Breakfast.

The photo above was taken by me on Friday evening; it shows the sun setting over Erith Pier. Recently there has been much wildlife activity in the river around the pier. There have been  several recent “false alarms” to the RNLI over the last few months. Regular readers will have seen the aerial drone footage of Grey Seals basking on the muddy river foreshore by the Slade Green Marshes that I have published in the past. The seals swim in the River Thames and often into the River Darent; they often float in  the water with their heads above the surface in and around Anchor Bay, and well-meaning passers by on the shore mistake the Seals for swimmers who appear to be in trouble in the water. Indeed, the average survival time for a person in the water is estimated to be eleven minutes, due to the extreme currents and undertow in the river in and around Erith Pier. Obviously the situation is somewhat different for Seals – the water is their natural habitat, to which they are perfectly evolved. 

A report published recently in the New York Times poses serious questions about the long held belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It turns out that the idea is the result of spin over the years by breakfast cereal companies and others. Skipping  breakfast can allegedly lead to weight gain, a sluggish metabolism, or stress. According to the piece in The New York Times however, our beliefs about breakfast are all based on "misinterpreted research and biased studies"– propaganda, basically. Author Aaron E. Carroll notes that almost all breakfast studies suffer from a "publication bias." There are flaws in reporting of studies that skew findings to link skipping breakfast with causing obesity. Carroll writes: "The reports improperly used causal language to describe their results. They misleadingly cited other's results. And they also improperly used causal language in citing others' results. People believe, and want you to believe, that skipping breakfast is bad. Additionally, there are usually conflicts of interest behind the studies, considering most of them are funded by the food industry. The Quaker Oats Centre of Excellence, for instance, paid for a trial that concluded eating oatmeal or frosted cornflakes reduces weight and cholesterol. People are conditioned from a young age to believe that breakfast is essential to performance. It turns out that's because most of the research geared toward kids is meant to evaluate the impact of school breakfast programmes. They don't take into consideration that 15 million children in the U.S. go hungry at home–of course they would do better in school if they eat. That isn't the same, though, as testing whether children who are already well nourished and don't want breakfast should be forced to eat it," Carroll writes. Overall, you should just go with your gut. If you're hungry in the morning, eat. If you're not, don't think you're sinning by skipping it. Finally, approach all studies sceptically – Carroll put it best: "Breakfast has no mystical powers."

On the first of June this year, the driving test will be 85 years old. Here is a little piece of driving test history. The driving test was introduced in 1935. Volunteers started to be tested on March 16 of that year in order to lessen the burden when it became compulsory, less than three months later, on June 1. Approximately 246,000 candidates applied — 63 percent of whom passed (against around 50 percent today) — with between nine and 16 half-hour tests being conducted each day by a total of 250 examiners. Examiners checked the applicant’s driving licence (which came in well before the test, in 1903, as a means of identifying drivers and their vehicles) and insurance documents before carrying out a basic eye sight test. Then drivers were tested on The Highway Code, with questions including the correct use of arm signals (this was before standardised light indicators, of course). Then came the practical test, with the examiner watching for correct signals and road courtesies, as well as checking manoeuvres such as stopping, starting, hill starts, making an emergency stop, reversing and carrying out a turn in the road. The first person to pass the test was Mr R Beere, at a cost of 7/ 6d (about 38p). The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency estimates that more than 46m tests have been taken since 1935. Below you will see a Pathe News feature on the then new - fangled driving test. It is certainly a period piece. Comments to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Last week I wrote an article on Chemtrails, and the flat Earthers and other conspiracy theorists who believe such rubbish; after a series of Emails from a regular reader, this week I am going to put another strange and rather disturbing alleged phenomenon under the spotlight. Nontrivial numbers of otherwise apparently rational people believe in the paranormal. These beliefs have spawned thousands of groups dedicated to investigating paranormal phenomena and a proliferation of ghost-hunting entries in the reality television market. Anecdotal evidence even suggests that ghost-hunting reality shows have increased public openness to paranormal research, which usually entails a small group traipsing through reportedly haunted locales at night with various ghost-hunting technologies. Notably the producers of such shows are careful to start each episode with a disclaimer saying that the programme is for entertainment purposes only - which tells a great deal about the veracity of what is subsequently shown on screen. Audio recorders figure prominently in paranormal researchers’ toolkits. Microphones capture ambient sounds during the investigation. Later, the audio recordings are scoured in search of messages from spirits. The premise is that audio recording devices can register otherwise inaudible communications from discarnate entities. These purported communications have been dubbed electronic voice phenomena (EVP). The sounds are generally brief – most examples consist of single words or short phrases. Perceived contents of EVP range from threatening (“You’re going to hell”) to bizarre (“Egypt Air”). One definition of Electronic Voice Phenomenon reads thus:- "Electronic voice phenomena, more commonly known as EVP, is a mysterious event in which human-sounding voices from an unknown source can be heard on recorded data from audio tape, radio station noise, and other electronic media. EVPs have been captured on audiotape more than any other media but the mysterious voices aren't present at the time of recording. It's only when the tape is played back—sometimes with the application of amplification and noise filtering—that the voices can be heard. One fascinating aspect of EVP is that the voices sometimes respond directly to the people making the recording. For example, the researchers ask a question to which the voice will answer or comment. Again, this response is not heard until later when the tape is played back. EVP recordings vary by gender (men and women), age (adults and children), tone emotion, and even language. Some are more easily heard and understood than others. Most EVPs consist of single words, phrases, or short sentences, although sometimes, they are made up of grunts, groans, growling, or other vocal expressions. The quality of EVP also varies. Some are difficult to distinguish, with meanings that are open to interpretation. Some EVP, however, are quite clear and easy to understand. EVP often has an electronic or mechanical character to it, although sometimes, it can be very natural sounding". Part of the attraction of the audio recorder for paranormal researchers is its apparent objectivity. How could a skeptic refute the authenticity of a spirit captured by an unbiased technical instrument? To the believers, EVP seem like incontrovertible evidence of communications from beyond. But recent research suggests that people don’t agree much about what, if anything, they hear in the EVP sounds – a result readily explained by the fallibility of human perception. Despite the technological trappings, EVP research bears several characteristics of pseudoscience. The chain of evidence for most purported EVP makes hoaxes difficult to rule out, but let’s assume that many of these sounds are not deliberate fraud. In some instances, alleged EVP are the voices of the investigators or interference from radio transmissions – problems that indicate shoddy data collection practices. Other research, however, has suggested that EVP have been captured under acoustically controlled circumstances in recording studios. What are the possible explanations for these sounds? The critical leap in EVP research is the point at which odd sounds are interpreted as voices that communicate with intention. Paranormal investigators typically decode the content of EVP by arriving at consensus among themselves. EVP websites advise paranormal researchers to ask themselves, “Is it a voice…are you sure?” or to “Share results among fellow investigators and try to prevent investigator bias when reviewing data.” Therein lies a methodological difficulty. Research in mainstream psychology has shown that people will readily perceive words in strings of nonsensical speech sounds. People’s expectations about what they are supposed to hear can result in the illusory perception of tones, nature sounds, machine sounds, and even voices  when only acoustic white noise – like the hissing sound of a detuned FM radio – exists. Interpretations of speech in noise – a situation similar to EVP where the alleged voice is difficult to discern – can shift entirely based upon what the listener expects to hear. EVP are an auditory example of pareidolia – the tendency to perceive human characteristics in meaningless perceptual patterns. There are many visual examples of pareidolia – things like seeing human faces in everyday objects (such as Jesus in a piece of toast). Research from cognitive psychology has shown that paranormal believers may be especially prone to misperceiving chance events. A face-like configuration in a slice of toast seems meaningful. People ask, "What are the chances?“ But if you add up all of the slices of toast you see over the days and weeks and months of a lifetime, it becomes inevitable that you will encounter some of these human-like configurations in toast due to chance. Similarly, paranormal investigators record a practically limitless amount of audio and use all manner of sound-processing techniques including filtering the sounds to remove particular frequencies and boosting the volume. Inevitably they’re able to find samples of audio that sound somewhat like a voice. Assuming some of these voice-like sounds can’t be attributed to shoddy data collection practices, their actual sources likely run the spectrum from ambient environmental noises to electrical interference to audio processing artifacts. If the listener is intently expecting to hear a person, virtually any sound can meet that expectation. One writer aptly suggested that EVP are like an auditory inkblot test: a blank slate upon which the listener can project any interpretation. The tendency for EVP investigators to hear a voice – a meaningful sound with agency and intention – is likely amplified by the suggestion of a paranormal context. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

