also understand that many of the scrap lorry driver / operators were claiming benefits whilst working, as well as other offences. All in all the closure of City Scrap was a necessity; they were operating well outside of the law. What surprises me in the four months since City Scrap were officially wound up as a company, no other scrap dealer has emerged to occupy the void left by the once dominant, if corrupt firm. Metal recycling is a vital part both of the local economy, and it also has great environmental benefits, so a new company taking over the business makes sense in a number of ways. Before June, if you left a scrap of metal anywhere in Erith it would disappear in moments. I recall that back in 2009 I had a new central heating boiler installed. Part of the process involved flushing the existing radiators of accumulated sludge and treating them with a rust inhibitor; a special pump had to be fitted to the lowest point in the heating circuit – in my case, one of the radiators in the living room. This was carefully removed and taken outside by the heating engineers. Despite the radiator being laid on a tarpaulin and two heating company vans being parked outside, in the space of the two hour flushing period I had a total of seven scrappies trying to take the radiator, even though it was obvious it had only been temporarily removed whilst work was carried out. One even accused me of taking food from his children’s mouths when I caught him trying to steal the radiator. He soon shut up and ran off when I told him that he was being recorded on CCTV! Nowadays it has all changed – a friend had a dead fridge freezer and left it in their front garden for four days before a scrap dealer removed it. The local scrap market seems to have dried up - which is not good news for those wishing to recycle old appliances and the like, and is not good for the environment. I will be further investigating the situation, and will report back in a week or two. 

Has anyone noticed that there are a number of old red double decker buses parked in the car park of the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road. They are not visible from the road, but if you stand on the London bound platform at Erith station, you can clearly see them. I don't know who owns them, or what they are actually doing there, but they have been there for some time. One in particular has been extensively vandalised – the windows have all been smashed and graffiti scrawled all over it. Does anyone know who owns the buses, and exactly what they are doing there? I have heard all sorts of wild theories, such as they are part of a plot by a “Happy Shopper” style sub Bond villain to take over Lower Belvedere and Thamesmead with a fleet of second hand double decker buses. Do you know better? Then let me know.

Several media websites such as Digital Spy have had online discussions in respect of the planned movie spin – off from the popular E4 television show “Misfits”. Since the huge success of the two “Inbetweeners” films, the executives at Channel 4 have been looking for another show to turn into a film, that would hopefully rake in more huge profits.  “Misfits” was chosen as the most likely programme to transfer to the big screen, mainly following the recent spate of Marvel superhero movies that have dominated the box office and on demand streaming for the last few years. I case you were not aware “Misfits” follows the adventures of a group of young offenders on community service who mysteriously get given super powers. They operate in a dystopian world not far removed from that in Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”. “Misfits” was filmed on location in and around the Tavy Bridge area of Thamesmead, and on the old Bexley College campus. Online fan speculation went wild when the plans for the “Misfits” movie were shelved indefinitely – the film is now not going to be made. All sorts of theories were mooted as to why the project had been cancelled, ranging from some of the stars from the TV series not being available, to the script was not good enough. The real reason is far more prosaic – nearly all of the regular locations used in the show have now been demolished – Tavy Bridge has been redeveloped, and the old Bexley college is currently in the process of being knocked down, as you can see from the photo above – click for a larger view. There are no other locations that look more than remotely similar, and the cost of recreating them in CGI would have been prohibitive for what would have been a low budget production. One of the strong points of “Misfits” is the very distinctive production design, typified by the late 1960’s brutalist architecture of Thamesmead that provides the backdrop for the show; this is also its weak point – it is so distinctive that nowhere else can be used as a believable substitute, and recreating it using physical scenery or computer imagery would just cost too much money. Thus the film project has been dropped. Personally I did not care for the show much anyway, but then I was not in the target demographic.

The debate about new Thames river crossings seems to be hotting up both in the local and the regional press. The population of Greater London is set to hit ten million in the next few years, and most of the viable areas for housing development occur in south East London and South Essex, which also happen to be relatively inexpensive areas in which to live when compared with the rest of Greater London. As we have already seen locally, The Erith Park and Erith Quarry developments, as well as a host of smaller building projects such as the Moat Housing Association flats being constructed adjacent to KFC and Morrison’s car park, there is already a great deal of new housing going up. This is only set to increase; historically London increased in population sevenfold between the 19^th and 20^th centuries – and most of this was concentrated in the now wealthy West London, which has been attributed to the large number of bridges spanning the river on the western side of town. The Thames is much narrower in the West, and bridge construction is consequently much more straightforward. The situation in the East is different; when you go past Tower Bridge, the only river crossings are the Rotherhithe Tunnel, the Blackwall Tunnel, the Woolwich ferry and the Dartford QEII bridge and tunnel. The more observant of you will notice that I have not included the “Arabfly Dangleway” – the Emirates sponsored cable car that connects the Royal Docks with the Greenwich Peninsular. The reason for this is that it is not a serious means of mass transit, and it certainly is incapable of moving any cargo. I was searching for opinions on the cable car earlier in the week, when I came across a blog written by the Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire Transport Review (a group whom one would suppose would be particularly amenable to a new form of public transport). Their opinion however was:-“ Many see the Air Line as a vanity project by the London Mayor, with its planned opening by hook or crook for the 2012 London Olympic Games. I didn't follow the story of its inception to completion in enough detail to be able to comment, though the Air Line does seem under-used if yesterday's visit is anything to go by. Yes, it offers another cross-Thames option, but at a price. Even with Travel cards, you're looking at £3.20 one way and both terminals aren't exactly in the throbbing hearts of local communities. To summarise, the Emirates Air Line is OK for a one-off on a tourist's bucket list, but nothing more. This could be its Achilles heel: once you've visited, you don't return. I honestly can't see it becoming a shining example of commercialism through regular commuters. Would I make use of it again? Possibly - if I was with friends who'd not used it before. It's not the easiest attraction to reach for tourists who are sunning themselves in Hyde Park and who spontaneously decide to have a cable car ride, and this is another of its problems”. I think that pretty much sums it up; it goes from nowhere to nowhere, and carries fewer people on a busy day than the Blackwall Tunnel does in five minutes on a quiet one. For me this disqualifies the cable car as a credible means of cross Thames transportation. The proposed new river crossings at Beckton to Gallions Reach and from Rainham to Lower Belvedere are predicted to generate an increase in cross – river communication and trade that would fuel sixty thousand new jobs and around forty five thousand new homes by the year 2030. Public opinion polls broadly support the creation of new cross river links, though of course there are specific reservations; any bridge across the Thames at Gallions Reach would have to be high enough to allow ships to pass underneath, which in itself would cause air navigation worries due to the close proximity to London City Airport – a plane making an aborted landing, or landing due to mechanical problems will find a large road bridge about the last thing they would wish to encounter. In fact, under international air law, it is illegal to build any structure higher than fifteen metres within one kilometre of an airport. On top of all this, there are also plans, which were announced this week by Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Adonis for an additional link, most likely in the form of a tunnel from Greenwich to Newham. Quite where all the money is going to come from for all these cross Thames connections is anyone’s guess. I suppose that they will be privately funded by developers who in return will be able to rake in the subsequent toll fees from the hapless motorist. I get the feeling that the momentum is building up to the point where after years of prevarication and dithering, at least a couple of projects will actually come to fruition. Time will no doubt tell.

