Home rule for Erith?

The photo above shows Erith Town Hall, the current home for Capita Business Services, the company used by Bexley Council for the outsourcing of council tax collection. As I have previously written, rumours abound that Bexley Council is looking to terminate its contract with Capita, and enter into a money saving joint venture with Bromley Council, whereby one contract would cover the council tax revenue collection of both boroughs, and where economies of scale and a lack of duplication would mean that the costs to both boroughs would be substantially lower. The downside of this joint venture would be that there would no longer be any use for the old Erith Town Hall building for council operations. Knowing Bexley Council's obsession for selling off the family silver at the slightest opportunity, questions are already being asked about the future for the building, and indeed the Andrew Carnegie gifted former Erith Library next door, a little way further down Walnut Tree Road, and directly opposite the new Bexley College campus. The site would be very attractive to property developers, as they would be able to cram a large number of high - end yuppie flats onto the site, which has a clear view over the River Thames. The council would trouser a packet from the sale of the land, and would also get a steady annual income from Council Tax. I may sound somewhat cynical, but knowing the way the mindset of certain Bexley councillors operates, this would be no surprise whatsoever. I hope that it does not come to pass. Indeed, I have heard the idea circulated that it might be preferable for Erith to secede from The London Borough of Bexley altogether. Erith was a local government district in north west Kent from 1876 to 1965 around the town of Erith. It also included the generally suburban areas of Northumberland Heath, Belvedere, and parts of Barnehurst, Bexleyheath, Crayford and the SE2 London Postal District of Abbey Wood. The district was formed when the Local Government Act 1858 was adopted by the parish of Erith, and a Local Board was formed to govern the town. Under the Local Government Act 1894 it became an urban district. The district ran its own tram services as Erith Urban District Council Tramways until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.  In 1938 it gained the status of municipal borough. In 1965 it was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and its former area transferred to Greater London from the administrative county of Kent. Its former area was combined with that of other districts to form the present-day London Borough of Bexley. I cannot see any clear - cut reason why a return to the status of Erith as a municipal borough could not be possible. Care of our own area, with building control with due consideration for local history and traditions, and a greater local accountability, away from the dodgy and unaccountable dealings of Bexley Council - what do you think? Is home rule for Erith the way forward?

It being rather more in his area than mine, Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers has been following the story of the senseless vandalism that destroyed the children’s play area in Lesnes Abbey Woods. The slide and other play equipment were subject to an arson attack on June the 9th at around 7.30pm; a group of four or five teenagers was seen in the area before the fire, but so far, no arrest have been made in respect of the case. Further vandalism of the site was also carried out in the last couple of days, possibly by the original offenders. Bexley Council have, quite surprisingly in respect of their recent track record, approved the replacement of the play equipment, which was damaged beyond repair by the fire. I do not know if the play area was covered by any form of insurance, but the News Shopper is quoting a replacement cost for the equipment of £102,000, which seems an awfully large amount of money for a glorified climbing frame and slide. It also begs the question, why the replacement play equipment has to be manufactured in France? I am sure that they will do an excellent job of it, but I just don't see why some light engineering company in the local area cannot do it – we have plenty of engineering shops in and around Lower Belvedere and Erith who I am sure would have the equipment and skills to carry out an outstanding job for a fraction of the quoted price. What do you think? Let me know, either by leaving a comment below, or by emailing hugh.neal@gmail.com.

When I saw the above advertisement outside of Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, it made me both amused and annoyed at the same time; the message that a scheme to encourage children to read more in the school summer holidays is a good one, but the problem is that Bexley Council are shutting down and selling off many local libraries - so the exhortation to "join free at your local library" is ironic - since they are being done away with. Definitely a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing in local government. Perhaps a stronger case than ever for local devolution?

