The Broken Drum.

Micro Pubs in Bexley seem like buses – nothing for ages, then two turn up almost at the same time. One of my regular anonymous informers tells me that an application has been submitted for a new micro pub to be set up in a former nail salon shop in Woodman Parade, Blackfen. The micro pub is to be called The Broken Drum – the prospective landlord / landlady is obviously a fan of Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” novels, as this is the name of the pub in the city of Ankh Morpork which features in many of the books. The proposed location of the micro pub is quite interesting; it is only a hundred metres or so  along Westwood Road from The George Staples pub (what used to be known as the Woodman).  I last visited The George Staples about three years ago, and it was not inspiring. It is basically a chain pub run by a pub company called The King’s Feast pub co. (where size matters) which I think tells you a lot before you go any further – never mind the quality, feel the width. The George Staples seems to concentrate on attracting families with small children and serving cheap food in vast quantities – it scrapes by with a three out of five star “Scores on the Doors” food hygiene rating. The News Shopper Pub Spy liked the pub overall, as it was child friendly (I cringe whenever I hear  that phrase in relation to a pub or restaurant) but the verdict on the food was a lot less favourable – limp and soggy scampi, served with bullet hard microwaved peas was not to the reviewers liking. The Broken Drum will no doubt cater for a somewhat different demographic, and I can see the two establishments co-existing without issue. The new micro pub will serve real ales, wines  and cider, along with snacks such as locally sourced pork pies and scotch eggs. As is the norm with micro pubs, there will be no TV, no music and no lager or alcopops. I would hope that the Broken Drum would serve at least one local ale such as the excellent BOB (Bexley’s Own Beer) by The Bexley Brewery, which will be in full production by the time the Broken Drum is ready to open shop. By Christmas, the borough will have three operating micro pubs – The Door Hinge in Welling (so good that it won Bexley CAMRA pub of the year in its first year of opening). There will also be the Penny Farthing in Crayford, which is currently still in the planning stage, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I suppose that it would be too much to ask for a micro pub in Erith; it is not as if the town is lacking in empty ground floor shop units ready for conversion. There are three units in the block opposite the Health centre in the High Street that have not been occupied since they were constructed around seven years ago - see the photo above, and click on it for a larger view; I am sure the owners would love a tenant in at least one of the shop spaces. Alternatively there are units available in Cross Street; the former law centre is unoccupied, after changes to the legal aid system  forced it to close earlier this year. The larger unit that for many years was home to Owens the DIY and engineering supplier is also free, though I wonder if it would be too large for a typical micro pub. Obviously the former White Hart / Potion building is empty, but that would require a large amount of investment and refurbishment to make it a viable proposition – all of which is counter to the basic Micro Pub philosophy of opening in cheap accommodation with only basic changes to the unit to turn it into a hostelry. Keeping the costs down, and keeping it simple are the most basic tenets of running a micro pub. This is to keep the bar as low as possible for others thinking of doing the same. Quite often people running micro pubs have never owned a pub, or even worked in one before. Ray Hurley, the landlord of The Door Hinge in Welling is a former black cab driver who has turned his love for real ale and convivial company into a thriving small business. It would seem that other local people aim to replicate this, which can only be a good thing.

A local information source who wishes to remain anonymous has forwarded me the following story:- "A company called Partizan was filming a commercial in Erith last week for the Royal British Legion. The venues were the Leisure Centre in Erith recreation ground, outside the Erith Yacht Club, outside Christchurch, inside a house in Avenue Road and inside the Royal Standard pub in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. I think the film is to be called "Who Will You Remember?"  So far as I know it will be shown during a few commercial breaks, possibly as early as 20th August, but I do not have all the details at present". Fascinating stuff; I will be looking out for the commercial being broadcast.

The News Shopper website has been getting some rather vexed feedback from readers in response to a story that they are currently running on complaints made by a local cyclist who commutes by bicycle from his home in Hartley on the outskirts of Dartford to the Darent Industrial Estate on the Slade Green Marshes. He is somewhat put out at the state of the cycle paths, especially in and around the marshes. I think that cycling provides a viable alternative to other methods of travel in certain circumstances, and is something to generally be encouraged. The trouble is, in the News Shopper story, the cyclist, a Mr. Neil Jobbins does himself few favours and does come across perhaps unintentionally as somewhat of an archetypal “cyclo – Nazi”. He cycles the ten mile route from Hartley to Slade Green and comments “Everyone should be cycling to work, whether they live in Dartford and work in Woolwich. They should be able to do that and this is the cycle route for it”. Quite. How the average person is meant to negotiate a pushbike up Bostall Hill from Woolwich after a hard day at work quite evades me – the buses have a difficult enough time, and they have stonking great turbo diesel engines. The main thrust of Neil Jobbins complaint is that the cycle paths on the Slade Green Marshes are uneven, potholed and overgrown with brambles and other vegetation.  I have some sympathy with this; I know that the cycle paths on the marshes get a lot of abuse, due principally to the illegal actions of off road bikers who tear up the pathways and generally cause a nuisance. The police periodically chase and arrest the offending bikers, and every so often one of their untaxed and uninsured motorbikes gets confiscated and crushed, which tends to discourage the others for a while; generally once the weather improves and the sun comes out, so do the illegal motor bikes. The counter argument to the situation with the cycle paths that seems to have annoyed many News Shopper readers runs along the lines of “what does he expect – it is wilderness marshland” and also “cyclists don’t pay any road tax and are uninsured, why should they have any rights at all?” Whatever your personal view on the situation, the fact remains that the cycle paths on Slade Green Marshes are nothing to do with either Bexley or Dartford Council and are instead  maintained by a charity called Sustrans, which maintains cycle paths all over the UK. Sustrans have little money, and cannot afford to restore or improve the paths on the marshes – which to be honest, don’t get very much use anyway. I think a better and more rounded solution would be for a concerted anti illegal motorbike campaign by the local police. When any offenders were subsequently prosecuted, any terms of community service that the crooks got sentenced to should be spent clearing up the cycle paths for the legitimate users. It would seem to be a logical course of action as far as I can see. The marshes are a wonderful place to visit on a sunny day. Fifteen minutes walk from Erith Town Centre and you are in an area of outstanding natural beauty that feels like it is hundreds of miles away from urbanisation. It is one of the best places to see the Erith “big sky” – where you can clearly see an unhindered view from horizon to horizon – something almost impossible in large parts of Greater London.

One of my occasional sources informs me that surveyors and environmental scientists have spent the last week carefully examining the site of Erith Quarry. On top of this, work is being carried out to identify and carefully remove the Japanese Knotweed that infests the site. Japanese Knotweed is a non – indigenous, invasive plant that grows prodigiously and can damage the foundations of buildings; it is very difficult to eradicate – the roots can go as far as ten feet deep, and if even a small portion of root is left in the ground, the entire plant will re – grow in short order. It is illegal in the UK to plant or spread Japanese Knotweed, and when it is pulled up it is legally classified as controlled waste that has to be disposed of by licensed landfill sites. Young shoots of Japanese knotweed are cooked and eaten in some countries – apparently it tastes like super sour rhubarb, but it contains a lot of Oxalic Acid, which is really not very good for you. When the weed is completely removed, work will commence to dig some trial pits to analyse the geology of the site – I suspect it may well also be to identify any chemicals that may have been dumped on the site in the past. Personally I suspect that when the Atlas chemical works that used to be in Fraser Road was closed down in the early 1980’s, many of the remaining drums of chemicals  on the site disappeared in very quick order. I would not be at all surprised if they were dumped on the quarry site. If the surveyors find evidence of this, a cleanup operation could prove costly. No actual building work will be undertaken for a while yet; the reason for this is that the Erith Quarry development has not yet been granted planning permission. The development is to my mind long overdue; the quarry site has been closed and abandoned for as long as I can remember – I recall as a child being warned not to play on the site as it was dangerous – something many local kids studiously ignored of course. With Erith Quarry soon to be joining Erith Park as a major local residential development, the population of Erith is set to increase still further. Overall this should be a good thing, but I do have concerns that the infrastructure may suffer as a consequence. Will there be enough water and electricity to go round? I know the developers of Erith Quarry intend to build a new primary school on the site, and Trinity secondary school is just around the corner, but other resources may be thin on the ground. I would imagine the owners of the mini market and the couple of takeaways at the Pom Pom must be rubbing their hands in anticipation of an increase in trade once the construction is complete and the new housing estate becomes occupied.

