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The end of the Age of Innocence?

Inns of Court, London

Entrance Lincoln's Inn

One of the hidden treasures of London which are largely unknown to visitors are the urban villages in the midst the bustling city known as the Inns of Court. Based, like the old universities on monastic foundations the have rooms, colleges, beautiful gardens, Halls, Chapels and Commons for Students, members and Benchers. Originally the law civil and cannon was the province of clergy and conducted in Latin. Today there are not impoverished students in these lodgings but Lawyers at the other end of the scale and because they are private organisations these Inns have been conserved and sensitively renewed to give a tranquil sense of enclosure and an atmosphere of being a place apart. You can stroll almost two miles from the northern boundary at Theoboald’s Road of Gray’s Inn right down to the River Thames at the Middle Temple through these legal villages with adjoining streets with Barristers Chambers and solicitors offices, legal publishers and services, the Courts of Law on the Strand, and the other services required to keep lawyers lubricated such as special bank branches, restaurants and many, many excellent hostelleries!




Cittie of Yorke pub Holborn

A stunning example of Gothic architecture, London's Inns of Court date back to before the 14th century. It is here that barristers train and traditionally practice. Located conveniently adjacent to the Royal Courts of Justice, the Inns are divided up into Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Each Inn covers several acres and comprises of a great hall, chapel, libraries, sets of chambers and gardens. Public access is limited, although visitors can tour the grounds and gardens during the week.






Bedford Row

Adjoining the Inns are many other Georgian enclaves of which my own favourite is Bedford Row in Holborn. In spite of some rebuilding, this is among the best in London for the surviving buildings of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Built on the Duke of Bedford’s Estate the main developer of this street was Nicholas Barbon, probably the most important of the building speculators in London during the last quarter of the 17th century. With its mews of Jockey’s Fields it is a pristine enclave where even the street furniture is of a high quality. It is book ended by two “Red” telephone boxes – themselves of some architectural interest as they were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and are modelled on Sir Joan Soane’s tomb less than a mile away in St. Pancras church yard. There is even one of the last (non functioning) public water pumps in London.





The legal profession in England and Wales is made up of two separate groups - barristers and solicitors. A barrister is a lawyer who has been admitted by one of the four Inns of Court to "plead at the bar" (address the court), after having spent a year in pupillage with a practicing barrister and passing a “bar exam”. A solicitor (though qualified in the law) is, however, rarely allowed “rights of access” to the court and must usually instruct a barrister to present their client’s case to the court for them, although this is changing.

The Inns of Court, which date from before the 14th century, were originally eating and lodging places for students of the law. Though there are references throughout history to over 30 different Inns, only four survive. These are Lincoln’s, Gray’s, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Each has its own colour: Green for Lincoln’s, black for each Temple (because the knights templar were a religious order) and red for Gray’s. They still offer accommodation and food, however only a few privileged judges and senior barristers have rooms there and these are mainly used only during week days.



The term “being called to the bar” refers to young barristers being allowed to practice: they are only permitted to do so after having eaten 24 dinners in one of the Inns, a tradition dating back centuries. This is because attending the dinners provides a student with an opportunity to mix with qualified colleagues and understand the traditions of “the bar”, such as never shaking hands with a fellow barrister. Barristers are not supposed to discuss fees directly with the solicitors who instruct them, and the flap at the back of their gowns is supposedly where, in days of old, solicitors used to slip their payments. Indeed the black cloak itself was originally worn in mourning for Queen Anne and the horse hair wigs were also originally black and worn in protest at the execution of Charles the First. Even today barristers “right of audience” derives from their position as “amicus curiae” – friends of the court – and they have no legal entitlement to sue for fees as you cannot have a contract with a barrister.






Church Gray's Inn

The four Inns of Court have the exclusive right to Call men and women to the Bar - i.e. to admit those who have fulfilled the necessary qualifications to the degree of Barrister-at-Law, which entitles them, after a period of pupillage (vocational training) either to practise as independent advocates in the Courts of England and Wales or to take employment in government or local government service, industry, commerce or finance. Thus, to qualify as a barrister, everyone must join an Inn and keep a qualifying session on at least 12 occasions. The government of each Inn is ultimately controlled by the Masters of the Bench, elected mainly from among its members who are also senior members of the judiciary or Queen's Counsel.




Law Courts on the Strand

Barristers organise themselves in “Chambers” literally after the rooms they rented in an Inn and under their rules must work on the “taxi rank principle” that is take cases as they come along and not pick and choose. Today the Chambers tend to specialise in particular areas of law so your Solicitor engages a barrister from a Chamber with particular expertise. The Chambers themselves are sophisticated businesses with pupils, administration, and paralegal and research staff. The highest ranked (and most expensive barristers) are QC’s (Queen’s Councils) and the names of all the barristers trading at a Chamber are listed at the door. When a barrister is appointed to the judiciary they can no longer trade as a barrister because of conflict of interest but they then become “door tenants” to maintain their connection with the chamber.

The four Inns of Court - Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn - were traditionally the bastions of the legal establishment in England which controls admission to the Bar. Now they are run like more like clubs. The Inns of Chancery were related to the Inns of Court, involved in the education of legal students, but they were lesser establishments than the Inns of Court as they had no right to call students to the Bar.


Gray's Inn

Dugdale (Origines Juridiciales) states that the learned in English law were anciently persons in holy orders, the justices of the king's court being bishops, abbots and the like. But in 1207 the clergy were prohibited by canon from acting in the temporal courts. The result proving prejudicial to the interests of the community, a commission of inquiry was issued by Edward I. (1290), and this was followed up (1292) by a second commission, which among other things directed that students "apt and eager" should be brought from the provinces and placed in proximity to the courts of law now fixed by Magna Carta at Westminster. These students were accordingly located in what became known as the Inns of Court and Chancery, the latter designated by Fortescue (De Laudibus) as "the earliest settled places for students of the law," the germ of what Sir Edward Coke subsequently spoke of as our English juridical university.



In these Inns of Court and Chancery, thus constituted, and corresponding to the ordinary college, the students, according to Fortescue, not only studied the laws and divinity, but further learned to dance, sing and play instrumental music, "so that these hostels, being nurseries or seminaries of the court, were therefore called Inns of Court." Stow in his Survey (1598) says: "There is in and about this city a whole university, as it were, of students, practisers or pleaders and judges of the laws of this realm"; and he goes on to enumerate the several societies, fourteen in number, then existing, corresponding nearly with those recognized in the present day, of which the Inns of Court, properly so-called, are and always have been four, namely Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple and Gray's Inn.


Lincoln's Inn

The Inns of Chancery were related to the Inns of Court, involved in the education of legal students, but they were lesser establishments than the Inns of Court as they had no right to call students to the Bar. There importance declined during the eighteenth century, and all but two vanished completely during the nineteenth century. The Inns of Chancery were:

Barnard's Inn, originally known as Mackworth's Inn.

Clements’s Inn. Named from the nearby St Clement Dane, Clement's Inn sat on the north side of the Strand. The buildings had all been demolished by 1891.

Furnival's Inn. Dating from medieval times, this Inn of Chancery was run by Lincoln's Inn until 1817 when it declined to renew the lease and Furnival's Inn was dissolved. The ancient building was subsequently torn down and the new building erected on the spot took the name Furnival's Inn although it retained no association with the Inns of Chancery or of court.





New Inn. This inn which sat on an area of land now partly covered by Australia House was originally a tavern called the Inn of Our Lady. It was converted into an Inn of chancery by students from an St George's Inn (an Inn of chancery) which had fallen into much disrepair. In the early seventeenth century Middle Temple acquired the freehold, which was then compulsorily acquired by London City Council for its Kingsway Improvement Scheme in 1899.

Staple Inn. This inn still survives, hidden behind a facade of shops on the south side of Holborn. Originally a wool house - thus the name Staple - it became an Inn of Chancery in 1378. it went into decline during the nineteenth century and was sold between 1884-1886.


Fountain Court

Strand Inn. Situated on the south side of the Strand opposite St Mary-le-Strand and formerly known as Chester Inn as the land had once belonged to the Bishop of Chester. It was demolished in 1549 to make was for Somerset House.

Thavies Inn. Named after a fourteenth-century armourer called John Thavies, the inn became attached to Lincoln's Inn some time before 1422. Lincoln's Inn subsequently purchased the freehold, but failed to renew the lease in the 1760s and Thavies Inn was subsequently dissolved.





There were also other 'inns', literally accommodation for lawyers, although informal teaching and tutoring almost certainly would have been done within them. One example is Serjeant's Inn, Chancery Lane.

Originally the bar was the railing that enclosed the judge in a court. Legal practitioners had to argue their case 'before the bar', that is, before the judge. The term "the bar" came to mean all those qualified and authorised to conduct the trial of legal cases in court.



The Inns of Court were familiar to Dickens from boyhood and there are numerous references to them in his novels. On leaving school, Dickens was employed as a clerk by a solicitor who had an office in Gray's Inn and it is hardly surprising that he chose that location for the chambers of Mr Pickwick's junior counsel, Mr Phunky, in the case of Bardell v. Pickwick. The author started work on 'Pickwick Papers' whilst he was renting rooms in Furnival's Inn, on nearby High Holborn. At that time he was working as a reporter on the Morning Chronicle.



While Gray's Inn still exists - albeit altered by bomb damage during the Second World War - Furnival's Inn was pulled down in the late nineteenth century. Its site is commemorated, though, by a plaque set into the wall of the large block of red buildings erected there by the Prudential Assurance Company. There is also a bust of Charles Dickens in the courtyard (Waterhouse Square, 142 Holborn Bars, EC1).

Just across the road from the Prudential building is the former Barnard's Inn, a collection of buildings now owned by the Mercers' Company. The company has redeveloped the site, but in Dickens' day, it had fallen into disrepair. He describes it scathingly in Chapter 21 of 'Great Expectations’; when he has Mr Pip arrive there as a callow country lad fresh up to the city from Rochester. Poor Pip had innocently: "supposed the establishment to be an hotel kept by Mr Barnard, to which the Blue Boar in our town was a mere public house, whereas I now found Barnard to be a disembodied spirit or a fiction, and his inn the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for tom cats."



Also close by is Staple Inn, hidden to view behind a neat row of black and white half-timbered houses which date from the sixteenth century. The arched stone gateway under the houses still leads to the 'little nook composed of two irregular quadrangles' as described by Dickens in Chapter 11 of Edwin Drood:

"It is one of those nooks the turning into which out of the clashing street, imparts to the relieved pedestrian the sensation of having put cotton in his ears, and velvet soles on his boots. It is one of those nooks where a few smoky sparrows twitter in smoky trees, as though they called to one another, 'Let us play at country,' and where a few feet of garden-mould and a few yards of gravel enable them to do that refreshing violence to their tiny understandings. Moreover, it is one of those nooks which are legal nooks; and it contains a little Hall, with a little lantern in its roof: to what obstructive purposes devoted, and at whose expense, this history knoweth not." The 'little hall' is still to be seen although it is not officially open to visitors.



Staple Inn features again in Bleak House, where it is given as a favourite walk for Mr Snagsby. Of all the Inns of Court that Dickens mentions, probably the best preserved is Middle Temple. Set back from the embankment on a wide expanse of green, Middle Temple somehow manages to retain all the gravitas of a great legal institution within the precincts of what feels like a little village. With its winding alleys intricately laced between cool squares, stepping in to Middle Temple really is like stepping back in time. All of which makes it the perfect backdrop for a novel and, of course, Dickens uses the setting several times.

A very apposite description of the Temple as Dickens found it more than a century ago and very much as it is still to be found today, is given in Barnaby Rudge.

Chapter 15

"There are, still, worse places than the Temple, on a sultry day, for basking in the sun, or resting idly in the shade. There is yet a drowsiness in its courts, and a dreamy dullness in its trees and gardens; those who pace its lanes and squares may yet hear the echoes of their footsteps on the sounding stones, and read upon its gates, in passing from the tumult of the Strand or Fleet Street, 'Who enters here leaves noise behind.' There is still the plash of falling water in fair Fountain Court, and there are yet nooks and corners where dun-haunted students may look down from their dusty garrets, on a vagrant ray of sunlight patching the shade of the tall houses, and seldom troubled to reflect a passing stranger's form. There is yet, in the Temple, something of a clerkly monkish atmosphere, which public offices of law have not disturbed, and even legal firms have failed to scare away. In summer time, its pumps suggest to thirsty idlers, springs cooler, and more sparkling, and deeper than other wells; and as they trace the spillings of full pitchers on the heated ground, they snuff the freshness, and, sighing, cast sad looks towards the Thames, and think of baths and boats, and saunter on, despondent."



It is in the Middle Temple where we are introduced to Mr Chester. He is seated in Paper Buildings, which can still be seen.

"It was in a room in Paper Buildings - a row of goodly tenements, shaded in front by ancient trees, and looking, at the back, upon the Temple Gardens - that his, our idler, lounged; now taking up again the paper he had laid down a hundred times; now trifling with the fragments of his meal; now pulling forth his golden toothpick, and glancing leisurely about the room, or out at window into the trim garden walks, where a few early loiterers were already pacing to and fro."


Templar Knights on horseback

References to the Middle Temple are peppered about the works of Dickens, but perhaps the most memorable of them is made in Martin Chuzzlewit, when the author uses Fountain Court as the regular meeting point for Ruth Pinch and her brother, Tom.

Grays Inn




Gray's Inn Gardens



There has been law teaching on this site since the reign of Edward III. The London residence of the De Grey family, who had strong links with the Wales and Chester Circuit, was the Manor of Purpoole, where a number of lawyers and their families came to live and work and formed the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. The Inn flourished under the first Elizabeth. The Hall was completed at the beginning of her reign and anyone who was anyone at her Court joined Gray's. The 'Armada' screen in the Hall may have been partly made from the timbers of the Spanish ship 'Nuestra Senora del Rosario' and donated by the Lord High Admiral of England, Howard of Effingham, who was a member.

The Inner Temple

The recorded history of the area known as the Temple begins in about 1160 when it was acquired by the Knights of the Military Order of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, who moved their London base there from the Old Temple site in Holborn. Following the loss of the Holy Land in the 1290s, the Order of the Temple declined and in 1312 was dissolved, after the Knights had been arrested and imprisoned at the instigation of Pope Clement V for alleged malpractice. The Templars estates were granted by the Pope to the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and, although the New Temple was seized initially by Edward II as forfeit to the Crown, the King conceded the consecrated portion and subsequently the whole site to the Hospitallers.

The Inner Temple, comprising a hall, parliament chamber, library and other buildings, occupies the site of the ancient mansion of the Knights Templars, built about the year 1240, and has from time to time been more or less rebuilt and extended, the present handsome range of buildings, including a new dining hall, being completed in 1870. The library owes its existence to William Petyt, keeper of the Tower Records in the time of Queen Anne, who was also a benefactor to the library of the Middle Temple.