Most weeks, when I check the viewing statistics of the latest Maggot Sandwich, the figures are pretty predictable. I know more or less how many readers I will have over the course of the week, and what they have been reading. Blogger gives some pretty impressive management statistics. If I do get a sudden upsurge in hits, it is normally that someone has put a link on another popular site that leads back to the Maggot Sandwich. This week I have had a bit of a mystery – a very large surge in readers, with no apparent link to another website. It took me quite a while to work out exactly what was happening. It was only when I ran a Google search for the keywords “Funky Clock Scam” – the headline of the last update, that I discovered that it was showing on the page one results from Google. This was leading a lot of people who were researching the scam to hit on the Maggot Sandwich, thus driving up the number of hits the site was getting. You may have noticed that on the footer of each weekly Maggot Sandwich update, there is a small listing of keywords relating to the subject of the week’s update. These are known as metadata – data about data, in other words. Search engines like Google scan this metadata and use it to catalogue and rate webpages for potential users. It just so happens that I included the phrase “Funky Clock Scam” – which coincidentally happened to be what a lot of online users happened to be searching for. This caused the listing of the Maggot Sandwich to have a higher than usual score, and so the entry from last Sunday suddenly appeared on the search results page for a lot of users who would otherwise not see it.  A quirk of a search is all it takes to change user statistics quite dramatically. I welcome anything which brings potential new readers to the blog, even if the search result was nothing but a random accident.

One subject I have mentioned before, but make no excuse for bringing up again is something that intensely annoys me, and that is the inconsiderate and selfish habit a certain type of people have when using the trains – they put their feet up on the seat opposite. It has got to be such a problem that Southeastern Trains have now placed warning stickers underneath the train windows advising passengers not to do it – but it of course has made very little difference, as the kind of people who do it think that the rules don't apply to them – and in any case they don't care. It is not just a question of dirty footwear marking the train seats – it is far more about the transfer of harmful bacteria onto the clothes of other passengers, and from there to their hands. Pavements contain many harmful bacteria – some of which come from animal droppings, mainly dog mess. When it rains, the bacteria wash all over the pavement – you don't actually have to step on a turd to get the harmful bacteria on your shoes. The thoughtless people who put their feet on train seats are actually spreading harmful bacteria onto the clothes of passengers who subsequently sit on the seats; from there the bacteria get spread to wherever the passenger subsequently travels, and gets spread to those that they go on to meet. I have been told by a senior nurse who works in a very large London hospital that something like forty percent of the in – hospital infections that are attributed to MRSA are actually Cryptosporidium or other dog mess related bacteria that have been brought into the hospital by visitors on their hands or clothes. The feet on seats problem is thought by epidemiologists to be one of the principal vectors by which the bacteria travel. The message is abundantly clear – do not ever put your feet on the seats; not only is it loutish and uncouth, it is disrespectful of fellow passengers and on top of everything else, it spreads preventable diseases.

As many readers will be aware, Microsoft have just launched their latest version of the Windows operating system, called Windows 10. One of the biggest complaints about Windows 8 was the lack of a conventional “Start” menu, as had been in place since Windows 95 first came onto the market. Many users were unhappy when Windows 8 did away with the feature, that many had been using for years. Although Microsoft took a real battering over the issue, and re – introduced a modified form of Start menu in Windows 10, it would appear that users are still unhappy.  Start Menu replacements for Windows 10 are moving almost as fast as they did for Windows 8, which didn't have a Start menu at all, according to a software developer called Brad Wardell, whose company makes the most popular third party commercial drop-in Start menu. Far from being rendered obsolete by the return of the Start Menu in Windows 10, Wardell said demand for his Start10 utility is surprisingly high. It's about 2/3 what Start8 (his older Windows 8 Start menu replacement utility) was at this stage. It's been somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 a day so far, in terms of downloads. Start8 was doing closer to 20,000 to 25,000 per day at this point,"  It was easy to see why people wanted a Start Menu in Windows 8: it didn't have one “out of the box” at all. That broke seventeen years of habit; but why would anyone want a replacement for the Windows 10 version, which Microsoft boasts has been seen by "five million" participants in the Windows Insider preview programme? Wardell thinks it's because users don't like  the program previewing Live Tiles, which remind some of flash banner advertising, while the separation of the new interactive “digital assistant” Cortana means the whole experience becomes cumbersome. Windows 95 had a search button, while in 2007 Microsoft has integrated a real-time search field into the much hated Windows Vista. Perhaps it may be another example of the five million Windows preview users not being representative of the needs of Microsoft's real, paying, working everyday users. Either way, Microsoft needs to act fast to stop Windows 10 suffering the fate of Windows 8. We know that Microsoft made the jump from Windows 8 to 10 with no 9 in between – primarily to distance itself from what the general public regarded as a public relations and technical disaster. My initial impressions of Windows 10 (run on a virtual machine inside my Apple iMac) are pretty favourable. Having said that, there are some worryingly glaring oversights made by Microsoft. Child-friendly Family Features from Windows 7 and 8 won’t be recognised or accepted in the new operating system. Rather, children using Windows 10 PCs are seen as standard users; no dedicated child-user account exists. That means any existing age-related website controls, app and game restrictions, PC time limits, plus your ability to view recent activity, won't work on Windows 10. Adults must now create a completely new set of family settings through a long-winded procedure in Windows 10 that requires the child’s participation. Microsoft had explained the new controls, here, but the details will be lost on many millions following Microsoft’s advice to run Windows 10 on existing PCs. Even those getting early builds of Windows 10 got caught out. Those unaware their old settings won’t work now risk exposing children on Windows 10 to adult content, violence and other online dangers once they have upgraded. I still won’t change my personal opinion that I will only use Microsoft Windows in a production environment when I am being paid to. The choice of computer operating system is not nearly as important for many users as it was even five years ago; the rise of mobile computing, tablet devices and even smart televisions have meant that for many users in non – business settings, the desktop / laptop PC is not the important device that it once was. The world has moved on, and unless Microsoft play nicely with their slowly dwindling user base, they may find that things have moved on from them too. On top of this, organised criminals have latched onto the launch of Windows 10, and have found ways to exploit Windows users - read on below.

