The R101.

I too the photograph above (click on it for a larger view) on Monday evening; it shows illegally fly tipped rubbish at the recycling centre just off James Watt Way in Erith, just behind the large Morrisons supermarket. The rate of fly tipping seems to be back on the increase, after somewhat of a lull. I reported the incident to Bexley Council, and the mess was soon cleaned up. There is CCTV coverage of the recycling site, so hopefully the perpetrators will be identified and prosecuted.

The long suspected end of The News Shopper looks like it is now in sight. The paper has been struggling for several years, and recently it has been discovered that the corporate owners of The News Shopper - a company called Newsquest, are about to put the papers website behind a pay wall.  Readers will be given the option to pay £4.99 per month or £52 per year for unlimited access to articles, with up to 80 per cent less adverts and the ability to leave comments and sign up to email newsletters. The scheme has been launched as Newsquest faces a decline in both advertising revenues and sales figures due to the coronavirus pandemic – a picture seen across the wider news industry. The problem that seems to be specific to The News Shopper website is that each page contains far more advertising and invisible trackers than most other news websites. All of this additional data which is loaded every time you visit the site makes the pages slow to load and "jitter" when you try and scroll down the page, as data is still being loaded. I have spoken to one leading News Shopper journalist - who has since left the company - and he confirmed that staff were acutely aware that the excessive junk being loaded by the website was driving away visitors. As well as this, recent updates to Google's Chrome web browser - now the most widely used web browser in the world - now has advert blocking functionality built in, and switched on by default. Many visitors to The News Shopper website who use Chrome do not see any adverts, or experience page loading problems due to the blocking actions - which many users are totally unaware of. Other web browsers such as Firefox are following suit. Advertisers are seeing a massive drop in click through advert revenue because of this. Putting up a paywall will further exacerbate this situation. Famously some years ago, the Sun website put themselves behind a paywall - and promptly saw their readership figures drop off a cliff. Before long they were forced to remove the paywall due to pressure from advertisers and their readership; from my understanding they have never returned to the reader levels that they had before. 

I had some very nice reader feedback after my obituary piece on pioneering radio figurehead Ronan O'Rahilly, founder of Radio Caroline last week. I had one long time reader ask if I would write a piece on another 1960's offshore radio station that in many ways was the diametric opposite of Radio Caroline - it was the smallest offshore radio station, but it had a very interesting - if brief - history. The Station was called Radio Essex.  It had a staff of about 12 and broadcast 24 hours a day. Everyone on this station did more than one job, the teamwork involved would probably have impressed the military that had been the sea forts original occupier. The tower had originally been an offshore gun emplacement and radar installation, but had been abandoned by the War Department during the middle 50s. Transmissions commenced from Radio Essex on 27 October 1965 on 222m, 1349kHz, with a middle of the road format during the day and pop music at night. The supplies came during favourable weather conditions aboard a small fishing boat called Kestrel. All supplies and even individuals were unceremoniously hauled aboard at the end of a badly frayed rope. The original ladders had been removed by Radio Essex personnel to reduce the possibility of uninvited guests getting aboard the platform. The forts original diesel generators had been fully restored by senior DJ/Fort Captain Richard Palmer, the diesel for which arrived in dozens of five gallon containers. These had to be hauled aboard and painstakingly poured into a former aircraft fuel tank situated on the main deck, where a plastic tube took the diesel to the generator room below.  The staff canteen and recreational area had originally been the officers mess and a store room became the stations studio. This contained two Garrard 401 turntables with Decca pick-ups,one turntable, a Vortexion tape recorder and a Reslo ribbon microphone.  The mixer was built by station engineers which fed a 50W RSC audio amplifier which was linked to the transmitter in the room next door. The transmitter was probably capable of 500W, however, due to the end fed long wire antenna and the rising and falling of the tide, which had the effect of moving the ground plane, the e.r.p. was probably only 200W. Staff worked about three weeks on and one week off, the station was run by Roy Bates and his family from their home in Southend-on-Sea. Towards the end of 1966, Radio Essex relaunched as BBMS 'Britain's Better Music Station' in effort to attract advertising from Kent as well as Essex. This was Britain's first local radio station and unbelievably, was the first British station to go 24 hours a day. It was very popular with night shift workers and had a clear frequency after midnight when co - channel stations closed down. The fort also allegedly had its own ghost or poltergeist. At one point, the entire structure was searched as the DJs were convinced an unknown person was aboard, nobody was found. On the 30th November 1966 BBMS was charged with contravening Section One the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949, making unlicensed broadcasts. The station was found guilty and fined £100, but continued broadcasting. It finally closed at Christmas, when similar court action was being taken against the other fort based stations. The legacy of Radio Essex still exists in a minor way, all BBC local Stations identify themselves as BBC Radio whatever, except one....BBC Essex, where the word Radio is still excluded. It seems inconceivable that offshore radio stations could openly operate from the sea forts, some for a period of almost two years. Yet neither the armed forces, Home Office, the police nor H.M. Coastguard knew, even roughly, where British territorial waters commenced. The Post Office's prosecution involved measuring the territorial limit from any coastal sandbank that became visible at low tide.

