Death trap.

I took the photos above (click on either to see a larger version) on Monday afternoon; the great weather at the time made the view over Erith Riverside Gardens and the River Thames look particularly attractive. The small number of people using the gardens were socially distancing themselves in a responsible manner. 

The Co-Operative Society has strong roots in the Erith area. A co-operative shop was opened in Erith in 1868 by Sir William Anderson of Easton and Anderson engineering. The shop unfortunately soon failed, as it refused to give credit, and was patronised mainly by the emerging middle classes, for whom it was not intended.  1868 also saw a much more successful launch of the Royal Arsenal Co-Operative Society at Woolwich. By 1881 they had extended the delivery of bread and groceries into Erith. On the 30th March 1882, a co-op branch store, costing £1,225 was opened on the corner of Manor Road and what is now James Watt Way. A reading room was provided on the first floor by the society's education committee, and supplied newspapers and periodicals for public use. In 1887 this was extended to form a purpose built district library, with a budget of a whole £30 to purchase books. Over the years the trade increased with the surge in growth of the local population, to the point came where the building was not large enough, and new premises were constructed in 1893. It was not very long until this co-operative library fell into disuse, when the Andrew Carnegie sponsored public library in Walnut Tree Road opened in 1906. Records show that the co-operative library had some strange rules in respect of their employees. The first manager of the Manor Road based library was a Mr. James Hall, who had left school at the age of eleven. He was soon promoted to General Manager on the condition that he got married within three months of the appointment! He eventually got spliced four months after his appointment, but this was deemed to be near enough for his employers. Hall eventually rose to become General Manager of the RACS from 1902 until his retirement in 1918.

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, over 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.

Following my article last week about the number of traffic accidents happening in and around the junction of Danson Road and Park View Road, directly outside of the main entrance to Danson Park, I have been contacted by the same local resident, with a photo of a further accident. The correspondent, who wishes to remain anonymous, writes:- "Well, I couldn't believe when on the 24th at about 10.30pm, I heard an almighty, 'boom!' - looking outside was the smoking wreckage of a car that appeared to have been unaware of the interchange and smashed into the central reservation, then into the pavement.  This, only 2 days since the last accident.  Both incidents seemed to involve youngsters.  I wonder if alcohol was involved as there appeared to be friends of the involved coming out of the park? I think you will agree that this accident looks worse than the last one. I hope that no one was waiting to cross the road at the central reservation at the time". Have you had any experiences regarding this very dangerous road junction that some local residents are now referring to as a death trap? Email me with your details to hugh.neal@gmail.com in confidence. 

Pac-Man, the biggest arcade game of all time, turned 40 years old last week. Released by the Japanese company Namco on May the 22nd, 1980, Pac-Man was like nothing else at the time. At a time when Space Invaders and Asteroids and other games with abstracted, monochrome graphics ruled the arcade, Pac-Man offered a striking, cartoonish design with an appealing central character. It revolved around eating, not shooting; and it was designed to appeal to young women and couples, not spotty nerks in anoraks (although they all played it too). The colourful design and unique collect-the-dots maze gameplay—plus the wonderful tension of running away from those ghosts, then scrambling to eat them once you got a power pellet—made Pac-Man almost instantly addictive, eating ten pence pieces as rapaciously as its protagonist swallowed pixels. By one count, Namco sold 400,000 Pac-Man machines, head and shoulders above anything that had come before, or since. And it is still highly playable and popular in a way its contemporaries are not—few people are paying for Asteroids or Space Invaders updates today, but Namco Bandai still makes and sells variations on Pac-Man on every platform imaginable. Pac-Man’s ubiquity was our first indication that games were about to become the dominant entertainment medium of the information age. (It also arguably marked the beginning of Japan’s impending pop-cultural invasion of the rest of the world, even if players at the time didn't know where it came from.)

Here is an account, which was written back in 1983, of how local man Bob Shrimpton spent much of World War II:- "During the war, being employed in what was known as a ‘reserved occupation’, I enlisted (a euphemism – I had no choice) in the 56th Battalion Home Guard disrespectfully known as Dads’ Army. I became a private first class in No. 1 Platoon A Company. Platoon HQ was in a tin hut at the rear of the Belvedere Social Club in Nuxley Road and Company H.Q. was in a villa, long since demolished, which stood on the corner of Woolwich Road and Essenden Road. At the time I joined full kit and weapons were available. Most of the platoon rode bicycles to parades with full kit including army boots, a greatcoat in winter and a .303 rifle slung across the shoulders. It took a lot of practise to mount and dismount. If one ran with the bike and cocked ones leg over the saddle too hurriedly, the weight of all this equipment could hurl one flat on the ground. As in Dads’ Army we had our characters who could obtain anything for you - at a price. There was a slit trench in the front garden at Essenden Road and a sentry was supposed to jump into this when an air-raid was in progress. One night it poured with rain nearly all night. A raid was on and the duty sentry was trying to keep dry in the trench whilst some of us were in the house porch watching the raid. Suddenly there was a great agonising howl of rage. The rainwater had burst through the sand bags around the top of the trench and poured straight down the back of the sentry’s trousers! Once a month we did sentry duty at Battalion H.Q. in the mansion that once stood at the corner of Bexley Road and Park Crescent. ( The original Battalion Commanding Officer was Lt. Col. Briggs and later LT. Col. Tobin. Military exercises were held from time to time with other platoons. Our platoon Commander was Lt. Butler and his second in command was Lt. Shirras, who was the manager of Reeson’s Chemist in the Erith High Street. I remember one summer’s evening Lt. Shirras leading his section stealthily down Clive Road towards the enemy, with his revolver at the ready, when a hoard of youngsters burst upon us whooping and urging us on with shouts of ‘Go it Mr. Get ‘em’. etc. The Lieutenant’s blackened face turned a shade blacker as he shouted ‘-----off you b------ kids.’ He really was an officer and a gentleman though. We held manoeuvres on Belvedere Marshes taking us right through the gypsy encampment. I remember lying in delicious terror by the side of the line near Belvedere railway station with my bayonet a few inches from the live rail whilst trains sped by. One weekend was spent on night manoeuvres at Mount Mascal in North Cray, under the care of the Scots Guards. The night was so dark that it seemed superfluous to blacken one’s face. In fact, because of lack of visibility, our officer lost his platoon! I had been appointed runner, which meant I had to stick to the officer in case he wanted me to take a message – where to, goodness only knows! The officer walked along North Cray Road looking for his platoon when he sensed, rather than saw, a blackened face peering from a hedge, whereupon the following short conversation took place. Officer: ‘Is that No. 1 platoon?’ Blackened Face: ‘Sorry Sir. No, we are the enemy.’ We fired .303 rifles and Lewis guns on a range in the sand-pits right next to Birch Walk. The recruits were always the best shots. One of our platoon worked in the Woolwich Arsenal. He wangled a Sunday morning visit to the small arms proof ranges. There we were, large as life, marching in full kit inside the grounds. It was a different world inside – haystacks, cows grazing etc. We shot at 500 yard range (not at the cows) and we took it in turns to don little waist-coats and mark the shots at the targets. One was supposed to check on the field telephone that the men firing had ceased firing. Something went amiss and as we walked to the targets a bullet sped over our heads fortunately not hitting anyone". Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

