The Belvedere Beach.

It would seem that Bexley Council have taken on board the recent protests by residents of Slade Green and parts of Erith in regard of the Bexley Growth Consultation proposal that I featured a couple of weeks ago. It looks very much like the council regard themselves as "being caught on the back foot" following the rather inflammatory protest leaflet that was delivered to the letter boxes of a large number of roads potentially allegedly affected by the proposed changes. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the lurid claims made in the leaflet have now been investigated, and I have come to the conclusion that they are for the most part pretty far – fetched. I have had private words with a number of people involved with the Bexley Growth Consultation proposal, and off the record it has been said that it is pretty much a “sticking a finger in the air” exercise at present, and that a lot of the suggestions included in the report will never see the light of day, and those that do may not happen for decades. The protest leaflet looks like a classic piece of scare mongering - a case of "never let the facts get in the way of a good story". The new Council leaflet has a wording that definitely reflects the concerns that have been voiced by concerned local residents who have been persuaded by the original inflammatory leaflet that their houses are only months away from being compulsorily purchased and then bulldozed, which could not be any further from the truth. I think the underlying reason for the level of panic is due to the understandable insecurity of many Slade Green and Erith residents. Many are not wealthy, and don't feel that they have any real say in local events. Historically the North of the London Borough of Bexley has been the industrial / manufacturing heart of the area, and where the less privileged members of society tended to live. If one looks at the demographic breakdown of the borough, the Northern areas of Erith and Slade Green shows a higher than average number of residents receiving benefits, and / or being paid the National Living Wage. The people feel disenfranchised, and completely out of control of their local environment. I think this is the reason for the very strong protests at the perceived changes in the original, poorly worded Council proposal document. I do think that whoever created the original protest document may have done so with the best of intentions, but the end result has not been very constructive, and has worried people unnecessarily. The website of Slade Green Together have a far more measured and realistic analysis of the Bexley Growth Consultation proposal, which you can read by clicking here. There has been a major setback to the Bexley Growth Consultation Plans in their current form - and a great victory for the campaign to preserve Crayford and Slade Green Marshes. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has vetoed the proposed massive 149 acre rail marshalling yard, warehousing and a bridge over the River Cray. The development had been approved by Bexley Council (no surprises there) but blocked by Dartford Council - who share administration over the marshes. In a letter to Bexley Council, Sadiq Khan said: “Having now considered a report on this case, I do not consider the proposal would achieve the modal shifts from road to rail freight within London envisaged within my Draft Transport Strategy, and therefore there are not demonstrable benefits for London which would outweigh the loss of London’s Green Belt. I direct you to refuse planning permission, under the powers conferred on me by article 6 of the above Order. The proposal is inappropriate development in the Green Belt and very special circumstances have not been demonstrated which would clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt by reason of inappropriateness, and any other harm.” A significant portion of Bexley's regeneration plans were centred around development of the marshes, and the associated construction in and around Slade Green. I get the feeling that much of these plans will now need to be substantially revisited following the decision of the Mayor of London, which overrides that of the individual boroughs by statute. 

In a move that many long - term readers may see as supremely ironic, The local studies and archive centre located on the upper floor of Bexleyheath Library has just won a national accreditation. Bexley’s Local Studies and Archive Centre has been awarded Archive Service Accreditation. The service has met defined national standards relating to management and resourcing, the care of its unique collections and what it offers to its wide range of users. In an interview with the Bexley Times,  Councillor Peter Craske said:- “Local people are proud of the borough and its past and the centre works with people if all ages to help them appreciate our rich culture and history. The team’s passion and enthusiasm is clear to anyone who uses the service or visits the centre and I am delighted that their hard work has been recognised". Those readers with a long memory will recall that I highlighted the threat to merge Bexley local / historical records with Bromley back in October 2013; you can read what I wrote at the time by clicking here. It is instructive to note how Bexley Council can go from wanting to close the archive facility less than four years ago - albeit to a storm of protest, to now taking credit for the unit now being awarded a prestigious accreditation now. Craske and his cronies seem to underestimate local people who recall how the councillors acted back in the day. It would appear in this case the council now wish to take credit for saving something that they actively tried to destroy. 

