View allAll Photos Tagged VictoriaEmbankment
Put the language of the sign to one side. I personally love this photo.
Not your average portrait.
Look at the smile on the face of the chap holding it up (bottom right). The only person looking towards the camera lens. That is the smile of a man enjoying himself, out protesting, wrapped up warmly on a bitterly cold day.
Someone, somewhere, has taken the time to make a sign from wood and has laboured to make it unique yet robust enough to stand up to a day of protesting. That's some dedication, no matter what your views on the protests themselves.
This is a Leon & Levy postcard dating from 1905, it shows the view from Hungerford Bridge looking downstream towards the old Waterloo Bridge. The London County Council paddle steamer is "Turner", one of the thirty boats built for the LCC riverboat service. The "Turner" was built by the Napier Miller Company of Glasgow and after the failure of the service in 1907, the boats were laid up until sold by auction in 1909. The "Turner" was sold to a German company for service on the River Rhine.
This is the Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London (the Victoria Embankment). It is near the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge / Hungerford Footbridges).
It was presented to Britain in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and the Sultan Muhammad Ali in commemoration of the British victories on the Nile and at Alexandria. The British welcomed the gesture, but couldn't afford to move it at the time.
By 1877, the obelisk was still in Alexandria, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsered it at £10,000 to transport it to London.
After various problems getting it to London, it finally arrived and was installed on the Victoria Embankment by 1878.
It is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes, cast from bronze that have hieroglyphic inscriptions that say (in English) "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". They seem to be looking at the obelisk / Needle rather than protecting it. That's due to the sphinxes improper or backward installation.
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
STUDENTS DayX3 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
Protest and march against University tuition fee increases, 09th Dec. 2010
Over 20,000 students from around the country converged on Central London today to march for a third time to protest against the coalition government's plans to
massively increase University tuition fees, which will ultimately mean that far fewer students from poorer backgrounds will be able to even consider a University
education because of the massive debts incurred which will follow them for the rest of their working lives.
I joined the days proceedings in the afternoon as they were assembling in Trafalgar Square. To throw the police off-guard they suddenly took off, en mass, through
Admiralty Arch in a bid to get to Parliament Square, which had been forbidden. That evening the House of Commons was voting on the Education Funding Bill, and the
students were determined to make sure that Parliament heard their protests.
The day started in a good mood, but by the time they reached Parliament pockets of disorder had started breaking out - Flares were lit and thrown, crush barriers and
construction site fencing ripped up to be used as weapons against the massed ranks of riot police and later on the mounted police. I had to leave by around 3pm, and by
the time I got home and turned on the BBC news all hell had broken loose outside Parliament. Protesters were pelting the police with lumps of masonry, metal poles and
scaffolding. They lit large fires, broke down the doors to The Treasury and the new Ministry of Justice buildings, smashing many windows, daubing graffiti everywhere
and generally smashing up the joint. Many people were arrested and many people hurt, some badly.
As the police gradually started releasing the by-now contained protesters in small numbers, several small groups headed up to Oxford Street, where they smashed the
windows of the flagship TopShop store (owned by Sir Phillip Green who is being attacked for shovelling billions of pounds of what should be UK taxable income into tax
haven accounts owned by his wife as part of a legal tax dodge), and in Regent Street they engulfed the Bentley containing Prince Charles and his horse-faced wife
Camilla who were in the process of swanning orf the the Royal Variety Performance! The protesters started kicking the vehicle. They broke the windows and threw a tin of
white paint over the car. One was not amused!
Needless to say the Bill was passed in Parliament tonight, and the students have vowed to continue their campaign of demonstration and civil disobedience...
All photos ⓒ Pete Riches
Please do not use my photos without my prior agreement.
Please do not re-blog my photos without my agreement.
Email: peteriches@gmail.com
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
14 October 1979: Tattershall Castle, PO Tower and Charing Cross from South Bank.
History quoted from the website...
