The fall of Joshua Bonehill.

The upper photo above shows Erith Town Hall taken recently, looking South up Walnut Tree Road towards the Fish Roundabout. The town hall was built in 1931 on the site of Walnut Tree House, a photo of which you can see in the lower picture, which was taken in 1880. I have to say that the house looked a lot better than the rather stark and utilitarian Town Hall and Council Offices that replaced it. The Town Hall and offices may not be there for very much longer. If, as has been mooted in the recent past, the housing benefit functions carried out in Erith by outsourced company Capita are merged with those of Bromley Council, then there will be no future function for the building. Only Capita staff are housed there - no Bexley Council staff actually occupy the site at all - they are now almost exclusively based in Bexleyheath. If the benefits function is merged with Bromley, I suspect that Bexley Council will be only too pleased to sell off the site, just as they have begun to sell land off elsewhere, as soon as they seem able. Whilst the Town Hall is not exactly pleasing to the eye, the building next door is - the currently closed and unoccupied Erith Library building, as gifted to the town by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie occupies the same prime parcel of land. I, and many other locals have concerns that the Council will combine the two buildings into one package of land to sell off to developers. It would make a prime residential area, overlooking the River Thames, close to Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, the buses and the railway station.

An event happened this Thursday, which made my month, if not my year; news reached me that self – professed extreme right wing neo Nazi Joshua Bonehill had been jailed for three years and four months by Southwark Crown Court for inciting racial hatred. I have written extensively about Bonehill in the past, as have other local Bloggers including Richard of the Thamesmead Grump, and Malcolm of Bexley is Bonkers. You may recall that back in August of last year I wrote a cautionary piece about Joshua Bonehill, and his dangerous, extreme right wing Nazi views. Bonehill ran a number of extremely offensive websites which you can easily Google (I will not dignify them with links from this site), and has featured prominently in the national press, including the Guardian, Russia Today and the BBC News website here. He is the person behind the campaign for the  “De – Jewification” of the Stamford Hill area of North London, that has had so much press coverage earlier in the year. He was arrested and charged with Malicious Communication last year, and narrowly escaped a custodial sentence for accusing innocent people of being paedophiles and many other outright vicious lies. Since then he has been back in court a number of times, again for online trolling and Malicious Communication. Then in February he was handed another suspended sentence for a further case; he was also arrested and charged with Malicious Communication and Racially Aggravated Harassment after he targeted Labour MP Luciana Berger. Many long-time readers will know that I have a personal, libertarian philosophy of “if it works for you”.  The premise of which is that I believe that people should be free to do whatever they like within the law, as long as it does not cause harm, inconvenience or distress to others. Joshua Bonehill is self-professed racist, homophobe, misogynist, xenophobic anti - Semite who hates anyone who is not white and British and shares the extraordinarily offensive extreme fascist views he has. Now the scumbag is languishing in prison – a place in my opinion he should have been consigned to a couple of years ago. After I wrote my original article about him, he sent me a threatening Email, which I then published unedited for anyone to see what kind of sick and twisted individual he was. I never got a response from him – something that did not really surprise me – bullies are often cowards at heart. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green all exist more or less roughly under the flight path of London City Airport. Back in the days when my Dad was still around, and a resident of Gallions View Nursing Home, almost directly opposite the airport on the other bank of the River Thames, the planes taking off and landing never seemed to be very much of an issue. Generally the airliners that use London City Airport are “city hopper” short range planes with relatively small and quiet engines (indeed airliners flying into and out of London City Airport have to be equipped with “high bypass” engines which create a lot less noise than conventional motors). The one exception I can recall was back in May 2011, when I was visiting my Dad in the nursing home. I heard a deafening whine, followed by a very deep rumble. Car and house alarms started going off all around the area of Gallion’s Reach, and suddenly from the other side of the river, the U.S president’s plane took off from London City Airport at what seemed like an impossibly steep angle for what is in essence a converted Boeing 747. You may or may not know that the presidential plane is only called Air Force One when the sitting president is actually on board. It turned out that the plane taking off from London City Airport was actually the backup one – the main plane had landed at Stanstead, but the US Secret Service wanted a spare nearer to London in case they had to evacuate the president in an emergency. Also when travelling, the main plane and the backup always fly together – any terrorist with an anti – aircraft missile would have only a fifty percent chance of targeting the correct plane. The converted 747’s are substantially lighter than the civilian version, and the engines are fitted with military afterburners – the planes are capable of travelling at near supersonic speeds – something the F15 and F16 fighter jets which accompany the planes during emergencies such as during the 9/11 crisis struggle with – Air Force One is hard for other escorting planes to keep up with without using fuel draining afterburners. All this power makes for a hugely noisy aircraft – by far the loudest aeroplane I have ever encountered.  What has this got to do with the local area? Well, lots actually. It has been reported by the Wharf newspaper that London City Airport says that it has untapped capacity that be put into use to help ease overcapacity in the south east. The chief executive of LCY Declan Collier has made the suggestion after a decision on the expansion of Heathrow was postponed for more environmental tests. The outcome won’t be known until after the London mayoral elections, infuriating businesses, environmentalists and residents – but sparing the blushes of Conservative mayoral candidate and environmental campaigner Zac Goldsmith.  Mr Collier said that even if a decision had come this week, it would be a decade before the new capacity came online – whereas the Docklands hub has plans in the pipeline that could be put in place in three years. The £200 million City Airport Development Programme was approved by Labour-run Newham Borough Council earlier this year, but Mayor Boris Johnson stepped in to veto the work . London City Airport is appealing the decision with a hearing due in the spring. It would lift the ceiling on the number of flights from 70,000 to 111,000 a year, doubling the number of passengers by 2023 a year, as well as make major adaptations to the airport to extend the terminal and build a parallel taxi lane. Mr Collier said in an interview with The Wharf that “London City Airport already has permission to operate more flights than it does today – and yet it has been prevented from doing so. Development at LCY does not require a new runway, or an extension to the existing runway. The airport simply needs to be allowed to make the most of what it has already got – to extend the terminal building, build additional parking stands to allow more aircraft to be on the ground at the same time, and build a parallel taxi lane, to enable aircraft to get on and off the runway quicker. These improvements would unlock capacity in the short term, enable the operation of more efficient, quieter next-generation aircraft, open up new markets serving the likes of the Middle East and the USA, and free up capacity for long-haul services by moving short-haul services from Heathrow. The Airports Commission recommended that better use should be made of existing infrastructure to mitigate the growing capacity shortage. Newham understood the benefits and decided to grant permission, the Mayor of London’s own planning officers recommended the same, but the Mayor himself acted alone to refuse the plans.” From what I have read, the reason for the delay in the decision to publish the report on the expansion of either Gatwick or Heathrow Airports  may at least partly due to the government not wanting to embarrass the Conservative Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith, who is standing on an anti-airport expansion platform. If London City Airport is allowed to expand, we may not only get a greater number of flights, but the rules relating to planes using only high bypass engines may well be relaxed – meaning that larger, noisier planes may be able to use the airport, where currently they are banned. This could have quite an impact on the local area from a noise and air pollution point of view. People who buy houses on the Gatwick or Heathrow flight paths do so in the full knowledge that aircraft will be making a lot of noise and smell for much of the time – indeed I have heard that aircraft spotters buying places near to the airports specifically in order to see the giant planes land and take off. Residents in Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green have made no such concessions to aircraft noise, and I think that we should be consulted. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The layout map above was sent to me this week by a regular reader; she described how it had been in her possession for some time, although I gather that it also has appeared on other local websites in the past. It shows the main shops and facilities that existed in Erith High Street back in 1930. What strikes me is the quality and diversity of retail outlets in the town back then - it must have been a real treat to go shopping in Erith eighty five years ago. If you have any historical memories of Erith - or indeed any photos from the past that you would like to see me feature - with of course full credit to yourself should you so wish, then please get in contact with me - hugh.neal@gmail.com.