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I asked if anyone knew what had happened to renowned local fisherman Dave Pearce, who had been the last commercial Eel fisherman on the River Thames. I was extremely surprised to get an Email from the man himself - it turns out that he is a long time Maggot Sandwich reader. Dave writes:- "How I became the last eel fisherman by Dave Pearce. Fishing was in my blood; my great grandfather. Owned several fishing boats fishing out of Erith in the mid 1800s,  and a wet fish shop. Skip a generation. My two uncles. Ron and Bill Dott both well known in Erith. took up fishing. Bill fishing and Ron making gear and repairing it. The boats. from a early age, 3 or 4 I was always with them - boats and fishing was my life. I loved it; at a young age Ron and I built the Harry Boy a 35 foot trawler that I fished in the Thames, regularly landing fish in Erith. One day I saw someone eeling in long reach  had a chat with them and thought I'd have a go - that was 1990 ish  and I did OK. I had a mate with me called Gary Cochran - we both liked the life - you had to, as it was dirty hard work with odd hours. We fished 6 days a week and too the eels to Billingsgate on a Tuesday morning. The season was from April till end of November always glad to pack up by then as  the back usually hurt by then, but after a few weeks I couldn't wait to start again. When I started there were 12 teams eeling between Tower Bridge and Canvey Island. They gradually packed up or retired, but I still loved it I also got to work at The Natural History Museum doing fish surveys. About 2010 I started to slow down eel fishing  and doing other work still on the river that I love. If you see a red workboat going past Erith it's probably me. I would say about  2014/5 I packed up eel fishing. Very sad time I was probably the last fisherman out of Erith. In those years I learned a lot about eels and the river of no use to anyone but me. Never say never! I still own a fishing boat, got my nets, and I am still licenced to fish eels. One day one day I hope to wet a net again . I could go on for ages about  the good days I well remember and the bad days I sooner forget. but I guess I have said enough already, so over and out. Dave Pearce". Excellent stuff, and really fascinating reading; I hope to see Dave back out in his little work boat soon. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The controversial Belvedere Beach play area in Woolwich Road, Upper Belvedere opened on Thursday of last week. It takes the place of the incredibly popular and well used Belvedere Splash Park that was closed down two years ago after much wrangling and anger from local residents. A campaign was set up to preserve the Splash Park, but Bexley Council chose to ignore the overwhelming opposition to the park closure. The Belvedere Beach is a sort of compromise; some of the features of the old park have been retained, but the overall new park layout is substantially different; what the children and their parents will make of the Belvedere Beach remains to be seen. In a not unexpected move, local Councillor Peter Craske (remember him from earlier?) said in an interview in the News Shopper that "Belvedere Beach is a tremendous landmark that will be here for years to come. Both contemporary and unique, children of all abilities will be able to take part in themed, imaginary play, and with the on-site facilities, families can now stay and play for longer. The new playground will also be open all year round and is yet another reason to come and visit our fantastic borough. I am looking forward to the opening next week and hope to see lots of people there!" Craske seems to turn up for the opening of an envelope, so I suppose the comments are really just to be expected. Upon the opening, he was quoted in the News Shopper as saying:- "I’d like to thank all those involved in this project for everything you have done to turn what was an idea on a piece of paper into reality, creating something unique - not just for Bexley but beyond that too. Without the funding from Cory Environmental Trust, strong team work and creativity that everyone involved has shown we would not have a playground of this incredibly high standard that is opening well ahead of schedule and in time for the school holidays. I'm so proud of what you have all achieved". He really does seem to be everywhere. If you have visited the revamped park, do let me know what you think of it. Does it live up to the hype?

The photo above shows a fly tipped fridge / freezer which was illegally dumped in Hind Crescent, close to the entrance to The Urgent Care Unit at Erith Hospital. The person who took the photograph noted that the fridge / freezer was right in the middle of the footpath, and anyone with a visual disability might well trip over it and possibly injure themselves on the sharp and rusty exposed metal. I know that I am far from being alone in wanting far more rigorous enforcement of fly tipping; the discredited company Kingdom Services supposedly enforcing the litter ban in Bexleyheath Broadway might be more productive if they were to patrol the streets of the borough to catch and prosecute the commercial fly tippers. Whilst much of the UK suffers from problems of this nature, the issue in South East London and North Kent seems to be especially bad.

Local arts and design commissioning group The Exchange invited proposals from practitioners with ideas to transform London’s longest pier in Erith into a piece of art for the period of the Totally Thames Festival 2017 in September. 75 artists, designers, architects, performers and creatives submitted ideas to use this newest and most unique public art space. Submissions came from all over the world and the quality was exceptional. The judging panel – that included The Exchange, sponsors Orbit and Wates Residential, local artists Guy Tarrant and Gary Drostle, The Decorators (responsible for Erith Lighthouse), Totally Thames, and the Port of London Authority – whittled the list down to four applicants. These four final ideas were then put out to public vote, that was collected online and in Erith Library, which finished on Friday. Julia Snowdin’s ‘Changing Sails’ aimed to work with the community to decorate ships’ sails that would hang around the pier; The City Art’s Doctors proposed to create listening posts, shaped like clay pipes, which would project stories of Erith; Oliver Palmer wanted to recreate Callender’s Cable Works Brass Band with a sound installation and performances; and Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs proposed to create urban auricles that would amplify the sounds of the Thames and industrial Erith. The result of the public vote will be published on Monday. More information can be found by clicking here. The piece will be installed by 6 September, to tie in with the Totally Thames Festival and the Erith Lighthouse project. This will be a major cultural and social event in Erith - something that we have not had before; I for one am very excited by the various projects and will be covering them in some extensive detail - watch this space.

A story was published in the Bexley Times last week which I understand has annoyed many people, and I can fully understand why. Despite a London-wide focus on the behaviour and a spate of moped-related acid and knife attacks earlier this month, Detective Inspector Dawn Morris has said police cannot always pursue every suspicious moped rider. “Our officers have to consider whether chasing after a suspect is always the safest thing to do, or if it could endanger the public, officers or the suspect, In those cases we tend to request support from a police helicopter, or lay down puncture strips, which let down wheels slowly to prevent any accidents. While we may not always make an immediate arrest after an incident, these types of criminals don’t tend to want to dump their vehicle and walk the 10 miles home after using them, so we’re developing a picture of where they are and how we can stop them by basing our patrols in the correct areas. We are also working with the public to show them how to better protect their bikes by making them more secure with better locks and using traceable liquids like SmartWater so bikes can be identified as their own under an ultraviolet light. We are also monitoring websites to see if anyone is trying to sell the stolen vehicles online.” Police say the rising concern of stolen bikes and mopeds can be linked to incidents of robbery and violence in the borough, with the vehicles also used to snatch phones from victim’s hands as riders drive past. I feel that one comment made by Detective Inspector Morris is most telling; Her line:- "Our officers have to consider whether chasing after a suspect is always the safest thing to do, or if it could endanger the public, officers or the suspect" (my emphasis). I think the senior Police officer is fundamentally misreading the mood of the public when it comes to moped and motor cycle related crime. The Police already acknowledge that the illegal moped riders deliberately do not wear helmets as they are fully aware of the Police "Rules of Engagement" that prohibit officers from chasing un-helmeted riders as the illegal riders might crash and hurt themselves. The criminals are laughing at authority. Feedback that I have received is pretty much unanimous - the Police need to change their policy, chase the criminal scumbags, and if required, ram them off the road, and if as a consequence a few crooks get injured, then so be it. I know, as I have previously mentioned, that Dagenham and Redbridge Police are dropping the Met - wide non engagement rule, following a radio debate I took part in on Time 107.5 FM on the 3rd of July, where the Borough Commander of Dagenham and Redbridge Police stated that they were about to trial a new policy of engagement, that, if successful would very likely be expanded to cover all Metropolitan Police areas. Whilst I doubt a change in pursuit policy would deter the hardcore moped criminals, the thought that they might be taking their next meal through a drip might deter many. Secondly Detective Inspector Morris is largely mistaken in thinking that mopeds are sold online after being used in criminal activity; from what my sources tell me, after being used, most stolen motorbikes and mopeds are broken for spare parts, which are then sold on, as the parts are far harder to trace than whole vehicles.  On top of this, moped crooks are getting wise to vehicles fitted with immobilisers - recently they are starting to rip off the immobilisers on certain models of Vespa scooter, and then wire in their own, hacked immobiliser unit which then allows them to start the vehicle and illegally ride it away. The stolen bikes are then used in muggings, car jackings, illegal drug deliveries and most publicly, in the recent alarming spate of acid attacks. Gangs such as Bike Life TV UK also stage illegal "rides" around places including Thamesmead and Lower Belvedere, as I have written about in detail in the past. What do you think? Should the Police institute a tougher policy on bike crooks, or are things fine as they are? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

