Mudlarking: trudging along on the bank of the Thames

A few weeks ago, Tradescant Road wrote an excellent post on the discovery of Mesolithic remains on the foreshore of the Thames.   The remains are around 6000 years old, which makes them the oldest known bits of rock in London.  Unfortunately, it's not entirely clear what they are, but whatever they are, we've got them in Vauxhall.  We could build a museum, and attract tourists to our very own M16, but unfortunately, the 6-pronged rock formation thing can only be seen at very low spring tides.  As luck would have it, today was a very low spring tide day. So... this morning I did a little lurking about on the bank of the Thames, taking pictures (with some other mad people) of some bits of Mesolithic rock, and also a bronze age (approx 3500 years old) jetty or bridge.

It's a really odd feeling, walking about on pebbles that are usually submerged, but I recommend others do it if there's another chance any time soon...  Perhaps I should have taken the advice of "viewing from Vauxhall Bridge", since mudlarking is an excellent way of getting filthy.  Maybe it's time to invest in some wellies.  Anyhow,  here are a few photos:

 Not having any idea what I was supposed to be looking for, I was first advised by a gentleman nearby that the Mesolithic remains were the two circular blobs you can see (the largest is near the bottom of the photo).  Naturally, I was regretting that I'd left my bed so early...

Fortunately, either the chap in question was wrong, or those rocks are additional pieces of the structure because I returned a little later to find a crowd gathered around two of the real Mesolithic rocks.  Also, a third rock was visible slightly beyond the second one in the water, but it was submerged and I wasn't able to photograph it:

This is more impressive.  This circular formation is thought to be a Bronze age Jetty or part of a bridge. (Vauxhall Bridge, or somewhere near is thought to be the oldest bridge in London.)

A lake of water left on the foreshore as the tide withdrew shows how uneven the river bed seems to be:

I like this view of M16 from the ground when it's usually only observable from the Thames:

One of the outlets from the River Effra (and also, presumably the sewer outlet).  I'm not sure whether this is the "Brixton" or "Clapham" outlet referred to in my post on the Tideway Tunnel.  We presumed that when the pressure rises from inside the gates, it pushes them open.  There was still a trickle of (clean looking) water running from this outlet and down into the Thames.  If you look carefully, you can see the "Effra" sign at the top of the handrail:

I like this photo because it shows somebody climbing down the ladder well below the line of the watermark.  (When he arrived at the bottom, we did advise that there was an alternative way up again via the ramp!):

This is another outlet on the west side of the bridge.  Again, I suspect it to be the sewer overflow outlet, but I'm not sure.  It could be another outlet for the hidden River Effra, but there's no sign to indicate that:

This piece of sky will soon be hidden by the St George Tower, so I wanted a shot from the river bank.  This view won't be available again (at least for a long time):

Could this be a Mesolithic mobile phone?  Or just one from the Bronze Age?

This structure (not to be confused with the Bronze Age jetty), I was told, is much more recent and likely to have been used by the ship building industry:

By about 11:30am, a crowd had gathered.  I reckon we saw about 50 people wandering around the foreshore today.  The duck bus did not stop to let the passengers take a look at the  bits of rock:

I assumed that these folk were going to sail over and take a look at the Mesolithic stuff, but they just sailed on by.  I don't think I've ever seen such a small sailing boat on the Thames.  You can see the north side of the Thames in this shot, but nobody was wandering about over there:  

In this photo, I was hoping to capture just how low the tide was today.  The water looked almost narrow enough to swim across at some points:

Another attempt to blow up the spooks, or, err, somebody leaving their bicycle behind...

The Daily Mail is reporting another attempt to blow up the spooks at MI6.  This follows the last genuine attempt back in August 2008.  Unfortunately, this is a piece of rather sensationalised reporting because, after a controlled explosion was carried out, the "package" was deemed to be harmless.  Indeed, according to Londonist, the package turned out to be a bicycle!

That didn't stop the authorities closing Vauxhall Station and the Albert Embankment at about 1:30pm, and bringing out yellow tape, police dogs, fire engines, police cars and... a robot to destroy the bicycle!  A considerable number of local employees were locked into their offices for their own safety. 

Hopefully, it wasn't a stray Boris Bike!

Don't try bombing MI6. The spooks don't like it!

Bombing MI6 is not going to make you popular, and will almost certainly lead to your arrest.  If you were thinking about it, don't.  If you want further proof that it's a  bad idea, you need look no further than the arrest of two Welsh chaps with too much time on their hands.  Apparently, two men, aged 21 and 52 (father and son) were detained by local and Metropolitan Police in Wales on 28th July when one suspicious parcel was found at the M16 Building (whether it got inside is unknown) and another suspicious parcel was discovered at a South London sorting office early on the morning of the 29th (we're not given its destination)!  The article notes that police were granted "extra time" to question them this afternoon.  Crikey.

