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The Peabody Housing Trust has recently completed a new development at Three Colts Lane, Bethnal Green. The development folows the curve of the railway viaduct which was built in 1872 to carry the Great Eastern Railway's then-new suburban lines to Enfield Town and Chingford.
As part of the new development a new pedestrianised public thoroughfare has been created to link Three Colts Lane and Witan Street, which acts as a new short-cut to and from Cambridge Heath Road and Bethnal Green Underground Station.
Fairfield Road, Bow, London E3. Now luxury apartments.
One of the most significant labour disputes in working class history ocurred here in 1888 when the women who worked here went on strike over their working conditions. They approached the prominent women's rights activist Annie Besant for support and advice (contrary to popular belief Besant neither instigated nor led the strike). The women won popular support and eventually their demands were met.
The East Lancs-bodied Tridents used on route 388 are currently undergoing refurbishment, one at a time. This rather hurried shot of HTL12 in Bethnal Green Road on 2nd June (it caught me somewhat by surprise) shows what they look like when they come back.
Gone are the distinctive yellow swirls; the fleetname is now the "this bus is operated by ct plus" which first appeared on the Scania OmniCitys and Optare Solos delivered earlier this year. Also, the destination display has been masked over and a combined route number and ultimate destination now appears where the number/intermediate display used to be. Although not immediately apparent, the seats have also been recovered in the same blue-based moquette that was used in the Scania and Solos.
The Experimental Lighthouse and adjoining Chain and Buoy Store were designed by Sir James Douglass and erected in 1864. The lighthouse was used by Trinity House to test equipment and to train lighthouse keepers.
The interior of the lighthouse can be visited on Saturdays and Sundays (10am-4pm, admission free). This is the view looking south to the Millennium Dome (now the O2 Arena), on the North Greenwich Peninsula.
Trinity Buoy Wharf Pier, in the foreground, has been the operational base of Thames Clippers, operators of the the fast catamaran passengers ferries along the River Thames, since 2007.
St James the Great was designed by Edward Blore and opened in 1844. It was closed in 1984, its congregation merging with St Matthews, and during the 1990s the church and adjoining vicarage were converted into flats.
In 1839 Bethnal Green had just two churches, St John on Bethnal Green and St Matthews, both of which are still active today. That year James Blomfield, the Bishop of London, decided to build more churches in what he described as "one of the most desolate parishes" and in the following decade no less than ten were built. This was something of an oversupply, as the new churches competed for congregations and the Bishop found it hard to recruit good vicars to live and work in the parish.
Of the ten new churches, only St Peter and St James the Less are still active. St James the Great and St Bartholomew are still standing, although now converted to housing. At St Simon the Zealot the vicarage survives as private housing, although the church was destroyed in the Second World War. Of St Andrew, St Matthias, St Philip, St Jude and St Thomas there is today no trace.
A Stagecoach Alexander ALX400-bodied Dennis Trident on route 277 crosses the Hertford Union Canal at Grove Road.
Poster appealing for information about missing Gemma McCluskie*, Bethnal Green resident and former EastEnders actor. Sadly, it was reported on the news on 7th March that a torso recovered from the Regent's Canal in Hackney was almost certainly Gemma's (this was later confirmed), and her brother was being held on suspicion of murdering her.
UPDATE: on 30th January 2013 Tony McCluskie was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his sister.
* Personal details & phone numbers have been blocked out to protect privacy.
Whitechapel had a large Jewish population from 1890 until the 1930s, when increasing prosperity allowed Jews to move out to the suburbs. This burial ground is now disused but can still be visited by arrangement.
Orchard Place, Blackwall. The gates were designed by Anthony Caro and commemorate the Thames Iron Works which were once located in this area.
The East India Docks were built by the East India Company, which was one of the most powerful global traders of all time. Founded in 1600, by the 1750s it had come to rule India via its own private armies, a situation that only changed in 1858 when the Crown assumed direct control following the Indian Rebellion of the previous year.
The Docks were built at Blackwall (where the Company already had a wharf) in 1804 to avoid the increasingly congested River Thames around the Pool of London and the warehouses of Wapping and Rotherhithe. New roads - East India Dock Road and Commercial Road - were constructed to bring goods into the Company's warehouses in the City of London, and were joined in 1840 by the London and Blackwall Railway, with a terminus at Fenchurch Street and Goods Depots in the Aldgate area. The changing nature of trade caused the Docks to decline in the 20th Century, and they closed in 1967. Since then most of the East India Docks have been drained and built over, but the East India Dock Basin survives; now silted up, it is managed as a bird and nature reserve.
The Peabody Housing Trust has recently completed a new development at Three Colts Lane, Bethnal Green. The development folows the curve of the railway viaduct which was built in 1872 to carry the Great Eastern Railway's then-new suburban lines to Enfield Town and Chingford.
