On Saturday, another high-profile event took place in the campaign to “Save Lewisham Hospital” from destruction by senior NHS managers and the government, with an event entitled, “Born in Lewisham,” in which campaigners showed their support for the hospital with a gathering outside the entrance on Lewisham High Street, and a rally afterwards in Ladywell Fields, with speakers, music and stalls.

The particular focus of the event was on people born in Lewisham Hospital, who were encouraged to show their support for the hospital by having their photos taken for a photo gallery (forthcoming on the Save Lewisham Hospital website) and carrying home-made placards or wearing T-shirts with personalised messages. Some of those photos are featured in this photo set, and the previous one which I posted on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »

This photo set, the 72nd in my ongoing project to photograph the whole of London by bike, rather sprang upon me yesterday (January 18), when, while still sleep-deprived and rather jet-lagged after returning from my ten-day visit to the US to campaign for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on the 11th anniversary of its opening, I had to make a visit to my local hospital in Lewisham, in south east London — whose A&E Department, and other frontline services, are currently under threat of closure — and was thrilled, in an inner-child way, to discover that it was snowing.

After taking a few photos en route, I reemerged after an hour or so to find that the snow was still steadily falling, and so, after pushing my bike back up the hill to Brockley — to mend a puncture I had received during the short journey to the hospital — I set out to capture some photos of my wider neighbourhood in the snow, taking a well-worn route down the hill to Lewisham, along the River Ravensbourne to Greenwich, and then down to the River Thames and back, a two-hour journey, at the end of which I was half-frozen. Read the rest of this entry »

My 42nd photo set in my ongoing project to photograph the whole of London by  bike brings together a few disparate elements, photographed in July, and united under the umbrella title of “Green London” — firstly, a few photos from Mudchute Farm and Mudchute Park, on the Isle of Dogs, which I had put aside when I posted a set of photos of a journey around Canary Wharf to which these were the green prelude.

The second group of photos — 12 photos of Crystal Palace — were taken on a rainy afternoon, and had been sitting around until I decided to join them up with the “Green London” photos — not just the Mudchute idyll, but also some photos taken locally to me — in Ladywell Fields, a popular spot by the River Ravensbourne, which, further downstream, feeds into the River Thames at Deptford Creek, and on Hilly Fields, the wonderful hill-top park near my home, with its wonderful views out over south east London and beyond, and, at strategic points, its glimpses of Canary Wharf and the O2. Read the rest of this entry »