The Vickers Maxim legacy.

The photo above (click on it for a larger version) was taken just after 7am last Monday morning by Maggot Sandwich reader and local businessman Manjinder in Manor Road, Erith. It shows the rising sun illuminating the vapour trails left by jet aircraft that have flown over the town. I must admit that I too saw the scene whilst I was waiting for my train at Erith station, but I did not have my trusty Nikon with me; Manjinder kindly sent a couple of shots through to me, one of which is displayed above. Occasionally the weather and lighting conditions coincide to produce some really stunning scenes like the one you can see. If you ever take a photo that you think may be of interest to other readers, please feel free to send it through - you will get full credit, or can stay anonymous, as you wish. Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier this week I was going through some of the historical photos of Erith that I have stored on the hard drive of my Apple iMac. I noticed something quite remarkably consistent about the shots, whether they had been taken in the 1920’s, 1960’s or in the last few years. Unless the photos depicted the river, or the area around what is now the Riverside Gardens, they all contained one element – the spire of Christ Church Erith. The church has dominated the skyline of the local area since it was constructed. The building has a dominant location on Victoria Road, adjacent to the railway and the Bexley Road Bridge, at what could be construed as the gateway to Erith. Whatever one’s beliefs, or lack thereof, it is clear that Christ Church forms an important part of the local community, and is a historical, cultural and social centre of the town. To reflect this, a group of local people have been invited to form a committee to oversee The Friends Of Christ Church Erith (FOCCE). This is to be a secular organisation that will assist in fund and awareness raising to maintain the fabric of the Church and its’ ancillary buildings, and to raise money for local charities and other worthy causes, and to encourage the use of the church in community affairs. FOCCE will be assisting in the forthcoming annual Christmas Tree Festival, which is held in the church on the 12^th to the 14^th December, and has been a very popular attraction for years. The idea behind the festival is simple but astonishingly effective. Local companies and private households alike can donate to have a Christmas tree displayed in the church for them to decorate to their taste; alternatively they can pay a little extra to have the decoration done for them. The entire church is filled by eighty decorated and lit Christmas trees over the three days, and a huge number of visitors come to view what is a really spectacular sight. The money raised is donated to the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice and to the church. I would strongly encourage you to pop along for a visit. The Christmas Tree Festival runs from 12 to 7pm on Friday the 12^th December, from 10am to 6pm On Saturday the 13^th December (immediately followed by a Carol Concert between 7 and 8pm) and between 12 and 5pm on Sunday the 14^th December. Admission to the Christmas Tree Festival is free, but donations are welcome – all of which go to good causes. Members of The Friends Of Christ Church Erith will be on hand throughout the festival, with leaflets on how people can join the group. Membership applications can be made on the day, or visitors can take away a leaflet to fill in and return at their leisure. If you would like to become more acquainted with other members of the community, and to help several extremely worthwhile causes, you may well wish to join.

One problem the Maggot Sandwich has long suffered from is spam messages the purport to be comments from readers; fortunately the Blogger platform I use is part of Google, and they have extremely clever and powerful spam filtering technology. Nevertheless every so often a spam message or two does manage to evade the filtering and make it into the Maggot Sandwich editorial control panel. This is one of the reasons that I have comment moderation switched on at all times – I get the final say in what is published, not an automated system, however good it might be. This kind of problem is besetting many online publications, along with malicious posts being uploaded by internet trolls. Some online publications have had so much libellous and / or offensive content posted on their websites that they have taken the step of removing the option to leave a comment altogether. The expense of having a human moderator was judged to be uneconomic in many of these cases. One only has to look at the News Shopper website to see how this can happen – and most of the comments on that site are relatively mild when compared  to those found elsewhere. One only has to look at the comments left after the publication of a story covering a violent incident involving a knifing that took place last Saturday evening in the Maharana Indian Restaurant in Halfway Street to see that a regular bunch of so called “wits” take delight in making jokes at the expense of the people involved in the story. Personally, if I was running a website with a large number of comments and a proportion of those trended towards the malicious and hurtful, I would be inclined to remove the commenting option too. Fortunately the Maggot Sandwich readership is thankfully devoid of trolls, the angry and the deluded (with one notable exception, which I hope to be in a position to tell you all about after the 15^th of January – there is a court case pending regarding the sorry individual). Nevertheless, the posting of offensive comments is so rife online that it is no wonder that site operators are giving up in disgust.

On a lighter note, it would seem that the mobile device market is about to enter a new round of competition; after a year or so of consolidation, the big players are planning on some innovations for 2015; Samsung, who are the market leaders in terms of share, if not profitability, are planning on introducing a new range of mobile phones with flexible, foldable screens. Quite what benefit this will bring to the user I cannot quite see. In my opinion it strongly smells of a solution in search of a problem, though no doubt there will be many who will be wooed by the new technology and flock to be amongst the first with a “bendy phone”. Samsung needs a shot in the arm after the Galaxy S5 failed to fly off the shelves, and there are reports that warehouses in the Far East a chock full of the model that they cannot shift. I foresee a similar issue with smart watches – however they function and whatever benefits they bring to their users, I question their long – term viability. Even the most parsimonious models run flat after less than two days, and most models require a charge after only eight or nine hours use. Even if users are prepared for this level of inconvenience, I can see problems halfway through next year; the early adopters will then have had their smart watches for eighteen months or so; bearing in mind most models use a variant of Lithium Ion power storage technology, which is usually good for around 500 – 550 charging cycles, the power cells will be coming to the end of their life, and will hold their charge for an even shorter period of time. I have not heard any experiences with changing smartwatch power cells, but I would not be at all surprised of some cannot be fitted with a new battery. An expensive and relatively short life cycle device may be the end result. It will be interesting to see what happens; as always the early adopters do tend to carry out beta testing for the manufacturers - one of the reasons I have a policy of "never buy version 1.0 of anything". Comments / feedback to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Finally after weeks of terrible luck, I have been able to sample a couple of pints of Bexley Brewery BOB Ale in the manner that it was always intended to be served - in draught form directly from the cask. I happened to meet my Mother for lunch in the excellent Robin Hood and Little John in Lion Road, Bexleyheath yesterday, and BOB was the guest ale. A cracking pint of proper real ale, and something that I would heartily endorse. As you will notice it was served as it should be - in a dimpled jug. Top notch. 