Now for a second radio related story, but one that is bang up to date. In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, a radio station that was set up in 1989 / 1990 which was specifically given the operating frequency of 558 Khz by what was then the DTI, have recently been wound up by the official receiver. Central London based Spectrum Radio has been issued with a Winding Up Order by the High Court of Justice. Spectrum is one of London’s oldest commercial radio stations, having launched in 1989 to provide multiethnic, foreign language programmes originally on 558AM. The frequency was allocated to the station in 1990 with the specific purpose of jamming Radio Caroline, who had been using the frequency for some years. Today the Spectrum Radio Network offers broadcast services from its premises in Southwark Street and has recently been advertising space available on DAB, and on 1584 Khz AM, which is currently used by Love Sport. Ofcom rules state that a company which has been wound-up cannot own a broadcasting licence, In a recent press interview, an Ofcom spokesperson said: “We will be getting in touch with the liquidators of Spectrum Radio to discuss the future of the licence.” Creditors were contacted earlier this month with details of the Insolvency Practitioners.

The photo above shows Bexley Road, Erith, back in 1910. A row of shops called Station Parade was later built on the site of the tram shelter shown above - it is now the site of the De Luci fish roundabout and the dual carriageway of Bronze Age Way. 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.

Another historic local photograph, sent to me courtesy of long time Maggot Sandwich reader and occasional contributor who goes my the pseudonym of "The reV". He writes:- "The R101 airship taken possibly 14th October 1929 at the junction of Colman Rd and Gilbert Road in Lower Belvedere, Fords Motor works across the river in the background. The R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Ministry-appointed team and was effectively in competition with the government-funded but privately designed and built R100. When built, it was the world's largest flying craft at 731 ft (223 m) in length, and it was not surpassed by another hydrogen-filled rigid airship until the Hindenburg flew seven years later. The R101 departed from England on the evening of 4 October 1930 for its intended destination of Karachi (then part of British India) via a refuelling stop in Egypt but sadly crashed in Northern France. Forty-six of the 54 passengers and crew were killed immediately. The inquiry came to the conclusion that a tear had probably developed in the forward cover, this in turn causing one or more of the forward gasbags to fail. Evidence showed that this would cause the R101 to become too nose-heavy for the elevators to correct. She hit the ground at just 13 mph. The cause of the fire was not established. Several hydrogen airships had crashed in similar circumstances without catching fire. The inquiry thought that it was most probable that a spark from the airship's electrics had ignited escaping hydrogen, causing an explosion. Other suggestions put forward included the ignition of the calcium flares carried in the control car on contact with water, electrostatic discharge or a fire in one of the engine cars, which carried petrol for the starter engines. All that is certain is that it caught fire almost at once and burned fiercely. In the extreme heat, the fuel oil from the wreck soaked into the ground and caught fire; it was still burning when the first party of officials arrived by air the next day".