In a loose connection to the previous EVP story - one that has far more basis in scientific and engineering reality. Commercially viable (rather than just experimental) magnetic tape recording had its seventty fourth birthday last week - an event which has not been covered in the press.  Thanks to the good fortune of suffering from insomnia, a curious observation by John T. "Jack" Mullin led to the introduction of tape recording and, by extension, the entire home media business. Mullin, a slight and surprisingly humble man, considering his future status in the recording business, graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1937, then worked for Pacific Telephone and Telegraph in San Francisco until the war started. By 1944, he had attained the rank of major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and was attached to the RAF's radar research labs in Farnborough, England. While working late that spring night, Mullin was happy to find something pleasing playing on the radio — the Berlin Philharmonic playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on Radio Berlin. But Mullin was mystified: The performance's fidelity was far too fine to be a 16-inch wax disc recording, the prevailing radio recording technology at the time. And since there were no breaks every 15 minutes to change discs, Mullin figured it had to be a live broadcast. But it couldn't be — if it was 2 am in London, it was 3 am in Berlin. Mullin was right — the orchestra wasn’t up late, and it was a recording. Just not the usual kind, which is why Mullin was confused. After the war, Mullin was assigned to the Technical Liaison Division of the Signal Corp in Paris. "Our task, amongst other things, was to discover what the Germans had been working on in communications stuff — radio, radar, wireless, telegraph, teletype," explained Mullin. Mullin ended up in Frankfurt on one such expedition. There he encountered a British officer, who told him a rumour about a new type of recorder at a Radio Frankfurt station in Bad Nauheim. Mullin didn't exactly believe the report — he had encountered dozens of low-fi magnetic recorders all over Germany. He pondered his decision of pursuing the rumour, literally, at a fork in the road. To his right lay Paris, to the left, Radio Frankfurt. Fortuitously for the future of the home media business, Mullin turned left. He found four hi-fi Magnetophons and some 50 reels of red oxide BASF tape. He tinkered with them a bit back in Paris and made a report to the Army. "We now had a number of these lying around. I packed up two of them and sent them home (to San Francisco). Souvenirs of war. (You could take) almost anything you could find that was not of great value. (And) anything Germany had done was public domain — it was not patentable." He also sent himself the 50 reels of the red-oxide coated tape. When Mullin returned home, he started tinkering to improve the Magnetophons. On May 16, 1946, exactly 74 years ago last week, Mullin stunned attendees at the annual Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) conference in San Francisco by switching between a live jazz combo and a recording, literally asking the question "Is it live or...?" None of the golden ears in the audience could tell. It was the world's first public demonstration of audio tape recording. Bing Crosby hated doing live radio. And he hated recording his shows on wax records because the fidelity sounded terrible to the noted aural perfectionist performer. When Crosby's engineers heard about Mullin and his Magnetophons, they quickly hired him and his machine. In August 1947, Crosby became the first performer to record a radio programme on tape; the show was broadcast on October 1st. Bing Crosby wasn't the only one interested in Mullin's Magnetophons. Up in Redwood City, California, a small company called Ampex was looking for something to replace the radar gear they'd been producing for the government. Ampex hooked up with Mullin and, in April 1948, perfected and started selling the first commercially available audio tape recorder, the Ampex Model 200. Crosby, Mullin, Ampex and American electronics giant RCA all sort of formulated the same follow-up thought at around the same time: If you could record audio on tape, why not video? Crosby and Mullin teamed up. Ampex formed a team that included a high school student named Ray Dolby. And David Sarnoff gave his engineers their marching orders. A highly-public race began to see who could invent the video tape recorder. Ampex had a leg up on its more well-heeled competition. It had a deal with a Chicago research consortium called Armour Research Institute, now the Illinois Institute of Technology. Working for Armour was none other than wire recording maven Marvin Camras, who solved the most vexing problem facing all the video tape inventor wannabees: Tape speed. Audio recording is accomplished by pulling tape past a stationary recording head. Video, however, is a far fatter signal, which meant tape had to be pulled past the recording heads at ridiculous speeds. A two-foot wide reel of tape could hold, tops, 15 minutes of video — not exactly practical. So instead of spinning the tape, Camras, who got the idea from watching vacuum cleaner brushes, he calculated that he would spin the recording heads instead. Once Ampex got ahold of this key, its engineers shot past Crosby/Mullin and RCA. Even with the spinning head secret, it took five years for Ampex's sometimes part-time six-member team to get things right. On April 14, 1956 — 64 years ago last month — Ampex introduced the desk-sized Mark IV, the first commercial video tape recorder, to a stunned group of TV execs and engineers at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Chicago. To say that this machine changed the world is an obvious understatement. It would take almost another 10 years before Philips reduced audio tape to a cassette and ignited the home audio recording craze, and another nearly 10 years before Sony introduced the Betamax and won a U.S Supreme Court case to allow users to legally record TV shows at home and create the home video business. The U.K had few such concerns - one of the reasons why Britain had the largest number of video recorders per head of population back in the 80's / 90's. Ultimately it was the introduction of Jack Mullin's rebuilt Magnetophons that were the first shots fired in the home media revolution, 74 years ago last week - and nothing got mentioned in the popular press, more is the pity.

The above logo was sent to me by Ian, the webmaster of The Belvedere Splash as a sort of 80's retro look banner for the Maggot Sandwich. What do you think?

Some good news. As regular readers may well recall, I have in the past mentioned the excellent Romford based radio station Time 107.5FM. The station is very popular outside of its target area, with many listeners in Thamesmead, Belvedere, Erith and Dartford, amongst other locations. The station has just received its latest listener statistics from the official monitoring agency, RAJAR. Here is the press release detailing the results of the survey:- "Time 107.5 is proud to have achieved the highest average listening hours of any radio station in the UK, according to the latest RAJAR figures, which have been released today. The data, which covers the three-month period up to March 2020, reveals we have 30,000 unique listeners each week – up by 3,000 on the previous quarter. Our average listening hours have also risen to 14.1 hours per week – up two hours on the last set of figures and higher than any other radio station in the country. The average person in the UK listens to 17.9 hours of radio per week, which suggests many of our listeners tune in almost exclusively to us. Time 107.5 Station Manager, Lorna Waters, said: “We have a strong record of high average hours figures and it is clear to see that our consistent approach to programming is retaining our loyal listenership. All of our staff have a real passion for what they do and that’s led to a special bond with our audience. Many listeners consider us to be their close friends and, while this can sometimes feel a bit strange, we really appreciate the affection our listeners show. We also have a reputation as a trustworthy source of information, and some see us as the font of all knowledge, which does sometimes mean we get strange requests. But we’re always happy to help, whether that’s by responding to a question about whether or not the local tip is open, or helping people find information about local events. Time 107.5 plays such an active role in our local community. We provide the music for many of the local Christmas light switch-ons each year, we hosted the main stage at the 2019 Havering Show and had a big presence at the Havering half-marathon, and we also support underprivileged children through our annual Christmas and Easter gift appeals. Lorna added: “We are grateful to be part of such a wonderful local community across Havering, Barking and Dagenham, and the surrounding areas. There is such great spirit around here and we share that love for where we live.  Now more than ever, we all need the support of those around us. Times are tough but we are doing all we can to help out in our community. Whether that’s by supporting businesses spread the word that they are still open, or by helping a charity publicise that they need volunteers, we are here to help.”Time 107.5’s Programme Controller, Mark Dover, said: “The figures released today are fantastic news for Time 107.5. Our mixture of All Time Favourites, new music, and some of those classic songs you don’t hear very often, is engaging lots of listeners.“Our truly local content is shining through. We do our best to promote local events, support charities, and shout about all that is good in Havering, Barking and Dagenham, and the surrounding areas. A big thing recently has been the way we hold local politicians to account, and it is clear that all this has contributed to these improved listening figures. These excellent figures would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff. The team of charismatic presenters and our diligent journalists, as well as those who work hard behind the scenes, are the key to our growth and I want to say thank you to all of them. And all of this wouldn’t be possible without the support of our wonderful listeners. Thank you all so much.”

The photo above was taken last week; it shows a large number of illegally dumped empty metal Nitrous Oxide mini canisters on the road and pavement outside of the Premier convenience store on the corner of Manor Road and Appold Street in Erith. The store owners were most displeased with the situation. The Police were informed accordingly. Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Good news again, Barnehurst Ward have had no reports of burglaries over the past week. There have also been no reports of vehicle crime. We did receive a report of criminal damage in Erith Road where plant pots were thrown over a balcony. Other than this it's been business as usual with foot and mobile patrols being carried out around the ward". Belvedere ward:- "The team have been continuing to patrol open spaces throughout the ward - Franks Park, Lesness Abbey and the somewhat smaller Albert Road recreation ground. There have been minimal instances where we have advise people to refrain from using gym equipment or apparatus in children play areas. We will be continuing these patrols for the foreseeable future even in light of the updated government advice. Over recent days the team has been made aware of several youths gathering at Streamway, some of whom have been acting in an anti-social manner. We have also been focusing our attention on this area where possible. This area shares a boundary with the Northumberland Heath SNT so we will be working with them in this area of the ward". Bexleyheath ward:- "Dear residents we have had no crimes this week to report which is wonderful news. One to be aware of is a ball bearing was fired into a garden in Mayplace Road West on Monday 11/05/2020, please be vigilant and if you see anything like this occurring please do let police know. Our Anti-Social Behaviour patrols continue and again if you are aware of groups congregating, smoking cannabis or anything illegal then please do let us know". Erith ward:-"Along with Belvedere SNT we have patrolling Northumberland Heaths ward focusing on the high street and open spaces. We have also posted letter and contact details to all residents in Streamways regarding the slight ASB in the area. As well as posted letters to all local businesses In Erith we have been patrolling the open spaces, every open shops in Town Centre and around Erith Pier. Crimes of note Theft from Motor Vehicle Monday 11/05/2020 Mildred Road; Theft from Motor Vehicle Monday 11/05/2020 Chandlers Drive; Theft from Motor Vehicle Friday 8/05/2020 Upper Holly Hill Road; Theft from Motor Vehicle Saturday 2/05/2020 Galleon Close. No burglaries this week in Erith. There is a rise with theft from vehicles again in Erith. Secure your number plates with tamper-resistant screws – If you want a set of these please email us". Northumberland Heath ward:-"Another good week. Crime levels are very low; unfortunately there have been several reports from local residents from Streamway this week regarding local youths causing anti-social behaviour and intimating residents. Officers have been able to gather brilliant CCTV evidence and have been able to identify a male involved. Police will now be able to complete further investigation . A CCTV camera has also been placed on Streamway to enable the police and Council to take appropriate action on the males involved . Please see our twitter page for any advice regarding reporting COVID related offences". Slade Green and Northend ward:- "No burglaries to report in the last week or any other significant crime on the ward. PC James searched a male in Dale View on Saturday afternoon and he was found in possession of drugs and will be returning for an interview this week. Patrols of our open spaces are ongoing as and when possible. Please be mindful of the new Government guidelines around Covid 19 as we now enter a period of regular updates and changes to our day to day lives". Thamesmead East ward:- "Thursday 07/05/20 building materials were stolen from a demolition site in Coralline Walk. Motor Vehicle Crimes Between 2:30pm on Monday 08/05/20 and 6:00am on Monday 11/05/20 company van parked near Harlequin House St. John Fisher Road had a hydraulic pump stolen. A vehicle parked in Rushdene had money and white cables stolen, no signs of forced entry. This incident occurred between 11:00am on Sunday 10/05/20 and 5:00pm on Monday 11/05/20. At 2:45pm on Tuesday 12/05/20 a Toyota Corolla was stolen from Maran Way. An attempted theft of a motorcycle by two males occurred in Wolvercote Road on Monday 11/05/20 at 3:20pm. Pedal Cycle Crimes - Sunday afternoon between the hours of 3:00pm and 3:15 pm on 10/05/20 on FAIRWAY DRIVE an attempted theft of 2 rider's pedal cycles by youths on mopeds who being unsuccessful made off towards the Thames path. Between midnight and 4:00pm on Tuesday 12/05/20 Fairway Drive 2 pedal cycles kept in a bin cupboard which is locked with only residents in the flats have access were stolen .One of the pedal cycles was locked with a 'D' lock was found on the floor cut in half. Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention. STOP - Check your car security Have your locked your doors and windows? Did you know your vehicle is like a shop window? If you can see, items left on view then so can a thief. Take it with you or put it out of sight". West Heath ward:- "No burglaries have been reported over the last week. One theft from a motor vehicle in Clovelly Road on Saturday Saturday 2/05/20 between Midday and 11pm. Entry was gained via drilling in to the van and a power tool was stolen from within it.Theft of a black Range Rover from Denton Road on Saturday 9/05/2020 18.00 – Sunday 10/05/2020 at 09.37 when the owner discovered it missing. Theft of two Topiary trees on Saturday 9/05/2020 from Ashbourne Avenue. A male was captured on CCTV stealing the trees from the front of the victim's front garden. One arrest of a male for immigration offences on Tuesday 5/05/2020".