Maggot Sandwich readers of long standing may recall that quite some time ago I explained why I refused to take advertising on the blog. One of the reasons I cited was that I did not want to be at the thrall of an advertiser or sponsor, and thus be muzzled as to what content I wrote. It would seem that my feelings on the subject have now been crystallised after a report from The Advertising Standards Authority specifically targeting Vloggers (video bloggers) who have been promoting commercial products and using product placement in their videos, for which advertising agencies and public relations firms have been financially rewarding them for. Whether The Advertising Standards Authority actually have any power over Vloggers is debatable; many are based outside of the UK, and other may be based in the UK, but use platforms that are hosted outside of the UK. I suspect that the ASA are having a bit of a “fishing trip” to see who they can scare into submission. I think that in many cases their words may prove to be an empty threat. I get the feeling that the ASA don’t really have much of a clue as to exactly how video services such as YouTube actually operate. Whilst a file may be uploaded from an I.P address in the UK, it may end up being hosted on a server in the USA, Japan or a host of other locations, from which it is then “broadcast” to viewers via the World Wide Web. Which country is legally responsible for video content? The country from whence it was uploaded, or the country that hosts the video files? Users may upload files using a proxy, mirroring the upload to a third location anywhere in the world – The Advertising Standards Authority would need the resources of GCHQ to track activity of this nature, and I cannot see it ever happening. I think some clueless Whitehall Mandarin is blowing off steam over something that they really don't have a handle on. Let’s see what happens.

The area around Erith, Slade Green and Crayford has a long history of invention and engineering innovation. Factories have employed hundreds of local people for well over a century. Companies such as Maxim, Vickers and the Jennings Organ Company (later much more widely known as Vox) were based in the area and contributed much to the local economy. Many of the warehouses and factories that housed these companies are now long gone – in many cases housing has been built on their sites; only the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road is left of the original Victorian factory structures that once dominated the skyline. During both World Wars, the area economically benefited– for example in 1914, the number of trams run in Crayford and Erith was increased to transport the large number of munitions workers many of whom worked for Vickers making ammunition for use on the Western Front. With most of the young men volunteering for military service (conscription was yet to begin) many women entered paid employment for the first time, something that directly led to the start of female emancipation with the Representation of the People Act 1918. I have written at some length about inventor and businessman Hiram Maxim in the past; Maxim was American born but later naturalised British. He invented the sprung mouse trap, the first practical machine gun, the incandescent light bulb (though he famously failed to get the patent registered before Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan) and  the first heavier than air aircraft. After moving to England in 1881, Maxim began his aerial experiments at Baldwins Park, in the late 1880's, leading to the construction in 1893 of his enormous biplane Test-Rig, which weighed about three and a half tons. The machine's two steam engines each produced 180 horsepower. and turned two pusher propellers each 17-1/2 feet in diameter. Since the device was intended to be a test vehicle it was held to a track, preventing it from rising more than a couple of feet. On the Maxim Biplane Test-Rig's third test run, on July 31, 1894, with Maxim and a crew of three aboard, it lifted with such force that it broke the reinforced restraining track and careened for some two hundred yards, at times reaching an altitude of two or three feet above the damaged track. It was believed that a lifting force of some four and a half tons had been generated. After this, Maxim allowed his assistants to demonstrate the flying machine on a number of further occasions, but he took no further part in the development – he rightly realised that the machine was a design “dead end” as it lacked practical flight controls. It was not until 1903 that the Wright Brothers worked out their system of ailerons and rudders that made flying practical and controllable. Hiram Maxim was best known as the inventor of the Maxim machine gun, and many of these were manufactured both in Crayford, and in Fraser Road, Erith from 1887 onward. By 1903 the armaments part of the business (which was in a partnership with Vickers) was getting less orders, due to the end of the Boer War in South Africa. Some of the production capacity was turned over to producing motor vehicles – something that was still a bit of a cottage industry in the UK.  The factory produced Wolseley type cars under the name Siddeley Autocars. This ceased in 1910, when the manufacture of cars was moved to Birmingham. During the First World War both the Crayford and Erith plants produced Vickers machine guns (a development of the original Maxim gun made with fewer parts which was cheaper to mass produce and also more reliable and easy to maintain). What is less well known is that Vickers Vimy bombers were also constructed on a limited basis. It is thought that the aeroplane which transported Alcock and Brown on the historic very first flight across the Atlantic was one of those produced locally. In the present the fact that both Erith and Crayford were major arms manufacturing towns is unknown to many residents; indeed the only relic of the Vickers Maxim factory in Erith is that the area of shops and houses located at the bend where Woolwich Road becomes Fraser Road is still known by older locals as “The Pom Pom” – due to the sound of guns being tested in the dedicated shooting range that was adjacent to the factory for many years. I think it sad that many people still call the area by the informal name, but very few seem to know the actual reason for it. Nowadays one could be forgiven for thinking that all of the changes that have happened over the years that arms manufacturing was no longer something that no longer happened locally. In matter of fact nothing could be further from the truth. Slade Green is home to Manroy Engineering, a company that specialises in the manufacture and refurbishment of machine guns and light cannon for the military. They also make all sorts of weapon mounts, gun turrets for armoured vehicles and assorted other military hardware such as specialised sniper rifles and vehicle armour packages. They keep a very low profile for security reasons, but they are actually located on the Power Works site on Slade Green Road. It is amazing what a little bit of searching on Google Street view can find!