The Inner Temple Library provides a service for Inner Temple barristers and students and for barrister members of the other Inns of Court. Facilities include a reference library of over 100,000 volumes of English law.




Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields evolved from two waste grounds that had been playgrounds for students of nearby Lincoln's Inn since the 14th century. It was London's first garden square, though it was originally a public execution site. In the 17th century, it was an exclusive area to live in. However, the only houses remaining from this time (around 1641) are at no 59 and 60. Since 1894, the gardens have been open to the public. Alleged to be the fictional home of Charles Dickens' Little Nell, the building housing the Old Curiosity Shop in Portsmouth Street was built in 1567. It is now a listed building and thought to be the oldest shop in London.


Old Curiosity Shop




Sir John Soane's museum

Sir John Soane's museum is in a house he left to the nation in 1837. Soane was one of Britain's leading architects and the designer of the Bank of England building. He lived at no 13 and before he died, secured an Act of Parliament ensuring that on his death the house and its contents would be left intact as a public museum. The museum contains a variety of objects ranging from paintings, manuscripts, pottery, antique marbles, books, scold's bridles, shackles, pistols belonging to Napoleon and more.




Great Hall Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

In the heart of Central London lies Lincoln's Inn, a haven from the roar of traffic and crowded pavements. The Inn occupies most of the rectangle formed by High Holborn on the north, Carey Street and the Royal Courts of Justice on the south, Chancery Lane on the east and Lincoln's Inn Fields on the west. Indeed, if one excludes the frontage to High Holborn and the south-eastern block, the eleven acres of the Inn comprise virtually all that remains. The Inn is old, very old; but it is no mere relic. It houses a living, functional body of public importance, the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. ''Lincoln's Inn'' is thus a term which describes both the place and the Society which inhabits it. Fifteen Prime Ministers, including Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, have been members of Lincolns Inn.






Church Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn stands on the site partly of an episcopal palace erected in the time of Henry III. by Ralph Nevill, bishop of Chichester and Chancellor of England, and partly of a religious house, called Black Friars House, in Holborn. In the reign of Edward II., Henry Lacy, earl of Lincoln, possessed the place, which from him acquired the name of Lincoln's Inn, probably becoming an Inn of Court soon after his death (in 1310), though of its existence as a place of legal study there is little authentic record until the time of Henry VI. (1424). The fee simple of the inn would appear to have remained vested in the see of Chichester; and it was not until 1580 that the society which for centuries had occupied the inn as tenants acquired the absolute ownership of it. The old hall, built about 1506, still remains, but has given place to a Victorian Gothic Revival structure designed by Philip Hardwick, R.A., which, along with the buildings containing the library, was completed in 1845.

Middle Temple

No precise date can be given for the establishment of the Middle Temple, or for that matter of the other three Inns of Court, though it is likely that the four Inns had come into being by the middle of the 14th century. The Inn's name derives from the Knights Templar who were in possession of the site we now call the Temple for some 150 years. The origins of the Inn trace from two roots: the occupation of the Knights and the replacement of priestly lawyers by a lay profession.

The Middle Temple possesses in its hall one of the stateliest of existing Elizabethan buildings. Commenced in 1562, under the auspices of Edmund Plowden, then treasurer, it was not completed until 1572, the richly carved screen at the east end in the style of the Renaissance being put up in 1575. The belief that the screen was constructed of timber taken from ships of the Spanish Armada {1588) is baseless. The hall, which has been preserved unaltered, has been the scene of numerous historic incidents, notably the entertainments given within its walls to regal and other personages from Queen Elizabeth downwards.



The Temple Church is one of the most historic and beautiful churches in London. It incorporates eight hundred years of history: from the Crusaders in the 12th century, through the turmoil of the Reformation and the founding father of Anglican theology.
The Temple Church in London, famed for its rare circular nave called "the Round," was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century. It is one of only three Norman round churches left in England. In the mid-12th century, the Knights Templar or Red Knights (so called after the red crosses they wore) had their London headquarters at a site in High Holborn. But by the 1160s, the order outgrew the original site and purchased property near Fleet Street for establishment of a larger monastic compound.






The Temple Church

The Temple Church was consecrated on February 10, 1185 in a ceremony conducted by Heraclius, the Crusader Patriarch of Jerusalem. King Henry II may have been present at the consecration. The Knights Templar held worship services and their secret initiation rites in "the Round," the oldest part of the Temple Church. The church was originally part of a large monastic compound that included residences, military training facilities, and recreational grounds for the military brethren and novices, who were not permitted to go into the city without the permission of the Master of the Temple.

The order of the Knights Templar was very powerful in England in this early period. The Master of the Temple sat in parliament as primus baro (the first baron of the realm). The Temple compound was regularly used as a residence by kings and by legates of the Pope. The temple also served as an early depository bank, sometimes in defiance of the Crown's wishes to seize the funds of nobles who had entrusted their wealth there. The Temple was the scene of important negotiations leading to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215. Instrumental in these negotiations was William Marshal, whose effigy is in the Round.



The original church had a small choir, but this was greatly enlarged in the early 1200s when King Henry III expressed a wish to be buried there. The new chancel was consecrated on Ascension Day 1240. However, when Henry's will was read upon his death in 1272, it was discovered he had changed his mind and wanted to be buried in Westminster Abbey instead.

Having started out poor, holy, and dedicated to the protection of pilgrims, the Knights Templar grew rich from showers of royal gifts. Their popularity waned until, in the 14th century, they were charged with heresy, blasphemy, and sodomy, thrown into the Tower of London, and stripped of their wealth. With the suppression of the Templars, the Knights of Malta (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/knights-of-malta.html )obtained control of the property.

In Part I of the 16th century play Henry VI, by William Shakespeare, the Temple Church is the scene of the start of the 15th century Wars of the Roses. In the play, the war was sparked by the plucking of two roses in the Temple garden. In 2002, the Shakespearian tradition was commemorated with the planting of new white and red roses in the modern gardens. Later, law professors who worked in the area began to rent a portion of the space; in the early 1600s King James I granted control of the complex to their societies. Each section of The Temple - Inner Temple and Middle Temple - has its own halls, gardens, courts, and library collections, but the Temple Church is held in common by both.


Charles Lamb's lodgings

The Temple Church survived the Great Fire of London (1666) unscathed, but received restorations anyway by Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723). In 1841, the walls and ceiling of the church were renovated in the Victorian Gothic style. On May 10, 1941, during the height of the Battle of Britain in World War II, a German air raid of incendiary bombs severely damaged the Temple Church. The roof of the Round Church caught fire, which quickly spread to the nave and chancel. All the wooden parts of the church, including the Victorian renovations, were destroyed. After the war, the Temple Church was fully restored; it was rededicated on November 1958.

The Temple Church is the setting of an action-packed scene in the popular novel The Da Vinci Code. In chapters 83, 85 and 86, Robert Langdon, Sophie Neveau and Leigh Teabing arrive at the Temple Church pursuing the answer to their latest riddle:

“In London lies a knight a Pope interred.
His labour's fruit a Holy wrath incurred.
You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb.
It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb.”

London's historic legal district, with its professional class of independent lawyers, has parallels with the way medieval Islamic law was organised. In Sunni Islam there were four great schools of legal theory, which were often housed in "madrassas" around mosques. Scholars debated each other on obscure points of law, in much the same way as English barristers do.




Lamb Court

There is a theory that the Templars modelled the Inns of Court on Muslim ideas. But Mr Griffith-Jones suggests it is pretty unlikely the Templars imported the madrassa system to England. They were suppressed after 1314 - yet lawyers only started congregating in the Inns of Court after the 1360s.

Today the Inns are co-operative non incorporated businesses’ which provide the infrastructure and setting for the legal profession. The act as legal schools with colleges of law, libraries and legal bookshops and stationers. Their chapels and halls generally resonate to a full programme of cultural events with each Inn having musical and choral societies and their chapels and catering facilities being available for weddings and social events. In summer in the wonderful gardens within the Inns marquees are often erected and open air theatrical and musical events take place in these unique surroundings. And whilst these are private areas all grant public access for these are villages for the legal community and the notices are often stated in the inverse with excruciating politeness as in “The Public are welcome in these gardens in the months of May, June, July and August between the hours of 12 noon and 3.30 in the afternoon.” If you have not seen the Inns of Court you have not seen London and with their wonderful buildings, gardens, courtyards and sense of history they can provide a rewarding day or two all on their own.




OPENING TIMES

Grays Inn Gardens, Lincoln's Inn Gardens & Lincoln's Inn Chapel are open 12-2:30 on weekdays:

Middle Temple Gardens are open weekdays 12 - 3 May – September

Temple Church is generally open 11-4 Wed – Fri

Prince Henry's Room is open 11-2 Mon – Fri

The Royal Courts of Justice are open 9-4:30 Mon - Fri (security checks - certain items may not be taken into the building including cameras)
Middle & Inner Temple Gardens usually open on London Garden Squares Day.

Middle Temple Hall MAY be open 10-11:30 & 3-4 (check on 020 7427 4800).

Guided tours can be arranged for small groups by written request to The Treasury Office, Middle Temple Lane, EC4Y 9AT.

St. James’s Park, London

Queen Anne's Gate

My regular Blogistas will know that one of my favourite areas of London is St. James’s Park and the Queen Anne enclave around it known as Queen Anne’s Gate and Old Queen Street. St. James’s Park is in fact one of 3 Royal Parks which provide the setting for Buckingham Palace, London’s great ceremonial avenue, The Mall, and the ceremonial parade ground of Horseguard’s Parade. The Green Park was originally a swampy burial ground for lepers; but by 1668, Charles II had enclosed it and stocked it with deer, again to indulge the regal passion for hunting. It was designed by the French landscape architect Le Notre and it is a “Green Park” as it has no flower beds. The third park is less well known; being the 32 acre enclosed walled garden of Buckingham Palace which contains another lake. We last visited St. James’s Park when it was covered in snow but now it is in its spring glory and where its flower beds try to recreate the colourful displays of its designer John Nash.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/london-snow.html

With its royal, political and literary associations, St James's Park is at the very heart of London and covers 23 hectares (58 acres). With a lake harbouring ducks, geese and pelicans. St James's is also home to the Mall, the setting for many ceremonial parades and events of national celebration. The land now known as St James’s Park was acquired by King Henry VIII in 1532 as a game park for hunting, but has evolved over 4 centuries of Royal patronage into an elegant open space spanning 23 hectares (58 acres) with a lake harbouring ducks, geese and pelicans - the latter introduced by a Russian Ambassador in 1664. A popular spectacle and photo opportunity for tourists is to see the wildlife officers feeding the Pelicans every day at 2:30pm.




St. James's Park Pelicans



St James's Park is the oldest Royal Park in London and is surrounded by three palaces. The most ancient is Westminster, which has now become the Houses of Parliament, St James's Palace and of course, the best known, Buckingham Palace. There has been a Westminster Palace for almost a thousand years; however much of the current building - more frequently called the Houses of Parliament dates from 1834 - when fire swept through the earlier medieval buildings.


Buckingham Palace




Queen Anne's Gates

Originally the park was a swampy wasteland which the River Tyburn often flooded on its way to the Thames. It was, however, ideal land for deer hunting, the passion of kings and queens at the time. The royal court was based at the Palace of Westminster and in 1536; King Henry VIII decided to create a deer park conveniently nearby. He acquired land in St James's, put a fence around it and built a hunting lodge that later became St James's Palace.


Park Layout


London Eye from St James's Park

The deer park stayed largely the same until 1603 when James I became king. He drained and landscaped the park. At the west end, near what is now Buckingham Palace, there was a large pool known as Rosamond's Pond. At the east end, there were several small ponds, channels and islands. These were used as a duck decoy to lure birds that were shot for the royal table.





In the 1820s, the park got another great makeover. It was remodelled in the new naturalistic style. The canal became a curving lake. Winding paths replaced formal avenues. Fashionable shrubberies took over from traditional flower beds. Buckingham House was enlarged to create a new palace with a vast arch faced in marble at the entrance. And the Mall was turned into a grand processional route. The work was commissioned by the Prince Regent, later George lV. It was part of a huge project that created many of London's best-known landmarks, including Regent's Park and Regent's Street. It was overseen by the architect and landscaper, John Nash. He produced the designs in 1827 and within a year the work on St James's Park was finished.


John Nash



With its royal, political and literary associations, St James’s Park is considered by many to be the most impressive of all the Royal Parks in London, yet the landscape remains largely unchanged to that which was designed by the architect John Nash in the 1820s.

Outside Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Memorial, which celebrates the days of the British Empire. The memorial includes not only the marble statue of Victoria and the glittering figures of Victory, Courage and Constancy, but also the ornamental gates given by the Dominions. These are the Australia Gate, South Africa Gate and Canada Gate.


Towards Horseguards Parade

Old Queen Street and adjacent Queen Anne’s Gate are set in the Birdcage Walk Conservation Area and contain some of London’s most striking William and Mary, Queen Anne and Georgian architecture. Past residents include peers, industrialists and philosophers, amongst whom are Lords Colchester, Guernsey, Dartmouth and Derby: Lords Grey, North and Palmerston (19th C. Prime Ministers): painters Joshua Reynolds and Jonathan Richardson: industrialists and the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Elsewhere in the street lived William Smith, the grandfather of Florence Nightingale, and Lord (John) Fisher, first sea lord of the Admiralty. In the early 20th century Lord Haldane, the War Minister, hosted political soirees at number 16, while at number 1 lived Sir Edward Grey, foreign secretary in the crucial years preceding the First World War.





“To stumble upon this most exquisite of streets...is one of London’s best architectural surprises...also about the only place where you will see London houses of the 18th century in near-mint condition.”



Long regarded as one of the most beautiful streets in London, this peaceful enclave of elegant houses dating from 1704 was originally known as Queen Square. At its eastern end a statue of Queen Anne stood against a wall that effectively sealed it off from the drunken, brawling mobs attending the nearby "Royal Cockpit." In the 1770s a new thoroughfare, Park Street, was developed on th other side of the wall. The cockpit was demolished in 1816, and in 1874 the wall came down, the two cul-de-sacs becoming Queen Anne’s Gate. The end of the present street which contains the pedestrian thoroughfare into St. James’s Park which was known as Queen's Square until 1704 has houses with distinctive and uniform ornate canopies and door cases. It was part of the estate of Sir Theodore Jansen, one of the directors of the South Sea Co. In the "great bubble" year of 1720 the estate was seized and sold towards payment of debts.


Cockpit Steps


Queen Anne

The local pub “The Two Chairmen” refers not to the Captains of Industry in the area but to the practice of ladies using Sedan Chairs to navigate the uneven and often dirty streets of 17th Century London. Many of the wealthy owned their own sedan chairs but hired chairmen to carry them as the need arose. The sedan chairs belonging to the gentry were often quite elaborate, with rich upholstery and painted bodies or wooden crests on the roof. These private sedan chairs were often beautifully painted by the most renowned painters of the day. They were often purchased from furniture makers and appear in furniture catalogs of the day. John Walter a furniture maker who provided furniture for the new Assembly Rooms at Bath in around 1770 also built sedan chairs. The diary of the Earl of Bristol notes that he paid £14 l0s for a private sedan chair in 1735. This is also the reason why the houses in the street have wide hallways; they had to be big enough to accommodate a chair.

