Leak.

The photos above, click on either to see a larger version, show the traffic jam that resulted after a major gas main cracked in Bridge Road, Slade Green last Monday. The subsequent release of gas was so serious that three nearby houses had to be evacuated, and the road closed to traffic in both directions. Both the emergency services and the utility company, SGN were soon on site after the gas supply was switched off, and emergency repair work was begun. Engineers estimated that it was going to take around one week to completely dig up a section of Bridge Road to access and replace the damaged gas pipe. Bridge Road is the main road running through Slade Green, it is used by both local and commercial traffic, as well as being the location of several bus routes. During the engineering work, Bridge Road has been unavailable to any kind of traffic other than vehicles used in the repair. This has caused major disruption not just in Slade Green, but also in parts of Crayford and much of Erith where vehicles  travel via Slade Green in order to access The Dartford Crossing, and much of this vehicular activity has ended up tailing back into nearby towns. There have been reports that some vehicles have been subject to delays of several hours due to a lack of traffic management and public information as to the situation. Thank you to the Slade Green resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, who provided me with the photos you can see at the top of this article. I understand that many Slade Green residents have been annoyed by the lack of information supplied both by SGN and by the council's highways department. Many local residents have found it difficult to access their own properties. This has also affected residents in other areas, for example, the level of traffic on North End Road, which connects Crayford with Erith, and Manor Road, which connects Slade Green with Erith has increased exponentially. It was reported to me that on Monday the 99 bus service which utilises Bridge Road was initially cancelled completely, and only went back into service late in the evening, and even then it has been subject to multiple delays and cancellation. Unfortunately, this information was not displayed on the TfL website or on any of the usual bus smartphone apps. Again a lack of information. Fortunately Slade Green and Northend Councillor and leader of the opposition at Bexley Council, Stefano Borella was able to release the following report on last Wednesday morning:- "Dear councillors, Thank you yes, my team have been dealing with many unhappy residents this afternoon along with traffic and the contact centre, so thank you all for your support. I have also been informed SGN are also receiving many complaints and are trying to get the works completed as quickly as possible. I have spoken to comms who have been very helpful and trying to get the message out there and I know SGN have also provide comms on their website. SGN did start the works with traffic lights but unfortunately the leaks were in several places across the road. This is an HGV and bus route and were unable to leave the minimum width for traffic set out in the as per the legislation, and resulted in a road closure, there were 100% gas reading and 3 properties evacuated, currently they have no gas and unable to return home. I am in constant contact with SGN and have been informed they will be working till midnight to cut out the old cast iron main and replacing with PE. They have traffic management operative on site checking signage and advising vehicles the road is shut and to turn around. Hopefully, the extra signage will help, and this is what SGN are implementing. Variable message Boards are being place on the junction of Manor Road and James Watt Way, Bridge Road and Northend Road, and Thames Road and Howbury Lane, stating Bridge Road closed. No parking cones will be placed along Manor Road and Slade Green Road in pinch point areas to allow passing points. Bespoke signs being made up to place along manor Road and Slade Green Road, Hazel Road and Elm Road advising Bridge Road is closed. I have also emailed TFL for assistance with the traffic light at James Water Way and Queens Road to see if a longer green light will allow more vehicles to exit Manor Road". At the time of writing, it is unclear what the cause of the damage to the underground gas main was, although speculation is that the intense hot weather may have dried up the soil surrounding the buried pipe causing causing it to contract and then the weight of traffic on the road above pipe may have caused the pipe to sag and crack, causing the gas leak. I doubt we will ever get the full story. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