Two former pub sites are now up for redevelopment; one of the two sites is mired in controversy; the developer was subsequently prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive. The London Borough of Bexley has commenced statutory consultation on planning applications affecting the future of two significant sites within the ward in question. The first of the two sites is The Belvedere Hotel, at the bottom end of Picardy Road. The three Belvedere councillors met with the owners of the site in April 2019 and made clear their aspirations for the site. This included that any proposed development should maintain the locally listed building and a pub or restaurant use on the ground floor of the current building. The planning application includes proposals to convert the existing building including the ground floor and to extend it to provide 6 flats (2 x 1 bed, 3 x 2 bed and 1 x 3 bed) with the provision of a further three 3-bedroom houses on the site. How a developer will manage to squeeze all of this on the tiny site is beyond me - especially if the requirement to keep the main pub building is met. The car park space could in no way accommodate three houses. The second planning application is for the very controversial site of the former Ye Olde Leather Bottle pub, located at 131 Heron Hill. The three Belvedere councillors have continually raised their concerns about this site over the last five years and the gross breach of health and safety regulations committed by the site owner. The site owner was successfully prosecuted following a Health and Safety Executive investigation initiated by complaints submitted by Cllr Daniel Francis, to which both he and Cllr Hinkley were interviewed and submitted statements. All three councillors are due to hold a virtual meeting with the site owner and members of his development team in early May and will raise the need to ensure due consideration is finally given to neighbours of the site, that the public right of way that runs through the site is maintained, that appropriate boundary treatments are installed to the boundary with Lesnes Abbey woods and whether the development will provide any contribution to affordable housing or local infrastructure. The planning application includes proposals to erect a building of up to four stories containing a 70 bed care home with associated care facilities, staff accommodation, landscaped gardens and undercroft parking. Once again I cannot see how a 70 bed care home with associated facilities could be built on the site - there is just not nearly enough space. What do you think of these proposed developments? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Once again another week goes by with no burglaries or vehicle crime to report. On Barnehurst Golf Course LFB were called to a fire that had been set alight deliberately. It appears unknown person/s are also chopping trees down in the vicinity of the golf course. Members of the public continue to play golf although the course is closed. The team have advised a number of golfers and all have left the course immediately without any further problems. The team issued two Section 59 warning notices to the drivers who were driving around dangerously in the vicinity of Parkside Avenue and I am pleased to say we have had no further complaints with regards dangerous driving. There appears to be more traffic on the roads over the last few days, lets remind ourselves that the Government's Guidelines still stand so bear in mind social distancing and only travel on public transport if absolutely necessary". Belvedere ward:- "We had a burglary on Tuesday 21/04/2020 in Coleman Road whereby a car was stolen in the early hours of the morning. The car subsequently crashed in Sidcup and the car was recovered. Wilton Road possibly still contains a brothel. We have visited the address in the last couple of months but cannot prove anything at present. If anyone has information about a brothel please let us know. If you are a patron it will be kept in confidence…We have recently been seeing more graffiti regarding the 5G and Covid conspiracy nonsense. There is some on the Thames Path, some on the footbridge over the train tracks on Mitchell Close and now some seen in Franks Park. If anyone is seen causing graffiti please call Police on 999 immediately. We have also had a report that a group of teenagers are congregating on Streamway on the grass area near to the allotments. We have no particular times or days so if anyone knows when they gather please let us know. We have been receiving more and more calls regarding neighbour disputes. In this unprecedented time, everyone (almost) being shut away indoors for the majority of the day, your neighbours will get on your nerves as everyone is stressed out and worried about the future. Please try to get along. Unfortunately we (as a society) have lost the ability to talk to each other, which causes more problems. If your neighbour is doing something to annoy then chat to them, talk it out, don't result to idle threats and name calling as this just leads to at least one party calling the Police and wasting our time. Think before acting. Please pass this message on. Thank you". Bexleyheath ward:- "Thursday 23/04/2020 2330-0030 Arson to vehicle Long Lane. Sunday 26/04/2020 1240-1310 Robbery Commercial cigarettes and alcohol stolen by threats to staff Erith Road. Sunday 26/04/2020 0100-1300 Theft of Motor Vehicle Tudor Walk. Whilst our crimes do remain low at the moment there are still criminals about, please do ensure that doors are double locked with keys and do not keep valuables in your vehicles. Stay Safe and Stay Home please also ensure all members of the household are staying home too, as we are finding many youths out and about. Good news a few groups stopped, searched and dealt with for cannabis Braeside Garage area. Known hotspot for ASB". Crayford ward:- "I am so please to say that there has only been one crime of note this week. Between Friday 17th and Saturday 25th April two vehicles parked outside an address in Samas Way were broken into; the victim saw her car door was unlocked and then her husband found his car door ajar, It was not recorded if anything was stolen. The team have been out and about patrolling open spaces to remind people of the COVID-19 lockdown rules, please abide by the rules. #stayhomestaysafe". Erith ward:-"This last week we been: Patrolling open spaces/parks across Erith and North Heath. Daily visiting all open shops in and around Erith town centre. These are carried out on foot, bike and car Weapon sweeps daily in areas that have come to our notice via the overnight crimes. Crime wise across Erith there has been no burglaries reported or motor crime. We are still under lockdown so remember to stick by the rules set out by the government". Northumberland Heath ward:-" Crime reports are low. Unfortunately we have a few Domestic incidents reported to us during this difficult time .The team have advertised Domestic Violence advice onto our twitter page @NorthumberlandHeath. There has been theft of petrol from Gulf Petrol station on Belmont Road ,Erith which is currently being investigated. Information regarding drug supply on Swanton Road and Northumberland Park also Frinstead Road. Increased patrols will be completed when Officers are available .Northumberland Heath SNT have been working with the ASB Team to see if a camera could be placed in Streamway regarding increased reports of drug activity and youths congregating in the area. If you would like to tell us about a breach of coronavirus please report online met.police.tua/tell-us-about/c19 the please see our twitter page for further information". Slade Green and Northend ward:- "A group of males broke in to the new development site at Egerton Place (Slade Green Road) at 6pm Sunday 26/04 and ran off when challenged but they did take some copper piping. CCTV is being checked. No other crimes of note. PC James found a knife by some garages in Manor Road on Sunday. No evidence to suggest it was used in a crime but it has been disposed of via the correct channels. Patrols have been ongoing in our parks and open spaces and for the most part there has been very little seen in the way of gatherings. Mark and James try and get everywhere as much as they can, when they can. If you do see groups regularly gathering, please report online or via 101". Thamesmead East ward:- "Between 4:30 pm on Wednesday 22/04/20 and 8:00pm on Saturday 25/04/20 a vehicle parked in Wolvercote Road had the rear window smashed. On Thursday 23/04/20 at 04:22 am the LFB attended a vehicle alight in the car park behind Muscovy House Kale Road, a second vehicle parked next the alight vehicle was damaged. Monday 27/04/20 a vehicle parked in Redbourne Drive had the front and rear number plates stolen.this happened after 06:30 am. There has been an increase in theft of vehicle number plates. Consider purchasing a set of Anti - Theft screws or bolts for number plates. Good news - PC Pruden issued a Community Resolution to a female who was in possession of cannabis. A Community Resolution is an alternative way of dealing with less serious crimes, allowing officers to use their professional judgement when dealing with offenders. It can be used for offences such as low level public order, criminal damage, theft, and minor assaults". West Heath ward:-"One attempted burglary in Langley Road this week. This incident took place on Monday 27/04/20 at 11.20pm. A male tried to put his hand through a small broken pane of glass in the front door. Entry was not gained. No reports of motor vehicle crime over the last week. The team are continuing to patrol anti-social hotspots and move people on if necessary with regard to the Covid19 regulations".