It never ceases to amaze me how concepts and technology originally created as plot devices in science fiction soon become reality. In my opinion, the biggest contributor to this phenomenon has got to be the original 1960's series of Star Trek. Mobile phones, tablet computers, and the 3.5” floppy disk are all devices inspired directly from the original classic TV show. Scientists are now saying that warp drive is theoretically possible, even if we are a huge way off being able to build a starship using warp technology. In essence, a warp drive will exploit a loophole in the law of the speed of light (nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum). Instead of trying to move the ship ever faster, requiring greater and greater input of energy, the warp drive turn the problem on its’ head. Instead of trying to go faster, the warp drive distorts space/time around the starship; in effect the ship remains stationary whilst the  space in front of the ship is contracted, and the space behind the ship is expanded – basically the universe moves around the ship. The concept for a real life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by a Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, however subsequent calculations revealed that his design would consume prohibitive amounts of energy. Recently physicists have re – examined the calculations, and have discovered a method of redesigning the warp generator to run on significantly less energy, and bringing it back from science fiction and into the realm of (theoretical) science. An Alcubierre warp drive would involve an American football shaped spacecraft attached to a large ring encircling it. This ring, potentially made of exotic matter, would cause space-time to warp around the starship, creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space behind. Meanwhile, the starship itself would stay inside a bubble of flat space-time that wasn't being warped at all. Everything within space is restricted by the speed of light.  The really amazing  thing is space-time, the actual fabric of space, is not limited by the speed of light, and can be warped. With this concept, the spacecraft would be able to achieve an effective speed of about 10 times the speed of light, all without breaking the cosmic speed limit. This is all very well in theory, but some absolutely staggering advances in engineering and materials technology will need to be made before this ever approaches practicality. Having said that, it is very cool indeed.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Barnehurst Ward has suffered on non-residential burglary at Parkside Parade, Northend Road. The Incident occurred on Thursday 21/05/2020 and was targeted twice in one day. The first time was at approximately 1700 hours and the second time was sometime after midnight. A dark blue Ford transit Connect is believed to be involved on both occasions. Entry was gained via the rear of the property. Goods from the shop were taken on both occasions. CCTV footage has been obtained therefore investigations are ongoing. The team have been responding to calls in relation to residents not adhering to Government's guidelines. Please do not have family and friends round and stick to the guidelines". Belvedere ward:- "During these days of continued testing times the Belvedere Safer Neighbourhood Team continue to patrol the ward both in plain clothes and High visibility form in order to keep residents of the ward safe and any potential criminals away. On Sunday 24th May and in conjunction with other teams on the borough we were able to apprehend and arrest an offender who had been wanted by Police for over 3 years. After complex intel and research this male was traced to an address on the Belvedere ward and was finally apprehended after a dawn raid. He has now been safely returned to her Majesty's pleasure where he will complete his original prison sentence for the next 4 months. With the hot weather now approaching and almost at touching distance a gentle reminder please to continue observing the social distance guidelines. It can become very easy to get carried away with the moment but please do remember about gathering in large groups in parks and open spaces. The guidance states that you can sit in a park but it must only be with persons in your household or at most one person from a different household". Bexleyheath ward:-"Between Thursday 21/05/20 and Friday 22/05/20 – Lidl Bexleyheath – vehicle broken into, work tools stolen. Saturday 23/05/20 - WJ King Bexleyheath – Theft of petrol. Monday 25/05/20 – Lidl Bexleyheath – Public Order offence. We have a very low crime rate again this week which is great news". Crayford ward:- "We have good news to report that there has been no reported burglaries or attempted burglaries, which I believe was the same from last week. Lets hope this continues to stay this way. A theft from motor vehicle was reported on the Wednesday 20/05/2020 along Perry Street at about 13:30 hrs, tools were taken from the back of a van. On the Wednesday 20/05/20 a trailer was stolen from the rear driveway of a shop along Crayford Way. Tools were used to cut the trailer free, incident had occurred at about 19:40hrs. There was report of a criminal damage at Hall Place Bourne Road. Gates had been damaged and there was signs of nitrous oxide canisters also used at the location. This incident had taken place over night from the Tuesday 19/05/20 from about 9 pm until 7:30 am the following day. Just wanted to say Thank You to everyone who continually follow the government guidelines and also for people to continue to help and support one other". Erith ward:-"This week the team has been out on the bikes covering some patrols around Thamesmead, Northumberland Heath as well as Erith. All open spaces patrolled as well as shops in Erith. You can check out our daily bike mapping patrols on out twitter. Crimes of note from the last week. Theft from Motor Vehicle – Erith Park. Theft from Motor Vehicle – Compton Place. No other crimes of note, no burglaries and while there was still 2 Theft from MVs this is down from the 5+ last week. A number of weapon sweeps across Erith have taken place, nothing found. Due to staff numbers this week we have been doing some extra patrols around Northumberland and Northend. Plain clothing patrols across Erith have also been carried out".