Computer security analysts have encountered a new spamming campaign attempting to spread ransomware using emails purporting to come from Microsoft, telling people they are ready to download Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10. The emails mimic the actual Windows 10 messages Redmond has been sending out (with some minor text mistakes) and have spoofed the originating address to read as update@microsoft.com, although the sender's IP address can be traced back to Thailand. There's also a Microsoft disclaimer, and a message claiming the files have been cleared as virus-free by Mailscanner. A 734 KB attachment included in the emails claims to be a Windows 10 installer but actually contains the ransomware, which sets to work encrypting documents, media files and anything else that might be useful to the hapless people who double-click on it. Analysis of the source code continues, but the elliptic curve encryption algorithm used looks very strong. The ransomware is also unusual in a number of ways. It asks for the customary decryption charge in Bitcoin but only gives the user 96 hours to respond, which is a shorter window than is typical of similar malware. It also wants victims to respond via a Tor connection and provides instructions on how to use the protocol. It also demonstrates its efficacy by showing a complete list of encrypted files and offering to decrypt five of them for free. Cryptolocker has built a market for itself because people know that if they pay they will get their files back. CTB-Locker is doing the same thing by proving to people they can do what they say they can do. The Malware is described by security researchers as “unusually chatty", sending back large amounts of data to command and control servers via hard-coded IP addresses. There is speculation that this could mean the malware is mining a victim's files for stuff that looks useful. CryptoLocker is a ransomware Trojan which targeted computers running Microsoft Windows, believed to have first been posted to the Internet on 5 September 2013. CryptoLocker propagated via infected email attachments, and via an existing botnet; when activated, the malware encrypts certain types of files stored on local and mounted network drives using RSA public-key cryptography, with the private key stored only on the malware's control servers. The malware then displays a message which offers to decrypt the data if a payment (through either Bitcoin or a pre-paid cash voucher) is made by a stated deadline, and threatened to delete the private key if the deadline passes. If the deadline is not met, the malware offered to decrypt data via an online service provided by the malware's operators, for a significantly higher price in Bitcoin. Although CryptoLocker itself is readily removed, files remained encrypted in a way which researchers considered exceedingly difficult to break. Many said that the ransom should not be paid, but did not offer any way to recover files; others said that paying the ransom was the only way to recover files that had not been backed up. Some victims claimed that paying the ransom did not always lead to the files being decrypted. CryptoLocker was isolated in late-May 2014 via Operation Tovar—which took down the Gameover ZeuS botnet that had been used to distribute the malware. During the operation, a security firm involved in the process obtained the database of private keys used by CryptoLocker, which was in turn used to build an online tool for recovering the keys and files without paying the ransom. It is believed that the operators of CryptoLocker successfully extorted a total of around $3 million from victims of the Trojan. Other instances of encryption-based ransomware that have followed have used the "CryptoLocker" name (or variations), but are otherwise unrelated.  The message would seem to be, don't be impatient if you want to move to Windows 10, but wait for the official Microsoft update to come to your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PC. Although Windows 10 is free at the point of launch to all existing registered Windows owners who qualify, it is questionable for how long this will continue, as it is thought that Microsoft will be rolling out an annual fee for using their operating system, rather than the old “pay once and use for good” business model that they have operated in the past. We will see in time, though paying a licensing fee to use Windows might seem like a bad thing for home users, but for businesses it makes sense – the corporate adage “if it appreciates, buy it; if it depreciates, lease it” applies in many cases. It also stops pirating to a very large degree. We shall see how this one runs. If you have an opinion you would like to share, please leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Recently I received the above leaflet through the letterbox of Pewty Acres. Normally these kind of flyers got straight into the paper recycling sack, but I gave this one a read, and to be honest I was pretty gobsmacked. If you click on each image you can see a larger version and read for yourself. If the flyer was an advert for a washing powder or new kind of pizza, I feel strongly that the advertisers would be investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority, which have control over direct mailing, leaflets, flyers and promotional literature. The difference is that the advert is for a religious institution. The blatant claims made in the leaflet do not stand up to event the slightest amount of analysis or scrutiny, and indeed could well ending up causing harm to those who take the claims seriously. The Redeemed Christian Church of God are a huge organisation which has groups all around the UK, though it is based in Nigeria. The church seems to have very blinkered and intolerant opinions on many social subjects, and I have noticed that whilst many of the congregation at the Erith church put on their Sunday best for services, they are obviously having to watch the pennies. Yet the Pastor and his wife can both be seen driving around in brand new cars. It strikes me that some people are making very good money out of the poor and vulnerable. Some things never seem to change I am afraid. 

