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Explored # 167
So it didn't take me very long to think this one up. It's happened to me before. Haha just joking. I've actually wanted to use my old chest for some photos, and this was a perfect opportunity. I had to get someone short and small to fit in it though. So I called Ashley (she's like 4'9 or something and weighs around 120 pounds). She was 2 hours fashionably late even though I didn't care what she looked like because I would probably only be showing her legs and arms. Hahaha oh well we had a good time anyways.
Oh yeah I don't really know that Vic guy all that well. I think we've talked on here once. But I did see that creepy picture of him that he said people could use, and I thought it was a nice touch hanging on a murders wall haha.
Photographed using the Kodak Stylelite, and Lomography's "Tiger" 110 format film.
Taken at a car show held at Caribbean Market in Scoresby, Victoria, Australia.
Note: this was an Australian made car.
Imaged using DIC technique.( Differential interference contrast )
Which uses a polarizer, analyser, and x2 quartz prisms matched to the objective used at the time.
Thanks for your comments and faves, they are truly appreciated.
Brodsworth Hall, near Brodsworth, 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, is one of the most complete surviving examples of a Victorian country house in England. It is virtually unchanged since the 1860s. It was designed in the Italianate style by the obscure London architect, Philip Wilkinson, then 26 years old. He was commissioned by Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson, who inherited the estate in 1859, but the original estate was constructed in 1791 for merchant and slave owner Peter Thellusson. It is a Grade I listed building
George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull, bought the Brodsworth estate from Sir John Wentworth in 1713 and rebuilt the house in the Georgian style, but lost his money in the South Sea Bubble crash of 1720 and was obliged to take the position of Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. His second son Robert, later Archbishop of York, took up residence on the estate instead and made a number of improvements to the house and grounds. On his death in 1777, the house was left empty, and, after his eldest son became the 10th Earl of Kinnoull in 1787, he sold the estate in 1790 to Peter Thellusson (1737–1797) of the Swiss banking family.
Peter Thellusson had come from Geneva and settled in England, becoming a director of the Bank of England. This role saw him provide loans to slave ship and plantation owners. As these slave owners defaulted on debts, Thellusson amassed interests in Caribbean plantations and became a tobacco and sugar importer. He wrote an unusual will, unsuccessfully challenged by his family in the Thellusson Will Case, whereby his fortune was put in trust to be untouched for three generations. Peter Thellusson's grandson Arthur Thellusson, married the daughter of another Antigua slave owner, Sir Christopher Bethell-Codrington. The Thellussons were slave owners in Grenada and Montserrat as late as 1820.
One of the two eventual beneficiaries was the 5th Baron Rendlesham. The other was Peter's great-grandson Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson who, in 1859, inherited half the bequest plus the Brodsworth estate with its Georgian house. He demolished the existing house and commissioned the present one, which was built in two years between 1861 and 1863. A keen yachtsman, he also commissioned four yachts, the last two being, successively, the largest in the world. He was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1866–1867. He and his wife Georgiana left four sons, all of whom died childless, and the house therefore passed to each son in turn. The third son, Charles Thellusson, leased the mineral rights to the Brodsworth Colliery Company and also rented them the land for the construction of Woodlands model village to accommodate the miners. In addition he paid for the construction of All Saints Church (1913) for the village. He was also responsible for the introduction of electric light to the hall.
After the First World War, spiralling costs resulted in the owners closing off parts of the house. On the death of the youngest son, Augustus Thellusson, in 1931, the house passed to his nephew, Captain Charles Grant-Dalton (1882–1952). He was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1942–1943.
The last resident of the house was Sylvia Grant-Dalton (wife of Captain Grant-Dalton), who fought a losing battle for 57 years against leaking roofs on the mansion and land subsidence from nearby coal mining. After her death in 1988, Her daughter, Pamela Williams, gave the Hall and gardens to English Heritage in 1990. The contents of the house were purchased by the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to the ownership of English Heritage. It was decided to conserve the interiors "as found" rather than replacing or restoring them. They demonstrate how a once opulent Victorian house grew "comfortably" old.
Designed in the Italianate style by Philip Wilkinson, the Hall is constructed in ashlar limestone, some quarried on the estate, with lead and slate roofs. Stonework, windows and interior fittings were reused from the older building. The building is "T" shaped with the servants quarters forming the upright. The main block, forming the cross-bar, is 2-storey rectangular range having 9-bay frontage. The house has more than 30 rooms, ranging from grand reception rooms with original furnishings to the servants' quarters. The house is surrounded by Victorian period gardens, which are used for special events throughout the summer.
The house is noted for Charles Sabine Thellusson's collection of paintings and sculptures, including a large collection of Italian sculptures bought at the Dublin International Exhibition of 1865.
I used the Set plus some other parts to build a Modular building with the design of the building of the set. There is a ramen restaurant and a dojo located in it.
More pictures in the ALBUM.
Images used:
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
pixabay.com/photos/aerial-view-city-architecture-2600658/
aerial 26
Image by Philipp Dümcke from Pixabay
pixabay.com/photos/concrete-wall-structure-urban-city-184...
concrete 18
roger901
feet
Do you realise that the symbol used to represent pi….you know, that horrible 3.141….thing you had to learn about at school in maths for calculating the circumference or area of a circle….., originated in North Wales?
The first calculation of pi was made by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world, but it was a much less famous man called William Jones who introduced that symbol ‘π’ which until then was just a Greek letter.
William Jones was born sometime around 1675 on the island Anglesey in the parish of Llanfihangel Tre’r Beirdd, about four miles west of the town which is now Benllech. He had a humble up-bringing and was raised on a small farmstead by his parents Siôn Siôr (John George Jones) and Elizabeth Rowland. However his talent for mathematics quickly became apparent when he attended a charity school at Llanfechell. It was to be his only formal education. His aptitude for the subject ensured that he would not follow in the family footsteps. A local squire and landlord of the distinguished Bulkeley family, heard of his skill and took him under their patronage. They arranged for him to work in a merchant’s counting house in London.
It was only the first of many journeys. Between 1695 and 1702 he served in the Royal Navy, sailing to the West Indies during which time he taught mathematics on board a man-of-war, en-route learning about navigation. He was present at the battle of Vigo in October 1702 when the English successfully captured the Spanish treasure fleet as it was returning to the port in north-west Spain under French escort. Ignoring the obvious riches of silver to be had, he went in search of other booty according to an 1807 memoir by Baron Teignmouth, ‘... literary treasures were the sole plunder that he coveted.’
On his return he published A New Compendium of the Whole Art of Navigation which he dedicated to a benefactor John Harris, a writer, scientist and Anglican priest who had taken him under his wing. Back in the capital, his voyages over, he became a mathematics teacher in coffee houses and as a private tutor to the son of the future Earl of Macclesfield. He also became tutor to Philip Yorke, later 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764), who became Lord Chancellor and provided an invaluable source of introductions for his tutor.