The end video this week was recorded in Avenue Road, Erith. Four youths in a speeding car crashed into a tree - hard to determine why, when Avenue Road is one of the straightest roads in the area. As you will see in the video below, there was a huge turn out by the emergency services to deal with the incident. If you witnessed the crash and subsequent rescue of the trapped car occupants, please drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

A second incinerator.

Last June I featured an article about a proposal to construct a second waste incinerator in Lower Belvedere. London Mayor Sadiq Khan got involved with a project that has been condemned by both local MP's. Mr Khan had also come down against the plan that has been submitted by Cory Riverside Energy to build a waste incinerator on a site adjacent to the Crossness Nature Reserve, which is home to a number of very rare species of both birds and bats. The site would also be very close to the existing Cory waste incinerator pictured in the photo above - click on it for a larger version.  In an interview that has been published on the News Shopper and elsewhere, Mayor Khan said of the Cory proposal:- "London’s air is a toxic air health crisis and the last thing we need, in our modern green global city is another harmful waste-burning incinerator polluting our city. Emissions from incinerators are bad for our health, bad for our environment and bad for our planet. Instead of granting permission for an unnecessary new incinerator that will raise pollution levels in the boroughs of Bexley and Havering, the Government should focus on boosting recycling rates, reducing the scourge of plastic waste and tackling our lethal air. I am urging ministers to reject this proposal". Unfortunately - and as many had predicted, the second incinerator is now going ahead. The decision was made on 9th April by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to approve the development of a second mass waste incinerator at Belvedere. Councillor Stefano Borella (Slade Green and Northend ward) said “These proposals don’t support increasing recycling rates and evidence shows local authorities that use these facilities have seen their recycling rates suppressed. In addition, the increased traffic and congestion as a result of cable laying to Littlebrook power station in Dartford will impact on air quality as a result of the disruption. It is bitterly disappointing that this announcement was released at the start of the Easter weekend during the current pandemic, when residents priorities will be on other issues.” Councillor Dave Putson (Belvedere ward) said “This plant will detrimentally impact on the immediately adjacent Crossness nature reserve and will have a lasting impact on wildlife and habitats carefully nurtured over many years. In addition, this incinerator will increase fine dust particulate emissions and detrimentally impact on health and air quality in the local area” Local MPs and the Mayor of London have raised objections at the building of a second incinerator. Several key local figures, including Erith and Thamesmead MP Abena Oppong-Asare, indicated they would challenge the decision, while a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said officers would now review details of the decision and would comment further once it has been fully assessed. “The Secretary of State’s decision to approve the application for the Cory Incinerator is extremely disappointing, The Mayor’s team provided evidence and representations through the examination process to demonstrate that this facility is not needed to manage London’s waste and will have a detrimental impact on recycling, climate change and air quality.” There is no statutory appeal process and the decision can now only be challenged by individuals or authorities via a judicial review process. What do you think? Email me in complete confidence at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I don't normally comment on stories that make the national news, but I am making an exception this week, as I had a personal involvement with the individual involved. You may have seen news articles and obituaries for Ronan O'Rahilly, who died last week. I met him a number of times, and had several telephone calls from him in the late 1980's and early 1990's when I worked for his brainchild, Radio Caroline. Much has been written about this maverick and eccentric man, but I am just going to focus on my personal memories and experiences with Ronan (or "The Old Man" as Caroline staff tended to refer to him). I found Ronan to be a thoughtful and charismatic person who would come out with outrageous ideas seemingly from nowhere. He had the same kind of "reality distortion field" often attributed to the late Steve Jobs of Apple. Ronan O'Rahilly was the person who changed the face of British radio – before Caroline the BBC only played a few hours of music a week, and were loath to broadcast anything challenging or different. It is probable that many British bands from the 60’s and 70’s would not have had the success they did without the extensive air time Caroline gave them - certainly both The Rolling Stones and The Who credited their early success to exposure on Radio Caroline, and George Harrison of The Beatles donated a lot of money to the Caroline organisation over the years. Ronan was behind the tours of the UK that the Stax and Motown labels undertook – this was when other UK radio stations played no music of black origin. Ronan was one of life’s eccentrics; he would come up with some utterly crackpot idea, but such was the power of his warmth, charm and personality, he would have you believing him – at least until he left the room. Usually a couple of minutes later, you would get a “hang on a minute” thought, and you would realise how bonkers what you had just been told actually was. Ronan had a soft half Irish / half American accent, and it became a running joke amongst Radio Caroline staff that if you heard the “Old Man” start a sentence with “Hey, I’ve got this really great idea!” you knew what followed was going to be challenging, if impractical, dangerous, or downright contrary to the established laws of physics - nevertheless, it would always be interesting. I recall that during one phone call he made to me, Ronan suggested replacing the antenna system on the Ross Revenge with a fully grown tree(!) He thought it would signal the stations support for environmental issues - the idea of using a tree as a radio antenna was of course impossible, impractical and about as left field as one could imagine - typical Ronan then. In his later years he was crippled by Vascular Dementia, and was moved into a care home in Ireland, Having lost my own father to dementia (albeit of a different type) I know how challenging caring for someone with the condition can be. My thoughts are with his family in Ireland, who have now lost the great, inspirational man, and a truly lovely bloke who changed the face of the British media for ever.

Erith Pier is a popular destination when the weather is good; I took the photo above (click on it for a larger view) yesterday. Whilst not appearing in the photo, a number of people were strolling on the pier, but all were keeping suitably apart from each other, and nobody was fishing.

Now that Spring is with us – incidentally my favourite time of the year. I love the lengthening hours of daylight and the way in which nature appears to wake up from the long winter sleep. Unfortunately it does bring problems with it. On Wednesday afternoon, whilst queuing outside of Morrison's in Erith, I watched two young foxes raiding the bins located outside of Wharfside Close. One resident came out of his townhouse and shouted and waved his arms at the two animals. They merely stared at him, then carried on their business as if he was not there. The problem of urban foxes not being scared of humans has been steadily getting worse for a number of years. Readers may recall my account from some time back; I was sitting in my living room reading one evening. I had the back door open. Suddenly I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye; when I looked up, there was a young adult fox, sitting in the middle of my living room less than ten feet from where I was sitting. I had to stand up and shout at it before it decided to move, and it calmly sauntered back across the living room, over the kitchen lobby, where it picked up one of my gardening boots in its’ mouth, before it tried to then make off with its’ plunder. Fortunately I managed to get it to drop the heavy boot. That was just one of several incidents I have experienced, and I see foxes on an almost daily basis. Some locals have taken to putting bricks on the lids of their recycling wheelie bins, but the intelligent and resourceful foxes soon learned to push the bricks off. 

The Coronavirus lock down has affected so many local businesses; some unfortunately may never recover, whilst others such as Bexley Brewery have introduced a door to door real ale delivery service, which I understand has been extremely successful. Many food outlets have been forced to close. One that has adopted a new business model is the long established Belvedere Tandoori. They recently published the following announcement:- "Dear customers, just an update as to where we are and where we might be going. As you all know we closed the restaurant 4 weeks ago completely, including takeaways. In the meantime, the staff have stayed productive by refreshing their food preparation skills with online courses as well as doing a Coronavirus course (yes there is one, £6.99 and tells you pretty much everything you knew anyway, like self distancing, PPE, sanitising and so on), although there was some interesting info on bacteria life cycles and it’s activeness on various surfaces amongst other things. We are looking at reopening the takeaway collection and delivery service. Deliveries can be contactless, meaning we would simply leave your food by your front door. Obviously for this to work, payments would need to be made over the phone using a credit/debit card. Delivery drivers will be wearing gloves and masks so you can use cash if you need to. All staff will be using masks and gloves at all times, maintaining a wash your hands every 15 minutes policy. Although, if you’ve worked in a restaurant kitchen you’ll know staff wash their hands pretty much every 2-3 minutes. Also all my staff drive so no one is using public transport either. Hope to see you guys soon. Belvedere Tandoori Management". 