A scientific paper which outlines some rather controversial findings was published this week in American website Science Daily. Contrary to recent headlines - and a talk by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the United Nations Paris Climate Change Conference - eating a vegetarian diet could contribute to climate change.  According to new research from Carnegie Mellon University, following the USDA recommendations to consume more fruits, vegetables, dairy and seafood is more harmful to the environment because those foods have relatively high resource uses and greenhouse gas emissions per calorie. Published in Environment Systems and Decisions, the study measured the changes in energy use, blue water footprint and greenhouse gas emissions associated with U.S. food consumption patterns. Whilst the report was U.S specific, the findings can be extrapolated to the entire world.  "Eating lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon," said Paul Fischbeck, professor of social and decisions sciences,  engineering and public policy. "Lots of common vegetables require more resources per calorie than you would think. Eggplant (Aubergine), celery and cucumbers look particularly bad when compared to pork or chicken”. Chris Hendrickson, the Hamerschlag University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, studied the food supply chain to determine how the obesity epidemic in the U.S (and pretty much all of the developed world, to be honest)  is affecting the environment. Specifically, the study covered how growing, processing and transporting food, food sales and service, and household storage and use take a toll on resources in the form of energy use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions. On one hand, the results showed that getting people’s weight under control and eating fewer calories, has a positive effect on the environment and reduces energy use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions from the food supply chain by approximately nine percent. However, eating the recommended "healthier" foods -- a mix of fruits, vegetables, dairy and seafood -- increased the environmental impact in all three categories: Energy use went up by thirty eight percent, water use by ten percent and greenhouse gas emissions by six percent.  This is certainly not what many environmentalists had expected, with many espousing a vegetarian diet as a means to combatting climate change. 

Another Friday, another serious gang related assault in the local area; the News Shopper have reported the case of a man in his twenties who was stabbed last week in Hurstwood Avenue, on the borders between Erith and Bexleyheath.  A local resident said he has been making reports to the police for the last year about anti-social behaviour by a group of up to fifteen people who hang around in an alleyway off Hurstwood Avenue. He said he has witnessed the group "selling drugs, taking drugs, urinating, driving around on stolen motorbikes, intimidating people and using aggressive and sexual language to the mothers who walk through there". The resident also told News Shopper: "I've expressed my worries to the police stating that it's only time until someone gets stabbed, murdered or raped there and now one of the three has happened. The police need to start taking the drug use and dealing around Erith more seriously - they deal in broad daylight right outside people's houses.” I completely agree with this sentiment, as I have had a similar experience, which I hope to be able to write about after the 11th January – more on this in a future update.

As I wrote back in October,  the take up of smart utility meters has been far below government estimates. Now another problem has been uncovered, which may turn the whole issue into the biggest IT failure in British government history. Smart Meters send real – time power usage data back to the supplier via a 3G mobile phone signal. This means that the meter does not have to be connected to a home data network. This sounds all well and good; the power company can bill you without having to send a meter reader to your house, and you get the option to monitor your power usage in an almost real – time way. There are however, problems. The data sent from the Smart Meter to the supplier is sent unencrypted, and “in the clear”; it is possible to intercept the data stream, and also a malicious attacker can potentially send instructions to the meter remotely. Several Smart Meter companies do tacitly admit this, but they play the whole lack of security aspect down. Secondly if one discounts the security implications, the various energy companies all supply different Smart Meters, many of which are incompatible with each other. If you choose to change your energy supplier, you will need to have your Smart Meter changed again – with the associated additional cost to you that this implies. The whole project was set to cost a total of eleven billion pounds, and was due to be completed by mid-2020. Now, in order to comply with European law, all of the existing meters may need to be replaced if they cannot be reprogrammed. Wholesale electricity in the UK is traded in half – hourly intervals, unlike in Germany and most of the rest of the European Union, where it is traded in fifteen minute periods. The EU wants the UK to harmonise the electricity market with the rest of Europe, which would mean smart meters having to record data every fifteen minutes, compared with the current thirty minutes. Virtually all of the meters so far deployed in the UK are incompatible with this change, and if the harmonisation ruling does come into force, it will render most of not all of British Smart Meters redundant. UK consumers will be faced with bills totalling hundreds of millions of pounds to comply with the EU directive, which could be implemented in 2017. Millions of non – EU compliant smart electricity and gas meters have already been purchased by the utility companies, and are sitting in warehouses awaiting deployment in the New Year. These meters are going to have to be reconfigured where possible, and replaced where not (which is likely to be in most cases). This is going to be hugely expensive, and the costs will be passed on to the end user. Britain’s energy usage has been linked to that of the European Union for some time; this involves the use of interconnectors – giant power cables which run beneath the English Channel and the Irish Sea. They already supply around four thousand megawatts, which is approximately ten percent of the electricity used in the UK. The Times reported on Tuesday that leaked internal documents from Elexon, the operating company behind Britain’s power trading system said that the change would “entail significant changes to IT systems across the industry. We would anticipate that any associated participant costs to be high”. In addition to this, the Institute of Directors have criticised the eleven billion pound scheme, which is the largest Government IT project in history as “unwanted by consumers, devoid of credibility, and mind blowingly expensive”.  I get the feeling this story is going to get bigger with time, as consumers realise how it will affect them financially. On top of all this, even the new EU compatible smart meters still have the security issues that I expanded on back in October. The “internet of things” is proving to be a far harder nut to crack than many pundits had predicted.