In those circles, Isaac Newton had already mentioned to the Admiralty the benefit of sending mathematicians to sea. So inevitably it was only a matter of time before Jones came to the attention of Newton after reading “Jones’s Synopsis”, in which the younger man explained Newton’s methods for calculus as well as other mathematical innovations. It was in this book that Jones first used the Greek symbol ‘π’ to denote the pi. More significantly he used it as a constant number - 3.141...
Before Jones, approximations such as 22/7 and 355/113 had also been used to express the ratio. Explaining its use, he wrote: ‘... the exact proportion between the diameter and the circumference can never be expressed in numbers...’. Hence, a symbol was required to represent an ideal that can be approached but never reached. For this Jones recognised that only a pure platonic symbol would suffice.
In 1708 Jones was able to acquire an extensive library and archive, which contained several of Newton’s letters and papers written in the 1670s. The following year he applied for the mastership of Christ’s Hospital Mathematical School, despite references from Newton and Edmund Halley (the astronomer who calculated the orbit of the comet, now named after him) but he was turned down. Jones went back into private teaching but thanks to the papers he had acquired he was able to help his old mentor Newton resolving a dispute with German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, over which of the men first invented calculus.
In 1712 Jones joined the committee set up by the Royal Society to determine which of them invented calculus. He was now firmly in the mathematical establishment.
He married twice, firstly the widow of his counting-house employer, whose property he inherited on her death.He remarried in 1731, to Mary, the 22-year-old daughter (30 years his junior) of cabinet-maker George Nix, with whom he had three children.
And therein lies the story of ‘π’ and it’s origins in North Wales. My photo is actually of part of some derelict structure of the Penmaenmawr quarry, the quarry that has removed the top one third of this granite mountain. But I thought it looked like ‘π’ standing high above the North Wales Expressway.
Using the Nightsea blue light to add some blue fill light underwater
Location: Maeda, Okinawa
Canon 70d 60mm macro
1 sola 600 and 1 nightsea blue light combined ambient light
note- no barrier filter
okinawanaturephotography.com/fluoro-diving-in-okinawa-japan/
more with my fav from Marina (i use underground set)
www.redheartphoto.com/underground.html
i should learn how to link to her set...!!! urrrgg!!
this was from the other fairy set... so cute had so many good shots... but not sure what to do with them as done the invite... blah... photos photos everywhere and not a wall spare!
used mostly japanese scraps, most of them from my lovely online friends.:) Mixed up with some vintage scraps.
Used the square in a square pattern.
Measures abt 22" x 17" so it's tiny.
tks my dear friends! yr gifts have been put to good use! I hope :S
Toni Duarte Freelance Photographer
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media
without my explicit permission.
© All rights reserved
Contac: toniduarte[a]cmail.cat
Wikipedia:
Vilafamés (en valencià i oficialment, Vilafamés) és un municipi de la Comunitat Valenciana, Espanya. Situat a la província de Castelló, a la comarca de la Plana Alta.
Les primeres evidències d'ocupació de l'entorn de Vilafamés se centren en les troballes arqueològiques realitzades en l'anomenat "Homo erectus vilafamensis", on es van localitzar restes antropològiques Els seus orígens es remunten al Plistocè Mitjà, segons el descobriment de les restes de l'anomenat "homo erectus vilafamensis "a la Cova de Dalt del Tossal de la Font amb una antiguitat de 80.000 anys. Una continuïtat en l'ocupació del medi estaria reflectida en la Cova del Matutano, jaciment del Paleolític Superior. Les primeres manifestacions artístiques apareixen amb les pintures esquemàtiques de l'Edat del Bronze.
Pel que fa al nucli urbà, el mateix topònim AVilahameç, ABeniffamez, denota el seu origen en època musulmana. D'aquest període es conserven entre altres elements, la fonamentació del castell que corona el turó sobre el qual s'assenta el municipi i el traçat urbà de la zona contigua a aquest, d'estrets carrerons tortuosos. Queden així mateix vestigis de les antigues fortificacions constituïdes per llenços de muralla i restes de torres.
És amb la conquesta de la musulmana Beni-Hamez pel rei Jaume I d'Aragó quan Vilafamés pren identitat històrica pròpia. Aquest fet porta a que, el 30 de agost de 1241, Jaume I comissions a Guillem Ramon de Vielha per donar a poblar el castell a Diumenge Ballester, A. Cabrera i altres, carta de població que s'estableix a fur de Saragossa. Aquesta donació serà confirmada posteriorment pel propi monarca a Lleida el 21 de febrer de 1242.
Posteriorment s'incorpora al patrimoni dels Hospitalaris de Sant Joan a 1264, després d'una permuta real amb aquests per la vila d'Olocau del Rei, que seran els seus amos fins 1317, data en què la vila i el castell queden annexionats a la recentment creada Ordre de Montesa. En 1343, Pere IV el Cerimoniós, s'entesta a l'ordre el mer i mixt imperi, amb les corresponents jurisdiccions, drets i emoluments que pertanyien a la corona.
Joan I d'Aragó, en 1393, concedeix a Vilafamés el privilegi pel qual el Consell pot fer i ordenar tot tipus de establemientos i ordenacions que consideri convenients d'acord amb els furs generals del regne.
En les Corts celebrades a València durant l'any 1403, Martí I l'Humà disposa donar possessió al mestre de Montesa del mer i mixt imperi de la població, aquest fet provocarà la protesta irada del Consell en 1404.
Ja al segle XVI, en 1519, Carlos I d'Espanya promet no separar de la corona la jurisdicció civil i criminal, i el mer i mixt imperi de la vila. Quan en 1635 culminen les desavinences sorgides entre els Justícies, per una banda i l'ordre d'una altra, el "Consell" creu arribat el moment de demanar del Papa Innocenci XII autorització per comprar la jurisdicció alfonsina, adquisició que porta a terme el 16 d'abril pel preu de sis mil lliures. A partir d'aquesta data, Vilafamés queda incorporada plenament al patrimoni real, reservant-Montesa la percepció de certes primícies i el dret d'habitació sobre el castillo.Será al segle XIX, amb els enfrontaments civils que segueixen a la mort de Ferran VII, quan el nom de Vilafamés sonarà de nou dins de l'àmbit històric com plaça inexpugnable. Al març de 1837 pateix el primer intent d'assalt de les tropes carlines. El 29 octubre 1838 la guarnició de la plaça rebutja una segona intentona, que es repetirà de nou el 3 de gener del següent any, aquesta vegada amb Cabrera al capdavant de les tropes, que des de les muntanyes que dominen la vila comencen a assetjar a la població, trencant foc contra la ciutadella. En aquesta ocasió es va fer front al setge per part dels veïns a més de comptar amb l'ajuda d'una columna mòbil enviada per l'Ajuntament de Castelló i un destacament d'artilleria de marina, molt poc nombrós. Cinc dies van durar els continus enfrontaments, rebutjant la població tots els atacs de Cabrera, fins que el dia 7 l'arribada de tropes reals va obligar al general carlista a aixecar el lloc. Amb el més selecte de les seves tropes i recorrent a l'auxili de les de Forcadell, Cabrera intentarà el cop definitiu l'abril del mateix any, establint un campament davant la població. El dia 16 s'obre una bretxa en les muralles, encara que els atacants són rebutjats i resulten infructuosos tots els esforços de prendre la plaça que va resultar semi derruïda.