As regular readers will be aware, I am a great fan of Google Chromebook computers. They are very cheap, simple and light, and are capable of a great deal, as long as one has a Wi-Fi or 3G / 4G network connection. In essence they are not a “full” laptop, rather a cut – down device that only runs a sophisticated web browser. To be honest, for many people who used web based Email, check Facebook or upload photos to Instagram or Flickr, a Chromebook is more than enough – cloud based storage and browser based applications are the norm for very many people. There are certain pieces of software which cannot be run via a browser – complex applications such as AutoCAD and Photoshop have always had to be installed on a local hard disk, and have historically required high end PC’s to operate. This is now starting to change. The producers of Photoshop – Adobe Systems have been quietly working with Google for the last couple of years in order to produce a version of Photoshop that will be capable of running within a web browser and will not require to be installed locally. The way it works is pretty simple. The application is downloaded via the Chrome Web Store, and when you open it up you are actually connecting to a server which is running the desktop version of Photoshop CC 2014. The user interface of the desktop version is captured as a video and sent to your web browser, where JavaScript relays your actions back to the server, completing the interactive loop. It is not much different from how a virtual machine setup works, but it means that the application could be run in the browser on any computer — even on Chromebooks. Adobe essentially wants to let you stream a pound-for-pound copy of Photoshop, and I understand that the company is about ninety percent there. It does, however, have its limits. Right now, Photoshop Streaming works exclusively with files hosted on Google Drive, but  Adobe hopes to add the ability to work with other cloud storage services down the road. There are core functions that don't work in the program at the moment, such as printing, or processes that require a GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) like Photoshop's 3D functions. Otherwise, everything from making layer masks to using the Camera Raw editor works, though it was difficult to judge the amount of lag over the screen sharing software. Adobe will use the trial period to build out functionality and troubleshoot the overall experience from the feedback it gets. Initially the web based version will be offered to schools and colleges in the USA. Many educational institutions are full of people working with low-end hardware — which is what Adobe wants to optimise the program for. Once Adobe feels comfortable with the experience it will open up the trial to a broader audience and, hopefully a commercial release in the not too distant future. This could well prove to be a “killer app” for Chromebooks – but, as they say, time will tell.

A couple of readers have mentioned to me that nothing seems to be happening with the old Andrew Carnegie gifted Erith Library building in Walnut Tree Road, opposite the new Bexley College campus, which has been empty and unloved since the library was relocated to the soulless eyesore of a new building in the High Street. One person has even enquired with Wetherspoon’s as to if they would consider converting it into a pub and restaurant, but apparently got a response in the negative. I am aware that negotiations are under way to put the superb building into productive use, but I will refrain from mentioning the details at this point as this might potentially put any deal at risk; suffice to say the proposed use will be excellent and very beneficial to all concerned if it get the green light.  Hopefully more news on this subject in the not too distant future.

The ending video should prove to be of interest to many readers. As I covered back at Easter, this year was the fiftieth anniversary of Radio Caroline coming on the air, back in 1964. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of Manx Radio beginning on the Isle of Man. As some may know, I used to work for Radio Caroline when it was still broadcasting from the South Falls Head in the North Sea back in the late 80's / early 90's. You can see a few photos from back then here. Manx Radio took the opportunity to visit the Ross Revenge, which has been the floating home of Radio Caroline since 1983 at its current mooring on the River Blackwater in Essex. I can now let you into a secret; for a couple of years there were negotiations between Radio Caroline and Bexley Council about mooring the Ross Revenge on Erith Pier during the 50th anniversary celebrations. I had a very minor role in the talks, but due to a number of reasons no agreement could be reached, and the project was regrettably scrapped. If the ship had come to Erith Riverside, as well as broadcasting on a short term RSL (Restricted Service Licence) it would have been open to the public. I had several conversations with my old boss, Caroline Managing Director Peter Moore about the situation, and had things panned out differently, I could have had a small role in responsibility for the ship and the station, had the trip to Erith been made. It however was not to be the case. The video below shows the Ross Revenge as she looks today - which is far smarter than back in the day when I was on board, when it looked like a floating student bedsit for the most part. Now she is far better cared for, and at certain times can be visited by the public. Radio Caroline broadcasts 24/7 on the internet - you can listen live by clicking here, and the station has a large and active listenership around the world; watch the video and see what you think.

500th edition.