The News Shopper have developed a photographic cliché – whenever they feature a person or group who have a dispute or argument with someone, they always photograph the people with their arms folded in front of them. I suppose that it is intended to indicate that the person is fed up, but it has now become tired and predictable. The current story involves a dispute with the proprietor of “The Real China” restaurant in Bexleyheath Broadway. You can read all about it here. I won't debate the pros and cons of the story; it speaks pretty much for itself. What does interest me is that the customers featured actually went to “The Real China” in the first place. I have walked past it on many occasions – it is dark, dingy and looks grubby and somewhat unwelcoming. When I checked the restaurant on “Scores on the Doors” I was not surprised to discover that it had a zero out of five star score for food hygiene – the place should be closed down, as should anywhere with a score of less than three stars out of five, as I have discussed several times in the past. I predict that with all the negative publicity that "The Real China" has suffered, and the highlighting of the absolutely appalling food hygiene rating the place has, it will go bust and be closed for good in a matter of weeks, and quite rightly so. 

Dana Whiffen of Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association made the following announcement this week:- "Next Wednesday 22nd October 2014 as part of "Operation Big Wing" there is a Community Crime Prevention Day in the Freemantle Hall, Bexley Village, 51-75 Bexley High Street, from 12.30-4pm. With Christmas approaching its a good time to be extra aware of the increase in theft over this period so why not come along to meet St.Mary's Police Team, Neighbourhood Watch Volunteers, Trading Standards and Citizens Advice representatives. There will be free purse bells, anti theft number plate screws, "message in a bottles" as well as offering property marking advice and UV pens. Why not come in for a chat? There will be teas/coffees and cakes available too. Additionally Bexley Police and Neighbourhood Watch will have a stand in Bexleyheath Shopping Mall from 10.00am to 3pm, similar advice and crime prevention items and reading material will also be available, so if you are shopping in Bexleyheath find us for a chat". Thanks Dana - more details are included in the poster above - click on it for a larger and more detailed version. 

You might not realise it, but Erith was home to one of Britain’s best loved comedians – the late Linda Smith was born and raised in Erith, and attended what was then Erith College. She had an entire line in Erith jokes which to be honest were spot on, but ended up being believed by people unfamiliar with the town, and have ended up creating a bad impression. For example, when talking about Erith’s teenagers she said “People knock ASBOs but you have to bear in mind they are the only qualification some of these kids are going to get”. Most famously she also said “Erith isn’t twinned with anywhere, but it does have a mutual suicide pact with Dagenham”. The News Shopper is reporting that a new night of stand-up comedy is soon to begin at Erith Working Men’s club; the first event will be on Friday the 24th October at 8pm. The evening will be hosted by a group called Runaway Comedy and they will be holding bi – monthly comedy nights at the club in the future. I think this is an excellent idea; efforts were made a couple of years ago to set up a similar stand-up comedy night at the Running Horses, adjacent to Erith Riverside Gardens. A few events were organised, and the feedback that I had from someone who visited was very favourable. The nights seemed to fizzle out after a relatively short amount of time – I don't think that they were particularly well publicised, and the audiences were not very big. I reckon that a well-run comedy club held on a regular basis could be just what Erith needs. I am not so sure that the Working Men’s club is the best of venues though – it is too far from the town centre, and not easily accessible by public transport. I can think of at least one venue which would be absolutely ideal for a comedy club that would have long term viability, be easy to reach, have close parking and slap bang in Erith town centre. The Cross Keys Centre would be ideal for such a club – whilst the ground floor former bar area is currently being converted into a restaurant / coffee shop, the upper floors of the building are complete, or almost complete; as I have previously written, the accommodation and the first floor function room have been converted into office spaces, meeting rooms and a multimedia presentation suite. Originally this was intended to be for the sole use of Anglo American management consultants the Aleff Group – who own the building and have paid a fortune to have it sympathetically restored and adapted for business use. They soon realised the level of interest and support from the local community, and that there was a great deal that they could do to be a socially responsible organisation. Now, local independent traders or small businesses can hire a hot desk or meeting room for a couple of hours, or as long as they require at rates far lower than are normally commercially available; there are break out areas, climate controlled air conditioning, a kitchen to make hot or cold drinks, free Wi-Fi and printing capacity, along with 24 hour CCTV security. The building will also be used for meetings by organisations such as Erith Town Forum, Bexley Rotary Club and Bexley Round Table. It is anticipated that local councillors will be able to hold surgeries in the building, and they will generally improve accessibility to local government by members of the public. The first floor presentation suite can be used as a large seminar space, a cinema or a small theatre suitable for music recitations or indeed for stand-up comedy. It will be interesting to see what contribution to local culture and the arts the Cross Keys Centre will make in the future – as I have previously written, I have very high hopes for the enterprise. Perhaps the next Michael McIntyre or Jason Manford will be found at the Cross Keys in a couple of years? Only time will tell. contact me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The ending video is something I found on YouTube; someone has digitised a copy of part of a VHS video tape which was released quite a few years ago, which showed film footage taken in and around Erith, Bexleyheath, Crayford and Welling over the years. Most of the film footage seems to be from the early to mid 1950's, although some sequences may be a little older. take a look and see what you think.

The Christmas Tree Festival.

I took the photos above on Friday afternoon, not long after the annual Christ Church Erith Christmas Tree Festival opened for 2013. The event raises money for local charities, and is a very worthwhile undertaking. Local organisations and families donate a tree which they then decorate. A large number of people visit to look at the festive sight, and donate money which goes to good causes. I have not covered the event before, and I was pleasantly surprised not only by the number and ornateness of the trees, but by the number of visitors who had already turned up only a few minutes after the church opened its' doors.

The concourse of Erith Riverside Shopping Centre is often used by sales people to try and push various products. The once ever present gold buying stall has now disappeared; this is probably due to the recent fall in gold prices, and a real drop in the whole scrap gold market. The chap selling mobile phone accessories seems to carry on, though I am unsure as to how much business he actually does; I must admit that I would not want to be standing all day in the chilly and draughty thoroughfare to flog a few phone cases and the like. It must be very boring for much of the time.  For me, the real pains are the “professional” sales teams that descend on the shopping centre from time to time. They are usually selling gas or electricity, but when I encountered a team recently, they were trying to get passers by to change their internet and phone service provider. Normally I am pretty adept at ignoring or avoiding these irritating people, but on this occasion is was stopped in my tracks by a young chap in a tight fitting and rather too shiny suit. He asked me “How much do you pay for your internet access?” To which I replied “It is none of your business”. Before I got the chance to walk on, he rapidly changed approach and then asked “I guarantee we can give you a better mobile phone deal than you currently have!” I responded with “I guarantee that you can’t”. He then went into a spiel about the great rates that they were offering, and the number of texts they were throwing in for free; once he’d done this he said “What does your deal offer then?” When I told him I didn’t have a deal as I didn’t have a mobile phone he was initially dismissive and thought I was just trying to pull the wool over his eyes, but when I confirmed I really did not have one, he was astonished – “How do you keep in touch then?”  “I don’t”. He was totally perplexed and at a loss for words. Oh well; each to their own I suppose. I was probably the first person to counter his sales pitch in that way for a long time. I saw him again a couple of days later; fortunately he seemed to recall our original encounter and did not trouble me again.