In the past, several regular readers were curious as to how I acquired my knowledge of Indian restaurants. Well that is actually very simple. For several years I was a reviewer for The Good Curry Guide, and regularly wrote articles for the (now discontinued) Curry Club magazine. You can see a reproduction above of a couple of reviews above that I had published almost exactly thirty years ago – a fact that becomes clear when you see the price of the dishes I reviewed! £2.95 for Chicken Vindaloo is something you won’t see nowadays. I would anonymously visit curry houses and review them as a normal customer – the only restaurant that ever found out that I was a curry house critic was Sweet and Spicy in Brick Lane, where I was a regular; unlike a majority of the curry restaurants in Brick Lane, which were mainly tourist traps, Sweet and Spicy principally catered for locals, and visitors to the nearby mosque. They saw my glowing review, photocopied and enlarged it, and posted it in their front window, next to their “Time Out” best cheap eats award. The owner Omar Bhutt, came over to my table one day, whilst I was eating lunch and asked me outright if the review had been written by me. I could not lie, and I admitted it. From that day onwards, I always got free extras like a couple of samosas or a gratis cup of tea, which was very welcome. The restaurant was a victim to the bout of gentrification that hit Brick Lane a decade and a half or so ago, and it is now a fried chicken outlet; a sad end to one of the earliest Indian restaurants in Brick Lane – it opened in 1969, and was the only place in London that served curry for breakfast – it was an East End legend. You can read more about the place by clicking here. The Curry Club magazine ceased publication some twenty years ago, and since I became ill and housebound, I am no longer able to eat out, so my hobby of curry critic is now no more. Previously, I have written extensively about African restaurants and how a majority of them not really catering for a wider customer base, in the way that “Indian” (actually mainly Bangladeshi and some Pakistani) restaurants have done in the UK over the post WWII period – with amazing success. I thought that I would expand on exactly how the humble British curry house operates, and why they have become so massively successful. There were six "Indian" restaurants in the whole of Britain in 1939 - three in London (one of which, The Halal in St Mark Street E1, is a former haunt of mine), and one each in Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. In 2021 there were roughly 8,500. The current figure is unclear, as some are thought to have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and following this, the cost of living crisis, and higher taxation rules. Eighty five percent of UK curry houses are Bangladeshi-owned and with mainly Bangladeshi personnel. They had (pre pandemic and crisis) an annual market turnover of £2.5 billion, representing a little over ten percent of all restaurant business in UK - the current figure is unclear, but still high. There is direct employment at the curry restaurant of over 100,000 personnel. with an indirect additional employment in supply and related industries for a further 50,000 plus. The Bangladeshi run “Indian” restaurant has become a well – loved feature of many British high street - they offer their diners a large and comprehensive range of curries, many of which are of Indian origin, if somewhat modified over time, and engineered to suit local tastes. You will find a number of ‘restaurant favourites’ such as Samosas, Onion Bhaji, Kebabs, Chicken Tikka and its popular derivative Chicken Tikka Masala curry. Other famous curries included Korma, Bhuna, Pasanda, Jalfrezi, Biriani and Pilaf. The have developed a rapid production method for serving their food. The authentic curries and accompaniments of Bangladesh have much in common with those of Bengal, and indeed the whole of India, the spicing is distinctive and subtle. Beef is the prevalent meat, and duck is popular. Tropical fish and exotic vegetables (now available in the UK from many supermarkets, as well as specialist stores) form an indispensable part of the Bengali / Bangladeshi diet. They use mustard and poppy seed extensively. Their important five spice mixture, Panch Phoron, has differences as subtle as their spelling. For example, in Calcutta, Bengal’s capital, it will include white cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard or celery seed and wild onion. In Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, celery seed would not be used, but black cumin and aniseed would replace wild onion and fennel. Bangladeshi Garam Masala will, like as not, contain chilli. Surprisingly perhaps, Bangladeshis adore the chilli, and it appears in many forms, in many recipes, not so as to swamp the delicacy of the spicing - rather to punctuate it. Some curries may use as little as three of four spices, and the effect is remarkable. Coriander, turmeric and cassia , for example, are all that is needed to produce the Bangladeshi version of that old favourite, Bhuna, whilst their versions of Korma are creamy and mild. Yet the results are neither tame or bland. Bangladesh has a unique range of curry cooking. Nowhere else on the subcontinent has such an array of tastes - sour, bitter, sweet, hot, savoury, mild, pungent and fragrant. Bangladeshis adore all of these tastes, which they achieve by using tamarind and sour fruits, bitter vegetables, molasses, chillies and uniquely subtle blends of spices. Creamy curries, contrast with dry stir-fries, fluffy rice, with chewy breads. Sometimes cooked with nothing more than garlic with, a sprinkling of whole spice seeds and chilli, these recipes achieve great culinary heights, and are ideal for the health-conscious cook. Many British 'Indian' restaurants operate to a formula which was pioneered in the late 1940's. In those early restaurants, a way had to be found to deliver a variety of curries, without an unreasonable delay, from order to table. Since all authentic Indian recipes require hours of cooking in individual pots, there was no guarantee that they would even be ordered. So cubed meat, chicken or potatoes, dhal and some vegetables were lightly curried and chilled, and a large pot of thick curry gravy, a kind of master stock, was brewed to medium-heat strength. To this day, portion by portion, on demand, these ingredients are reheated by pan-frying them with further spices and flavourings. At its simplest, a Medium Chicken Curry, that benchmark of middle ground, is still on many menus, though sometimes disguised as Masala, and requires no more than a reheat of some gravy with some chicken. For instance, take a typical mixed order for a couple at a table for two. One person wants Chicken Korma (fry a little turmeric, coriander and cumin, add six pieces of chicken, add a ladleful of curry gravy, plenty of creamed coconut, almonds maybe and a little cream – result, the additions make it mild and creamy-golden in colour), and with it they will have Vegetable Dhansak (fry some cumin seeds, dry methi leaves, chopped onions, tomato, red and green bell pepper with the gravy, add dhal and some cooked veg – result, colourful, and still medium-strength). He wants Lamb Korma (as for the chicken recipe, instead using pre – cooked Lamb), and the second person wants Prawn Vindaloo (fry spices and chilli powder, add the gravy which at once goes red and piquant, then cooked peeled prawns, fresh tomato and potato, simmer and serve). Maybe they will also take a Sag Paneer (fry cumin seeds, some frozen and thawed creamed spinach and pre-made crumbled paneer together, add fresh coriander – and that is it). One cook can knock all these up, simultaneously, in five pans, within minutes. Rice is precooked, breads and tandoori items made to order by a different, usually junior chef. The order is thus successfully completed. Thus the menu can be very long, with an almost unlimited variety of dishes, sometimes numbered, sometimes heat-graded, mild, medium and hot, hottest, and any dish is available in lamb, chicken, prawn, king prawn, and most vegetables, too. That is the formula, and its perpetrator is the standard curry house. Just because this is not authentic as you would find in an Indian or Bangladeshi household does not make it bad. It can be, and variously is, done well. If you consult YouTube you will find dozens of videos showing you how to prepare both authentic Indian curries, and also BIR (British Indian Restaurant) curries. Personally I have always preferred cooking my curries from scratch, using individual spices – I certainly don’t use any pre – prepared, shop bought cooking sauces, as making it the authentic way is not just a lot tastier, it is also far cheaper too. 