Northumberland Heath ward:- "Two drug warrants were executed simultaneously on Wednesday 20/05/20 within Northumberland Heath and Slade Green. A small quantity of cannabis was found which resulted in a community resolution. Weapons were also found in the inside the second property. The team have been working hard with Bexley ASB Team and have been able to install a CCTV camera on Streamway, Erith. Residents have also provided police pictures of local youths causing anti-social behaviour and drug dealing. The team have identified these suspects and have been completing home visits on the individuals. Work is also being completed on serving CPNWs. Six positive stop and searches completed on Steamway, Erith this week with help from neighbouring wards. Officers completed a foot chase in the Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground park on Thursday 21/05/20 which resulted in a male being transported to Bexleyheath Police Station for a strip search and was found to be in possession of cannabis. Also last week there was a fight in the park involving a large group of youths. Response Officers attended the incident and the suspect was identified by the victim and was arrested. There has been reports of youths congregating in the Alleyways of Belmont Road and youths causing ASB and vandalising parked vehicles on Brook Street. These reports are not being reported correctly and victims of crimes need to be contacting 101 to make the local policing team aware . Officers will complete patrols around these hotspot areas. Also great news the team will be getting a new DWO Constable on the 1st June". Slade Green and Northend ward:- "A vehicle was stolen by means of burglary overnight on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 May in Cedar Road. The victim had not locked their UPVC Door by lifting the handle and turning the key, they just shit the door and put the chain on showing how easy it is for someone to gain entry. Also, a passport, mobile phone and cash were all left in the car when it was stolen. Please always ensure your doors are locked correctly and no valuables are left in your vehicle at any time. Please continue to follow government guidelines in regards where we are with lockdown restrictions etc. The team are patrolling as and where we can, when we can so thanks to everyone who is following the guidelines". Thamesmead East ward:- "No Burglaries this week. Vehicle Crime. Maran Way Sunday 17/5/20 between 4pm – 2:20 pm Thurs 21/5/20 Suspect/s have removed both front and rear number plates and replaced with plates from another vehicle. Leatherbottle Green Wednesday 20/5/20 9:50 am Victim stated while at their home address a loud grinding noise was emanating from the front of the property. Looking out from the first floor window victim could see a suspect standing by the front nearside of their vehicle and another suspect underneath. Victim called out from the window and both suspects made off with catalytic converter.. Kale Road. Thursday 21/5/20 between 3pm – 12 noon Fri 22/5/20 Victim states rear number plate stolen by suspect/s unknown". West Heath ward:- "Two motor vehicle crimes of note this week: Theft of a purse containing credit cards and cash in Berkeley Avenue between Sunday 17/05/20 16.00 – Thursday 21/05/2020. Theft of a grey transit van in Glenview on Tuesday 26/05/20 at approximately 14.40pm. One arrest for theft of goods".

The end video this week features some excellent drone footage shot over the River Thames, showing Erith Pier and the surrounding areas. I must apologise on behalf of the content creator; despite some excellent visuals, the videographer has chosen to add some extremely irritating and completely unnecessary music to the piece. I would suggest that you watch the video with the sound muted.

Erith versus the Australians.

Bank Holiday Monday certainly brought the strongest storm winds to Erith that I can recall for several years. Many local residents lost garden fence panels and many trees were damaged; I noticed that the green panted security shuttering around the entrance to Morrison’s was buckled and seriously damaged by the high winds. The proximity of the wide open expanse of the River Thames right next to the supermarket means that the wind is effectively funnelled – amplifying the potential damage that very strong gusts can cause. There were also several calls made for the assistance of the RNLI. Gravesend's inshore rescue team were called to Erith Pier at 10.20pm on Saturday night (March 26th), and assisted shore-side police with their search for the person. No one appeared to be in need of help, and the lifeboat was stood down and returned to station. I am pretty sure I know the reason for this call – and of several recent “false alarms” to the RNLI over the last few months. Regular readers will have seen the aerial drone footage of Grey Seals basking on the muddy river foreshore by the Slade Green Marshes. The seals swim in the River Thames and often into the River Darent; they often float in  the water with their heads above the surface in and around Anchor Bay, and well-meaning passers by on the shore mistake the Seals for swimmers who appear to be in trouble in the water. Indeed, the average survival time for a person in the water is estimated to be eleven minutes, due to the extreme currents and undertow in the river in and around Erith Pier. Obviously the situation is somewhat different for Seals – the water is their natural habitat, to which they are perfectly evolved. There was a genuine additional incident involving a human this week - Gravesend's RNLI crew were called at 9.55am on March 30th to reports of a "person in distress" on Erith Pier, and concerns about the person's safety. The Met Police were also called, and the person was rescued and taken into the care of shore-side officers away from the River Thames. As I have mentioned before, the RNLI had to travel all the way from their base in Gravesend, which even at top speed must have taken quite some time. The nearest other RNLI station is at London Bridge, meaning that Erith is about equidistant between the two, and thus the furthest point from an RNLI boat and crew.  With the level of river activity increasing, and the number of incidents revolving around Erith Pier, it again strikes me that we could really do with an RNLI substation in the area. The number and seriousness of incidents should surely justify this? As I have previously mentioned, the former Port of London Authority office next to the wooden jetty and Erith Riverside Gardens would seem to be an ideal location (click on the photo above for a larger version) – it has electricity, running water and a loo / wash basin, and sufficient space for three or four volunteers to stay whilst on call. The adjacent wooden jetty would also provide an ideal place to launch an inshore rescue boat. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo above shows Christ Church Erith, which forms one of the most noticeable landmarks in the town. It is actually quite a modern construction – the cornerstone was laid back in 1872; the land the church is built on was donated by Colonel Wheatley – initially church services had been held in a temporary building made of corrugated iron. The consecration service took place on the 6th June 1874 by Archbishop Tait of Canterbury. The church is built mainly of brick, in the Early English style that many Victorian architects favoured. The building cost around £8,000 – a sizable fortune at the time. A few years later the interior of the church was “Beautified” with a series of frescoes being added; representations of the resurrection, Christ with Angels, four historic Bishops of Rochester, and scenes from English history. These painted wall panels make the church interior look Medieval – certainly far older than it actually is, and make the interior one of the most stunning of any church in the area. I would strongly recommend that you pay the place a visit – the place may look fairly unremarkable from the outside, but the interior is something else altogether. The church bell tower and spire was added forty years after the main building was completed; the first stone on the 13th of June 1914, and was completed and dedicated on the 5th June 1915.