ESP:
Villafamés (en valenciano y oficialmente, Vilafamés) es un municipio de la Comunidad Valenciana, España. Situado en la provincia de Castellón, en la comarca de la Plana Alta.
Las primeras evidencias de ocupación del entorno de Villafamés se centran en los hallazgos arqueológicos realizados en el llamado “Homo erectus vilafamensis”, donde se localizaron restos antropológicos Sus orígenes se remontan al Pleistoceno Medio, según el descubrimiento de los restos del llamado "homo erectus vilafamensis" en la Cova de Dalt del Tossal de la Font con una antigüedad de 80.000 años. Una continuidad en la ocupación del medio estaría reflejada en la Cueva del Matutano, yacimiento del Paleolítico Superior. Las primeras manifestaciones artísticas aparecen con las pinturas esquemáticas de la Edad del Bronce.
Por lo que respecta al núcleo urbano, el mismo topónimo AVilahameç, ABeniffamez, denota su origen en época musulmana. De este periodo se conservan entre otros elementos, la cimentación del castillo que corona el cerro sobre el que se asienta el municipio y el trazado urbano de la zona contigua al mismo, de estrechas callejuelas tortuosas. Quedan asimismo vestigios de las antiguas fortificaciones constituidas por lienzos de muralla y restos de torres.
Es con la conquista de la musulmana Beni-Hamez por el rey Jaime I de Aragón cuando Villafamés toma identidad histórica propia. Este hecho lleva a que, en 30 de agosto de 1241, Jaime I comisione a Guillem Ramón de Viella para dar a poblar el castillo a Domingo Ballester, A. Cabrera y otros, carta de población que se establece a fuero de Zaragoza. Esta donación será confirmada posteriormente por el propio monarca en Lérida el 21 de febrero de 1242.
Posteriormente se incorpora al patrimonio de los Hospitalarios de San Juan en 1264, tras una permuta real con estos por la villa de Olocau del Rey, que serán sus dueños hasta 1317, fecha en que la villa y el castillo quedan anexionados a la recién creada Orden de Montesa. En 1343, Pedro IV el Ceremonioso, empeña a la orden el mero y mixto imperio, con las correspondientes jurisdicciones, derechos y emolumentos que pertenecían a la corona.
Juan I de Aragón, en 1393, concede a Villafamés el privilegio por el cual el Consejo puede hacer y ordenar todo tipo de establemientos y ordenaciones que considere convenientes con arreglo a los fueros generales del reino.
En las Cortes celebradas en Valencia durante el año 1403, Martín I el Humano dispone dar posesión al maestre de Montesa del mero y mixto imperio de la población, este hecho provocará la protesta airada del Consejo en 1404.
Ya en el siglo XVI, en 1519, Carlos I de España promete no separar de la corona la jurisdicción civil y criminal, y el mero y mixto imperio de la villa. Cuando en 1635 culminan las desavenencias surgidas entre los Justicias, de una parte y la orden de otra, el "Consejo" cree llegado el momento de solicitar del Papa Inocencio XII autorización para comprar la jurisdicción alfonsina, adquisición que lleva a cabo el 16 de abril por el precio de seis mil libras. A partir de esta fecha, Vilafamés queda incorporada plenamente al patrimonio real, reservándose Montesa la percepción de ciertas primicias y el derecho de habitación sobre el castillo.Será en el siglo XIX, con los enfrentamientos civiles que siguen a la muerte de Fernando VII, cuando el nombre de Villafamés sonará de nuevo dentro del ámbito histórico como plaza inexpugnable. En marzo de 1837 sufre el primer intento de asalto de las tropas carlistas. El 29 de octubre de 1838 la guarnición de la plaza rechaza una segunda intentona, que se repetirá de nuevo el 3 de enero del siguiente año, esta vez con Cabrera al frente de las tropas, que desde las montañas que dominan la villa comienzan a hostigar a la población, rompiendo fuego contra la ciudadela. En esta ocasión se hizo frente al asedio por parte de los vecinos además de contar con la ayuda de una columna móvil enviada por el Ayuntamiento de Castellón y un destacamento de artillería de marina, muy poco numeroso. Cinco días duraron los continuos enfrentamientos, rechazando la población todos los ataques de Cabrera, hasta que el día 7 la llegada de tropas reales obligó al general carlista a levantar el sitio. Con lo más selecto de sus tropas y recurriendo al auxilio de las de Forcadell, Cabrera intentará el golpe definitivo en abril del mismo año, estableciendo un campamento ante la población. El día 16 se abre una brecha en las murallas, aunque los atacantes son rechazados y resultan infructuosos todos los esfuerzos de tomar la plaza que resultó semi derruida.
Used in today's blog post. Used in today's blog post. dennissylvesterhurd.blogspot.com/2021/04/arriving-home-af...
Strikemaster 82A Jet G-SOAF 425 OAF Built in 1967 by BAC was used by the Omani Air Force with s/n 425
Strikemaster 417 G-RSAF painted in the colours of Sultan of Oman's Air Force
Strikemaster was a British Jet trainer and light attack aircraft It was a development of the Hunting Jet Provost
Air Festival Airshow
Photo taken at the Imperial War Museum Duxford Cambridgeshire UK
BAD_0672
I use GND filters even though I shoot digital.. How about you? While I was photographing the area, a fellow photographer said with digital, GND filters aren't needed.. I still like the result of balancing the exposure in a single frame. Also, for longer exposures, I believe the filters help capture more color & allow to capture motion/movement. Personally, I don't think it's wrong to use GND filters. Less to worry about in post processing.
Charon-lit-Pluto: The image shows the dark side of Pluto surrounded by a bright ring of sunlight scattered by haze in its atmosphere. But for a dark crescent zone to the left, the terrain is faintly illuminated by sunlight reflected by Pluto’s moon Charon. Researchers on the New Horizons team were able to generate this image using 360 images that New Horizons captured as it looked back on Pluto’s southern hemisphere. A large portion of the southern hemisphere was in seasonal darkness similar to winters in the Arctic and Antarctica on Earth, and was otherwise not visible to New Horizons during its 2015 flyby encounter of Pluto.