I, like many other people who visit London on a regular basis, don't really pay any attention to the tourist attractions; for example, I used to work a short walk away from the London Eye, yet I have never been on it. People travel from all over the world to visit such destinations, yet many of the locals remain if not indifferent, then of the opinion “I will get around to it one day”, but subconsciously realise that this will actually be rather unlikely.  I have found the same situation locally. I have been promising myself for at least a couple of years that I would try the Mambocino cafe / coffee shop in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, but for whatever reason I just did not get round to it, despite walking past it several times a week. When Mambocino originally opened, it was pretty much like any other coffee shop – a number of sofas were dotted around the place and the shop did a steady business. Not being a coffee drinker (I gave it up about fifteen years ago, after discovering that it triggered migraine attacks) I did not really think very much more about the shop. I did notice over a period of time that Mambocino started serving a lot more cooked food, and the focus of the business shifted – out went all but one of the sofas, and in came more chairs and tables. The menu expanded, and as it did, the number of customers frequenting the establishment went steadily up. Nowadays the place is almost permanently busy, and it seems to be the single most popular shop in the Riverside Shopping Centre. Sundays are no exception – Mambocino serve a traditional English roast dinner for a very reasonable £4.99, and I have seen queues out the door for it. Last Saturday, before attending the Erith Fun Day, I took my Mother to Mambocino, and was a little nervous as to what my experience would be like. I should not have worried – it was excellent. Although the place was very busy, we were greeted as soon as we walked through the door; we were shown a table and immediately asked if we would like a drink whilst we looked at the menu. I ordered a toasted Philly steak and cheese wrap and a glass of sparkling water; Mum ordered Chilli Con Carne with rice. Both arrived within about five minutes – the chilli was obviously home made, and arrived in a rectangular ovenproof serving dish, and not out of a catering pack; the toasted wrap was filled with good quality finely sliced steak, melted cheese, mushrooms, chilli and onions, and was accompanied by a freshly dressed Turkish style salad of shredded red onion, iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber, dill and mint with some peppery extra virgin olive oil. It was very light and fresh tasting. Both dishes were quite spicy – something I personally welcome; so often popular places tend to season their food on the bland side – but both dishes had a very good chilli kick. Even thought the place was heaving with customers, the service was quick and attentive, with one exception – one of the waitresses spoke very little English, and did not understand our request for the bill. The head waiter (I would hesitate to call him the Maitre D’, but effectively that is what he was) stepped in and sorted things out very quickly. I was impressed. Talking to a number of local people at the Fun Day, the feedback I got was that Mambocino is consistently very good, and extremely good value. Mambocino is ostensibly a franchise and part of a small chain; I looked at the UK website, and realised that the Erith branch is very different from their mainstream branches – the other outlets almost exclusively concentrate on serving coffee, and have very little in the way of a food offering, other than a choice of cup cakes and cookies to accompany the coffee, whereas the Erith shop is almost entirely dedicated to quality food service. I was talking to one of my regular, and very reliable local contacts about the place; she has told me that it is her understanding that the owners of Erith Mambocino are currently looking to expand, as their current shop unit is not large enough to cope with the number of customers. Apparently talks are under way with the owners of the Riverside Shopping Centre to take out a lease on the large corner unit at the entrance to the centre, opposite Argos. One of the reasons for this is that the current Mambocino has to close at 6pm, when the shopping centre closes and the entrance gates are shut for security reasons. The large corner unit has a door that is outside the security gates, and would thus be able to open in the evenings – something that would be ideal; I have been saying for years that Erith desperately needs a proper “sit down” restaurant that opens in the evening; it would seem that I am not alone in this respect. What is more, my informant had heard that Mambocino may be intending to open the corner retail unit in addition to, rather than in replacement of their existing shop. This remains to be confirmed, but if true, it represents a significant expansion in the company’s local presence, and the first time since the shopping centre was refurbished that the corner unit will actually be occupied by a business. Great quality cooking, good service and reasonable price - what more could you ask? I think they are on to a winner.

One less well publicised event that took place on Erith Fun Day was the opening of Erith Playhouse to the public; guided tours around the theatre were made throughout the day. The cost of the 45 minute tour was £1 for each adult, and 50p for a child. It was certainly the best £1 I have spent in a very long time.  The Playhouse, which is the largest theatre in the London Borough of Bexley, is run entirely by volunteers, and receives no external funding whatsoever. Whilst the frontage of the building dates from the early 1970’s, the bulk of the building is far older; it was originally built as a cinema, which means it has very little backstage space when compared to a purpose built theatre.

The photo above shows the auditorium on the open day; the technical crew were preparing for their next show, which is "The Little Shop of Horrors". Click for a larger view. What really astonished me was the very clever use of space – not an inch goes to waste. The cellar of the building is used to store large pieces of furniture and larger props; there is also a small doorway which leads to the orchestra pit which is often used for prompting.

The upper floor contains a compact rehearsal space, more prop storage (seen in the photo above), and the dressing and makeup rooms for the actors (as per the photo below). Outside in the car park there is a large scenery dock and storage facility; apparently part of the theatre is being closed off for refurbishment.

The photo above shows the dressing room. During the refurbishment, a portakabin will be located in the car park, and used for temporary accommodation. Not ideal, especially as we head towards winter, with the associated dark nights and poor weather, but much better than nothing.

What really impressed me was the lighting and sound control room which is fitted with a state of the art multi channel digital lighting control system – I used to be heavily involved with stage lighting and I had a very interesting chat with the lighting engineer, and he demonstrated the two large carbon arc spotlights the theatre owns – they are the last two in use anywhere in Europe (see the photo above, and click for a larger view), though sadly this may not be for very much longer. The special copper coated carbon rods that create the light when an electrical arc is passed across the gap between them are no longer manufactured. The rods gradually get burned away as they are used, so they have a very finite life. The chap told me that he had located a stock of rods in a theatre in Grays, Essex, who said he could have them for nothing. When he got there, the box containing the carbon rods had been stolen – apparently by someone who did not realise their rarity and value; they were almost certainly broken up to get a few penny worth of copper coating each carbon road. The only other supplier of carbon arc lighting rods is GEC in  America; apparently they have around five hundred in stock, but when these are gone, that will be it, and arc lights will be no more. This will be a real shame, as they form part of our engineering history, and it would be good to keep the last two in working order, even if they are in a museum, rather than in everyday use in Erith Playhouse.

The clock is now ticking for the Bexley Brewery; their brewing plant has now been delivered, and is in the process of being professionally installed. Once this is complete, and it has been thoroughly cleaned and sterilised, the very first brew will begin; I hope to cover this on the Maggot Sandwich in the very near future. The first two beers planned are BOB (Bexley’s Own Beer) a pale ale,  and Red House – a premium bitter. I have tried both beers from a pre – production run, and I found them to both be excellent, with my personal preference being slightly in favour of BOB.  I would say that the samples I tried were in bottled form, and the final draught beers from the full – sized brewery may differ very slightly. Any difference would most likely be favourable though. It will not be very long before local residents will be able to try for themselves. You are in for a treat!

Last Monday afternoon, I was standing on the Kent bound platform of Greenwich station, when I noticed a man standing on the opposite, London bound platform. He was smartly dressed in a medium blue suit, an open necked white shirt, and had a untied red tie draped around his neck and a matching handkerchief in this jacket top pocket. What struck me was how skinny the suit trousers were –I could not fathom how he actually managed to get them on or off. The chap had his head firmly stuck in his BlackBerry; I noticed a couple of teenaged girls near me giggling an nudging each other and whispering loudly. I then realised the person with the unfeasibly tight trousers was none other than Russell Brand.  I would imagine he retains a personal tailor to cut him out of, and sew him back into his trousers – it can be the only explanation that I can think of.

