I took the road from Sydenham up Kirkdale and up Sydenham Hill, from where there is a fine view of The City
After Lordship Lane, Dulwich I came to Peckham . This building is now a nightclub but looks as though it may once have had another use: a bank perhaps?
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On the other side of the road, a white plaque on this building declares it to be the site of the Old Hanover Chapel, made famous under the ministry of Dr WB Collyer 1801-1852.
He was an evangelical dissenting preacher who got on well with Royalty. He also had scandalous accusations made against him. I don’t know whether it was in the ‘News of the World.’
View from Southwark Bridge with 'The Shard' (as yet unfinished)
The pub name ‘Kentish Drovers’ suggests this was the way the cattlemen brought their produce to market.
From there it is a short way to the Old Kent Road and then on into Southwark and the river.
From here it is not far to St Paul’s
One can only be glad that the weather is so mild, given that some people are camping outside St Paul’s as part of a worldwide ‘Occupy’ protest
This banner presumably objects to capitalism’s tendency to bankrupt some, while accumulating wealth in the hands of others, particularly those who hold Mayfair and Park Lane.
This banner presumably implies criticism of those who trade in economic fantasy.
As the great great grand-daughter of a founder member of the Co-operative movement in Yorkshire, I was pleased to see this plea for co-0peratives . Not everyone is in favour of central planning. However, I think maximum wages proved tricky in the seventies.
I assume from this banner that the occupiers of the tents have nice warm houses which they have made over to homeless refugees.
Looking at the placard on the floor, I looked up the slogan and a short film has been uploaded to Youtube ,in which an American, a somebody Mulligan from Freedomain Radio ,reminds us that we are owned by the ‘banksters’ because we borrowed money over many years and didn’t pay it back. He advises us to ‘stop asking for shit for free from governments’ The corollary of this however is that there will have to be an increase in mutual assistance and charitable giving to make up for the cuts in welfare to the vulnerable, as well as a concerted effort to rebalance and revitalise the economy.
Now here’s a precise campaign. So I looked it up on wikipedia and it seems that vegetarianism, which enables you to plan a diet containing enough B12 without adding a supplement, in general helps you live longer.It is healthier than meat eating or veganism. Also interesting, particularly for someone like myself with poor eyesight, is that more meat eating is associated with greater risk of cataract. So, I should give vegetarianism another go, having given it up after a holiday in Perigord some years ago.
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RBS is being singled out because of the bonuses and the fact that it has swallowed a lot of taxpayers’ money.
This banner merges support for the environment with the anti capitalist theme. The point of composting is that it provides nutrition for the soil. Can one hope that new ideas will emerge from the rotting of the old?
Another precise call for action, in this very disparate group of protesters, is this call for the release of Abdullah Ocelan, activist of the PKK, a revolutionary Kurdish party. The longstanding and bloody conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish government has caused many Kurds to flee their homeland. Very many have come to London.
I was courteously offered a sheet giving information about the camp and kindly told I could take as many photos as I liked, which I certainly appreciate. I wonder though on what basis, as I saw on one placard, they can claim to be the only ’true democrats’. Whereas our current voting system is flawed and in no way reflects all groups within society(especially the ones that don’t vote), is camping in a tent outside St Paul’s more democratic than serving on the council, pressing for more and better recycling of rubbish or being a member of a parliamentary committee questioning phone hackers, or appearing before one such committee pleading for greater freedom of speech and the curbing of super injunctions?
I am also disturbed, whenever I hear it, by assertions that the deficit doesn’t exist. I understand the implication is that this is a fiction put about by the government to justify the cuts in welfare currently being made. I do not believe this to be so.
A parting glimpse of St Paul's cathedral from Southwark Bridge
I set off home.
That day’s walk had contributed a useful 14.2 miles to the total.