The News Shopper have reported that Bexley is the only London borough where property is on the market for less than £100,000, and buyers need to be looking for an Erith studio flat. The one-room apartments are selling for £94,995 in Frobisher Road, and £95,000 in St Johns Road, with Able Estates in Northumberland Heath. Online estate agent HouseSimple has ranked London’s 32 boroughs by the cheapest one-bed or studio flat available. The next cheapest to Bexley are the boroughs of Newham where studios are priced from £100,000, Lambeth where buyers can bag a flat for £105,000, and Croydon where residents can get on the property ladder for just £119,950.

Historically, Erith has made quite a large contribution to the world of sport. Did you know that Erith was once one of the centres of English cricketing excellence? What is now The Europa Industrial Estate was once a cricket pitch and recreation ground? On Saturday 20th September 1884 a local team of sixteen played an eleven raised By a Mr. H.H Hyslop - a local businessman, from the Australian touring side of that year. Hyslop's Australian team won. A similar match took place between another scratch Australian team again put together by Mr. Hyslop on the 3rd May 1890. The Erith local team was composed of eighteen local men, pitted against a visitors team which included nine members of the Australian test side. This match resulted in a draw. Hopes for a rematch were dashed when the cricket ground was sold and a heavy engineering factory built on the site. Nevertheless, local historians refer to the matches as "when Erith took on the Australians". As many of you know, I am not a sports fan, but it is fascinating to discover, as I have done during my research for this week's entry, that Erith and the surrounding have been pivotal in the development of several now major sports. Football had much of its' origins in Erith in the early 1880's. Prior to 1885-1886, only Rugby Union was played in Erith - there were three clubs in the area; Star Rovers RFC played on Lessness Heath, near the Eardley Arms pub. Erith Raven RFC played on the recreation ground adjacent to the aforementioned cricket ground, and lastly, Erith Anglo - Normans RFC played on Faulkner's Meadow. This club had to be disbanded when the meadow was purchased, and the Nordenfeldt gun works was built on the site; no suitable alternative playing ground could be found for the club and it was wound up. In April 1885 Association Football was introduced to Erith by a gentleman called Bernard Beard, who came to Easton and Anderson's engineering works as manager of the boiler shop. A club was formed, called Erith F.C which played on an area then called Hartley's Meadow - which was located on the banks of the River Thames, just of what is now Lower Road. As a result of a personal dispute between club members, a rival club was established called Erith Avenue F.C. At first, as they had no ground, they were forced to play all of their games away, but they later were successful in securing a ground in what is now Avenue Road. Meanwhile, Erith F.C relocated from Hartley's Meadow to Lower Belvedere. Several members of the team subsequently played for Woolwich Arsenal F.C, what was later to become the current Premier League Arsenal club. The present Erith and Belvedere football club was founded in 1922 and had its' ground adjacent to Belvedere railway station for many years, until arsonists destroyed their main clubhouse and Park View stand in 1997. The club soldiered on for two years, using portakabins on the site, until they entered into a ground sharing arrangement with Welling United in 1999, which is still in place to this day.

The Co-Operative Society also has strong roots in the Erith area. A co-operative shop was opened in Erith in 1868 by Sir William Anderson of Easton and Anderson engineering. The shop unfortunately soon failed, as it refused to give credit, and was patronised mainly by the emerging middle classes, for whom it was not intended.  1868 also saw a much more successful launch of the Royal Arsenal Co-Operative Society at Woolwich. By 1881 they had extended the delivery of bread and groceries into Erith. On the 30th March 1882, a co-op branch store, costing £1,225 was opened on the corner of Manor Road and what is now James Watt Way. A reading room was provided on the first floor by the society's education committee, and supplied newspapers and periodicals for public use. In 1887 this was extended to form a purpose built district library, with a budget of a whole £30 to purchase books. Over the years the trade increased with the surge in growth of the local population, to the point came where the building was not large enough, and new premises were constructed in 1893. It was not very long until this co-operative library fell into disuse, when the Andrew Carnegie sponsored public library in Walnut Tree Road opened in 1906. Records show that the co-operative library had some strange rules in respect of their employees. The first manager of the Manor Road based library was a Mr. James Hall, who had left school at the age of eleven. He was soon promoted to General Manager on the condition that he got married within three months of the appointment! He eventually got spliced four months after his appointment, but this was deemed to be near enough for his employers. Hall eventually rose to become General Manager of the RACS from 1902 until his retirement in 1918.

A new kind of fraud has been uncovered in the USA, and there are indications that UK based criminals are now copying the practice. As is often the case, what starts in America, soon gets exported elsewhere. This week the U.S Federal Courts warned of swindles involving people posing as federal court officials and U.S. Marshals targeting citizens, threatening them with arrest unless they pay some fake fine for failing to show up for jury duty. In an interview with Network World magazine, Melissa Muir, Director of Administrative Services for the U.S. District Court of Western Washington said in a statement “This year’s scams are more aggressive and sophisticated than we’ve seen in years past; Scammers are setting up call centres, establishing call-back protocols and using specific names and designated court hearing times. The bottom line is this: A federal court will never threaten an individual or demand the immediate payment —either over the telephone or money wire service— for fines or for not responding to a jury summons.” The court has warned in the past of e-mails scams from people claiming they have been selected for jury service and demanding that they return a form with such information as Social Security and driver’s licence numbers, date of birth, mobile phone number, and mother’s maiden name. According to the e-mail, anyone who failed to provide the information would be ordered to court to explain their failure, and could face fines and jail time. The e-mail also falsely claimed that it was affiliated with eJuror, an online registration programme. The email is fraudulent and has no connection to either the federal courts or to eJuror, the court system said in a statement. The Administrative Office noted that eJuror never requests that personal identification information be sent directly in an email response. Requests by courts to complete a qualification questionnaire would be initiated by formal written correspondence. Such letters tell jury participants how to access an authenticated, secure online connection. The court has also in the past warned of scammers using the threat of arrest unless of course you pay them off. Specifically the US Court statement said: "You've received a warrant by fax or email saying a federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government wants to arrest you. Charges may be for money laundering or bank fraud, or missed jury duty. To avoid arrest, the warrant says, send money. Again, it’s a scam. Be warned – it is very likely this practice has already made it across the Atlantic, and pretty much all of what applies in the USA will hold true over here.