On the subject of railway stations, I wonder if anyone who uses Erith Railway Station has noticed a hidden room on the London bound platform? As you descend the steps of the footbridge over the railway (and don't get me started about the lack of a passenger lift!) you can see that behind the current covered platform area there is a blocked off building, with what appears to be a brick – built chimney. All I can surmise is that it was a waiting room at some point. There is no indication of it once one reaches the platform itself. I wonder why it was blocked off rather than demolished if it was no longer required? Personally I think that the idea of a waiting room would be excellent in the winter. The thought of a coal fire crackling in the grate as you wait for the 7.12 to London is very appealing. What do you think? Should the waiting room be reopened? Did you already know it was there? Are there any other hidden buildings or rooms in the area? Do let me know.

The title of this weeks’ Maggot Sandwich update is a bit of a giveaway. This Sunday marks the five hundredth edition of the blog; it is not precisely the five hundredth Sunday since the blog was launched, as there have been a small number of midweek updates in certain unusual circumstances, but nevertheless it does make for a very large amount of reading since the Blog began back in July 2006. It has evolved quite scarily over the intervening years, and to be honest seems to have taken a life of its own. I spend a great deal of my spare time working on the Maggot Sandwich – I would estimate that an average weekly update takes around ten hours to research, write, edit and publish. One of the things that takes the longest to do is not the physical writing (I am lucky that once I have an idea,  I find the process of putting it into prose fairly straightforward), it is the embedded links that take an age to add. I am fortunate that I often have guest writers to share the work, and then I act as an editor cum content approver. Quite often I have stories for several weeks before they are published – for example I have rough outlines for the next three issues – it has become like producing an online magazine nowadays – which I suppose is what it is. I have been questioned as to why I don’t take advertising; well  the reason is simple. I am unbiased and impartial; if I took advertising I could end up with a conflict of interest between me and my advertisers. On top of that, I don’t like websites that are plastered with adverts, and I doubt that many of my readers do either.

Last week I wrote a piece asking whether Erith should have an RNLI lifeboat substation, as the nearest two full RNLI lifeboat stations are located at London Bridge and Gravesend, and the intervening stretch of the River Thames covers a huge area, and there have been many emergencies involving  risk to and loss of life locally over the last few years. Erith is roughly halfway between the two main lifeboat stations, and would seem to be an ideal place to base a smaller team. A couple of readers were mystified when I mentioned the former Port of London Authority office building which is located at the top of the wooden jetty next to Erith Riverside Gardens. Here above is a photograph for clarity – click for a larger view. The small hut has been there for as long as I can recall, and has been unused for much of the time; I believe it does have plumbing and electrical power. It would seem to be absolutely ideally suited for a small three or four person RNLI rescue team to stay whilst on call, and it is only a handful of feet from the jetty where a lifeboat could be moored between calls. What do you think? Do we need a lifeboat team in Erith, or is the existing coverage good enough? Please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Whilst personally I have no time or use for a mobile phone, I appreciate that they are an important tool for many people. A significant percentage of the UK population seemingly conduct their entire lives via their mobile phone. The danger of this is if the device is compromised – bank details, credit card numbers, personal photos, contactless payment keys, and pretty much everything else that forms part of your digital identity is vulnerable to theft. Physical theft is one thing – if a thief gets your phone and is able to unlock it, you may lose some information; the difference is that you will most likely be aware that you no longer have your mobile phone, and will be able to alert your network provider / bank / credit card company that your details need to be blocked and new ones issued. What is far more pernicious is the far more subtle “man in the middle” attack. This is where a third party is able to intercept and decrypt your voice and data transmissions without your knowledge. This might sound a bit like a “tin foil hat” conspiracy, but it occurs on a regular basis; American technical magazine “Popular Science” has featured an article which lifts the lid on “Interceptor towers” – fake mobile phone base stations which snoop on mobile phone traffic. They have identified a total of seventeen such towers across the USA, mostly located in close proximity to military bases and financial institutions, and other high value targets. It is unclear if the US intelligence community is behind these sites, or if they are being operated by an external intelligence organisation. If such interceptor towers exist in America, it is almost certain that they will also exist in Britain and mainland Europe. Interceptors vary widely in expense and sophistication – but in a nutshell, they are radio-equipped computers with software that can use obscure cellular telephone network protocols and defeat the onboard encryption. At the lower end of the scale, a PC loaded with a set of GSM rainbow tables and equipped with a £10 USB TV tuner could work as a crude snooping device; at the top end, a really sophisticated interceptor can cost in excess of £100,000 and only be available to governments. Whether your phone uses Android or iOS, it also has a second operating system that runs on a part of the phone called a Baseband processor. The Baseband processor functions as a communications middleman between the phone’s main operating system and the mobile phone towers and the wider phone infrastructure. Because chip manufacturers jealously guard details about the baseband O.S., it has been too challenging a target for common or garden-variety hackers. If you can control the Baseband operating system, you can control the whole phone, irrespective of the security features of the overlying Android or iOS operating system. Some interceptors are limited, only able to passively listen to either outgoing or incoming calls. But full-featured devices like the VME Dominator, available only to government agencies, can not only capture calls and texts, but even actively control the phone, sending out spoof texts, for example. Edward Snowden revealed that the N.S.A. is capable of an over-the-air attack that tells the phone to fake a shut-down while leaving the microphone running, turning the seemingly deactivated phone into a bug. Various ethical hackers have demonstrated DIY interceptor projects, using a software programmable radio and the open-source base station software package OpenBTS – this creates a basic interceptor for less than $3,000. On August 11^th , the American F.C.C. announced an investigation into the use of interceptors against Americans by foreign intelligence services and even sophisticated criminal gangs. One can sometimes tell if a mobile device is being snooped on by an interceptor, especially if the interceptor is an older, less sophisticated spying device. One may notice that a previously strong 4G signal is replaced by a 2G one – this is because the interceptor is telling your phone to switch to the older, far slower and easier to decrypt in real time technical standard, basically to make it easier for itself. More sophisticated interceptors instruct the phone to display a 4G signal, even though they have switched down to 2G. The only way to prevent intrusion is to use a special, security hardened mobile phone such as the GSMK Cryptophone range. The Cryptophone is an Android based smartphone with over 450 upgrades and changes over standard Android to radically improve device security; it also has a patent pending baseband processor with its own firewall, and cutting edge hardware based voice and data encryption. In a demonstration, a car containing a standard Android phone, an Apple iPhone and a GSMK Cryptophone was driven past a military base in Nevada which is known to be home to a very sophisticated interceptor tower. The iPhone and bog standard Android phone acted as if nothing had happened, but the Cryptophone lit up like a Christmas tree with warnings that attempts to compromise it were being made. The downside to using crypto phones is the cost (about £3,000 per handset) and the fact that both parties on the conversation need to be using them. For heads of industry, government officials and intelligence operatives, the cost may be a small price to pay for secure communications.