The historic photo above, click on it to see a larger version, was sent to me by reader Lincoln. It shows the now long demolished lido which was located adjacent to Danson Park. It was an open air swimming pool. Also used to teach pupils at local schools how to swim. Apparently even in the middle of summer, the water was extremely cold. In the early 1980s, the pool was drained, and it was turned into an impromptu skate park for skateboarders, although apparently this did not last for very long. Since then, the site has been demolished, and it is currently used for a small children's splash park, although it is unclear how much longer this will exist, if Bexley Council follow their policy of closing down water splash parks, as they have done with the larger and more popular Belvedere splash park after much controversy and local opposition. Personally, I think it is likely that the site will end up being sold off by the Council to become housing of some type or other other. Bexley Council are always keen to generate income from both land sales and from the subsequent regular Council tax payments that these sales then generate. 

Regular readers will be aware that over the last few months I have written quite extensively about my opinion that the Morrisons supermarket chain has a very doubtful medium to long-term future. Unfortunately it is not the only British supermarket chain which is threatened. Asda, coincidentally also owned by private equity, announced last week that it has borrowed £730 million And cut approximately 7,500 jobs in an effort to reduce costs and tackle its mounting debts. Since it was first taken over in 2021, the supermarket chain has spent nearly £2.2 billion servicing its debts, with currently no end in sight. Asda has tried to increase customer football by cutting food prices in an effort to match prices charged by competitors such as Aldi and Lidl. Unlike many of its competitors, the Asda website has actually lost customers by around 8.1%, which has been ascribed to technical difficulties experienced by shoppers when the site was revamped recently. Many customers just clicked away and have not revisited the online site since. Asda have also cut their George clothing line from almost all its supermarket shops, as it was regarded as somewhat of a loss leader. The giant loans taken out by Asda have only increased as interest rates have gone up, and if this continues, it may be the end for the historic supermarket chain. 

The end video this week is from the year 2000, and is a short documentary about the behind the scenes working of the old Woolwich ferries. It is well worth a watch. Comments to me as usual at hugh.neal@gmail.com.