The East End Blues.

We headed further east - past Limehouse but the tunnel was closed for a Triathalon and we got stuck in a big holdup. We crossed the huge Royal Docks, saw the giant Excel centre and London City Airport - all heralded as the great triumphs of the regeneration of Docklands.

Then we ended up here at Silvertown, at The Thames Barrier which stops London flooding when there's a high tide or a North Sea surge. 

The circular part rotates to bring up the barrier which is normally under water;

The Barrier was built by Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council and has been a great success.

By contrast, The Thames Barrier Park gardens next to it, completed in 2000, are probably the only thing done by The London Docks Development Corporation which aimed to benefit the people of the East End;

With trendy planting, they tried to repeat the waves of the Thames with undulating yew bushes.

Hmmmmmh!

More importantly, this was supposed to be a cool fashionable park of the 21st century, a park for the young professionals the LDDC wanted to attract to the area.

15 years on and the yew is a bit ragged, the decking has decayed, the boards are breaking up and the area by the awning closed off to the public.

People use the park but are excluded from most of it.

Perhaps this is not surprising, the site was once the most polluted land in the country - a former chemical plant. That may well be why there are private flats all around the site but just far enough away.....

The LDDC was created by Margaret Thatcher to take the derelict Docklands out of local democratic Council control and place it in the hands of an unaccountable body.

Bob Mellish, a right wing, racist Labour MP was appointed deputy head even though his party opposed the creation of this body.

Thatcher was so desperate to get someone (anyone?) from Labour that Mellish was given the unique opportunity to start work whenever it suited him. This was because MP's have to resign when they take up paid posts.

He waited until the moment when he could cause maximum damage to his own party and then defected to the new Social Democratic party, took up his highly paid post at the LDDC.

Mellish was corrupt throughout his life accepting, for example, £4000 from a fraudulent businessman towards the £7000 cost of his home in the 1960's.

He was entertained royally by the corrupt politician T. Dan Smith who was a publicist for John Poulson, a corrupt architect. Between them they persuaded local councils around the country to buy defective, substandard Tower Block housing for their council tenants.

The LDDC squandered the great legacy of the Docks and sold off the land at knock down rates to assorted speculators and developers.

The result is that the whole area is dominated by expensive private housing locals couldn't afford and commercial buildings that don't employ local people.

The tragic irony is that the Labour movement fought for a century to end casual labour in the docks - a battle that was only finally won in the early 1960's - by 1968 the Docks were closing and all the jobs lost.

It's no coincidence that almost as soon as the workers won some basic rights the London Docks were closed down.

Imagine the beautiful new city that could have risen from the ashes of the Docks - a garden city of parks and leisure facilities, community facilities, surgeries, schools and colleges, small industrial units, extensive affordable council housing and an infrastructure that suited the local area and not the needs of the City of London and Canary Wharf.

The emphasis should have been on jobs and housing for the people who already lived there and broadly that's what the local councils would have chosen if they had had any say in what happened. It's certainly what eastenders would have wanted if they'd had any choice.

Mellish prospered and, inevitably, ended up in the House of lords as 'Baron Mellish'.

He's long dead now although his name lives on in a surprising number of streets named after him by a grateful LDDC.

His corrupt and corrupting influence are played out in the movie 'The Long Good Friday' in which Harry Shand (played by Bob Hoskins) is an old fashioned London gangster who tries to go legitimate by redeveloping the derelict Docklands with finance from the American mafia.....his ambition is to hold the Olympic Games on the ruins of the docks.

How absurd to think anything like that could ever happen in real life?

Now here's a brand new development of luxury flats;

I knew Pennington Street well, just off The Highway, Wapping - I attended many mass pickets of Rupert Murdoch's 'Fortress Wapping' there on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the 1980's.

I was charged by truncheon wielding Police Horses, nearly run over by TNT lorries, attacked by ferocious Police Dogs.

We had a fine old time there in 1986 trying to protect the rights of the sacked News International print workers.

Looks nice now doesn't it?
 

Rupert Murdoch had a deal with Thatcher - he was allowed to buy The Times and The Sunday Times to go with The Sun and The News of The World he already had, without a reference to The Monopoly Commission. In return, his papers backed the Tories in elections.