Regular readers may recall that back at the start of August, I wrote at some length about an online auction scam called “Funky Clock” and how the whole thing was fraudulent. It obviously sparked a lot of interest, as that Maggot Sandwich entry became the single most read update in the whole nine and a half years the blog has been running. To date the The “Funky Clock” Scam post has been read 28,100 times – not inconsiderable for a single entry. It is obvious that a lot of readers are deeply concerned by online rip – offs; as I have said before (and will no doubt say again) if it looks too good to be true, it almost always is. Once again, a major scam is running – and it is using some pretty nefarious tactics to promote itself. The screenshot above initially looks like it comes from the highly reputable and trustworthy financial advice website moneysavingexpert.com, but it is actually a clone. It is promoting another supposed “penny auction” website called Swoggi.com which seems to operate in a very similar manner to Funky Clock. In essence, Swoggi promises to enable members to bid in online auctions for articles such as iPads, Macbooks and other highly desirable technology. Swoggi claim that members will be able to win auctions for such items for a fraction of their retail value. In order to participate customers have to join up and purchase bidding credits – each (non-refundable) credit costs you 50p, but when you enter a (non refundable) bid on items, you always get out – bid just as the online auction finishes. This even happens if the auction bids have exceeded the retail price. It is obvious to me that the bids are being placed by bots – software programs that mimic the activity of human users  - but in this case, not very well. When users complain and try and get a refund on the credits they have purchased, they get told that they can get a refund, minus a £15 administration fee, but their refund never actually arrives. Disgruntled users have contacted the genuine moneysavingexpert.com to voice their anger. One Swoggi user wrote:- "Like an idiot I registered with SWOGGI......BIG mistake. I bought £15 (30 credits) then tried bidding.....I never won anything but something was coming up that I fancied.....to get my credits back that I used on an auction I never won I had to buy more so bought 50 quids worth (100 credits) and received 50 credits free, so in all I had 180 credits and started bidding bids cost 50p a time, then I noticed things worth £300 were being bought for £700 1 item worth just a couple of hundred went for nearly a 1000 quid. Check out the ended auctions. I never won any auctions. 2 auctions finished whilst I was watching and the bidding stopped at 16 seconds left on both auctions yet in the terms and conditions it says the auction will finish when the counter reaches ZERO this did not happen. I closed the account and now SWOGGI are saying all I am entitled back is £18.80. Yet I have not won anything. SO TAKE A TIP STAY AWAY FROM SWOGGI.....I DO NOT BELIEVE THEY HAVE ANYTHING FOR SALE I BELIEVE THE BIDDERS ARE BOTS AND SWOGGI MAKE THERE MONEY FROM YOU KEEPING BUYING AUCTION CREDITS. NOTE YOU WILL NEVER WIN". Another wrote "Each bid credit on Swoggi costs you 50p, yet the credit itself is only worth 1p in a Swoggi auction; for every £1 bid made by a potential buyers makes Swoggi £50 (50p x 100 = £1.00), at the moment the item has a £60 bid this means Swoggi has made £3,000 (£50 for each £1.00 increase in the bid x 60 = £3.000) and the item is only worth £518 what a scam. Each bid is 50p x 100 = £1.00 increase in the bidding, so for each £1.00 you buy you get two bids, so if you purchase £100 of bids you only get 200 bids; this equates to £2.00, because 100 bids increases the auction price by £1.00". The message is clear - avoid Swoggi and all similar websites - they are all fraudulent and will merely steal your hard earned money.

The ending video this week shows much of the progress that has been made in the last three months to the Crossrail Project - concentrating on the area between Abbey Wood and Plumstead, where the Easternmost tunnelling work has been completed, and is now being fitted with rails and the electrical and signalling equipment it will need to have in place prior to the 2018 opening. 

Another nail in the coffin for Brick Lane?

I took the photo above recently - click on it for a larger view; it shows the Erith Riverside Gardens and the River Thames. The Riverside Gardens are the only place in the whole of the London Borough of Bexley where you can easily access the River Thames. It is one of the unique benefits of living in Erith, and a feature that I feel is still somewhat under - utilised. Unfortunately there has been another case reported of someone trying to throw themselves into the river this week; The News Shopper have described how the Gravesend Lifeboat was called to Erith on Thursday afternoon at around 5.20pm after a person was seen attempting to enter the river. Local Police were soon on the scene, and the lifeboat was released to return to normal duties. This once again reinforces the need for a more local lifeboat substation for Erith; the location of which I have suggested several times in the past, and which can just be seen to the right of the photo above. The grey side wall of the former Port of London Authority building can just be seen. It would make an excellent base for a small team of RNLI volunteers, and is currently standing empty and unused right next to Erith Jetty, an idea place for launching a small inshore boat. What do you think? Contact me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

In a move which is bound to court controversy and some very vocal opposition, Bexley Council has taken the decision to make savings on the amount it spends on electricity for the borough's street lights.  The Council is looking at various options for reducing these costs including part night lighting which would mean switching off some lights from midnight until 5.30am. Following a recent price increase, the energy bill for the 20,000 street lights the Council currently maintains is expected to reach £1 million a year. Following consultation with the emergency services and other key stakeholders the Council has selected a number of streets within the Welling area to be part of a pilot study for part night lighting. The work to convert the streets lights to part night lighting starts week commencing 12 October 2015. If it proves successful then the scheme will be extended across the Borough. The pilot will be left to operate for four to six months. Feedback is very important to the Council and those within the pilot area will be given the opportunity after this period to give us their views on the experience. My feeling is that it will not go well; I think that any cost savings in electricity will be offset by increased costs due to road accidents, burglaries, anti-social behaviour and general crime. The fact that these hidden costs would not come out of the same budget as that for street lighting does not escape me either. Still, I suppose the whole point of the pilot is to find out what works and what does not. I will be keeping an eye on developments with interest.