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Southwest Research Institute/NOIRLab
#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAMarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #NewHorizons #SolarSystemandBeyond #Pluto #marshallspaceflightcenter #NewFrontiers #Charon
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
A conspicuous show of tribal power by Mursi boys with Kalashnikovs. The Kalashnikov symbolizes wealth, status, and power. Above all, the Kalashnikov provides protection during cattle drives and fire-power in armed conflicts with neighbouring tribes.
The value of a Kalashnikov can range from five to thirty-five cows and often figures into the bride-wealth or payment made by the husband’s family to the bride's family.
This semi-nomadic pastoral settlement is situated high on the bank of the Mago River, a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in the remote southwestern corner of Ethiopia. Shot under the noonday sun near the end of a long hot dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade.
~~~
The proliferation of automatic weapons
The rapid increase of automatic weapons and small arms in the lower Omo Valley has fuelled severe cycles of inter-ethnic violence, exacerbated by traditional cattle raids, opportunistic bush sniping, and territorial skirmishes often escalating into broader warfare.
Spears and other traditional weapons in the region were replaced with automatic assault rifles in the 1980s as they became more accessible during the decades-long civil war in neighbouring South Sudan.
A surplus of automatic weapons circulating in the larger Horn of Africa was also accessible through other channels, including a flow of small arms and ammunition from longstanding wars across the borders in Somalia and northern Uganda. SKS and AK-47 assault rifles were easily available, relatively cheap, and easy to use.
Large numbers of automatic weapons were also imported from the USSR to Communist allies around the world during the global Cold War, including Ethiopia. SKS semi-automatic Russian-made rifles were a precursor to the AK-47 and were widely available after the fall of the Derg, the Communist military junta that ruled Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam from 1974 to 1987.
The consequent disbanding of the Ethiopian army and police force produced a flood of automatic weapons on the market. They became accessible, in part, through established tribal links with arms dealers in the Ethiopian highlands further to the east of the Omo Basin.
The Mursi and Mursiland
Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwestern Ethiopia, a day or two overland to the borders with South Sudan and northern Kenya.
The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands and thorny bushland thickets. The climate is harsh and unstable with low rainfall and daily temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade during the dry season.
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today. expl#33
Two vehicles out of use at The Big Lemon, ADL Enviro YX10 FEM one of six sister vehicles purchased for new bus routes and will be the first of the batch to be converted to electric. Behind is old faithful Mercedes L313 AUT now retired from service however still kept in the depot at the back.
How much ingenuity is used to dispose of our waste nowadays!!!
………………………………………………………………………………………………
I have seen in the past a similar vehicle working in our street.
Today I have spotted this vehicle in Business Park, Notting Hill
It was fascinating to have a closer look at this amazing machine with these gadgets attached.
...taken using a HD Pentax - D FA 150 - 450mm F/4.5 - 5.6 zoom lens.
ISO800, aperture 5.6, exposure .004 seconds (1/250) focal length 450mm
using my car as a tripod I wedged my camera between the mirror and side pillar and balanced it until it started raining.
My fellow storm chaser Brett is in his van shooting through the window
Use without permission is illegal.
don't use my pics on websites and other social media without my permission,thanks !
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Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission - All Rights Reserved ©.
Por favor, no use esta imagen en sitios web, blogs u otros medios de comunicación sin mi permiso explícito - Todos los derechos reservados ©.
I used to watch CHiPs as a child and have been looking forward to building them and their motorcycles ever since I started building vehicles from movies and TV series.
Framed through a broken windows in one if the water pump sheds, NSU56 sits derelict, 35 years after it was last used and left behind and Marree on 28-9-19
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however, we are just a short distance from Cavendish Mews, at Mr. Willison’s grocers’ shop. Willison’s Grocers in Mayfair is where Lettice has an account, and it is from here that Edith, Lettice's maid, orders her groceries for the Cavendish Mews flat, except on special occasions like the soirée that Lettice threw for Dickie and Margot Channon’s engagement, when professional London caterers are used. Mr. Willison prides himself in having a genteel, upper-class clientele including the households of many titled aristocrats who have houses and flats in the neighbourhood, and he makes sure that his shop is always tidy, his shelves well stocked with anything the cook of a duke or duchess may want, and staff who are polite and mannerly to all his important customers. The latter is not too difficult, for aside from himself, Mrs. Willison does his books, his daughter Henrietta helps on Saturdays and sometimes after she has finished school, which means Mr. Willison technically only employs one member of staff: Frank Leadbetter his delivery boy who carries orders about Mayfair on the bicycle provided for him by Mr. Willison. He also collects payments for accounts which are not settled in his Binney Street shop whilst on his rounds.
Lettice’s maid, Edith, is stepping out with Frank, and to date since he rather awkwardly suggested the idea to her in the kitchen of the Cavendish Mews flat, the pair has spent every Sunday afternoon together, going to see the latest moving pictures at the Premier in East Ham*, dancing at the Hammersmith Palais or walking in one of London’s many parks. They even spent Easter Monday at the fair held on Hampstead Heath***. Whilst Lettice is away in Cornwall selecting furniture from Dickie and Margot’s Penzance country house, ‘Chi an Treth’, to be re-purposed, Edith is taking advantage of a little more free time and has come to Willison’s Grocers under the pre-text of running an errand in the hope of seeing Frank. The bell rings cheerily as she opens the plate glass door with Mr. Willison’s name painted in neat gilt lettering upon it. Stepping across the threshold she immediately smells the mixture of comforting smells of fresh fruits, vegetables and flour, permeated by the delicious scent of the brightly coloured boiled sweets coming from the large cork stoppered jars on the shop counter. The sounds of the busy street outside die away, muffled by shelves lined with any number of tinned goods and signs advertising everything from Lyon’s Tea**** to Bovril*****.
“Miss Watsford!” exclaims Mr. Willison’s wife as she peers up from her spot behind the end of the return counter near the door where she sits doing her husband’s accounts. “We don’t often have the pleasure.”
Edith looks up, unnerved, at the proprietor’s wife and bookkeeper, her upswept hairstyle as old fashioned as her high necked starched shirtwaister****** blouse down the front of which runs a long string of faceted bluish black beads. “Yes,” Edith smiles awkwardly. “I… I have, err… that is to say I forgot to give Fr… err, Mr. Leadbeater my grocery list when he visited the other day.”
“Oh?” Mrs. Willison queries. “I could have sworn that we had it.” She starts fussing through a pile of papers distractedly. “That isn’t like you Miss Watsford. You’re usually so well organised.”