With the profits he made he plotted to destroy the Print Unions and with the help of millions of pounds of taxpayers money spent on 2000 police a day, he was able to fire the 6000 people who had helped him build up his business.

9 striking Printers died that year and one local youth was killed by a speeding TNT lorry coming out of Murdoch's heavily guarded plant.

Here's an irony;

We had some real battles down there and unfortunately we lost, or rather the 6000 printers, cleaners etc and their families lost out.

All this was possible with the help of the right wing electricians union who stole the jobs and a Tory government that went to any lengths to protect Mudoch.

By 1991, the drivers at TNT had lost their jobs too. Now the electricians, the Wapping plant, the searchlights and the razor wire have all gone, the land sold off and nice new flats are going up in it's place.

Of course since then we've learnt what was really going on in there; how thousands of people were having their phones hacked, their personal details stolen, culminating in the discovery that Murdoch's journalists had hacked into murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's voice mail.

Nice work Rupert!

I remember when I was at University having endless arguments with an aspiring Journalist who seriously told me that the print workers were holding everything back - preventing the expansion of profitable newspapers.

He told me how with the printers gone and the new technology adopted the papers would be cheaper, bigger and better.

That's not exactly how it all worked out, is it?

With the super profits Murdoch made out of his British papers he was able to take up US citizenship and expand into Sky and Fox.

But just as with everything else, it was working people who paid for all this with lost livelihoods.

Here's a view of 'The Shard' at London Bridge on the other side of the river;

 

Built with Gulf money, The Shard is just one of many extraordinary new buildings going up in the City or nearby.

 

The Shard is unusual, the money that paid for it was legitimate oil money.

 

However, most of the new developments are paid for with one form of money laundering or another; the Saville Row suited financiers are reliant on money stolen from Russia, China, Drug money, Mafia money - whatever.

 

Don't believe me?

 

This is part of a recent report in 'The Independant';

 

Billions of pounds of corruptly gained money has been laundered by criminals and foreign officials buying upmarket London properties through anonymous offshore front companies – making the city arguably the world capital of money laundering.

Some 36,342 properties in London have been bought through hidden companies in offshore havens and while a majority of those will have been kept secret for legitimate privacy purposes, vast numbers are thought to have been bought anonymously to hide stolen
money.

The flow of corrupt cash has driven up average prices with a “widespread ripple effect down the property price chain and beyond London”, according to property experts cited in the most comprehensive study ever carried out into the long-suspected money laundering route through central London real estate, by the respected anti-corruption organisation Transparency International.

 

Some sources claim it has skewed developers towards building high-priced flats and houses rather than ones ordinary people can afford. While corruption and tax evasion are likely to be the biggest sources of the illicit money, drug dealing, people trafficking and sanctions busting are also common, police say.

 

 

 Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 



An East End of London safe for Tourists.

Any trip to the East End used to be a trip back in time - not any more. Between the local councils slum clearances, Hitler's Blitz and the current redevelopments of Docklands and beyond there isn't so much history left.

How about starting with Wilton's Music Hall?

Wilton's is on the 'World Monuements Fund' as one of the world's '100 most endangered sites'.

About 10 years ago, a friend took me to Wilton's to see 'John Gay's 18th century 'Beggar's Opera'.......performed completely in Zulu by a South African  company!

I did actually enjoy it a lot but the real treat was sitting rather precariously in Wilton's which seemed to be falling apart all around us.

Wilton's started life in the 1700's as a pub and after several fires and rebuilds added music and then theatre to the mix until by 1850 John Wilton bought it and expended it into a proper 'Music Hall' with gold leaf, scarlet curtains, a balcony and stage.

London's Music Halls provided raucous, riotous and sometimes very political entertainment to the working classes from 1850 until about the 1930's.

Wilton's didn't last so long, by the 1880's it had turned into a Methodist Chapel and in 1889 it became a soup kitchen for the 100,000 dockers who were on strike for "The Silver Orb of the Dockers Tanner" - a 'tanner' was two and a half old pence an hour or about one new pence in today's money.

In the 1930's the whole area had become a slum and much of it was bombed flat in the war. Somehow Wilton's survived all this largely intact and became a rag warehouse until the Greater London Council preserved it, like a time capsule from the mid 19th century.