The photo above (click on it for a larger view) shows the Pipeline Under The Ocean (PLUTO) control room during operations in late 1944. Much of the multiple PLUTO pipe infrastructure was constructed in and around Erith in the middle to late phases of World War II. The technology developed was later put to very good effect and made the United Kingdom one of the world centres for oil and gas engineering, something that is still true to this day. There is a lot of history in the local area relating to this stunning feat of military and civil engineering, and a handful of those involved in the project are still alive now. PLUTO, the WW2 Pipeline Under the Ocean, was designed to supply petrol from storage tanks in southern England to the advancing Allied armies in France in the months following D-Day. A reliable supply of petrol for the advancing Allied forces following the D-Day landings was of the highest priority. Planners knew that the future invasion of Europe would be the largest amphibious landing in history, and without adequate and reliable supplies of petrol any advance would at best slow down and at worst grind to a halt. A loss of momentum could jeopardise the whole operation as German forces would have time to regroup and counter-attack. Conventional tankers and 'ship to shore' pipelines were in danger of cluttering up the beaches, obstructing the movement of men, armaments and materials and, in all circumstances, were subject to the vagaries of the weather and sea conditions and they were easy targets for the Luftwaffe. The idea of a pipeline under the ocean, (the English Channel), was an innovative solution. Oil storage facilities located near the English Channel were vulnerable to attack by the Luftwaffe. To reduce the risk of losses, a network of pipelines was, during early discussions about PLUTO, already under construction. The network was designed to carry fuel from less vulnerable storage and port facilities around Bristol and Liverpool to the English Channel. This network would later be linked to the planned pipeline at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and Dungeness further to the west. (see map below). The terminals and pumping stations were heavily disguised as bungalows, gravel pits, garages and even an ice cream shop! The Combined Operations Experimental Establishment (COXE) was involved in many diverse top-secret projects including the waterproofing vehicles, the removal of underwater obstacles on landing beaches and the testing of landing craft under a variety of sea and beach conditions. To this formidable list was added the supply of petrol to France using underwater pipelines. All these challenges were borne out of a culture that encouraged bold and imaginative solutions to intractable problems. Such a  culture was encouraged at the highest level when Winston Churchill ordered Roger Keyes, the then Director of Combined Operations, and his successors, to think offensively when many were at the time rightly concerned with the defence of the country. In the early part of 1942 Geoffrey Lloyd MP, who was in charge of the UK's fuel policy, met with Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations (CCO) and others to consider the fuel supply issue. There was no 'off the shelf' solution that did not invite the Luftwaffe to attack shore installations or slow pipe-laying and support vessels. Lloyd approached Sir William Fraser CBE, Chairman of the Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Corporation.- They picked up on an idea of Mr Hartley, the Chief Engineer of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., to use existing submarine cable technology, minus the core, as the basic building block of a petrol pipeline. Siemens Brothers and Co Ltd., of Woolwich, London, who were experienced in the design and manufacture of such cables, eagerly took up the challenge. Other design work was undertaken by Henlys, Pirelli, Johnson and Phillips, the National Physical Laboratory and the Post Office. It was a complex task, and there were many failures arising from twists, kinks, bursts and collapse due to external water pressure and other powerful forces. One of the major companies involved in the production of the highly specialised pipeline was British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) of Erith, but even this was not enough to meet the volume of demand, so American firms - General Electric, Phelps-Dodge, Okonite Callenders and General Cable were drafted in. Of the 710 miles of PLUTO pipeline manufactured in total, 140 miles came from the USA.  The first pipeline to France was laid on 12th August 1944, over the 130 km (70 nautical miles) from Shanklin Chine on the Isle of Wight across the English Channel to Cherbourg. A further three pipelines soon followed. As the fighting moved closer to Germany, seventeen other lines were laid from Dungeness to Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais. The PLUTO Pipelines were linked to pumping stations on the English coast, housed in various inconspicuous buildings including cottages and garages. Though uninhabited, these were intended to cloak the real purpose of the buildings. Pluto Cottage at Dungeness, a pumping station built to look like a small house, is now a Bed and Breakfast. In England, the PLUTO pipelines were supplied by a 1,609 km (1,000 mi) network of pipelines (constructed at night to prevent detection by aerial reconnaissance) to transport fuel from ports including Liverpool and Bristol. In Europe, the pipelines were extended as the troops moved forward and eventually reached as far as the Rhine. In January 1945, 305 tonnes of fuel was pumped to France per day, which increased tenfold to 3,048 tonnes per day in March, and eventually to 4,000 tons (almost 1,000,000 Imperial gallons) per day. In total, over 781 000 m³ of gasoline had been pumped to the Allied forces in Europe by VE day, providing a critical supply of fuel until a more permanent arrangement was made, although the pipeline remained in operation for some time after Along with the Mulberry Harbours that were constructed immediately after D-Day, Operation Pluto is considered one of history's greatest feats of military engineering. The pipelines are also the forerunners of all flexible pipes used in the development of offshore oil fields. Much of the development and construction of this amazing war - winning engineering effort is down to the direct involvement of BICC in Erith, and their highly specialised engineers, something that local residents can be justly proud of. 

You may recall that I wrote extensively about a widespread online scam purporting to “give away” iPhones to competition entrants a while back. The “Funky Clock” scam has become the most widely read individual weekly blog entry in over nine years of publishing the Maggot Sandwich. It helps that for some obscure reason that Google has ranked the entry on the first page of results if you search for “Funky Clock” on the search engine. For some unknown reason, a lot of people are convinced that all and sundry kinds of organisations are giving away iPhones and iPads with gay abandon. I am afraid that this is simply not the case. If you want to see the article for yourself, you can see above an image of a website which purports to be from the CNN website;  the URL is cnn-shopping.com - which is your first clue that something is up. If CNN really did have a legitimate shopping section, would you expect the home page of that section to show one individual article rather than the traditional carousel of recent and 'most popular' stories? (On some browsers, the domain-name part of the URL is the only bit that is shown, which can help to hide this.) Other parts of the page give clues that the scammers are a little out of date. The 'advert' on the right refers to iOS 8 rather than 9, and the offer itself is for the iPhone 6 rather than the 6s or 6s Plus (granted, one could assume that these are being offered at bargain prices precisely because the next generation is about to go on sale, but it doesn't really make sense for Apple to give away year-old phones for the stated purpose of winning 'repeat customers' who will evangelise about its products). Needless to say, none of the 'proof' that that the offer is legit (the testimonials from satisfied customers, the photo of an unboxed iPhone) are anything of the sort. And as a further indication of dodginess, the domain name was only registered last month. If you click on one of the links on the original page (even the sidebar story about an eagle destroying a drone!), you will be taken to a page that asks for your credit card details.  I am not sure what the organisation plans to do with this information, but I strongly advise against giving out details of your financial security to such obvious criminal con artists; whatever the site is, there's no evidence that it's anything to do with CNN. I strongly advise you to steer clear of this type of offer, and if anyone you know forwards you the link, it would be a kindness to give them the same warning. Once again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In a similar manner, you will often see adverts at the foot of web pages with titles such as “This crazy loophole is something that retailers don’t want you to know about” or “This incredible trick will get you an iPad for next to nothing”. You will see links to stories similar to these around the web, claiming that there is a loophole that retailers don't want you to know about that means you can get an iPad for free. These stories tend to direct readers to a bidding system suggesting that they can bid money for an iPad, and get their hands on the iPad they bid for. For example, a "Megabargains24" story suggests readers use the MadBid auction site - please note that though "Megabargains24" purports to be a bargains news site, in the small print it does admit to being an "Advertorial" site. However, a forum post on MoneySavingExpert suggests that Madbid will take your money: charging you for bid packages. One post complains that the site started bidding on their behalf without their knowledge. There is also an auction site called Swoggi that other 'free iPad' stories will promote. To use that auction site you have to purchase credits to bid in an auction. Research shows that these are fake auctions, and when the bidders don't win the product they are unable to get their money back. These sites are said to use BidRobots, or fake bots, to drive up the prices. All in all these are all scams and not a way to get new technology for free. If you want an iPhone or iPad you will need to save up and buy one just like the rest of us – there is no quick “trick” to a free one – these sites are just traps for the gullible. In a nutshell, nobody, Apple included, gives away iPhones or iPads for free - it is all a con. Pass it on. 