The photo above shows a rather unusual , if not unique model of bus that was seen for a brief few years in the late 1960’s and very early 1970’s in the local area. It was used to ferry cyclists through the Dartford Tunnel; cycling through the tunnel has always been prohibited, but in the early days of the then new river crossing, the tunnel operators made provision for people using bicycles. They had some standard Ford Thames Trader model double decker buses modified by coach builder Strachans so that the lower deck was converted into bike racks with the capacity to carry 23 push bikes. The upper deck was conventionally laid out with 33 seats for passengers, although the staircase had to be substantially steeper than on a standard bus.  The Dartford Tunnel buses operated out of the Dartford Bus Garage, but the service was stopped in the early 1970’s, as few cyclists availed  themselves of the service, and it was deemed to be uneconomic. The buses were judged to be too costly to reconvert for conventional use and appear to have been scrapped, though one derelict model was photographed in the yard of the Ensign Bus Company in Dagenham back in July 1993. No further information on these unique and striking looking  machines is currently available. More on the Dartford River Crossing later.

After writing at some length over the last few blog updates about the history of public transport in and around Erith, with a focus on the pre – war tram system, I have been contacted by a chap who has just joined the newly formed East Kent Trolley Bus Group. Dana Whiffen writes: “ For some time now The East Kent Railway have been looking to purchase a bus to add as an additional attraction, there are not many for sale and as most that are have had extensive renovation they normally want quite a bit of money for them. Both Jeff White and John Kemp found that Cardiff and South Wales Preservation Group had a Bradford 704 trolleybus which was surplus to requirements and which they were thinking of scrapping if they could not sell it. So both Jeff, John and Alan and Josh Mears travelled to inspect the vehicle in May 2013, all 4 were made welcome by the group and although they had spent well over £1,000 on it they offered to sell it to them for a nominal £1. This was agreed and The East Kent Trolleybus Group was formed. The Bradford 704 dates from 1946 and it ran until 1972. The Group have now moved it to alongside the Colonels Cafe at The East Kent Railway and have started work on restoring the trolley bus to its former glory. The Group are now looking for membership in order to fund the continued work in the future. Applications to join can be obtained from Mr Jeff White at;- trolleybusnut@hotmail.com or by visiting the Railway Cafe at  Station Road, Shepherdswell, DOVER CT15 7PD. There is no doubt that this bus is a welcome addition to the Railways many attractions, I look forward to seeing it in 2014. Thanks Dana - much appreciated. I know that a substantial number of Maggot Sandwich readers are transport enthusiasts; in fact this weeks' update has quite a lot of transport related content - which just for once I did not plan in advance, it just ended up happening that way. There will be more from Dana next week. 

A very many "thank yous" need to go out this week to all of you who responded to the question I posed last week; as you may recall, one long time reader Emailed me with the observation that in his opinion the blog had a name that did not reflect on its’ contents – that I should rename the Maggot Sandwich to make it both more representative and less seemingly frivolous. I asked you the readers what you thought – as I genuinely did not know what you would think. I have been astounded by the responses. They have been unanimous in wanting me to keep the name; One person commented “I vote to keep the blog name as it is. I think it was the unusual, quirky name that prompted me to first visit your blog and it is certainly memorable. In any case, whatever you call it I enjoy the blog, so keep up the good work! “ This has been pretty representative of all the responses received – so Arthur Pewty’s Maggot Sandwich will continue! Thanks to everybody who took the time to respond.

On Wednesday night TV channel E4 showed the final ever episode of sci – fi comedy drama “Misfits”. The show, about a group of young offenders who are sentenced to community service, and mysteriously gain extraordinary super powers has run for 37 episodes over five series. It has a strong cult following and several websites dedicated to the show. “Misfits” was filmed on location, mainly in the Tavy Bridge and Southmere Lake areas of Thamesmead. The Misfits base is actually the old Southmere Community Centre. I suspect that the real reason for the cancellation of the show is that these locations are all being demolished and redeveloped, and the producers were unable to find a suitable set of alternative locations. The look of the show was very much influenced by “A Clockwork Orange” – which was also filmed in Thamesmead, albeit when it was a brand new development. Indeed, there is some thought that Misfits is set in the same dystopian fictional universe. I recall that during the filming of series two of the programme, the director wanted to get some shots of the lead actors looking over South East London from a height. The location manager identified the roof of the main tower block of the old Bexley College in Tower Road as being an ideal place. It was all arranged, and filming subsequently got under way. The only problem was, nobody had thought to tell the local residents, or indeed the Police. The sight of a group of figures milling around on the roof of the high rise building caused several people to dial 999; consequently a unit of the Mets’ finest rushed to the scene (I gather it was a copper on a pushbike, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it). Cue much embarrassment all round and a slap on the wrist for the producer. Several of my local contacts have sent photos of the filming of Misfits over the last few years. I was not a follower of the show, but it was nice to see part of the local area getting some television exposure – we don’t normally see North Kent or much of South East London on the TV.

There has been much coverage of the recent launch of both the new Xbox One and Playstation 4 games consoles; indeed, both machines have shipped over a million units each already. As I have previously written, both units are excellent, but there is a third option not too far away. Valve Software are launching a rival console called the Steam Machine. It will use a modified version of Ubuntu Linux called Steam OS and will be based on commonly available PC hardware, rather than a custom architecture. There will be several models of Steam Machines with different levels of performance and price; the hardware and software is in beta testing at present – around three hundred volunteer gamers in America are currently testing the devices. It is anticipated that the consoles will go on sale in the Autumn of next year. It is anticipated that many games currently published on the Steam gaming platform may become Steam Machine only once the consoles are launched, though Valve Software are remaining tight lipped on the subject at present. I would guess that most computer gamers will buy an Xbox or PS4 anyway, and possibly buy a Steam Machine as an additional console when they are launched – I don’t see many people waiting the best part of a year to see what the console is like – they will buy one of the mainstream models, and maybe supplement this later with a Steam Machine. I think the retail price will dictate many people’s decisions.

The new Thames crossing downriver from the Dartford Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and tunnel is still undecided. This is not to be confused with the proposed new crossing at Gallion’s View in Thamesmead to replace the Woolwich Ferry – the downriver one is designed to ease the traffic pressure on the Dartford Tunnel. There are three proposals currently on the table. The first of these is to build a new bridge right next to the existing Queen Elizabeth II Bridge – this is called Option A. The second, unsurprisingly known as Option B was to connect the A2 near Swanscombe with the A1089 Road by Tilbury Docks has already been canned – it was thought that a road and bridge in this location could seriously affect the forthcoming Paramount theme park that is to be built in the area; anything that could negatively affect an estimated 27,000 new jobs would not be permitted – the Paramount park will benefit much of South East London and much of Kent, so the development is of regional importance. Option C, which would connect the M2 with the A13 and M25 at Tilbury Fort is the current favourite option, though it would appear that things are a fair way from a final decision. Either way, in the next few years, the Thames will become less of a barrier to traffic moving North and South.