All that I've written above has already been released by the AFP, who simply issue simple news items without further embellishment, but it does pertain to this area, and I'm sure we'll all hear more as it unfolds!  The Daily Fail has a little more info, saying that the men are being questioned at Padding Green "secure" police station in London (Queens Park) and that the bombs were "amateurish" (neither had to be destroyed in a controlled explosion, which rather implies that these were not serious bomb makers).

Very exciting - Google Streetview is live for London

I'm very excited... I've been waiting for this day for a few months. Google have finally gone live with their Streetview facility for London. I think that the SE11 photos were taken around July/August 2008. Let's take a quick tour around SE11:

Firstly, the assault course on Kennington Park on a lovely sunny day;



A trip to Cleaver Square. No boules as I presume it's midday on a weekday:



A quick visit to St Peter's church:



Before we nip into Chariots!:



Phhew, thirsty work! Time to visit the Dog House:



Let's go and get some exercise on Lambeth Walk Open Space:



And finally, how about doing the Lambeth Walk?



Sadly, there are a few "strategically" placed buses (I'm presuming accidentally, but who knows?) which means that a number of views around SE11 are missed. However, I've managed to find one of the slipway ramp next to MI6 that the photographers were caught on during (mentioned yesterday):



Fantastic!

Photographing SE11 - you're being watched!

I was obviously very lucky (or quick) when snapping my shots of the large numbers of of police who appear to have been lurking around Vauxhall bus station recently. It seems that there are some agencies who don't like to have their buildings (or even their surrounds) photographed.

To highlight the further liberties that the surveillance minded government is targeting, there's an alarming article in The Amateur Photographer about two photographers taking pictures of London by night.

Where were the photographers?
Apparently, they were on the slipway next to MI6. For those not in the know, there's a large downward slope from ground to river level, next to the MI6 building, used to access the river by (amongst other amphibious vehicles), the London Duck Bus (see helpful picture). I've never seen any other amphibious vehicles, but I suspect that if the US Embassy ever arrives in Nine Elms, they might bring some with them!



What happened?
The young photographers were swooped on by six armed police, who asked to see the contents of their cameras.

Why do we know about it?
Fortunately for us, the news editor of Amateur Photographer was passing walking by, and pointed out, in the article linked above, that there aren't any signs that say that one can't photograph London from the slip way.

Are the police allowed to search innocent people?
Ahh, that would be their "stop and search" powers, which have clearly become so invidious that the Home Office are having to draft guidance so that anti-terrorism legislation isn't used against photographers!

Given the large numbers of security related buildings and entrances in the SE11 area (as well as police stations and police buildings), this is a quick warning to those in the area that you might be stopped by police for taking photos anywhere!

For another curious M16 tidbit, the Disco Damaged blogger recently posted an article on some "door ways" on the corner of Auckland Street, which according to fellow readers, are also related to MI6. The Disco Damaged chap appears to have managed to successfully photograph the doorway without having his camera confiscated though, which just shows how one can manage to successfully Lurk about SE11 and escape detection!

Slipway / duck bus photo courtesey of Days to Amaze website

US Embassy and Regeneration of New Covent Garden Market

All of the local area blogs have recently been buzzing with the news of the relocation of the US embassy to a yet unknown site in the Nine Elms quarter of Vauxhall. Although I say, "yet unknown", a story on the "bd architect's website" refers to the embassy location as the "2ha site" that is "close to Terry Farrell’s high-security MI6 building and the proposed Battersea Power Station development".

However, a piece of news, just spotted in the Evening Standard, indicates that the New Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market is about to receive funding for redevelopment. So now we'll have lots of US embassy employees munching apples wandering about the area. I've never been to New Covent Garden Market but they have a snazzy looking website. In the redevelopment section, they suggest the redevelopment will provide:

an invitation to the private sector to innovate on how the site could be more than just a market - becoming a focus for food and indeed flowers for London

I /like/ the idea of having an entire "focus" for food and flowers in this part of South London. I just hope that Borough market, and East St market, and Oval Farmers market can all keep flourishing at the same time...

Now, regarding the US embassy, it's obviously quite exciting that a major "player" wants to move to the area, but I'm more convinced that the embassy is moving for security reasons, than that they're moving primarily to be a part of the development of the South Bank! I figure that they want to be on the Thames so that they can use motor boats to get away if there's a terrorist attack. I'm vaguely concerned about traffic/planning/nuisance implications of the new US embassy in the area because I know what Mayfair residents have had to put up with, due to the recent installation of tank traps around the current embassy site. Also, I wonder whether it's sensible to have so many "target" buildings eg. MI6 and US embassy and Parliament all so close to one another...

The developments are all just outside the SE11 area, but if it all comes to fruition, I imagine our area will see development (good or bad, I know not) as a result of general investment. I wonder if there's something that they know that we don't, ie. whether anybody is about to enhance the transport infrastructure or go ahead with proposed public transport ideas, such as the Cross River Tram (hint, hint) to cope with all of the new developments.