A further Police related story - you have none for ages, then two turn up together. I am surprised at how many local people are unaware of the threat of closure to Bexleyheath Police Station. It has been proposed that Bexleyheath police station is sold off and services moved to Sidcup. This has been vigorously opposed by MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford David Evennett.  The proposal is to close and sell off Bexleyheath Police Station (which has already lost its custody suite and cells) and move everything to Marlowe House in Sidcup, right on the far South of the Borough. This would leave the entire borough with only one fully active Police Station. What also concerns me is that if Police make an arrest say in Lower Belvedere, they then have to go all the way across the Borough to Sidcup in order to get the felon processed - which could take them off active duty for several hours. This definitely sounds like an idea that has not been properly thought through - I feel the law of unintended consequences coming into play once again. I do appreciate that nowadays the Police are lot more mobile than they once were, and don't all sit in the Police station waiting for a 999 call to come in, then all run out Keystone Cops style, but the message this sends to crooks is a poor one.

A message from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association:- "Can everyone remember that with the summer comes the unwanted door knockers touting for Gardening / tree pruning work, Roofing/guttering cleaning , and Driveway work. These cold callers are usually in unmarked transit vans and not in any kind of company uniform but you may see them slowly driving around looking at houses. Likewise, they will often put a card through doors if nobody answers when they knock, but can I just remind everyone to please look out for their elderly neighbours as these are often the easy target for chancers, and that if you haven't personally called anyone or don't actually need the work done, don't answer the door but if you do DON'T be talked into having any work done". Reports from a Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator in Barnehurst reads:- "Two reps from Safe Style UK Windows knocked on my door and said they were doing work for a neighbour and offered me a quote. They were a bit pushy, but I agreed to have a quote from them. Soon afterwards, another neighbour said they were calling further down the road, saying I was having work done by them, as if in recommendation. I cancelled my appointment but would caution others that they are at least guilty of misrepresentation". From The Colyers Safer Neighbourhood Team:-"There were 2 reported burglaries, 1 commercial burglary in Erith Road on 24th July. Suspect forced entry via a glass panel in the early hours of the morning. Cosmetics and food were stolen. Suspect identified by CCTV and arrested. Investigation ongoing There was also 1 attempted burglary on the morning of the 19th July in Edendale Road where an attempt to enter by forcing the kitchen window. Entry was not gained and nothing was taken. No CCTV or witnesses. There have been 3 thefts from motor vehicles this week. One in Badlow Close on the morning of the 19th July where a lock was forced and a bag stolen from the foot well of the car. There was no CCTV and no suspects were seen. Another was in the early hours of the 21st July in Cumbrian Avenue where the wheel trims were stolen from a vehicle. There were no witnesses or CCTV and no viable leads. Lastly there were some number plates stolen from a car in Northumberland Way sometime between the 18th-21st July. There was 1 criminal Damage to a vehicle in Larner Road overnight between the 12th-13th July where a known suspect poured paint on the victims vehicle due to an alleged parking dispute. Investigation ongoing. Our next surgery is on Thursday 27th July in the Community Centre, Blackberry Patch, Badlow Close at 6pm". A report from the Erith Safer Neighbourhood Team:- "There has been an increase in theft of number plates in Erith we are trying to get hold of some security screws that will hand out to local residents that request them. We had a successful ward panel meeting with a record turnout and Jerry Martin was voted in as our new chairman. We are going to increase patrols in the area - that was brought up from the meeting – more on this to follow". 

The ending video this week shows one of the newly installed cycle path barriers on the Thames Cycle Path at Abbey Wood, close to Thamesmead; apologies that the video is in vertical / portrait format, but that is how it was supplied to me by a long - time Maggot Sandwich reader who chooses to remain anonymous. It is most definitely worth a watch, and really highlights how council tax payers money has been wasted in a poorly planned and even more poorly executed piece of very expensive street furniture. Give the video a watch, and either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The Clock Tower.

Many people think that Erith is just a small, semi industrial outer London suburb. What they don't realise is less than fifteen minutes walk from the town centre, and you can be in an area of outstanding natural beauty, which has hardly changed since the Bronze Age. The photo above shows the salt marshes and reed beds that border the banks of the River Thames to the Eastern end of Erith. The photo was actually taken from Erith Yacht Club, and shows the characteristic Erith "big sky" which you can only find in this part of the Borough. The marshes are a great place to visit when the weather is warm - you can walk dogs, or ride a mountain bike, or just go for a stroll. If you do have a dog, you need to be able to keep it under control, as there are a couple of farms on the marsh, which have both sheep and cows grazing in the area. Worth a visit once the incessant rain and high winds finally abate. Click on the photo for a larger view.