"The Tattershall Castle was built by W. Gray & Co. in 1934 and was a vital passenger link across the Humber estuary ferrying passengers across the stretch of treacherous water between Hull and New Holland. The paddle steamer made about eight trips a day carrying up to 1050 passengers in three compartments and on the deck. Apart from her role as a passenger vessel, the Tattershall Castle had space on board for cars and livestock. Sheep, pigs, cattle and horses could all be tethered or penned for the 40-minute crossing. More than 1,000,000 passengers were ferried during its 40 years of operation. During the war the Tattershall Castle was commandeered for a short period as a tethering vessel for barrage balloons on the Humber estuary. This role was very short lived. The transportation of the troops and vital munitions and supplies across the Humber proved far too important to allow the Tattershall Castle away from the estuary. Wartime also saw the Tattershall Castle become the first civil vessel to carry radar. Her radar proved crucial on the foggy Humber. Just after the war during a routine crossing her radar picked up an unidentified floating object on the screen, on investigation the crew found part of one of Britain’s first oil rigs which had broken loose from its moorings during a storm.
After the war it carried on its business as a ferry until 1973 when urgent repair work was required for her boilers. This work was deemed too costly for her to carry on as a ferry and as a result the Tattershall Castle was retired from service".
These days:
In this photograph, the vessel was an art gallery but was subsequently sold to Chef & Brewer. Since 1981 the Tattershall Castle has been run as a bar and restaurant. The ship was refurbished in 2004, in 2009 and again in 2015. The vessel's current owners are Stonegate Pub Company.
The Battle of Britain Monument in London is a sculpture on the Victoria Embankment overlooking the River Thames in central London, England which pays tribute to those who took part in the Battle of Britain during World War II. The budget was £1.74 million and the monument utilises a panelled granite structure 25 metres long which was originally designed as a smoke outlet for underground trains when they were powered by steam engines. The centrepiece is an approximately life sized sculpture of airmen scrambling for their aircraft during the battle. The outside of the monument is lined with bronze plaques listing all the airmen who took part in the Battle on the Allied side.
The sculptor was Paul Day and the architects were Donald Insall Associates. The statue was cast by Morris Singer.
See www.bbm.org.uk
This is the Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London (the Victoria Embankment). It is near the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge / Hungerford Footbridges).
It was presented to Britain in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and the Sultan Muhammad Ali in commemoration of the British victories on the Nile and at Alexandria. The British welcomed the gesture, but couldn't afford to move it at the time.
By 1877, the obelisk was still in Alexandria, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsered it at £10,000 to transport it to London.
After various problems getting it to London, it finally arrived and was installed on the Victoria Embankment by 1878.
It is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes, cast from bronze that have hieroglyphic inscriptions that say (in English) "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". They seem to be looking at the obelisk / Needle rather than protecting it. That's due to the sphinxes improper or backward installation.
This is the Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London (the Victoria Embankment). It is near the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge / Hungerford Footbridges).
It was presented to Britain in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and the Sultan Muhammad Ali in commemoration of the British victories on the Nile and at Alexandria. The British welcomed the gesture, but couldn't afford to move it at the time.
By 1877, the obelisk was still in Alexandria, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsered it at £10,000 to transport it to London.
After various problems getting it to London, it finally arrived and was installed on the Victoria Embankment by 1878.
It is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes, cast from bronze that have hieroglyphic inscriptions that say (in English) "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". They seem to be looking at the obelisk / Needle rather than protecting it. That's due to the sphinxes improper or backward installation.
STUDENTS DayX3 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
Protest and march against University tuition fee increases, 09th Dec. 2010
Over 20,000 students from around the country converged on Central London today to march for a third time to protest against the coalition government's plans to
massively increase University tuition fees, which will ultimately mean that far fewer students from poorer backgrounds will be able to even consider a University
education because of the massive debts incurred which will follow them for the rest of their working lives.
I joined the days proceedings in the afternoon as they were assembling in Trafalgar Square. To throw the police off-guard they suddenly took off, en mass, through
Admiralty Arch in a bid to get to Parliament Square, which had been forbidden. That evening the House of Commons was voting on the Education Funding Bill, and the
students were determined to make sure that Parliament heard their protests.