“Well,” Edith thinks quickly. “It… it isn’t really the list. It’s just that I left a few things off. Miss Chetwynd… well, you see she fancies…”
“Oh, well give me the additions, Miss Watsford,” Mrs. Willison thrusts out her hand efficiently, the frothy white lace of her sleeve dancing around her wrist. “And I’ll see to it that they are added to your next delivery. We don’t want the Honourable Miss Chetwynd to go without, now do we?”
With a shaky hand Edith reluctantly hands over her list of a few extra provisions that aren’t really required, especially with her mistress being away for a few days. As she does, she glances around the cluttered and dim shop hopefully.
“Will there be anything else, Miss Watsford?” Mrs. Willison asks curtly.
“Err… yes.” Edith stammers, but falls silent as she continues to look in desperation around the shop.
Mrs. Willison suspiciously eyes the slender and pretty domestic through her pince-nez*******. She scrutinises Edith’s fashionable plum coloured frock with the pretty lace collar. The hem of the skirt is following the current style and sits higher than any of Mrs. Willison’s own dresses and it reveals Edith’s shapely stockinged calves. She wears her black straw cloche decorated with purple silk roses and black feathers over her neatly pinned chignon. “Is that a few frock, Miss Watsford?” the grocer’s wife continues.
“Ahh, yes it is, Mrs. Willison. I made it myself from scratch with a dress pattern from Fashion for All********,” Edith replies proudly, giving a little twirl that sends her calf length skirt flaring out prettily, and Mrs. Willison’s eyebrows arching with disapproval as the young girl reveals even more of her legs as she does. “Do you like it?”
“You seem a little dressed up to run an errand here, Miss Watsford.” Mrs. Willison says with bristling disapprobation.
“Well, I… I err… I do have some letters to post too, Mrs. Willison,” Edith withdraws two letters from her wicker basket and holds them up in her lilac glove clad hand.
“Well, we mustn’t keep you from your errand, now must we, Miss Watsford? Now what else did you require before you leave?” the older woman emphasises the last word in her sentence to make clear her opinion about young girls cluttering up her husband’s shop.
“An apple.” Edith says, suddenly struck with inspiration. “I’d like an apple for the journey, Mrs. Willison.”
“Very good, Miss Watsford.” the older woman starts to move off her stool. “I’ll fetch…”
“No need, Mrs. Willison!” Frank’s cheerful voice pipes up as he appears from behind a display of tinned goods. “I’ll take care of Miss Watsford. That’s what I’m here for. You just stay right there Mrs. Willison. Right this way, Miss Watsford.” He ushers her with a sweeping gesture towards the boxes of fresh fruit displayed near the cash register.
“Oh Fran…” Edith catches herself uttering Frank’s given name, quickly correcting herself. “Err… thank you, Mr. Leadbetter.”
Mrs. Willison lowers herself back into her seat, all the while eyeing the pair of young people critically as they move across the shop floor together, their heads boughed conspiratorially close, a sense of overfamiliarity about their body language. She frowns, the folds and furrows of her brow eventuated. Then she sighs and returns to the numbers in her ledger.
“What are you doing here, Edith?” Frank whispers to his sweetheart quietly, yet with evident delight in his voice.
“Miss Lettice is away down in Cornwall on business, so I thought I’d stop in on my way through in the hope of seeing you, Frank.” She glances momentarily over her shoulder. “Then Mrs. Willison greeted me. I thought I was going to get stuck with the disapproving old trout and not see you.”
“The weather looks good for Sunday, Edith. It’s supposed to be sunny. Shall we go to Regent’s Park and feed the ducks if it is?”
“Oh, yes!” Edith clasps her hands in delight, her gloves muffling the sound. “Maybe there will be a band playing in the rotunda.”
“If there is, I’ll hire us a couple of deck chairs and we can listen to them play all afternoon in the sunshine.”
“That sounds wonderful, Frank.”
“Well,” pronounces Frank loudly as the stand over the wooden tray of red and golden yellow apples. “This looks like a nice juicy one, Miss Watsford.”
“Yes,” Edith replies in equally clear tones. “I think I’ll have that one, Mr. Leadbeater.”
“Very good, Miss Watsford. I’ll pop it into a paper bag for you.”
“Oh, don’t bother Fr… Mr. Leadbeater. I’ll put it in my basket.”
Frank takes the apple and walks back around the counter to the gleaming brass cash register surrounded by jars of boiled sweets. “That will be tuppence please, Miss Watsford.” He enters the tally into the noisy register, causing the cash draw to spring open with a clunk and the rattle of coins rubbing against one another with the movement.
Edith hooks her umbrella over the edge of the counter, pulls off her gloves and fishes around in her green handbag before withdrawing her small leather coin purse from which she takes out tuppence which she hands over to Frank.
“Here,” Frank says after he deposits her money and pushes the drawer of the register closed. He slides a small purple and gold box discreetly across the counter.
Edith gasps as she looks at the beautifully decorated box featuring a lady with cascading auburn hair highlighted with gold ribbons, a creamy face and décollétage sporting a frothy white gown and gold necklace. She traces the embossed gold lettering on the box’s lid. “Gainsborough Dubarry Milk Chocolates!”
“Can’t have my girl come all this way to see me and not come away with a gift.” Frank whispers with a beaming smile dancing across his face.
“Seeing you is gift enough, Frank.” Edith blushes.
“Ahem!” Mrs. Willison clears her throat from the other end of the shop. “Will they be going on the Honourable Miss Chetwynd’s account, Frank?” she asks with a severe look directly at her husband’s employee.
“Um… no Mrs. Willison. Don’t worry. I’ll be paying for them.” Frank announces loudly. Bending his head closer to Edith, he whispers, “I can see why Mr. Willison has her in here when he isn’t. You can’t get away with anything without her knowing: ghastly old trout.”
Edith giggles as she puts the small box of chocolates and the apple into her basket. “I’ll save them for Sunday.” she says with a smile. “We can share them whilst we listen to the band from our deckchairs.”
Frank smile broadens even more. “Righty-ho, Edith.”
“Righty-ho, Frank.”
“Well, as I was saying, Miss Watsford,” Mrs. Willison pronounces from her stool. “We mustn’t keep you from your errands. I’m sure you have a lot to do, and it is almost midday already.”
“Yes indeed, Mrs. Willison.” Edith agrees, unable to keep the reluctance out of her voice. “I really should be getting along. Well, goodbye Mr. Leadbeater. Thank you for your assistance.” She then lowers her voice as she says, “See you Sunday.”
Both Frank and Mrs. Willison watch as the young lady leaves the shop the way she came, by the front door, a spring in her step and a satisfied smile on her face, her basket, umbrella and handbag slung over her arm.
“Frank!”
Frank cringes as Mrs. Willison calls his name. Turning around he sees her striding with purpose behind the counter towards him, wending her way through the obstacle course of stacks of tins and jars of produce, hessian sacks of fresh vegetables and fruits and boxes of bottles.