Since then the theatre has run on a 'hope and a prayer', with every available penny going into propping up the collapsing building.

When I was there we sat on the balcony and the whole time I thought it would collapse on us!

Wilton's was shut when we were there this time but there are tours as well as performances.

Then we headed down to Wapping Wall - a line of early 19th century dock warehouses which line the river.

The whole history of London is the river - it was the first place where you could cross it...just. The bridges, the ferries, the docks.

All transport was water based and the city grew up along the river banks. As the ships got bigger, the docks got higher and then moved east as technological development made each previous docks redundant.

Later when we drove further east we crossed The Royal Albert and Royal Victoria Docks which were built in 1880 and run as far as the eye can see. They are so big that London City Airport runs alongside one of the docks only.

Wapping is old and the docks have been decaying for the last hundred years or so until regeneration meant that the wharves and docks were taken over as flats for the rich.

We were there to take a look at the river and at the historic pubs. This is 'The Town of Ramsgate' which claims to be Londonst oldest pub - well maybe it is, maybe not.

If you squeeze along the side of the pub (turn right at the blue sign) you are at 'Wapping Old Steps'.

Now these are really old but when we were there the tide was in and even though it was going out, it was too high for us to go down.

 

This was 'Execution Dock', where those who some called criminals were killed. Most of these poor souls were people we would see as victims of the extreme poverty that surrounded this area like a London fog.

 

Some were hung, some were tied to posts so that they would be covered by the tides which are very strong and fast here.

 

Most notably, this is where Pirates were executed and it may not be a coincidence that while most executions were carried out in public, here at The Old Wapping Steps no one could see what was happening.

 

Pirates were popular back then.

 

Captain Kidd is the most famous Pirate killed here and is commemorated by a pub close by;

 



Nowadays the Lightermen and Watermen of the Thames have largely been replaced by tourist boats. All the same that looks fun;

The long gone Dockers would marvel at how their old workplaces have been turned into luxury flats for the wealthiest people of the world.

All cleaned up now, no more soot and smells;

We headed on to 'The Prospect of Whitby', which is very old but perhaps not quite as old as it looks and yes, the pub sign is hanging on a ships spar;

It's been a pub since 1520 although it used to be known as 'The Pelican', like the Pelican Steps that run down to the river next to it.

It soon became notorious as a place for thieves and villains to hang out and turned into 'The Devils Tavern'. It was renamed 'The Prospect of Whitby' after a fire and the name (like 'The Town of Ramsgate') is from the name of a ship that used to dock there.

The prices are outrageous; the most expensive round I've ever bought. Even worse, I was starting to hurt by this time and there was nowhere to sit - they really want people for meals these days.

Check out the pewter counter top which is a rare survival from the 18th century while the round post is a ships mast.

The stone floor is genuine 1500's and what feet have those stones seen?

The pub was a favourite venue for cock fighting and boxing matches - perhaps the first international matches took place here.

The Bar really is built out of old ships timbers and barrels;

And genuine ships parts are everywhere;

I may be grumbling about the pub (If I were you I'd nip in when its full, have a quick look around and have a drink somewhere else) it is incredible. This is the view from the waterside;

In the 18th Century, this was the drinking place of Judge Jeffries, a murderous Judge who never really cared too much about whether those he hung were innocent or guilty. 'The Hanging Judge', as he was known, is most famous for presiding over 'The Bloody Assizes' where hundreds were hung after a failed rebellion.

The noose, hanging over the waterside stands as the only memorial to Jeffries brutality;

It didn't end so well for him - one day the mob came after him for revenge and he fled from 'The Prospect of Whitby, ran along the street to 'The Town of Ramsgate' where he was found disguised in dirty seamen's clothes. Screaming for his life he successfully pleaded to be taken to The Tower of London where he was held until his death.....from kidney failure.

We passed a couple of undeveloped wharves but most are now acceptable for the rich; those that remain have been bought up. All that's left are a few reminders of a whole way of life;

So what happened to Docklands?

Who got all the money?

Where are the skeletons buried?

Tomorrow!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Cor Blimey!