If you have been following events in the Middle East to any extent, it is apparent that the place is in a state worse than chaos. Iraq has turned into a state that is in gang war – multiple sects, factions and tribes have engaged open combat. I don't profess to understand it all, and I certainly have no possible solution. One person who does, and who has been working to try and bring peace and reconciliation to all of the warring groups is Upper Belvedere’s own Canon Andrew White, who has been nicknamed “The Vicar of Baghdad”. Andrew, who grew up in Eardley Road has been the sole Church of England representative in Iraq since 2005. He is the vicar of St. George’s Church, Baghdad, the only remaining Anglican church in Iraq. He is also the head of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation – an organisation established to engender dialogue between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and also to act as a negotiator for the release of hostages, where he has met with considerable success. He is under constant threat from all sorts of religious extremists – ISIS being merely the most recent in a long line of nutters that would like to murder him. Canon Andrew White is a person who has dedicated his life to encouraging people to engage in conversation rather than violence, and for this reason the twisted logic of the terrorists means he is a prime target for assassination. He often is seen wearing body armour, and has a team of 35 personal bodyguards to protect him. There is more than just a local connection – I went to school with Andrew and knew him very well; his Mum and my Mum still chat on occasion. Even when he was at school it was obvious he was slightly out of the ordinary (he was a couple of years above me at school, but we got on very well, I think aided by the fact we were both exceptionally tall for our age). He’s never been in the best of health; in his teens he had terrible problems with his knee joints, and had a series of operations – I can recall him making me laugh when he told me that on one occasion he was being wheeled into the operating theatre, and he alarmed the nurses by reciting the last rites in Latin! My mother recalls him regularly using a skateboard to prop up a leg in plaster whilst he used elbow crutches to propel himself along the pavement past her house at some speed. Nowadays he suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (which means his voice sounds slightly slurred – he’s not been at the communion wine, it is a symptom of the condition). He also recently announced that he’s been diagnosed with Hepatitis. He is truly one of the World's gifted peacemakers, and I feel privileged to know him.

Finally - a new video from Simon's Cat - what more could you ask? Comments below, as always.

Better Scores.

The poster above is for the forthcoming Erith Fun Day, to be held at Erith Riverside Gardens on Saturday the 30th August. Local MP Teresa Pearce will be unveiling a new signpost that will commemorate the link Erith has with Alexander Selkirk, the real life inspiration for the fictional character of Robinson Crusoe.

After publishing the Maggot Sandwich last Sunday, I went for a stroll into town. I was taking a leisurely amble through Erith Riverside Shopping Centre when my left leg was suddenly struck from behind, causing me to lose balance and almost end up on my knees. As I staggered, trying to remain upright, a woman riding a mobility scooter drove by whilst talking on her mobile phone, completely oblivious to the fact she had just mown me down. Fortunately I was not badly injured, with just a small bruise on my calf to show for the encounter, and a slight limp that lasted a few days. These mobility scooters are a menace – they may have several humorous alternative names such as the Nanbretta or the Frinton Ferrari (an offshoot of the old saying “Harwich for the continent, Frinton for the incontinent"). This hides a sad story that quite a large proportion of mobility scooters can travel at substantially more than normal walking pace; when this is combined with the lack of compulsory training or the need to have third party insurance it does leave a legal minefield for both the operator of such a vehicle and also the members of the public than encounter them. I firmly believe that mobility scooters are a good thing; they enable people who otherwise might find it difficult to get out and about, and stay in contact with general society. The old situation with people becoming housebound and isolated when their ability to move under their own steam became impaired has become far less common. I think it vital for elderly and mobility impaired people to retain their independence. The problem is that a small minority treat the scooters as some kind of fairground ride – the lady who collided with me being a case in point – she was whizzing along oblivious to her surroundings whilst yacking on her mobile phone. The reason I did not chase and challenge her after she hit me was that I was acutely aware of what the situation would look like to a passerby who had not seen what had happened – it would look like I was harassing an innocent old lady. I think that there should be some kind of compulsory formal training for mobility scooter owners, on a similar basis to the (voluntary) cycling proficiency test, along with a compulsory insurance policy covering third party liability. Some mobility scooters seem to be capable of travelling much faster than the fifteen miles per hour limit that is meant to be applicable to such vehicles; indeed I have seen a couple of elderly ladies on the pavement beside the Erith Construction HQ (the former Job Centre) in Queen’s Road who were racing each other – it reminded me of the Monty Python “Hell’s Grannies” sketch. It is only a matter of time before a mobility scooter rider, or a pedestrian is seriously injured unless some action is taken.