The day started in a good mood, but by the time they reached Parliament pockets of disorder had started breaking out - Flares were lit and thrown, crush barriers and
construction site fencing ripped up to be used as weapons against the massed ranks of riot police and later on the mounted police. I had to leave by around 3pm, and by
the time I got home and turned on the BBC news all hell had broken loose outside Parliament. Protesters were pelting the police with lumps of masonry, metal poles and
scaffolding. They lit large fires, broke down the doors to The Treasury and the new Ministry of Justice buildings, smashing many windows, daubing graffiti everywhere
and generally smashing up the joint. Many people were arrested and many people hurt, some badly.
As the police gradually started releasing the by-now contained protesters in small numbers, several small groups headed up to Oxford Street, where they smashed the
windows of the flagship TopShop store (owned by Sir Phillip Green who is being attacked for shovelling billions of pounds of what should be UK taxable income into tax
haven accounts owned by his wife as part of a legal tax dodge), and in Regent Street they engulfed the Bentley containing Prince Charles and his horse-faced wife
Camilla who were in the process of swanning orf the the Royal Variety Performance! The protesters started kicking the vehicle. They broke the windows and threw a tin of
white paint over the car. One was not amused!
Needless to say the Bill was passed in Parliament tonight, and the students have vowed to continue their campaign of demonstration and civil disobedience...
All photos ⓒ Pete Riches
Please do not use my photos without my prior agreement.
Please do not re-blog my photos without my agreement.
Email: peteriches@gmail.com
26 March 2011. Legal Observers from Liberty at the TUC Anti-Cuts March for the Alternative.
_______________________________________
§ Click here to see my photoset TUC March for the Alternative.
§ View this photoset as a Slideshow.
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
Victoria Embankment beside the River Thames viewed from Hungerford footbridge in the 1930s. Cleopatra's Needle in the distance. Note the trams, the delivery tricycles, the horse-drawn vehicles and the numerous taxicabs. Very few private cars.
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
River Thames from the South Bank in London.
We were looking for the Christmas Market that was around here.
Turns out that the South Bank Centre's Winter Festival starts from under the Hungerford Bridge. Was also some fun fair rides there as well!
Westminster sunset
Palace of Westminster - it is overdue for urgent repairs and upgrades. It might cost billions to do!
Grade I listed building.
Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster, Westminster
TQ 3079 NW and SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER PARLIAMENT SQUARE, SW1
92/53; 101/7; (east side)
Houses of Parliament,
5.2.70 The Palace of Westminster
G.V. I
Houses of Parliament with the surviving parts of the Palace of Westminster.
Westminster Hall 1097-99, remodelled 1394-1401 by Henry Yevele with Hugh
Herland, carpenter; St Stephen's Chapel "crypt", probably c.1292-97 and c.1320; St Stephen's Cloister and chantrey chapel 1526-29 (considerably restored after
World War II bomb damage; Houses of Parliament (the New Palace of Westminster).
1835-60 by Sir Charles Barry with detailing, interior decoration and
furnishings by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin; offices against side of Westminster Hall, 1888 by J L Pearson; House of Commons and Lobby rebuilt after World War II bombing. Stone with slate roofs and galvanised cast iron plate roofs to Barry's work which also has an internal fireproof construction of iron joists and brick jack-arches. Cruciform, axial spine plan and massing by Barry combining symmetry on the river front terrace with the asymmetry of the major vertical accents: Victoria Tower, Big Ben and the central fleche and turrets above the roof line.