It is not very long now until the annual exhibition held by Erith Model Railway Society. This year it is going to be held at Bexley Business Academy in Yarnton Way, Thamesmead on the 25^th and 26^th of January from 10am to 4pm. The society will have thirty model train layouts on display, as well as around eighty stands, including traders, model railway demonstrations and industry representatives.

The image above shows a postcard from Erith from back in the summer of 1970. Strange that a postcard should exist from a town that had not been a holiday destination since around 1900. The card shows the old Erith swimming baths, which were demolished a few years ago - why such a bad looking concrete monstrosity of a structure would be commemorated on a local postcard escapes me. The second photo is of the old railway crossing at Pembroke Road, which has long been replaced with a footbridge. I dimly recall the crossing as a small child, though I cannot recall the crossing operators' house - that must have been a very noisy place to live! The third photo is probably the most recognisable today - it shows Erith High Street looking East. The Police station (now converted into fairly shoddy apartments) is still there, as is the Cross Keys pub (the tall building in the centre of the photo, now being restored and converted into office space for the Aleff Group - an international management consultancy). To the right of the Cross Keys are a couple of buildings which are now gone and replaced with the Erith Playhouse Theatre. To the far right is the White Hart pub, which was defaced by having its' Victorian frontage ripped out and replaced with hideous plate glass, even though the building is both in a conservation area, and Grade II listed. This was done by the crooks who ran the Potion bar - a short lived emporium which sold tasteless, gassy lager and class A recreational pharmaceuticals; fortunately it is now permanently closed down, this sadly means the building is currently empty. The final photo in the bottom right corner of the postcard shows Erith Pier as it was when it was a working entity as part of the deep water wharf. The giant cranes are now long gone, the wharf is now rebuilt as a large Morrison's supermarket, and the pier is a very pleasant place to walk when the weather is nice (or if you are an angler, it is a good place to fish, year round, day or night).

Every so often I invite someone to be a guest writer on the Maggot Sandwich, and this week is one of those times. I have been in Email contact with Alan Magin for a few weeks; he's a retired fire fighter who has lived and worked in Erith for most of his life. Here is his story: "I was born in 1952 at The Hainault Maternity Home, Lesney Park; moving in with my grandparents some ten days after  - just six years after WWll ended. We lived on the Frinsted Road Estate in Birling Road. The estate was a mish-mash of houses. Some were conventional (brick built) others tin and the temporary flat-roofed breeze block ones that still stand today!! It was a friendly, streetwise society where everybody knew one another. Near-neighbours used our garden as a cut-through to Stelling Road shops, and likewise we used the houses/bungalows opposite to get to the shops in Colyers Lane. My mum often had a full dining room on a Saturday morning supplying tea and coffee in exchange for a bit of gossip. 24 years working shifts as a ‘clippie’ (bus conductor) out of Bexleyheath Bus Garage obviously got in the way of what was going on! The sound of natter and the stench of smoke wafting up the stairs tended to make me determined to leave the house a lot quicker for the much anticipated jaunt to Saturday morning pictures. My mates and I would walk down Stuart Mantle Way, across Frinsted Road, onto wasteland, past the allotments, through the ‘rec’, past the bowls club and into The Avenue with The Odeon already in sight. Depending on how much money we’d scrounged from our parents we would alternate weekly between the stalls (6d) and the circle (9d). Another port of call would be to a very good toy shop called Derritt and Dormans. I particularly remember the toys called ‘Swoppit's’ mainly for their intricate design. You were able to take guns from holsters, knives from sheaths, swords from scabbards etc. These toys soon became overlooked when we found out that the shop sold square section rubber in 1/8" and 1/4" thicknesses and sold by the foot. I’m not too sure of its original purpose but it was a necessary component for our first weapon – a catapult. My friends and I would challenge kids from a neighbouring, private estate to showdowns. They seemed just a little bit ‘better off’ than us and they owned air guns! The skirmishes would usually occur in ‘The Orchard’ where a reservoir now stands in Colyers Lane. Sometimes we’d do battle slightly further afield - the sand pits at Birch Walk. These were by far the better battlegrounds. The disused pits were excellent playgrounds. They were useful because the excavated stones were the perfect size for our ‘ammo’. We’d scoop them up by the handful. It all ended in tears as one of my comrades took a .22 slug in the top of the forehead. It slid up under his skin to the top of his cranium! It was pure madness. We were young teens not seeing the potential danger. The sandpit also boasted lots of open water where we would catch smooth and crested newts long before they would become a protected species. On leaving Brook Street Secondary Modern School for Boys in 1968 (after five long years) I secured a job with the G.P.O. Accounts Department on Oxford Street. A lot of people made the decision to work in London at that time. Catching a double-decker train from Barnehurst was novel - with ‘women only’ compartments and 15 shillings (75p) for a weekly ticket! Commuting in the 60’s is still vivid in my mind as the windows on the upper deck didn't open. Each one turned into a proverbial sweat-box during the summer months. During one freakishly hot summer I witnessed people fainting on the trains thus my days relying on British Rail were very short lived. I applied for a job with a large construction company called Holland, Hannan & Cubitt's. They had started to build the concrete jungle elegantly named Thamesmead. Stage 1 from Harrow Manorway to East Bridge was well under way. I was involved in the Civil Engineering side of things. The largest project that I worked on was a culvert that ran alongside the railway line from Abbeywood towards Belvedere, swerving inland to open water. The culvert was supposed to stop the area flooding. I'm not too sure if they were confident that it would work as every residential property on Stage 1 was built above garages on the first floor! Moving on from Thamesmead I was head-hunted for a similar role with Willett's Construction at Greenhithe. The Merchant Navy's officer training ship, The Worcester, (anchored in the Thames opposite Ingress Abbey) was being taken away. A land-based college/accommodation complex was then built or it may have been the other way around? By this time I was thinking of marrying my fiancé and wanted a secure job with regular, steady income as I knew mortgages etc were just around the corner. It was that craving of stability that provided me with the incentive to apply to join the London Fire Brigade and, after the relevant and appropriate training, I secured a job as a Fireman. I was first based at Greenwich, then Lewisham and finally at Erith Fire Station. I served a total of nearly 29 years. 15 of those 29 years were served at Erith which was very special to me as I felt that my skill set was being spent serving my community – a community that had embraced me as a child. It was time to give something back. Erith Fire Station’s ‘ground’(our designated area) stretched from Knee Hill/Harrow Manorway eastwards taking in all of the industrial sites on the Marsh to the bottom of Ray Lamb Way, Brampton Road going South along into Long Lane, Little Heath Road, Belmont Road, right into Brook Street, across into Colyers Lane. Emergency 999 call-outs from residential and industrial ‘clients’ made for a very interesting and varied end to my career - no two days were ever the same! I started at Erith (E27) Fire Station just before the infamous BBC weatherman, Michael Fish’s hurricane faux pas in 1987. I must say that I got a great deal of pleasure from actually driving the fire engines. Having my own seat was a bonus. Can you imagine four beefy firemen trying to rig in their fire gear in the back cab on the way to a fire? It was pandemonium believe me! Added to that, if there were multiple calls to the same fire we knew it wasn't going to be a false alarm so then a couple of guys used to don a breathing apparatus set…all at high speed! Now in my retirement, I look back and do you know what? I wouldn't change one thing! Well, maybe one thing, the fish on the roundabout in Erith! My two sons are a credit to my wife and I. As for that lovely, long-suffering wife I often wonder how she put up with my 29 years of shift work!" Many thanks Alan - a fascinating story, and a real insight into the recent history of the area. If anyone has stories of the social and personal history relating to the local area, and they would like to share them with other Maggot Sandwich readers, please drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com and we can discuss it.