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Bexley Council Environmental Health Team seem to have really upped their game in respect of hygiene inspections on local food outlets, and overall the results have been impressive. Many more places are getting acceptable or better ratings (anything 3 out of 5 stars or higher) and the overall situation in respect of woeful graded places is getting better. There are still a number of fast food outlets in West Street that are definitely letting the side down in regards to cleanliness; indeed one place that was checked on the 16th of July was Masala Reef – an Indian takeaway that actually managed to go from a woeful one star rating on its last inspection to a zero star this time. Bearing in mind the inspectors give constructive advice to the owners of food outlets during the inspection process, one would have expected that the rating would have reflected a greater understanding of food hygiene and an awareness of what is required to obtain a good star rating. It would appear that Masala Reef have gone the other way. The inspection rated their food hygiene and safety as bad, their structural compliance as very bad, and confidence in management as none. Just why the Environmental Health inspection team did not close the place down immediately is beyond me. I would strongly recommend that you avoid Masala Reef at all costs.

You may recall that two weeks ago I featured a screen capture from an old cine film taken in Erith in 1967; it showed a very distinctive orange lorry, photographed coming along Erith High Street. Well, a few days ago I received an email from a chap who is very much in the know about the story behind the lorry - here is his account in his own words:- "My name is Allan Bedford a former 'Erithian' but living in Devon since 2005. I am a bit of a transport historian and have been taking photos of road transport for over 50 years. I previously lived in Brook Street opposite the 'Duchess' I sometimes look at your postings and was 'gobsmacked' to see that frame from Mr Stevens cine film of Erith High Street in 1967 you posted on 03/08/14. The 'orange lorry' is none other than the last ex Erith Corporation Dustcart in their lovely 'Burnt Orange' delivered in August 1964, just nine months before the new London Borough of Bexley came into being. It was a most unusual purchase being a Ford Trader K series, the 'K' refers to the cab pressing as it was originally used by Ford of Cologne (Koln), although this was built in Dagenham. It carries the very obsolete, even in 1964, 'Chelsea Pattern ' sliding shutter style body. As it so happens I took a photo of this very vehicle outside the old Brook Street Primary School one evening in May 1970, due to it's unique status. It was then used to collect food waste from the school canteen,the two man crew were happy to let me snap this while I stood in the middle of the road, I doubt you could do this today. I used to belong to the 'Erith and Belvedere history group, and I know Ken and Benitta who of course worked at the school and taught both my kids back in the eighties. Until I found that 'still' I thought this was the only record of this 'one off' so it's great that another image survives. Feel free to use this image, a little bit of 'OLDE ERITH'!!" Brilliant stuff Allan - extremely interesting and many thanks for sending it through. It all adds to the sum of knowledge of the area. If anyone has old photos, memories or stories about the local area that they would like to see published, please send them through to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Microsoft are currently losing money hand over fist in respect of their Surface Pro range of not quite laptops, not quite tablet PC’s. The Surface is now in its’ third incarnation, and Microsoft are still heavily subsidising the devices, selling each one at a loss in order to try and buy market share. Historically Microsoft have been patient when launching new products; they got hit very hard for a long time when they launched the original X-Box games console – they subsidised it and gave great financial incentives to developers in order for them to create games for the console. This paid off in spades, and nowadays the Xbox One is a very credible platform, with many fans amongst gamers.  Whether the same can be said of the Surface range is doubtful – the whole tablet market is slowing down at present – and even market leaders Apple are struggling to shift significant numbers of new units. Since Steve Ballmer left Microsoft, it would appear that their business strategy is starting to evolve; the company has made 18,000 people redundant, and is streamlining itself to try and stay competitive in a changing market. I feel that under their new management, Microsoft may be less willing to support a “lame duck” product line – I would not be surprised if the Surface Pro range quietly disappears quite soon.

Proof if it was ever needed that Erith is indeed a maritime town can be seen in the photo above; it shows roll on – roll off HGV ferry the M.V Cymbaline passing Erith on Saturday afternoon. In the foreground you can see the MV Shetland Trader  moored on Erith Pier. It is used to transport earth and spoil from the Crossrail tunnelling works down river to the Essex coast to be used in land reclamation work.  It was not clear at the time, and it is not clear even now what exactly the tug in the photo was up to; it was travelling, apparently at full speed astern, right behind the Cymbaline. If any reader has a clue please enlighten me using the usual contact details. I have found the Port of London authority ship movement website  to be a very good source of information relating to shipping moves on the River Thames and beyond. As I have said on occasions before, we don’t make nearly enough use of the river. I understand that plans to try and get the Thames Clipper ferries to extend their coverage to Erith are pretty much dead in the water, due to a number of problems, not least of them being that the authorities don’t consider that the number of passengers heading to and from Erith would be sufficient to justify the cost and effort of extending the service. On top of this, Morrison’s were not keen on their car park being used by commuters – a parking space used by a commuter is one less space to be available for a shopper. On top of this, once again any project to improve public transportation in the North of the borough would be inevitably blocked by Bexley Council planning committee. Most of the members live in the more prosperous South of the borough, and don't want the unwashed oiks in the North to have anything that they can’t .

Following on from my announcement last week of the reasons for the building and restoration work being carried out on the former Cross Keys pub in Erith High Street, I have been asked to go into a little more detail. The building is owned and operated by Anglo – American management consultancy, the Aleff Group. When they purchased the pub a couple of years ago, they were looking for a place that was close to the M25 and A2 and had good overland rail links into central London. Many of their consultants spend much of their time on client sites, or travelling, and they felt that the Cross Keys could provide a good place to convert into offices, hot desking areas and touchdown space for their mostly mobile workforce. The Aleff Group already have offices in Canary Wharf and in Florida, USA, and were initially only thinking of using the Cross Keys for their private business. Once the restoration and conversion work began, they were pleasantly surprised by the level of local interest in what they were doing. They soon realised that there was far more space in the building than they would ever actually need for their own company, and the idea was formed to open up the building for locals to use in a variety of ways.  At this point they contacted a number of local individuals, including myself, in order to form a local steering committee. For commercial confidentiality reasons I was asked to remain tight – lipped as to what was going on, and I have stuck to this for quite some time now. The work to the building has now progressed to the point where the upper floors will be “soft launched” in the next few weeks, prior to an official launch sometime in October. The upper floors have been beautifully restored and updated with air conditioning, fibre optic lights, full Cat 6 wired networking and WiFi coverage. The original cast iron fireplaces have been professionally restored and the floor and ceiling voids fitted with sound deadening material. New windows and doors have been fitted – all custom made to the original drawing specifications. There are a number of meeting rooms and areas to hot desk, along with an informal lounge, small kitchen and really high class designer bathrooms / wet rooms lined with polished marble. The first floor function room has been converted into a climate controlled presentation suite with a digital projector and surround sound audio system which is suitable for meetings, training courses and lectures, and even suitable for use as a small cinema or concert venue. The ground floor bar and kitchen areas are the only parts of the building that have so far not been restored; depending on the results of the questionnaire that will be distributed to local people during the Erith Fun Day on Saturday the 30^th August, the ground floor will be converted into a coffee / tea shop and restaurant with a rear terrace for people to be able to sit outside and watch the river view on nice days. It is hoped that the bar area can be restored to its Edwardian splendour so that diners can experience what the Cross Keys was like a hundred years ago. Local small businesses will be able to use the meeting rooms and hot desking areas of the building to carry out client meetings; it is anticipated that local councillors and our local MP will also use the Cross Keys to hold constituency surgeries - at present there is very little choice of public enclosed space in Erith and community events can be difficult to organise for this reason. Organisations like the Rotary Club and Bexley Business Forum will be able to hold meetings in the large and sound proofed meeting rooms on the second floor. The Cross Keys is a very tall building with lots of steep stairs; this has been thought of as a problem for both people with mobility disabilities and parents with children in buggies. For this reason a glass lift is being installed on the rear of the building, adjacent to the patio garden. The lift will look very similar to those used on the Lloyd’s building in the City of London, and will allow disabled access. The rear of the building is plain brick, and not the reason the structure is listed – it is the frontage that legally has to be preserved. Even the employment of local staff has been given a priority. All of the contractors employed on the Cross Keys project come from less than twelve miles from Erith, unless nobody with the specific skills could be found nearby. All the conservation work has been undertaken with close reference to period photographs supplied from several sources, including local historian Ken Chamberlain and myself. I cannot emphasise what a stunning transformation has taken place inside the former pub. All of the work has been done to an incredibly high standard with very high quality materials. Unfortunately as building work is still taking place, the Aleff Group will not be able to offer guided tours on the 30^th August during Erith Fun Day – their insurers would not permit it. I would imagine the public will be able to take a look around in October, when the building officially opens. Take it from me, you are in for a real treat!