The end video this week is from the friars of Our Lady of the Angels Catholic monastery in Northumberland Heath; they describe themselves thus:-"We are a Capuchin Franciscan fraternity serving the parish of Our Lady of the Angels in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark, UK. We are a great international community of followers of Jesus, living the Gospel and rebuilding the Church in the UK. Hope you enjoy our services and reflections". The message below is for their congregation, with some information about the pandemic lock down.

Potion progress?

As many of you will know, I have been following the situation with the abandoned and increasingly derelict former White Hart / Potion Bar with interest for several years. Various plans and schemes have come and gone, but Maggot Sandwich reader Stephen alerted me to a brand new planning application that has been submitted to Bexley Council by a potential developer. You can read details of the application by clicking here. In essence building owner The Wellington Pub Company are applying to convert the upper floors of the pub into flats, and to restore the former Victorian green glazed salt tiles and acid etched glass frontage with a replica replacement as can be seen in the drawings above. What is rather more surprising is that they also propose constructing some brand new flats overlooking the River Thames in the garden of the former pub. Nowhere in the planning application can I find any mention of what will be happening to the downstairs bar area and kitchen in the former pub. I suppose that any change of use would be subject to an additional planning application separate from this one. The new flats in the pub garden may prove somewhat controversial, and I have to say that at this point I feel that I need far more information about the proposed low - rise block before I can form an informed opinion regarding it. I can see the logic - the developer is going to have to spend a substantial sum of money on restoring and converting the upper floors of the White Hart - and the replacement pub frontage is going to cost a King's ransom to install. The handful of flats upstairs in the main building are not going to generate enough cash to make just that work profitable. Only additional new accommodation in the large former pub garden would seem to guarantee a development scheme that would make enough profit to make it attractive to an investor. We really need more information; I hope that more detail comes to light soon. The Architect's proposed design for the apartment block on the pub garden site can be seen below - click on the picture for a larger view. 