I have had some good news from Cliff Murphy, the chief brewer at the Bexley Brewery contacted me earlier in the week to inform me that all is on schedule for the brewery to open for its’ first brew in September. After this, he invited me to come along to the brewery for a chat. On Friday I made my way along to the brewery, which is located on the Manford Industrial Estate at the far Eastern end of Manor Road. It was a sweltering day and I was as usual suffering from the heat. Cliff greeted me, and seeing how frazzled I was, he showed me into the chilled conditioning room. It was blissfully cool, as Cliff was testing the cooler unit prior to the other brewing equipment being installed. We had a long and detailed chat, and he later showed me into the brewery office where he brought out a couple of delightfully cool bottles from a pre - production run. We sipped the excellent real ale out of promotional glasses as you can see in the photo above. The Bexley Brewery is very much a family run affair, and Cliff explained much of their business plan; he already has ambitions to expand, and the brewery building certainly offers plenty of space for that. The work that has gone on to make the building ready for brewing is impressive - a high level of workmanship and cleverly thought out industrial design was evident.  I will be putting together a Bexley Brewery special edition of the Maggot Sandwich nearer the time of the opening. It seems that things are looking very positive for local small enterprises such as these. I for one will be supporting them. The photo above shows a bottle of Bob ale (Bexley's Own Beer). alongside a promotional glass that Cliff most kindly gave me. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot more from the Bexley Brewery in the future. I have a feeling we have a local success story in the making. 

The photo above was taken from the same 8mm silent colour cine footage as the shots of L.B Stevens – Master Butcher last week. It shows an orange lorry in Erith High Street.  According to local historian Ken Chamberlain, the footage was taken from the first  floor of Burton's Tailor's looking towards Crayford Road (now Compton Place) in 1967. The building in the background is The Prince of Wales public house, which was demolished to make way for the current McDonald’s drive through. What strikes me is that not one single building in the photo, taken in 1967 still exists today. The row of shops to the right hand side of the road are now replaced by the Sherwood House residential care home and the Erith Health Centre, and the left hand side contains residential flats and the new Erith Library, built in what used to be the lovely Art Deco Odeon Cinema. The second photo shows a broadly similar view today - the road position has changed somewhat, making a precise comparison impossible. Nothing is left of the old, pre 1960’s town centre, which as I previously wrote I consider to be an act of cultural vandalism. I am of the opinion that the 1970’s brutalist concrete shopping centre was built at minimal cost  for what it was, and that someone had their fingers in the till. Nothing else can explain how planning permission could have been granted for the wholesale destruction of a historic town centre with a structure that was not just hideously ugly, but blatantly unfit for purpose, and was so shoddily thrown together than it began to fall apart almost as soon as it was finished. The only shop to have remained throughout the period from the opening of the new concrete shopping centre to the present day is the pharmacists Howells and Harrison – who still have the same sign outside as they did in the 1970’s. Anyone that remembers the old concrete shopping centre will recall how dark and forbidding parts of it were, and how the overpowering smell of Jeyes fluid and stale wee permeated the whole area. The dingy and forbidding multi storey car park over the shops was the hangout of vandals and winos, and one could feel very intimidated when parking in there. The new Erith Riverside Shopping Centre is a very clever re – use of the carcass of the old structure, but in a far more sympathetic and people – friendly way. The oldest buildings that survived the destruction of the town centre are the post office (originally a livery stables from the mid 1700’s) and the both the Cross Keys and the former White Hart, which briefly got re – branded as lager and cocktail bar Potion, and became the “go to“ place for the areas drug addicts and ne’er do wells until it was forced to close, not before time.  The Cross Keys is currently undergoing a sympathetic restoration to return it to a pristine condition, as it would have been in 1900 – I will be doing a Maggot Sandwich special on the Cross Keys and what has been going on in the last eighteen months in a future edition; suffice to say that I have had a unique perspective on the whole project, and have had extensive access to the restoration process. It may not currently look much different from the outside, but it is utterly stunning internally. I wish the same could be said of the White Hart / Potion which has been architecturally ruined. The pub is empty and apparently unloved; it currently has a number of bill posters over the front windows, and the place has an air of abandonment. Anyone taking the place on would have an uphill battle; not only would they have to replace the kitchen and the currently wrecked bar area, but the upstairs accommodation needs full refurbishment. The biggest elephant in the corner is that the current plate glass frontage would have to be removed and replaced with a replica of the original salt glazed green tiles and acid etched Victorian frontage that the owners of Potion illegally ripped out – not only is the White Hart / Potion building locally listed, but the whole of Erith High Street is a conservation area. I think a conservative estimate of around £100,000 would be needed to get the place up and running again, and at present I just don’t see the will to do this.

Fellow local blogger The Thamesmead Grump has been featuring a warning about a chap called Joshua Bonehill; whilst I know many people keep up with the Grump, on the off chance that some don’t I have chosen to also feature Mr. Bonehill, as he deserves a certain kind of publicity. Joshua Bonehill has a strong online presence – he runs an organisation called the National British Resistance (if your internal warning bells are not ringing by now, they really need to be). I would call Bonehill a Neo Nazi, but he’s not. He’s a full, old school traditional Adolf Hitler idolising National Socialist, who has managed to harness the world wide web to build a profile that is disproportionate to his influence in reality. If you consult his website here you will see that he’s a dangerously deluded aspiring megalomaniac. Not bad for a 22 year old who’s on the dole and lives with his mum. Bonehill has been prosecuted for spreading malicious lies about Asian men kidnapping a six year old, and making up a false story as to how a pub had banned military personnel to avoid offending the local Muslim population. All of it was utter tosh, and when Bonehill had his day in court, he only just escaped a custodial sentence, instead he was sentenced to 180 hours community service. I don’t write about Bonehill to promote him; quite the opposite – to warn others that this nasty, bigoted little man and his repugnant views exist.

