Time.

Some years ago I went to a meeting at a very neat building just across the road from Erith Sports Centre, and behind Christ Church Erith. At the time I'd not heard of the place but was impressed by the cleanliness and efficiency of the structure and the proficiency of the organisations which used it. I felt at the time that the name of the organisation was somewhat misleading, which is something that has been recently outlined. The place was called Erith Veterans Club, which to me and to many others seem to underline the fact the organisation was designed for the benefits of ex forces personnel. In reality, this was inaccurate. The organisation was designed for the use of older local residents irrespective of whether they had a military background or not. I was contacted recently, shortly after my release from hospital by a chap involved with what used to be called Erith Veterans Club, but which has now been renamed and relaunched as a local charity, as one can see from the image above, which shows its new publicity sign. The renaming is a conscious effort to move away from connections with the military and to emphasise the organisation's connection with local older people. Earlier last week I was sent the following article:- "Having read your recent article regarding the brand-new community hub opened in Erith, there is already an established community centre in Erith that fails to be seen. The Erith Veterans Club was created in 1942 by local employers and The Rotary Club; the word Veterans was applied to retiree men who were deemed Veterans of Industry (the word VETERANS has caused many to assume a military association). It was meant as a place where these such men could continue to associate with their friends and have a continued purpose. The current building provided by the then Erith Borough Council was opened in 1956. Hard times ensued and Bexley Council took over the building. Over the years the membership has grown/changed and is now a venue for numerous activities, for mature men and women, including a dedicated Snooker Hall with Four tables and Two additional halls used for activities such as  Table Tennis, Short Mat Bowls Canasta, Whist, Darts, Singing, Line Dancing and a Sewing Group. It is also home to the much-lauded 452 Q St John Ambulance Division. Within the last few weeks, the club has attained Charitable status and is now known as The Erith Community Activities Club CIO It rightly boasts a very friendly, social strength. It is a hidden Gem in Park Crescent, on the corner of Glebe Way behind Christ Church. Loneliness in older age is an ever-increasing issue in the U.K. and this club is a welcoming refuge".

A number of things have changed whilst I was in hospital. I was informed earlier this week that one of the oldest retail units in Upper Belvedere has closed after around 60 years of service. The public launderette located in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere has finally closed its doors for good. It is in my opinion one of the longest serving shops in Belvedere village, and will be sadly missed by many local residents. If you have any historic photos of the building and its users then please send them to me as I would be very grateful for anything recording the history of the very well used facility.

Regular readers will be aware that I have a strong interest in broadcasting, especially in local and community radio. I was one of many people in the local area to be shocked when I heard the announcement on Friday morning that Romford based radio station Time 107.5 FM had been purchased by a conglomerate called Nation Radio and would be closing down at 2:00 p.m on Friday afternoon. In an announcement on the Havering Daily website:- "Since its launch in 2003, Time 107.5 has been far more than just another station on the FM dial. It has been one of Havering’s loudest voices – covering the stories, events, and people that mattered most to local residents. From Romford’s Christmas light switch-ons to school fundraisers, charity drives, and urgent community appeals, Time 107.5 was there. The station championed local causes, including the Give a Child a Christmas appeal, supported grassroots campaigns, highlighted small businesses, and gave airtime to local heroes whose stories would otherwise never have reached the public. It was a constant source of hyper-local news, road closure updates, and even vital safety announcements – the kind of information larger London-wide stations rarely touched. The community impact was huge. Time 107.5’s presenters became trusted voices in local households, known for their warmth and familiarity. The station worked hand-in-hand with schools, charities, and residents to amplify events and initiatives that brought people together. But from this afternoon, that local focus will vanish. The station has been bought by Nation Broadcasting and will re-brand as Nation Radio London, shifting its programming to a broader, London-wide audience. While the FM frequency will remain, the uniquely Havering-centred interviews, event coverage, and news bulletins are not expected to continue. This change reflects a wider national trend where small, independent local stations are being swallowed by larger networks". What has been fascinating about Time FM is that its broadcasting reach had extended far beyond its designed transmission area. It was originally intended that it would be exclusively for residents of the borough of Havering and the surrounding areas, but in reality its appeal has extended far beyond this region. Indeed it was extremely popular in the London Borough of Bexley, and it had many listeners in our local area. In fact, a couple of years ago the station organised a competition to find their most dedicated listeners, and of the five people selected, three of them were resident on the south side of the River Thames in Bexley and beyond; which I think must have been slightly embarrassing for the then station owners. Time FM has always had a unique selling point in that whilst its listening figures were nothing exceptional, the dedication of its listeners were. Recent audience listening figures showed that the station listeners averaged a listening time of over 12 hours a day, which was amongst the longest of any radio station in the UK. This is obviously one of the things that is attracted the much larger Nation Radio group to purchase Time FM from its previous owner, the mobile phone operator Lyca. Details of the changes which will happen to Time FM as it becomes part of the Nation Radio group are still unclear. Unconfirmed rumours are that only one member of Time FM staff will be retained by Nation Radio, and that will be station manager and afternoon presenter Mark Dover. I would imagine that things will become more clear over the next week or so, but I'm sure that it will be a great disappointment to many local listeners who have been loyal to the station for years. To be honest I have been expecting something like this for quite some time as Time FM have been a small radio station in a large corporate market, and it was only a matter of time before another organisation with much deeper pockets came along to purchase it from Lyca, who, in any opinion are not really a radio station owner, but a mobile phone operator. I would imagine that Lyca could see a large pot of money being waved under their noses, and thought it was time to get out of the broadcasting industry whilst there was still money to be made. What do you think? Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The Metropolitan Police is set to more than double its use of live facial recognition technology. The move will see up to 10 deployments a week of the technology, and comes as it restructures to cover the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff amid budget shortages. Part of the overhaul will also see officers moved to bulk up the force's public order crime team, as the Met said it has faced increased demand linked to protest-related crimes in the past two years.As part of the latest details of its restructure, the Met announced that live facial recognition will now be used up to 10 times per week across five days, up from the current four times per week across two days. Earlier this month the Met revealed that it had made 1,000 arrests using live facial recognition to date, of which 773 had led to charge or caution. Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said in a recent online interview: "It's incredibly concerning to see an expansion of facial recognition, especially at a time when there is a complete lack of regulation governing its use. Any tech which has the potential to infringe on our rights in the way scanning and identifying millions of people does needs to have robust safeguards around its use, including ensuring that proper independent oversight is in place. The Government must legislate now to regulate this technology, protect people's rights, and make sure that the law on facial recognition does not get outpaced by the use."

