It’s all Greek to me

I decided to do something risky yesterday. I didn’t jump out of a plane, I didn’t go white water rafting or even invest in Madoff’s latest scheme. Instead I took a picture of a policeman on London Wall.

Until recenctly I didn’t think this would be a risky thing to do until I read this post from the British Journal of Photography which tells the story of press photographer Justin Tallis who was covering an anti-BBC protest in late January when a policeman came up to asking to see a picture that Tallis had just taken of him. The policeman allegedly tried briefly to take the camera away before giving up and saying that Tallis “shouldn’t have taken that photo. You were intimidating me“.
There’s another story on the same page about a photographer in Cleveland being stopped for taking photos of ships.

Rewind a little further a here’s a story from Walthamstow about a PCSO interrogating a man for taking photos of a bus wedged in the front of McDonalds.
“He shouted at a colleague to detain me. He then approached and demanded: “Why are you taking photographs of a crime scene?” Now in the first place it was a very silly question, as Hoe Street was full of people taking snaps for a bleedin’ obvious reason. It’s not everyday you see a double decker bus wedged into the front entrance of McDonalds. In the second place his question was presumptuous. The crash site is not a crime scene until it is deemed that an offence has taken place.”

You could say they got off lightly compared to a press photographer held by police officers and forced to delete his photos.

• Here’s another one about another PCSO stopping a 15-year old boy for taking photos of Wimbledon Station and making him sign Section 44 forms under the prevention of terrorism act.
• The Ipswich photographer stopped by police and questioned about taking photos of the Christmas lights,
• The “street photographer” in Hull who had his films seized.
• The bus-spotter in Wales who’s given up his hobby because of constant harassment.

Gordon Brown’s response is that the police have the legal right to restrict photography in public places. It’s going to get worse from next week when the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 comes into force which allows for the arrest and imprisonment of anyone who takes photos of police “likely to be useful to a committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism” (Don’t put those pictures of Westminster on Flickr, eh?).

Terrorism? Oh please. In a couple of years cameras built into glasses, buttons, pens and the like will be high-quality and dirt cheap so any half-decently funded terrorist will be busy snapping away in peace as the police are busy processing a queue of foreign tourists, bloggers and bus/bird/plane-spotters.

Do you remember how we laughed back in 2001 (1977 anybody?) when Greek authorities arrested British plane-spotters as spies. “How dare they arrest British subjects indulging their eccentric habit!?!?” we ranted. This is how…

Events at Musuem of London in February 09

The Musuem of London in the City has some great Tudor themed events planned for this February’s half term break, so why not takes the kids along for an informative, and interesting trip which is in line with the National Curriculum.

Next patient please!
Only the rich could afford to visit a doctor in Tudor times – the poor treated most illnesses themselves with home-made remedies. Discover the secrets behind some of these remedies and hear tales of doctors, leeches and blood-letting.
Duration: 1 hour(s) 30 mins.
No fee
Dates & times
Saturday 14 February 2009: 11.30am & 1.30pm
Sunday 15 February 2009: 11.30am & 1.30pm

Dinner’s ready!
See the tables laid for dinner and find out about the diets of rich and poor Tudor Londoners. Would you prefer stale bread and broth or fowl and wine? Be careful with the salt, it’s very expensive.
Duration: 5 hour(s) .
No fee
Dates & times
Saturday 21 February 2009: 11.0am
Sunday 22 February 2009: 11.0am

Tudor innkeeper
Meet Annie Watling, a Tudor innkeeper, and find out about the dangers of city life and the entertainment of the day. Listen to tales about her guests. This event is “British Sign Language interpreted”.
Duration: 30 mins.
No fee
Dates & times
Friday 20 February 2009: 1.0pm & 2.0pm & 3.0pmThursday 19 February 2009: 1.0pm & 2.0pm & 3.0pmtimes
Saturday 21 February 2009: 1.0pm & 2.0pm & 3.0pm
Sunday 22 February 2009: 12.0pm & 1.20pm & 2.40

Museum of London – 150 London Wall London EC2Y 5HN

Godless humour

With today’s news of Hammerson’s announcing a rights issue, Lovells shedding 94 and Bloomberg shifting 80 TV & radio jobs thank God that those atheists have spawned some humour. Their recent “Probably no God” bus poster has received some flak from the perpetually outraged but has led to the creation of a site where you can create your own bus message in the atheist style and distribute it to amaze your colleagues and friends with your tremendous, and perhaps slightly subversive, wit. Just go here and follow the instructions.