I came across the end video completely by chance, whilst I was looking for something else. "Wholock" is  a very clever mashup video made by someone who is both a massive fan of Doctor Who and Sherlock. They are also a dab hand at advanced video manipulation and CGI. The end result is very creditable indeed, and well worthy of a viewing. What is interesting is that both Sherlock and Doctor Who are made by the same BBC production team, led by Producer Stephen Moffatt and writer Mark Gatiss. What is interesting is that this fan - made video has not been taken down from YouTube; I wonder if the producers have given it their tacit approval? Watch and make up your own mind. Comments below, as always.

Comedy at the Running Horses.

A photo I took a while back of the Running Horses pub, next to Erith Riverside Gardens. The pub used to be excellent back in the late 1980's, having a superb carvery / restaurant on the upper floor, which used to be packed with diners in the evening and weekends. In fact, you used to have to book two weeks in advance on a Sunday lunch time. Things unfortunately went down hill, and the place has been somewhat sad and unloved for the last few years. Hopefully this situation may be changing, as the pub is now holding a monthly stand up comedy club, which is featuring some quite big names in modern British comedy. The next comedy evening hosted by the Runaway Comedy Club is being held on the 5th May. You can see details of the event by clicking here. I wish them every success - this is just the kind of imaginative creativity the town needs; they just need to publicise it more. 

The Cross Street Law Centre in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre is taking part in the London Legal Walk again this year. The aim of the walk is to raise much needed funds for law advice and legal advice groups around London. The Cross Street Law Centre has already been forced to cut back on its’ free legal advice services to local residents due to both funding cuts and changes in the law regarding free legal advice.  The law centre provides free legal and housing advice to local people who are unable to afford to go to a commercial lawyer. Their mission statement reads “Cross Street Law Centre is a professional, not for profit organisation committed to the delivery of free and quality legal advice, assistance, information and representation to the local community in specialist areas. Our aim is to actively tackle social exclusion by empowering and educating individuals to assert their legal rights and work alongside other community groups and service providers to improve access to social justice. Underpinning our work is a commitment to promote equality and justice and challenge discrimination”. It has been living a hand to mouth existence for several years, scrabbling around for scraps of funding from all the sources it can locate. An area such as Erith really needs the kind of service that the Cross Street Law Centre provides, and it is worrying to see it struggling to make ends meet, and to continue to serve the local population. With the scope and services of Erith Citizen’s Advice Bureau also severely constrained (and their website non – existent) there really is very little advice or support for local people who cannot afford the fees a law firm or planning consultancy would charge. I fear that the situation is going to get worse rather than better. Let’s hope that the Cross Street Law Centre manage to raise enough much needed funding to keep going for now. I think that a long term fix will have to involve either a wealthy donor, or more likely some commercial sponsorship from a prominent local company such as, for example ADM Oils or the Erith Construction Group. It would be a great piece of corporate social responsibility, and would really benefit the people of the town.

London seems to be getting quite a lot of media exposure at present; I reckon  that this may well be a spin – off from last years’ Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The sequel to the Marvel superhero film Thor is mostly set in South East London (parts were filmed in Greenwich, at the old Naval College building, and on what remains of the Kidbrook Park Estate). From what is shown in the trailer, the capital does get more than a bit of exposure. London was a central part of Skyfall – arguably the best Bond movie to date, and London is also central to the forthcoming Star Trek movie, though from what I have seen thus far, the London of the 23rd Century is pretty much unrecognisable, with the exception of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Hopefully this exposure of London in the movies will lead to an upsurge in tourism to the capital, after the drop in visits caused (ironically) by the Olympics. Coincidentally I was in London last Saturday; initially for work, but later for some relaxation. It was instructive to be in the city as a tourist rather than a worker, as one then can see the place more with the eyes of a visitor. I had met up with friend Ian and after finishing the task I travelled into town for, we decided to go for a quiet drink on a lovely, sunny afternoon. We ended up in The Old Cheshire Cheese, just off Fleet Street, a pub rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, which boasts of being one of the oldest pubs in town. It is an astonishing place – fairly nondescript on the outside, but a warren of dark and musty rooms inside, like something out of a DiskWorld novel, or a Harry Potter film set. There is a small bar with an open fire as you enter the front door, and to the left is the chop house – basically a small restaurant with high backed benches looking like dark and foreboding church pews. There is also a tiny rickety staircase leading downwards – you need to bend almost double to descend this if you are anything other than jockey – sized. At the bottom of the staircase there are a number of bars and seating areas that are fashioned out of the ancient buildings’ cellars. It is all dimly lit and very atmospheric. The Old Cheshire Cheese features heavily in several prominent London tourist guide books, and when we visited (late on a Saturday afternoon) the place was full of foreign visitors. This seemed to me to be the crux of the problem. The pub almost exclusively caters for the tourist trade, to visitors who will perhaps visit the place once or twice in their lives. It would appear that the pub management understand this, and they have definitely let things slide. I understand from a work colleague that the place was very good until around four years ago when the place was bought by Sam Smith’s and a new landlord was brought in; at this point several long serving staff members left, and their replacements were not of the same calibre – the food initially began to suffer, and the drinks somewhat later. The single real ale on tap (Sam Smith’s Bitter) was soapy and lifeless; the food we saw (but did not order) looked overcooked and greasy, and the staff seemed indifferent in general. This was a real shame, as the bonkers, ancient architecture and spooky retro atmosphere really lent itself to a really fine classic London pub. Instead what you get is a theme park ride of a faux “olde worlde” pub, where the building is the real thing, but the stuff it serves and the people who serve it are a pale imitation of what one should expect. It was a real disappointment. I wonder what the tourists think? They in the main part probably don’t know any better, and thing it is the best you will get in a pub, which to my mind is doing our visitors a real disservice. To counter this poor experience, I can offer one that was diametrically opposite. Later the same afternoon we headed into Covent Garden – probably the biggest tourist trap in the West End. We headed for another famous, very old pub, this time The Lamb and Flag in Rose Street. This pub has recently been purchased by Fuller’s and given a gentle update and refresh without losing any of its’ period charm. The place was packed, and the crowd spread out into the alley the pub faces onto. A quality pub serving superb Fuller’s real ales and some pretty decent food too. You can read more about the pub by clicking here. I was introduced to The Lamb and Flag by my Dad. He had a friend who was the general manager of Stanfords – the world’s leading map and travel guide shop in Long Acre, just around the corner from the pub. Dad would occasionally take me along when he met his friend for lunch. I can recall sitting in The Lamb and Flag’s smoky upstairs restaurant (no smoking ban back then) and tucking into a steaming great Shepherd’s Pie with mixed veggies. Bliss. I recall on one occasion that Dad’s mate was telling us that he was rather mystified; some chap in the MOD had first phoned him, then turned up in person at the shop. The chap had been very secretive, and would only speak when he was safely inside a private office. It turned out that he wanted to know how many maps of some obscure place called the Falkland Islands Stamford’s had, and how quickly they would be able to print a whole lot more. Weeks later Britain was at war, and the mystery of the maps was public knowledge. That was the last time I visited the Lamb and Flag until last Saturday. I definitely left the visit far too long.