After the unwelcome revelation last week of Erith KFC applying for a 24 hour opening licence, I forgot to mention problems I encountered whilst logging my own objection to the plan on Bexley Council’s website. As I have written in the past, the site is very comprehensive, but it is labyrinthine and very difficult to navigate. If you do persist for long enough, you can generally find what you are looking for, but the experience is very far from pleasant. One thing that many of Bexley Council’s website online contact forms have in common is that they require not only your name and Email address, but full postal address, along with multiple phone numbers. Not only are some of these forms not encrypted by HTTPS, meaning that data uploaded onto them could potentially be intercepted and stolen, but on top of this, the logic parser used by the pages does not allow for any contact fields to be left blank. Quite why the council feel the need for so much personal information is a mystery to me.  I particularly found the form field for a mobile phone number a challenge. I tried inputting “N/A” and “I don’t have a mobile phone”, but these were both rejected. I tried a string of zeroes, but this too was not accepted. In the end I was forced to make up a number. I hope some poor innocent does not get phoned by a council worker trying to get hold of me. Quite why the council think absolutely everyone has a mobile phone is a mystery. By making a mobile number a compulsory field, they are effectively blocking a small but nevertheless significant group of residents from accessing their services online. I have also discovered that it is possible that my objections, and those of others may not have been correctly recorded by the site; the council are already aware of this and are currently investigating. I have agreed with them that if Maggot Sandwich readers wish to send me Emails of protest regarding KFC potentially opening 24/7 in Manor Road, I will collate the messages and forward them to Bexley Councillor Chris Ball, who is managing the investigation of the possible website problem. You can Email any objections to hugh.neal@gmail.com and I will ensure that the correct people in the business licence team get the messages. I think it is extremely unlikely the Council will permit the vastly extended opening hours. As I wrote last week, the KFC Drive Through site is surrounded by residential housing on three out of four sides, and already causes a degree of noise and disruption due to the number of vehicles passing through the premises, allied with the smell of frying oil that surrounds the site if the wind happens to be blowing in the wrong direction. I suspect that the application may be “a play”. They may not actually want 24/7 opening, they are just requesting it, but when it gets refused, they then will submit a more “reasonable” change request with the hours that they actually want to extend to. Currently they are open 11am to 11pm. I would not be surprised if they would really like to open at 6am and close at midnight, but to be honest, this is just a guess on my part. Both the KFC and adjacent McDonald’s Drive Through are both in relatively close proximity to the residential care home / sheltered housing on the opposite side of James Watt Way; I would imagine that any licencing changes would have to take into account the potential increase in disturbance to the care home residents. Any increases in the opening hours will be vigorously opposed by local residents. Watch this space.

If this was not enough, Bexley Council Highways Department are shortly to begin work to introduce traffic calming measures to Manor Road. These will include raised pedestrian crossings, traffic cushions and narrowing of the carriageway at key points. How successful this will be is open to debate. Manor Road is very long, and mostly fairly straight. It does suffer badly from speeding vehicles, especially in the evenings when the road is otherwise quiet. It experiences a classic problem – the Western end of the road (the Erith end) is relatively high density residential, whereas the Eastern end (towards Slade Green) is populated by industrial units and heavy industry. The road gets a lot of heavy lorries using it in the daytime, but is relatively quiet in the evenings, when most of the speeding problems seem to occur. It is unclear whether the council work will also include resurfacing the road yet again, as it is crumbling and potholed, even though it has been resurfaced twice in six years. The same can be said  of Fraser Road, which in many places is in an even worse state. I was on a 99 bus last weekend, and was almost thrown out of my seat as the vehicle hit a massive hole in the road just outside of Wickes. Both of these roads urgently need major remedial work, but I somehow doubt that it will get done. The only upside of the pot holes is that some (but not all) speeding drivers may be deterred by the terrible driving conditions. I think it is only time before either a motor bike or bicycle rider has a serious accident, either caused by hitting a pothole and being thrown off their vehicle, or by swerving to avoid a hole and riding into incoming traffic. Either way the local potholes are a danger to all road users.

Some months ago I embedded a trailer for the then soon to be released movie featuring veteran rock band Status Quo, who were appearing in their very own action comedy film, called “Bula Quo”. It looked like amiable guff, and I thought no more about it until last weekend, when a friend popped round with it. I must admit that I was expecting a train wreck of a movie, and sat down in front of the television expecting to laugh at it. I think pretty much everyone who had heard of the project was of the impression that it was some kind of elaborate tax avoidance scheme on the part of the band’s management. It all sounded like a pub conversation that went too far – the Quo travel for a series of concerts on the island of Fiji, and manage to inadvertently get on the wrong side of the local Mafia chief; comic mayhem ensues. Actually, upon sitting down and watching it, the movie is actually OK. It is not going to win any awards; Rick Parfitt has trouble playing himself, and most of the cast seem to have been recent graduates of the Formica School of Acting, but overall it is actually quite enjoyable. A prime example of the humour can be summarised in the following exchange – Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi have been locked in a room with a toy that has been converted into an IED, which is seconds from exploding:- (Rossi) “It’s a doll!” (Parfitt) “It’s a bomb!” (Together) “it’s a blow up doll!” Quite. To be honest, the scenery in Fiji is so stunning that you will have something worth looking at wherever the camera is pointed, and the story unfolds at a leisurely pace. The only believable and well acted role is that played by Craig Fairbrass, who plays the band’s much put upon manager cum minder – he’s completely believable as an ex special forces guy who handles most of the fisticuffs. I commented during the film that Bula Quo is way better than Ridley Scott's pseudo Alien prequel Prometheus, as it has several things that the multi-million dollar sci fi extravaganza lacks; namely a plot that makes sense, characters who have believable motivation and who act in a logical manner. One could never accuse Prometheus of any of those points I am afraid. Bula Quo is cheesy, cheerful and fully aware of exactly how ridiculous it all is. At the end of ninety minutes I have to say that I enjoyed myself – which is most definitely not something I could say after watching  Ridley Scott’s leaden clunker.