The controversial demolition of the former historic pub The Leather Bottle on Heron Hill in Lower Belvedere back in 2017 has reached a further stage. Last week, I, along with a couple of fellow local Bloggers were contacted by local resident Rob, who wrote the following message to us in his own words- "I was visiting my mums today and she commented on the state of the old pub site. At one time you could walk through the car park and into the woods to start your green chain walk no chance of that now, you cant even get onto the site without climbing over the fence and navigating your way through a pile of bricks, watch your step broken glass everywhere. After a long campaign to get the bin removed from the corner of Kingswood Avenue fly tippers throw their trash onto the Leather Bottle site. I think Mr Singh is punishing the local community after we opposed all his development plans. The site is a blight on Lower Belvedere and nobody from the council seems bothered about it. I attach pictures I took today of the site, please feel free to publish them if you feel inclined to bring some shame on Mr Singh for the mess he has left us with. I have fond memories of the old pub I worked behind the bar in the late eighties and it was a hub for the local community. Such a shame". Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Post Office’s radiophone service in London. The technology was a precursor of the smartphones we use today. Radiophones - which were effectively two-way radios - first began appearing in automobiles after the Second World War, and they were available in the UK by the end of the 1950s. A GPO radiophone service was officially launched in London in July 1965, allowing subscribers to make and receive calls from any other cars connected to the system. These "pre-cellular" wireless systems were precursors of the cellular mobile technology in use today and are sometimes referred to as "0G" telephony. In recognition of that crucial moment in mobile history, we're taking a look back at various other significant milestones in the development of mobile phones, leading up to the dawn of the smartphone. 1920: Using a large handmade aerial made from stovepipe and board, radio enthusiast W.W. Macfarlane of Philadelphia was able to talk with his wife from a moving car 500ft away. His 'mystery' transceiver enabled speech to be transmitted and received. 1946: At the beginning of 1946, radiophone services began in the United States. Motorola produced mobile "car phones" as they came to be called. The phones weighed around 80lbs and had to be installed by a professional. 1959: In October 1959, the GPO introduced its radiophone service as a trial in the north of England. The first ever UK call was made by the Postmaster General, Reginald Bevins. After a trial period in the north, the service then made its way to London in 1965 with the first call being made in the capital by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. 1973: In April 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper created the first handheld mobile phone, a hefty device measuring 11 inches in length and weighing 2.5lb. 1992: The world's very first smartphone was introduced in 1992. Featuring a variety of software applications, the IBM Simon Personal Communicator (pictured above - click on the image to see a larger view) was the first personal digital assistant (PDA) to include telephony features. Its battery only lasted one hour. IBM unleashed the ‘Simon’ onto the market. Aptly named due to its simplicity and ability to do anything, the Simon had a battery which lasted an hour and only 1 megabyte of internal memory. First shown during the 1992 COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas, it sold around 50,000 handsets when it first went on sale in 1994. The phone was very advanced for its time, with email, fax and cellular capabilities all crammed into a single device. IBM crammed a 0.002Mbit/s modem inside for web duties, which must’ve been painfully slow. Various applications were available for the Simon, with an expansion slot located in the bottom for switching them up. Users could edit spreadsheets, customise their calendars, play games and even access basic mapping software. Each Simon shipped with its own charging base station which resembled a large slab of plastic, plus an additional battery and protective cover. With a hefty 16MHz processor, it was surprisingly powerful for 1995, as most desktop PC’s of that era only averaged around 50-60MHz in processing power.

Transport for London (TFL) has announced that bus route 472 will become part of the new limited-stop Superloop network as route SL11, starting early next year. Bexley Council had asked TFL to include a stop in Welling to connect it with the Elizabeth Line — an improvement that would have expanded travel options across the borough. Unfortunately, this request was not taken forward. Please note the request was to make the SL11 a route to go through Welling, not to replace the 472 with it and reroute. Councillors from the East Wickham and Falconwood & Welling Wards are very disappointed that TFL has missed this opportunity to better serve Welling residents. Currently, the 472 bus runs from Thamesmead to North Greenwich via Woolwich. The new SL11 will follow a similar route but will also stop at Abbey Wood Station.

The end video this week features a chap who walks the London LOOP, beginning at the initial section from Erith to Crayford. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.