Mayor of London candidate Sadiq Khan claims that 14,322 properties are at risk of being sold in the London Borough of Bexley, and 438,291 across London as a whole. he has claimed this will exacerbate the "chronic" housing crisis, with no promise that new affordable housing will be built. Mr Khan said in a recent interview that:- "We all know that London has a chronic housing crisis – we simply don't have enough social housing for people to rent. The government's solution is not to build more affordable homes in Bexley, instead they want to sell them off. They're planning to force housing associations to sell their homes through Right to Buy – and what’s more, they're planning to pay for this by forcing councils, like Bexley, to sell off large numbers of council homes on the open market. I think this is totally wrongheaded, and will only make London’s housing crisis worse."I feel that this part of the issue, but not the whole thing. Affordable housing has been a problem in London and the South East for what seems like an age. Only this week did the London Evening Standard report on how a scheme to redevelop Battersea Power Station into a mix of affordable and high end housing has hit a snag. which has been widely reported in the local and regional press, as new plans place the affordable accomodation away from the luxury housing scheme. Promised homes at Battersea Power Station reserved for first-time buyers and renters have been moved to a plot half a mile away from the luxury housing scheme. More than 370 “affordable” homes, which were to be mixed among the multimillion-pound apartments next to the Grade II*-listed power station, are instead to be located on a former industrial estate between busy railway lines.  Developers say the change is needed to make way for a giant sewer. Wandsworth council is currently considering the proposal to place the cheaper homes in a collection of mansion blocks ready to move into in 2019. However, with the homes being positioned at the furthest reaches of the site, the proposals are likely to reignite the “poor door” debate — a reference to developers’ practice of providing segregated entrances for private and affordable owners in upscale blocks. I fear that as long as private developers are the only real power in house building, the situation is unlikely to change - after all, it is in their interests to build and sell as many properties as they can, at the highest price they feel that they can get away with.The flight of dodgy cash out of Russia and China, not to mention the huge number of Arabs who are buying up London wholesale has only caused the market to inflate still further. Rental is beset by similar problems. The average cost of a London rental property has risen six per cent to £316 a week in the past year, according to new figures from Hamptons International. Data from head of research, Johnny Morris, shows that even in the cheapest boroughs — Bexley in south-east London and Havering, in the east — a one-bedroom flat now costs about £170 a week, while typical two-bedroom flats cost in the region of £225 a week.

The ending video this week is a Pathe News report on Erith and Crayford, from way back in 1966 (not 1969 as the modern YouTube caption says). It gives a very good idea of what both towns were like then - especially the footage of Erith, which shows the old town, before the wrecking ball destroyed it, only to be replaced with the concrete monstrosity that was universally detested. To be honest, I had quite some difficulty in recognising some of the locations in and around Erith, which have changed so much over the years, unlike Crayford, which is largely recognisable, and not so different now. It really is a time - capsule piece of reportage, which I would encourage you to watch. Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Royal Alfred.