If you come up with a good one then let me know and I’ll post it!

Need Police? Txt Cops 4 Help

The CIty of London Police have introduced a new SMS Text messaging service which lets you report non-emergency incidents from your mobile phone. Designed specifically with the hard of hearing but open to all, the service allows City residents to report non urgent crimes.

Add the number 07940 500 500 to your mobile phone and if you need them, send a text message with details of your location and incident and don’t assume your message has been received unless you receive a message back acknowledging your text.

Chief Inspector Anthony Cairney said: “We hope that people will find this service useful, particularly those who have hearing or speech difficulties. People should find it a lot easier to use than typetalk and textphone services.”

A Closer Look At The Monument

With the re-opening of The Monument just one week away, author Andrew Kershman takes a closer look at the City’s famous stone column…

Looking across London from the south bank of the Thames it is easy to miss a golden ball of flame, which can just be seen between the modern office blocks, to the right of London Bridge. The City’s skyline has been transformed in the last 40 years with Wren’s St Paul’s the tallest building for over 220 years it is now 30th in the list and soon to slip further down as new glass and steel structures are being completed. The shining orb marks the location of The Monument, which is the work of Christopher Wren and Dr Robert Hooke and is a reminder that London’s greatness lies in its history as much as in its tall buildings. The Monument was commissioned in 1671 and completed six years later to commemorate the Great Fire of London, which started on 2nd September 1666 and raged for five days. Two-thirds of the old medieval city was destroyed and a major project of reconstruction begun with the patronage of Charles II and the guiding genius of Wren.

The Monument takes the form of a 50-meter high Doric order column of Portland stone. Upon this column is a viewing platform reached by an internal spiral staircase of 311 steps. Above this is the flaming urn (9ft in diameter), representing man’s taming of the destructive fire. The total height of the monument is 202ft (62m) - the exact distance from the base of the monument to the bakers on Pudding Lane where the fire started. The reigning monarch and patron was not forgotten. Caius Gabriel Cibber’s bas-relief gives an allegorical account of the City’s reconstruction with Charles II at its centre.

To modern eyes the Monument may seem both modest in scale and conservative in style, but to the Monument’s contemporaries this was a structure of classical innovation as revolutionary and bold as Canary Wharf and the Swiss Re buildings seem to us today. The scale is also difficult to grasp, but when completed in 1677 it towered above the surrounding buildings and its golden summit could be seen from miles around. Visitors to The Museum of London should take a look at The Rhinebeck Panorama, to see how it dominated the skyline 140 years after its construction.

There is also a much darker history to The Monument. When the Great Fire was extinguished little time was wasted finding a French Catholic scapegoat called Robert Hubert who was quickly arrested, made to confess and hung at Tyburn to assuage the anger of the London mob. In 1681 the following words were added to the inscription on the Monument;

‘But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched’.

This piece of hateful propaganda was later to inspire Alexander Pope to write in his Moral Essays:

‘Where London’s column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies’

The inscription was only removed in 1831 when a parliamentary committee established that the destruction of London was the work of an over cooked loaf and not the sinister machinations of a Catholic plot.

Another dark aspect of The Monument’s history is as a place of suicide. On June 25th 1750 a weaver by the name of William Green left his watch with the doorkeeper, climbed the 311 steps and threw himself from the viewing platform. Another five people were to end their lives in this bloody way until the viewing platform was caged in 1842.

On the 16th February The Monument will embark on a new phase in its history, having been closed for the last 18 months for a major renovation costing £4.5 million. The monument undergoes this treatment every hundred years but this time a great deal of work has been done. There is now a greatly improved viewing balcony and a glass pavilion at ground level with live camera links for those unable, or unwilling, to make the arduous journey to the top. Another innovation is that Wren and Hooke’s cellar laboratory is being opened to the public for the first time and a flagstone is to be laid in recognition of Robert Hooke and his work. Despite being crowded out by surrounding buildings, The Monument still manages to provide some of the best views of the modern city with Tower 42 and The Swiss Re buildings to the north and the ‘shard of glass’ skyscraper now emerging beyond the Thames to the south. There can be no better place to imagine London’s glorious and troubled past while also glimpsing its future.