The photo above was sent to me by fellow local blogger, Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers. It shows London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith visiting the first session of the reinvented Erith Market on Wednesday. I was unable to make the event, as I was at work. I am sure that many other locals were in a similar position; I am extremely happy that the market has been revitalised, for a trial run at least. I would like to see it to also take place on Saturdays when more people could potentially attend - holding it midweek excludes a lot of potential customers, which is to nobody's advantage.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Heseltine, now Lord Heseltine could be spending much of his time in and around North Kent over the next few years. He has been appointed to lead and establish a commission for growth in the Thames Estuary and surrounding areas. The Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission is expected to bring new infrastructure to help develop housing in areas of North Kent, South Essex and East London. Areas he will be responsible for include the forthcoming London Paramount Theme Park, the North Kent innovation zone and Ebbsfleet Garden City. In an interview with the Bexley Times, the acting chair of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, George Kieffer said: “There is nobody better qualified in the context of both the Thames Gateway and regeneration than Lord Heseltine. The economy of the Thames estuary is integral to the long-term prosperity of the UK, thanks to its ports and trade links to mainland Europe. The timing of the commission’s announcement sends a positive message to everybody in the area that the government is committed to ensuring communities east of London realise their full economic and social potential.” On top of this, the Thames Gateway Partnership said “In the north Kent part of the gateway alone we estimate there is scope to deliver an additional 58,000 homes and 59,000 jobs. But for those new homes and jobs to be provided we need to find ways of securing new investment, especially in transport infrastructure. As the commission is established, it will report back at Autumn Statement 2017 with an outline for planned developments”.



This week I have a guest writer, who is a Maggot Sandwich reader of long standing, but has not made a contribution until now. My confidential informant has put together the following very well - written and informative piece regarding a local landmark, and their concerns about its future.

Redevelopment of the Leather Bottle Pub on Heron Hill

The Leather Bottle has closed a few times over the past few years but new owners have always come in and it always opened back up again. It became obvious it had closed for good when over a weekend last year a JCB excavator arrived and started to flatten the site. Everything including trees and shrubs were removed and tons of soil taken away, as the site is at the bottom of the hill its neighbouring house’s foundations were looking precarious, the owners of the Leather Bottle site obviously thought so too as they hastily piled soil back to shore up the danger, tamping it down with the bucket of the JCB. My neighbours opposite started to notice things happening when previously their houses looked out on to trees, and greenery, these were now gone and the privacy that they enjoyed disappeared as well, now they felt exposed, they were now overlooked by the flats in Hattersfield Close. A quick search of the councils planning portal revealed no planning had been applied for, and people start calling the council panicking that they were going to start construction of buildings that would look directly into their properties. The council arrived in their own time at the site, they explained that the owners of the Leather Bottle were within their rights to clear the site but they were not within their rights to block the right of way / footpath that runs across what used to be the car park and garden area, the council also discovered that they'd cleared into council land (the woods). The owners of the site informed to council that they intended to build flats on the site and that in due course they would apply for planning permission. Everything went quiet for months at the Leather Bottle apart from the comings and goings of people now living in the pub. Fast forward until the Easter weekend just gone, another JCB turns up and starts to excavate tons more soils, the fence to the neighbouring house has fallen down and its replaced by plastic sheeting in an attempt at safety, its curious that these works seem to happen over a weekend and this latest major works happened over a the long Easter weekend when the council enforcement officers are not around. Tuesday morning came and I opened the children’s bedroom blinds to be greeted with the sight of a huge mobile crane, then what seems like an influx of building machinery and equipment starts to arrive. We are then treated to days of noise of sheet piling being installed. The Leather Bottle had appeared to have become a full on construction site with contractors turning up constantly.  Another check of the Councils planning portal reveals still no planning permission on the site. My neighbours and I are furiously trying to contact the council by phone and email, the former being pointless because there’s nobody available to take your call. Finally after three emails I get a response from the council which curiously is exactly the same as the one received by my neighbour. I am informed that ‘The current works are to stabilise the grounds’, well, I'm sure this wasn't helped by the removal of tons more soil over the Easter weekend, I'm told building control will visit the site once the installation of the pilings is complete to ‘check the integrity of the boundary fence and if necessary get this fully replaced’. They have received an application for the ‘pub itself to used as accommodation until they are in a position to submit an application for the redevelopment of the entire site’, its been used as accommodation since the cleared the site last year. Apparently planning has been submitted but currently there is a backlog on the planning portal. For a site that has no planning permission in place or the guarantee of it ever being so (unless they know something we don’t) they are spending thousands and thousands of pounds readying this site for major construction. House prices in the area have taken a leap in the last couple of years with the arrival of Crossrail, in my road alone we've seen increases in the region of 187 percent, ridiculous levels some may say. Major investment in the area has taken place with the building of the new Sainsbury’s by Abbey Wood station, the lottery funded redevelopment of the Lesnes Abbey area, and the council sinking money into the children's park with the addition of parkour and BMX/skateboard facilities. Are the council onboard with the development of the Leather Bottle site? You have to wonder, they've not been too perturbed by the level of work that been happening there and the would-be developers seem at ease pouring money into ground works for a site with no planning. I know that Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers shares my guest writers concerns; it will be instructive to see what comes of the case. If you have similar concerns, or some insight into what is going on with the former Leather Bottle and what was the garden area, please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier I mentioned candidate for London Mayor Zac Goldsmith did a meet and greet at Erith Market on Wednesday (there are other Mayoral candidates - your mileage may vary) one of the biggest challenges to whichever person wins the race to be the next Mayor of London will be dealing with the massive housing crisis which London and the entire South East of the UK is suffering. A short explanatory video is shown below.

An undeserved reward.