This week the end video is an excellent and very funny "Simon's Cat" cartoon - enjoy.

The curse of the Bot.

The photo above shows the block of flats which replaced the old Erith Odeon cinema; the old cinema was a grade II listed Art Deco building which was illegally demolished by the property developers of the current residential block. Having said that, I have visited one of the top floor flats in the block, and I have to say that it was extremely nice indeed, with a view across Morrison's car park towards the River Thames. It is a pity that the original building was not sympathetically restored and converted internally, rather than having a faux Art Deco block put up in its place.

I, along with many other people, was unsuccessful in my efforts to secure tickets for the forthcoming residency of Kate Bush at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo (don’t worry, come the revolution, it will return to its proper name – the Hammersmith Odeon). Even friends who were fan club members with preferred ticket access were unable to get any. This seems to ring true for many fans who tried repeatedly to book tickets, only to discover that they had all gone within fifteen minutes. Many took this to be an indication of the huge popularity of the acclaimed local singer / songwriter, but unfortunately the situation runs far deeper than that. A problem exists now when anyone wishes to book a popular cultural event such as a concert or play or even tries to book a table in a popular restaurant – the venue will be booked out for the entire period however assiduous the booker has been. The reason for this situation is that certain unscrupulous people – often ticket agencies and others who wish to resell tickets or restaurant bookings at a profit, hire programmers to create what is known in the trade as a Bot. A Bot is a piece of software code that automates the process of making a ticket reservation or restaurant booking. It scans the relevant booking website and sends regular requests for page updates, looking for openings such as cancellations and filling in the web page request form far more rapidly than any human could ever hope to do. The Bot can run for days – never getting tired, never making a typo or missing an online field, and just grinding on until the required bookings have been made. It is almost certain that the Kate Bush concerts were mainly booked by software Bots. Although the promoters have put pretty strict conditions on concert attendees (booker has to turn up with photo ID and their companions have to be with the booker at the time of entering the venue). This has already been shown to be ineffective. Tickets with a face value of £139 are available via a number of outlets at prices varying between £1,000 and £1,500 each. What the Americans call “scalpers” and we call “ticket touts” are behind this behaviour. I recently read about “Bot Wars” where organisations such as Ticketmaster are trying to analyse online booking behaviour in order to exclude orders submitted by Bots; recently they rejected just over 120,000 orders made for a number of events after they had been detected as Bot generated. The Bot writers get more sophisticated and there is a war waging between the two sides which shows no signs of abating. I can suggest that the only way to be sure that an event is not booked out by software Bots is to remove online ordering completely – go back to ordering via telephone or turning up at the venue in person to book tickets. Something that is unlikely to happen in many cases due to the high costs of employing staff to carry out the bookings. It may well mean that confidence in all forms of event booking are irretrievably damaged unless some drastic actions are taken – such as making the use of Bots a criminal offence with a suitably hefty penalty. People will swiftly cease booking events online once they lose faith in the system, and this would be a real shame – it would be like taking one step forwards, followed by two back. You can read more about software Bots by clicking here.

Bexley Council seem to be a pretty powerless and ineffectual lot in general; okay they keep the street lights lit and the bins emptied (after a fashion, though personally I take my rubbish to the recycling point in Morrison's car park myself each day, and don't trouble the bin men, who tend to leave a trail of destruction in their wake). They did not do too badly in respect of the KFC application to open 24/7 that recently got dropped, I will give them that I suppose. I wonder if we would be better off returning to a localised monarchy. Did you know that Erith used to be ruled by King Eadbald of Kent? No, I thought not - it was a few years ago, I suppose. It is amazing what you can find online if you look hard enough.

Last week I wrote about my personal thoughts in respect of a new crossing on the lower River Thames. I have had several messages agreeing that the place would make a good choice, and yet others asking for more details, and for me to more fully explain what I meant. You will see a map above which graphically indicates the route of the tunnel I propose – click for a larger view. The tunnel I propose is purely my own thought, and is not intended to reflect on any of the other “official” transport solutions which are currently being proposed. My suggestion, provisionally entitled “The Arthur Pewty Memorial Tunnel” would stretch between the Ferry Lane roundabout, South of Rainham town centre and the A2016 Bronze Age Way / Picardy Manor Way roundabout in Lower Belvedere. In effect, this would connect the A13 and Rainham in South Essex with the A2 and M25 via Bronze Age Way, and the South Circular via the A2016 Eastern Way towards Woolwich. It could also have the added bonus of connecting Rainham and Belvedere railway stations via a regular bus service through the tunnel. My vision would be of a structure very similar in size and scope to the existing Medway Tunnel which links Strood with Chatham in Kent. The Thames tunnel would use the same kind of immersed tube construction that the Medway Tunnel does – that is, sections of prefabricated tunnel sections are sunk into the river, joined together, then the water is pumped out. This relatively new method of construction is well suited to shallow and medium depths of water, and creates tunnels which are both very strong and relatively cheap to construct. Unlike the Medway Tunnel, I would hope that the Lower Thames tunnel would permit the use of bicycles via a raised cycle / walkway kept physically separate from the vehicular traffic. As previously indicated, by the time any tunnel of this nature had been constructed (which I understand normally needs an Act of Parliament) the level of harmful pollutants emitted by vehicles will be far lower than the already pretty low levels now, and many of the cars may well be zero emission via either conventional batteries, Hydrogen fuel cells or possibly even LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) power, if one is somewhat on the optimistic side. This would not be the only new link needed across the Thames South of Tower Bridge; I suspect that the proposed Gallions Reach crossing will probably go ahead in some form or another, despite the traffic having to run through a housing estate and close by a large residential nursing home on the South side of the river. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

When I first heard the following announcement, I had to check the date, as I was sure that the story was an April fool joke. It was not to be – the story was first published last Monday, a full day before April the first. I then had to check the year, just in case I had been caught inside some kind of temporal vortex and shunted back in time to 1972. The reason for my consternation? The announcement that a movie version of the TV sitcom “Mrs Brown’s Boys” is due to be released in UK cinemas at the end of June. I fully understand that humour is probably the most subjective of human interactions, based as it is on shared culture and experiences, but Mrs Brown’s Boys seems to have come into existence as though the last forty years of British situation comedies had never evolved. To me, it makes the likes of “On the Buses” and “Love thy Neighbour” look sophisticated and knowing. The way the show treats characters such as the gay son are a relic of the 1970’s, and I am astonished that such a large number of the British public love the programme. I am genuinely amazed at how many people watch Mrs Brown’s Boys and greatly enjoy it. Personally I find it excruciating, embarrassing and downright bad. The script, performances, characters and direction are all very lazy, uninventive and old fashioned in a bad way; Les Dawson in a dress was funny - Brendan O’Carroll is merely foul mouthed and excruciating . I concede that the show has a huge and loyal following (otherwise I doubt that the Producers would have green – lit a film version). I just fail to understand why.  I am sure that the movie version of the TV show will be a big hit – after all the programme gets the kind of viewing figures shows of its ilk used to get back in the 1970’s – a figure of fifteen million viewers was quoted by the Guardian in a recent article on the subject. It also seems to be a “Marmite” show – I am not the only person to express a strong opinion – others find it the funniest thing they have seen for ages. I suppose that my main gripe is in the way the show treats the main characters as caricatures – something frequently done in popular sit-coms, but usually so much better – if you look at a recent classic like Father Ted, the main players were indeed caricatures, but they were also sympathetic and in many cases, likeable. This is not something that I can find in Mrs Browns Boys. Still, I have in the past found cinema outings by British institutions to be less execrable than anticipated – the one that comes most readily to mind is Bula Quo – the comedy adventure film made by Status Quo, which I reviewed on my February 16^th update where I wrote of it “ Bula Quo is cheesy, cheerful and fully aware of exactly how ridiculous it all is”. I somehow doubt that I will be able to say the same thing about Mrs Brown on the big screen.