I have uncovered a strange link with Hall Place in Bexley to one of the largest and most successful counter – intelligence operations in British history. Some readers may have seen in the past, the excellent Ben Macintyre television documentary on the World War II German spies and double agents that were controlled by MI5 throughout the war. The Nazis were under the impression that they had a widespread and successful network of spies in the UK, when in fact every single agent was working for the British, to the point that MI5 were actually controlling German Military intelligence for much of the war. This was a vital part of Operation Fortitude – the plan to keep Nazi high command from discovering when and where the D-Day invasion of France would take place. As Winston Churchill said “The truth is so precious, it needs to be protected with a bodyguard of lies”. As well as the fake agents sending false information back to the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) the plan constructed entire armies of fake vehicles, buildings and radio messages indicating troop build – ups where in reality there was nothing but empty fields. On top of all this, the planning to fool the Nazis took some rather surreal turns. It was anticipated that in addition to using portable radio transmitters, and sending letters written in invisible ink via neutral countries, that any German spies in the UK would also want to communicate via carrier pigeon; this was a very old, but virtually undetectable method of passing secret information. The use of animals in covert warfare was nothing new; the Special Operations Executive (SOE) stuffed dead rats with explosive to be used in sabotage operations. The American Navy trained dolphins to place explosive charges under enemy ships, but the most bizarre use of animals has to be a plan hatched by a Royal Air Force officer by the name of Flight Lieutenant Walker; his plan flourished in that grey area that exists between ingenuity and insanity. His idea was called the “Double Cross Pigeon Racket” - a plan designed to wipe out the Nazi carrier pigeon operation in a single stroke. Every German intelligence section in occupied France had a carrier pigeon section; on top of this, collaborators within the French civilian population were being recruited by the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) to act as a “stay behind” group, who would harbour German carrier pigeons to be released with vital intelligence messages in the event of a successful allied invasion. Lieutenant Walker was aware that Nazi propaganda minister Heinrich Himmler was a keen pigeon fancier, and he began to wonder if Himmler’s interest could be manipulated to the Allied advantage. If the Nazis could be fooled into thinking that British spy pigeons had infiltrated their lofts, then it would throw suspicion on the entire Nazi carrier pigeon service; if the Nazis could no longer trust their own pigeons, they might well end up killing the lot to be on the safe side. In the winter of 1943, Flight Lieutenant Walker presented his plan to MI5 with a memo entitled “Pigeon Contamination Plan” – “A stray or lost pigeon will almost always find its way into some loft. If a number of British pigeons could be disguised as German pigeons by putting forged German identity rings on them, then releasing them on the continent (deliberately choosing second rate birds which would be unlikely to attempt the long flight back over the English Channel) they would eventually find their way into German controlled pigeon lofts. Sooner or later the Germans would discover that they were being fooled. They would find two pigeons with the same leg ring number, or a grey pigeon wearing a ring that was clearly assigned to a red pigeon. They would begin to wonder just how many of their pigeons were phoney, and the only thing they could do would be to call in all of their birds and check them. Until they had checked all of their birds in all of their lofts they would be unable to use any carrier pigeon services, and by the time they had gone through them all, I would have delivered more phonies”. MI5 were enthusiastic and gave the project the go – ahead. The Germans were braced for the invasion of Europe by the Allies, the discovery that their carrier pigeon lofts had been infiltrated by double – agent pigeons could throw them off balance at a critical psychological moment. The double agent pigeons were housed in lofts all over the South East of England, one of which was based at Hall Place in Bexley, which was also the home of an SOE training unit and a Y- Intercept station run by the U.S Army (a radio receiving unit that intercepted Nazi signals communications for onwards transmission via dedicated phone lines to Bletchley Park for decoding). The “Double Cross Pigeon Racket” was put into operation, and …. Nothing happened. After the war, captured Abwehr records showed that the forged identification leg rings on the double agent pigeons were so convincingly crafted that the Nazi pigeon handlers never actually realised that the birds they were receiving were phony. The plan was so well executed that the Germans never realised they had been duped, and so carried on sending messages to their “agents” – all of whom were already working for MI5 anyway. A bizarre, ironic, but true story. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo of old Erith above was taken in (I believe) 1901; it shows Pier Road looking up towards Cross Street. On the left is the bookshop owned by R.H Starkey, who also sold stationery. Next is Harry Palmer the Draper, and on the right is C.F Savage's Boot Warehouse. Nothing in the photo exists in Erith today, with the exception of the name Pier Road.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Great News for Barnehurst Residents, we have had no crimes to report although the team have been busy on the ward patrolling and reminding members of the public about the Governments Guidelines around COVID-19. We have received reports of golfers continuing to play golf on Barnehurst Golf Course. A number of golfers have been advised, unfortunately we cannot patrol this area 24/7 but when on duty this is an area where we concentrate our foot patrols. The team conducted two stop and searches after officers smelt a strong smell of cannabis coming from the wooded area of the golf course. One male was dealt with for possession of cannabis. The team have also received reports from various residents with regards to vehicles driving dangerously in and around Parkside Avenue, Northall Road, Beverley Road and Manor Way. The team have been carrying out patrols and will be dealing with this matter. Any further sightings please let us know. Please stick to the guidelines and remember the social distancing measures of two metres. Stay Safe". Belvedere ward - no report received this week. Bexleyheath ward:- "Thursday 16/04/2020 0305 Burglary Russell Close -  entry gained by front door believed to have been after vehicle keys, nothing taken, suspects disturbed. Whilst our crimes do remain low at the moment there are still criminals about, please do ensure that doors are double locked with keys and do not keep valuables in your vehicles". Crayford ward:- "Criminal damage was caused to a silver Saab whilst parked outside Lyles Court in London Road between Sunday 15/03/2020 and Thursday 9/04/2020. Number plates EU63FPV stolen from a Silver Ford Kuga on Friday 10th April between 06.00 and 18.00 whilst parked in Heath Road close to the top end of Hillside Road. Garden tools were stolen from a greenhouse at the Crayford Way allotments between Thursday 9th and Friday 10th April. On Friday 17th April at approx. 03.50 police were alerted that 2 males had been seen trying to get in to the petrol station shop, they were apprehended whilst trying to break in to Hobbycraft a short time later. A sat nav was stolen from a silver Volkswagen whilst parked in Heathlee Avenue between 16.00 on Thursday 16th April and 13.05 on Friday 17th April, the front passenger window was smashed. A shed was broken in to at Crayford Way allotments on Saturday 18th April, the padlock was broken off and tools and plants were taken. A dashcam was stolen from a red Skoda whilst parked in Crayford High Street on Sunday 19th April at 23.12, the front passenger window was smashed. We are still in a period of lockdown, unless you are a keyworker, please don't go out unless it is necessary to purchase food/medicines or to take daily exercise with members of your own household. Please stay safe". Erith ward:- "This week we have been regularly visiting all the shops in Erith which I am pleased to add they have all been coping very well and people lining up have been extremely civilised. We will be carrying on visiting all the shops daily around Erith. Again this week crimes are lower than normal, we just need to not let any guards down, if you are going out please remember not to leave any items in you cars, even on lockdown items are still being removed from vehicles. If you go on bike rides and leave your bike for any amount of time for example to enter a shop to get a drink, Lock the bike up!. It takes less than a few seconds for an unlocked bike to be taken. After this lockdown I am hoping to acquire more bike marking kits and I will run a bike making event for local residents. I know this weather has been lovely but if you are sitting on a public bench watching the world go by enjoying the sunshine we will be asking you to go home, we are only doing this to keep everyone as safe as we can. This isn't something we are enjoying asking. Also Erith team have been patrolling Northumberland Heaths ward due to staffing numbers on that ward". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Another good week – Crime levels are down. A community Protection Notice Warning has been issued to a Landlord within Northumberland Park Road. This is aimed to prevent unreasonable behaviour that is having a negative impact on the local community. Hopefully this will prevent anti-social behaviour such as loud music .The residents have also been referred to ASB unit within Bexley Council. If you've having a problem with loud music, rowdy parties or barking dogs in your neighbourhood, your council can help https://mybexley.bexley.gov.uk/service/Noise_pollution. Officers completed stop and searches on two males seen loitering on Londonderry Parade, Stelling Road, Erith .One male was found to be in possession of cannabis. There has been a rise in domestic incidents within the Borough. If you are a victim of a domestic incident please see our twitter page for advice @MPSNorthHeath or speak to a member of the National Domestic Abuse Helpline team at any time, day or night 08082000247 or contact 999 if it's an emergency. We have had reports of Youth congregating and smoking drugs in Northumberland Heath Recreational Grounds and Streamway Erith. Officers have been completing patrols within these hots spot areas. If you see this happening please contact 101 and make us aware. Thank you to our NHS colleagues, those working within the ambulance service, all of the people that are helping to come together and make our communities as safe as they can be in this terrible crisis".

The photo above (click on it for a larger view) shows fly tipped compost and plant bedding material that was illegally dumped in Appold Street, Erith late on Friday night by persons unknown. If you witnessed this criminal act, please contact me in confidence, and I will pass the information on to the Police and Bexley Council. Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. Slade Green and Northend ward:- "No notable crimes reported in the last week. 9 stop and searches have been made and one male found in possession of drugs near Grange House. A Community Resolution (official warning letter) was issued. Several groups have been moved on from a few places in the ward (Rainbow Road, Hollywood Way park, Frobisher Road) but as a general rule it seems that most people seem to be sticking to the rules and staying in so a big thanks from us. While we are giving out thanks, we would like to say a huge thanks to Mel, Sonya and everyone else helping Slade Green Big Local who, everyday, have a foodbank running from the hall of St Augustines and have been delivering food and activity packs to many residents and not just locally. Leaflets are being delivered where possible and anyone who wishes to help or contribute can pop along to the church to find out more or look up Slade Green Big Local on social media. If you do visit they are following social distancing guidelines. But a fantastic effort by a brllliant local group must be applauded and we wish them all the very best. St Augustines services are broadcasting live on Facebook and Zoom every Sunday from 1030am, anyone can watch, we will be this Sunday. There are prayer services too each day at 9am and 9pm. Lastly, please remember to stay indoors and save lives. Stay safe everyone". Thamesmead East ward:- "On Friday 17/04/20 at 6:15pm an attempted theft of a motorcycle occurred in Wolvercote Road.Sunday 19/04/20 between the hours of 9:15am and 3:30pm a Ford transit vehicle was stolen from Leatherbottle Green. There has been an increase in theft of vehicle number plates. Consider purchasing a set of Anti - Theft screws or bolts for number plates Between Saturday 18/04/20 at 11:00pm and 8:00am on Sunday 19/4/20 the outer pane of a double glazed window was smashed to a property in Maran Way. Sunday 19/04/20 whilst on cycle patrol on Manorway Green, a member of the public spoke to PC Pruden regarding a motor scooter, found parked in an alleyway in Goldcrest Close. Vehicle checks carried out by PC Pruden, came back to an address in Bledlow Close, where the scooter was stolen between the hours 4;00pm and 11:pm on Saturday 18/04/20. Monday 20/04/20 Felixstowe Road, a stolen motorcycle found. PC Pruden attended the motorcycle was recovered. A set of number plates were found in Crossway Park by a local resident, stolen from a vehicle in Bexley, were collected by the team and PC Pruden delivered the plates to the rightful owner". West Heath ward:- "One attempted burglary in Abbotts Walk on Friday 17/04/20 at approximately 4am. The occupant was woken by the sound of the inner porch door being tampered with. The occupant came downstairs and saw a male dressed in a grey tracksuit at the door. The occupant shouted at the male and he ran away in the direction of Brampton Road. A black Ford Fiesta was stolen by means of a burglary in Cumberland Drive overnight on Thursday 16/04/20 20.00 – Friday 17/04/20 10.00. Entry was gained via an implement used to pop the lock on the front door. Keys to the vehicle and house keys were also stolen. Theft from motor vehicle in Gipsy Road between Tuesday 21/04/20 – Wednesday 22/04/20 06.15. It is not clear at this stage if anything has been stolen as the car was rifled through. Theft of rear lights from a Mini Cooper parked in Gipsy Road on Monday 20/04/20 between Midnight and 10am. The team have made one arrest for theft this week. The team have continued to engage and advise members of the public during the Coronavirus and moving people on if necessary".