You may recall that last week I wrote at some length about the 70^th birthday of Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer. I had a series of very interesting Emails from regular Maggot Sandwich reader Christine, whose Dad also worked at the Dollis Hill Post Office Research Centre before and during the war, and also worked at Bletchley Park. It is entirely possible that her father knew my Great Uncle Horace, who I wrote about last week – we have very little hard evidence of precisely what Horace did during the war, but there is considerable circumstantial evidence he was one of the team that built the ten Colossus computers at Bletchley Park  that cracked the Nazi Lorenz Cipher, and so shortened the war by an estimated two years, saving countless lives in the process. Since then I have recalled a couple of events that took place in the late 1970’s. Uncle Horace’s full name was Horace Payne. He was the chief telephone exchange engineer for the City of London, and was based at the old international telephone exchange in Upper Thames Street (or it may have been King William Street - my memory is hazy - I was very young, and it was a long time ago), which handled all phone lines to America. He was one of only two people who had the key to the international hotline that linked London, Moscow and Washington DC, which was in a room made to look like a store cupboard.  When I was seven or eight, during a school holiday I got to spend the day with him at work. He showed me the hotline room, and actually it was not very impressive - no flashing lights as you would see in a cold war thriller. Instead it was very plain, and painted with what appeared to be war surplus battleship grey. There were a few panels with unlit lights, and a patch panel with some cords attached to it. There was also a small table and a matching chair, and that was about that. Reality did not match the fictional “James Bond” image, which was very disappointing for a small boy. In his office Uncle Horace had a big Victorian roll - top desk, and propped against it was a very tatty and battered looking cricket bat. I recall I was sat with a carton of Kia Ora drink whilst he made some phone calls whilst smoking a horrid roll - up cigarette. For some unknown reason he smoked roll – ups at work, but at home he smoked conventional boxed cigarettes; he had a large collection of vintage cigarette cards, some in albums, and others in large piles which he kept on top the fireplace in his back room. I would imagine that nowadays they would be worth a small fortune.  A junior engineer came in and said that there was a problem with a relay rack (the City exchange was the last one in London to be converted to digital, and at this time was still electro mechanical). Horace slowly got up, stubbed out his fag, then picked up the cricket bat, before winking at me as he said “come with me lad”. We went into the open relay floors, where tens of thousands of electro mechanical relays were clattering as they made automatic phone connections. The junior engineer pointed to a rack where the relays were not moving - they appeared to be frozen or jammed. Uncle Horace said “Stand Back!” to me over the din. He then took a great swing with the cricket bat at the relay frame. There was a loud bang, and the  frozen relays all jumped back into life!. He then fished around in the pocket of his waistcoat for a piece of chalk, and marked a cross on the side of the relay frame, before saying to his assistant “we’ll take this one out tonight - get it booked”. Now - this REALLY impressed me! That was the only time I ever got to see what he did at work; he was extremely diffident about his past, and always managed to steer the conversation elsewhere if the subject came up. Ironically I am now sitting here typing this whilst wearing Horace’s Omega dress watch, which I inherited from him when he died. He was a real enigma, and a lovely man.

Whenever I write about the history of Erith and the surrounding areas, one thing comes up time and time again. People have strong memories of the Hedley Mitchell department store in Erith High Street. From what I can gather, it specialised in drapery, soft furnishings and clothing, including bespoke tailoring. I have had conversations with people who recall that the shop had an upmarket image, and was generally regarded as a premium place to shop – a bit like John Lewis and Waitrose are today. I wonder if any readers have any specific memories, or indeed period photographs of the store that they would wish to share with others? Maybe you worked there, had friends or relatives that worked in the shop, or maybe you were just a regular customer with fond recollections of the place? If so, please feel free to drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com and let me know. Any stories that I publish will get a full credit for the author; I know a lot of people are interested in the history of the shop, and regret the fact that it was demolished when the hideous concrete shopping centre and multi story car park was built in its’ place. In fact most people I have quizzed on the subject question the need for the old Erith to have been demolished in the first place. The general opinion seems to be that with a fairly extensive refurbishment, it would have been preferable to have kept the old town; by now, if suitably looked after, it would have been quite a tourist attraction. Obviously it was not to be, but it is nevertheless interesting to speculate as to what could have happened had things not been demolished in the late 1960’s. I am a little too young to remember the old shops myself, but I am pretty certain quite a few readers will have recollections that they would like to share.

Yet another thirtieth technology anniversary is coming up. A company that until this point thirty years ago which was known for producing cheap (and pretty nasty) home all – in – one hiifi systems decided that they wanted a slice of the home computing pie that was being dominated by Sinclair (the ZX Spectrum) and Acorn (the BBC Micro). The company was Amstrad, who at the time had no history in making computers. Chairman Alan Sugar (way before Sir Alan, and even further from Lord) had noticed what a commercial success affordable computers were having in both the UK and beyond, and with his business head firmly on, he told his design team that they needed to create a computer that had the following properties:- 1) It had to be an “all – in – one” unit, with a cassette deck or floppy drive, and  a monitor included (Sugar cleverly realised that many of the computers would get used in a bedroom. Back in the day, not very many children had their own TV, and a machine that would have to be connected to the family TV in the lounge might not get much use, as Mum and Dad would want to watch Coronation Street, and not have a home computer taking up their precious telly). 2) It had to be made from cheap, easily sourced components, to keep the price down. 3) There had to be a large quantity of high quality, affordable software available for the computer on the day of public launch. Unusually for a computer of the period, the design of the case was finalised before the internal architecture had even been decided. Alan Sugar made sure that a large number of functional prototypes were given to software development houses, so that they could get cracking with writing software for the machine prior to the launch date. The actual electronic design of the computer was farmed out to a number of contractors, many of which were based in the Cambridge area. There was a false start when one supplier had a breakdown and handed back their advance fee for writing the computers firmware. Another company was found, and the Amstrad CPC 464 (cassette deck) and 664 (floppy drive) models were launched on time,  with a pile of good quality software available on day one, just has Alan Sugar had promised. The prices were keen too. A CPC 464 could be had with a green screen monitor for £249, or with a full colour screen for £359 – a bargain when you consider that a colour monitor alone could cost around £200 in 1984 prices. The 664 model with the unusual 3” Hitachi floppy disk drive, accompanied by a green screen monitor became a very popular first computer for many small businesses. Accounting, purchase ledger, spreadsheet and word processing software was produced for the machine, and some of it was of exceedingly high quality for the period and the relative limitations of the eight bit architecture. The CPC range sold very well indeed; in fact in the late 1980’s the Amstrad brand was one of the few computer companies to survive the great computer crash. Even former giants like Sinclair were forced to go cap in hand to Amstrad; Alan Sugar bought all of Sinclair’s intellectual property and assets for a bargain price of £5 million. Three years earlier, Sinclair had been valued at in excess of £200 million. Amstrad expanded their range of computers to include the dedicated word processor and printer bundle called the PCW 8256, which was incredibly successful, shipping eight million units worldwide from 1985 to 1989. The print quality from its’ dot matrix printer was not very good, but the word processing “LocoScript” software was excellent – very easy to use, and quite powerful considering the rock bottom price. Many former, self confessed “technophobes” were introduced to computing by the PCW 8256, and the machines were in popular use for many years after they went out of production.