The public chairs waited on stands in the street just as hackney coaches did. London and Westminster issued 300 sedan chair permits in the early 1700's. The chairmen were licensed and had to display a number. It cost £1 1 shilling to hire a sedan chair for a week. Chairmen wore a distinctive uniform, varying slightly over the decades and between winter and summer. It consisted of a blue kersey coat or greatcoat, black knee-breeches, white stockings or gaiters, buckled shoes, and large cocked hat. In England, the two-man chair survived well into the 1800's because it was actually quicker to walk than to ride in London's narrow, uneven streets; at the same time, it often was too dirty and/or unsafe to walk in many areas. Eventually the sedan chair was superseded by the cab. Charles Dickens includes an episode about a sedan chair in Pickwick Papers. Jane Austen mentions them in her Gothic pastiche Northanger Abbey.




Two Chairmen

Today, after three centuries, these dignified old houses with their richly-carved canopies rank among the most attractive in central London, and retain the comfortable, solid look of Queen Anne herself. Her statue, now re-sited on the pavement, has given rise to the legend that the tippling Queen, known as “Brandy Nan”, descends from her pedestal on the anniversary of her death to stagger along the street knocking on every door to beg a balloon of brandy.



Among the most celebrated residents of Queen Anne’s Gate were two famous architects in the early part of the 20th Century. Sir Edwin Lutyens RA (1869-1944) had his office at number 17 from the year 1910, arriving from his home in Bedford Square at 10am each morning by taxi. It seems that Lutyens was not one for creature comforts: his workroom was described as “repellently barren” with the chimney-piece torn out.
Nevertheless, Lutyens certainly found inspiration within its walls, for it was during his time there, in July 1919, that the Prime Minister Lloyd George asked him to design a temporary “catafalque” in Whitehall for the planned peace celebrations following the Armistice that brought the Great War to an end. “Not a catafalque,” replied Lutyens, “but a Cenotaph”. Setting to work he apparently completed his design that same day. So popular was the result that it was re-erected in stone, and Lutyen’s permanent Cenotaph was unveiled on Armistice Day 1920.


Old Queen St


No. 32 Garden facing Park


32, Old Queen St

At number 19 next door, meanwhile, another renowned architect had taken up residence: Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930) originally made his name for his design for the Victoria law courts in Birmingham. His success meant he could purchase the freehold of 19 Queen Anne’s Gate from the Mountjoy Estates Ltd. Webb went on to design some of the most prominent sights of Edwardian London, including the Admiralty Arch (1905-1911) and the precincts of Sir Thomas Brock’s memorial to Queen Victoria that stands in front of Buckingham Palace. Webb was also responsible for refacing the entrance front of the Palace in 1913. Renowned for his charm and courtesy, Webb’s huge ginger moustache completely obscured his mouth, giving the impression of secretiveness. In 1924, Webb was injured in a traffic accident while returning home to 19 Queen Anne’s Gate from the Royal Academy annual dinner, and never really recovered. In the late 1920s he moved from Queen Anne’s Gate to 1 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park, where he died in 1930.


Queen Victoria Memorial


The Mall towards Admiralty Arch

For more than a century, Queen Anne’s Gate had been lit by gas lamps, but when conversion to electricity came along; Westminster city council opted for clear tungsten lighting and fitted the lamps into old reconditioned square-panelled “Windsor” lanterns. To this day the street remains lit in an unobtrusive and unpretentious manner, as befits its character.

Queen Anne style refers to the period of English architecture during the reign of Queen Anne (1702–14), when the English Baroque style of Wren, Vanbrugh, Archer, and Hawksmoor came to maturity, notably with Vanbrugh's Blenheim Palace, Oxon. (1705–25), and Nicholas Hawksmoor's London churches (e.g. Christ Church, Spitalfields of 1714–29). Domestic architecture of the time was derived from Carolean and Dutch precedents: in London, for example, houses were mainly faced with red brick, had tall sash-windows and canopy-like timber door-cases, while roofs became flatter and hidden behind parapets. Plainness and dignified restraint marked the domestic architecture in Britain and the American Colonies, and were influential virtues appreciated by later generations, especially from c.1860 to c.1890 and again in C20.


Crown on ceremonial flagpole along The Mall

The continuation of Queen Anne’s Gate, Old Queen Street, also refers to Queen Anne as she was known as the “Old Queen.” In fact she merely looked old as she died at the age of 49 having suffered no less than 14 miscarriages. She was succeeded by Georg, elector of Hanover who anglicised his name as George I and was the first of the 4 George’s who gave us the Georgian Period (1715 – 1830). My favourite Trivial Pursuit question is “what speech defect did George I suffer from?” the answer being that he couldn’t speak English!

Today, along with Church Row in Hampstead the street contains London’s oldest occupied houses but as they typically change hands from £4 million to £8 + (facing the park) it is now the home of the new plutocrats such as Sting and Camilla Sainsbury and her husband the Northern Ireland Secretary, Shaun Woodward. As we say in these parts "it ain't Hinckley!"


55, Broadway closing off one end of Queen Anne's Gate

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/give-my-regards-to-55-broadway.html

Woolpack, Stoke Mandeville

Sad to tell you that there has been a 50% reduction in drinking in Stoke Mandeville since the weekend. That is to say a popular restored local pub The Woolpack burnt down in the small hours of Saturday morning which means there is only one other pub, The Bull left in the village. There is a third pub within the Parish boundaries The Bell but as that is a half mile away I’m not counting this. So a major crisis for the drinking (and eating) classes in our village. The reaction on a local notice board sums it up;

“Disaster!..............This pub has been almost completely destroyed by fire this morning 26 April 2009. This is a terrible loss to the local community.”

The local paper The Bucks Herald reports;

“THE Woolpack pub and restaurant in Stoke Mandeville has been destroyed by a huge fire. he building was described by Bucks Fire and Rescue as 100 per cent damaged by the blaze. Fire fighters were called to the pub, in Risborough Road, at 3.37am on Sunday morning.

It took more than four hours for the fire to be extinguished, and crews are likely to be at the scene for 'some considerable time' yet. Gas cylinders were removed from the two-storey building. Ten crews from Aylesbury, Winslow, Princes Risborough, High Wycombe, Great Missenden and Amersham attended the scene.”


The Woolpack the morning after


Bucks finest at the scene

The pub was very nicely restored a few years ago and developed a “gastro pub” reputation for excellent food. It had a “cosy” designer interior with a welcoming fireplace, a thatched roof and an adjacent duck pond stocked with our local Aylesbury Ducks. Fire is a major risk with thatched roofs for once it catches hold it continues to burn within the deep thatch. Traditional houses were of wychert (flint / straw / earth) construction with characteristic "dog ear" thatched roofs which over sailed by at least two feet to keep running water off the walls. There are still many wychert and thatch buildings as well as later wood frame and infill thatched cottages throughout Bucks and in Stoke Mandeville village.


Thatched cottage in Stoke Mandeville

Most thatch used in England is made of long wheat straw grown especially for the purpose, these days usually imported from Romania or Bulgaria rather than grown in Norfolk. The straw is built up in layers. After about 40 to 50 years, the top layer is stripped off and replaced. Some very old houses still have a bottom layer of straw at least 600 years old.

The pubs website carries the notice;

"Severe fire has devastated The Woolpack and the pub is now closed until further notice. We have been unable to contact anyone who has already made a reservation with us as our booking register perished in the blaze and we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please join our mailing list and we will invite you to our re-opening party in the Autumn."

http://www.woolpackstokemandeville.co.uk/

This other review gives you an idea of the excellent atmospherics at The Woolpack when it was open;


Pub Garden


The Bar

“Very busy pub now that the "Festive Season" is upon us with groups/parties having their Christmas bash. The menu is fairly extensive and will cater for most tastes and changes every few months. Well served drinks. There's always plenty of atmosphere in this pub, can't explain why but its there. Now that winter is upon us there is also a welcoming fire. If like my husband your are over 6' tall you will have to duck in the bar/fire area. All the staff are helpful and friendly except one guy who always comes over as a bit surly but he doesn't detract from the ambience of the place.

Good food/drinks from this highly recommended pub. It is one of a chain but that for once isn't a problem, it shares the same group as the Ferry Inn Cookham and another pub in Wargrave whose name escapes me.”


An Aylesbury Duck (without orange sauce)

So let’s hope the owner’s are able to resurrect this much loved local pub phoenix like from the ashes of this disastrous fire and our community once again has this hostelry as a meeting place and centre of village life. In the meantime we won’t be able to savour old English cider in the garden this summer whilst watching Mrs. Duck lead her little ducklings across the road so the search for a replacement is on! In the meantime expect more sober offerings from your Blogmaster!


The resurected Woolpack?

Kraków – The Heart of Poland

Kraków’s destiny was to be a great city at the heart of Europe and it is very much the centre of Mittel Europa. The city was created by trade where the routes from the south to the Baltic converge with the routes from the East to the West. And Kraków is also the heart of Poland, a country which has disappeared from the maps 3 times in history and in the 20th century alone this city experienced Austrian rule as the capital of Galicia, General Piłsudski’s flawed military dictatorship in the inter-war period, the Nazi invasion and occupation which saw one fifth of the population die and the years of Soviet dominated totalitarianism before regaining its rightful place as an independent nation again.


Dominican Church

Kraków is the fascinating spiritual, cultural and educational capital of Free Poland and was the actual capital and seat of the Polish Kings for over 400 years. It is a city wrapped in legend which in its vitality captures the greatness and strength of Poland and in its melancholy the unspeakable suffering and cruelty which it has witnessed. For centuries Kraków was the capital of Poland, the seat of kings, drawing great scholars and artists from the whole world. It is their talents and imagination we must thank for the city’s rich legacy of unique historical relics, which reflect the most important trends in European culture.

A city forged in battle, war, conquest and fate, Kraków is in many respects the most Polish of all this nation’s cities. The ancient seat of kings and intelligentsia comes steeped in legend and myth, and evokes the most fanciful of images, from dragons occupying the catacombs of Wavel, to Tartar hordes repelled at the gates, to an earnest Vladimir Lenin plotting revolution while sitting in the city’s cafes. The city has much of interest. The renaissance Royal Castle at Wavel, the gothic St Mary’s Basilica, the historical trade pavilions of the Cloth Hall, the former separate Jewish city of Kazimierz, and even the Nowa Huta district, absorbed by Kraków together with its socialist-realist, industrial architecture, are all places which make a visit to Kraków extremely worthwhile.


Kraków cafe

Kraków has always been, in many respects, a charmed city. With a history that dates back to the 4th century settlement of Wavel Hill, Kraków has fortuitously avoided destruction since the pesky Mongols stopped bullying the area in the 13th century, growing into one of the most prominent cities in Central Europe. The most important city in Poland not to come out of World War II looking like a trampled Lego set, even the Soviets failed to leave their mark on the enchanted city centre during 45 years of supervision, forced to erect their grey communist Utopia in the outlying suburb of Nowa Huta. As a result, Kraków is today one of the most beautiful showpieces of Eastern Europe – a claim validated by its historic centre’s inclusion on the first ever UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978, along with the nearby Wielicka Salt Mine and only ten other places in the world. A city of majestic architectural monuments, cobbled thoroughfares, cultural treasures, timeless courtyards, priceless artworks and legendary beer cellars and gardens, Kraków’s historic centre is the pride of Poland.

To understand the importance of Kraków to Poland’s sense of nationhood you have to understand the tortured history of a country which was once great but was wiped off the maps of Europe by surrounding powers. Austria, Prussia and Russia imposed the first partition of Poland in 1772-73. The constitution of May 3, 1791, restored hereditary monarchy and reforms the political system. The constitution is the second democratic constitution in the world (after the USA’s), but is short-lived. Prussia and Russia carry out a second partition of Poland in 1792-93. One year later, in 1795, Austria, Prussia and Russia impose a third partition of Poland and Kraków becomes part of Austria.


Franciscan church

Between 1807-15, Napoleon establishes the semi-independent Duchy of Warsaw which includes Kraków. After Napoleon’s defeat and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Poland is partitioned anew with a large part going to Russia. The Republic of Kraków is established as an independent entity for a short period between 1815-1846, but the city is eventually absorbed into the Austrian partition.

After WWI, the partitioning powers of Germany, Austria and Russia collapse and the independent Second Polish Republic arises. In 1918, the Austrian army in Kraków disarms and Poland regains independence on November 11 after 146 years of foreign occupation. WWII begins in 1939 with the September 1 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the September 17 invasion by the Soviet Union. On September 6, 1939, the Nazis take over and begin their occupation in Kraków. On November 6, Jagiellonian University professors and other Kraków intellectuals are arrested and transported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1941, the Jewish ghetto in Podgórze is established. As well as killing one fifth of the Polish population during WW11 the racist state of Nazi Germany commits the greatest mass murders of the modern era on Polish soil (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/auschwitz-birkenau.html ) and enslaves most of the adult male population as forced labourers from the “inferior races.” By the end of the war the Polish nation is deeply traumatised.

From 1945, Kraków undergoes ‘Sovietisation’. All property and businesses are nationalised, organised religion comes under attack and opposition leaders are imprisoned. The history of post-war Poland through 1989 consists of the distribution of power by the USSR to chosen individuals and the Soviets’ attempt to maintain their hold. Poland, however, did not take well to Soviet domination, as even Stalin said that implementing communism in Poland was like trying to put a saddle on a cow. The effect was a constant effort by the Poles to claim and practice their independence. Poland, for example, is the only formerly Communist-reigned country whose religious practices and churches weren’t severed, restricted or all together destroyed. The beauty of Kraków is tarnished by forced industrialization such as the monstrous steelworks of Nowa Huta (New Factory) constructed in the late 1940s. The factory and surrounding blocks of workers’ residences, built on top of Kraków’s best farming soil, is the USSR’s obvious attempt to undermine Kraków’s cultural and religious intelligence.








Rynek Główny

The layout of Kraków is relatively straightforward. The “Old Town” radiates off the square known as Rynek Główny. This was the largest plaza of medieval Europe and one of the worlds finest with its spectacular landmarks and has remained the hub of the city since the 13th century. The old town is oval shaped and the site of the walls is marked by the Planty. Kraków’s medieval city walls were largely demolished after 1807 save the part with the main gate, its adjoining towers and the great barbican. Fortunately, a green belt of public parks called Planty took up the emptied area of 52 acres in the 1820s.