Southeastern trains have just announced changes to their Autumn timetables. In essence the changes mainly involve starting some morning services a few minutes earlier than normal and adding a couple of minutes to overall journey times. The main reason for this is due to the problem of fallen leaves on the line. The North Kent Line is particularly vulnerable to fallen leaves, as much of the line runs in a cutting with tree on both sides of the track. The main reason for this was when the line was built, it was done through areas that already had quite a high concentration of residential housing. The cuttings, and indeed the trees helped to reduce the amount of noise from the passing steam trains. It also kept the impact of the engineering work to a minimum. The down side of this is that during the autumn period any falling leaves are effectively funnelled onto the tracks, where they get crushed by the passing train wheels, mixed with rainwater, and then form a mushy paste which causes a lack of grip for the trains. Delays are caused as drivers must brake early to ensure they stop in time and accelerate more gently than normal to avoid wheel spin. In their defence, Southeastern do have a number of specialist “de – gunging” trains which clean the rails of the crushed mix of dead leaves and rainwater, and spread a sticky film containing fine sand onto the rails to aid grip. Unless all of the trees are removed from the railway cuttings (something that is very unlikely to happen as they provide and aesthetic and environmental shielding) – not to mention looking pleasing.

Following the revelation that classic seventies sit com "Citizen Smith" will most definitely not be returning to our screens, it has been reported that "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" could be set to return to screens next year. According to a report by The Mirror, stars Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice have talked about reviving the show, potentially for BBC One's Landmark Sitcom Season. In an interview, the paper asked Dotrice if she planned to work with Crawford again. The response was: "Well, I can't really say, but yes. Possibly next year - but I can't really say anything about it." The BBC confirmed to the paper: "It's one of several shows being considered for BBC One's Landmark Sitcom Season, but nothing is confirmed as yet and none of the original cast has been approached by us." It is not known whether any revival of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em would be for a one-off, multiple specials, or a full series. Many sitcoms have been revived in recent years, with mixed results. To The Manor Born returned for a single Christmas special in 2007; Birds Of A Feather has had three brand new series broadcast by ITV; and following a 2013 Christmas special revival of Open All Hours, a second new series of Still Open All Hours is now filming. Written by Raymond Allen, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em originally ran for 22 episodes over three series from 1973 to 1978, following the hapless, disaster-prone Frank Spencer (Crawford), as he met, eventually married, and had a child with with next-door neighbour Betty (Dotrice), much to her mother's horror. Seemingly unable to complete even the simplest of tasks without bringing chaos, former RAF man Frank was seen ever in search of a job he could keep, and a home set-up he could not destroy.

Erith has been the home to many boxers of note in its history. None more so than Len Harvey. although not Erith born (he originated from Stoke Climsland in Cornwall) he moved to Erith on his retirement to be landlord of the Nordenfeldt Tavern in Fraser Road during the late 1940's. He was one of the best boxers in British history. Len Harvey started out as a flyweight at 12. By the time he was 18 he was ready to fight for the British welterweight title. He was held to a draw though by Harry Mason on 29 April 1926. His next British title shot came 2 years later on 16 May 1929. This time at middleweight against Alex Ireland. Harvey knocked out his opponent in the seventh round to become British champion. He made six defences between 1929 and 1933. He also fought Marcel Thil of France for the world middleweight championship.On 10 April 1933, he defended his title against Jock McAvoy. This ended in defeat for Harvey but two months later he was in the ring again challenging Eddie Phillips and won on points to become British Light Heavyweight champion. On 30 November that year he beat the then unbeaten Jack Petersen to become the British Heavyweight champion. He then went on to beat Canada's Larry Gains to become British Empire champion, but lost both titles in a rematch with Petersen being stopped in the 12th round on cuts. Harvey then went on to fight for the world title on 9 November 1936, but was beaten on points by John Henry Lewis. He then regained the British Heavyweight title by disqualification against old foe Eddie Phillips. In 1938 John Henry Lewis retired after developing eye problems, Harvey was then matched with another old foe, Jock McAvoy for British recognition of the world championship at Harringay Arena. This time he won on points on 10 July 1939. During World War II Harvey joined the Royal Air Force. By this time he was a national sporting idol, and was given an officer rank. During this time he was persuaded to defend his titles against Freddie Mills on 20 June 1942. By this time Harvey was a veteran of over a hundred bouts and was 35 years old. He was knocked out in two rounds, only the second time he was stopped and the first by K.O. He retired after this bout. He had an official record of 133 fights, 111 wins, 9 draws and 13 defeats: he claimed to have had 418 fights,but they probably included booth fights. His four fights with Jock McAvoy were legendary; he won three and lost one. He later died in Erith on 28 November 1976. Such was his legend that he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 2008.  Until I was informed of Len Harvey, I was not aware of the prestige in which he was held. A truly great adopted son of the area. If you have any memories of Len Harvey, do get in contact with me in order to share them. 