“Yes, Mrs Willison?”
“Frank,” she says disappointingly. “I can’t stop you from stepping out with a girl in your own time,” She comes to a halt before him, domineering over him with her topknot, her arms akimbo. “And I’d say the Honourable Miss Chetwynd is foolishly modern enough to let you take her maid out on Sundays.” She looks at him with disapproving eyes. “However, I’d be much obliged if you kept your dalliances to your own time, and kindly keep them out of my husband’s establishment during business hours!”
“Yes Mrs. Willison!” Frank replies, sighing gratefully, now knowing that he isn’t going to be given notice for chatting with Edith during work hours.
“And I’ll make an adjustment to your wages this week for the chocolates.” she adds crisply.
“Yes Mrs. Willison.” Frank nods before hurrying away back to the stock room.
*The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
**The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain.
***Hampstead Heath (locally known simply as the Heath) is a large, ancient London heath, covering 320 hectares (790 acres). This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling and hilly, embracing ponds, recent and ancient woodlands, a lido, playgrounds, and a training track, and it adjoins the former stately home of Kenwood House and its estate. The south-east part of the heath is Parliament Hill, from which the view over London is protected by law.
****Lyons Tea was first produced by J. Lyons and Co., a catering empire created and built by the Salmons and Glucksteins, a German-Jewish immigrant family based in London. Starting in 1904, J. Lyons began selling packaged tea through its network of teashops. Soon after, they began selling their own brand Lyons Tea through retailers in Britain, Ireland and around the world. In 1918, Lyons purchased Hornimans and in 1921 they moved their tea factory to J. Lyons and Co., Greenford at that time, the largest tea factory in Europe. In 1962, J. Lyons and Company (Ireland) became Lyons Irish Holdings. After a merger with Allied Breweries in 1978, Lyons Irish Holdings became part of Allied Lyons (later Allied Domecq) who then sold the company to Unilever in 1996. Today, Lyons Tea is produced in England.
*****Bovril is owned and distributed by Unilever UK. Its appearance is similar to Marmite and Vegemite. Bovril can be made into a drink ("beef tea") by diluting with hot water or, less commonly, with milk. It can be used as a flavouring for soups, broth, stews or porridge, or as a spread, especially on toast in a similar fashion to Marmite and Vegemite.
******A shirtwaister is a woman's dress with a seam at the waist, its bodice incorporating a collar and button fastening in the style of a shirt which gained popularity with women entering the workforce to do clerical work in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.
*******Pince-nez is a style of glasses, popular in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, that are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, "to pinch", and nez, "nose".
********”Fashion for All” was one of the many women’s magazines that were published in the exuberant inter-war years which were aimed at young girls who were looking to better their chances of finding a husband through beauty and fashion. As most working-class girls could only imagine buying fashionable frocks from high street shops, there was a great appetite for dressmaking patterns so they could dress fashionably at a fraction of the cost, by making their own dresses using skills they learned at home.
This cluttered, yet cheerful Edwardian shop is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Central to the conclusion of our story is the dainty box of Gainsborough Dubarry Milk Chocolates. This beautifully printed confectionary box comes from Shepherd’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. Starting in the Edwardian era, confectioners began to design attractive looking boxes for their chocolate selections so that they could sell confectionary at a premium, as the boxes were often beautifully designed and well made so that they might be kept as a keepsake. A war erupted in Britain between the major confectioners to try and dominate what was already a competitive market. You might recognise the shade of purple of the box as being Cadbury purple, and if you did, you would be correct, although this range was not marketed as Cadbury’s, but rather Gainsborough’s, paying tribute to the market town of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, where Rose Bothers manufactured and supplied machines that wrapped chocolates. The Rose Brothers are the people for whom Cadbury’s Roses chocolates are named.
Also on the shop counter is an apple which is very realistic looking. Made of polymer clay it is made by a 1:12 miniature specialist in Germany. The brightly shining cash register, probably polished by Frank, was supplied by Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering in the United Kingdom. The cylindrical jars, made of real spun glass with proper removable cork stoppers which contain “sweets” I acquired as a teenager from an auction as part of a larger lot of miniature items. Edith’s lilac coloured gloves are made of real kid leather and along with the envelopes are artisan pieces that I acquired from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in the United Kingdom. Edith’s green leather handbag I acquired as part of a larger collection of 1:12 artistan miniature hats, bags and accessories I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel. The umbrella comes from Melody Jane’s Doll House Suppliers in the United Kingdom. Edith’s basket I acquired as part of a larger lot of 1:12 miniatures from an E-Bay seller in America.
The packed shelves you can see in the background is in fact a Welsh dresser that I have had since I was a child, which I have repurposed for this shot. You can see the dresser more clearly in other images used in this series when Edith visits her parent’s home in Harlesden. The shelves themselves are full of 1:12 artisan miniatures with amazing attention to detail as regards the labels of different foods. Some are still household names today. So many of these packets and tins of various foods would have been household staples in the 1920s when canning and preservation revolutinised domestic cookery. They come from various different suppliers including Shepherds Miniatures in the United Kingdom, Kathleen Knight’s Doll House in the United Kingdom, Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering and Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. Items on the shelves include: Tate and Lyall Golden Syrup, Lyall’s Golden Treacle, Peter Leech and Sons Golden Syrup, P.C. Flett and Company jams, Golden Shred and Silver Shred Marmalades, Chiver’s Jelly Crystals, Rowtree’s Table Jelly, Bird’s Custard Powder, Bird’s Blancmange Powder, Coleman’s Mustard, Queen’s Gravy Salts, Bisto Gravy Powder, Huntly and Palmers biscuits, Lyon’s Tea and Typhoo Tea.
In 1859 Henry Tate went into partnership with John Wright, a sugar refiner based at Manesty Lane, Liverpool. Their partnership ended in 1869 and John’s two sons, Alfred and Edwin joined the business forming Henry Tate and Sons. A new refinery in Love Lane, Liverpool was opened in 1872. In 1921 Henry Tate and Sons and Abram Lyle and Sons merged, between them refining around fifty percent of the UK’s sugar. A tactical merger, this new company would then become a coherent force on the sugar market in anticipation of competition from foreign sugar returning to its pre-war strength. Tate and Lyle are perhaps best known for producing Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Lyle’s Golden Treacle.
Peter Leech and Sons was a grocers that operated out of Lowther Street in Whitehaven from the 1880s. They had a large range of tinned goods that they sold including coffee, tea, tinned salmon and golden syrup. They were admired for their particularly attractive labelling. I do not know exactly when they ceased production, but I believe it may have happened just before the Second World War.