The advert above was found in a local publication dating back to 1947; the dance studio featured was located directly above the Montague Burton bespoke tailors shop (you may recall I featured a period advert from that retailer last week - who says that I don't plan these things?) I would surmise that F.W Kemp was a precursor to Len Goodman, who has his dance studio in Dartford. It all sounds faintly glamorous, but in reality it is not. Just like the historic Burton dance studio being located above a shop, the Len Goodman Dance Studio is located above a Londis convenience store. I wrote about it, complete with photograph, back in November 2011. You can read all about it by clicking here.

The ending video this week is a real gem. It is a four minute long silent, black and white film that shows the unveiling of Bexleyheath Clock Tower, back in July 1912. The film was shot by pioneering early professional cinematographer Harry Pease. The original film is in the collection of Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre, which to my knowledge is not relocating to Bromley after all. It is fascinating to see how much Bexleyheath has changed in the last 102 years, although it is still recognisable. One thing is for certain - it was a lot smarter then than now, and the people were much better dressed. Nowadays most of the people hanging around the Clock Tower are tracksuit wearing, tattooed and multi pierced. I think if you were to wear a tweed or flannel three piece suit in Bexleyheath nowadays, a certain percentage of the natives would think you had come from another planet. Do feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now and then.

A reminder that this years' Christmas Tree Festival kicks off on Friday lunch time at Christ Church. The event is a bit of a local landmark, and definitely marks the start of the festive season. The festival raises money for local charities, including the Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice. If you are in the local area, do give the event your support. You can see their website by clicking here.

The other piece of local community news this week, is that a new Neighbourhood Watch initiative is being launched. Hound Watch is designed to recruit people out walking their pet dogs. Dog walkers are often out and about at unusual times of the day and night, and may possibly be a witness to suspicious / criminal activity. The project aims to recruit dog walkers and get them to report anything out of the ordinary. Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association made the following announcement:- "We together with Bexley Police are setting up “Hound Watch”. This is to recruit dog walkers and ask them to report anything suspicious they might see while walking their dog(s). We are inviting all dog owners to join our brand new scheme. Those joining at the launch will receive a membership pack and also a chance to win a painted portrait of your dog and other fantastic prizes. Come along on FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER to Pets At Home, Tower Retail Park, Crayford Road, Crayford, DA1 4LD between 10am-2pm. For more information contact the Neighbourhood Watch office on 0208 284 5537 or email bexwatch-office@btconnect.com".

When I was photographing the repair work to the bridge across the railway at Bexley Road last week, I took a shot (see above - click for a larger view) which was taken in a very similar position to one which was taken back in the Autumn of 1973, almost exactly forty years ago; I thought that it might be instructive to post both shots for you to see the comparison. 

The most obvious difference in the photos is that back in 1973 the site now occupied by the hideous fish sculpture roundabout was then the location of the Wheatley Hotel - a Railway Hotel. A Railway Hotel was a combination of a pub downstairs, and a bed and breakfast upstairs; almost all railway stations at one stage or other had a railway hotel in close proximity - in this case, Erith Station was just across the road. In the time before the invention of the car, people travelling around the country would often need to break their train journey overnight. A room in a railway hotel was cheaper than a full hotel, as the features tended to be more basic, but they were convenient - they fulfilled the same function as  a modern Premier Inn - cheap and clean, at least in most cases. On top of this, local residents would use the pub located on the ground floor. I understand that the Wheatley Hotel was a pretty lively place on a Friday and Saturday night. One can also see the still working dock cranes in the background; they were located in the Erith Deep Water Wharf - what is now the site of Morrison's supermarket. The cranes were part of the pier, and were used to unload heavy cargo from moored vessels. Historically cargo which came on ships too large to make in to docklands or the Pool of London were unloaded at Erith. One of the regular cargoes landed at the Deep Water Wharf were the huge rolls of newsprint, which arrived from paper mills in Sweden. They were then taken by lorry to the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, where they were then stored before being taken by road to Fleet Street, where the national newspapers were primarily then still based.  To the left of the photo one can see Bosworth House - one of the high rise flats that had recently been built on the river front. If you click on the black and white image to enlarge it, you can make out the scaffolding still surrounding the then newly built block. Back then it was a council block; nowadays many of the flats in the tower are privately owned, and it is quite a desirable location, with amazing views across the River Thames. 