Welling based micro pub The Door Hinge has been voted as Bexley CAMRA Pub of the Year only a year after it first opened to the public. That is a really shining endorsement of the place. Thus far I have only visited it once, as it is a bit of a pain to get to using public transport from Erith, situated as it is in Welling High Street – which involves some bus juggling. I found it far easier to get a cab door to door. It is certainly worth a visit if you like real ale and good conversation. If you did not see my previous posting in respect of micro pubs, a micro pub is a pub that does not serve spirits or much in the way of food. It tends to concentrate on real ale and cider, with usually one or two wines on offer. Micro Pubs tend to be established in former shop units, or other relatively inexpensive commercial property. They don’t have TV or piped music, and encourage visitors to talk to each other as was the norm in pubs of years gone by.  The other unifying feature of micro pubs is that they don’t serve gassy, mass produced lager. The Door Hinge fits this profile exactly. It is located in a former shop at the Bexleyheath end of Welling High Street, not very far from Crook Log. I can highly recommend the place.

The photo above was sent to me midweek by local historian Ken Chamberlain. It shows the old Erith Central School, which was located in West Street, just opposite St. John the Baptist - the oldest Church in the area at around a thousand years old. The photo below was sent to me by Garry "Tadge" Taylor, and shows another view of the same school from the other side. I understand that the field next to the school was subject to frequent flooding, as the only drainage at the time consisted of a couple of culverts, which frequently became blocked. Both photos of the Central School were taken in approximately 1910. I must admit that the area has changed substantially over the last century. The site of the school currently is occupied by housing, and is adjacent to an abandoned tyre warehouse, which I understand is shortly to be redeveloped as offices and a new church hall for St. John the Baptist. Click on either photo for a larger view.

The News Shopper has been reporting on a new spate of fly tipping that has been occurring in the area; in this time the worst incidents appear to be happening in and around Dartford. The fly tipping problems experienced around Dartford are really nothing new. The problem has been affecting most of the country for a while now. For once, fly tipping in Erith seems to be slightly on the wane. Certainly the problems I have documented over the months may be less common than of late. The reason for this is straightforward. The recycling centre behind the large Morrison’s supermarket in Erith is operated by Bexley Council. The recycling centre is easily accessible by road – James Watt Way leads directly to it; on top of this it is out of the way and concealed from view, as it is shielded on one side by the wall of the supermarket on one side, and the Thames riverside walkway on another. This means it is an ideal place for illegal fly tippers to dump their rubbish. Fly tipping is free, if illegal  – until the offender gets themselves caught. Fines can be eye wateringly severe. The Erith recycling centre is within a fly tipping exclusion zone which also includes James Watt Way and Appold Street, where fines upon a successful prosecution can go as high as £50,000. I have been reliably informed that even though the Erith recycling facility is one of the smaller ones operating in the borough, it suffers the worst from fly tipping. I think the ease of access and lack of visibility factors play heavily on this . Fortunately Bexley Council Environmental Crimes Unit have been busy. The Erith site now has closed circuit TV coverage for twenty four hours a day. Several fly tippers have already been caught red handed by the cameras, and action against those so caught is being taken. Hopefully a few examples can be made which will discourage others from fly tipping in future.

Did you know that GMail is ten years old this week? Google announced the (then) revolutionary browser based Email client on April 1^st 2004. Many industry pundits at the time thought the whole thing was an elaborate April Fool’s Day hoax – who would ever offer each and every user an online message storage capacity of 1 Gigabyte – five hundred times the capacity of the then market leader, Microsoft’s Hotmail? As history shows, it was anything but a trick – it was the single most important release Google had made to date since it launched its search engine in 1998. GMail was revolutionary for a number of important reasons: It has vast storage, a very zippy and responsive user interface that was well thought out, user friendly and intuitive. It also had a very powerful message search function, which other browser based Email solutions were not able to replicate. On top of this, it was the first major cloud based application that was feature complete and capable of replacing conventional PC software, rather than complimenting it. GMail was started by a chap called Paul Buchheit – a (then) young software engineer, who was Google’s 23^rd employee. He wanted a tool that would search through his archived Email messages, and realising nothing suitable was available, decided to write a search function himself. Initially the Email search engine was running on an old PC on his desk; then other Google engineers asked if they could use Buchheit’s search engine to search their own emails. At the time, the likes of Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail had little or no inbuilt search functionality – but then, it was not really a priority when users were limited to twenty megabytes of storage, and were having to continually delete messages in order to keep under their storage limit. Messages were hard to lose when the limits were so small.  GMail gave users a Gigabyte of storage – all for free. Initially the web based GMail was a product only used within Google itself. The company managed much of its business via Email, and having an in – house solution made a lot of sense to them. A decision was made to offer the web application (a first – previous web based Email clients from other vendors had been clunky and dog – slow efforts written in HTML – every time something changed on screen, the whole page needed to be reloaded, which was slow and flickery and gave a very poor user experience – something Google were keen to avoid). Instead Google wanted GMail to feel like an installed application that one merely happened to be accessing via a web browser – something revolutionary at the time, and not that common nowadays. With GMail, Buchheit worked around HTML’s limitations by using highly interactive JavaScript code. That made it feel more like software than a sequence of web pages. Before long, the approach would get the moniker AJAX, which stood for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML; today, it is how all web applications like FaceBook and Google Docs are built. But when GMail was pioneering the technique, it wasn’t clear that it was going to work. The fundamental issue was that back in 2002/3, when GMail was being developed, web browsers were far less sophisticated than nowadays. The problem with using large chunks of JavaScript programming code to make a slick, quick web experience was that Internet Explorer 6 (by far the most widely used web browser at the time) was pretty crap at handling JavaScript, (actually IE6 was pretty crap at everything, but that is another story). Google were worried that by making a sophisticated, cutting edge product, they would end up crashing Internet Explorer 6 every so often, which would annoy and alienate their key user base. Eventually the quirks and shortcomings of Internet Explorer were tamed, and GMail was ready for release. Initially it was going to be offered to a limited number of public Beta testers (I was one of these people – I have one of the first 1,500 Gmail user accounts ever created). Google were so unsure of how GMail would be received that they initially hosted the entire service on three hundred old Pentium III computers that nobody else at Google wanted, and were otherwise going into the recycling skip. The initial limited run of accounts was soon boosted, as a GMail address became the new, fashionable thing to have – the scarcity made it cool. Not everything was going Google’s way though. The GMail business model, which was (and still is) based on scanning the message text, and serving up discreet, context sensitive adverts was not universally well received. A U.S politician, California State Senator Liz Figueroa  sent Google a letter of her own, calling GMail a “disaster of enormous proportions, for yourself, and for all of your customers.” She went on to draft a bill requiring, among other things, that any company that wanted to scan an email message for advertising purposes get the consent of the person who sent it. (By the time the California Senate passed the law, cooler heads prevailed and that obligation had been eliminated.) Nevertheless, if ultimate privacy is a concern of yours, GMail is not for you. Despite this, the last time Google released usage figures was back in 2012; at that time GMail had 425 million active and frequently used accounts, which suggests to me that discomfort with Google’s approach to online advertising is a minority concern (either that, or many people know no better, which is a possibility). Compared with Hotmail (now Outlook.com) the look and feel of GMail has changed little – any updates and changes are incremental and subtly performed; Google realise that a substantial portion of their customers value the familiarity of the application, and don’t want change for change’s sake. Whatever your views, GMail has come a hell of a long way in a decade, and it is a cornerstone of many people’s lives. Happy Birthday GMail.

