Ferry.

After it was controversially axed last year, it would appear that negotiations are currently going on behind the scenes to restore the Gravesend to Tilbury ferry service. I understand that this was originally cut because of a lack of funding from local governments on both sides of the River Thames. It would appear that this may well have been a false economy. Local businesses on both banks have reported that there has been a substantial decrease in footfall from customers since the discontinuation of the service, and as such their revenues have dropped considerably. This has also meant that tourist numbers especially in Gravesend have been reduced, something which I'm acutely aware the local council are not happy about. In a time when both national and local governments are keen to promote the use of non-carbon generating transportation such as bicycles and people on foot, this does send quite a mixed message to both local residents and to visitors to the area. This is also at a time when there has been further controversy over the new Silvertown traffic tunnel has apparently not been getting the level of use that was predicted by the transport planners and that instead more drivers have been utilising the free Woolwich ferry rather than paying the very high toll fees from both the Silvertown tunnel and the Blackwall tunnel, as has been reported in both local and national press. The Gravesend to Tilbury ferry is far smaller and limited to pedestrians and cyclists, and is also far further East but it did until it was cancelled, offer a vital transport link across the River Thames. Although there are seventeen river crossings in the twenty miles west of Tower Bridge, there are only three river crossings  the same distance east. As long as there is a demand for a vehicle ferry, the Woolwich Ferry it is unlikely to be discontinued, and it would require changing an 1885 Act of Parliament to do so. There is a massive imbalance in the number of crossings between the East and West sides of the city.  The need for additional cross – Thames transport links is nothing new; the issue has been at the forefront of both politicians and civil engineers since Roman times. The first tunnel to be built under the River Thames was actually the first tunnel to be built under a river anywhere. Back in 1843, a 396 metre long tunnel at Rotherhithe was constructed by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the first to have been successfully built underneath a navigable river. It was the first tunnel to utilise the innovative tunnelling shield technique invented by Marc and Isambard that is still used to build tunnels today, although now huge tunnel boring machines do the hard work instead of hundreds of men. The tunnel was a marvel of engineering, and made underground transportation around the world a possibility, all because of the tunnel shielding method invented by Marc Isambard Brunel. Before his innovation, tunnels had been attempted twice before beneath the Thames, but had failed because of the soft clay, quicksand and flooding that collapsed the efforts, leading to loss of life, and bankruptcy for the tunnelling companies. The tunnelling shield was a sort of cage structure that was pushed to the front of the tunnel. In the original design, men in the cages would dig forward a little, while those behind were shoring up the tunnel by building its walls. The design was later improved by engineers working for the railway companies building the London Underground and still forms the basic idea behind modern tunnel boring machines. Despite the vast improvement in methodology, digging the Thames Tunnel was still a dangerous job; one in which Isambard himself, working as an engineer for his father, nearly died. He was the only survivor of the second major flood of the tunnel in 1828, when six men died. Half-drowned, he was sent to Bristol to convalesce and here he designed his first individual project, the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. Back then, labourers would spent two hours at a time digging, often while also being gassed and showered with excrement (the Victorian Thames was an open sewer, and vastly more polluted than nowadays). As it was constructed, the tunnel was constantly waterlogged, leading to a build-up of effluent and methane gas. The result was that not only would miners pass out from inhaling the noxious gas – even if they didn’t, men who re-surfaced were left senseless after their two-hour shift – but there were also explosions as the gas was set alight by the miners’ candles. All in all it was an extremely hazardous place in which to work. The hard work paid off; once the tunnel was completed, it opened to some fanfare. Originally intended as a means of getting cargo across what was then a hugely trafficked river, the Thames Tunnel ran out of money before it was able to build the extended entrance necessary to get horses and carts underground. Instead, the tunnel was opened for pedestrian use in 1843. It quickly became a major tourist attraction, with two million people a year paying a penny to walk through. It sounds pretty successful, but Londoners were also paying a penny to use any of the other ways to cross the Thames and the tunnel – tolls were charged whichever