It is nice to be able to report some positive and encouraging news about Erith for once. As I have written in the past, I am opposed to companies and property developers selling off profitable, viable community pubs to be converted into housing, and I still strongly of this view. What I am not against is developers buying up "no hope" pubs that are laying semi derelict and converting them into new housing. I have found out in the last few days that the former Royal Alfred pub, which has stood empty and apparently unloved in Manor Road, since it closed its' doors back in 2008 is shortly about to get a much needed makeover and major refurbishment. The downstairs bar area will be converted into a class A1 shop, the the upper floors will be converted into accommodation in the form of five one bedroomed apartments and two double bedroomed apartments. As you can see both above and below, the transformation of the pub from what it is now, to what the architect intends is pretty dramatic and impressive. The building has been boarded up and unused since it closed, and I reckon with some large injection of money and construction skill, it could be turned into a landmark building for the East side of Erith. Click on the photo above, or the two drawings below for a larger version. 

Normally the Maggot Sandwich gets written over the course of the preceding week; little bits get done in my lunch break at work, or in the evenings when I am at home. Back when I started the blog in 2006, I used to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and write the whole thing in one sitting. In those days it was much shorter and far less elaborate. This week I am almost back to the old method of compiling the update, as Christmas week has been very busy, and I have struggled very hard to find the time to sit down and bash out some prose. My apologies if as a result this weeks' update is not up to the normal standard; it has been a bit of a "rush job".

I had a conversation on Friday afternoon with one of the assistant managers in Morrison's in Erith; I was very surprised to discover that their most popular food item sold in the period between Christmas and the New Year is sliced bread and bread rolls. It was explained to me that many people have leftover turkey, beef and gammon from their Christmas meal, and rather than eat anything very elaborate, they buy bread in order to turn the leftovers into sandwiches. I suppose that it makes sense, though it had never occurred to me before. I do know that the bakery in Northumberland Heath has been working overtime - it bakes bread under contract for a number of retailers, including Marks and Spencer, so maybe the Christmas / New Year sandwich tradition is something common to the wider country, and not just the local area.

I am trying to discover more about a very colourful and larger than life character who lived in Erith during Victorian times; his name was Robert Austen, but he was more popularly known as "Robert the Devil" - he was an exhibitionist and showman, and I understand he had a strong man act that sometimes toured around North Kent and beyond. He had a couple of party tricks. He often drank in the pubs on Erith river front, and was notorious for betting other drinkers a pint of ale if he could swim across the River Thames from Erith to Coldharbour Point in Havering, Essex and back - which he invariably did. As I have previously written, the currents and undertow in and around Anchor Bay make this one of the most lethal stretches of the Thames for swimmers, and why most people who enter the river end up getting fished out by the Police or RNLI as corpses. It would appear that Robert Austen was a very strong and confident swimmer who could repeatedly challenge this. On top of swimming the river, Austen would permit a man to break a granite kerbstone over his chest with a sledge hammer - for the price of a gallon of beer! More information if you have it please. 

Following my open question last week as to when the photograph of the trolley bus was taken outside of the Wheatley Hotel, on what is now the site of the hideous fish sculpture, I have had the following message from Richard Spink, who has strong memories of the 698 trolley bus service:- "The 698 trolley bus was withdrawn in 1959. It used to run from Woolwich along Plumstead High Street and down to Abbey Wood Village then on to Erith, North Heath and Bexleyheath. I remember catching it from the bus stop at the bottom of Wickham Lane when my parents were visiting Mum's Sister in Gravesend. We would get the train from Abbey Wood. I seem to remember it only going as far as Abbey Wood where it would turn round and come back to Woolwich again. Perhaps by then, the route to Bexleyheath had already been closed. The route was eventually replaced by the 229 bus service. We also had the 696 trolley bus which ran from Woolwich all the way to Dartford and was supposed to be the longest in the country. This was replaced by the No.96 bus. I believe your picture must date from the later half of the 1950's going by the clothes worn by the people at the crossing. Also, the tram lines have been removed which must have happened after the war. The ones in Woolwich Market Square were still there in the 1980's along with the original cobbled road surface. Shame it never had a preservation order. While looking for information on this, I came across this website. Looking at the pictures on the corner of Wickham Lane really brought back some memories as I lived in Wickham Lane as a child and remember the shops in the background of the pictures. I remember the trolley bus as well. The Off Licence on the corner of Camrose Street was where I used to go and try and buy bottles of cider aged about 16 and try and convince the shopkeeper I was older. The trouble was that he had known me from a small child (my Dad used to take me in there when he was buying his cigarettes) and knew exactly how old I was." Thanks Richard - I am sure many readers will find your recollections fascinating. Local historic transport links continue below.