P.C. Flett and Company was established in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands by Peter Copeland Flett. He had inherited a small family owned ironmongers in Albert Street Kirkwall, which he inherited from his maternal family. He had a shed in the back of the shop where he made ginger ale, lemonade, jams and preserves from local produce. By the 1920s they had an office in Liverpool, and travelling representatives selling jams and preserves around Great Britain. I am not sure when the business ceased trading.
Golden Shred orange marmalade and Silver Shred lime marmalade still exist today and are common household brands both in Britain and Australia. They are produced by Robertson’s. Robertson’s Golden Shred recipe perfected since 1874 is a clear and tangy orange marmalade, which according to their modern day jars is “perfect for Paddington’s marmalade sandwiches”. Robertson’s Silver Shred is a clear, tangy, lemon flavoured shredded marmalade. Robertson’s marmalade dates back to 1874 when Mrs. Robertson started making marmalade in the family grocery shop in Paisley, Scotland.
Chivers is an Irish brand of jams and preserves. For a large part of the Twentieth Century Chivers and Sons was Britain's leading preserves manufacturer. Originally market gardeners in Cambridgeshire in 1873 after an exceptional harvest, Stephen Chivers entrepreneurial sons convinced their father to let them make their first batch of jam in a barn off Milton Road, Impington. By 1875 the Victoria Works had been opened next to Histon railway station to improve the manufacture of jam and they produced stone jars containing two, four or six pounds of jam, with glass jars first used in 1885. In around 1885 they had 150 employees. Over the next decade they added marmalade to their offering which allowed them to employ year-round staff, rather than seasonal workers at harvest time. This was followed by their clear dessert jelly (1889), and then lemonade, mincemeat, custard powder, and Christmas puddings. By 1896 the family owned 500 acres of orchards. They began selling their products in cans in 1895, and the rapid growth in demand was overseen by Charles Lack, their chief engineer, who developed the most efficient canning machinery in Europe and by the end of the century Chivers had become one of the largest manufacturers of preserves in the world. He later added a variety of machines for sorting, can making, vacuum-caps and sterilisation that helped retain Chivers' advantage over its rivals well into the Twentieth Century. By the turn of the century the factory was entirely self-sufficient, growing all its own fruit, and supplying its own water and electricity. The factory made its own cans, but also contained a sawmill, blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters, paint shop, builders and basket makers. On the 14th of March 1901 the company was registered as S. Chivers and Sons. By 1939 there were over 3,000 full-time employees, with offices in East Anglia as well as additional factories in Montrose, Newry and Huntingdon, and the company owned almost 8,000 acres of farms. The company's farms were each run independently, and grew cereal and raised pedigree livestock as well as the fruit for which they were known.
Founded by Henry Isaac Rowntree in Castlegate in York in 1862, Rowntree's developed strong associations with Quaker philanthropy. Throughout much of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, it was one of the big three confectionery manufacturers in the United Kingdom, alongside Cadbury and Fry, both also founded by Quakers. In 1981, Rowntree's received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. In 1988, when the company was acquired by Nestlé, it was the fourth-largest confectionery manufacturer in the world. The Rowntree brand continues to be used to market Nestlé's jelly sweet brands, such as Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums, and is still based in York.
Bird’s were best known for making custard and Bird’s Custard is still a common household name, although they produced other desserts beyond custard, including the blancmange. They also made Bird’s Golden Raising Powder – their brand of baking powder. Bird’s Custard was first formulated and first cooked by Alfred Bird in 1837 at his chemist shop in Birmingham. He developed the recipe because his wife was allergic to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. The Birds continued to serve real custard to dinner guests, until one evening when the egg-free custard was served instead, either by accident or design. The dessert was so well received by the other diners that Alfred Bird put the recipe into wider production. John Monkhouse (1862–1938) was a prosperous Methodist businessman who co-founded Monk and Glass, which made custard powder and jelly. Monk and Glass custard was made in Clerkenwell and sold in the home market, and exported to the Empire and to America. They acquired by its rival Bird’s Custard in the early Twentieth Century.
Queen’s Gravy Salt is a British brand and this box is an Edwardian design. Gravy Salt is a simple product it is solid gravy browning and is used to add colour and flavour to soups stews and gravy - and has been used by generations of cooks and caterers.
The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder, which rapidly became a bestseller in Britain. It was added to gravies to give a richer taste and aroma. Invented by Messrs Roberts and Patterson, it was named "Bisto" because it "Browns, Seasons and Thickens in One". Bisto Gravy is still a household name in Britain and Ireland today, and the brand is currently owned by Premier Foods.
Huntley and Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world’s first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley and Son and Huntley and Palmer. Huntley and Palmer were renown for their ‘superior reading biscuits’ which they promoted in different varieties for different occasions, including at breakfast time.
In 1863, William Sumner published A Popular Treatise on Tea as a by-product of the first trade missions to China from London. In 1870, William and his son John Sumner founded a pharmacy/grocery business in Birmingham. William's grandson, John Sumner Jr. (born in 1856), took over the running of the business in the 1900s. Following comments from his sister on the calming effects of tea fannings, in 1903, John Jr. decided to create a new tea that he could sell in his shop. He set his own criteria for the new brand. The name had to be distinctive and unlike others, it had to be a name that would trip off the tongue and it had to be one that would be protected by registration. The name Typhoo comes from the Mandarin Chinese word for “doctor”. Typhoo began making tea bags in 1967. In 1978, production was moved from Birmingham to Moreton on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside. The Moreton site is also the location of Burton's Foods and Manor Bakeries factories. Typhoo has been owned since July 2021 by British private-equity firm Zetland Capital. It was previously owned by Apeejay Surrendra Group of India.
Photo of and old train station where suburban trains used to arrive to Valencia. In the last decades, the new trams have replaced these old wooden trains -called trenet- that had a special charm to those all, like me, that when we were teenagers used to catch them and travel sat down on the running boards feeling the fresh air without being aware of the risk assumed, even we jumped off the train while running. Life goes by ... and memories remain.
Foto de la antigua 'estació del pont de fusta'. Aún recuerdo los viejos trenes de madera -el trenet- que cuando era joven usaba para llegar hasta a Valencia. Era un placer viajar sentado en el estribo sintiendo el aire freso y sin ser consciente del peligro que corría, incluso me bajaba del tren en marcha. La vida pasa, ... los recuerdos permanecen.
Still trying to catching up all your photo streams, my apologies for uploading a new photo without haven't reciprocated yet all your comments.
Comments are welcome and thanks for stopping by!
It's been a couple of years since I posted any photos from Vancouvers drug use mayhem.
1 of 2 from Chinatown.
There is an article by Vancouver Sun Reporter Peter mMcMartin about the situation posted in August 2025.
Every time I visit Chinatown and the downtown east side (daily) his article comes to mind so this is a way to share his viewpoint that I agree with.