Readers may recall that back in August 2013 I wrote about my fears that Brick Lane was becoming gentrified, and that the long tradition of the road being home to a multitude of curry houses was coming to an end. In my opinion the rot began back when a restaurant called Sweet and Spicy closed down after operating in Brick Lane continuously since 1969. Of all the curry houses in the lane, Sweet and Spicy was the only one that catered for the Bangladeshi and Pakistani locals – it was manifestly not there to tempt in tourists. I was a regular there for a very long time when I worked for a company based in the East End, and became friends with the owner. The food was nothing whatsoever like British Indian Restaurant style – it was slow cooked curries with simple, natural ingredients, meat on the bone in the traditional manner, and no food colouring, much as you would be served in someone’s home. It was a place of pilgrimage for many food enthusiasts. The décor in Sweet and Spicy was basic – old school McDonald's style tables with fixed chairs, lino on the floor and old advertising posters on the walls. The place was clean, the food excellent, portions huge, and the bill very small indeed. In 2013 the place was forced to close after 44 years as the lease came up for renewal, and the price went through the roof. Landlords in Brick Lane realised that the buildings housing Indian restaurants could generate much more cash if they were converted for other uses, such as housing for the hipsters who were moving into the area, following the business model already deployed in areas such as Dalston. That was then; now things have taken a further turn. Two of the multitude of “tourist trap” curry houses in Brick Lane have got themselves into some very hot water with the local authority. The London Evening Standard reported “Brick Lane’s premier curry house faces being shut down after a diner who complained about a hair in the mango chutney was allegedly set upon by six waiters in an “extraordinary” attack. Aladin, an award-winning restaurant which has been visited by Prince Charles, could be stripped of its licence after police recorded a series of “violent incidents”. The Met has applied to Tower Hamlets council saying it has “no confidence whatsoever” in the four brothers who run Aladin and its next-door restaurant Nazrul. Police have investigated more than a dozen incidents over the past two years at the two venues with claims of customers being attacked or abused and of fights with staff at rival restaurants over “touting”.   According to police evidence submitted to the council, the mango chutney incident happened on May 24 at 10pm after a group of diners complained about their £12.95-a-head two-course meal. Licensing officer Pc Alan Cruickshank wrote: “The victim was touted outside the Aladin restaurant and entered with his partner and two friends. They found what looked like a hair in the mango chutney and the staff refused to change it.  “At this, they decided to leave and asked for the bill as they had eaten some papadums. On being told it was £9, they queried this, but paid it. “When he got up to leave he was told to ‘shut up’ at which point he was... assaulted and spilled (sic) from the premises into Brick Lane.  “The assault escalated with 15 to 20 males joining in, punching and kicking him repeatedly. Two more in the party received injuries.” Pc Cruickshank added: “At one point six waiters from Aladin/Nazrul are seen to beat up one man. The level of violence is extraordinary. Passers-by become involved to try and separate the group, but are assaulted themselves.” Other alleged incidents include a woman diner being hit in the face and threatened with a knife over a bill dispute. Sabir Ahmed, who runs the restaurants with his brothers Raju, Suhal and Juhal, said they would be challenging the police application. Mr Ahmed added: “The incidents the police say my staff are involved in happened outside the restaurant and there is no proof any of my staff were involved otherwise someone would have been charged and prosecuted.” It is as near as certain that the two restaurants will have their licences revoked. I have eaten in both in the past, and their cuisine was okay – British Indian Restaurant standard. There has even been some conjecture that they both share a common kitchen located in the basement of the Nazrul building, around the corner from the Aladin. The whole controversy plays right into the hands of the developers and the council members who would like to be rid of the curry houses so that they can redevelop the shop spaces into far more lucrative high – end housing. I feel that the reported violent disturbances highlighted by the Evening Standard will be used as evidence whenever a restaurant licence comes up for renewal – this may well be the final nail in the coffin for Brick Lane, as many people know it. What do you think? Is this a natural progression for the formerly run down East End area, or should the area be preserved? Drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com and let me know your opinion.

If you would rather make a British Indian Restaurant style curry at home, I can highly recommend the YouTube channel "Al's Kitchen" where Al shows you the step by step methods to make a very wide range of authentic restaurant style curries. A vast majority of his recipes are suitable for any person who enjoys high street curry house food. The possible exception is the recipe below, which at the request of many of his YouTube viewers, Al creates an ultra spicy "Hellfire" Chilli chicken curry, which should satisfy even the most ardent chilli - head. See what you think.

The first birthday of Bexley Brewery.

The photo above shows the main entrance to Erith Town Hall in Walnut Tree Road. The building was completed in 1931, and housed The Municipal Borough of Erith - which was defined as 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. Shortly after this point much of the work carried out in Erith Town Hall was centralised in Bexleyheath, in what was intended to be "temporary" accomodation in Bexleyheath Broadway, but which actually housed many Bexley Council departments for around thirty five years, until the former Woolwich Equitable Headquarters building was purchased and converted for council use at great expense. 

The photo above (click on it for a larger view) was taken back in 1880 of a very grand property which was called Walnut Tree House. It was owned by the Parish family, who by the looks of it were not short of a bob or two – the place looks lovely. The patriarch, John Parish owned the ballast wharf in West Street, and the ballast pit in what is now the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road. The very fine quality loam dug from the pit was taken to the wharf to be loaded onto freighter ships for transportation up to the great iron and steel forges on Tyneside, where it was used to make moulds for metal castings. Unfortunately Walnut Tree House does not exist today; it was demolished to make way for Erith Town Hall in 1931, as previously mentioned. I don't know what the Parish family would have made of the location nowadays, with 24 hour motor traffic using the hideous fish sculpture roundabout, it would definitely be very different from when the house was occupied. Still, the needs of the council had to be satisfied then, and again today. It is distinctly possible that the site of both Walnut Tree House and Erith Council Offices may soon once again come up for some form of redevelopment. As I have recently written, it is thought that Bexley Council are negotiating a break point in their contract with Capita, the commercial outsourcing company that run the Council Tax collection operations and the housing and council tax benefits functions on behalf of the council. The word is that Bexley are looking to terminate the contract at a break point this year, and to instead merge their Council Tax operations with Bromley Council on a single site. This should substantially reduce the overhead costs of the operation for both boroughs, due to economies of scale. Capita are the only operation currently undertaken in Erith Town Hall, as most other functions have been centralised to Bexleyheath, again in a bid to save money. I have concerns about the fate of Erith Town Hall; it is located in a prime position for being sold off to be redeveloped, possibly as up - market apartments - and we all know Bexley Council's appalling record for selling off the family silver - just look at the situation with Belvedere Splash Park. If one thinks about it, the Town Hall site is located within two minutes walk of Erith Station, it is also very close to Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, and overlooks Erith Riverside Gardens. I get the feeling that developers may be already looking at the site with envious eyes. As Crossrail comes to Abbey Wood, and will almost certainly be extended down to the forthcoming Paramount London Theme Park on the Swanscombe Peninsula. This will make Erith even more attractive to property developers, and to people looking to move into the area because of the employment opportunities that the Theme Park and allied businesses will bring into the region as a whole.

This week marks the 30th birthday of a distinctly low technology, unglamorous, yet hugely important and influential computer which most people who were around at the time will have forgotten about. The Amstrad PCW 8256 - in eighteen months it did for the typewriter what the car took thirty years to do for the pony and trap. Amstrad boss Alan Sugar’s specification was simple – “A word processor so simple Joyce could use it”. Joyce Caley was his formidable personal assistant, and "Joyce" became the codename for the project – and the product name in Germany. The PCW 8256 rode on the coat-tails of the previous Amstrad computers, which had been huge successes: The CPC 464 and 664 computers that I have written about in the past - two excellently engineered and very good value machines in themselves. While the PCW 8256 is often derided as being a low-tech device – Z80-based, running CP/M when not word-processing and with a monochrome display – it’s key to being cheap lay in using a single chip which controlled the CPU, display and, crucially, the printer. What customers thought was a separate external printer was in fact just a printing mechanism with the electronics mounted inside the main unit. The PCW 8256 predated the widespread use of graphical interfaces and the computer mouse. Macs existed, but only in rarefied circles and its Motorola 68000 processor cost more than a whole PCW. Just being able to highlight text you wanted to cut and paste was revolutionary when most PC programs wanted a combination of control, secondary and tertiary keys for each step to mark the start of a block, the end of the block and the copy or cut. The PCW 8256 operating system / word processing program called LocoScript reduced nine key presses to three and made the whole process a lot more obvious. Whilst it could also play games - and indeed many Sinclair ZX Spectrum titles were ported onto the PCW 8256, word processing and spreadsheets were what it really did best. It was actually a superb bit of kit that was well engineered (down to a price) and very well thought out. Most of all, the long lasting effect of the PCW 8256 was to get people writing. If everyone back then had a book in them, it was often the PCW 8256 which got it out. Significant businesses can trace their roots back to early work on the machine. Many writers got their first books published after typing it out on a PCW 8256. Back in 1985, only a small, intrepid minority of writers used word processors. The pioneers tended to be sci-fi writers such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, who were perhaps naturally disposed to new technology, and authors of densely plotted thrillers and historical fiction who needed to incorporate lots of research and move material around without having to hold everything in their short-term memories. The Amstrad changed all this, for the simple reason that it cost £399, word-processing program and dot-matrix printer included, while an Apple Mac or IBM system cost four times as much or more. The PCW 8256 price lured in those writers who were beginning to realise that, on their Smith Coronas and Olivetti typewriters, they were spending as much time retyping as typing. A critical mass formed. any single piece of hardware can have been said to have introduced a computer to an audience it might well otherwise have bypassed, the Amstrad PCW 8256 is the machine - in the thirteen years it was in production in various guises, it sold a staggering eight million units. I suspect that in attics and the backs of cupboards all over the UK, some of these ground breaking computers still exist. Let's hope that they get preserved. 