Pugin's 5 particular contribution the perpendicular Gothic detailing of rhythmic
buttresses and bay windows, the close panelling with open and blind tracery and
the wealth of sculpture, carved crockets, pinnacles and finials. Great vaulted
Royal Entrance at foot of Victoria Tower; Lords entrance with buttressed,
pinnacled porch in centre of Old Palace Yard range; St Stephen's Porch
gatehouse across south end of Westminster Hall (giving access to cross-axis of
plan); north entrance to Westminster Hall with great window above and crocketed
finialed gable flanked by square battlemented towers (restored 1820); 3
gateways in E M Barry's cloister-arcade to east range of New Palace Yard
terminating in virtually free-standing clock tower of Big Ben. Perpendicular
fenestration with shallow oriels. The riverside terrace has cast iron
ornamental lamps on the buttress-piers of the Embankment wall. Interiors:
Westminster Hall has vast hammerbeam roof of exceptionally early date and
scale and outstanding late C14 figure sculpture flanking dais arch; St Stephen's
Chapel "crypt", though much restored, retains perhaps the earliest surviving
lierne vault; Pugin's interiors are the best preserved and most complete
example of the quality and ideals of his secular decoration including all
details and furnishings and are combined with a complete programme of mid C19
and early C20 wall paintings. (Loose items of furniture not covered by listing.)
The Houses of Parliament; M H Port
[R C R M]
History of the King's Works
Survev of London: Vol X
Listing NGR: TQ3026379543
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
DM-458-YS is seen resting on the Victoria Embankment.
Date: 21/01/2017
Photo No: 1528
Ref: DM-458-YS/1
© Copyright MonklandsBus. It would be an offence for you to remove the copyright mark, or post the image elsewhere without my written permission.
The best placard from today's TUC-organised "A Future That Works" march and rally in central London, following Chancellor George Osborne being caught in the first class compartment of a train with a second class ticket.
See: www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/19/george-osborne-st...
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/
UPDATE JUNE 2017: I've just set up a Facebook page, 'The State of London', featuring, every day, a photo of London from my five years of cycling around and taking photos of the capital. Please join me! www.facebook.com/thestateoflondon/
The view across the Thames from Victoria Embankment of the London Eye and County Hall In London, England, UK.
The Merlin Entertainments London Eye (commonly the London Eye, or Millennium Wheel, formerly the British Airways London Eye) is a giant 135-metre (443 ft) tall Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in Central London.
It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually. When erected in 1999, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, until surpassed first by the 160 m (520 ft) Star of Nanchang in 2006, and then the 165 m (541 ft) Singapore Flyer in 2008.
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission
STUDENTS DayX3 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
Protest and march against University tuition fee increases, 09th Dec. 2010
Over 20,000 students from around the country converged on Central London today to march for a third time to protest against the coalition government's plans to
massively increase University tuition fees, which will ultimately mean that far fewer students from poorer backgrounds will be able to even consider a University
education because of the massive debts incurred which will follow them for the rest of their working lives.
I joined the days proceedings in the afternoon as they were assembling in Trafalgar Square. To throw the police off-guard they suddenly took off, en mass, through
Admiralty Arch in a bid to get to Parliament Square, which had been forbidden. That evening the House of Commons was voting on the Education Funding Bill, and the
students were determined to make sure that Parliament heard their protests.
The day started in a good mood, but by the time they reached Parliament pockets of disorder had started breaking out - Flares were lit and thrown, crush barriers and
construction site fencing ripped up to be used as weapons against the massed ranks of riot police and later on the mounted police. I had to leave by around 3pm, and by
the time I got home and turned on the BBC news all hell had broken loose outside Parliament. Protesters were pelting the police with lumps of masonry, metal poles and
scaffolding. They lit large fires, broke down the doors to The Treasury and the new Ministry of Justice buildings, smashing many windows, daubing graffiti everywhere
and generally smashing up the joint. Many people were arrested and many people hurt, some badly.
As the police gradually started releasing the by-now contained protesters in small numbers, several small groups headed up to Oxford Street, where they smashed the
windows of the flagship TopShop store (owned by Sir Phillip Green who is being attacked for shovelling billions of pounds of what should be UK taxable income into tax
haven accounts owned by his wife as part of a legal tax dodge), and in Regent Street they engulfed the Bentley containing Prince Charles and his horse-faced wife
Camilla who were in the process of swanning orf the the Royal Variety Performance! The protesters started kicking the vehicle. They broke the windows and threw a tin of
white paint over the car. One was not amused!