Following the stabbing incident in West Street last week, and the photos I took of the subsequent arrival of the Air Ambulance, the News Shopper not only published six of my photos on their website (see here and also here), but they also published one on the front page of the print edition - click on the image above for a larger version. Not that you would realise – it was hacked around and butchered to such an extent that the final image they printed looked like it had been taken with a box brownie rather than a Nikon D300. Oh well, the story is the main thing I suppose.  The good news is that the 16 year old stabbing victim was not as badly hurt as originally feared. At the time of writing, nobody has been arrested for the crime. The original photo sent to the News Shopper is below, before they hacked it around. See the difference in quality?

Some Erith residents have been complaining to Bexley Council, our two local Members of Parliament, and to pretty anyone else who will listen (myself included) regarding their perception that the levels of airborne dust have increased since demolition work on the Larner Road Estate began; I contacted Bexley Environmental Health Department earlier this week with a query regarding what level of air quality monitoring was being carried out on the redevelopment site, and this is the (edited for content) response I got:- "There is no air quality monitoring directly in and around the Colyers/ Larner estate, however, there are three automatic air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) in the area, all of which monitor fine and ultra fine particulates/dust as PM10 and PM2.5 microgram levels.  The first is located to the north-east of the Larner Road demolition site at Manor Road (identified as BX4) at the NCC premises.  The second AQMS is to the south-east at Whitehall Lane (BX1) and the third to the north in Belvedere (BX2). There  are also two dust/Particulate PM10 monitors, one (identified as Manor Road West  Gravimetric/ BQ5), the other beside BX4 station (Manor Rd East Gravimetric/BQ6). All the air quality monitoring results from these air quality stations are available on the live LondonAir website, from which you can interrogate the data. The gravimetric has a delay to the results as the lab conditioning and weighing takes time to be completed and ratified, the website is always behind by some time.” So there you have it, the local air pollution levels are freely available for the public to monitor online at any time.  You can visit the LondonAir website here for more details.

A Maggot sandwich reader called Paul has very kindly provided me with some details about the bulk cargo vessel the M.V Willeke that currently seems to spend a lot of its’ time moored on Erith Pier, as I have previously shown in the photos I have taken of it.  Paul wrote:- “Hi Hugh, just a quick note regarding the Willeke ship that is a frequent visitor to Erith pier. Wandering along this morning we saw a plastic covered notice attached to the railings next to said vessel. It was a little description of the Willeke and its cargo and current work load. The cargo is spoil from the London sewer project and is discharged at mucking near Gravesend. Nice to get some knowledge of what these ships are doing. While on the pier we were delighted to get a brief glimpse of two Harbour porpoises slowly making their way downstream, frequent visitors to this part of the river I believe and often seen feeding near the RSPB site over at Rainham Marshes”. Thanks to Paul for the fascinating and useful information. If you come across any stories or information that you feel would be  of interest to Maggot Sandwich readers, do drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com . I rely on people telling me things – I investigate any leads I get given, and do my best to check the veracity of the facts before publishing. At present I am sitting on two potential scoop stories, as the facts cannot currently be confirmed, but in time I hope to publish them.

As previously mentioned on the Maggot Sandwich, it has become clear that Windows 8 has been an unmitigated disaster for Microsoft; sales figures are even worse that for the widely derided Windows Vista – an OS that even its’ creators now admit was dreadful – slow, buggy and bloated. The trouble with Windows 8 is that it wants to be all things to all users, and in doing so, fails to all. The uneasy mix of a touch oriented interface onto a conventional desktop user space has garnered criticism from pretty much all corners, to the extent that some retailers are now offering Windows 7 “downgrade” disks to customers in order to make a sale. Microsoft must now really be feeling the pressure, as they have leaked to the IT press that the next version of Windows – currently code named “Blue” (and termed Windows 8.1 in the trade) is to have the option to boot to a conventional desktop interface, complete with the Windows “Start” button (which has been present since way back in the days of Windows 95). This has been greeted with great relief by many technology writers. Whilst no fan of Microsoft in general, I would readily concede that Windows 7 was the best OS ever released by the giant software company, and it would seem if they can build on “Blue”, they may well carry on with their tradition of every other update of the desktop version of Windows being good – think about it:- Win 95=Good, Win 98/SE=Bad, Win ME = Abysmal (OK, the theory does break down a little at this point, but bear with me). Win XP=Good (by SP2, anyway), Win Vista = Bad, Win 7=Good, Win 8=Bad. Hopefully blue will be good, but Microsoft really need to go back to listening to their grass roots customers, otherwise their market share will slide. One telling fact is that many entry level laptop and netbook makers are now starting to ship their devices, not with Windows 8, but with the Android operating system instead. Android was designed from the ground up to operate snappily on low powered mobile devices, it is based on the mature, stable and reliable Linux kernel, with a smooth and tasteful interface grafted on top. Going back a few years, the first netbooks were often offered with a Linux distribution installed, but these proved unpopular with all but techies like me – the lack of availability of popular Windows applications was a step too far for the general consumer.  Things have changed dramatically – Android is now the most popular operating system for mobile phones, tablets and other small devices like media players, not only because it was created by search giants Google, and championed by cutting edge hardware makers like Samsung, but also as it is free of any licencing fees. Every time a computer maker produces a laptop and installs Windows on it, they pay a fee to Microsoft for the right so to do; Android is free and open source, and can be installed and sold with no licencing fee whatsoever. Google were very clever when they launched Android, and were most definitely playing a long game – they have managed to dominate the mobile OS market place in less than five years, and are now chipping away at Microsoft on the desktop. Windows 8 mobile is so far in fourth place in the mobile OS sales league that they might as well take their ball and go home.  Google now have the danger of becoming complacent, and sitting on their laurels; somehow I feel that this unlikely – as one of the biggest other contributors to Android is Samsung, who are hungry to dominate the OS, and will eclipse Google if given half a chance.  Either way, the consumer benefits from the aggressive competition.

Another reader contacted me this week; she's only just discovered the dubious joys of the Maggot Sandwich, thanks to someone who has posted my musings on FaceBook. As you may know, I don't "do" social networking, for a number of personal reasons; I am not against it per se, just that it is not something that I have any interest in. I also will not join any web service that demands you sign up before you can view the content. I digress.  New reader Anna Collins took the photo above (click for a larger view) last week; it shows a film crew preparing for a take of a scene for an episode from Season Five of "Misfits". The crew were filming beside Southmere Lake in Thamesmead, as they have done on many occasions in the past. Rumours persist that any future continuation of "Misfits" will need to be done soon, as most of their key locations are due for demolition over the next few months; unless the story writers and producers come up with a plausible reason for the show to relocate, it may mean the end of production - though rumours of a low budget movie persist. Anyway, you can see all of Anna's photos of the filming, and indeed her other Flickr photos by clicking here.