London City Airport has been suffering from a problem that has become a global safety and security concern. Passenger planes taking off and landing at the East London airport are being attacked by idiots with high powered laser pointers, in an attempt to dazzle the pilots. A chap called DCI Mark Eley is in charge of the police unit dealing with the problem. He said in a recent BBC News interview "There's been a growing trend over the last few years and we are working hard to overcome it. We think it's down to the reduction in cost of laser pens and we now have a much better reporting ethos so we know when these strikes are occurring. It's often youths mainly doing it as a prank not realising just how dangerous it is to shine these lights at an aircraft. While it may seem like a bit of a joke at the time, people are being convicted of this offence and the bottom line is this is very dangerous." Back in 2011 the Civil Aviation Authority released an eye test to help pilots decide whether they needed to visit a specialist after such attacks. Green lasers pose the most serious risk because the human eye is so much more sensitive to green light. Typically the American authorities are far more robust when it comes to catching and prosecuting idiots who use laser pointers against aircraft. The FBI recently published figures showing that offenders can be fined up to $250,000 and face up to twenty years in prison for trying to illuminate aircraft and the FBI has offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who lets them know when a dangerous idiot is on the loose with lasers. Commercial laser pointers are unlikely to permanently blind pilots, but they can - and do - cause temporary flash blindness in the cockpit which could prove fatally distracting during a tricky landing. Despite the warnings and the heavy penalties, it hasn't stopped a small number of people from carrying out the attacks. In fact the numbers are growing. As of October 16th the FAA reports there have been 5,352 cases of laser strikes on aircraft in flight. At that rate, it is only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens. The same thing applies in the UK as far as the potential risk of aircraft attack by laser pointer is concerned. 

My article on Betamax video recorders struck quite a chord with readers last week; I have been contacted by a number of people, and been the subject of an article on the radio station Laser Hot Hits regarding my story of how some models of Betamax video machines are now worth serious money second hand on places like EBay. Several readers have been checking out their basements and loft spaces to see if their old machines are still around and working. I have been asked what models are worth looking out for. I have been talking to a good friend who is a bit of an authority on old video recorders; he says that some models of Betamax can be worth a lot of money to a collector, but others are pretty much worthless - and it is not always the models that were expensive when new that are worth a lot now. Apparently the Sony C7 model (in the photo I used on the blog last week) is very desirable, as it was very well built, reliable, and spares like drive belts are still available nowadays. I may have one in my own loft, or it may be the lesser and not so desirable Sony C5 model - I should really go up and have a check. Below is a short and very informative video which further explains why the technically superior Betamax video format lost out in the market to the cheap and cheerful VHS system.

Earlier this week I was in a meeting with a couple of colleagues when I used the phrase “it goes up to eleven”. My two colleagues, who were in their mid-twenties looked at me blankly, and I then realised that they did not know the cultural reference, which mildly shocked me. I (wrongly) assumed that pretty much everyone would be familiar with it. The phrase was coined in a scene from the 1984 mockumentary/rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap by the character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest. In the scene, Nigel gives the rockumentary's director, Marty DiBergi, played by Rob Reiner, a tour of his stage equipment. While Nigel is showing Marty his Marshall guitar amplifiers, he points out one in particular whose control knobs all have the highest setting of eleven, unlike standard amplifiers, whose volume settings are typically numbered from 0 to 10, believing that this numbering actually increases the highest volume of the amp ("It's one louder, isn't it"). When Marty asks why the ten setting is not simply set to be louder, Nigel hesitates before responding blankly again, "These go to eleven”. The phrase has entered the English language, and if you use the BBC iPlayer website, the media player volume control goes up to eleven in tribute to the scene from the classic comedy film.