Needless to say the Bill was passed in Parliament tonight, and the students have vowed to continue their campaign of demonstration and civil disobedience...
All photos ⓒ Pete Riches
Please do not use my photos without my prior agreement.
Please do not re-blog my photos without my agreement.
Email: peteriches@gmail.com
This is the Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London (the Victoria Embankment). It is near the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge / Hungerford Footbridges).
It was presented to Britain in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and the Sultan Muhammad Ali in commemoration of the British victories on the Nile and at Alexandria. The British welcomed the gesture, but couldn't afford to move it at the time.
By 1877, the obelisk was still in Alexandria, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsered it at £10,000 to transport it to London.
After various problems getting it to London, it finally arrived and was installed on the Victoria Embankment by 1878.
It is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes, cast from bronze that have hieroglyphic inscriptions that say (in English) "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". They seem to be looking at the obelisk / Needle rather than protecting it. That's due to the sphinxes improper or backward installation.
This is the Cleopatra's Needle on Embankment in London (the Victoria Embankment). It is near the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge / Hungerford Footbridges).
It was presented to Britain in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and the Sultan Muhammad Ali in commemoration of the British victories on the Nile and at Alexandria. The British welcomed the gesture, but couldn't afford to move it at the time.
By 1877, the obelisk was still in Alexandria, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsered it at £10,000 to transport it to London.
After various problems getting it to London, it finally arrived and was installed on the Victoria Embankment by 1878.
It is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes, cast from bronze that have hieroglyphic inscriptions that say (in English) "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". They seem to be looking at the obelisk / Needle rather than protecting it. That's due to the sphinxes improper or backward installation.
Continued : Half a million people march in London to stop the cuts. 26.03.2011
Last weekend the TUC's "March for the Alternative" demonstration saw Central London streets packed with half a million Public Sector employees, Disability Rights and anti-war groups, students and many others angry at government cuts. As we all know the day's events were completely stolen by the selfish, cretinous actions of a couple of hundred juvenile "Anarchists" who used the day's events as cover to cause havoc all over Central London, attacking shops, businesses and the police for no reason other than jealousy, sociopathy and a desire to cause criminal damage. These are football thugs by any other name, no more, no less.
The so-called Anarchists claim they are fighting back against Capitalism, the Establishment and all Agents of the State - the Police, especially - and are doing what they do to show that they are not Slaves to the State or the Corporations, yet they are the first to complain if they think that someone has behaved illegally towards them like the immature children they are. I don't know if they can see the irony in organising their raids by Blackberry, Android phones and Twitter, but I can't help feeling that if someone attacked them in the street and stole their precious smartphones off them before kicking the living crap out of them they'd be crying and wailing all the way to the nearest police station to report the crime and wait there until Daddy comes to pick them up in the Range Rover...
The truth is that they are nothing more than Useful Idiots, serving the propaganda purposes of the very Corporations which they claim to detest, and if they had any vision beyond their aggressive juvenile male urge to smash the place up and piss on all the lamp posts to mark their fictitious territory, they'd maybe understand that they will always fail. You change large systems from within, and it takes time and intelligence, and the ability to win hearts and minds. At the moment in this country there are several million working and lower middle-class people fighting for their very survival at the hands of this ideology-driven right-wing government, and what they don't need are these utter morons robbing them of their huge public display of moral and social unity.
Predictably the Media the next week was awash with pornographic photos of Useful Idiots smashing bank windows and other Useful idiots throwing paintbombs at the police, and to all intents and puposes the half a million people who marched that day should have saved all the precious money they wasted hiring coaches, getting trains, driving down to London, because these Useful Idiots made a mockery of their aspirations as working class people.
As far as I'm concerned the tedious, unintelligent Black Bloc and Red Sky "anarchists" are as much our enemy as the Banks and Hedge Funds.
This large photo set celebrates the hundreds of thousands of decent, peaceful people who put so much effort into the best march you never saw...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not use my photos without my permission