Planty Kraków

It takes an hour to two hours to walk around the Old Town historical district down the leafy alleys among old trees. And the stroll is the more delightful as Krakow’s ancient buildings reveal their unusual aspects. On the other hand, it appears also a journey through the art of gardening for the Planty ring actually proves to be a chain of some 30 gardens in varied styles. Joining the main town and the seat of the Polish Kings, Wavel Castle, is the Royal Road which was the ceremonial route for the coronations and funerals of the monarchs. Continue beyond Wavel and you will cross over what was once a bed of the Vistula River and is now a tramway and a park to arrive in the Kazimierz where for hundreds of years a unique and successful Jewish and Christian culture flourished. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/jewish-krakow.html ).


Vistula

It is often compared to Prague in the guides due to it being a medieval city overlooked by a castle. However in truth the Vistula is not the Vltava and Kraków largely turns its back on its river. Nor indeed does it have the same critical mass and variety of the districts of Prague nor its baroque exuberance, Kraków can appear sullen by comparison. So, let us not make spurious comparisons but enjoy and explore this city for its own uniqueness, a vibrant young university city which is in every sense the Heart of Poland.




The Cloth Hall (Sukiennice)

Most essential sites can be seen while taking a walk on what is known as the Royal Road which starts at Floriańska Gate and leads into the Market Square, The Rynek. Take a small diversion at the start to the Czartoryski Museum (ul. Św. Jana 19) where you will find one of only five Da Vinci paintings on display in the world – the Lady with an Ermine. Getting back onto the Royal Route, the Market Square was originally designed in 1257, the year Kraków was awarded its charter and the grid like layout of the old town and its central square has changed little in the years that have followed. Measuring 200 x 200m, the Rynek ranks as one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. It is here that you will find two of Krakow’s defining buildings – The Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and St. Mary’s Basilica (Bazylika Mariacka).




St. Mary’s Basilica (Bazylika Mariacka)

Tartar invasions of the 13th century left the original St. Mary’s Basilica in a heap of ruins and construction began on St. Mary’s using the existing foundations. It doesn’t matter how many times you see it, the altarpiece, stained glass windows of the nave, and the blue, starred ceiling will take your breath away. The magnificent altarpiece was for 12 painstaking years the principal work of the 15th century German artist Veit Stoss (aka Wit Stwosz), and depicts the Virgin Mary’s Quietus among the apostles. Surrounding the altar are polychrome paintings by Matejko, Mehoffer and Wyspiański. Several local legends are attached to St. Mary’s. The architect of the smaller tower murdered his brother (the architect of the taller), apparently jealous that his structure was shorter and less elaborate. Racked with guilt he then committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of the cathedral. Nowadays the taller tower is home to one of Kraków’s most enduring traditions. The bugle call played on the turn of every hour apparently takes its origins from an event in 1241. Having spotted invading Tartar forces on the horizon, a lone fire watcher in the tower started playing his trumpet to alert the habitants of Kraków. He was shot with an arrow in his neck, abruptly cutting off the tune mid-melody, but the town was roused from its sleep and defended itself. In honour of this event, seven local firemen now have task of tooting the tune every hour. The first written mention of the tradition dates back to 1392, though a local magazine recently claimed the whole custom was invented by an American in 1929. Attending a service in the Basilica you are impressed with the devoutness of the Polish people. The church is full to overflowing and throughout the mass penitents knell at the confessionals on either side. The church in its Brick Gothic glory betrays the town’s Hanseatic connections but where you see churches like this in Germany, Latvia and Sweden the walls are plain white for they were stripped of their decoration at the Reformation. Here at St. Mary’s you see Brick Gothic in originalis with every surface painted in colour, the heavens represented by the golden stars on the high vaulted roof and everywhere surrounding Catholic iconography in its gilded gaudy richness, statues of the saints, stations of the cross, glowing altars in side chapels and the kaleidoscope of the stained glass windows. It is glorious and joyful as no doubt was intended.


Kraków Map

Poland’s most historic city, currently weighing in with 11 major theatres and 30 museums, Kraków has always been the ‘Cultural Capital’ of Poland, and bore that banner on behalf of all Europe back in 2000. Galleries include Bunkier Sztuki (the Art Bunker), Starmach and Pauza. Classical music fans will be spoilt for choice at the Philharmonic and Kraków Opera, while those who favour something more contemporary should beat a track to Rotunda and Loch Ness. The cultural depth of the city is easily revealed by the range of its festival calendar, with annual standouts like the Street Theatre Festival, Jewish Culture Festival and the Kraków Film Festival, offset by more eccentric endeavours like the annual Dragon and Dachsund Parades (respectively), the Pierogi Festival and Juwenalia (student mayhem!).

The National Museum was granted its first statute in 1883 and was created as a municipal institution to avoid control by the then occupying powers in Vienna. The museum’s mission is to protect the nation’s legacy by promoting world and Polish art particularly that of the Kraków artistic community. It is Krakow’s if not Poland’s most impressive museum with impressive permanent exhibitions which are displayed alongside an ever-changing calendar of temporary exhibitions.


The Royal Road




All Saints Kraków

Continuing down the Royal Route takes you along ul. Grodzka where you pass the church of St. Peter and Paul with its impressive statues of the 12 apostles guarding its front boundary. Moving off to your right, fans of the late Pope John Paul II should take a walk around his former residence nowadays housing the Archdiocesan Museum (ul. Kanonicza 19-21). You then come to Wavel Castle, the defining landmark of the city, and itself worthy of several hours of exploration. For Poles this castle and cathedral complex is a symbol of national strength and patriotism; the ancient home of kings, and the material embodiment of Polish resistance and culture. Perched on top of a 50m-high rock on the edge of old town, it is today remarkably intact and accessible to visitors, though in an effort to preserve the exhibits only a limited number of visitors are allowed to enter each day.


Wavel Cathedral






Wavel

The glorious ensemble that is Wavel, perched on top of the hill of the same name immediately south of the Old Town, is by far the most important collection of buildings in Poland. A symbol of national pride, hope, and self-rule and not least of all fierce patriotism, Wavel offers a uniquely Polish version of Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey rolled into one. A gorgeous assortment of predominantly Romanesque, Renaissance and Gothic architecture dating from around the 14th century onwards, visiting Kraków and not seeing Wavel is like playing tennis without a ball.
The scene of the crowning of almost every Polish king and queen throughout history, the current Wavel Cathedral is the third to be built on the site. The first cathedral was built of wood, probably around 1020, but certainly after the founding of the Bishopric of Kraków in 1000 A.D. Destroyed by fire it was replaced by a second cathedral that subsequently burnt down again. The current building was consecrated in 1364 and built on the orders of Poland’s first king to be crowned at Wavel, Władysław the Short (aka. Władysław the Elbow-high, 1306-1333), who was crowned among the charred rubble of its predecessor in 1319. Considered the most important single building in Poland, Wavel’s extraordinary Cathedral contains much that is original, although many glorious additions have been made over the centuries. Arguably not as stunning as that of its cousin St. Mary’s in the Rynek, the interior of Wavel Cathedral more than makes up for its visual shortcomings thanks to the sheer amount of history packed inside. At its centre is the imposing tomb of the former Bishop of Kraków, St. Stanisław (1030-1079), a suitably grand monument dedicated to the controversial cleric after whom the Cathedral is dedicated. Boasting 18 chapels, all of them about as ostentatious as you’re ever likely to see, of particular interest is the 15th-century Chapel of the Holy Cross, found to the right as you enter and featuring some wonderful Russian murals as well as Veit Stoss’ 1492 marble sarcophagus to Kazimierz IV.


Plac Nowy


Kazimierz

Further on is Kazimierz, the district that housed Kraków’s Jews for some 500 years. In the last decade it has been rediscovered, and its hollowed-out Jewish culture gradually reintroduced. Peeling façades and wooden shutters hide dozens of smoky cafes, each one affecting an air of pre-war timelessness. This is an area of Kraków that cannot be missed. Crossing the river will take you to the Podgórze district, the site of the former Jewish Ghetto. Today fragments of the Ghetto wall can be viewed, as can the sight of Oskar Schindler’s factory (ul. Lipowa 4) which is scheduled to open as a proper museum in autumn 2009. There’s more to the historic Jewish quarter than cemeteries and synagogues. Lying between shops selling buttons and spanners, you’ll find the heart of Krakow’s artsy character. Peeling façades and wooden shutters hide dozens of smoky cafes, each one affecting an air of pre-war timelessness. Alternative, edgy and packed with oddities this is an essential point of interest to any visitor.

While Kraków’s main square, Rynek Główny, makes all the postcards and photographs, it is Plac Nowy in Kazimierz that has emerged as the spiritual centre of Kraków sub-culture. Lacking the splendour of the Old Town, Plac Nowy is, if anything, something of an eyesore – a collection of unkempt buildings surrounding a concrete square filled with chipped green market stalls and rat-like pigeons flapping about. If you want something completely different from the Old Town, however, here it is. Kraków is split by the river Vistula (Wisła). At 1,047km it is Poland’s longest river and flows into the Bay of Gdańsk (Zatoka Gdańska).

Immortalised by Thomas Keneally’s book ‘Schindler’s Ark’, and then later in the Spielberg epic ‘Schindler’s List’, Oskar Schindler is a name synonymous with Kraków. A hard-drinking, profiteering playboy, Schindler does not fit the standard mould for a hero, though neither was he the typical Nazi. Credited with saving 1.200 Jews his actions continue to serve as an example and inspiration. Born on April 28th, 1908 in what is now Svitavy, Czech Republic, Schindler enjoyed a privileged upbringing and was a childhood friend with the Jewish family residing next door. The 1930s economic crisis saw his family firm slide into bankruptcy, and like so many disaffected German’s he signed up to the Nazi party.


Schindler Factory

Hot on the heels of the invading German army Schindler found himself arriving in Kraków in 1939 where he took charge of a formerly Jewish-owned enamel factory. Motivated by greed he principally employed cut-price Jewish labour, and involved himself in the thriving black market. Living a careless, lavish lifestyle his world and motives appear to have changed after witnessing the emptying of the Podgórze ghetto. Both Keneally and Spielberg pay particular importance to his fascination with the plight of a small girl dressed in a red cape and Schindler would later claim, ‘Beyond this day, no thinking person could fail to see what would happen. I was now resolved to do everything in my power to defeat the system.’

He arranged for workers housed in the notorious Płaszów camp to be moved to his factory, shielding them time and time again from deportation and death through bribery and cunning. With the war coming to a close, and ‘his Jews’ facing the prospect of death marches and gas chambers, he miraculously managed to persuade Nazi authorities to relocate his factory and his workers to Brunlitz. Estimates suggest he spent four million marks during the war on protecting his workers, with his wife even selling her jewellery so as to provide funds for medicines and food. Moreover, in the seven months he spent as director of a shell factory in Brunlitz, not one usable shell left the production line.



Following the war he emigrated to Argentina with his wife to settle as a farmer, though by 1957 he was declared bankrupt and returned to Germany alone. Financial woes were to blight him for the rest of his life. Regarded as a traitor to the fatherland he was cold shouldered by Germans and more business ventures fell by the wayside. By the time of his death in 1974 he was fully dependent on the charity of those he had saved. Buried in Jerusalem, his acts of courage have been honoured by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Amongst Nations. Schindler sights in Kraków include the house he lived in at ul. Starszewskiego 7, before moving permanently into his factory on ul. Lipowa 4.


Nowa Huta

No visitor can leave Kraków without being struck by its beauty. Almost overwhelming at times it’s a city of pristine townhouses and cobbled alleys. Feminine in its touch it has none of the brutal rotting concrete horror shows of Warsaw, or so you’d think. But fans of communist architectural genius need not panic. Of course there’s the Socialist Realist city of Nowa Huta close by, but there’s also three equally amazing abandoned oddities within the city limits. First off there’s the Skeletor (szkieletor) tower rising above rondo Mogilska . This 22 storey structure is rated the tallest building in the city, and is a remarkable reminder of the follies of communism. The 91 metre tower has never been occupied, standing empty for over a quarter of a century. Originally designed in 1968 to serve as a congress hall and office block work commenced in 1975, with local authorities pressuring architects to make it as tall as possible. Another eight floors were hastily added to the original blueprint, with a TV studio, hotel and panoramic terrace all part of the master plan. Alas, Poland’s economic crisis hit soon after and all work on it was abandoned in 1979, never to be resumed. Today the monster stands fenced off from the public, a ghostly reminder of the golden dawn promised by the nation’s leaders. Recently acquired by GD&K and Verity Developments it’s more than likely that the coming years will finally see it transformed into something completely glittery. In the meantime don’t miss a visit to this astonishing white elephant.


Skeletor Tower

Next up on your tour of forgotten Kraków is what the Forum Hotel (ul was once Marii Konopnickiej) described as ‘a legacy of the era of Soviet hospitality’. You’ll know why when you visit. Essentially a concrete oblong set on sticks construction on this beauty began in 1978, with the ribbon cutting taking place 11 years later. Even still when it was unveiled in 1989 it came to be regarded as one of the most futuristic buildings in Kraków. Awarded four stars the hotel featured perks unknown in 80s Kraków; air-conditioned rooms, an outdoor electronic clock with temperature displays, swimming pool, minigolf and casino. Bond would have loved snooping round these corridors. Having passed from the Orbis brand to the Sofitel in 2001 the hotel was closed at the end of 2002, apparently because of a construction fault that led to frequent flooding of the basements. Today the vacant building is owned by the Wavel-Imos group, and though its future is uncertain it sometimes finds itself rented out to function as Poland’s longest billboard.


St. Stanislaus Skala - Statue of John Paul II

Finally, there’s the Liban Quarry, right by the Kraków Krzemionki train station. Originally established in 1873 as a lime quarry by Liban & Ehrenpreis, the area was utilized by the Nazis as a labour camp for Poles, with Płaszów camp lying adjacent. After the war it saw heavy industrialization, and you’ll still see great big rusting hulks of industrial leftovers lying around. Although the quarry closed in 1990 that didn’t signal the death of Liban. Overgrown and neglected, Liban has become a natural sanctuary for lizards, harriers and waterfowl. It was here in 1993 that much of ‘Schindler’s List’ was filmed in 1993, with half a million dollars invested into recreating Płaszów camp. Amazingly traces of the film set remain visible, including barbed wire fences and gates, and a visit here is a haunting trip through times past.