The end video this week features local stage school Theatre Box, who before the lock down were based in The Old Library in Walnut Tree Road, run by charitable community benefit society The Exchange. Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Spring.

Despite all of the current doom and gloom in the press and elsewhere, at least some things can cheer people up. I took the photo above (click on it for a larger view) during the week; spring is well under way, as you can see from the blossom on the trees. The area around Erith Pier is due for renovation soon; the works may well be delayed by the current lock down though. As you can see in the photo, the flood barrier at the entrance to the pier is closed - indeed it has been closed for several weeks, and at the time of writing I do not know why. If you have any inside information, please Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com in confidence. 

Residents across the borough are being asked to think of others and to not light bonfires during the current Coronavirus pandemic lock down. The effects of bonfires at this time are likely to be much more serious and have a bigger impact. The Coronavirus is known to cause serious respiratory problems, which could be made much worse if the sufferer is exposed to smoke from bonfires. It is important to be especially considerate at this time, when people are confined to their home and unable to escape unpleasant fumes. Bonfires can also become out of control or cause accidents, creating extra pressure on the already busy emergency services. It is understood that the changes to collection services and the closure of the refuse and recycling centres may create a storage issue for some residents. The council request - "Please think of others, compost your garden waste where possible, and stack or bag up rubbish for disposal when the current emergency is over, rather than burn it. Bexley Council will take enforcement action against any persistent offenders where bonfires cause an impact on neighbours. Bonfires can be reported via the Council's website".

If you have an Android smart phone, use a Chromebook like mine (click on the image above for a larger view), have a car with an onboard infotainment system, surf the web, or have a smart TV, or use social media, then without knowing it, you have used the Linux operating system. Linux is used by NASA, The London and New York stock exchanges, it controls The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, it is the operating system of choice of 497 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world, and is the backbone of Netflix - and pretty much both the Internet and the World Wide Web which is built on top of it. This hugely scalable and reliable operating system pretty much runs the modern world, and for the most part most people are completely unaware of it. Microsoft Windows may dominate the desktop and laptop computers of ordinary people, but outside of this area Linux is by far the more widely used computer operating system. The very first version of Linux was released to the world in 1991, but this week marks the start of the development of it in the Spring of 1990 by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds precisely thirty years ago. I have been using Linux since back in 1997, when it was very much the purview of IT professionals; it was lacking features, incompatible with a lot of hardware (getting online with Linux back in the day was an exercise in frustration – even very common hardware such as the then ubiquitous U.S Robotics 56K modem could be an utter bugger to get working).  I recall the hours I spent trying to get my Red Hat 5.1 Linux installation to do what it should do. Back then Linux was far more stable than Windows 98SE or the utter car crash that was Windows ME (oh the horror!) but conversely you had to be a real guru to get things done. I think this is where the negative image of Linux being unsuitable for the desktop came from. Nowadays things are far better – device support is superb – in many cases better than Windows and Linux now “just works”.  Very few people ever install a computer operating system from scratch – they buy a machine with a preinstalled OS and it stays on the machine for its life. Tinkerers like me do OS installs on a regular basis. It really is straightforward whether you are talking Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux or Apple OS X. You just follow the onscreen prompts and it pretty much does it for you. Personally I think that Linux has made far more of an impact in ways that few people realise – Google, FaceBook, Gmail, Netflix and Amazon all run on a version of Linux; it would be true to say that the Internet runs on Linux. If you have a smartphone that is not made by Apple, or a flat screen television, a set top box, whether it be a Sky satellite TV receiver, Virgin cable box or a Freeview receiver, they all run embedded Linux – it is the only operating system that powers devices from a toaster to a supercomputer with everything in between. Android, as used in smart phones and tablets is actually Linux with a whizzy interface suitable for touch operation. You can see from this that whilst Windows has for decades dominated the computer desktop, it has had little influence on the infrastructure and underlying technology of the modern world. As society moves away from large desktop PC’s, (and to a lesser extent away from the traditional laptop) and relies for online connectivity from smart phones and tablet devices, the underlying operating system has less significance than the applications that users wish to run – indeed, many applications are nowadays run online in a browser window – sites such as FaceBook, Instagram, Flickr and Twitter don't require a locally installed application, just a browser with connection to the web. Google grasped this early on with their excellent Google GSuite application suite and its close integration with both Gmail and Google Drive storage. The Google Chromebook range of computers embraces this – they are cheap, relatively low powered laptops that just run a the Chrome web browser and enable cloud based storage. Indeed the Maggot Sandwich is currently written and published solely using a Chromebook - a Linux device. 

Transport for London have issued the following announcement:- "Following a successful trial, from Monday 20 April, buses in London will temporarily become middle-door only boarding as part of Transport for London’s (TfL’s) efforts to help combat Coronavirus. This means the front doors will no longer be in use across the bus network. Please only use the middle doors to board the bus and allow others to exit the bus first before boarding. There is currently no need to touch in. The vast majority of people have followed the instructions of the Mayor and Government and have stopped travelling. The number of people using buses has plummeted by around 85%. This is essential to stop the spread of coronavirus. It is essential that everyone continues not to travel and does not return to the transport network". I have concerns over this, as I feel that it may well invoke the law of unintended consequences. When the public realise that from tomorrow, until some yet to be determined point, that London buses can be used for free, will it increase the number of people using them, and thus increase the risk of infection? Only time will tell. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Not many local people are aware that the Erith / Belvedere area was once subject to one of the largest non – nuclear explosions in history. You can see a contemporary newspaper account above - click on it for a larger view. Back in 1864 there were two local commercial gunpowder factories – that of John Hall and Son and the Elterwater and Lowood Gunpowder company situated on the marsh land that at that time existed parallel to the River Thames between Slade Green in the East and Plumstead in the West. Both factories were physically isolated from residential areas, and many precautions were taken to prevent any kind of fire; workers had to wear felt slippers, and all equipment was made of wood, or lined with copper to prevent sparks; understandably smoking was strictly prohibited. At about 6.40 am on Saturday the first of October 1864 all these precautions proved worthless, when there was a massive explosion which totally destroyed both gunpowder factories, their store magazines and a couple of barges that were being loaded with barrels of gunpowder at the time. No contemporary account exists of exactly what caused the accident, as the eyewitnesses were instantly vapourised. The explosion was heard as far away as Cambridge, and the shock wave was so intense that people in central London were convinced that there had been an earthquake. One report at the time said that as rescuers hurried to the site they found a massive crater and absolutely no signs of any buildings were left “it was if the place had been swept clean by a broom”. Surprisingly there were only around twenty casualties, as though the explosion was huge, the remote location prevented greater loss of life. Witnesses said that a huge pall of black smoke, shaped like a mushroom hung in the air for an hour afterwards. Five of the victims were classed as “missing” as nothing remained of them to bury. Others whose bodies remained intact to some degree or other were taken to the Belvedere Hotel in Picardy Road, which was converted into a temporary morgue. The injured were taken to Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge, where some then succumbed to their injuries. The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times (the story made world headlines) also curiously reported that a man escaped serious injury, but did have “his right whisker blown off, and he has not been seen since”. The unknown reporter then comments “The damage done to property extends to a radius of over twenty miles; the effect upon domestic animals is said to have been very remarkable. Thousands of pets succumbed with fright – the mortality to Canaries being particularly great”. The army was called from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to assist with emergency repairs to the river wall, which had been destroyed to a length of three hundred yards from the epicentre of the blast. Fortunately the tide was low at the time, and the Royal Engineers assisted by civilian navvies and some volunteers barely managed to temporarily block the gap before the tide rose. Had they not, much of Lower Belvedere would have been flooded as later happened in 1953. Considering the size of the explosion – it is estimated that something between 45 and 100 tons of gunpowder were detonated, the long term damage was pretty light, though the superintendent of Crossness Sewage Works did put in a grumpy claim for £150 for plate glass that had been damaged by the blast – this sounds like some very creative accounting on his part, as the works was still being constructed at the time, and did not actually go into operation until nearly a year later. I am of the opinion that this was an early example of insurance fraud. 

The advert above dates back to 1901, so the "20th Century Cycle co." would have been an extremely futuristic brand at the time. I think it strange that it does not give an address for callers though. An eye catching design, nevertheless.