The News Shopper are reporting as to how the Nemesis Gym in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre has launched a health and nutrition bar, which is specialising in the currently fashionable "Caveman Diet". This is all well and good, and normally I am always keen to promote independent local businesses. The problem with the Nemesis Gym is that they had a visit from Bexley Council health inspectors not long ago, and their kitchen only scored a 1 out of 5 stars on the "Scores on the Doors" food hygiene rating system. It was judged to be "Poor" for for food hygiene and safety, "Fair" for structural compliance, and "Little" in confidence in management. I think that before the Nemesis gym start making claims about health and nutrition, they really ought to be sorting their own house out - chances are you would end up with food poisoning if you ate there at present. On a brighter note, the newly opened "King of the Grill" kebab shop in Manor Road was inspected last week, and rated a very respectable four out of five stars for food hygiene, which is very good news. They have their sticker proudly on display in the shop window, but the Council have yet to update the Scores on the Doors website. Let us hope that more local food outlets up their hygiene standards in future.

The end video this week is a full length two hour documentary on the calamitous state of American health care when compared to places such as Canada and the United Kingdom. We may think the NHS is far from perfect, but the situation on the other side of the pond seems to be far worse. Give it a watch and see what you think. Please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Brick.

I took the photo above last Sunday afternoon, minutes after publishing last weeks’ Maggot Sandwich update. It shows the Bexley Council owned and operated recycling centre behind Morrison’s supermarket in Erith. Regular readers will know that I have been conducting a minor war against illegal fly tipping in and around Erith for some time.  I get the impression that many residents are unaware as to exactly how bad the fly tipping problem has now become.  The photograph above illustrates the problem very well. Fly tipping of this nature is becoming an almost daily occurrence. As I have previously written, there are a small number of local businesses who illegally dump waste, rather than taking stuff for proper disposal at the Council waste facility at Thames Road in Crayford. The reason that they dump rather than responsibly recycle is purely down to money. Commercial enterprises have to pay to dispose of waste at official disposal stations; I understand that a van load of mixed material would normally come to around £100. The crooks would rather skimp this and pollute the environment. When I was taking the photograph above, I was approached by a couple who readily identified themselves as scrap dealers. What was interesting was their approach – they run a local, ethical scrap recycling business. Unlike most “scrappies”, they will not take items without asking the owners’ permission first; they have full accreditation, insurance and registration, and they abhor fly tipping. It was instructive to see the other side of the coin – a scrap dealer who detests the fly tippers as much as most other people. They told me that nothing hurts their reputable business more than the illegal activities of less scrupulous operators. I was told that two years ago, their van insurance cost £500; this year it was £2000 and they have had no claims. They were told by their broker that merely operating a scrap business put their premiums up by this huge amount. They also told me that the legitimate companies in the scrap game will as of next year have to pay a £350 annual fee to the council to contribute towards the cost of clearing up fly tipping carried out by their criminal business competitors. Of course, the crooks won’t pay this, as they are not registered. This does put the legitimate operator at a distinct disadvantage, which I think is morally wrong. A properly regulated and responsibly run scrap and recycling industry is vital to the UK in many ways; recycling glass, for example, uses only around ten percent of the energy of making glass from raw materials, and of course it saves using raw materials in the first place. Recycled metal forms a vital contribution to the countries’ balance of payments, as much ferrous and non ferrous metal is exported after being recycled from scrap. The list could go on, but you get the idea. On top of all this, getting old appliances recycled saves a ton of stuff going to landfill; being the small island that Britain is, we would rapidly run out of space, as well as risking pollution on a massive scale. Scrap collectors / dealers may get a bad rap (and in quite a few cases, deservedly so), but the good ones perform an absolutely vital service which we would all be far worse off without.

I was watching a documentary on the Sky Arts channel the other night; it featured an international convention of Beatles tribute bands – there were South Korean and Ghanaian Beatles covers groups, amongst a huge number of others. I did not realise that there is a shop in Liverpool that specialises in selling costumes, wigs and boots to Beatle tribute bands, it is that much of a lucrative market. The programme was light hearted and warm and followed a few of the bands as they visited the locations featured in so many Beatles songs. This got me thinking; the Beatles have spawned a huge tourist industry in Liverpool, with Beatles themed tours, events and shows all over the city, all eager to being in the cash from the tourists eager to explore the place that the band called home. Their major contemporaries have fared less well. When you mention the Beatles, you immediately form an association with Liverpool. When you mention the Rolling Stones, you don’t immediately think of Dartford, do you? Yet the band had their roots in Dartford, even though their music had more in common with the Mississippi Delta than the Thames Estuary.  Apart from the excellent Mick Jagger performing arts centre, there is nothing to commemorate the band in Dartford – which is ironic, as unlike the Beatles, the Stones are still a (just about) going concern. I wonder if a lot of this is because the band abandoned the town to move to a house in West London as soon as they started to find success? There was a campaign to get a blue plaque installed on platform four of Dartford railway station a few years ago – where Mick and Keith first met after both visiting the West End to buy rare American blues records, where they discovered they shared the same musical passion, and the seeds of the band that would become the Rolling Stones were sown. Unfortunately nothing came of the campaign, which I think epitomises the rather ambivalent attitude some locals have to the group. The local area has been instrumental  (if you will excuse the pun) in being home to Kate Bush (Welling), John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin (Sidcup) and David Bowie (Bromley).  The musical influence this part of South East London / North Kent has had worldwide has had is huge; we just seem to be exceptionally poor at celebrating its’ success.  Going back to the Rolling Stones, one thing which has been unclear for years is the actual origin of their name. Some think it comes from the Muddy Waters song of the same name, which may indeed be the case. The thing is, what exactly is a rolling stone? Well, according to a source I read, it is nothing to do with a stone rolling down a hill. The “rolling stone that gathers no moss” actually refers to a 16^th Century garden lawn carved stone roller; so the Rolling Stones, with all of their “bad boy” image are actually named after something you would find in a garden shed...

Nowadays most of the weekly Maggot Sandwich update get written during the week, and nailed together with photographs and video content on the weekend, prior to its’ publication on Sunday afternoon. This final fettling and formatting gets done on my bespoke Apple iMac in my home office. I often have the radio on whilst I am working away on the blog. Not that long ago I came across a radio station that may well be worth you trying out. KBC Radio is a Dutch radio station mainly aimed at truckers and other commercial travellers. In the week it broadcasts in Dutch, but at the weekend it switches into English, much in the same way the late and much lamented Arrow Classic Rock on 675 medium wave used to do. KBC Radio broadcasts between 8am and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday on 6095 kHz shortwave, with an absolutely massive signal here in the UK. The transmitter puts out a massive 150 kilowatts of RF power, which means it can be heard all over the world.  The station features classic DJ’s like The Emperor Rosko and Dave Mason and plays 50’s rock and roll, classic rock, rhythm and blues and 60’s soul. Their musical selection is far more eclectic and varied than most of the commercial “gold” stations, and they are certainly worth a listen. If you have an old radio that receives shortwave, put the band selector on the 49 metre band, and tune the radio up towards the top third of the band. If you do this when KBC Radio are on air, they will spring out of the speaker, their local signal is so strong. Do give them a try – they are a not for profit, licenced station that are really trying to do something  a little bit different. I have them set as one of the memory presets on my JRC NRD 345 desktop shortwave radio receiver, right next to the preset for Laser Hot Hits on 4026 kHz – my favourite shortwave broadcaster.  Perhaps I will write a full article on some of the lesser known specialist radio stations that are quietly broadcasting away, right under the noses of many people in the near future. Whilst the UK government continues to try and browbeat the population into migrating onto DAB, so that they can sell off the vacated frequencies to the highest bidder, a number of radio enthusiasts continue to make good and productive use of the analogue broadcasting bands. As I have said before, when all other forms of communication have failed, whether through natural disaster, war, or other calamity, analogue radio still works and will get through. You may recall the end of the movie “Independence Day” when Morse Code was used to co-ordinate the final battle against the invading aliens. Well, it may well have been the only factually accurate part of the (dreadful) movie. Radio will always get through.