Talking of the area around the Bexley Road bridge, you may recall that I wrote extensively about the current repairs to the bridge, and the fact that Bexley Council were shortly going to replace the bridge with a new structure, which seemed like a waster of money and resources; well, I have had an Email from John Ferry, the Bexley Council Communications Manager. John writes"I am emailing to give you more information relevant to your recent post about the bridge works at the top of Bexley Road, which I read online yesterday. The plan to widen the road as it passes over the railway lines will involve adding a new bridge alongside the two separate bridges that currently carry the traffic. These two bridges sit next to one another: a brick arch bridge built in 1860 and a reinforced concrete structure added in 1927 when previous widening took place. The urgent refurbishment and strengthening work currently affects the reinforced concrete bridge. This bridge will be retained as part of the planned Queen’s Road Junction Improvement Scheme, so repairing it is both essential and an investment for the future. We are sorry that the works are causing delays and inconvenience to motorists, but it is essential to repair the cracks and weaknesses that have developed over the years. The Council has been proactive in seeking a solution to the problems at and around the roundabout by fighting for funds to improve the junction. We are currently consulting on a scheme and are discussing funding options with our partners. We would welcome your views and those of your readers. I hope this information helps to explain the current position and makes clear that we are doing our best to serve the interests of local residents". Many thanks John - your input has cleared up a lot of concerns. Readers - do feel free to chip in with your thoughts and suggestions. Please leave a comment below.

The News Shopper reported that earlier in the week, the Fire Brigade had to rescue a horse that was trapped in a water filled ditch on Ray Lamb Way.  This is a road that leads onto the Wallhouse Road Industrial Estate, on the Slade Green Marshes. Very few people are familiar with the Marshes – even though they are an area of outstanding natural beauty only fifteen minutes’ walk from Erith town centre. The marshes are home to Erith Yacht club, as I featured a little while ago, and also to a number of industries, including specialist vehicle maintenance shops and a couple of breakers yards. For the most part, the marsh is composed of reed beds and grassland, and is popular with dog walkers (and unfortunately, to a number of unlicenced and illegal off – road motorbikes).  Slade Green Marshes are protected, and cannot be built upon for the most part; they still have a number of wartime pill boxes and gun emplacements as relics of the preparations against invasion – though to be honest, tough as these structures look, they were very isolated and surrounded by open marshland – a German tank or bazooka squad would have made mincemeat of the occupants in short order. A good friend  of mine who is sadly no longer with us used to work as a civilian in Bexleyheath Police Station; he was also a keen mountain biker and fellow radio ham. He used to regularly cycle on and around Ray Lamb Way. One day  he was minding his own business, cycling along when he saw what looked like a pair of wellington boots sticking out from the very ditch that the horse was recently found in. Curiosity piqued, he dismounted his bike to investigate. What he found was what in emergency services slang they call a “deep purple” – a dead body that is not only deceased, but bloated and smelly. He phoned his boss at Bexleyheath nick, and the Police were on the scene in short order. This was all well over ten years ago, and I do recall that the deceased was known to the Police as being involved in the drugs trade; I don’t know if a killer was ever arrested and charged. The marshes still keep a few secrets. They are well worth a visit on a warm day – they are one of the best ways of seeing Erith’s “Big Sky” that I have recently written about.

The News Shopper have been running an opinion piece on a subject that much vexes me. They are asking for readers’ opinions on self service checkouts in supermarkets and other stores. This old chestnut comes up around once per year, and I have made my own views on the subject clear in the past – I am vehemently opposed to self service for a number of reasons; firstly it has been demonstrated that the average time to complete a supermarket self service transaction is up to three times as long as one carried out by a staffed till – and that is without allowing for system errors. Secondly, why would you have a dog and bark yourself? Quite often the checkout person adds to the whole retail experience, and can problem solve on the go. Elderly people, or customers with small children can also find self service stressful. On top of this, the supermarkets only introduce self service as they think it will reduce their staffing overheads. This has proved to be a false economy, as although  the number of checkout staff is reduced, the number of supervisors and security operatives has to increase – who tend to be paid a higher rate than the checkout staff. This particular matter has caused Wilkinson’s to remove them, as they discovered that the self service tills actually cost more by the time all the overhead costs were factored in; they were also finding the incidence of thefts and under age purchasing were on the rise. If you are comfortable using self service checkouts, fine – as always my philosophy is “if it works for you”. Personally I will steer clear of them, as they serve the shop, not the shopper.

I have a question to pose, and I would be grateful if you could help by providing an answer. The Maggot Sandwich has been updated every Sunday afternoon for well over seven years – a total of 460 entries averaging three thousand words per entry (that’s roughly 1,380,000 words, and no, I am not going through it all to get a precise count; in this case near enough is good enough).  The Maggot Sandwich has become a bit of a brand now, but one very loyal reader has suggested to me that the name is holding the blog back – that the rather surreal and silly name does not represent the content. He suggests that the name should be changed to something more representative of what the blog is nowadays. I am not sure – it is the first comment of this nature I have received. Are the readers just being polite and putting up with the title, or do they find it part of the charm? Many may not be aware that the name originates from a radio show I used to have on South East London / North Kent station Radio Lumberjack back in the late 1980’s; when I started the blog, I thought I could re – use the old name for my Saturday night radio show. I do recall back in 2010 when I was a delegate at the London Bloggers conference at the OFCOM headquarters on the South Bank that ”Arthur Pewty’s Maggot Sandwich” was informally voted as the most unusual and memorable blog title of the attendees. What do you think? Do you like the name, or is it due for a change? If you think it is overdue for a revamp what would you like to see it called in future? You can Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