The enterprising tourist should consider picking up the Kraków Card, a superb piece of plastic that allows you free travel on trams and buses, day and night. The best bit though is free entry to 30 Kraków museums, an impressive saving for the serious tourist. Two and three day cards are available, priced at 50 and 65 złoty respectively and they are valid until midnight on the day indicated on the reverse. For a full list of vendors and benefits visit www.krakowcard.com


Barbican

Crowned in 1384 at the age of eleven, Queen Jadwiga was destined to become the greatest queen in Polish history. Grandniece of Casimir the Great, the last of the Piast Kings of Poland, and the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary, Jadwiga was selected by Polish nobles to end absentee rule by foreign monarchs. Jadwiga of Anjou’s betrothed whom she loved was William of Hungary but she was not allowed marry for love by her Nobles. Their choice was the dreaded Jagiello, ruler of pagan Lithuania, who agreed to unite the vast Lithuanian territories with Poland, release Polish prisoners, defend the united countries against the Order of Teutonic Knights, and lastly, embrace the Catholic faith. The marriage of Queen Jadwiga and King Jagiello starts off more than four centuries of a jointly governed Polish-Lithuanian state. These were the years of Poland’s greatness and to this day Queen Jadwiga is revered as the incarnation of Polish nationhood and a saintly woman who sold her jewels to endow the university named after her husband, the Jagiellonian University. Poles still go to her crypt in Wavel and more than 600 years after her death every day ordinary people place candles and flowers on her tomb. This place is the heart of Polish Nationhood. Jadwiga of Anjou, Queen of Poland was canonised a Saint by another Pole who helped Poland reclaim its sense of nationhood and identity, Pope John Paul II on June 8, 1997.


Collegium Maius

Karol Józef Wojtyła (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) reigned as Pope and Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate. He has been the only Polish pope, and was the first non-Italian since the Dutch pontiff Adrian VI in the 1520s. He was born 40 km from Kraków and his character was forged in response to the daily inhumanity he witnessed during the Nazi occupation. Wavel Castle was the base for Hans Frank, the odious lawyer, who was Governor of Poland under the Nazis with the Western half of Poland in Silesia being annexed to the Reich. Poland felt the full force of Nazi racism with Jews and Gypsies being killed as part of the “Final Solution” and the “Inferior Race” of Poles conscripted into slave labour.

The pope lived for 40 years in and around Kraków, and when he last visited a staggering crowd of 2.5 million gathered at Błonie field. As a youth, Wojtyła was an athlete and often played football (soccer) as a goalkeeper; he was also a supporter of Polish club Cracovia Kraków. His formative years were influenced by numerous contacts with the vibrant and prospering Jewish community of Wadowice. School football games were often organised between teams of Jews and Catholics, and Wojtyła would voluntarily offer himself as a substitute goalkeeper on the Jewish side if they were short of players.



As an 18-year-old-student, he took spartan quarters at ul. Tyniecka 10, just across from the Grunwaldzki Bridge. A plaque honours his darting presence in basement room of the house. In those days he was known as quite a sports fanatic: an avid swimmer, skier and an adept goalkeeper, it was during a spell studying in London that he began following the (mis)fortunes of Fulham football club. Upon graduation in 1938 he entered the Jagiellonian University to study Polish language and literature. In September 1939 Poland fell to Nazi Germany, 174 Professors were brutally taken off to a German labour camp (50 never returned) and the University closed. The young Wojtyła spent his days breaking rocks at the Zakrzówek quarry (later at the Solvay chemical factory), his nights studying theology - and in defying Nazi edict by performing in underground theatre. The first non-Italian pontiff in more than 400 years heard mass every morning at the Church of St. Stanisław Kostka (ul. Konfederacka 6). He would preach his second mass there on November 3, 1946. The day before he delivered his first in the Crypt of St. Leonard, underneath Wavel Cathedral. Between 1958 and 1963 he resided at ul. Kanonicza 19, now the archdiocesan museum. His final Kraków home (1963-1978) was the Bishop’s Palace, adjacent to the Basilica of St. Francis on ul. Franciszkańska 3. A statue of a sprightly looking Pope John Paul II stands inside the courtyard.




Archbishops Palace



Karol Wojtyła’s character was formed by living under and resisting two totalitarian systems’s which denied individual’s humanity. Whilst criticised for his conservatism you can understand that war time Kraków led to his condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all uses of capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world. He also campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice. John Paul II has been credited with being instrumental in bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, by being the spiritual inspiration behind its downfall, and a catalyst for "a peaceful revolution" in Poland. Lech Wałęsa, the founder of the ‘Solidarity’ movement, credited John Paul II with giving Poles the courage to rise up. "The pope started this chain of events that led to the end of communism," Wałęsa said. "Before his pontificate, the world was divided into blocs. Nobody knew how to get rid of communism. "He simply said, ‘Do not be afraid, change the image of this land...’ "

“Warsaw, Moscow, Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Sofia and Bucharest have become stages in a long pilgrimage toward liberty. It is admirable that in these events, entire peoples spoke out — women, young people, men, overcoming fears, their irrepressible thirst for liberty speeded up developments, made walls tumble down and opened gates.” ”

— Pope John Paul II (1989)



In Kraków even to non-believers he is respected and revered as the person who in 1989 precipitated the events which lead to Poland reclaiming its nationhood and identity. Opposite the palace where he not just lived as Archbishop and Cardinal but also hid in the basement for six months as a secret seminarian after 6 August 1944, ‘Black Sunday’, when the Gestapo rounded up 8,000 young men in Kraków to avoid an uprising similar to the previous uprising in Warsaw there is a wall by the Franciscan Church. Looking down on this wall is the window where Karol Wojtyła used to speak to the young people of Kraków after Sunday mass and here too each day you will find lanterns and flowers laid in memory of the city’s favourite son just as you see in the Cathedral on the hill of Wavel above the town at the tomb of a Queen who also reclaimed Polish nationhood. This is the Heart of Poland and it still beats strong in tribute to these resilient people.

I've relied upon and quoted from a number of excellent local resources in compiling this piece including;

Jewish Kraków
www.jewishkrakow.net

Kraków site devoted to Jews from Kraków
www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/krakow/

Kraków Info
www.krakow-info.com

Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute
www.galiciajewishmuseum.org/

Cracow Life
www.cracow-life.com/poland/

The Gurkha Justice Campaign

The Sage has a modest proposition for his regular Blogistas. The modest proposition is this; that after the redoubtable defender of our civil rights, Shami Chakrabarti the Director of Liberty, the most wonderful woman in Britain is undoubtedly Joanna Lumley who has fronted an unstinting campaign to attain decent treatment for former Gurkha soldiers. Now the Celtic Sage is hardly an admirer of British militarism or imperialism but there is much unfinished business out there from the days of Empire which indicates that “Perfidious” and “Albion” are still two words which go together. Witness the shameful dispossession of the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the abandonment of their allies against the Japanese the brave Karen people of Burma, their ignoring of the oppression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence and now their shabby racist treatment of ex Gurkha soldiers and their families.

On September 30th 2008 last Gurkha war heroes thought they had won the right to stay in Britain after the Government was ordered to recognise its 'debt of honour' to them. Veterans wept with joy and bellowed the traditional war cry of 'Ayo Gorkhali!' - 'the Gurkhas are coming!' - After the landmark judgment. More than 2,000 former Gurkhas were refused permission to live in the UK because they had retired before July 1, 1997.

Joanna Lumley said then on the steps of the High Court in London: "This day gives our country the chance to right a great wrong and wipe out a national shame that has stained us all." Now in the past week she has articulated her disgust at the Home Office's new rules set out for Gurkhas to live in Britain. The Government says around 4,000 Gurkhas and some 6,000 spouses and their children will benefit from this - Gurkha supporters say only around 100 will be allowed to settle.



The actress, who is a long-standing campaigner for the cause, said she was very surprised by the decision. "The Gurkhas cannot meet these new criteria. It makes me ashamed of our government. We will fight on. We don't stop. This has set us back in its obtuse lack of understanding of any of the problems facing these men or, I think, of the conditions facing soldiers. I think this is inexplicable. I can only think they have no notion of the armed services. They have no direct experience of what it is."

She vowed to continue the campaign, saying: "This is a setback. We simply regroup and start again. We don't give up the battle just because one of the tactics has failed." Martin Howe, of Howe & Co solicitors, acting on behalf of the Gurkhas said: "This is nothing less than an act of treachery. It has scant regard to the High Court judgment of last September. It has scant regard to the wishes of the people up and down the length and breadth of the country.”

One story above all illustrates the shabby treatment of former Gurkha soldiers. An old soldier: 84-year old Tul Bahadur Pun, who earned his VC in Burma on June 23, 1944, after almost all his comrades were wiped out, was originally denied entry to the UK. The 84-year-old's heroic actions won him royal admirers - he was invited to the Queen's Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother.



Indian-born actress Lumley, 61, told how Mr Pun risked his life in 1944 to rescue her father, Captain James Lumley, from Japanese machine gunners. She told the Daily Mirror: "I've known the name Bahadar Pun since I was four. He was an absolute hero in my house. Father was a Chindit alongside him in Burma and he showed us the picture of Mr Pun receiving his Victoria Cross with pride. I don't know exactly what happened on that battlefield in 1944 because war was so grim back then that few Chindits ever spoke about what happened to them. But what I do know is that it was his bravery that saved so many lives, including my dad's. We owe this man a huge debt. It's disgraceful he could be treated so badly by our government."

The Home Office barrister said that merely (sic) winning a Victoria Cross in battle was not sufficient connection with the UK to allow them to settle there. This attitude was condemned by Mr. Justice Blake as "Irrational, inconsistent, unlawful and lacking in clarity" – when he ruled against the UK Government on a law that barred Gurkha soldiers, who served the UK in the Falklands and the Gulf War, from settling in Britain. The campaign (http://www.gurkhajustice.org.uk ) had indeed referred to the French movie Days of Glory and the Gurkha's used the French example to back their campaign asking for the same pension rights as other British soldiers. ( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/days-of-glory-indignes.html )

The Home Office sparked outrage when it originally declined Tul Bahadur Pun a settlement visa telling him: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK." When after extensive protests, including from many MP’s and serving military figures it reversed its decision, The Home Office statement said; "This decision was not taken lightly and reflects the extraordinary nature of this case, in particular Mr Pun's heroic record in service of Britain which saw him awarded the Victoria Cross. It is entirely right that this record should not only be recognised but honoured." They added: "We have also taken into consideration his current medical condition."


Tul Bahadur Pun in 1953, nine years after he won the VC

Joanna Lumley was born in Kashmir and spent her early life in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Her father served for 30 years with the 6th Gurkha Rifles, and was a Chindit in Burma; his admiration and affection for these soldiers of Nepal was shared by all who served with them. Joanna was a model in the sixties and started acting in 1968, on screens large and small, and on the stage. She has been a Bond girl, was nearly bitten by Dracula, saved the world with the New Avengers, turned time back in Sapphire and Steel and raised a glass or two in Absolutely Fabulous. Her documentaries have taken her to Bhutan, Sarawak, Kenya, Indonesia, Norway and a desert island, where she survived as Girl Friday. Married, with one son and two granddaughters, she lives in London.

Joanna Lumley has issued this personal statement after the issue of the new government rules on Gurkha entitlements;

“Gurkhas are fighting for Justice. They want the same terms and conditions as their UK and Commonwealth counterparts. Britain has had no greater friends than the Gurkhas. They have served all across the world in the defence of our Country for nearly 200 years. Over 45,000 died in the two World Wars as part of the British Army. They are still fighting in the British Army today.

You may have seen in the media that the Gurkhas have been fighting in Parliament and the Courts. Step by step, things are getting better - but there is a long way to go. The Government decision of 25th April 2009 on Gurkha settlement rights is yet another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country.

Only a tiny fraction of the Gurkhas who retired before 1997 will win settlement rights under the new policy. A Gurkha will have to have served 20 years or more or won one of a handful of medals: the big majority of Gurkhas served for 15 years under standard army policy.

The campaign for full Gurkha Justice will now be taken back into Parliament and the courts. The Government needs to know they will have a huge campaign against them who will commit to righting this wrong.

Please sign up to the campaign below. We will keep in touch with you about how you can help: there is now much that needs to be done.

Join me in the campaign: together, we can finally right this wrong.”

Joanna Lumley

www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

The Gurkhas indeed won a famous victory in their landmark case last October. However, the judge was only able to declare the current policy that excludes pre 1997 Gurkhas from the right to live in the UK as "unlawful".

Only the UK government can put in place the new policy that the British people want – the right of all Gurkhas to settle in the UK irrespective of the date of retirement. What the UK Government has done is come forth with a shabby fudge to pay lip service to the court’s ruling, and brought in new rules that still discriminate against pre 1997 retirees.

I’m sure Joanna Lumley and the Gurkha Justice campaign are right to continue fighting for the UK to meet its moral duty to the Gurkha’s and I’m equally sure that in bringing forth this shabby proposal the government has greatly misjudged public opinion. I’ve seen Joanna campaigning in Parliament Square and she is not doing this as some fashionable luvvie campaign. Rather she deserves our support and admiration as she is acting out a deep sense of integrity and moral commitment that Britain needs to treat those who have served it with respect. Let's all support the Gurkha Justice campaign in overturning this wrong.


Joanna Lumley and Tul Bahadur Pun VC

The Law Exposed

The policing of the G20 protests in London earlier this month has dominated the headlines over the past couple of weeks, with accusations of officers being heavy-handed towards protesters. More than 180 complaints stemming from the protests have been received by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It has launched three investigations into allegations of assault, including one minutes before the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson. Much of the public concern has been based on images of the policing operation including Ian Tomlinson being assaulted and, according to a second autopsy, dying of internal haemorrhaging. The initial Police statement said he had no contact with the Police and died of a heart attack. Public concern has also been fuelled by pictures of officers covering their ID numbers and refusing to allow themselves to be identified, in breach of regulations.

However despite the Police relying on CCTV and extensive videoing of protestors themselves the law in the UK has been changed so you and I could be committing an offence by photographing the Police or even, for instance, Police Officers cars which are habitually illegally parked around New Scotland Yard in Westminster, in areas where you and I would be fined and clamped.

From 16th February 2009 anyone taking a photograph of a police officer could be deemed to have committed a criminal offence. That is because of a new law - Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act - which has come into force. It permits the arrest of anyone found "eliciting, publishing or communicating information" relating to members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers, which is "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". That means anyone taking a picture of one of those people could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to 10 years, if a link to terrorism is proved.


NUJ protest - New Scotland Yard

The law has angered photographers, both professional and amateur, who fear it could exacerbate the harassment they already sometimes face and a group gathered outside New Scotland Yard for a "mass picture-taking session" in protest. The event was organised by the National Union of Journalists. It insisted the right to take pictures in public places is "a precious freedom" that must be safeguarded. NUJ organiser John Toner said: "Police officers are in news pictures at all sorts of events - football matches, carnivals, state processions - so the union wants to make it clear that taking their pictures is not the act of a criminal."

Despite the usual assurances given by the Home Secretary, Whacky Jacqui Smith, at the time there is already evidence of the law being abused. Consider the case of an Austrian visitor who fell foul of the Plods in Walthamstow, London, where suspicious photography ranks high on policing priorities! Like most visitors to London, Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris took several photographs of some of the city's sights, including the famous red double-decker buses. More unusually perhaps, they also took pictures of the Vauxhall bus station, which Matzka regards as "modern sculpture".