Here is the trailer for the 50th anniversary of the start of Doctor Who; unusually for the BBC, they have not blocked embedding of the video in external websites - see what you think anyway.

I was on a largely empty train on my way home after a work visit to Watford Last week; sitting opposite me was a chap who spent most of his journey with his mobile telephone glued to his ear, engaged in a long and detailed conversation; usually I find this behaviour incredibly irritating, but this time I was fascinated. The chap was evidently an IT hardware salesman, who specialised in the education market. He was first talking to his boss, then later a couple of potential customers. It would seem that many schools are now getting rid of physical textbooks and are instead migrating to tablet computers with E-Book reading software installed. Some schools foot the bill themselves, whereas others charge the parents £10 a month in a shared ownership scheme. This has the advantage of meaning the tablet is insured against theft, loss or accidental damage (instead of “the dog ate my maths book” it will be “my dad sat on my tablet”).  What was the most interesting facet of this overheard, one sided conversation was that Apple and the iPad have a total domination of the educational tablet market; apparently school heads will not even consider Android powered devices, and Windows Surface machines are regarded as being beyond a joke. It will be instructive to see how this choice of platform affects the buying decisions of the school children when they become adults and are able to purchase their own technology. It has been said for the last couple of years that the desktop PC is dead (not quite yet, but it is starting to smell that way) and that laptop sales have dropped measurably. This is also true. Nowadays many people view and take part in online content via a tablet or smart phone. Personally I don’t see the death of devices with physical keyboards for a while yet – there is no way a three thousand words plus Maggot Sandwich update would ever get typed on a virtual screen keyboard – I would develop RSI way before the update was typed, and I am certainly not alone in this regard. The thing is, in all o f this future development, Microsoft have almost no presence. The only parts of Microsoft that make a (admittedly huge) profit are the desktop and server operating systems division, and the Office division. Both of these have been, and still are, dependant on their customers having desktop or laptop computers connected in a client / server environment. This is fundamental to their entire business model. Nowadays kids have mobile devices that connect via the cloud – the conventional client / server model is completely out of the window as far as they are concerned. Once these children become adults, the entire ground rock that Microsoft base themselves on will cease to have relevance. I feel that the direction that Microsoft are heading really needs a massive shakeup, with new top management. If they don’t do this, and soon, they will end up going the same way as Sun Microsystems – another former technological giant that could not change when it was required, and are now nothing more than a name plate owned by Oracle Corporation.

Well, it is now official; the A206 roundabout in the centre of Erith, adjacent to the council offices, Erith Station and the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the converted tyre warehouse is now officially named “The Fish Roundabout” – according to a letter from Bexley Council. Well, I suppose that has cleared it up for a lot of people. It has been known locally as the Fish Roundabout ever since the eyesore statue was installed. I have to concede that its’ local notoriety has now transformed into a kind of collective pride in that “it is so bad it is good”. At least it makes an easy landmark for people who are unfamiliar with the area. News reaches me that the Fish Roundabout, and the area adjacent to the station and Bexley Road is going to be even more of a bottle neck than ever during rush hour than normal. The long term plan is to build a brand new road bridge over the railway by Christ Church, but my understanding is that whilst this is on hold for budgetary reasons (a new, double width bridge would cost a fortune, cause even more disruption at what is a very bad bottleneck, and also cause problems for the Dartford to London via Greenwich railway line which runs underneath). From Monday the 28^th October, works will be started to reinforce, refurbish and then resurface the existing bridge. This is going to mean disruption to the trains, which cannot use the line whilst engineering is being carried out over the track; it is also likely to cause traffic problems on the road. I understand that diversions to southbound traffic that wants to head towards Northumberland Heath and Bexleyheath will be made. This will most likely mean that locals will have to allow a little longer for their car journey times. The bridge will not be closed either way for pedestrian use, so commuters travelling to and from Erith railway station should not be too inconvenienced. How the trains will be affected by the works, I am unsure. I would imagine that works will be carried out overnight when the railway has stopped its’ scheduled passenger services for the night, though this will still be a problem for freight operations, which tend to run round the clock. The whole thing will be a pain for all concerned; though nothing compared with when (if) the Council eventually bite the bullet and completely replace the bridge with one twice the width, as they originally intended, which I first wrote about back in May 2011, which you can read by clicking here. The fact that the Council have given the green light to the refurbishment work almost certainly signals that the bridge replacement has been kicked into the long grass for the next few years. No surprise there then.

I thought that British electronics manufacturer Binatone had disappeared years ago; around the time of the end of Woolworth's - who were a major outlet for the discount goods produced by Binatone. I was wrong. Carphone Warehouse are selling a range of new mobile phones, one of which you can see above. The new phone is called "The Brick" and it is a retro design harking back to the mobile telephones of the late 1980's and early 1990's. By modern standards it might look bulky and cumbersome, but it has a hidden advantage over modern smart phones - a truly staggering battery life. One charge will keep The Brick on standby for an amazing three months! You may be aware that I am not a fan of mobile phones, and don't actually own one at all - I understand that they have certain uses, but they just leave me cold - it is also very entertaining to see the look on people's faces when they ask for my mobile number, and I tell them that I don't have one! Nevertheless The Brick does have a degree of retro charm, based as it is on the design of the 1992 Motorola International 3200 model. Do feel free to leave a comment, or Email me directly with your thoughts to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

It seems quite ironic, following all of the issues I have recounted in relation to illegal fly tipping, and the actions of unscrupulous scrap collectors, that the News Shopper has reported this week, that the level of metal thefts reported in Kent have dropped for the second year running.  This is indeed good news. Reported thefts have more than halved; this seems to be due to a combination of factors – scrap dealers are now prohibited by law from offering cash for scrap metal – all transactions have to be made via a recognised bank account. Dealers also have to request photo identification such as a passport or driving licence from anyone wanting to sell them scrap. Whilst this has undoubtedly cut down the criminal metal theft, one other factor that may be an even bigger influence is the recent drop in scrap metal prices. For example, bright copper has dropped from £440 per tonne a year ago to £370 a tonne today – a still substantial amount, but when the drop in price is coupled with the stricter scrappage rules and the recent Police crackdown on unlicensed scrap dealers, it all adds up to an enterprise that is becoming less attractive to crooks.

Some time ago I featured Welling based beer house “The Door Hinge”. The place, a real ale only licenced premises located in a converted shop in Welling High Street has recently launched a new website which you can see here. A beer house, sometimes referred to as a micro pub, is a recently reintroduced phenomenon; they are generally converted from empty shop units, offer real ales and maybe a cider, along with soft drinks. They almost never offer spirits, and food other than snacks like crisps is usually not on offer. Beer houses are a return to a very old and traditional method of serving ale – historically beer houses were often operated from a room in a private house, and as such the licensing criteria were less strict than that required for a full public house. Modern beer houses are usually run as a hobby, or as an adjunct to another business, and as such are only open for a few hours each day, and tend to attract real ale enthusiasts. Most micro pubs are in Kent, for some unknown reason - there is a directory of them which you can see by clicking here. I will be making an updated report on The Door Hinge when I visit the place again in a couple of weeks.

