London can be rather fabulous on a Wednesday lunchtime, especially when toil is abandoned for a couple of weeks. I take the Crossrail to Liverpool Street and walk through the station. Down to London Wall and past the mysterious All Hallows church. There’s a cut through at Throgmorton Street and then Copthall Avenue. Uncorked hasContinue reading “The Situationist City”
Category Archives: Ports
We Refused to Moor the Ferries
‘We refused to moor the ferries. They can’t make us’. The man telling me this was fishing on the beach. A big guy wrapped up for all sorts of weather. Sun, snow, wind, calm, lashing rain. He had the hood of his jacket pulled over his woollen hat just in case.‘They should have put aContinue reading “We Refused to Moor the Ferries”
Tyger, Tyger
‘It’s not that they’ve made any losses, it’s just that they haven’t made big enough profits’. The Albanian taxi driver tells me. He is half in and half out of his car outside Dover Priory station. Another driver stands by the car in the sun. We’re talking about the news that P&O Ferries has justContinue reading “Tyger, Tyger”
Sea Port Dreaming
The day was like a dream. The air, the atmosphere, the ambiance had the quality of a dream. As if one was within the world and simultaneously outside it. Words were needed to describe this dream but dreams and words and words and dreams are different things. They operate in different ways and exist inContinue reading “Sea Port Dreaming”
Global Supply Chains
We should take liberties with Raymond Williams book Keywords. It was never meant to be definitive, a list of all possibilities. It was a methodology. How to take a word and look at the social relations which help to form and define it and how meaning changes over time. According to The Shorter Oxford EnglishContinue reading “Global Supply Chains”
On the river
I had a clear idea to go to Gravesend and take the ferry across the river, but only a vague notion of what to do after that. On the basis of a suggestion I walked east towards DP World London Gateway. Procter and Gamble factory at West Thurrock seen from Ebbsfleet station. It makes soapsContinue reading “On the river”
Sheerness
London Medway includes the ports of Sheerness and Chatham. They are owned by Peel Ports Group. The chair is the billionaire John Whittaker who maintains a 75 percent majority stake in the group. An Aldi distribution centre between Sittingbourne and Sheerness. It represents £50m of investment and employs 500 people. Aldi is in sharp competitionContinue reading “Sheerness”
Northfleet
I really went to look at ships. And took a copy of James Bird’s ‘The Geography of the Port of London’ with me. It’s an interesting book, particularly as it was published in 1957. I can’t remember where it was bought. But it’s lovely, it was once part of Norwich library until it was sold,Continue reading “Northfleet”
Bremenhaven to New York City
The Sealand Illinois, container ship, Bremenhaven to New York City. Or rather, to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal. The main port for containers arriving and leaving the New York metropolitan area. It handles around 20 percent of all goods imported from Germany into the United States. It will take the Sealand Illinois eight days to crossContinue reading “Bremenhaven to New York City”
Infrastructure
These were taken a few days ago during a day of fine weather. The sea always suggests travel and adventure.
Cornucopia City 