I have whinged at length in the past about the folly that is self-service checkout tills in supermarkets, and how they actually take the customer longer to use than conventionally staffed supermarket checkouts. They are both unreliable compared with staffed tills, and very susceptible to fraud. I also wonder why customers get charged the same for their goods when using the self – service tills as for the ordinary tills, bearing in mind that they do all the work, I would have thought that the prices should be lower for good processed through the self-service tills, but of course this never turns out to be the case. On top of all this, recent research shows that both conventional tills and self-service tills are increasingly becoming exposed to malware. Point of Sale (POS) devices are very vulnerable to two particularly nasty pieces of malicious software. The Cherry Picker and AbaddonPOS malware, exposed in the last week, are the latest evolution in stealthy and capable point of sales credit and debit card plundering. Cherry Picker has been targeting retail businesses since 2011 and now sports new anti-analysis tricks, persistence mechanisms, and better card ripping functionality. the malware is expert at wiping evidence of itself after an attack has occurred, overwriting files multiple times and removing data exfiltration locations. The memory-scraping malware runs on Windows platforms including Windows 7 and the hard-to-kill XP, running remote administration services. It specifically targets retailers in the food industry running any point of sale software. Most of the current malware infections have so far been discovered in the USA and Canada, but it is only a matter of time before they find their way across the pond. More on Windows later - you can see I plan these things.

You may have recently read that before he ended his own life, the late comedian Robin Williams was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition call Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Depending on whom you speak to, it is either the second or the third most common form of dementia. Lewy bodies, named after the doctor who first identified them, are tiny deposits of protein in nerve cells. Researchers don't have a full understanding of why Lewy bodies appear in the brain, or exactly how they contribute to dementia. However, their presence is linked to low levels of important chemical messengers (mainly acetylcholine and dopamine) and to a loss of connections between nerve cells. Over time, there is progressive death of nerve cells and loss of brain tissue. Lewy bodies are the underlying cause of several progressive diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, notably DLB and Parkinson's disease. Together, these are sometimes called Lewy body disorders. The disease is still very often not caught or misdiagnosed – generally as either being Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. But Dementia with Lewy Bodies is a beast of its own, even if each patient presents its own version of symptoms – Problems with attention and alertness are very common. It is a feature of DLB that these problems vary widely over the course of the day, by the hour or even a few minutes. There may also be difficulties with judging distances and perceiving objects in three dimensions, and with planning and organising. Some also experience depression. Day-to-day memory is often affected in people with DLB, but typically less in the early stages than in early Alzheimer's Disease. Visual hallucinations (seeing things that are not there) occur in most people with DLB, and can be distressing. These are often of people or animals, and are experienced as detailed and convincing. Auditory hallucinations (hearing sounds that are not real, such as knocking or footsteps) can happen but are less common. Hallucinations and visual difficulties partly explain why many people with DLB have delusions (thinking things that are not true). Someone may believe they are being persecuted, that there are strangers living in the house, or that a spouse has been replaced by an identical imposter. Relatives and carers may find such delusions very distressing. This was the terrible condition that my late Dad suffered from for nearly ten years. One other symptom that he suffered from the the loss of distinction between being asleep and being awake. He would have a nightmare, wake up, but he nightmare would carry on - in his mind it was happening for real; this was extremely disturbing for him, and very upsetting for us. At present, there is no cure for DLB. However, with support it is possible to live well with DLB, and management of the condition aims to maximise the person's overall quality of life. Given the range of symptoms, input from a variety of professionals is needed at different times. When caring for someone with DLB, it is important to be as flexible as possible, bearing in mind that many of the symptoms will fluctuate. Treatment of DLB with drugs is often problematic: everyone responds differently, there is only limited evidence about what works, and there are few approved treatments. Also, medication given to improve mental abilities or hallucinations can make movement problems worse. Similarly, drugs for movement problems may have a negative effect on mental abilities or make hallucinations worse. It is likely to be a long time before any kind of preventive treatment, let alone a cure is found. 