I am pleased to say that Bexley Council’s Environmental Health department seem to be really making a difference as far as local fast food takeaways are concerned. Last year I wrote at length at how many places in the London Borough of Bexley had zero ratings – then by far the worst food hygiene ratings of anywhere in the country. A corner definitely seems to have been turned, and major improvements in the “Scores on the Doors” star ratings have recently started to come through. Nemesis Gym, which previously only scored a one star has now been revisited, and they now get a very creditable four stars; the same is true of the Ark Cafe and Christian bookshop (see the photo above). It had scored a two out of five, despite getting a very good review from a couple of anonymous readers who contacted me back when the original rating was published. Now the Ark has improved to get four stars, as has the Yildiran kebab shop in West Street, which somehow originally only scored a one. This surprised me at the time – I have had kebabs from there before, and the place appeared immaculate – and the kebabs were certainly very tasty indeed – many people went out of their way to visit the tiny corner shop. Now it has a rating of four stars, and I can now visit the place again without having to worry. It is nice to be able to report such a positive improvement since the last round of inspections. There is however a fly in the ointment. Erith’s only surviving pub, the Running Horses has seen its’ Scores on the Doors rating drop from two stars to zero.  Under previous ownership back in the 1980’s, the Running Horses Carvery was incredibly popular – to book on a Sunday you usually had to make a reservation a couple of weeks in advance. The food was well cooked and plentiful, the place was packed and the service was great. The excellent view over the river Thames from the upper floors windows only added to the whole experience. I can recall being taken there with my sister by my parents on many occasions. It was always a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately things have gone downhill since. The Running Horses used to be a “treat” destination, but nowadays it seems to be the last refuge of the desperate. The current owners spent a lot of money on the place a few years ago, but I don’t think they have recouped it. Walking past the place early on a Sunday afternoon, I rarely see more than a couple of cars in the car park at the back, or in the Riverside Gardens parking spaces at the front of the pub. This contrasts with the eighties, when a driver would be hard pressed to find a space after midday.  What the solution for this is I don’t know. Apart from the Mambocino coffee house and cafe in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, there is no other “sit down” eaterie in the town (I refuse to count Morrison’s cafe, as it is not the sort of place that you can make a reservation). So the Running Horses does not have any direct competition, but it still is not doing very well.  All I can say is that it has a couple of issues: 1) Lack of publicity – many don’t know the carvery / restaurant still exists. An advertising campaign or even a FaceBook page might help in this regard. 2) A concentration on quality of food and drink. When I last visited the Running Horses a couple of years ago, the only real ale they had on tap was Young’s Bitter (one of my favourite bog standard bitters) but it was sour and off. When I took back the pint the barman denied it was off, and when I showed him my CAMRA membership card, he offered me a pint of Carlsberg lager in replacement. I am pretty sure he had no idea how insulting that was to a real ale enthusiast, so I got a refund and went home. This is no kind of customer service. I think a change of management company or brewery might be the best way forward to keep the place going – I have worries that it might get closed and converted into flats, or worse still, demolished to make way for yet more faceless new flats. If someone like Shepherd Neame or Fuller’s were to buy it, invest some money in it and re – open with a full food menu, I think the glory days of the 1980’s could once again be back for the Running Horses. It needs a new lease of life instead of limping along with an appalling zero star rating. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Transport historian Dana Whiffen has provided an update on his post of last week; this time it is a piece on the kind of buses that would have been running locally at the start of World War One.

"The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) B-Type Bus which was later nicknamed “Ole Bill” because of its war service. Running from 1910 to 1928 The B-Type Bus was the first mass produced bus introduced in 1910 for testing, production saw them start service in 1911 and by 1913 over 2,500 had entered service with a total of 2,900 being built. With a top speed of 16 mph B-Type could carry 34 passengers 16 downstairs and 18 on the uncovered upper deck, with covers being fitted to these upper seats for wet weather. During the start of WW1 the war office purchased around 1,000 from LGOC to move troops behind lines mostly in France and Belgium although some were shipped as far as Egypt. These were then painted Khaki and had their windows removed and boarded over, they were also used as ambulances and mobile pigeon lofts. Back home some night service B-Types were painted Black as part of a Black-out policy. Ole Bill itself B43 is now preserved in The Imperial War Museum and B340 is kept in its Red (LGOC) Livery in The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, when it is not in operation at events. There has been an appeal to restore B2737 with a lottery grant and donations enabling it to return to The Battlefields of France and Belgium this coming September 2014, to pay tribute to the sacrifices made by transport workers during the war".

Bexley Council have done a drastic 180 degree about face in respect of coverage of their council sessions. As famously covered by the intrepid Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers blog, the council have had a blanket ban on any form of audio or video recording at their meetings, in direct contravention of the guidelines published by local government minister Eric Pickles. The decision not to allow recording made the national press, and has formed a corner stone of the Bonkers Blog for over a year. Recently they have (to their credit) reversed this controversial ruling and now they have launched the Bexley Council video channel. To call it mind numbingly boring would be to under sell it. You may recall that I urged the Council to webcast all meetings as a matter of course when this whole issue first came to light. I said back then that as soon as people realised how utterly dull and tedious the events at council meetings were, they would switch off in droves. I would appear to have been correct in this statement.  You can view the online videos of Bexley Council in their Technicolor awesomeness here. I think the term “underwhelming, tedious and mind numbingly boring” would fit quite well. No surprises there then.

You may be aware that the Erith Watch neighbourhood watch group have been campaigning against illegal off - road motor bikes that are used on the Slade Green Marshes. The marshes are a designated area of outstanding natural beauty and are preserved from development as they contain one of the most important areas of freshwater wetland in the country. The marshes are home to several unique species of birds and rare water voles, as well as a Jacobean tithe barn, which is of special historical interest. Some irresponsible local chavs ride illegal, stolen off - road bikes on the marshes, which along with creating a lot of noise and pollution, dig up footpaths and grass which are only supposed to be used by walkers. The Police are aware of the problem, and periodically they raid the illegal riders and confiscate bikes to be crushed. Some criminal idiot called Scott Booker has posted the footage below on YouTube of his mates clearly engaged in illegal activity on the marshland. At several points the number plate on one of the bikes can clearly be seen, although from past experience it is quite likely to be a false plate. Scott Booker also posted another video showing him and his scumbag mates performing wheelies and other illegal stunts whilst not wearing helmets on public roads which you can see here. These are the same people that regularly illegally ride their motorbikes on the pavement in and around Slade Green and Manor Road. The details of both videos have already been passed to North End Safer Neighbourhood Police team for investigation and hopeful prosecution. Please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.