But the tourists have said they had to return home to Vienna without their holiday pictures after two policemen forced them to delete the photographs from their cameras in the name of preventing terrorism. Matzka, a 69-year-old retired television cameraman with a taste for modern architecture, was told that photographing anything to do with transport was "strictly forbidden". The policemen also recorded the pair's details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses.

In a letter to the Guardian, Matzka wrote: "I understand the need for some sensitivity in an era of terrorism, but isn't it naive to think terrorism can be prevented by terrorising tourists?" The Metropolitan police said it was investigating the allegations. In a telephone interview from his home in Vienna, Matzka said: "I've never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries." He described his horror as he and his 15-year-old son were forced to delete all transport-related pictures on their cameras, including images of Vauxhall underground station.

"Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the World Wide Web," he said. "But a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks."


Klaus Matzka and his son Loris

The British Journal of Photography recently reported an incident involving a photographer in Cleveland who was stopped by a police officer while taking pictures of ships. He was asked if he was connected to terrorism, which he wasn't, and told his details would be kept on file. A Cleveland police spokeswoman told the journal that "in order to verify a person's actions as being entirely innocent," anyone in "suspicious circumstances" could be asked to explain themselves.

Photojournalist Marc Vallée is among those angry at the law. He specialises in covering protests and fears for the implications of Section 76. "Alarm bells really are ringing," he told the BBC News website. "I know some of it sounds a bit funny. Train spotters being stopped for taking pictures, that sort of thing, but I've spoken to people who've been on their own, at night and they're surrounded by several officers. It can be intimidating.

"It may be that officers are just doing their best with a bad law, but if that's the case, they need guidance to tell them, 'Stop harassing photographers.'" Mr Vallée also pointed out that members of the Royal Family were part of the Armed Forces. "Are we going to be stopped from photographing them?" he said.

The NUJ said some police officers wrongly believed they had the right to delete photographers' images. Other critics, meanwhile, fear the new law could inhibit their right to peaceful, democratic protest. Leo Murray is a spokesman for climate change campaign group Plane Stupid. His members film any direct action they take. "It's outrageous," he told the BBC News website. "It's yet another in a long line of measures designed to erode people's civil liberties. "Being able to film the police has completely changed the way they are able to police our protests. It's made us much, much safer and the risks of a violent confrontation have almost disappeared. If we couldn't film they could act with impunity, they could just mete out violence with the confidence that nobody would find out. There's absolutely no way we are going to observe this ban. If they try to bring charges against us we will fight them in the courts."


The rather wonderful Vauxhall Bus Station

In a statement, Number 10 said that while there were no legal restrictions on taking pictures in public places, "the law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else. So there may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations, inflame an already tense situation, or raise security considerations," it said. Photographers could therefore be asked to "move on" for the safety of themselves or others. "Each situation will be different and it would be an operational matter for the police officer concerned as to what action should be taken," the statement added.

This discretion, however, is what some feel is the key problem with the law. Critics fear the new law could stop them photographing legitimate protests Neil Turner, vice chairman of the British Press Photographers' Association, said he believed there was no intention among senior ranks of the police to prevent legitimate photography. "The problems that we can see arising are with junior officers using the legislation to overcome situations that they find uncomfortable or where they make judgements about photography and don't know how to apply the legislation on the ground," he said.

"We firmly expect that there will be inappropriate uses of the act and that someone will end up in front of a judge before there is some clarity and before the purpose of the act is properly defined." The Metropolitan Police insisted the law was intended to protect counter-terrorism officers and any prosecution would have to be in the public interest. "For the offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists," it said. "Taking photographs of police officers would not, except in very exceptional circumstances, be caught by this offence."

Austin Mitchell MP tabled a motion in the Commons that has drawn on cross-party support from 150 other MPs, calling on the Home Office and the police to educate officers about photographers' rights. Mr Mitchell, himself a keen photographer, was challenged twice, once by a lock-keeper while photographing a barge on the Leeds to Liverpool canal and once on the beach at Cleethorpes. "There's a general alarm about terrorism and about paedophiles, two heady cocktails, and police and PCSOs [police community support officers] and wardens and authorities generally seem to be worried about this."

Photographers have every right to take photos in a public place, he says, and it's crazy for officials to challenge them when there are so many security cameras around and so many people now have cameras on phones. But it's usually inexperienced officers responsible. "If a decision is made to crack down on photographers, it should be made at the top. It's a general officiousness and a desire to interfere with people going about their legitimate business."

But in Britain this sort of attitude is new. So what is the law? "If you are a normal person going about your business and you see something you want to take a picture of, then you are fine unless you're taking picture of something inherently private," says Hanna Basha, partner at solicitors Carter-Ruck. "But if it's the London Marathon or something, you're fine." There are also restrictions around some public buildings, like those involved in national defence. And under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, police officers may randomly stop someone without reasonable suspicion, providing the area has been designated a likely target for an attack.


Police Poster

Child protection has been an issue for years, says Stewart Gibson of the Bureau of Freelance Photographers, but what's happened recently is a rather odd interpretation of privacy and heightened fears about terrorism. "They [police, park wardens, security guards] seem to think you can't take pictures of people in public places. It's reached a point where everyone in the photographic world has become so concerned we're mounting campaigns and trying to publicise this." It seems to be increasing, he says. "There's a great deal of paranoia around but the police are on alert for anything that vaguely resembles terrorism. It's difficult because the more professional a photographer, paradoxically, the more likely they are to be stopped or questioned. "If people were using photos for terrorism purposes they would be using the smallest camera possible."

In May last year, Thames Valley Police overturned a caution issued to photographer Andy Handley of the MK News in Milton Keynes, after he took pictures at the scene of a road accident. Guidelines agreed between senior police and the media were adopted by all forces in England and Wales last year. They state that police have no power to prevent the media taking photos.

They state that "once images are recorded, [the police] have no power to delete or confiscate them without a court order, even if [the police] think they contain damaging or useful evidence."

So, if Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris ever return to London there is no restriction on their taking photos in public places or indeed of the Transport System. London Underground freely allows portable photography on its system provided you do not use a flash. Whilst some find this curious, flashes can trigger fits in epileptics, set off automatic fire alarms and interfere with cameras which are used for security and by the drivers opening and closing doors. However policies are not consistent with for instance Glasgow’s Underground forbidding photography on its system but curiously there is no legal basis for them to do so as even the bylaws have not been amended.

So there you have it in the Great Britain of 2009. How smug we used to feel when tourists were arrested for photographing decrepit Soviet barracks in Eastern Europe in the 1980s or English plane spotters were arrested in Greece in 2001. Serves them right for travelling to dodgy countries, we used to say, because it could not happen here in the Land of the Free!

Chiltern Spring

Spring is always a delightful time in the Chiltern Hills when the snowdrops, primroses, bluebells and daffodils appear in the undulating wooded hills. So we found ourselves on this sunny Sunday morning heading across the lovely countryside to two of my favourite places, Bledlow Ridge and the delightful preserved GWR branch line at Chinnor. Bledlow's main residence is Bledlow Manor, the family home of Lord Carrington who opens its wonderful grounds and sculpture garden for charity. Opposite the manor is a wonderful old Church and beside it the Lyde Garden which is a sunken aquatic garden fed by 14 springs. Lord Carrington generously maintains this lovely enclave and keeps it open to the public at his own expense. A couple of miles beyond Bledlow you come to Chinnor where a group of enthusiastic volunteers maintain part of the old GWR branch line from Princes Risborough to Watlington.


The Chilterns


Cottage being re-thatched

We are overlooked by the Chiltern Escarpment. The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beech woods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. It provides a wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams. Bledlow consists of Bledlow Ridge on the top of the escarpment and then a half mile below the village of Bledlow clumped around the Manor House and Church.

"Bledlow is the most western of the villages which stand on the northern spur of the Chilterns, and one of the most attractive. It is charmingly placed just above the low-lying meadows which stretch across the Thame Valley to Haddenham. A large, straggling village shaded by elms; behind it rises Wain Hill, some of it all woodland, the rest bare down."

[Buckinghamshire, by E. S. Roscoe]


Bledlow Church

Holy Trinity Church at Bledlow is situated in the centre of the village, and is built of flint with dressings of limestone and a little clunch. The Nave is probably part of an original 12th century church on the site, which from appearances probably once had transepts and a central tower. The aisles were added circa 1200 and later in the century were widened and lengthened, the Chancel being rebuilt on a larger scale and is now wider than the nave, and the West Tower was added. During the 14th century the South Porch was built and windows were inserted in various parts of the church. In 1909 the whole building was restored.


Bledlow Churchyard

Of especial interest are the nave arcades, which are fine examples of early 13th century work, also the 14th century windows are noteworthy. There are some interesting remains of medieval mural paintings in the North Aisle, particularly that of St. Christopher. The church has a clearstory which has on each side three wide windows of three trefoiled lights under square heads; the inner stonework being possibly of the 13th century, the lintels and outer stonework are modern; on the north side of the clearstory, at the east end, is an outline of a pointed opening, probably connected with the former rude-loft.


Bledlow Manor

In 1927 "The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire" stated as follows:

Bledlow parish lies on the western boundary of Buckinghamshire. It is nearly separated from the other parishes in the Three Hundreds of Aylesbury by a piece of Desborough Hundred, which lies between the parishes of Bledlow and Horsenden. The southern end of the parish lies on the Chiltern Hills, and is called Bledlow Ridge, being between 600 ft. and 800 ft. above the Ordnance datum. The lower Icknield Way runs parallel to the line of the high ground from north-east to south-west, along the north and west sides of the parish, and the village and church stand back from it about half a mile on the lower slopes of the hills. Close to the east end of the church is a steep wooded coombe called the Lyde, in which several springs break out from the chalk and form a small pool. The nearness of the church to the steep banks of the coombe where water from the springs is said to wear away the chalk on which the village stands has suggested a local rhyme;

They that live and do abide
Shall see the church fall in the Lyde,

Fortunately this disaster does not seem very imminent. The brook running from the pool is called the Lyde Brook, and is used for two paper-mills, Bledlow Mill and North Mill. The western boundary of the parish is formed by Cuttle Brook, which runs south to the River Thame. The Lyde Garden contains the source of the river and has dramatic plantings of moisture - loving plants such as primula and astilbe.

An inspired element is the joinery: two bridges, a boarded walkway on stilts and an oriental screen. These were designed by Robert Adams, the landscape architect who worked with the Carringtons on the Manor House garden. They give the garden a Japanese cast, strengthened by bamboos, weeping willows and a charming all-white bird sanctuary at the centre of one of the pools.








The Lyde Garden

The garden is worth a visit at any time of the year as its character and mood changes with the seasons. I first saw the Lyde Garden in spring when the marsh marigolds and irises were in flower, and more recently at dusk with a huge moon gilding the water. Sheeted by frost, the magic is different, and after a fall of snow you feel you have only to shake this unique ravine-in-a-bottle to stir up an instant blizzard.

The higher slopes of the hills are in parts well wooded, and in one of the open spaces, on the north slope of Wain Hill, is the Bledlow Cross, cut in the turf, and visible for miles as a landmark. The village is picturesque, its small houses, surrounded by gardens, lying for the most part along the side of the hill, but there are outlying houses in the lower ground on the side roads which join the Icknield Way.


Bledlow Village

The village's name is Anglo-Saxon and means Bledda's burial mound. In the 10th century the village was recorded as Bleddanhloew; in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Bledelai. The village is situated on the Roman road Icknield Way and is the location where several springs form a small pool called the Lyde.

Opposite the church and The Lyde is Bledlow Manor, dating from the 17th century and early 18th century. It has been the family home of the Carringtons since 1800, the present owner being Lord Carrington, the former Conservative cabinet minister. The garden, which can only be glimpsed from outside, is described in the Good Gardens Guide as "an elegant English garden of exceptional quality". The garden is open by written appointment from May to September, and occasionally for charity. The large yet tranquil garden has been in development since 1969. The garden has been designed by Robert Adam and contains many individual areas including an impressive vegetable garden. There are long herbaceous borders and, to the east of the house a sculpture garden.







Whilst in Bledlow you can hear the whistle of the steam train which travels on the old GWR branch line which has been brought back to life by the enthusiasts of The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway. Originally known as the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway Company, the railway was largely promoted by local land owners following the failure of the planned extension of the Wallingford branch through to Watlington. Construction of the branch was authorised by an Act of Parliament dated 26th July, 1869.



This authorised the construction of the branch as a Light Railway, commencing from the Great Western Railway Station at Princes Risborough and running for a distance of 8 miles 66 chains to a terminus at Pyrton just outside Watlington. On 20th December, 1989, a class 47 diesel (No. 47258) together with 35 hopper wagons made the final journey into Chinnor cement works, with the locomotive sporting a headboard with the legend “Last BR Train on the Watlington Branch”. Maintenance of the branch from Chinnor to the junction with the Thame branch near Princes Risborough was given to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association from January, 1990.


The cement factory which kept the track open








Chinnor Station

The Branch was opened on 15th August, 1872 and had two intermediate stations at Chinnor and Aston Rowant. After opening, the company immediately ran into difficulties and for a period of time the company directors ran the line at their own expense. Finally after being offered the branch on more than one occasion the Great Western Railway acquired it on 1st July, 1883 for the sum of £ 23,000, which was less than half the cost of its construction. Under the ownership of the Great Western Railway, track on the branch was re-laid, the original being in very poor condition laid directly on the chalk. Rail level halts were opened at Bledlow Bridge, Kingston Crossing and Lewknor Bridge in 1906 and Wainhill Crossing in 1925. After the Second World War the passenger traffic on the branch started to fall and by the mid 1950s had fallen to such a level that on 1st July, 1957 the line was closed to passenger traffic.


Real Train Drivers!


Firebox & Controls




GWR Pannier Tank 9682 Built 1949 Swindon

The railway now opens for passenger services in March until Halloween with Santa Specials operating in December. The line currently runs over a 3 ½ mile stretch along the foot of the Chiltern Hills running parallel to the Icknield Way, passing through attractive countryside with some outstanding views across the Vale of Whiteleaf. The aim of the volunteers is to re-open as much of the branch as possible. They have built a replica of the original Station at Chinnor and are working to extend the line into Princes Risborough with connection to the Network Rail station. Services now operate out of Chinnor station, principally at weekends, and run to Thame Junction, a round trip of nearly seven miles.


Carriage Interior


Ticket Office


The Cambrian railway carriage used as the Station Buffet


Station Teddy

The buffet at the station is contained in an old railway carriage and refreshments and snacks including freshly made sandwiches, tea and coffee are available. In addition they operate an on train buffet on many services. The rebuilt station has a newly refurbished gift shop which stocks a wide range of gifts, toys including “Thomas the Tank Engine” items and an extensive range of books on the glory days of railways in Britain.