Opening times for the Monument: Daily 9.30am-5pm
Tickets: £3 (Adults), £2 (Conc), £1 (Children)
Contact: 020 7626 2717

Andrew Kershman is the author of, amongst other titles, London’s Monuments, which is available now from Amazon.co.uk

“One-eyed Scottish Idiot”

Jeremy Clarkson: “(In the UK) we’ve got this one-eyed Scottish idiot, he keeps telling us everything’s fine and he’s saved the world and we know he’s lying, but he’s smooth at telling us.”

I know there’s a lot of people upset about Clarkson saying this but to my mind the first two parts of that statement in the title are factually accurate and it’s only the third that’s really up for debate. Not much debate on my part though as I think Jeremy’s right. Any City folk or Scots (or Scottish City folk) want to give an opinion?

From the Telegraph

Ice-capades

Only my elite martial arts skills (think Kung-Fu Panda, not Jackie Chan) kept me on my feet today as I discovered that wearing my nice Rockports yesterday gave me a false sense of how easy the snow/ice was to walk on. The hard reality that work shoes = skates was nearly rammed home by a spectacular near-FAIL on my way to the station which momentarily left me with one arm pointing down, one arm pointing up and left leg parallel to the ground before I gathered it all back in. I didn’t dare look at the people standing at the bus stop opposite as I knew that they’d be laughing, damn them, if not out loud then in their heads. I briefly toyed with the idea of eliminating all witnesses but decided that might bring problems of its own so decided that rapidly hurrying to the station without looking back was the best plan, which was happily confirmed when the train arrived on time and with heating ablaze.

I see Boris Johnson has taken some flak for his now-infamous “This is the right kind of snow, it’s just the wrong kind of quantities.” quote and some Guardian readers were getting worked up over his “massive skive” comment. I’m sure they’ll be a lot of finger-pointing, lots of “snow response” plans will be produced and no-one will remember the slightest thing about them in 18 years time when it happens again.

Hats off to the City of London gritters who were hard at work after the incident I referred to yesterday and cleared the area in no-time at all. In general the streets are in great shape, well at least they’re much better than suburbia.

Anyway, just in case the snow’s all gone by tomorrow here are some photos from Tuesday lunchtime as a reminder:

City slickers and sliders

I love snow. I like the crunching noise it makes underfoot and the thwacking noise it makes on contact with the human body when in snowball form.

With day 2 of “Travel Chaos meets the City of London” squarely underway I finally made it into the office this morning and found an ambulance parked outside. The reason became obvious when I found my co-workers playing a game of “spot who’s going to fall on the ice at the zebra crossing“. They informed me that there were at least three people in the ambulance who’d fallen victim and two more went down while I watched. I did ask our building facilities people if we had any salt we could give them but all they had was “lo-salt” from the canteen which is great on a healthy lunch but little help in keeping your skull away from an icy pavement. Cue the arrival of a police car and we all gathered by the window to watch two of the City’s finest then spend the best part of an hour trying to clear away the ice with a shovel and a tire iron before another police car turned up with a bag of salt.

Back home neither of the A class roads near my house were gritted and there’s no sign of it happening in the City either so it leaves me wondering where all of the gritting lorries have gone!?!?

As a final slap on the red and rosy cheeks both of the meetings I was due to have today have been cancelled as the other attendees can’t make it. Pub it is then.

Labour To Stand in City Vote ’09

Interesting story at Mayorwatch, which reports that Labour is standing six candidates in the CityVote’09 elections to the Court of Common Council of the City of London.

Why’s this interesting? Because the Common Council traditionally doesn’t get involved in party politics and independents are elected to this unique body that decides on policy matters through the City of London.

Mayorwatch quotes a Labour press release which says the aim of the move is to to “take on the ‘good and the great’ of the City establishment”. Will other parties look to follow suit?

« Previous Page