Thirty five years ago, Dire Straits released their fifth album, “Brothers in Arms". It went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, it revolutionised the music industry. For the first time, an album sold more on compact disc than on vinyl, and passed the one million units sold  mark. Three years after the first silver discs had appeared in record shops,”Brothers in Arms” was the symbolic milestone that marked the true beginning of the CD era. “Brothers in Arms was the first flag in the ground that made the industry and the wider public aware of the CD’s potential,” says the British Phonographic Industry spokesperson Gennaro Castaldo, who began a long career in retail that year. “It was clear this was a format whose time had come.” CD sales overtook vinyl in 1988 and cassettes in 1991. The 12 centimetre optical disc became the biggest money-spinner the music industry had ever seen, or will ever be likely to see. In 1974, 28-year-old electronic engineer Kees Schouhamer Immink was assigned to the Optics Group of Philips Research in Eindhoven, Holland. His team’s task was to create a 30 centimetre videodisc called Laservision (Laserdisk in Europe), but that flopped (the quality was pretty poor, and the disks were notorious for skipping and stopping dead for no apparent reason) and the focus shifted to designing a smaller audio-only disc. “There were 101 problems to be solved,” Immink says. Meanwhile, in Japan, Sony engineers were working on a similar project. In 1979, Sony and Philips made an unprecedented agreement to pool resources. For example, Sony engineers perfected the error correction code, CIRC, while Immink himself developed the channel code, EFM, which struck a workable balance between reliability and playing time. “We never had people from other companies in our experimental premises,” Immink says. “It was unheard of. Usually you become foes, but in this case we really became good friends, and we're still friends after so many years. It was remarkable, actually.” In June 1980, after complicated negotiations in Tokyo and Eindhoven, the so-called Red Book set standard specifications for the compact disc digital audio format. The story goes that the size (12 cm) and length (74 minutes, 33 seconds) were changed at the eleventh hour when Sony’s executive vice president Norio Ohga insisted that the disc should have enough space for the longest recorded performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, his wife’s favourite piece of music, but I and others suspect that is an urban myth. There were so many technical and financial considerations that it is unlikely such a key decision came down to one woman’s love of Beethoven – there were simply too many other factors.  The CD was introduced to the British public in a 1981 episode of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, in which Kieran Prendeville famously mauled a test disc of the Bee Gees’ Living Eyes to demonstrate the format’s alleged indestructibility – the spreading of jam on the test disc is something that has passed into popular legend.  It caught the public imagination, but Immink found the claim puzzling and embarrassing because it was clearly untrue. “We should not put emphasis on the fact it will last for ever because it will not last forever,” he says. “We should put emphasis on the quality of sound and ease of handling.” (I read an article recently where Paul McCartney recalled the first time George Martin showed him a CD. George said, ‘This will change the world.’ He told us it was indestructible, you can’t smash it. Look! And – whack – it broke in half.”) Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler was an early convert (the second track on Pure, Perfect Sound Forever, the promotional 1982 compilation that came free with early CD players, was Dire Straits’ Once Upon a Time in the West). Knopfler insisted on recording Brothers in Arms on state-of-the-art digital equipment, so a promotional partnership was a natural fit. Philips sponsored Dire Straits’ world tour and featured the band in TV commercials with the slogan, attributed to Knopfler: “I want the best. How about you?” Brothers in Arms was an iconic release, the CD came to symbolise the so-called yuppie generation, representing new material success and aspiration. If you owned a CD player it showed you were upwardly mobile. Its significance seemed to go beyond music to a lifestyle statement. CD’s still sell nowadays, but the emphasis on convenience and ease of use of digital download services such as Apple’s ITunes have reduced the demand for physical recordings – it was It was the 2001 launch of the iPod, an aspirational premium product which made MP3s portable, that turned the tide. Before that the MP3 was an inferior good; Once you had the iPod, the CD was an inferior good. It could get cracked or lost, whereas MP3 files lasted.  Not pure, not perfect, but sound for ever. It is just a pity that unless recorded at very high bit rates, MP3 files sound inferior to CD, and way worse that vinyl – my own format of choice to this day. What do you think? Are CD’s on the way out for you? Do you still have a much loved collection of vinyl? Please make a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Belvedere ward, as there is no report from Barmehurst this week:-"On Bank Holiday Easter Monday at approx. 11am two men on a black motorcycle were seen stealing number plates from a Ford Transit In Alsike Rd. One had a white helmet and the other a black one. They were too far away to get a reg number. We have been getting more and more reports of neighbour disputes across the ward. It is a difficult time at the moment with the lockdown in place. We are all a little frazzled and fed up with the situation while stuck indoors. However, that does not mean we all have to be anti-social, play loud music, be noisy in general and be a pain to our neighbours. We all have a part to play and, when this is all over, we still have to live in our communities. Please try and be patient with each other and don't be a nuisance. There was a motorbike stolen overnight on the Monday 13/04/2020 from Ambrook Road. The bike was black and orange in colour and has been seen being ridden around the Lesnes Abbey wooded area recently. Please keep an eye out and phone police if seen. We have been having to move more people on this week from public spaces and on the streets. If you don't need to go out THEN DON'T. Stay indoors. The gym equipment in parks have been taped off for a reason, stop using them. Stay Safe, Stay Inside". Bexleyheath ward - no report received. Crayford ward - no report received. Erith ward:- "Crimes of note from this last week - attempted Burglary in Pembroke Road where the front window was smashed in the night there has been a slight increase in shop lifting reports from Iceland, Morrison's and Farm foods. We have been patrolling Erith high street daily as well as the rest of the ward. We are also questioning people we see asking their reasons for being out, we are keeping this friendly and if the reasons are genuine there is no problem at all, but we are telling people with non-genuine reasons to go home, if they are seen again more questions will be asked. We know this is a hard time for all of us, we just need to follow the government's guidelines. By all means enjoy this lovely weather we are having at the moment but enjoy it from your garden". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Great news this week no Burglaries or theft reports. The team have been receiving reports of drug dealing across the ward. We are completing patrols around these hotspot areas .This has been organised by a local unit to assist. Stop and searches have been completed in the alleys ways of Belmont Road , Bexley Road & Hurst Road . One male was found to be in possession of drugs . Patrols have also been completed in Northumberland Recreational Ground where a group of youths were dispersed. Officers obtained details and have contacted parents. Please see our tweets on @MPSNorthHeath where your see good stories, advice & information on COVID-19 also scam warning advice. I must remind everyone you should only leave home for essentials such as food or medicine, or to exercise".

Slade Green and Northend ward:- "An attempted burglary took place in the early hours of Wednesday 15/04 in Forest Road. Barking dogs woke the victim who then noticed some damage to their front door. 4 vehicle crimes to report in this last week. A car was stolen from Fern Close on Saturday 10/04, A bank card was taken from a vehicle in Frobisher Road on Monday 12/04, and 2 vehicles had locks damaged on Tuesday 14/04 in Rodeo Close and Crescent Road. All of these crimes took place overnight. As usual, we ask that no valuables are left in the car at anytime, hidden or not. Our officers are continuing patrols of the ward with regular checks of all park areas and open spaces to ensure there are no gatherings etc. Please remember to stay indoors as much as possible. Exercise is permitted for 1 hour a day, you are permitted to travel to and from work and also allowed to go shopping for essential items only". Thamesmead East ward:- "On Thursday 09/04/20 between the hours of 12:00 and 9:30 pm a door and window along with cash was taken from a shared property in ST. Martin's Close. On Tuesday 14/04/20 a sofa was stolen from a property in Mangold Way between the hours of 1;30am and 9;00am. Motor Vehicle Crimes. On the Saturday 11/04/20 on Kale Road between the hours of 10:00 pm and 1:19 am the drivers side window smashed and an untidy search unknown what items were taken. Also in Kale Road between the hours of 6;30pm and 7;30pm on Sunday 12/04/20 a windscreen was smashed. In Alsike Road between the hours of 5;30pm on Thursday 9/04/20 and 09:30 pm Monday 13/04/20 a vehicle was broken into , a torch and face masks were stolen. At 10;35am The front and rear number plates were stolen from a vehicle parked in Alsike Road on Monday 13/04/20. From 4;00pm on the Tuesday 14/04/20 and 3;00pm of the 15/04/20 the bonnet and some of the framework was stolen from a vehicle parked in Fairway Drive. Good News The team were given information about two vehicles which were reported stolen in October 2019 and 1/4/20 vehicles have now been recovered by both registered keepers. On 15/4/20 PC Nana found and arrested a high risk missing person who was wanted on an international extradition warrant in Lithuanian the male is now currently in police custody being processed by the special extradition unit. PCSO's Buckley and Hobbs were on patrol on the ward when they came across 4 young boys playing football when they were asked where they lived, 3 of the boys lived at different addresses. Apparently the first boy was out playing on his own when he was joined by the other 3 boys. Please adhere to the government guidelines. Anyone not in the same household should not be together. All four boys were sent to their respective homes". West Heath ward:- "Another week with no reported burglaries or motor vehicle crime. The team were on duty over the Easter period enjoying the sunshine but sadly having to ask people to move away from park benches, picnicking and sunbathing. Unfortunately, we are dealing with a number of minor neighbour dispute across the ward which appear to have escalated during the lockdown period. We are speaking to all parties concerned and requesting that they be a little more tolerant of each other during these difficult times".

The end video this week features a chap walking the first section of the London loop, which starts at Erith, and runs to Bexley Station. See what you think, and send comments to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Red Barrel.

You may recall that back in July of last year, I wrote of Bexley Council's plans to rejuvenate and improve the gardens in Pier Square, next to Erith Pier. Now, revised plans have been submitted for planning approval; with luck the works will happen before the Erith Pier Festival 2020, which is to be held in September of this year. If plans are approved the newly renovated public space will also be used as a venue for community events and festivals with new landscaping, seating and lighting. The Council has worked closely with architects BDP and land owner Morrisons on the new draft design for Pier Square which will transform it to a more attractive space to spend time. The designs incorporate comments made by local people during a public consultation held in April 2019. The planning application also sets out plans to appoint an artist or designer to develop creative space or a series of artworks that will add to Pier Square. Students from The Cass School of Architecture at London Metropolitan University will help to develop the brief for this creative opportunity and will be part of the selection panel. The students studied Erith’s history and regeneration potential during 2018. Their work culminated in an exhibition at The Exchange in 2019. A decision on the plans for Pier Square is expected in the Spring.

The dismal service currently being provided by the Woolwich Ferry is not going to improve any time soon; listeners to the excellent Time 107.5 FM will know that the radio station gives regular, hourly traffic reports, including the status of the Woolwich Ferry, which recently has been out of service very much more than it has been working. As I have previously written, there have been a series of engineering problems with the electro magnetic docking system used by the new ferries. I have heard that the new so called "state of the art" system is actually far more complex and harder to operate than the old manual hydraulic system. It also does not latch if there is a swell or a strong cross - current, both of which are common on the River Thames at Woolwich. There has also been a long standing dispute over the pay for the ferry crew, which is about to lead to another couple of labour strikes. You can read the details on the excellent 853 website here. 