The ending video this week is something from the National Geographic; it is a behind the scenes look at Google - their history, aims and background. It also asks questions about privacy and accountability which the search and services giant have provoked. The result is a balanced and fascinating look at the famously secretive organisation with comments from Google staff and former employees. It is certainly worth a watch. Let me know what you think be posting a comment below. 

High Street implosion?

Sometimes I get the distinct feeling that my powers of prediction are rather better than they really should be. As you may well know, the days of me sitting down at my computer on Sunday afternoon to write the latest update to the Maggot Sandwich are long gone. The amount of research, and the sheer work involved putting together a weekly update that averages 2,800 words, means that I now start the next entry within hours of the previous one being published. By Monday evening, it is not uncommon for me to already have around a thousand words written for the next entry. The down side of this, is that sometimes my musings can be overtaken by events. On Monday evening I wrote that I thought that Blockbuster, who have a large store in Erith, would be one of the next retailers to go broke. By Wednesday afternoon my prediction was proved correct rather more quickly than I anticipated. More on this shortly.

There has been a lot of fuss in the press this week about horse meat being found in cheap and nasty burgers from Tesco, Aldi and a few other high street outlets. Personally I don't have a problem with eating horse - I have done in the past, and it it not very dissimilar to lean steak; I have also eaten Ostrich (very tasty indeed - like a cross between turkey and fillet steak) and Wildebeest (not very nice - it tastes like the smell of new leather) I fail to see what the problem is. Teresa May was quoted in the week, saying that "this was an issue of concern to all consumers" - not to me it isn't - I shop at Waitrose.

I have come to the conclusion that Matalan in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre only sells garments in Small, Medium, or Extra Extra Extra Large. I can never find anything in sizes to fit me, whatever it is that I am looking for.  I have heard the same complaint from others; it strikes me that if they don’t give more attention to both stocking levels and customer service (Matalan never seem to have any staff, other than on one or two tills) they will end up going the way of HMV, who famously went bust last week. HMV have been a “zombie company” for quite a while, despite posting record profits only two years ago. To my mind HMV were always an “also ran” in the entertainment media market; they never had the breadth of stock of somewhere like Virgin Records, and they could never offer the keen prices of the long gone and much lamented Our Price Records, a store chain I am sure I am not alone in missing. Digital downloads are only part of the reason for the demise of HMV; until their very recent ruthless price cuts they were always an expensive option. Many people still want a physical recording, rather than a download, but put off by the previous high prices in HMV, they inevitably end up buying from Amazon instead. This change in content purchasing behaviour from a majority of physical purchases now changing to a majority of downloads is set to continue.  Blockbuster famously also bit the dust last week. The American owned chain was the death knell for nearly every independent video store in the early 90’s. You may recall that in the 1980’s, almost every village would have a family run video hire store, stocked to the gunwales with VHS video cassettes. These shops were very successful for a number of years – before the advent of satellite and cable TV, the terrestrial television stations showed very few new movies, except a small handful at Christmas. VHS video machines were incredibly popular at the time, due I suspect at least partly to the lack of movie choice. The independent video hire shops fed this market with a diet of a sprinkling of Hollywood blockbusters, padded out with an incredible number of B movies and low budget direct to video films usually starring Chuck Norris or Cynthia Rothrock (who I suspect was actually a shaved Chuck Norris in a wig, as you never saw the two of them in the same place, a la Batman and Bruce Wayne). Quite often, groups of kids would hang around the shops, playing arcade games and waiting for one of the scarce copies of the premium movies to be returned by the previous renter - there would often be a scrum to get to the counter to snatch this precious cassette and bag the rights to take it home for the evening. Happy days. All this came to an end when big hitter Blockbuster arrived across the pond from the USA, building large stores on the edge of towns where you got free parking and discounts on multiple film hires – they were even fairly flexible about returning movies. The downfall also coincided with the advent of DVD. Many family run video hire shops could not afford the overheads of restocking with the (then) very expensive DVD format, and quietly closed up. Blockbuster effectively became the only significant player on the block, a position it has held until relatively recently. Now it has been being assailed by the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm. Blockbuster launched its’ own online movie rental service, but it did not seem to have made much difference to its' market traction. Blockbuster had an extensive estate of large and expensive physical stores. The shop in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre was seldom busy, and must have cost a small fortune to run; I doubt it ever made a profit. I feel sorry for those who will lose their jobs in the liquidation, but the whole physical media hire business model has become unsustainable now that fast broadband network access has become ubiquitous and cheap. To mourn for the loss of jobs in the video hire industry is akin to mourning the loss of lamplighter jobs in the late Edwardian era – it is something inevitable now that technology has changed, and business practices are forced to change to accommodate it.  Better to get out before the physical hire market collapses completely, and to get into another line of work. It is going to happen, it is merely a question of how long before the business finally goes down the tubes. Now that Blockbuster have crashed, there is little left for physical media hire. We are most definitely seeing the end of an era.

Blog comments, like buses seem thin on the ground, then suddenly a bunch of them will turn up at once, as was the case following last week’s update regarding the noisome Pizza Hut takeaway in Northumberland Heath. It would seem that I struck somewhat of a chord with certain readers. The unanimous opinion seems to be that Bexley Council Environmental Health Department should automatically shut any food outlet scoring zero stars on the “scores on the doors” points system. Bearing in mind that there are currently fifty such unhygienic establishments in the borough, that would be a lot of enforcement for them to carry out.

Over the past year or so, I have been reporting on a number of technological anniversaries, and this week is not an exception. It it the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Apple Lisa computer. The Lisa was the first generally available computer to have a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Xerox had produced a couple of earlier models, the Xerox Alto, and the later Xerox Star computers, both of which had a GUI in the mid 1970's. Neither was a commercial product, more of a research project with a limited production run. Apple did licence the desktop analogy and aspects of the overall look and feel from Xerox, which they then developed into the Lisa. The Lisa cost $10,000 in 1983 (an absolute fortune), and to be honest it was a slow and underpowered machine, even by the standards of the day. It is generally regarded that the Lisa was a flop, but it did make Apple $100 million profit, even though relatively few units (100,000) were shipped. The Apple Macintosh was developed in tandem with the Lisa (in fact, most of the original Mac software was developed on Lisas). What the Lisa did do was bring the concept of the GUI to end users and the general public, and completely shape the face of modern computing like no other single product. Apple Lisas are now exceedingly rare indeed. There is a complete, fully working one in mint condition on EBay right now - and look at the price of it! You can read more about the Lisa by clicking here. The video below is a very rare American TV commercial for  the Lisa; it features a very young "before they were famous" Kevin Costner as the Lisa using businessman. Those of you with very long memories may recall I featured this clip about four years ago, but I feel that it could to with a a swift re-showing, just for the cheesy eighties feel of it. 