Local resident Dana Whiffen wrote the following piece on the restoration of a number of classic GS buses from the early 1950's, which is being carried out at the Brooklands Motor Museum; the buses have a local link which will be come clear shortly. "In 1952 London Transport ordered 84 of these wonderful 26 seater single decker buses (see the photo above - click for a larger view) from GUY to be run on London Transport Country routes. The distinctive front with the 'Indian Head' motor buses started coming into service in October 1953 with the rest of the order being completed by January the following year. Remarkably today there are a total 30 of these buses preserved although only 12 of these are actually on the road, with three of these standing together at Brooklands for this anniversary celebration in October 2013. This bus ran in various rural counties around London including Kent where they ran on routes from Northfleet Garage between 1954-1969 covering routes towards Gravesend and Dartford, from 1953-1966 from Dunton Green Garage covering routes for Orpington, Westerham and Sevenoaks, from Swanley Garage between 1955-1959 covering Farningham, from Chelsham Garage between 1953-1962 covering routes for Edenbridge, Oxted and Tatsfield. The link to Erith was that GS50 was based at AbbeyWood Bus Garage  for severeral years after being removed from normal service in the late sixties; this bus was often seen around the area taking drivers to skid training at the Chiswick driver education centre, often picking up staff from Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Plumstead garages".

The weather over the last couple of weeks has been notoriously atrocious. Much has already been written about the subject, and I don't want to repeat what has already been said. One thing that it has highlighted is something I have mentioned in the past, but I feel that needs to be restated. People who put their feet on the seats on public transport is something that winds me up no end; not only is it antisocial, but it is extremely unhygienic. Even if the culprit has not directly stood in a dog turd, the harmful bacteria from excrement is washed all over every pavement when it rains and everybody gets fecal bacteria on their footwear, whether they know it or not. It is only after a period of bright sunshine that the Ultra Violet light from the sun kills the micro organisms, but for much of the time in winter the footpaths and streets of Britain are literally awash with harmful bacteria, mainly from dog droppings. When someone puts their feet onto a bus or train seat, they transfer some of this bacteria onto the fabric of the seat, where it can live quite happily for several days. In that time, multiple bottoms will have sat on the invisible bacteria colony, transferring some of them for another ride on an unwitting hosts' clothes. The person has only to touch the invisibly infected area to pass harmful bugs onto their hands, and from there, virtually anywhere. This is one of the main reasons that when you visit a hospital or nursing care home, you are strongly encouraged to use antibacterial hand gel, which is normally supplied in a dispenser by the entrance. A good wash with soap and hot water will do pretty much the same, if like me you are sensitive to the gel. I have been told by a couple of medical professionals that about a third of infections blamed on MRSA in hospitals and nursing homes are actually caused by canine fecal bacteria transferred from visitors' clothing. Think on this next time you see someone putting their feet on a seat. 

South Eastern Trains have run a shambolic service over the holiday period; some of it was their fault, some not. The terrible high winds and deluge of rain has certainly not helped matters. On Friday, a normal working day for many people, South Eastern initially said that no trains would be running until around midday. As lunchtime approached, this was changed to state that it would be unlikely that trains would be running at all, due to "Major disruption". The problems would appear to be directly related to the way that the Dartford to London Bridge, Cannon Street and Charing Cross via Greenwich railway line was originally created; for much of its' length it runs through a series of cuttings of varying depths. These cuttings are lined by trees and bushes, which just out of the steep earthen banks. As soon as any great storm happens, mud gets washed from the banks, weakening the tree and bush roots' hold in the ground. Combining this with the accompanying extremely high wind speeds, and the railway tracks get blocked by fallen trees and uprooted bushes. I know that there have been some half - hearted attempts to permanently remove the foliage alongside the track in the past, but this has not really worked. The trouble is that South Eastern Trains blame Railtrack, who run and operate the infrastructure. Nobody wants to take responsibility for anything - they just point fingers at each other. This is one instance when an overall umbrella organisation that would be responsible for the railway from end to end would be preferable. It's not going to happen, as there are too many vested interests - and too many fingers in the pie. The commuter comes very much at the bottom of the list of priorities - as in South East London / North Kent there is no alternative to using the train to get into London on a daily basis.  Commuters cannot "vote with their feet" as is the case in some other parts of the country - and the railway companies know it. 