I discovered an interesting historical fact quite recently. The huge, 219 metre (719 feet) tall antenna tower at Crystal Palace, that supplies TV and radio signals for a large part of London and the South East was designed and built by Erith based company British Insulated Callender's Construction Co Ltd (later known as BICC) with steelwork fabrication by Painter Brothers Ltd, Hereford, back in 1955. Much of the tower’s construction was prefabricated and test erected in sections in the Callender’s Erith works before it was pulled apart and transported to site for final erection. When completed in 1956, the tower was the tallest structure in Greater London, a title it held until the completion of the One Canada Square Tower in Canary Wharf back in 1991. The first transmission from Crystal Palace took place on 28 March 1956, when it succeeded the transmitter at Alexandra Palace where the BBC had started the world's first scheduled television service in November 1936. In November 1956 the first colour test transmissions began from Crystal Palace relaying live pictures from the studios at Alexandra Palace after BBC TV had closed down for the night. In May 1958 the first experimental Band V PAL 625-line transmissions started from Crystal Palace. The transmitter tower holds another record, one that cannot be beaten. On 18 July 1986, with the First Night of the Proms on BBC2, the transmitter became the first in the world to transmit stereophonic sound using the NICAM digital sound system. On 2 December 2009, the site entered service as one of the first DVB-T2 transmitters in the world, carrying a variant of the BBC's Multiplex B broadcasting high-definition TV services. All of the analogue television services transmitted from the Crystal Palace tower were discontinued back in 2012; all TV signals are now from a digital multiplex. The only analogue output of the tower is now FM radio (BBC radios 1,2,3,and 4) a couple of independent local stations, along with some legacy services on Medium Wave. The historical connection that Callender’s had with the BBC back in the day was wider than merely being the constructor of the Crystal Palace transmitter tower. Callender’s had an amateur band, called The Callender’s Cableworks Band, which was active between 1898 and 1961, of which all members were employees of Callender's at Erith. They rehearsed and performed in their leisure time, while the company in its role of patron lent its name and supplied uniforms and instruments. The band broadcast prolifically on BBC Radio in the 1920s and 1930s. The Band was started in the 1890s as a Salvation Army brass band, but because they felt limited as to the types of music which they were permitted to play, they formed their own temperance band. However this caused difficulties in purchasing their own uniforms and instruments, so their employer, Callender's, stepped in as patron. From then on they were Callender's Cableworks Band under various forms of that name. They were always an amateur band, rehearsing and performing in their leisure time. The Senior Band had a high reputation, and in 1932 were described as the finest in the south of England. In 1929 Jim Thompson joined the band; later in 1939 he was to found the Belvedere Male Voice Choir. In 1932 the band consisted of all brass instruments, plus four saxophones. At the time they were the only brass band with saxophones. In competitions over the years they had 25 wins, 11 second places and 3 third places. By the end of 1932 the band had performed on radio a total of eighty times – something unprecedented at the time. The band finally disbanded in 1961 as members retired and few young volunteers could be found.

Back when flat screen televisions were first made available around twenty years ago, they had a finite life. The early plasma screens were normally good for around 30,000 hours of service, the problem was that whilst the screens were bright and had a very good viewing angle, they used a lot of power, even when in standby, and when on they got very hot. When LED screens came along, their life was substantially longer, and again the limiting factor was the life of the backlight – a common issue. Newer screen technology now available is OLED, and Samsung's proprietary QLED. An OLED display works without a backlight; thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than an LED screen. In low ambient light conditions (such as a dark room), an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LED, regardless of whether the LED uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps or an LED backlight. The trouble is, the screens are very expensive, and they are difficult to manufacture in the large sizes that a lot of customers want nowadays; on top of this, as the OLED screens generate their own light, the screens “burn out” relatively quickly, and the colour rendition fading – blues especially “wash out” quite early on in the life cycle of the TV screen. QLED is similar to LED, but with more of the visual characteristics of OLED. All this in actual use may be relatively unimportant, as other factors are far more likely to affect the length of life of a modern flat screen television. Most TV’s on sale nowadays have so called “smart” functionality built in – the ability to stream media from companies such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, for example, and access to the web and sites such as YouTube is now something many people take for granted. In my opinion, the limiting factor in the real – life durability of a modern smart TV is not actually the display technology hardware, but is rather how long the TV remains in software support from the manufacturer. How long updates, patches and software downloads are available for the TV. For example, I have a Samsung TV from 2012; many of the applications installed on it will no longer run, as they went out of support in 2016. The TV itself still works fine, but if you want watch BBC iPlayer, for instance, you are stuffed. The issue here is that most smart TV’s use a version of the Android operating system – which is constantly being updated and modified by its creator, Google. The problem is that the TV manufacturers usually stop providing Android updates to TV’s after a couple of years, and sooner or later versions of apps for TV’s stop working on older versions of the Android operating system. It seems from my research that a TV will cease getting OS updates at around the fourth year from the point of purchase. It seems to me that TV’s are going the way of the computer and the motor car – they are now seen as time limited, disposable devices. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

A short piece by local transport enthusiast Dana Wiffen:- "It seems ironic that from the 1900's to the 1960's we had two forms of Transport that did not pollute the air, both running from electric overhead wires. In London Trams ran from 1860 (as horse drawn up until the 1900's) then until 1952 as electric with the last one running from Woolwich to New Cross in that year, although some were sold to Leeds and continued to run until 1959. Trolleybuses ran in London from 1931-1962 on 68 routes around London with the 696 Woolwich to Dartford, and the 698 Woolwich to Bexleyheath were the two main routes locally. Both trams and trolleybuses were replaced by diesel motor buses which in the most have been withdrawn today with newer electric or semi-electric buses replacing current stock as the emission zone is extended further into the outer London Boroughs. Some areas such as Croydon reintroduced trams in 2000 as have other Cities in the UK, while Blackpool has continued and still run Trams, with their heritage stock being a major tourist attraction".

After an Email conversation earlier this week, I was reminded of something. There was a period in the 1980's when British Rail ran a series of fast food outlets called Casey Jones Burgers. The restaurants were located at the major rail stations such as London Bridge and Charing Cross. The burgers were quite indescribably vile; they certainly bore absolutely no resemblance to the paragon of great burger - ness featured in the advert above. They were actually composed of greasy, gristly, zombie flesh - like cold grey meat on the outside, and lava hot in the middle so that molten cheese scalded the roof of your mouth like dairy based napalm (I think they microwaved the burgers). Rumours abounded when the Casey Jones opened at Charing Cross, all of the feral pigeons that plagued the station concourse suddenly disappeared. It was all very coincidental. Fortunately Casey Jones did not last too long, and eventually Burger King took over their station locations. they are now nothing other than a distant memory. If you have any recollections of Casey Jones Burgers, please get in contact and let me know. Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The following very atmospheric photograph was taken recently by Ian, the webmaster of The Belvedere Splash Facebook group. It shows the view from Woolwich Road in Upper Belvedere towards the recreation park. The housing in this part of Upper Belvedere has changed little in 150 years; indeed, many of the houses are in part of a conservation area. If you are a member of The Belvedere Splash, and have seen this photo on that site, I have not stolen the image - Ian actually sent it to me for use, before he published it himself.