Since my article last week outlining the planning application that has been submitted to Bexley Council to redevelop the former White Hart / Potion building, I have received a number of reactions from readers. Overall the reception has been broadly positive.  Most people accept that the exterior of the White Hart needs to be restored to how it looked prior to the owners of Potion illegally ripping out the Victorian frontage and replacing it with anachronistic plate glass, despite the building having both listed status, and being located in a conservation zone. Such as restoration will come at a heavy price, and the profits made from converting the upper floors of the building into apartments would not be sufficient to make the project financially viable. The creation of some low rise apartments in the large pub garden, overlooking the river would make the whole thing much more attractive to a developer. The fact that at present no planning application has been submitted by the owners, The Wellington Pub Company, for the ground floor public area of the building, one may suspect that a further application is yet to be submitted. What form this will take is anyone's guess. I did have one response from a regular reader who was less than impressed with the current development proposals (edited for content):- "It would be lovely if it would be turned into a sit down Indian restaurant or some other kind, Erith sadly lacks somewhere to eat of an evening, I'm sure you agree. With lack of interest from such business' its fate is certain to be converted into even more crappy flats like so many other closed boozers. Is there no stopping the relentless charge to fill every spare bit of grass in Erith with wretched flats?" The fact is, Erith is a prime dormitory town for London, and at present it has the second lowest property prices in the South East (marginally beaten into the number two position by Barking and Dagenham). It is inevitable that developers will see the area as one very attractive for people to move into. Personally I am not averse to such development, providing it is done properly, and not just a "sling it up and trouser the cash" approach. I feel more on this subject in the coming weeks. 

Further to my recent investigations into, and blog articles about both Betamax video recorders and Capacitance Electronic Disk players, I have discovered something even more astonishing. The earliest surviving recording of John Logie Baird’s pioneering TV transmissions will be staying in Scotland, after an anonymous donor stepped last month to purchase the historic record. It was made on the 20th September 1927 on a 78rpm PhonoVision shellac disc, recorded and played on what is essentially a television gramophone. A temporary ban on exporting a collection of early television memorabilia, including the recording, had been due to expire just before the benefactor stepped in. The collection was given an asking price of £78,750 earlier this year, and there were fears the historic material would pass into private hands. However, an anonymous businessman has now stepped in to purchase the historical collection, to be stored at the University of Glasgow. The donor reportedly lived in John Logie Baird’s hometown of Helensburgh for 20 years. PhonoVision was the very first method of video recording ever invented. John Logie Baird was very familiar with sound recording onto analogue disks; naturally, this well-known technique was tried for video, and in fact the first video format of all was the Baird Television Record - also known as PhonoVision - which was first demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1927. This was a standard 78-RPM record, intended to be played on a modified gramophone, which would be hooked up to a Baird television. This was only possible because of the extremely low bandwidth of Baird's mechanical TV system, which ran at 12.5 frames per second, and used a mere 30 lines in each frame. TV records were sold in the 1930's by Selfridges in London, for seven shillings each -- the equivalent of about £10 today. Since Baird never seems to have produced a working player, and certainly never had one on sale, this was rather an odd idea; people would simply listen to the chirrup of the TV signal, and imagine the wondrous future it suggested. By the late 1930s, Baird's mechanical television system had been improved to 240 lines, but other pioneers had developed an alternative system -- the electronic scanning system we use today. As soon as the public could see both side-by-side, the superiority of the 405-line electronic TV was apparent, and Baird's mechanical "televisor" was obsolete.The TV record disappeared with it, though apparently a few TV records did survive - eleven examples are still known to exist.

London's Big Issue sellers have diversified into selling coffee from last Monday. The company is going to sell coffee to Londoners under the name Change Please, a new brand backed by the Big Issue magazine. They have eight coffee carts spread across central London with sites in Covent Garden, Waterloo and Paddington. The not-for-profit company will pay baristas the London living wage of £9.15 an hour and train them for jobs with firms from the food and beverage, legal and banking sectors while also providing temporary accommodation. In the past I would have been pleased to hear such news, but some in depth investigation by fellow local bloggers has made me think again. They have uncovered an eye - opening story that Romanian organised criminals have been infiltrating the Big Issue for several years, forcing genuinely homeless people out of the organisation in order to get their own people illegally into the sales pitches. A number of individuals have investigated the case of one Robert Dumitru who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 2 years after being convicted of conning Greenwich Council tax payers out of over £60,000 worth of housing and council tax benefit, even though he was later found to have over £105,000 in the bank; this didn't include the £67,000 he had already sent back to Romania. It would seem that the organised criminal gang are using a little known (until now) loophole which classes The Big Issue sellers as being self employed, and thus eligible for housing benefit. The irony is, that if they are receiving housing benefit, they are not homeless, and therefore should not be selling The Big Issue. I think it is only a matter of time before this scandal gets mainstream press coverage, as it really needs to be exposed. I have visions of the Big Issue Foundation going the same way as the Kid's Company once the story breaks. Apologies for my vagueness as to those who have investigated this story, but there are currently ongoing investigations that I am unable to identify in any detail at present. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The News Shopper has been carrying a story about the supposed “Black Friday” terrorist attack planned to hit shoppers at Bluewater. Apparently a person had posted a hoax story on FaceBook saying that Police and other emergency services were expecting a terrorist attack at the shopping centre, and that this has been confirmed by “a friend of a friend” who worked in Bluewater’s’ Security team. The claim then went on to say that 750 body bags had already been delivered to the shopping centre prior to the claimed attack. The post, which had over 8,000 shares on social media sites, was of course total rubbish, and completely fictitious. Firstly I feel that the culprit should be held responsible for spreading stories likely to cause alarm and concern, and which may also have tied up Police time investigating the veracity (or otherwise) of the claim. Secondly, how can eight thousand people be credulous and gullible enough to share the claim on Facebook? It never ceases to amaze me that a significant minority will believe pretty much anything that is published on social media, especially Facebook – it is the digital equivalent of “it was in the newspaper, so it must be true”. There is a psychological theory called “ego investment” which may go quite some way to explaining why people tend to behave in such a manner. Ego investment basically means how much people care about a certain subject. That, in turn, dictates how much time and energy they'll spend investigating, defending, and sharing their knowledge about it. If they're not really invested in something, they won't put in any effort to vet it out -- because they don't really care. So why post it at all? It may be that a paranoid mind-set can override a dubious one, which results in a "just in case" attitude.  "It won't hurt me to post this, even if it isn't true -- so why not? Maybe I should ... just in case something might happen." On top of this there may also be what is termed “the lemming factor” – where Facebook users feel that if they are not reacting to a story, however implausible or bizarre, then they will be in some way losing out. This is very similar to the old phenomenon of chain letters; There’s a sense of ritualized behaviour of sharing it that makes you feel more in control—which is why people share the letters that say if you don’t share this, then something bad will happen—because the cost of not doing it is big, but the cost of sharing it is minimal. There is also the friendship element – if the hoax story has been posted by a friend, and you trust the friend, you are more likely to believe stories that they post – their critical faculties having been short circuited by their relationship. At the end of the day, social media hoaxes are so common and widespread that one would have thought that the general public would have become more inured to them by now, but this still seems sadly not to be the case.