THE LYDE GARDEN
Bledlow, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.
After the Bledlow village sign, turn right up West Lane. Open all year, daily, dawn to dusk


Signal Box

CHINNOR STATION
Station Approach, Station Road, Chinnor, Oxfordshire, OX39 4ER, England
Talking Timetable: 01844 353535

enquiries@chinnorrailway.co.uk

Also see;

Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/wendover-buckinghamshire.html

West Wycombe Park

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/west-wycombe-park.html

Rupert Brooke and the Chilterns

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/rupert-brooke-and-chilterns.html

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html

A Conspiracy too far?

After recent Police actions in the UK many are asking where is the right to protest? Indeed taken in conjunction with the increase of the Surveillance State (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/05/surveillance-britain.html ) and the creeping increase in arbitrary administrative justice with spot fines and penalties many are concerned at the erosion of civil liberties in a land which claims to be the home of democracy. Lawful protest has become more difficult in the UK with an exclusion zone around Parliament, state sponsored snooping, stopping and detaining protestors on the way to demonstrations and aggressive and deliberately violent “policing” of demonstrations including the tactic of “kettling” or penning up demonstrators for hours on end. Increasingly the Police in the UK are not forming the “independent mind” required of them when they take their Oath of Office but instead of upholding the law they are increasingly setting themselves above the law and becoming attack dogs for vested interests. So where does this leave the Policing consensus for these very expensive and increasingly unaccountable taxpayer funded “Public Servant’s”, sworn and empowered to uphold the “Queen’s Peace?”

Take for instance the recent attempt to widen the Law of Conspiracy. In Nottingham, England 114 possible demonstrators have been arrested, but not charged in connection with a suspected plan to protest at a power station. Where would this tactic have left the woman’s suffragettes, civil rights campaigners or the Ramblers who trespassed on Kinder Scout to establish the right to roam in Britain's countryside? Are these Stasi tactics of anticipating a crime which may or may not be committed a sign Britain is on the slippery slope to a Police State?

Police have defended their decision to arrest 114 environmental campaigners in connection with a suspected plan to protest at a power station. The men and women were held in Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, on Monday and later released on Police bail. Police said they had been planning to cause "prolonged disruption" at Ratcliffe-On-Soar power station. Meanwhile, the BBC has reported that the station's owner E.ON had already warned its staff about possible protests. No-one has been charged in relation to the case.


Ratcliffe-On-Soar power station

In a letter sent to around 17,000 staff employed nationally by E.ON last month, the company's chief executive said protesters had already tried to shut down power stations and get access to the firm's offices over controversial plans for the company's new Kingsnorth coal-powered station. Staff were also sent a leaflet offering personal safety advice and telling them how to handle possible encounters with protesters. This begs the interesting question did the Police form an “Independent Mind” based on their own evidence or did they proceed on the basis of representations from a German owned commercial power generator?

The local Nottinghamshire MP has criticised police for using "SAS-style" tactics during an operation to arrest more than 100 environmental activists before they had even begun protesting. Eco-campaigners and civil liberty groups have questioned the circumstances surrounding the mass arrests, thought to be the largest single pre-emptive raid on a group of demonstrators in British history. Police used more than 200 officers from five forces to arrest 114 men and women in Sneinton, Nottinghamshire, early on Monday morning because they were allegedly preparing to cause "prolonged disruption" to the nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station. Those arrested were found inside the privately owned Iona school, which was closed for the Easter break, and were charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage.



Nottinghamshire Police have defended the raid, saying they believed the protesters intended to engage in an unlawful demonstration that risked shutting down the power plant. Officers found bolt-cutters and locking equipment and suspect that the activists were planning to chain themselves to vital equipment inside the power plant. All those arrested were released on bail yesterday pending further inquiries.
Alan Simpson, the Labour MP for Nottingham South, has questioned the nature of the pre-emptive strike, saying it had serious repercussions for the right to free assembly and had utilised overly heavy-handed tactics. "I am absolutely baffled by the sheer scale of the police operation," he said. "It was very Orwellian. What we saw was over-the-top, smash-and-grab, SAS-style; pre-emptive policing that was massively disproportionate to what was happening on the ground. The scale of policing was what you would expect to be used for a terrorist event or the break-up of a major crime syndicate, not to stop an environmental protest."

Mr Simpson also questioned why it was necessary to smash two double-glazed doors at the Iona school, which has now had to put in new doors and flooring. The school's owners said they had no idea protesters were meeting there. No environmental group has yet claimed responsibility for the planned protest. It is believed groups associated with the Climate Camp network were involved.

More than 200 officers from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and British Transport Police took part in the raid at the Iona School in Sneinton shortly after midnight on Monday. Supt Mike Manley of Nottinghamshire Police said large amounts of equipment had been found, including food and various devices used for climbing, cutting and locking on to machinery. He said: "We think it was a sophisticated attempt to disrupt what we now believe was Radcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. Our information was that it wasn't to be a lawful protest. This was to be a criminal act against a power station. Had that taken place, we would have now been policing a major protest at a major power station."



There were no reported injuries and local residents said handcuffed suspects sang loudly as they were led away. No-one has been charged with any offence. On Tuesday the nursery at Iona School was closed while workmen repaired doors damaged in the raid. The school said it was distressed at the disruption and damage caused, and the group had had no permission or authority to meet there. Officers also said that some of those arrested had links to climate change groups which had protested at Kingsnorth power station in Kent, Heathrow Airport and Drax power station in north Yorkshire. However, police would not name any organisations.

The coal powered power plant which uses old technology and is highly polluting, which is eight miles south-west of Nottingham, has seen protests by environmental campaigners in the past, including members of Eastside Climate Action. Bob Andrews, from the group, denied any connection with the latest incident. However, he said direct action was the only way to bring about a change in energy policy. He said: "We're saying we've got to change policy, and (the government and E.ON) are not doing it. They're not taking the science seriously. It's got to change. Stop burning fossil fuel."


The polluting power of an old technology coal power station

David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, said campaigners' calls to stop burning fossil fuels made no sense. "If you suddenly close down our power stations that would be a suicidal policy. The economy of the UK would be seriously disrupted. And there would be social implications of that. It's a nonsensical approach to the problem."

Police tactics when dealing with protests have been placed under heavy scrutiny in the past two weeks following the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in London. Mr Tomlinson died of a heart attack shortly after apparently being hit and pushed to the ground by a baton-wielding riot officer. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating.

Protest and free speech are crucial parts of political life, with a strong British history, yet a variety of measures undermine them. Laws intended to combat anti-social behaviour; terrorism and serious crime are routinely used against legitimate protesters. Free Speech has been a victim on the 'War on Terror', with offences of 'encouragement' and 'glorification' of terrorism threatening to make careless talk a crime.

What is more surprising is that the Police have previously been found both to be lying in information they released about a similar demonstration at a power plant, also owned by E.On, in Kent in August and prosecutions against demonstrators who had actually entered the plant and scaled the chimneys were thrown out by English Courts. Police minister Vernon Coaker had to apologise for telling Parliament that 70 officers were injured dealing with protests at Kingsnorth power station. His comments came after it was revealed that injuries sustained during policing at the Climate Camp in August included insect stings and heat exhaustion. There were only 12 reportable injuries, according to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Liberal Democrats. More than 1,000 officers were involved in policing the event near Hoo in Kent, a ratio of 2:1 of the 500 demonstrators involved.

According to information obtained by the Liberal Democrat political party, Kent Police officers and staff suffered only 12 reportable injuries, four of which involved direct contact with another person. The minister’s apology came after it was revealed that injuries sustained during policing at the Climate Camp in August included insect stings and heat exhaustion. More than 1,000 officers were involved in policing the event near Hoo in Kent. The Lib Dems said the eight other injuries included being "stung on finger by possible wasp", "officer injured sitting in car" and "officer succumbed to sun and heat". Kent Police confirmed that 12 officers were required to retire from duty because of their injuries.


Kingsnorth activists found to be acting with "lawful cause" by the Courts

The six Greenpeace activists who were charged were then cleared of causing criminal damage during the protest over coal-fired power which breaches Britain’s treaty undertakings on carbon emissions. The activists were charged with causing £30,000 of damage after they scaled Kingsnorth power station in Hoo, Kent. At Maidstone Crown Court Judge David Caddick said the jury had to examine whether protesters had a lawful excuse. The defendants said the protest was lawful because it aimed to prevent damaging emissions. Energy firm E.ON said lives had been put at risk.

So the important question to be answered by the forces of Law and Order and the Crown Prosecution Service is how did they feel entitled to arrest 114 people on suspicion of “Conspiracy to engage in Aggravated Trespass and to Cause Criminal Damage” when in entirely identical circumstances substantive charges have been thrown out by the Courts? The other important question is how, if any of these 114 people who were deprived of their liberty, are actually charged with an offence they can receive a fair trial given the amount of prejudicial comment presented as fact to the media by the Police? Those of us who care about Civil Liberties will be interested in the answers to these questions, if we ever hear them?


Police confining demonstrators during G20 demo, London, 1st April 2009

Birmingham – The centre of England

The Bullring

So, off on Easter Saturday for a leisurely rail trip through some of the lovely countryside of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire from Prince’s Risborough to the city which bills itself as the Heart of England. Birmingham has changed quite dramatically in recent times and the city centre has undergone huge changes. For this trip we went on the more civilised route to Birmingham picking up the train from Marylebone at Prince’s Risborough for a scenic trip through Shakespeare Country and the heritage towns of Warwick and Leamington Spa. Regular Blogistas will know I particularly dislike Euston Station where the alternative and more expensive Virgin Trains depart from but this was not an option on this busy Bank Holiday weekend as once again, disgracefully, Network Rail had been allowed to shut down Britain’s main West Coast railway line just when people would want to travel!

( http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html)


Plaque commemorating the restoration of Moor Street

Another advantage of taking this route is that you arrive in Birmingham not at the soulless 60’s concrete disaster known as New Street Station but at the wonderfully restored Moor Street which was the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) Birmingham Station and has been restored in authentic 30’s style with paintwork in GWR brown and authentic signage. Birmingham Moor Street railway station is one of three main railway stations in the city centre of Birmingham, England. The Grade-II listed building has been partially renovated to its 1930s condition at a cost of £11 million. Original architecture was preserved and some remaining pieces of the old (demolished) Snow Hill station used to further enhance it. Refurbished in 1930s style, the station now has reproduction lamps, clock, seating and signage. Passengers are routed through the old station, which now provides the booking office and ticket area for the new station. Passengers for London-bound trains cross a new footbridge to platform 1. The renovation won the Railway Heritage Trust award for 2004 and The Birmingham Civic Society's Renaissance Award for 2005. The station became home to the second GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0 No. 2885 steam locomotive.




Moor Street Station Concourse


GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0 No. 2885 steam locomotive

Strange then to think that this station lay unused and crumbling for many years with one wall dangerously cracked after a bus crashed into it! In a reversal of fortune the post war redevelopment which resulted in the destruction of the Victorian New Street and its replacement by a precast concrete horror with the Palisades Shopping Centre above it, which is equally past its “sell by date”, looks peculiarly short sighted as New Street, scene of many a brief encounter, is limited in capacity by the sharp turn on the approach tunnel and the commercial development and cannot cope with increased passenger numbers. As a result additional trains are being routed into Moor Street. This state of affairs is even sadder when you consider Birmingham’s unique place in railway history. For in the Curzon Street Station you have arguably the oldest mainline rail terminus building in the world. It was here on 17th September 1838 that the first London to Birmingham train arrived at the very birth of railways. Built to the designs of Sir Philip Hardwick the architect of Euston Station, London, it echoed his magnificent design there which was so crassly demolished in 1962. It was designed in the style of a triumphant Roman Arch to echo his Euston Arch and provided two dramatic visual bookends to the first railway route between London and a major city. This Grade 1 listed building is currently unoccupied and at risk.


Curzon St. Station


Birmingham's New Street Station

The other advantage of going to Moor Street Station is that it is directly opposite Selfridges and the Bullring Shopping Centre. Out of towners are discovering what Brummies have known for years that Birmingham is a great and well priced shopping destination but more than that it offers great variety and human interest. For it has six main shopping centres, a whole complex of indoor and outdoor markets, atmospheric Victorian arcades, a jewellery quarter where 40% of Britain’s jewellery is manufactured, a Chinatown and interesting waterside developments such as Brindleyplace Square and the Mailbox. All this against a backdrop of ethnic diversity which sees shopkeepers and restaurants from many traditions and cultures makes for a highly engaging mix.




Bullring Centre

Birmingham is home to one of the largest shopping centres in Europe - The Bull Ring, whose most dramatic feature is the Selfridges Department Store. The British architects Future Systems designed this new store with the blob-skin of the building is clad in 15,000 aluminium discs. According to the architects the facade refers to the dresses with metal discs of designer Paco Rabanne of the sixties, but also to the stonework on the facade of the 16th century Gesu Nuovo in the city of Naples, Italy. In the 16th century a man called John Cooper was given the right to bait bulls at a site opposite St Martins Church, this became known as the Bull Ring, hence the name of the shopping centre and the rather robust sculpture of a snarling bull which adorns the public space.








Selfridges

Opposite the Bullring Shopping centre you will find the veritable Aladdin’s cave of markets which lend so much athmosphere to shopping in Birmingham and provide such an antidote to clone town Britain. The original Market Hall, with room for 600 stalls and an ornamental fountain, was built in 1835 but destroyed in WW11, like much of Birmingham’s centre. So today the replacements are not of the same (or indeed any!)architectural merit but here you will find the Bullring Indoor and Outdoor Markets, The Rag Market which reminds us of the textile manufacturing heritage of the Midlands, the New Street Farmers market and the bohemian Custard Factory is a discovery in itself. Its Sunday Flea market is an arts and crafts fest where you discover the remarkable. Sometimes the extraordinary. And occasionally, the downright ‘I’ve not seen one of them in 20 years’. It’s slap bang in the middle of Birmingham’s art quarter. This 5-acre sprawl of riverside factories was built 100 years ago by Sir Alfred Bird, the inventor of custard. At one time he had a thousand people making the stuff. Some even say it helped create the British Empire. But by the early 1980s it had long since lost its mysterious appeal and the factories fell derelict. Alfred Bird was a chemist who invented baking powder and invented his instant custard as his wife was allergic to eggs.


A Jelly Belly Bully!




Outdoor Markets


Covered Market

Birmingham’s many immigrant communities from Asia, Caribbean and Africa have embraced and animated the markets to which they have literally added spice and their own unique brand of entrepreneurship. Six days a week, stallholders sell while they yell their great deals. The Indoor Market is famous for its selection of fresh meats, fish and produce - no supermarket can touch it for choice, price or atmosphere. Discover oodles of goodies; sweets, lingerie, bits and bobs for your gardens or pets. You name it. They’ve got it.