The photo I published last Sunday of William Gilder on a shrimp fishing boat on the River Thames has sparked considerable interest. Gilder ran a successful fishmongers shop on the river front at Erith, directly opposite the wooden jetty that is still there today. The shop was in business for many years between the wars, and was only demolished in 1937. Maggot Sandwich reader and local historian Ken Chamberlain sent me the photo of Gilder’s Fishmongers which you can see above. He tells me that the Gilder family were heavily involved in trade in and around Erith for many years, and indeed several members of the family still live locally. I had commented on how William Gilder looked considerably younger in the photo that Ken had sent, to which he responded that although there was a distinct family resemblance, it was possible that the figure in the doorway was not the same person as pictured in the fishing boat last week. Either way it is a real slice of Erith’s long and varied history. The more I consider the state of pollution of the River Thames before WWII, the more I am amazed not only that a successful fishing business could generate income from the murky waters, but that people were apparently not routinely poisoned. In addition to the aforementioned sewage outfall from Crossness, back before the war Erith Pier was frequented by heavy cargo freighters and ships that were judged as too large to navigate further upriver to the docks, or the Pool of London. The output sewage and waste oil into the river, along with leaving traces of chemicals from their anti fouling paint (which used to contain large amounts of poisonous tin or copper compounds to inhibit weed and barnacle growth on the hulls of ships). It is a wonder that anything managed to live in the Thames off Erith at all. The water nowadays is far cleaner than it has been for years – the reason it looks brown and murky is mainly due to the large levels of silt that is suspended in the water, rather than to high pollution levels.

Some very professional and nasty scammers have been targeting local residents recently; one of my best local informants had encountered an issue reported by a retired chap who had been the unwitting victim of a fraud. I am going to recount the story, but leave out all of the personal details, for obvious reasons. The scam works like this; The victim will get a phone call out of the blue; the person on the other end will say that they are calling from Microsoft (or sometimes from MacAfee or Norton antivirus). They say that the victim’s PC is either infected with a very serious computer virus, or that their software licence has expired and that it needs to be revalidated and registered. They tell the victim that they can do this if they can obtain remote access to the PC in question “to save you the bother of doing it yourself”. Whilst this may sound obvious, and that only a mug would fall for it, the scammers are highly professional and plausible. The victim can hear that the scammer is working in a call centre from the background sounds, and all does appear to be genuine. Once the scammers gain control of the victims’ computer, they often install Cryptolocker ransom ware – software that sits on the PC like a time bomb, until a certain date, or predetermined set of actions are carried out by the victim, upon which it encrypts the victims files and stored data, and then demands a payment – usually of around five hundred Euros for the files to be decrypted – and there is no guarantee that they will be decrypted. On top of this, the scammers will siphon off passwords and user names for online bank accounts and other things like Email accounts – which they then sell on to other criminals for use in identity theft. Victims of this scam also get added to a “white list” by the bad guys; this is a very valuable list of people who are judged to be vulnerable to being conned. This information is also posted online to be purchased by other criminals. Basically if you are hit once, you are likely to be hit again, time after time – a scammer crew called “Windows PC Care” have been operating locally – on top of the malware they infect on your computer, they demand £195 to remove the fictional “infection” that they initially warned the victim about. These scammers are not single people; they form part of organised gangs known as “crews”. If you, or a friend or relative gets a phone call from an organisation purporting to be a huge software or services company, just put the phone down. Don’t bother arguing or remonstrating with them – they are not interested,; they will just move on to the next target – to them it is all about money. The scams are run just like a company – albeit one employing illegal methods.  The chances of catching the perpetrators is vanishingly small; the usually operate out of countries in Eastern Europe and South Asia; they employ hundreds of people in what are called “boiler rooms” – call centres for illegal activities. The large IT companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google do investigate them, on the grounds that not only do they cause damage to reputation, but they are also compromising  their products. To be honest, the scamming has turned into a major industry. The chances of getting caught and prosecuted are small at most – the scammer bosses often have the local police and government in their pocket. In the unlikely event of a prosecution, the sentences are small – a fine and probation in most cases. Why risk getting murdered by a rival, or spending the rest of your life in a rat infested jail after being caught smuggling drugs, when you can sit in an air conditioned office and make just as much money by ripping off people's computers? So, what can you do to avoid these criminal scumbags? Firstly, and most obviously, as previously mentioned, just put the phone down – the big IT companies do not make personal calls – ever. If you get a call, a pound to a bent penny it is a scammer trying to take you for a ride. As far as your computer is concerned, make sure that whatever operating system you use, that it is up to date with all security patches and that the firewall is switched on. If you want to test the security of your computer to external attacks, I can recommend a website that benignly simulates a hacker port scanning your computer, looking for a vulnerability. The harmless scan takes a minute or so, and will give you an accurate idea as to how well locked down (or otherwise) your computer is. Shields Up! Is a great resource. You can see the results of an in - depth Shields Up! Port scan on the computer network at Pewty Acres in the screen shot below - the network does not exist as far as hackers are concerned. I take my security very seriously. Do run the same check on your systems and see what results you come up with. You may notice that I have intentionally blurred most of my I.P address. I did this using Apple's Aperture image manipulation software. Just in case some clever dick thinks that they can import the image below into Aperture and reverse the blurring function to get the rest of the address, I would not waste your time. The image is actually a screen capture of the original blurred picture - this removes all the image metadata, and make un - blurring impossible. Me - paranoid? No, just very careful.

In years past I would have advised against using Microsoft Windows if you wanted a secure computing experience; I have to say that Microsoft have taken security very seriously indeed over the last few years, and both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are now actually pretty damn good. Not for me personally, but as always, if it works for you. So far the remote access scams have been targeted mainly at Windows PC’s, but it is only a matter of time before OS X, iOS and Android also get targeted. Whilst Apple Macs are less common than Windows PC’s, Apple users tend to have higher disposable incomes, and thus make attractive targets. For the ultra paranoid computer user, I would recommend the free and open source OpenBSD version of Unix; it is designed from the ground up for security and robustness against malicious attack. It has lots of software ported onto it, and if you have an old computer sitting round, you can give the operating system a try for free – details by clicking here. OpenBSD is used in many areas where reliability and uptime are paramount – and I can guarantee that a remote scammer would be utterly defeated if they tried to take over an OpenBSD box.

The ending video this week is a new festive short film from Simon's Cat. As always, it is excellent - well observed, cleverly animated and very funny - give it a watch and leave a comment below.