The News Shopper are reporting that another big budget movie has been filmed using Crossness Pumping Station as a major location. The forthcoming film “Victor Frankenstein” which opens on the 3rd December. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy in a remake of the classic sci fi tale. Crossness Pumping Station is used to double as Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory. It is far from the first time the grade one listed building has been used in television or the movies. The pumping station interior was used as the Masonic Temple occupied by the evil Lord Blackwood in Guy Ritchie’s 2009 version of “Sherlock Holmes”; it was also used in the 1989 Tim Burton directed “Batman” movie, and as part of the interior of the starship Nostromo in the original “Alien” movie. The interior of the pumping station is stunning, as you can see in the video above. It was constructed by the Metropolitan Board of Works Chief Engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette between 1859 and 1865, as part of Bazalgette's redevelopment of the London sewerage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, that Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described as "a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork". The Pump Room was used to house giant custom – built pumps which enabled the incoming liquid effluent to be raised some 30 to 40 feet. The pumping engines were of enormous size and power. They were built by James Watt and Co. to Joseph Bazalgette's designs and specification, and were named "Victoria", "Prince Consort", "Albert Edward" and "Alexandra". The pumps worked at eleven revolutions per minute, and six tons of sewage per stroke per engine were pumped up into a 27-million-imperial-gallon reservoir, and was released into the Thames during the ebbing tide. The steam required to power these engines was raised by twelve Cornish boilers with single "straight-through" flues situated in the Boiler House to the south of the Engine House, and which consumed approximately five thousand tons of Welsh coal annually. At this time, the Crossness Works merely disposed of raw sewage into the river seawards, and in 1882, a Royal Commission recommended that the solid matter in the sewage should be separated out, and that only the liquid portion remaining should be allowed, as a temporary measure, to pass into the river. In 1891, sedimentation tanks were added to the works, and the sludge was carried by steam boats and dumped further out into the estuary, at sea. The smell of the river must have been awful – and to think that people swam in the Thames at Erith, only a couple of miles downriver during the popular summer season. You might well have come out from a dip looking a fetching shade of brown – and not from a sun tan! The whole of the Crossness Pumping Station was a real tribute to classic Victorian over – engineering – and possibly part of the reason so much survived after the giant steam powered pumps were decommissioned and left to rot for years. The pumping station became a Grade I listed building in 1970 and will remain on the Heritage at Risk Register until the restoration is completed. The Crossness Engines Trust, a registered charity, was formed in 1987 to oversee the restoration project. The station contains the four original pumping engines, which are thought to be the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. Although the engines are original, they are not in their original 1864 configuration as all four engines were converted from single cylinder to the current triple expansion operation in 1901 and 1902. Prince Consort was returned to steam in 2003 and now runs on Trust Open Days. The other engines are not in working order, although work has begun on the restoration of Victoria.

The photo above was sent to me earlier this week by Maggot Sandwich reader and local history enthusiast Raymond Ratcliff.  It shows Bexley Road, Erith, back in 1910. You may recall that last week I featured a photograph showing a row of shops called Station Parade from the late 1970’s / early 1980’s. Station Parade was later built on the site of the tram shelter shown above. It is fascinating to see how the local area has changed over the years, not always for the better.  It is interesting to see that the shelter at the tram stop has open sides; knowing how the wind whistles along Bexley Road nowadays, it cannot have been any fun to stand at the tram stop in the winter, as I doubt it would offer very much protection from the weather. The boy in the photo seems to be staring at the photographer. I would imagine he was saying something along the lines of “Mister – wot are you doin?”. A fascinating snapshot of times gone by. If you have any old photographs of the local area which you would like to see featured on the Maggot Sandwich, please drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Hackers have been using ransomware - a type of malware in which attackers can steal or delete the contents of users’ computers if they don’t pay a ransom - for the past 25 years. Now, it seems, the same tactic may be used on medical devices such as insulin pumps and pacemakers. Ransomware in medical devices is the single biggest cybersecurity threat for 2016, according to a recent report from research and advisory firm Forrester. As of yet there are no documented cases of hackers holding a user ransom by his medical device, but experts are realizing that cybersecurity for medical devices—really anything connected to the Internet, including surgical robots—is lagging woefully behind the digital protection arming other systems and gadgets. Experts quoted in a recent piece in Bloomberg Business estimate that the security around medical devices is about a decade behind the overall standard. Earlier this year, the Federal Drug Administration issued a letter warning American hospitals and patients that a pump commonly used to ration out proper dosing of medicine in IVs could be vulnerable to attack. Threats to medical devices may have been common knowledge (enough to make up a plot twist on the TV show Homeland) but no one paid much attention because there didn’t seem to be any clear benefit to a hacker. Who would want to mess up Joe Blogg's drug infusion pump? But as more health insurance providers find themselves under fire, it’s clear that hackers have set their sights on the healthcare industry. And with the prospect of a ransom, that threat feels all too immediate and personal, especially since it’s not cheap—most hackers ask for $200 to $10,000, according to the FBI. Between April 2014 and June 2015, hackers’ extortions via personal computers cost American victims $18 million. What has happened in America invariably happens in the UK sooner or later. Unlike on a personal computer, individuals can’t put digital security measures in place to protect their biomedical devices. It’s up to the manufacturers of the device’s hardware and software to put the proper security protocols in place. Hopefully they can do so before ransomware becomes as big of an issue as predicted. Many cyber-security vendors view ransomware as 2016's biggest threat, and to help drive this point home, a Symantec security researcher demonstrated how easy it can be to infect smart TVs and how hard it can be to clean the infection afterwards. The researcher did not reveal the TV's make and model but said it was running a modified version of Google's Android operating system, which many brands also use for their smart TV products. To infect his TV, Symantec's research team used a common ransomware family that targets Android devices. This ransomware shows an annoying ransom note every few seconds, overlaying the message on top of the screen, making the device inoperable. Most Android ransomware works on Android OS-based TVs the investigation team said that infection of his device was made possible due to the lack of TSL / SSL encryption for sensitive communications between the TV and remote servers, used for app installs or firmware updates. With a simple MitM (Man-in-the-Middle) attack, the researcher placed the ransomware on his device by spoofing a game installation package. The ransomware installation didn't encounter any roadblocks and soon took root on the device, blocking the user from using it. After installing the ransomware, Symantec then studied methods to have it removed. Their quest was not as successful as they wished, and they found that the ransom note made it almost impossible to carry out a factory reset, start a support session with the TV maker's support staff, or execute other operations. They were eventually able to remove the ransom note, but only because they had activated the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tool before installing the malware. This tool allowed him to connect the TV to a laptop and remove the ransomware from there. Other types of malicious attacks are also possible on smart TVs Besides ransomware, Symantec says that smart TVs are also vulnerable to other types of threats. Attackers can hijack smart TVs to perform click fraud, crypto-currency mining, steal user personal data, extract various authentication credentials used by smart TV apps, or even add the TV to a DDoS botnet. To prevent malware from infecting smart TVs or stop malicious actors from carrying out other types of attacks, Symantec provided a series of mitigation techniques that smart TV owners can employ. Some of the most useful tips recommend that users always keep their TV's software updated to the latest version, that they disable features that they don't use, and only install apps from verified sources. Additionally, users should enable app verification in the TV's settings, inspect the TV's built-in security settings, and turn up the defensive features to max, and always disable remote access to the TV when not needed. As I have previously written, in my own experience, Smart TV's are seriously overrated. 