For over a year I have been hearing all sort of rumours about the large Morrison's supermarket in Erith, which provides jobs for over five hundred local people - one of the largest employers in the town, though relatively small when compared to ADM Oils, who operate the largest edible oils and fats processing plant in Europe from their facility in Church Manorway, Erith, where they employ around four thousand people, and process one million tonnes of rapeseed each year. The plant crushes the seeds and refines the crude oil into about 385,000 tonnes of refined oil that is used in a variety of food ingredients and in biofuels throughout Europe. The meal from these crushing operations is used as feed by livestock producers in the U.K., France and Ireland. I digress. Whilst not the largest local employer, Morrison's are an exceedingly significant one, and any loss of jobs from the shop would have significant social and economic impact on the area. The current Managing Director of Morrison's is a guy called David Potts, who is slashing nine hundred jobs from eleven stores across the country, while warning that the impending national living wage could hit the company for tens of millions of pounds. It means the new boss of the struggling supermarket has shown the door to nearly four thousand staff in just six months, with seven hundred gone at head office and two thousand three hundred from its convenience-store M Local business, which was sold yesterday, although the jobs will be saved by the new owners. A further four hundred Morrisons jobs went in January when another ten stores were closed under Potts’s predecessor, Dalton Philips. Potts refused to rule out more store closures, explaining he is still reviewing the company’s portfolio of five hundred stores, although there are currently no plans to shut more. Some time ago I had contact with a regular reader, and occasional Maggot Sandwich contributor who had been asking questions about the future for Erith Morrisons. They were told in unequivocal terms that the store was not shutting, and it most certainly  not being taken over by Aldi, despite some persistent rumours that had been circulating. Whilst Erith Morrisons has taken a bit of a hit from the competition in the form of Asda at Lower Belvedere, it is still an important store to the company, and to the town. I will be keeping my ear to the ground for any news which contradicts the official company line. If you hear anything, can you please let me know by Emailing hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier in the week, I received the following Email from a local chap called Tony Fairburn:- "I support what you say about river ferries, the Thames is an underused resource that should be developed as in Sydney, Venice, Amsterdam and on the River Rhine. A couple of events that may offer some hope: The Campaign for Better Transport is hosting an event at the Abbey Wood Community Hall on Tuesday 15 September at 18.30. I am sure the subject of ferries will come up. Just turn up on the night. I am working with a group of like minded people to draw attention of the problems associated with road crossings; you already know my thoughts on this. We have a new Facebook page (needs sorting out) at Bexley Against Road Crossings, and we are developing a web site which includes a recommendation for the promotion of ferries. We are having a meeting at 19.15 at Bexley Community Library, Bourne Road on Tuesday 29 September. If you or your readers are interested in joining us please get them to contact me".

The following announcement has been made by the team behind Erith Park, the huge housing development that has replaced the notorious and unloved Larner Road Estate. "From Neanderthal communities to philanthropists, our flagship regeneration scheme Erith Park has a rich history to celebrate. Join us on Saturday 26 September for our community event, which will tell the stories of Erith’s communities past and present. The day will include: The geology of Erith Park – learn about the Neanderthal humans, animals and geological wonderment of Erith Park. Walk the Talk tour – find out about Erith Park’s historic roots when we launch our new interactive tour. Our Story premier – attend the first screening of ‘Our Story’, a short film about life at Erith Park told through the eyes of residents. Street naming – we have chosen to name the new streets after families and residents who have given a lot to the local communities and we will be joined by their relatives. Entertainment – guests including cavemen in their Stone Age car and two Victorian characters telling stories about Erith in the past.

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015

Time:

12:30 onwards – Entertainment and film showings

13:00 – Unveiling of the geology board, Walk the Talk and street naming

14:30 – Close

Please feel free to drop-in for as long or as little as you would like. Location: Erith Park, Callender Road, Erith, DA8 3DD. Parking for relatives will be available at our Sales and Marketing Suite car park. To find out more about Erith Park and our plans for phase two in 2015, click here". 