A reader sent me the period photo above, which looks like it was taken in the late 1970's or thereabouts. It shows Station Parade - the row of shops which used to exist in Bexley Road, opposite Christ Church Erith. The shops were demolished to allow the construction of Bronze Age Way, the dual carriageway that leads to Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Woolwich. I dimly recall the parade - there was a newsagent, an off - licence (which had a reputation for serving under - age customers), an estate agent and a "greasy spoon" cafe, which was run by a rather dodgy bloke who was the uncle of someone I went to school with. My schoolmate would sometimes visit the cafe at lunchtime to get a free fry - up, but I seem to remember he had to go round collecting dirty plates and cups for his uncle afterwards. I never actually went in there myself. So much of old Erith has been destroyed over the years; this is the reason that so many residents, including myself are so keen on preserving the little that is left. 

A local community radio station has submitted an application to OFCOM for a regional commercial radio licence. Miskin Radio, which is based at North West Kent College in Dartford, is a local radio station that has been set up and launched by one of the College’s Media Lecturers, Andrew Sayers. Andrew has been working in radio since he was fourteen years old and is now focusing his passion into providing North West Kent with its own radio broadcast.  Miskin Radio has already made a firm impression since their internet debut in April 2012, with over four thousand listeners. They had a temporary community broadcasting licence back in 2012, in order to provide locally relevant coverage of the Olympic Games. Andrew described the station thus:- “This is a local community radio station for anyone who is interested in radio and the media industry. Our team includes a mixture of radio professionals, volunteers and students from North West Kent College. Our aim is to provide a radio service in the North West Kent area, for local people to get involved with and enjoy.” The OFCOM licence application normally takes around a year to be processed, so if successful, Miskin Radio could well be broadcasting to the local area by Christmas of next year. In the meantime you can listen to them online. You can visit their website here.

Microsoft Windows was thirty years old last week. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft unveiled its graphical operating system; (actually technically speaking it was not an operating system at all - from Windows 1.0 to Windows ME, Windows was actually a graphical interface shell that sat on top of DOS - which was the actual operating system - but I digress). Windows 1.0 offered a new way to navigate a PC, clicking a cursor on various boxes rather than scrolling through lines of text in order to navigate data and applications. While arguably less efficient than a command line, the graphical user interface (GUI) was more intuitive and easier for novice users to manage. Running Windows 1.0 required a PC running DOS 2.0 as well as two double-sided floppy disk drives, 256K of memory, and a new-fangled device known as a "graphics card." Windows worked with some DOS apps, while others would just run in full-screen mode. Windows 1.0 was not exactly a stirring success. PC users accustomed to the command-line interface of DOS weren't yet sold on a GUI, and only about 500,000 copies were sold in the first couple of years. It took until the early 90s for Windows to catch on, but when it did, the OS became synonymous with the PC and made Microsoft one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world for the next two decades. Windows has had its ups and downs - at times it has been an excellent operating system, with other iterations, it has been truly terrible; let's look at some of the bad ones first:- Windows Vista was the long-awaited successor to Windows XP – perhaps that's part of why it is considered such a huge disappointment. After years of speculation and hype, Vista was roundly panned by critics and loathed by consumers. Part of the problem was its hefty hardware requirements that, for many users, meant upgrading components or just buying an entirely new PC. Add to that performance issues and default security settings that would flood users with permission dialogues, and you get one of Microsoft's biggest flops. Windows ME, however, was an even bigger flop than Vista. The final DOS based, consumer-only version of Windows, its mere mention will draw cringes to this day. It was a buggy, sluggish mess of an operating system and is considered by many to be Microsoft's worst-ever Windows version. On top of being riddled with bugs, ME suffered from a rather unfortunate flaw in its system restore process that on some machines meant that when something did go seriously wrong, the OS could not be restored. On a happier note, there have been some excellent and very popular versions of Windows:- Windows 3.11 was credited as the first true "hit" version of Windows and the commercial success that the platform needed to be considered more than just an add-on for DOS. It also carved out a niche for itself in the embedded market that would last for more than two decades. Windows for Workgroups was phenomenally successful as a platform for consoles, point of sale terminals, and workstations. Well into the 2000s, Windows 3.11 could be found in embedded devices. Just a few weeks ago, it was found that Orly Airport in France used Windows 3.11 to power a critical weather prediction system, 23 years after its release and nearly 15 years after Microsoft pulled official support. Windows XP SP2 was the version of XP that Microsoft got right. Three years after XP hit, Microsoft pushed out the second service pack and finally addressed some of the myriad of security problems that plagued XP. Like Windows 3.11, XP SP2 has enjoyed a lifespan so long it has become troublesome. Despite Microsoft's best efforts to get people to upgrade their systems to newer versions, more than one in ten PCs still rely on XP. Windows 7 was another stellar release that came after a less-than-stellar predecessor. In this case, Windows 7 corrected a lot of the things that Vista got wrong, particularly security, performance, and hardware demands. It may also be in for a lengthy run as the Windows release of choice. With Windows 8 bombing and many viewing Windows 10 with skepticism, Microsoft could once again find itself having to continue to support Windows 7 longer than it would want to. Time will tell, as Windows no longer has the complete stranglehold on the computer world that it used to have.