It has been brought to my attention that the long dead brewing name Watneys is now back in business. It is now a trendy new craft beer range. You can see their website here. Back in the 1960's and 1970's Watneys was a mass producer of keg ales, their most popular and well known was called Red Barrel. Red Barrel was originally developed as an export beer that could be transported for long distances by sea. Red Barrel, like all keg bitter, was filtered, to remove the yeast. It was then pasteurised and carbon dioxide was added. The "keg" was linked to a tank of carbon dioxide which effectively forced the beer up from the cellar. There was no need for the traditional long-handled beer pump. Keg was usually served chilled and was fizzy, with froth on the top. Red Barrel was tentatively trialled at the Sheen Lawn Tennis Club where Watneys' Master Brewer, Bert Hussey, was a member. He was convinced that once sampled it would be instantly popular. By the early sixties, Watneys were able to claim that it was the country's most popular keg bitter. It was also the first. Red Barrel today is regarded with distain; in the 60s it was a premium product. Watneys negotiated a contract with BEA for Red Barrel to be supplied to passengers. Given that air travel, especially on scheduled flights, was still a privilege of the few, this must have been quite an achievement for Watneys and must say something about the quality image that the brand then had. Watneys were also able to sell Red Barrel at all bars on the new luxury liner, the QE2. As well as supplying to non-traditional outlets, Watneys also had a fair share of the Free Trade market, selling over one million barrels of beer, mainly Red Barrel and Watneys Pale Ale. So their products must have had some sort of following outside Watney Mann pubs where it might have been the only choice. Against this, however, "Which" reported on 1972 on keg bitters and their view was that there was little to choose between one keg and another. All were bland tasting and fizzy. There was also little reason for preferring keg over traditional beers such as Watneys own Special Bitter, which was somewhat cheaper. Keg, though, had the image and at the time, people preferred its consistent quality. More traditional brews were considered downmarket. Part of that image was a strong advertising campaign and Watneys were very astute at linking their products with the pop world. The Liverpool group, The Scaffold, famous for drinking to "Lily the Pink" drank to Watneys Pale Ale. Watneys Red Barrel was promoted with a television campaign and a slogan "Roll out the barrel". The campaign was supposed to suggest that drinking Red Barrel would promote "good fellowship, friendliness and happiness associated with beer drinking". Red Barrel was by no means Watneys only product. Watneys Special Bitter had been available in London for many years. In 1969 they took the decision to market it nationally in all Watney Mann houses. It was a traditional draught bitter, cheaper than Red Barrel. The late sixties was a time of rapid change in the brewing industry. New trends seemed to come and go quickly. Draught stout was quickly gaining a following. Watneys tried to compete head to head with Guinness for a time with a trial of Colonel Murphy's Stout. It did not prove successful. They had to accept that Guinness had cornered the market and sell draught Guinness in their houses. An agreement with Carlsberg Lager in 1969 was, however, more successful. Watneys were surprising latecomers to the lager market. Carling Black Label had been on sale in the UK at Bass Charrington houses for several years and Whitbread linked up with Heineken as long ago as 1961. However, Watneys jumped at the right time and joined the lager market before it really took off in the 70s. Another feature of drinking in the late sixties and early seventies were strong ales available in small bottles. The most well known is Whitbread's Gold Label - "Strong as a double scotch, less than half the price". Watneys produced two beers in this category "Export Gold" and "Stingo" barley wine. The new owners of the brand seem to be aiming their products up - market; I feel their use of the name is somewhat ironic, considering the bland and anodyne beers that the original Watneys used to sell.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Good news first, there has been no Incidents of vehicle crime in the past week. We have however suffered a burglary in Erith Road on Thursday 23/01/2020 between 10.25am -10.35am where the victim returned home to find the front door open and the lock damaged. Various items were taken from within the property. We ask residents to stay alert as a male was captured on CCTV in Hillingdon Road approaching a front door to peer through a window. In the background was a vehicle with lights on parked in the road. The driver's side door was seen to open therefore it is believed there were at least two suspects. Fortunately no attempt was made to force entry however it shows they were in the area! Our next community contact session will be at Barnehurst Golf Course on Wednesday 5th February 2020 at 11.00am". Belvedere ward:- "There have been several garage break-ins across the ward in what appear to be secluded areas (stand-alone garage blocks rather than garages attached to residential properties). Having visited victims of these crimes in Upper Park Road, Essenden Road and Lesness Park recently, the team have been informed that these incidents involve two males who appear to be using a light grey / light metallic silver BMW car. The driver remains in the vehicle whilst the passenger attempts to forcibly open garages by cutting the padlocks. There were also residential burglaries in Regent Square and Ashburnham Road in the past week. Entry was gained to both properties via the rear of the property by smashing glass in the rear doors to enter. The team visited a resident of Kentish Road who had contacted us for advice as he had been visited at his home by an unknown male claiming that he would require roofing repairs to his house. The male then made efforts to obtain a substantial amount of money from the resident whilst no work had been done. Thankfully, the resident refused to pay the money and contacted police to report". Bexleyheath ward:- From Neighbourhood Watch Member - in Hawthorn Road:- "A neighbour has reported that she and several other neighbours saw 3 white males 'strutting' down the middle of Hawthorn Road at about 4pm on Saturday 25th Jan. They walked down the road (away from The Broadway) and then walked back up. They were pointing and gesticulating at various features of the houses and garages and at one point walked down the shared drive of 14 Hawthorn Road. They didn't knock at the door of the owner. Later the same afternoon, her husband opened the door to a couple who told him about gangs leaving marks for potential burglaries. I said that burglars would be more likely to text or take a photo rather than leaving any possible evidence. I said that I would pass on this information as there may have been other sightings. It could be something or nothing. She was also concerned about the drug dealing she has seen/ heard about on the corner by the Memorial on Methuen Road". From Neighbourhood Watch Member - in Rochester Drive:- "There was an incident reported this morning for an attempted burglary in Rochester Drive on 26 Jan 2020 at 22:40. Two men drove up in the car what looked like a Mercedes A-Class. Both men exited the vehicle and one of them went to the property to try and forcibly enter while the other man stood near the car. The occupants were upstairs trying to put their 2 year old to sleep. The lady who is also now 8 months pregnant is distraught at the thought that she could've been face-to face with the buglers if she hadn't locked her front door earlier than usual. Thankfully they left quickly. There are video footages from the ring door camera as well as the CCTV. The car registration isn't obvious but we are not sure if the police are able to extract the number plate details". From Neighbourhood Watch Member - in Belvedere Road:-"We had a very suspicious occurrence on 20th Jan 2020 at 10.30pm. 2 young men black hoodies with black masks knocked at a neighbours door. They left apologising when the door was answered and walked out on the drive. They said looking for the next door neighbour. They got in a silver ish colour small car Y555 SPY. We checked with neighbour and they were not expecting anyone and no one knocked on there door after. The description of people matches with another post on FaceBook where two males tried to force entry to a house when a child answered the door. I believe they were put off by a male answering or were expecting the house to be empty. Police report filed and Neighbourhood police informed as car reg seems legit". Crayford ward:- "One residential burglary and one attempted burglary to report over the last week. The burglary occurred in Glebelands between 3pm and 7:30pm on Thursday 23rd January. Entry was gained via the unlocked back door. An untidy search was conducted with a laptop, a hoover and various other household items taken. An attempted burglary occurred in Clive Avenue on Sunday 26th January. The Ring doorbell motion sensor was activated at 11:07pm and showed a male approach the door with his hood up and a scarf covering his face. No entry was gained. There were four incidents of motor vehicle crime reported over the last week. There was an attempted theft from motor vehicle in Samas Way on Tuesday January 21st at 10:30pm. The suspect was wearing a hoodie and tried to break into the vehicle but ran off when the alarm went off. Criminal Damage to motor vehicle occurred in Ridge Way when a wing mirror was smashed. Nothing was taken. The incident occurred between Monday 20th and Wednesday 23rd January. A white ford transit company van was broken into in Ridge Avenue overnight of Tuesday 21st January. It appears nothing was taken. Between Friday 24th January and Sunday 26th January a black Vauxhall Vivaro was broken into in Tanners Close. The driver's side window had been smashed and it appears the airbag had been taken". Erith ward:- From Neighbourhood Watch Member - in Vickers Road:- "At 04:15 hrs on Friday 24th January what appears to be a male with a push bike was trying all the car doors. He was successful in one car as the owner had left the car unlocked". From Police SNT Team:- "This last week we carried out a warrant in Erith which involved Northumberland heath SNT and North End SNT a number of knives where recovered and 3 stolen mopeds, arrests were made. This was a good team effort from everyone involved – check out Erith SNT Twitter page for some images ( @MPSErith )On the Saturday 4th of February it is the Ward panel meeting in Erith invites will be sent out, if you are interested in attending and live in Erith please email us. We have been having ASB issues in Erith Park, we posted out letters (over 500) to all residents in the area, we are also working with Orbit housing and Bexley ASB team on ways to tackle this". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Attempted burglaries - Attempted garage burglary at Becton Place. Suspects were seen entering the garage and had stolen a bicycle . Between 1945 and 2025hrs on Tuesday 28th JAN an unknown suspect ripped off the side gate and gained access as a trespasser to a garden of Frinstead Road, Erith. From there, the suspect broke into the garden shed and may have used a tool taken from there to try and wrench open the back door to the house. Entry to the house was not gained but the door was scuffed. Tesco's on Bexley Road have also reported low level shoplifting. The suspect is known to police. Theft from motor vehicle on Detling Road. The CCTV camera has now been installed at Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground . The Local Policing have already received positive feedback from local residents. S.59 Warning has been issued to a driver of a moped witnessed by a member of the public driving dangerously along Sussex Road / Northumberland Heath. The next contact point will be on Wednesday Sunday 5th February at 4.30pm at Mill Road Library. Residents will be able to obtain a smart water kit".

Slade Green and Northend ward:- "Between Friday 24/01 and Sunday 26/01 we had 4 overnight Theft from motor vehicles. They were in Hazel Drive, Cornwallis Close, Jenningtree Road and Appold Street. Not only were all 4 crimes committed during night time hours but all 4 also had valuables and personal belongings on show (sat navs, phones, expensive jacket etc). This reiterates our regular warning of not leaving any items in your vehicles at any time. Last week PC James assisted Erith SNT in executing a warrant on their ward. 3 stolen mopeds were found along with drugs resulting 2 arrests made at the scene. PCSO Mark along with other PCSO colleagues from North Heath, Erith and across the borough carried out high vis patrols of the Broadway last week after recent reports of several knife crimes in the area". Thamesmead East ward:- "Motor vehicle crimes - Mangold Way Sat 18/01/20 between 7pm – Mon 20/01/20 9am windscreen wipers completely snapped off by unknown suspect/s from victim's vehicle. Yarnton Way Monday 27/2/20 between 2:30 – 3:30pm Victim reports vehicle front passenger window smashed, glove box ripped open containing a pencil case with bank cards and house keys inside, removed by suspect/s unknown. Southmere Drive Monday 27/1/20 between 2pm – 7:30pm Victim reports vehicle broken into Dash Cam and loose change removed by suspect/s unknown. Pointer Close Monday 27/1/20 between midday – Tuesday 28/1/20 3pm victim reports front and rear registration plates removed by suspect/s unknown. It has since come to light the plates have been use on another vehicle which made off from a petrol station without paying for fuel. Criminal Damage - Glimpsing Green Monday 27/01/20 between 05:56 – 05:58 am Victim was in bed and was woken by the sound of banging coming from the living room. Victim went into the living room and saw suspect had broken the glass door and had their hand inside trying to reach for the door handle. Victim shouted “what are you doing”? and the suspect ran off towards the park. Theft - Sydney Road Friday 10/1/20 between 11pm – 11:10pm a property which is undergoing building works has had materials stolen from the drive. Good News - After complaints by residents in Glimpsing Green of youths causing antisocial behaviour and smoking cannabis, the team made several patrols of the area and found a suspect smoking in possession of cannabis. The suspect was subsequently interviewed and processed. The team are investigating a recent theft from Taris shop in Yarnton Way, involving a number of young people who have been identified via CCTV. All to be interviewed at a later date. Just to reiterate all crime will be investigated and taken seriously by the team". West Heath ward:- "One attempted garage burglary in Milford Close between Wednesday 20/01/20 09.00 – Tuesday 21/01/20 09.00. The padlock to the shed was broken off but nothing was taken. An attempted burglary took place in Bedonwell Road on Monday 27/1/20 at 00.40. A pane of glass was smashed on the inner front door, entry was not gained. A dark coloured BMV was seen making off towards King Harolds Way. One residential burglary in Brampton Road on Tuesday January 28/01/20 between the hours of 11.45 – 18.45. Entry was gained via the back door. A safe was stolen from the property. Theft on number plates from a vehicle parked in Woolwich between Thursday 23/01/20 19.30 – Friday 24/01/20 at 07.00 .Theft of a catalytic converter in Amberley Road on Tuesday 21/01/20 between the hours of 10.00 – 1500. Theft of catalytic converter in Gipsy Road also on Tuesday 21st January between 10.30 – 6.30. A number of personal items were stolen from a vehicle that was broken in to in Brabourne Crescent between 21.00 0n Tuesday 28/01/20 and Wednesday 29/01/20 at 07.45 when the victim discovered the car had been broken in to. One criminal to a van in Selsey Crescent between Sunday 26/01/20 0800 – Monday 27/01/20 at 07.30 when the owner discovered the vehicle had been covered in graffiti. The team have been busy conducting proactive patrols in and around the ward. Two arrests for domestic criminal damage and Domestic ABH. Following information received, three positive stop and searches were made in Powys Close and a male was issued with a penalty notice for the possession of cannabis".

The end video this week is some unique aerial footage taken over Barnehurst - it gives a very unusual perspective on the area. Please feel free to send comments / stories to me via Email; my address is hugh.neal@gmail.com.