Rail companies around the UK, and especially in London are currently investigating ways to increase passenger capacity. This comes at a time when they are under an increasingly large amount of scrutiny from both the public and politicians. Earlier this week there was meeting called by the rail minister Claire Perry. The summit was attended various MPs and special interest groups, as well as Network Rail, Southeastern and rail user group Passenger Focus at London Bridge. During the meeting, both local MP's Teresa Pearce (Labour) and David Evennett (Conservative) voiced concerns over Southeastern’s rail service, stating there were serious issues the operator needed to address. David Evennett said: “My constituents do not believe rail services have improved with particular problems on peak time trains. Southeastern not are listening to the genuine concerns being expressed by their customers about quality and punctuality. I will continue to hold them to account for their failures, and I shall be making strong representations when the new franchise is put out to tender". David Evennett also raised complaints on behalf of his constituents on issues such as overcrowding, delays and customer satisfaction as well as challenging several statistics presented about the company’s performance. Teresa Pearce said "I am regularly contacted by constituents who have concerns with Southeastern rail services. The improvement works at London Bridge have caused disruption to many commuters across the South East through overcrowding, cancellations and delays". Last year, Southeastern was ranked joint-bottom as the worst train company in Britain in a survey by consumer group Which? The company blamed the result on its customers in comments made to the press, saying it took “people somewhere they don’t want to be with money they don’t want to pay.” The capacity issues with the existing rail infrastructure are also a great worry. There are all sorts of physical restrictions and limitations - the width of the rail track gauge, the height of the station platforms, the height of any bridges and the dimensions of tunnels that the train and accompanying carriages have to pass through. The restrictions that especially apply on the Dartford to Cannon Street via Greenwich line has are mainly dictated by the length of platform at Woolwich Dockyard station, which is bounded by a tunnel at each end of the platform. A maximum length of ten carriages can be accommodated - any more and they would be left in the tunnel at one end or another. In some parts of Europe they have come to a novel and rather clever solution - they use double decker trains. The use of double-decker carriages, where feasible, can resolve capacity problems on a railway, avoiding other options which have an associated infrastructure cost such as longer trains (which require longer station platforms), more trains per hour (which the signalling or safety requirements may not allow) or adding extra tracks besides the existing line. Double decker (sometimes referred to as bilevel) trains are claimed to be more energy efficient, and may have a lower operating cost per passenger. A bilevel car may carry about twice as many as a normal car, without requiring double the weight to pull or material to build. However, a bilevel train may take longer to exchange passengers at each station, since more people will enter and exit from each car, and they are accordingly most popular on long-distance routes which make few stops (and may be popular with passengers for offering a better view). It may surprise you to know that double decker trains actually ran locally for quite some time - between November 1949 and October 1971 on the Dartford via Bexleyheath to Cannon Street line. Each of the four coach units carried twenty two high level and twenty four low level seats, a total of 508, with additional tip up seats at the ends of the upper level. This was a total of 1,104 seats on the train, normal trains had 772 seats. Access to the upper deck was via a short staircase. Ventilation of the upper deck was by constantly running electric fans, as the windows couldn't be opened. The train was higher than other trains so care had to be taken which routes to use it on. The Dartford routes were ideal and no alteration had to be made to the  track and bridges. Bearing in mind many people smoked on trains back then, the fug on the upper deck must have been terrible, especially in summer. The other problems with the double decker train was that the seats were cramped, hard and uncomfortable, and the time taken to get on and off the double decker carriages was significantly longer than with a conventional train. The double decker train was finally taken out of service on the 1st October 1971, and was scrapped. You can learn more about the Kent double decker train by clicking here.

As some of you will know, I have not been very well this week; my sincere thanks to the many well - wishers who have been in contact with me over the period; suffice to say that I am now on the mend. The story as to what happened will have to wait for another time I am afraid. 

It is somewhat surprising to note that the first birthday of the Bexley Brewery is upon us. Here is a note from husband and wife team Cliff and Jane on the events of the last year. "Bexley Brewery - It all began with those seven words… “I think we should start a brewery…” Bexley Brewery came about partly from a need to change careers but also from a desire to start a family business from something that was a very successful hobby. Cliff was a software designer and I was a Bexley Primary school teacher, so the brewing industry was a big departure from both of our comfort zones. We looked all over Bexley for possible premises, even drifting in Dartford and other surrounding areas.  That was actually the hardest part, finding premises and we quickly discovered a shortage of smaller industrial units within the borough. However, good fortune was not far away, and we eventually found our current location through a contact at our rugby club (Dartfordians) and could immediately see the potential for a brewery site. After the usual speedy work was completed by solicitors, we got the keys on May 29th and immediately started work preparing the unit. Brewing vessels were ordered, a conditioning room was built and the essential drainage put in place. The necessary permits were applied for and everything was planned to be ready for the first brew by the beginning of August. However, the weather cannot be predicted and our container was delayed somewhere in the Pacific. This did give us an opportunity to brew final test batches and settle on our first beers – BOB and Redhouse. Our first brew was a Redhouse. Everything went well thanks to the help the assistance from the master brewer in the installation team. The second brew was another matter - we were on our own. We needn’t have worried too much as the beer got brewed ok, but there was plenty of pressure, in particular what to do if things went wrong and things have gone wrong at different times. Initial casks were ready for sale around the end of September and our first customers included the Robin and Hood and Little John, The Penny Farthing, Lamorbey Wines and Darfordians Rugby Club, all of whom are still customers and great supporters of their local brewery. As well as cask ales we also wanted to produce bottled conditioned ales. ‘Bottle conditioned’ means that the beer is still alive and still fermenting in the bottle, just like cask beer. This does mean that there is sediment at the bottom of the bottles, which can put people off buying our beer. Most supermarket beers are filtered, pasteurised and carbonated, and so will appear crystal clear. They will also taste exactly the same from the moment of bottling to the time of drinking; whereas our beers’ flavour continues to develop and mature, so the taste from bottling to drinking will change (for the better). Our logo is the red necked parakeet. So “why the parakeet” is a question we often get asked. We’ve discovered that the ring necked parakeet, seen much around the borough, is either loved or loathed! We’ve even been heckled at farmers markets by people who genuinely dislike the bird… We always come to their defence, they are survivors and after all that’s what nature is about. They brighten up the skies and can be very comical, although not when they are eating the apples on our tree in the garden! Our particular bird is also happy to dress up for special occasions as can bee seen on our Facebook and Twitter pages. With costumes and disguises including a knight, a Jedi, a penny farthing cyclist and even sporting a moustache. Although our main business is brewing for pubs, clubs and bottle shops, it is important for us to keep in contact with the people actually drinking our ales. So in November last year we opened the brewery shop for the first time and people could come and buy directly from us and have a peek at the brewery as well. The brewery team also grows on shop/event days as we have Lisa & Vanessa, who help out behind the counter. We’ve opened monthly since then and have just started to open every Friday afternoon. We also run a tour & tasting bi-monthly, which is a chance for people to meet the brewer, learn more about the brewing process and try some of our beers as well.  These are very popular and we always get great positive feedback from them. Farmers Markets are also a great way to sell our produce as well as meet people and tell them about the local brewery. Currently we attend three farmers markets, on three consecutive weekends at Hall Place Bexley, Spadework in Offham & Chislehurst. We really enjoy these markets, meeting people and making friends with other stallholders. People often ask if Cliff the brewer is in fact BOB. We run the business as a team, which when you’re also married can and does spread into our lives outside the brewery. With evenings often spent making our tea lights – those of you who buy directly from us should have quite a collection by now, as well as working out new recipe ideas, at times it’s 24/7". Excellent stuff; I am a great fan of the Bexley Brewery. I am fortunate in living very close to their facility, though thus far I have yet to persuade them to run a hose pipe from the brewery into Pewty Acres so that I could have a pint by pint beer meter fitted in the kitchen. Oh well...

The end video this week shows the Caterham Seven 620R super lightweight sports car. This is the fastest and most powerful vehicle produced in the Caterham factory, which is located in Kennet Road, Crayford, not far from the Thames Road Recycling Centre. It is amazing that a vehicle that can beat many Ferraris and Lamborghinis on a race track is actually built in a giant shed near the the local council tip! I occasionally see a Caterham being road tested locally; if you keep your eyes open they are sometimes to be seen, but they are very low and small, and move astonishingly quickly. Jeremy Clarkson once described a Caterham as "An Exocet powered shopping trolley". Quite.