Earlier in the week I received an Email which contained the following appeal to the public:- "I am PC Richard Bradford and I work for the Metropolitan Police Service here on the London Borough of Bexley. Bexley Police, in partnership with Bexley Council, are currently working on an initiative called 'The Commissioner's Christmas Tree Project'. Please see an extract below from the project information:- "A simple idea in the spirit of Christmas. A child in need can be helped by a simple gift from someone they have never met. That person gains no recognition other than knowing they have shown some care for a child that needs a little more love than most." The project began in 2012 with a single tree at New Scotland Yard. It expanded to five boroughs in 2013 and in 2014 the project was run for the first time pan-London, and supplied 6840 presents to looked after children. Every year we aim to increase this amount and maximise the engagement.There are approximately 65,000 children looked after by local authorities in England. At any on time the London Borough of Bexley has in excess of 1200 living in care within Bexley. All Metropolitan Police Boroughs will display a physical tree in their area, ours will be at Bexleyheath Police Station. Each tree will have tags on and the tags explain how to buy a present for a child in care. The gifts are handed in to police stations or other nominated Metropolitan police premises and then later distributed to the children. This project is now being directed at local businesses, churches, schools and residents asking for any kind donations of suitable gifts or store vouchers to pass on to the children in care in Bexley. The project opens on 10th November 2015 and will close on 08th December 2015 in order to get the gifts to the children in time for Christmas. To date ‘ASDA Bexleyheath’ have kindly offered to support us with their own donation point for a gift appeal and have kindly offered us a Christmas tree and support with publicity. ‘Premier Autocentres in Blackfen’ have kindly offered their support for this project by donating funds and are supporting us with the publicity. Prior to the launch date in November we will be liaising with local media asking for their support with publicity and the same on closing the project on 08th December 2015 when the gifts are given to the children and we will be thanking all those businesses for their support. So again I ask with the kindest intent would ‘YOU’ be able to support us with this project and consider making a donation at either www.met.police.uk/christmastree or www.justgiving.com/metxmastree Alternatively you can drop a present off at Bexleyheath Police station or speak to your dedicated ward officer for other arrangements".

As construction work between Abbey Wood and Plumstead continues, news reaches me that the UK’s largest rail project, Crossrail, will feature trains that are fully wheelchair-accessible, air-conditioned and wi-fi enabled. The trains, which are being built by Bombardier Transportation’s UK factory in Derby, will have space for 1,500 customers in nine walk-through carriages. Each will be more than 200 metres long. They will also re-generate electricity back into the network when braking, meaning they will use 30% less energy. The £14.8 billion cross-London project, which includes 26 miles of tunnelling through central London, has been hailed by Prime Minister David Cameron as “an engineering triumph”. The new trains will be in service from May 2017, though testing is scheduled to begin far sooner than that date. I am sure the many local transport enthusiasts will be out in force with their cameras when that day finally arrives.

The ending video this week is a historical gem - it shows life and work on the River Thames from back in 1959; it gives a rare colour glimpse into what was then a rapidly changing environment. One can see all of the old warehouses on the banks of the Thames, shortly before most were demolished to make way for offices - and the few that remained were converted into extremely desirable and expensive apartment buildings today. One can also see The Pool of London, and the old docks still at work. Only a decade or so later and most of this would be gone, as the larger container ships could not get upriver as far as London, and loading and unloading would move to the massively expanded container port at Tilbury.  In the film you can still see goods being unloaded by hand, something that would be completely unthinkable nowadays. It is a fascinating snapshot into a part of London that is no longer there. See what you think, and please either leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.