Whilst travelling around the local area, I have encountered a couple of examples of technical archaeology, in the form of BSB "Squarials" - antennas used to receive the long defunct British Satellite Broadcasting Service, that was beaten in business by the technologically simpler, but cheaper and more reliable service from Sky. Much in the way that VHS beat the superior Betamax video recorder format a few years earlier. Twenty four years or so later, a very few people still have the defunct antennas attached to the outside of their houses - there is one I have seen in Northumberland Heath, and one in Barnehurst. They are now of some minor historical importance. Here is a video clip from "Tomorrow's World" from 1989, featuring Maggie Philbin comparing the two rival systems. Little was anyone to know that BSB would be beaten by Sky, and taken over by them not much more than a year later. It all looks horribly dated now, but back then this was cutting edge stuff. 

The Door Hinge.

Building work on the new Bexley College Campus site is really ramping up now. The site is now fully cleared with the exception of a small area of rough scrub and bush at the Southern end of the triangular piece of land.  I don’t know what the developers intend with this part, as the equipment to remove trees and bushes has now been removed. I am guessing that they may wish to keep it as a nature reserve. The main part of the site is now being drilled for cast in situ piling – this is made by using a giant drill (see the photo above) and drilling down into the ground to make a vertical tubular hole. When the hole reaches the correct depth, steel reinforcement rods are inserted, and liquid concrete is poured down. It is a very efficient way of creating heavy duty foundations. This construction method is a lot quieter and less intrusive to local residents, as you don’t have the constant “bang, bang” of a pile driving machine – and bearing in mind that the nearest housing to the site is only about thirty metres away, this surely must have been a major consideration. Just as the pile drilling started, new plywood fencing begun being erected around the site, covering over the old chain link fencing. Apart from increasing physical site security (there are plenty of high value objects used on a major construction site, not to mention bowsers of fuel that are wont to disappear if left unattended), the high, solid fencing helps to contain noise and dust – all very important when building near to a residential area. I have a pretty good insight into the whole construction and civil engineering process, as many moons ago I was training as a Quantity Surveyor, and worked for a large company in London, and spent over a year based on a very large construction site adjacent to the Barbican. I decided that the job was not for me, which coincided with my involvement with Radio Caroline. I solved the problem of being fed up with the job and all the studying and exams it involved, by running away to sea to play records to most of Northern Europe - you can see some photos of this by clicking here. I am very glad I did. Life on a building site is dusty and hot in summer, muddy and cold in winter and noisy all of the time.

The photo above may not be recognised by many Erith locals. It shows a building that has been in situ on Erith High Street for as long as I can recall. The small office was once used by the Port of London Authority as their local base of operations. Originally it was occupied pretty much all day every day, but later it was only used occasionally, and nowadays it appears to have fallen out of use completely. It is fenced off and locked, and would appear to be empty, but is still in good repair. The office is one of those sorts of places you walk past but don’t really register (unless, like me, you are intensely curious). It is located right next to the path that leads down to Erith Jetty (a far older structure than the adjacent Erith Pier). It was ideally suited to the use of the PLA, as they could drop staff off by boat on the jetty, and be in the office in seconds. Now, it sits there empty and unused. I think it would make an ideal office for a small start – up company; the site has electricity, and I think plumbing. It might need a phone line running to it, but other than that, it should not be too difficult to get it ready for re – use. I am trying to find out what the current legal status of the building is, as it seems a stupid waste of a building that has a stunning river view and is close to all of the amenities of Erith Town Centre. More news as I continue my research.

Many people in the local area have recently received a card though the post. It is quite likely that a fair proportion of these cards may well have been binned, as many such cards and flyers are advertising for fast food delivery services and the like. The card in question was somewhat more useful – it notified the recipient that Erith and the surrounding area will be 4G phone enabled in the near future, and people who watch Freeview terrestrial TV could possibly have their TV enjoyment spoiled by interference from the 800MHz signals coming from the new 4G mobile phone transmitters. The main location for 4G transmitters and antennas in Erith is on the roof of the block that contains Erith Snooker Centre on Pier Road. If you use Freeview, rather than cable or satellite TV, you may find your television picture becomes blocky or freezes intermittently. If this happens, you can be supplied with a free antenna filter to block the portion of the 4G signal that interferes with the Freeview TV signal. If you go to www.at800.tv they will send you a free filter in the post.

At some point over the last couple of days, the hit counter has clicked over the 250,000 unique page views on this blog. I am quite staggered that the Maggot Sandwich should attract quite the level of interest that it does - I am currently getting something in the region of 23,000 regular hits every month - thank you one and all. I was also pleasantly surprised how many times I was approached by several Maggot Sandwich readers whilst I attended the Erith Riverside Festival last Sunday. Thanks to everyone who came over to say hello; I must admit that I was expecting one or two criticisms of my writing – either relating to the content or the style, but none of it; everyone was very complimentary – thank you. I had intended staying longer than the ninety or so minutes I spent in the gardens, but I was starting to burn – mainly on my forehead; I am not someone who has any kind of resistance to sunlight – I burn almost immediately, even though on the Sunday the weather was not that hot, the UV levels must have been above normal. I think I may need to invest in a Panama hat to go with my sports jackets – tweed has a sun block factor that must measure into the thousands! Smearing oneself in sun block cream rather sends the message that you like to be out in the sun; personally I would rather invest in some dignified millinery than taking the pharmaceutical route to skin protection.

The rather abstract photo is one that I took a few years ago, when I was exploring the possibilities of black and white photography. It shows a section of the so – called Iraqi “Super Gun” designed by Dr Gerald Bull and constructed by Matrix Churchill prior to the first Gulf War in 1991. The section of gun barrel is located outside the Royal Artillery Museum in the Woolwich Arsenal development. Personally I think that Gerald Bull paid for his life for being the mastermind behind a huge confidence trick. The official story is that either the Mossad, CIA, or MI6 had him killed to stop him working on the super gun project for Saddam Hussein, as they feared that an ultra long range gun could drop huge shells onto Israel or Saudi Arabia, thus breaking up the allied coalition, and giving Iraq a strong advantage in any ground war. My own theory is somewhat different. Looking at the size and design of the so called “barrel”, it strikes me that the design was never actually going to work. Gerald Bull had an astounding career in aeronautic engineering and using cannons to launch scientific projectiles containing sensors into high, sub orbital flights in order to monitor weather patterns in the upper atmosphere. These cannons were modified U.S Navy WWII sixteen inch battleship guns, two of which were welded end to end, then re-bored for the sensor carrying shells. The so called Iraqi “Super Gun” was to have been constructed of a large number of sections that would have been bolted together just like bits of large bore gas or water pipe; indeed when the shipment of “gun” parts were intercepted by H.M Customs and Excise (as they then were known) it was widely thought that this was exactly what the parts were. It only later came to light that they were supposedly parts of a proscribed weapon. My take on the story is that the intense temperatures and pressures inside a giant gun would be so high that all of the joints between the sections would “blow” and leak, making the weapon entirely impractical. If you recall the pioneering work on high altitude / long range guns was done with modified battleship cannons – a far more robust and practical solution to bunging a large projectile half way across a continent than a device made of a series of bolt – together sections, which was always going to be intrinsically weaker than the sum of their parts. I think that Gerald Bull knew all this, and was milking the Saddam Hussein regime for as much cash as he could, counting on the defeat and demise of the dictator meaning he would be able to walk away with millions. I think his killers were actually Iraqi secret agents, who were sent to make an example of Bull, after Saddam realised he was being taken for a sucker by the Canadian scientist. I doubt any theory around the true story of the Iraqi Super Gun will come out now, as most of the protagonists are now dead. It makes for interesting reading, however, and the “what if?” scenarios around the idea of Iraq having a secret, history changing super weapon are legion. Fredrick Forsyth wrote an excellent, fictionalised thriller about the super gun project. The book is called “The Fist Of God” and is well worth a read – it would make a potentially excellent movie as well.