way you wished to cross the river back then. The Brunel foot tunnel was new and daring, this was seen as pretty risky way – literally walking underneath the River Thames. To try to scare up some more payback for the massive investment, the tunnel opened up some of the very first tourist souvenir shops, selling Thames Tunnel memorabilia and souvenirs like cups and plates – so you could prove you were brave enough not only to walk through the tunnel, but to stop and browse along the way. As time went on, the seedier side of Victorian London started to reckon a dark, underground tunnel might be the perfect place to conduct some nefarious business, and the numbers of respectable tourists declined. Various projects to make more money out of it were tried, including turning it into what must have a been a fantastical underground fairground to attract even more visitors, before it was sold to the East London Railway Company in 1865. A part of the original tunnel is still visible today if you look  down the line from Wapping station towards Rotherhithe. A fascinating piece of historic construction – and worth remembering the next time you drive through the Dartford Tunnel, which along with nearly all modern tunnels around the world, was built using with engineering techniques developed by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel in Rotherhithe in the early 1860’s. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

There has been widespread public concern about recent news that the BBC is planning to permanently close down the 198 kHz Long Wave radio service from BBC Radio 4. Whilst Radio 4 is also broadcast on the internet, DAB and FM, many listeners in remote rural locations are only able to receive the Long Wave signals. The Long Wave service is also relied on for the Shipping Forecast by mariners at sea, and it is said that the Royal Navy nuclear missile submarines also rely on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave reception (or the lack thereof) as one of a series of checks to see if a nuclear war has started. BBC Radio has been broadcasting on Long Wave for nearly a century, covering most of the UK and northern Europe from a single transmitter in Droitwich for 89 years. This radio frequency uniquely travels practically unimpeded across the country and provides a vital radio link in areas where reception of other signals and internet coverage is poor. Because only one transmitter is needed, the cost of providing this service is tiny. Not everyone is able to access digital or internet radio and Long Wave remains the most reliable way of receiving the BBC in any place at any time. It is also much better for the environment, as Long Wave receivers require far less power than digital radios, computers and mobile phones. Thanks to regular reader and occasional contributor Gary for bringing this issue to my attention. The following article was published by a campaign to keep the BBC Radio 4 Long Wave service active:- "The BBC has suggested that its Radio 4 Longwave service will not be shut down at the end of this month, as had been feared. Whilst the Radio Teleswitching Service (RTS) broadcast alongside the channel on 198 kHz LW is being phased out over the summer, Radio 4 Longwave will continue to broadcast until an ‘impact review’ is carried out. Until recently, it had been assumed that both services would end together on 30th June, as had been reported in some online news articles. The news is music to the ears of longwave listeners and supporters, many of whom signed a 5000-strong petition to keep the platform, handed in to the BBC last week. It is not clear whether the BBC had always intended to carry out an ‘impact assessment’ before shutting down longwave, or whether unexpected pressure from the public have caused a change of tack. A public consultation, and a rigorous examination of how many listeners there are to Radio 4 Longwave, were key recommendations of the recent report Still Speaking to the Nations, published by the Campaign to Keep Longwave and seen by the BBC. The corporation has previously assumed that listenership is ‘low’ on longwave, and that few people would be affected by a switch-off. It may be that messages from rural and international listeners, and those concerned about national security, have caused a change of policy. As has been pointed out, the BBC has a duty to serve all parts of the United Kingdom, and some areas are very poorly served by FM and digital signals. In personal correspondence seen by the Campaign to Keep Longwave, a BBC representative stated, ‘we have not made a firm decision as to when we will close the Radio 4 LW service’. With reference to the end of separate programmes on longwave from March 2024 (including the end of Test Match Special on analogue radio), he added, ‘these changes will inform an impact assessment we will undertake later this year, after which a final decision on closing Radio 4 LW will be made.’ In a marked contrast to recent correspondence from the BBC, the representative also admitted, ‘I accept Radio 4 LW is a useful platform’. At present, it remains unclear how long the reprieve on Radio 4 Longwave will last, or whether the BBC will shelve plans to axe the service amid mounting pressure to do so. The energy-efficiency, resilience and wide reach of longwave have all been lauded by supporters, and listeners in Ukraine have testified to the importance of the only BBC broadcast that reaches a European continent once again afflicted by war. Listeners may have noticed that the power output of the signal from the main Droitwich transmitter has been reduced slightly in recent weeks. This is because of reduced interference from other signals in the LW band, and allows the Droitwich signal to reach the same area with lower energy costs. As well as making longwave even more efficient when compared to other platforms, this means that the running costs for longwave are also lower for the BBC, and that the valves used in the transmitter are likely to last longer. All of this bodes well for the continuation of the service, given that the main reason given for ending it was to cut operating and maintenance costs. The petition to keep Longwave is still open and receiving signatures. The BBC has not yet responded to a request to comment on when the ‘impact assessment’ for closing Radio 4 Longwave is likely to take place." What do you think? Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The photo above (click on it for a larger version) shows the 229 and 99 buses parked in what was then, and is still now the bus halt in the old Erith Town Centre, along what appears to be a Ford Escort Mk1 van - used by the duty bus inspector. The photo was taken between January and July 1975, making it 50 years old. The original frontage of the White Hart can be seen in the background, many years before the criminals that later bought the place and illegally removed the locally listed frontage and installed the hideous plate glass frontage that was replaced with a replica of the original a few years ago. If you have any old photos of the local area, please feel free to send them to me - you will receive full credit, unlike the originator of this photo, who chooses to remain anonymous.

Remarkably, in another technological landmark, last week marked the thirty fifth birthday of Windows 3.0, and, after the curiosity that was Windows 2.1, Windows 3.0 featured a significantly improved user interface with a slick 3D-like appearance (certainly when compared to the flatness of previous versions and, er, more recent incarnations). Running on top of MS-DOS, Windows 3.0 could also take advantage of the improvements in memory management afforded by Intel's new processor chips. Additionally, it introduced the Program Manager (beloved by those that most likely today complain about the loss of the Start Menu they whinged about in Windows 95). Also in the Windows 3.0 box were executables including improved Paintbrush and Calculator apps, File Manager, a Recorder to create macros, and, of course, Solitaire. After a glitzy launch (for Microsoft at the time), Windows 3.0 shifted a million copies worldwide in the first three months alone. In a harbinger of things to come, it also turned up pre-installed on many machines, including those from Zenith. Microsoft Solitaire was by far the most popular game played on Windows 3.0 machines - Ranking as one of the most played video games of all time, Solitaire started life in 1989 as a project for Microsoft intern programmer Wes Cherry. Initially planned to familiarise users with how a mouse worked and introduce concepts such as drag and drop, the simple card game also ranks as one of the greatest productivity sponges of all time. It is deviously easy to get into. The back of decks can be selected from a predefined range, with one or three cards being drawn from the deck at a time. Winning the game resulted in a delightfully rewarding cascade of cards. Despite its immense popularity (and inclusion in subsequent versions of Windows) Cherry did not net the big bucks for his efforts. He was an intern, and the royalty rights for Solitaire remained with Microsoft, who made all of the money.

I am fully aware of that a couple of stories this week are quite a bit less local than normal. As regular readers may be aware, I cannot always guarantee that everything I write about will be from within roughly the London Borough of Bexley and its nearby locations. This week I feel that there are a couple of stories that merit consideration even though they fall outside these normal boundaries. The lead ferry story is a prime example of this. Whilst it is normally outside of my scope, the fact that so few River Thames crossings exist to the East of central London means that there is added significance for travellers who live locally. The end story this week features a second, although this time a historical story about a tragic fire that happened in Gillingham back in 1929, nearly 100 years ago - which nevertheless resonates today. What does strike me is that in many ways whilst people have not changed in the intervening years, there has been some hardening of attitudes when it comes to health and safety and risks associated with both public and private events. I also note that back then a number of children were involved, which would in no way be considered nowadays. Please give the short video a watch and feel free to contact me with your feedback. As always, comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.