I came across the advert above in an old map of Erith that I have had for absolutely ages. It was old when I was given it. Hedley Mitchell was the largest and by far the most important shop in the old Victorian Erith town centre. It was the towns' department store, and as large and grand as Hides in Bexleyheath. Many older local residents recall Hedley Mitchell with great affection. The store had a very high reputation for formal service. It was the first building to be demolished when work began to create the new (and subsequently much hated) brutalist concrete shopping centre in 1966. In fact the first act of demolition was carried out by the then Deputy Mayor, Councillor Mrs M Barron, ceremoniously smashed the window of Hedley Mitchell's store to mark the commencement of the demolition of Erith Town Centre to make way for redevelopment. As a consequence, all the existing Victorian buildings were lost. With hindsight, this was a terrible mistake - the existing town centre should have been sympathetically restored. I gather that this was considered, but would have cost too much money; instead they built a relatively cheap but undeniably ugly replacement out of bare concrete. I don't know anyone who had a good word to say about it. Consequently a lot of businesses upped sticks and moved to Bexleyheath or Northumberland Heath, and it is only now, nearly fifty years later that much of the social and economic damage is being put right. The current Erith Riverside Shopping Centre is actually a very clever redesign of the much hated sixties structure, rather than a ground up new build, but it has been done with taste and sensitivity - something entirely missing in the original, which was a smelly and soulless concrete monstrosity, detested by all.

I feel that 2014 will see the end of BlackBerry; the phone handset maker has lost its' way and is now haemorrhaging cash in an unprecedented way. This week the company announced losses that in practical terms amount to $4.4 billion. There is no way that they can keep this up for very long. The basic problem is that RIM (Research In Motion) - the old name for BlackBerry came up with a very clever idea for a very secure, encrypted smart phone infrastructure, which was ideal for business. This was all well and good a few years ago, but the company has sat on its' laurels, and not really gone anywhere since. Nowadays modern smart phones are powerful enough to do in software what that BlackBerry does in dedicated hardware, and the whole BlackBerry advantage has now gone. They have nowhere technologically left to go, and have not brought in any innovation. They will either go under, or be bought out by a competitor.

2014 will mark the sad 100th anniversary if the start of the First World War. Erith had a major contribution to this pointless and wasteful conflict; much of the ammunition and small arms used by the allies were manufactured in Erith and Crayford at the factories of Vickers. It is unfortunate to say that the area profited greatly from the Great War; it is debated that the relatively short lived tram system would have shut down earlier, had it not been for the influx of trade due to the large number of workers using it to travel to and from the arms factories. This week, English Heritage announced that they had finally identified a German WW1 era submarine that has been laid up on the Kentish coast for almost a century. Marine archaeologists have conducted research into the wreck of the submarine, which is located on a small creek off the River Medway - a place called Humble Bee Creek, near to the Isle of Grain. It is visible at low tide, and it is possible to visit, though one would need to use caution, as well as a good pair of wellies! The boat (only submarines are referred to as boats, all other navy vessels are ships) was originally called UB-122, and was commanded by Oberleutnant zue see Alexander Magnus, and was formally surrendered at the end of WW1, where it was towed by the Royal Navy to Halling in Kent, where the submarines' diesel engines were removed and installed in a local cement works. The rest of the vessel was then towed further downriver, towards a yard where it was to be further broken up. During the towing process, the lines connecting the submarine to the tug parted, and the submarine went adrift, eventually coming to rest at the aforementioned Humble Bee Creek, where it remains to this day. The submarine was one of the most advanced of its' day - a type UBIII coastal patrol vessel which was launched in February 1918 from a shipyard in Bremen. It carried a crew of 34 sailors and a total of ten torpedoes, and had a cruising range of just under nine thousand miles. Nowadays it is just a rusting skeleton, but part of the regions' maritime heritage.

The ending video this week is something special; it is a web only mini episode of "Sherlock". It is a prequel to the start of series three, which begins on New Year's Day. It shows what Sherlock was up to in the two years between him faking his death and then re - appearing in London. When you watch it, please don't let the fact that Germany does not use the jury system for deciding court cases put you off - as the foreman says, the case was held under exceptional circumstances. It provides a fascinating preview for the new series, which promises to have huge viewing figures. See what you think below, and feel free to leave a comment, or Email me directly to hugh.neal@gmail.com.