In the 30+ years I have lived nearby, the situation has only deteriorated.
The law protects the rights of the most vulnerable among us to live in filth and despair
Pete McMartin: I'm tired of how homelessness and addiction take up so much oxygen in the social discourse.
Published Aug 03, 2025
In 2014, Vancouver Sun reporter Lori Culbert and I wrote a weeklong series of stories identifying the government social welfare programs — and their cost to taxpayers — in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Over 100 programs existed just for housing. Thirty provided health care, 30 offered family services and a miscellany of another 100 services — including a food bank for pets — brought the total to 260 social welfare agencies operating solely within the eight square blocks of the DTES.
Those 260 programs served just 6,500 clients.
Five years earlier, in 2009, Province reporter David Carrigg also did a survey of the programs available in the DTES, and he identified 174 social welfare agencies offering services to about 5,000 clients.
In other words, in the five years between Carrigg’s survey and Culbert’s and mine, not only had the number of people needing help grown but so had the number of agencies serving them.
And the cost to taxpayers?
Over $360 million annually.
Article content
That astounding figure — almost a million dollars a day — did little to satisfy the DTES’s voracious appetite for tax dollars. More to the point, it did nothing to eradicate the misery and living conditions of the people who lived there.
Rather than winning the war on poverty — and what a quaint phrase that seems now — governments engineered a truce, with the unstated understanding that if they couldn’t solve the problem or spend their way out of it, they could contain it. Those 260 social service bureaucracies weren’t solutions to an intractable problem; they were barricades. They ghettoized their impoverished clientele by concentrating the services on which they depended.
And let’s be honest: The public was complicit in this, and content for it to continue as long as the misery stayed confined within the borders of the DTES.
And yet here we are. The squalor spreads. It corrodes a once-vibrant downtown core. It infiltrates the suburbs. Daily acts of random violence and vandalism have become normalized, while a cornucopia of drugs — some decriminalized, some tolerated, many deadly — act as accelerants.
In 2016, a year after our survey, provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act due to the alarming rise in opioid-related overdose deaths. Since then, over 16,000 people have died from those opioids. That’s not progress. It’s a plague.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, has worked. Over the decades, the problem has been studied to death — admittedly, a poor choice of words — with consultants and academics and the legions of poverty industry advocates offering up solutions that ultimately fail. They fail because they’re predicated on two simple criteria:
1. Give us more money.
2. Give us more of everything — housing, hospital beds, food banks, drugs, injection sites, counselling or — and this is always implicit — empathy, with a side order of collective guilt.
I’ve seen this in my own newspaper.
In one recent opinion piece, the author laments that it has been the public’s and governments’ norm “to daily bypass our downtrodden, our homeless, our addicted or mentally ill on the street as though they are either invisible or merely equivalent to lampposts” — to which I have to reply: ‘Are you f—ng kidding me?’
The public and its governments have done exactly the opposite and, short of bathing their feet with Christ-like piety, have directed billions of tax dollars not only to ease the suffering of the homeless, the addicted and the mentally ill, but also to make them completely dependent upon those dollars.
Another Sun story — this one again by Culbert — examined the merits of involuntary care through the experiences of three addicts who underwent the process, and while two saw it as beneficial and helped them get clean, the third condemned it as “dehumanizing” and a cause of her PTSD. Though she no longer does drugs, she said that if she relapses she would prefer to take her chances with street drugs that could possibly kill her rather than be readmitted to hospital against her will.
Well, OK, I thought, ‘You’re an adult. Good for you for having the honesty to express that choice, however idiotic I may find it.’
But what I thought was missing in her testimonial was (a) any appreciation of the monumentally expensive efforts governments and the public had tried to make on her behalf, however ill-informed she may have believed those attempts to be, and (b) her failure to recognize the destructive effects that a relapse would have not just on her own health and family, but, more importantly, also on the collective health of the public, who would be asked to offer up yet more money, and deal yet again with her relapse — providing she survives it.
Finally, in The Sun, there was another column, this one by Sam Sullivan, who wrote that, after 52 years, it was time to end the DTES “experiment” and the restrictive housing policies that he believes led to the homelessness and violence bedevilling it.
Funny thing about that.
Between 1993 and 2005, Sullivan was a Vancouver city councillor, and for three years after that, he was mayor. Yet despite the fact that his 15-year tenure at city hall placed him in the midst of that DTES experiment, if not close to its helm, it is only now, 20 years later, that he publicly declares the experiment to be a failure, and — as far as I could tell from reading his opinion piece — without taking any responsibility for it.
I will refrain here, in my own column, from claiming to speak for the public or with any inkling of what popular sentiment might be.
But this is how I feel:
My patience is Exhausted.
I’m tired of the endless, self-regenerating calls for more studies and more funding when all I see is a colossal waste of money and effort leading to no improvement. I’m tired of how homelessness and addiction take up so much oxygen in the social discourse. I’m tired of civil rights that supersede my own, and treat the right to defecate in the streets with greater regard than my right to be offended by it.
Finally, I’m tired of a social welfare system that not only encourages dependency, but refuses, out of moral timidity, to also admit its complicity in it, and which shies away from asking hard questions about personal responsibility and the consideration of measures more draconian than safe injection sites — measures like a return to complete drug criminalization, a higher threshold of minimum sentences for trafficking, the establishment of rehabilitation centres or work camps exclusively in wilderness areas far from the temptations of cities, the discontinuation of any efforts that facilitate drug use, and yes, the robust expansion of an involuntary care system.
It’s also my opinion that none of these measures, given the current legal climate, will become reality, at least for the foreseeable future. Under our Constitution and the Criminal Code, the law, in its majestic equality, protects the rights of the most vulnerable among us to live in filth and despair, and, as so often happens, bring about their own deaths.
How enlightened we have become! What progress we have made! We’ve reached that point when now sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets and stealing one’s daily bread are no longer evidence of a system’s failure.
They are the system.
Taken using my Nikon F4 with Ilford HP5 Plus film on a cold rainy day in Vancouver.
Little to no post processing with the exception of shadow adjustments.
Song: Out of the Woodwork
Artist: Courtney Barnett
Album: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
used different backgrounds
mermaid tail .... Linzee777.deviantart.com/art/Mermaid-Tail-VIIII-135121000
[Harry Potter Minifigs #02] from Harry Potter - Minifigs Series
L-R:
Mad-Eye Moody (Yule Ball)
Viktor Krum (Yule Ball)
Ginny Weasley (HBP)
Neville Longbottom (DH)
Aberforth Dumbledore (DH)
Lavender Brown (HBP)
Props again to @wizarding_bricks on Instagram for influencing a lot of these figs. Check them out! www.instagram.com/wizarding_bricks/
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Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 Editing: www.watermark.ws
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