Word reaches Pewty Acres that E4 have given the green light to the producers of sci fi comedy series "Misfits" for a fifth season of the show. I suspect that this may well be the final season, as many of the locations that are key to the look and feel of the show are shortly to be demolished. "Misfits" is filmed in and around Thamesmead, principally at Tavy Bridge and Southmere Lake Community Centre. Much of the area is being redeveloped, and the current, late 60's brutalist concrete architecture which features so heavily in the show will be no more.

Last week’s video of the documentary about the Avro Vulcan raid on Port Stanley airport during the Falklands War in 1982 has brought some very interesting feedback from an unexpected source. More of that in a bit; my own memories of the Falklands War are still strong. I had been given a poster featuring the crest of every ship in the Royal Navy some time before the conflict began, and I dutifully crossed out each ship as it was sunk or badly damaged. By the end of the war there were a depressingly large number of black crosses. I was still at school at the time, and smack bang in the middle of the Falklands War, I went on a geography field trip to Barry Island in Wales. The school party stayed at Barry Island Butlins – at the time a scruffy and run – down place with indifferent staff and greasy, inedible food. During the evenings the school kids were given pretty much free rein of the holiday camp, providing we did not leave the premises. There was a kids disco run by a very dubious looking Welsh Jimmy Saville clone. One evening he was playing some terrible records (“Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners seemed to be on almost constant rotation) when one of a large group of Spanish school kids that were also staying at the camp ran up onto the low stage and grabbed the DJ’s microphone. He began a chant amongst the Spanish kids of “Malvinas, Malvinas!” It had to be said this ended in pretty short order when Phil Peskitt, school bully and all round hard man, leapt onto the stage and punched the Spanish kid on the nose, knocking him over. A small riot then ensued. All of the teachers from my school who were supervising the event seemed to be looking in the opposite direction during the whole incident! There was plenty of military activity around much of South Wales at the time; mainly due to the fact that the army used the area for training. We got to see lots of Harrier jets and military transports rushing here and there, and when we visited Pen Y Fan, the second highest peak in Wales, there was a small group of scruffy and very tired looking blokes in old fashioned army greatcoats and hob nailed boots climbing up and down the mountain. We did not really think very much about them, but with hindsight, these were almost certainly troops training for SAS selection. Anyway, for more memories from that dark time in our recent history, we have a guest contributor to the Maggot Sandwich – Malcolm Knight of the Bexley is Bonkers website, who had a very important role in the Falklands conflict. Here are his memories of the time:- From 1979 until 1984 the phone line to Port Stanley was entirely my responsibility. Not many calls and no one was very interested in it. It only operated for 2 x 2 hours a day and Stanley/London was their only public comms to the outside world. In Jan 82 the number of calls started going up and I upped the hours of operation eventually to 24/7. I didn't monitor the conversations, in retrospect I wish I had broken the rules and done so. I reported up the management chain that something weird was going on but was ignored and to be honest I never suspected an invasion or I might have kicked up a bigger fuss. Before the Vulcan raid the MoD got twitchy about the local small population on Ascension telling their relations abroad about the RAF build up. Ascension Is. comms was entirely mine too and they had no other access to the outside world - so I stopped the potential leaks by the only method I could think of. I pulled the appropriate plug. The day after the Vulcan raid the MoD called me to say I could stick the Ascension plug back in again and I asked if they were going to bomb Stanley again. Probably they said (with appropriate reticence) so I said in that case I wasn't going to restore the Ascension plug. They took some persuading that pulling the plug before the night of a raid was going to send a signal to the outside world. The pattern would be detected, if not by someone in Argentina but certainly by the Spanish nationals I employed in the exchange and whose loyalties could not be trusted. They got the point eventually. I spoke to the manager of the Falklands telecoms during the conflict and met him afterwards. He said his staff worked with machine guns pointing at their backs so they didn't try to send 'coded' messages abroad. One of the things the Argies did as soon as they got on the island was set up a public phone service to Buenos Aires. The Falklands had no satellite link at the time - it went in pretty quickly afterwards! - so the Argie link was HF (Shortwave) radio, no encryption, nothing, so I sat a Spanish speaking Englishwoman on the end of a suitable receiver connected to British Telecom's aerial system at Rugby, so I could know what was going on. Not official, just me being nosey. All we got was government talk about changing the currency and putting Argentinian postage stamps in the post office. They certainly intended to stay. Half way through the war the Argentinians came up on the Stanley circuit, which had been dead since they took over, and asked to speak to me and together we arranged to re-establish normal telephone services immediately. This was standard practice between nations at war, just carry on regardless as far as possible. The agreement was that on our single circuit one call would come from them alternating with one from us.  In typical British fashion we had queued the UK requests for calls and proceeded to connect them in that order. Unfortunately that meant that all the calls came from newspapers and the Argies got very stroppy with me accusing me of some underhand trick when none was intended. I had to agree that all calls would be inbound from then on. Most were from worried Falklanders anxious to call friends in the UK as there had been no telephone service for several weeks. Sometimes the calls got No Reply and when the Falklander claimed special urgency I got in the habit of phoning the appropriate local radio station if available and getting them to put out an SOS to get back to their phone quickly! All very unofficial of course but in most cases it worked a treat and the radio station staff were always pleased to do it. I met the Falklands' comms manager because Mrs. Thatcher invited him to London for the victory parade. The Ascension Island people didn’t get their service restored until the war was over.  What a fascinating story. Not something I have seen recorded in any history of the Falklands conflict. Thanks for letting me re-tell your memories Malcolm!

A story that seems to have thus far got under the radar of most local news outlets is that the owners of the famous, and now decommissioned cruise liner the Queen Elizabeth II are hoping to be allowed to permanently moor the vessel at Carlsberg Wharf, directly opposite the O2 Arena on the  banks of the River Thames. They want to convert the ship into a luxury floating hotel with 550 cabins, seven international restaurants and a cinema. If the plans get approved (and Boris is backing it) the ship would employ a crew of around 1,500 people, bringing permanent jobs to what is an otherwise economically depressed area. It would also add a touch of glamour to Greenwich Peninsular – not the most aesthetically pleasing place at present. Bearing in mind the cruise liners and gigantic luxury super yachts that filled the South Quay in Canary Wharf at the time of the Olympics (click here to see my photos) I think that this project could well be a winner. The QEII is currently moored in storage in Dubai; whilst the work to convert her into a floating hotel would be extensive, I think that the kind of publicity the project would bring to the region could only be a positive thing. I am sure the novelty of a luxurious floating hotel would add a sparkle of glamour to a part of South East London that could surely use it. If the project does not take off, there is a strong possibility that the QEII would be scrapped. Not a pleasant demise for what is one of the World’s best known passenger ships.

Erith Model Railway Society have their annual exhibition at the Bexley Business Academy in Yarnton Way, Thamesmead on the 26th and 27th of January. Over eighty stands and twenty five different model railway layouts will be featured. The entry price will be £6 for adults, £5 for concessions and £3 per child. You can read more about the exhibition by clicking here. You can see some HD footage of last years exhibition in the video below. It certainly looks like a hell of a lot of work goes into the event; I wish them well. Comments below, as always.