I've been really frustrated since I went up to hospital - I wanted to be doing stuff.

Doing everything I could before it's too late. And of course, nothing really worked out for me.

So I was getting frustrated and irritated. Then on Sunday we went on a day out.

Yeah right, it's a day trip to see some bins.

We've been to Camden which I love and then we went to Hampstead which I'd visited many times but I'd never done the Tourist thing.

This time I dragged poor Robyn on a big tour of the old East End of London.

You know; foggy nights, Jack the Ripper, Cor Blimey Costermongers dancing in the streets like in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Eastenders, Gangsters. All that stuff.

Well not really.

I lived in the East End for a while. I went to University and because we'd been on holiday without a phone when the results came out I was too late to get student accommodation. Back then there was a real housing shortage  and so after a lot of running about, I ended up living in a squat on Susannah Street, just off the East India Dock Road. It was the only place I could find.

This was proper East End; 'E14' Poplar, the home of 'Poplarism' a 1920's revolt against Tory cutbacks that led to the councillors of Poplar going to prison for wanting to give their poverty stricken constituents public facilities like health centres and public baths (for washing).

At night I walked about and the East India Dock Road was full of sailors of all nationalities and all kinds of uniforms out looking for trouble.

By day, the skyline was lined with cranes at the dockside, as far as the eye could see.

There were pubs everywhere, but each one was like a little private club - at night they beat the licensing laws by locking their doors; these 'lock-ins' meant that they were effectively private parties.

It was tough - hard as nails East End.

I was living in an squat; the local council were planning to demolish the slum housing but didn't have the money to do it right away. Squaters moved in, restored the electricity and water and then came to an agreement with the council that as long as they promised to leave when the work was due to start, they could stay in the meantime - as long as they were permanently occupying the house.

We were there because they were off on their holidays and the deal was that we could stay for free but we had to be there every night so they could keep the squat....and we had to keep watering the many cannabis plants, which we were happy to do.

When I lived there, Susannah Street was a quiet road of terraced 19th century houses and only the 1960's block at the end was there. All the terraces have gone now - they finally got the hippies out!.

I'm not sure - there are clean, nice new houses with room for cars and bicycles. It's very clean and tidy but with a little money the terraces could easily have been repaired and would now be really desirable.

Nowadays there are still lots of cranes to be seen from the East India Dock Road, but they aren't from the docks any more - there's a building boom.

This is Canary Wharf; my squat was just to the left of it. Where the skyscrapers are now - that's where I saw the Dock Cranes.

I knew that was big, just like the City of London has changed beyond recognition;

You can see the 'Gherkin' at St. Mary's Axe, which I quite like. There are some very silly new towers like the 'Walky-Talky' which you can't see. On the left is the 'Cheesegrater' which I do quite like, I'm not sure why;

Probably because it's very dramatic.

But I wasn't prepared for the destruction of the old east End that I saw; new flats and offices everywhere.

Canning Town? People were scared to go out at night in Canning Town, once upon a time. Now it's all new flats.

So I suppose what I want to do is to tell the story of my East End before its all gone. Buried under brand new concrete.

After I found somewhere to live that was more permanent, I left Poplar but I was a frequent visitor back east; I took part in some of the struggles that tried to prevent things turning out the way they did.

So in some ways its all my fault - we should have fought a bit harder,

Over the next few days I'll show you the touristy things we did and some of the history stuff they don't teach you at school as well as who stole all the money from the people of the East End of London.

Robyn saw this great piece of graffiti at the start of Cable Street.

 

 

And I saw another on Limehouse Road I couldn't take a picture of; "This is $%?@ you ain't no Banksey".

 

I was going to start with a picture of St. Mary Le Bow, which is a church on Cheapside in The City of London, just past St. Pauls Cathedral. It's in the old children's rhyme;

 

Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.

You owe me five farthings.
Say the bells of St. Martin's.

When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.

When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know,
Says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

The 'Great Bell of Bow' is 'Bow Bells' and, of course, you were only a Cockney (an Eastender) if you were born within hearing of those church bells.

Funny to think that all those born within the hearing of Bow Bells today are going to be Merchant Bankers, Commodity Traders or Insurance Brokers.

Cor Blimey, Guv'nor!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com