Well, as promised in last weeks' Maggot Sandwich update, I have now visited the areas' first and thus far only micro pub - The Door Hinge, which opened not long ago in Welling High Street. The venue is currently fairly small - the Micro Pub (better described as a traditional ale house - more on this shortly) occupies what was the front of house shop area in what used to be an electrical hardware store, that has been lovingly refurbished with traditional wooden benches and chairs. The place is decorated with period framed posters and adverts for breweries like Reffells and Beasleys - two local companies that have long disappeared. The Door Hinge has a temperature controlled room behind the saloon area, where the beer is dispensed directly to the glass via a tap on the cask - no pumps are used; there is also no bar as such, just a small and neat counter. This all helps to save space, and is very much in keeping with the whole micro pub philosophy. I always feel that you can judge how well a drinking establishment is run by the state of the toilets - in this case the Door Hinge gets a 10/10 - the loos were immaculate, clean and well stocked with liquid soap, air freshener and loo paper. The loo is a short trek from the saloon, through an area of the former shop that is currently not used. I understand that the currently redundant back room is shortly to be converted into a "reading room" for customers who wish to peruse the fat stock prices, to complete a newspaper crossword, or to otherwise have a more contemplative experience than in the congenial saloon. Micro Pubs hark back to the days of the historical ale houses - places that were not fully licenced pubs, in that that did not serve spirits, and opened for shorter hours than full pubs. Modern Micro Pubs are a relatively new phenomenon - they are usually run by enthusiasts as an addition to their normal day job. Micro pubs do not have music, tv or slot machines in them - they encourage conversation between their customers. Micro pubs have one thing in common with each other - none serve lager in any form; they specialise in high quality real ales, usually served directly from the barrel. The Door Hinge hits all of these targets square on. The landlord, Ray Hurley is a welcoming and friendly host, with many amusing anecdotes. The ale house is in an unusual location, but I think it will do well, judging by the wide range of customers that were there during my visit on Saturday evening. I highly recommend the place. The Door Hinge is located at 11, High Street, Welling. If you want to check their opening hours, or to find out what well kept real ales are currently on tap, ring Ray on 01322 404848 for the details.

Another technical anniversary has come up this week; on Wednesday it was the 35^th anniversary of the launch of the original Space Invaders game. It was not by a long way the first video game (the honours for that go to Space War, a game written for the DEC PDP1 minicomputer in 1961/62. You can play the game online in your browser via a modern emulator – click here to play). What did differentiate Space Invaders from other games of the period was the addictiveness of game play, and the dedication of the players. It was so incredibly popular upon its’ original launch in Japan, there was a countrywide shortage of 100 Yen coins that the Space Invaders machines accepted.  The heartbeat – like thud, thud sound of the invaders ponderously chugging over the screen slowly got faster and faster as their numbers were destroyed by the players’ shots. This looked like clever programming – with the invaders getting harder and harder to hit as their speed increased. The reason for the speed increase was actually rather more prosaic; the (by modern standards) low powered 8-bit Intel 8080 processor which powered the game seriously  struggled to update the screen display and also run the game code when there was a screen full of invaders (this was in an age where the processor had to handle everything – there were no dedicated graphics cards back then). As the invaders got shot and destroyed, their numbers decreased, and the load on the processor went down. This allowed the game to speed up. All clever stuff, which added to the mystique of the game. A lot of people recall that the alien ships changed colour as they moved down the screen; again, this was an illusion – the Space Invaders hardware did not have the resources to support a colour display – it was purely black and white. The screen was covered with a series of transparent  horizontal filters of differing colours – the white invaders would make their way down the screen, going through filter after filter, and thus appearing to the player as if they were changing colour – a simple but effective ruse. The game has been ported to pretty much any platform that is capable of playing games. The first official port was to the Atari 2600 VCS games console (more on this below - who says I don't plan these things?). Many people bought the console on the strength of the game – the first instance of a “killer application”. Since then it has appeared everywhere. It also has the dubious distinction of being one of the most pirated software titles of all time, most of this occurring before any decent software intellectual property rights existed. Nowadays every smart (and indeed, not so smart) phone and tablet runs a version of the game that is almost as popular now as it was when it first hit the amusement arcades, pubs and kebab shops of the UK in 1977. On top of all this decadent Western computer technology, the Soviet Union was doing its' best to keep up; contrary to popular opinion, home computers were available in the Communist Eastern Bloc in the mid 1980's, although you still needed a pretty healthy income to be able to afford one - and they were not all cheap pirated clones of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum as some believe. Watch the video below for the full, and very interesting story of the ingenuity and creativeness of the Russian computer enthusiasts in the early to mid eighties. It is eye opening stuff, and something that I too was completely unaware of. 

Earlier this week you may have seen a story on the BBC News website and elsewhere about an early game for the Atari 2600 VCS that was as spectacularly unsuccessful as Space Invaders was a hit.  The video game of “ET” was so badly designed and coded that even those unlucky gamers that bought the game usually ended up returning it for a refund. For a game that was possibly the very first blockbuster movie tie – in, this was very bad news indeed – especially for Atari, who allegedly spent $20 million securing the rights from Steven Spielberg. The BBC report that the unsold game cartridges were dumped in a landfill site back in 1983, and a small team are now trying to locate the dump site to unearth the digital archaeology.  Actually, the tech press have known about this for literally years. Back in the 80’s it was quite common practice to consign old, unsold or faulty electronic kit directly into landfill, as there was little if any ability to economically recycle electronic circuits back then – it made no financial sense. Apple buried thousands of unsold Apple III computers – their badly designed and very unreliable first foray into the world of the business computer,  way before the Lisa and the Macintosh were a gleam in Steve Wozniak’s eye (Steve Jobs did the marketing, he was a business man, not a hardware engineer, before anyone asks).  They were all at it, it was nothing extraordinary at all. The spin on the story seems to make it sound like an urban myth, which it most certainly was not.

A story that I originally broke back in 2011 has come back to roost; I wrote back then how Bexley Council wanted to widen the road bridge over the railway just adjacent to Erith Station, on Bexley Road as it joined Queen's Road have been revived after being shelved through a lack of funding. The bridge is a major bottleneck for traffic that has come off the A2 at the Black Prince interchange and then up through Bexleyheath, Northumberland Heath and heading for London via Bronze Age Way and the South Circular. Traffic at this junction is always busy, but in the late afternoons, it can get completely gridlocked in both directions, causing traffic disruption for literally miles around. Bexley Council, the Mayor of London's Enterprise Panel, and Transport for London have now agreed to jointly fund the £6 million development to create a dual carriageway bridge over the road, which would greatly alleviate the congestion problem. The plans still need the final approval before work can actually commence, but things are now looking optimistic that the road widening will actually take place; before if was little more than a pipe dream. The programme to widen the bridge may well, if enacted, do much to secure much needed jobs in the local area. I do have a lingering worry about disruption to the rail services between Dartford / Slade Green and Erith heading into and out of London; bearing in mind the forthcoming major redevelopment work at London Bridge station which is going to mean fewer trains per hour - the reason that the on / off work to extend the platforms has been going on. Fewer but longer trains is going to be the answer between next year and some time in 2017, if the planners have got it right. Both for the Bexley Road widening scheme, and the London Bridge expansion project, it would seem that there is going to be a long period of inconvenience and discomfort before the benefits of either scheme come to full fruition.

Now for the ending video. As you probably know, I steer very well clear of television talent shows, and anything that involves "celebrity" judges or so called mentors. The product of anything to do with Simon Cowell or his cohorts in mediocrity has absolutely no interest to me whatsoever. If that's your thing, then fine, as I always say "if it works for you". Instead I prefer to listen to music by people like the chap below. He's a 37 year old American former child prodigy. His speaking voice is high and somewhat squeaky, and he's got a head that looks a bit like a badly peeled potato. Not exactly high on the looks and charisma stakes, you might say - and certainly someone like the aforementioned Mr Cowell would take one look at him and walk away. You may not heard of Joe Bonamassa, but plenty of people have. He's the best blues rock guitarist to come along since Dave Gilmour, and many call him "the new Eric Clapton". Whatever, listen to this track, recorded live at the Albert Hall, and see what you think. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Joe Bonamassa, playing "Sloe Gin". Leave your comments below, as always.