Above you can see two photos which show part of Erith in a "then and now" way. The upper photo was taken in around 1935, and shows James Watt Way looking North; To the right of the photo can be seen The Prince of Wales pub, and ahead is the Royal Arsenal Co-Operative Society shop, on the corner of Manor Road. Just out of the shot, to the left would have been the construction site for the forthcoming Odeon Cinema, which opened in 1937. You can see some period photos of the cinema by clicking here. In the lower photo, you can see the McDonald's drive through burger bar where the pub once stood, and in place of the RACS shop, there is now a KFC fried chicken drive through. To the left, on the site of the Odeon Cinema (demolished in 1999, even though it was a grade 2* listed building) is a block of flats with offices and the new, faceless Erith Library on the ground floor.  I think pretty much anyone who has spent time living in or around Erith is of the opinion that the old Victorian town centre should never have been demolished. If it was still in place now, the town would be a significant tourist attraction. 

The following warning has been published by Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association:- "SCAM WARNING We have had several co-ordinators report the same delivery scam to us. Whereby you receive a phone call from a courier company asking when you would be home so that they can deliver a package which requires a signature. Once arranged a uniformed delivery man arrives with a basket of flowers and a bottle of wine. The courier cannot tell you who has ordered the flowers but says that the message card would be sent separately. However, there is a consignment note which states that because the gift contains alcohol that there is a £3.50 delivery/ verification charge which supposedly provides proof that the gift has actually been delivered to an adult (of legal drinking age). The courier refuses cash as payment and says that the delivery company requires payment by credit or debit card. He then asks you to swipe your card on a mobile card machine with a small screen and enter your PIN on the keypad. A receipt is printed out and given to you. By now you have given the fraudster all the information necessary to create a "dummy" card with your card details including the PIN number. WARNING: Be wary of accepting any "surprise gift or package," which you neither expected nor personally ordered, especially if it involves any kind of payment as a condition of receiving the gift or package. Also, never accept anything if you do not personally know or there is no proper identification of who the sender is. Above all, the only time you should give out any personal credit/debit card information is when you yourself initiated the purchase or transaction!"

Leader of Bexley Council Teresa O’Neill has been awarded an OBE in the in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, for services to the community and local government in London. She received the award from Prince Charles on November the 19th. O’Neill has become the first sitting councillor in the borough's history to be awarded an OBE. To anyone who has any awareness of how Bexley Council operates, the news of the award will be of little surprise, but some considerable consternation. In my personal opinion the award was totally unwarranted – she’s overseen the dismantling of much of the leisure infrastructure in the borough, including the selling off of numerous parks and open spaces, the closure of the much loved Belvedere Splash Park, and the proposed disposal of a number of other public resources. Teresa O,Neill is the queen of selling off the family silver, with no thought for the future. For more details on why Teresa O’Neill does not deserve public recognition for her works, you only need to take a look at Malcolm Knight’s excellent “Bexley is Bonkers” site to get a real idea of what has been going on locally.

Plans to build a new bridge across the Thames between Canary Wharf and Rotherhithe on either side have reached completion in a new feasibility study. The proposed ‘Rotherhithe Bridge’ would have the longest bascule span (opening bridge) in the world, at 600ft (184m), for use by pedestrians and cyclists. It would be the first bascule bridge on the river that would open to let shipping through since Tower Bridge was completed in 1894. Pedestrians and cyclists would use two separate parallel spans, each 15ft wide, avoiding conflict that occurred between walkers and riders in the nearby Greenwich foot tunnel last year. The bridge would run east-west from Millwall on the Isle of Dogs to Rotherhithe, roughly following the London Underground Jubilee Line deep below the riverbed, just south of Westferry Circus. The pedestrian approach from Millwall would start at Westferry Road, while the longer cycle approach would wind its way from Canary Wharf’s Westferry Circus upper deck. The scheme is a response to demand in south-east London for a river crossing which would cut commuting time and congestion on other parts of London’s overstretched transport network. Commuters from Rotherhithe would get easy access to the DLR and to Crossrail opening in 2018, while cyclists from east London could cross to Surrey Quays without a long and polluted traffic route detour to Tower Bridge or the dangerous Rotherhithe Tunnel. Up to three million people a year would use it, the proposers envisage. Cost is estimated at £88m, taking up to five years to build. Bearing in mind the bridge would be for pedestrians and cyclists only, I cannot see much objection to the scheme. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Thirty years ago this month, hugely successful and very popular offshore radio station Laser 558 went off air for the last time. The station, which began broadcasting in May 1984 was financed and operated by business and broadcasting executives. Laser 558 used disc jockeys from the USA. It was based on the ship MV Communicator in the international waters of the North Sea. Within months the station had a large audience due to its strong signal, fast moving American presentation style, and continuous music mixing current records with oldies. However, insufficient advertising starved the station off the air in November 1985. Below is a contemporary news report which ironically does much to promote Laser 558, which for a short time was more popular in London and the South East of England than BBC Radio One.