As part of the new development a new pedestrianised public thoroughfare has been created to link Three Colts Lane and Witan Street, which acts as a new short-cut to and from Cambridge Heath Road and Bethnal Green Underground Station.
The day before this was taken, it was announced that all 850 branches of Woolies in the UK would close by 4th January, all attempts to rescue the stricken store chain having failed. Some staff will be retained for a few days to help clear the shops, but all 27,000+ staff will be made redundant. Many of the shops have already been earmarked for use as supermarkets, so I don't expect this shop to remain empty for long.
Most shops in this parade have flats above them but the floors above Woolworths are used for staff accommodation and a stockroom.
Unlike a lot of people who have suddenly become "nostalgic" about Woolies despite not having been in one for years, I did use my local store and will be very sorry to see it go.
This rare cast-iron milepost still sits at the side of Bow Road close to the junction with Harley Road; it probably goes unnoticed by the majority of today's travellers.
Some friends live in Woolwich and were hosting a Sunday afternoon gathering for Chinese New Year. The obvious way to get there was to leave really early and have a meandering four hour walk through Docklands and Silvertown.
Rear view from Fieldgate Street. As the area has a big Muslim population, the call-to-prayer of the Muezzin is broadcast from the Minaret (the tall thin tower) at prayer time.
East London Line Extension - the new bridge carrying the line over Brick Lane meets the massive girder bridge carrying the line over the lines out of Liverpool Street.
Location: Hackney Road, Bethnal Green, London, England
The Experimental Lighthouse and adjoining Chain and Buoy Store were designed by Sir James Douglass and erected in 1864. The lighthouse was used by Trinity House to test equipment and to train lighthouse keepers.
The interior of the lighthouse can be visited on Saturdays and Sundays (10am-4pm, admission free). This is the view looking south-east across the River Thames to North Greenwich and Charlton; the London Cable Car can be seen crossing in the background.
The cranes on the far side of the River Lea stand on the Limmo Peninsula. This is one of the sites from which the Crossrail tunnels will be dug, and the two boring machines are waiting to be sunk into deep shafts to start their work. The crane used for this task is apparently the largest in Europe.
Crossrail services are planned to commence in late 2018, with full service by mid-2019.
In 1649 Parliament seized the jewels, plate and part of the royal regalia stored at the Tower of London. The crowns were broken up and sent to the Mint to be made into coinage, with the remaining items sold to private individuals.
After the restoration of Charles II new regalia had to be made, as the only objects recovered after 1660 were the 12th-century spoon, the ampulla, ceremonial swords and some of the original gemstones. The original coronation spoon and ampulla, used for anointing the monarch at the coronation ceremony, are today displayed in the Jewel House.
[Tower of London]
The Greenwich Meridian passes through Blackwall, just to the East of East India DLR Station. This is the view along the Meridian looking North - this way to Stratford (it passes through the Bus Station), Leytonstone, Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Swavesey, Louth, Cleethorpes and Tunstall, North Yorkshire (there was a Meridian Marker here but the cliff fell into the sea, taking the Marker with it); then over the sea to the North Pole.
Location: Bow Road, London, England
Architect: Richard Tress
Built: 1849
The old alignment of the East London Line passes under Vallance Road at this point. Beyond here the old route into Shoreditch Station has been obliterated, and the line now rises in a steep gradient towards a massive girder bridge over the lines out of Liverpool Street, then over a new viaduct through a new Shoreditch High Street Station before joining the former North London Line viaduct. The new line is now complete; test running started on 5th October and passengers services are scheduled to start in June 2010.
Wednesday 8th April 2015 - van advertising Express News (according to the slogan, the UK's only weekly newspaper in Spanish) as well as Brazilian News, which is presumably its stablemate and published in Portuguese. I am not sure why it was parked opposite my flat though.
Brazil is unusual amongst the nations of Central and South America in having Portuguese as its official language (most have Spanish), but because Brazil is so large and has such a huge population (over 200 million), Portuguese - officially regarded as a minority language in the European Union - is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. A further 50 million Africans in Angola and Mozambique also have Portuguese as their official language. By contrast, Portugal itself has a population of less than 11 million.
The Stairway to Heaven Memorial commemorates the Bethnal Green Underground Station Disaster which occurred during the Second World War. 173 people, hurrying to seek shelter in the as yet unopened station, died in a crush and many more were injured.
The Memorial commemorates not only those who died, but also the survivors, family and friends of those involved, and those from the emergency services and others who worked to save those they could, and remove the bodies.
The floral tribute is to Police Sargeant Richard Sharrock, who was on duty that fateful night and was badly affected by his experiences, becoming quite unwell for a while afterwards. He eventually recovered and went on to become Station Sargeant at Bethnal Green.
Photo taken on 3rd March 2013, 70th Anniversary of the Disaster.