The Midlands of England

Generally the ambience in the pedestrianised city centre is relaxed with the characteristic Brummie friendliness and familiarity to the fore. I discovered a dramatic example of this in the manic Primark store in New Street. For those who don't know Primark it is an Irish managed company (The original store where the business model was developed is Penneys in Dublin) which is Britain's most successful fashion retailer specialising in "instant" fashion of well priced items. Suffice to say the ambience is minimal, the footfall huge and the stores get trashed, particularly today at 4.30 on a Saturday. In the menswear department I asked the girl who was tidying the trashed displays did they have a certain size of jacket which was not on the display. To my amazement (cos, I wouldn't have dared ask in London!) she went off to to the storeroom and came back smiling with my size. So really excellent customer service at the end of a tiring day young Monica in menswear and I hope Primark's MD Arthur Ryan picks up on an employee they can be proud of! People from Birmingham are known as 'Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname of Brum. This comes in turn from the city's dialect name, Brummagem, which is derived from one of the city's earlier names, 'Bromwicham'. There is a distinctive Brummie dialect and accent, both of which differ from the adjacent Black Country.


Birmingham Town Centre

Other shopping options for the visitor are the elegant Victorian arcades such as the Great Western and Piccadilly Arcades. The Great Western Arcade is an important part of the City of Birmingham’s proud Victorian heritage. Built in 1876 to a design influenced by the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851, the Arcade spans a tunnel created for the railway line between Snow Hill and Moor Street stations.


Piccadilly Arcade

The Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham is a bustling reminder of the metalworking skills of the midlands (Jewellery in Birmingham, watches and Clocks in Coventry) which drew industrialists to the skilled workforce at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. The Jewellery Quarter still makes 40% of UK jewellery and many shops have their own craftsmen and women, so if you are not tempted by the wide variety on offer you can also commission something to your own design. Whether it is birthstone jewellery for a gift, a necklace or a diamond ring for somebody special, from Valentine’s Day and Christmas to Engagements and Weddings, the Quarter is the place to shop. The Quarter also boasts Europe’s largest School of Jewellery and many of the graduates have set up business in the area. Their contemporary jewellery can be seen at outlets in the area such as Artfull Expression in Warstone Lane, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, St Paul’s Square and the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Vyse Street. For a different experience try a visit to Fellows Auctioneers in Augusta Street, the UK’s largest jewellery auction house which also holds auctions ranging from antique furniture to watches and clocks. This tradition of fine metal working is reflected still in the Birmingham Mint and that Birmingham has one of the four official Assay Offices for the U.K. whose marks on jewellery certify the quality of the precious metals used. The shops of the Jewellery Quarter are centred around the Chamberlain clock tower on Warstone road and spread out over about half a mile or so. Most of the shop only date from the 1970's and are therefore not exactly architectural gems themselves.The gems themselves are of course the draw - the standard of diamonds that you can purchase here, after a bit of shopping around, often equate to about half the purchase price in a high-street Jeweller.




Gas Street Canal Basin

Birmingham is 'Britain's canal city'. As such, it has many canal-side walks and much industrial heritage is still present with canals that were built over 200 years ago. The same is true of buildings that site alongside. Birmingham was, until the 18th century, a small and relatively insignificant settlement on the banks of the River Rea. However, it shot to prominence with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, not least because of its natural position at the crossroads of a canal and river system which extended from London to Liverpool and from Bristol to the Humber estuary. There were also rich mineral deposits around the Black Country. The effect of this was to produce the most extensive urban waterway in the world - over 160 miles of navigable canal, mostly between Birmingham and Wolverhampton but also extending some way northwards into Staffordshire, with vast numbers of basins and wharves. Five canal systems converge in Birmingham as the BCN, the Birmingham Canal Navigation, giving the city the most waterways of any city in Britain. Birmingham's Gas Street Basin and the whole of the waterfront area has undergone something of a radical change in recent years, with tumbledown warehouses replaced by low level offices and trendy pubs, restaurants and many other leisure orientated buildings. The once derelict land giving way to glaring multi-storey hotel and conference complexes. This has brought new life into these canal side areas and the new appearance coupled with easy access walkways, has rekindled public interest in these once forgotten city centre cuts. Some idea of the complexity of the BCN can be gained from the fact that it contains 27 navigable junctions within the city.



The arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century heralded a change in fortunes for the waterway network nationally. However, the subsequent widespread abandonment, decay and dereliction did not extend to the BCN as a whole, partly due to the fact that local industry was heavily canal orientated. So whilst goods were rail bound for longer journeys, Birmingham and Black Country industry was encouraged to collect cargoes by boat from numerous rail/canal interchange basins which sprang up around the region. Birmingham became a hub of the railway system with many competing and overlapping lines which even after the depredations of the Beeching closures in the 1960s still provide an extensive Birmingham commuter belt with travel times London commuters would envy. For instance, Codsall beyond Wolverhampton in South Staffordshire is only 28 minutes from Birmingham New Street. It still retains the characteristic GWR style rural station building which, in a sign of the times, is now a pub!


Codsall Station

Today Birmingham is at the centre of the UK’s motorway network being surrounded by a complete ring of motorways which connects all the major routes. The most famous or notorious of these junctions and a notorious traffic blackspot is the Gravelly Hill Interchange or more commonly known as Spaghetti Junction.


Spaghetti Junction

The good transport links have made Birmingham the UK’s distribution and Exhibition Centre as well as a popular corporate location with lower costs than the Greater London area. Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's core cities, and is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,010,200 (2005 estimate). Often considered to be the second city of the United Kingdom, the City of Birmingham forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census) and includes several neighbouring towns and cities, such as Solihull, Wolverhampton and the towns of the Black Country.

The city's reputation was forged as a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in England, a fact which led to Birmingham being known as "the workshop of the world" or the "city of a thousand trades". Although Birmingham's industrial importance has declined, it has developed into a national commercial centre. It is also the fourth-most visited city by foreign visitors in the UK. In 1998, Birmingham hosted the G8 summit at the International Convention Centre, on the site of Bingley Hall, the world's first purpose-built exhibition hall, and remains a popular location for conventions today along with the National Exhibition Centre in nearby Solihull. The Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in the 1940s is one of the country’s leading non-professional symphony orchestras, with members from all walks of life throughout the Heart of England. It enjoys close links with both the Birmingham Conservatoire and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.


Chamberlain Memorial


Statue of Joseph Chamberlain


The Council House

Birmingham has a wealth of splendid architecture in its older buildings, around the centre of the city, of the muscular Victorian variety championed by the late Sir John Betjeman. Among those not to be missed are The Town Hall, built in the 1830's it is a magnificent example of Victorian Architecture, inspired by the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum it has 40 Corinthian columns of Anglesey marble. The great hall can seat 2000 people, and has one of the finest organs in the country. The Council House, built in Renaissance style in the 1870's has a clock known locally as "Big Brum". Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, is one of the finest outside London. Among its vast art treasures is one of the finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art, there are interesting displays relating to the history of the city and a changing programme of exhibitions and events. Art lovers should also visit the Ikon Gallery, one of Europe's premier venues for new art; also the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, situated at the University of Birmingham, this is one of the world's finest small galleries, with works by Degas, Gainsborough, Monet, Renoir and Turner.


Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery


City Hall

Although best known as the Victorian ‘workshop of the world’, Birmingham has a rich heritage dating back to the Middle Ages. Highlights include the Jacobean splendour of Aston Hall (due to reopen in July 2009 following a £12.5 million restoration project), the remarkable industrial time-capsule of the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Soho House, home of Matthew Boulton and meeting place of the world famous Lunar Society. To fully appreciate the extraordinary range of the city’s heritage, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is a must-see. It’s internationally significant collections of art and history include the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelites in the world. Outside of the city centre, visitors can enjoy delightfully restored Blakesley Hall, an Elizabethan yeoman’s house in Yardley, and magical Sarehole Mill in Hall Green – which formed the inspiration for local boy JRR Tolkien’s ‘Hobbiton’ in The Lord of the Rings.




The Blitz Memorial - "The Tree of Life"

Birmingham and nearby Coventry were integral to the British war effort, producing a vast share of the arms, machinery and military supplies for the allied forces. Throughout World War Two more than 6,000 Birmingham homes were destroyed along with many of the city’s grandiose Victorian public buildings. The worst of the bombing raids occurred between August 1940 and May 1941 and on August 25 1940 Birmingham’s city centre was bombed, gutting the market hall which once occupied the site where the Bull Ring now stands. The aftermath of that night was recorded by war artist Roland Pitchforth whose paintings are currently displayed at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. During the Blitz in Birmingham 2,241 people were killed, and 3,010 seriously injured. A further 3,682 sustained lesser injuries. 12,391 houses, 302 factories and 239 other buildings were destroyed, with many more damaged. Overall, around 2,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Birmingham making it the third most heavily bombed city in the United Kingdom in World War II, only behind London and Liverpool. The massive bomb damage on civilian housing in Birmingham led to the development of many large housing estates across the city for some 20 years after the Second World War. These neighbourhoods included Castle Vale and Chelmsley Wood. Some of the bomb-damaged inner city areas such as Ladywood and Highgate were redeveloped with modern housing after the war. The blitz impacted on my family as my father was born in Coventry, the centre of the UK motor industry just 10 miles from Birmingham. Ireland was neutral during the Second World War but many served in the British forces and many also worked in England both to survive and help the war effort. These included my Grandfather and two uncles who travelled on British Legion travel warrants and worked for the electronics firm Lucas in Birmingham during the war whilst living in a company dormitory during the Blitz. My father at the age of ten and his family on the other hand came in the other direction as refugees from the devastating blitz on Coventry which destroyed their home and business.


St. Philip's Cathedral

Today’s Birmingham is a more cheerful and positive place but there is no gainsaying its place in history. Along with the “Dark Satanic Mills” of Lancashire and Yorkshire this was the crucible of the industrial revolution which launched the modern industrial world. From the motor and cycle manufacturing city of Coventry, to the “workshop of the world’” of Birmingham, the steel mills of Wolverhampton, the foundries of the Black Country, the coal mines of South Staffordshire and the kilns of The Potteries this was the manufacturing heartland not just of England but of the British Empire. One change has been the demise of coal and of heavy industry in since WW11 – as they say locally the Black Country isn’t so black anymore!



So you could do worse than visit this interesting friendly, bustling and thriving city situated right in the heart of England. Whether you come to Birmingham on business or pleasure, you will be delighted by the variety of things to see and do. Eating out in Birmingham is a cosmopolitan experience; you can sample the best food from countries around the world. There are many specialist restaurants in the city centre offering food from countries around the world to simple good food in old fashioned English pubs. Birmingham's China Town has a choice of restaurants, supermarkets and cafes offering great Chinese food. For authentic Kashmiri food, discover Birmingham's "Balti Mile" a short distance from the city centre, where there are over 40 restaurants in the space of one mile. My own personal favourites are both overlooking the Bull in the Bullring. Mount Fuji Japanese Bento Restauraunt attracts both Japanese and knowing locals for its superb and authentic bento boxes and its superb Japanese deserts and pastries, preferably washed down with plum wine. It also offers a mail order service for Japanese specialities. ( www.mountfuji.co.uk ) Just opposite in the Bullring stands St. Martin, the parish church of Birmingham. Its Arts Café at the side of the church provides a respite from the hustle and bustle outside as well as good value beverages and snacks – toasted tea cakes appear to be the local favourite. (www.stmartinscentre.org )


St. Martin

So this is no mean city and certainly a lot less darkened and smoky than my father remembers as a child. Being home to the famous City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham is a city of world class culture. You can discover Birmingham's history in the museums and art galleries, stroll through its centre and enjoy the diversity of shopping, from well known department stores to intriguing shopping malls and street markets. Birmingham is also the perfect base to tour from with Shakespeare’s countryside and many more attractions close by. And if you use the scenic train route from London Marylebone to reach the Heart of England you’ll save money and be delivered relaxed into the centre of the city.

Auschwitz - Birkenau

Work makes us free

The term holocaust originally derived from the Greek word holókauston, meaning a "completely (holos) burnt (kaustos)" sacrificial offering to a god. Its Latin form (holocaustum) was first used with specific reference to a massacre of Jews at York in England by the chroniclers Roger of Howden and Richard of Devizes in the 1190s. The biblical word Shoah (שואה) (also spelled Sho'ah and Shoa), meaning "calamity," became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust as early as the 1940s. Shoah is preferred by many Jews for a number of reasons, including the theologically offensive nature of the word holocaust, as a Greek pagan custom. But the ancient Greek meaning of the word seemed terribly apt as we headed the 60km or so from Krakow to the Polish town of Oswiecim to pay our respects to the victims at the mass murder site of Auschwitz - Birkenau where so many bodies of the victims were burnt in crematoria.


Auschwitz I layout

There have been genocides in history, the 8 million South American indigenous people’s estimated to have perished in silver mines in Bolivia and in the 20th Century and before WWII writers such as Winston Churchill used the terms to describe the destruction by the dying Ottoman Empire of the Armenian population of Turkey, as well as the attempted destruction of the Greek and Assyrian populations, a process observed by a joint Germano-Austrian military mission. But what makes the Nazi Holocaust of Jews and others in Germany and 23 occupied and allied countries is the scale, the premeditation and the sheer cold ruthlessness and cruelty in implementing the policy for a “Final Solution” agreed at the Wanesee Conference in 1942. Every arm of Nazi Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal state". But, before all this happened the German public had come to accept the “Fog and Night” killings of the Nazi’s political opponents and the killing of 70,000 disabled and mentally ill people in the name of racial purity. Before all this happened the Nazi Reich had turned hospitals into places where people were murdered and Courts into places where the Law was denied.

Konzentrationslager Dachau was the first concentration camp established in Nazi Germany - the camp was opened on March 22, 1933. The camp's first inmates were primarily political prisoners, Social Democrats, Communists, trade unionists, habitual criminals, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, beggars, vagrants, hawkers.



In the late 1930's the Nazis killed thousands of handicapped Germans by lethal injection and poisonous gas. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, mobile killing units following in the wake of the German Army began shooting massive numbers of Jews and Gypsies in open fields and ravines on the outskirts of conquered cities and towns.





Eventually the Nazis created a more secluded and organised method of killing. Extermination centres were established in occupied Poland with special apparatus especially designed for mass murder. Six such death camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Large-scale murder by gas and body disposal through cremation was conducted systematically by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler's SS men. Victims were deported to these centres from Western Europe and from the ghettos in Eastern Europe which the Nazis had established. In addition, millions died in the ghettos and concentration camps as a result of forced labour, starvation, exposure, brutality, disease, and execution.






Gate of Death, Birkenau

You can read all you want and see as many documentaries as you want but nothing quiet prepares you for the experience of visiting the profane cruelty of Auschwitz and the scale and bleakness of the killing machine known as Birkenau 3km away.
All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by Germans in 1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Its name was changed to Auschwitz, which also became the name of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of existing "local" prisons. Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s. It functioned in this role throughout its existence, even when, beginning in 1942, it also became the largest of the death camps.


Birkenau from the air August 1944




Camp Band

At first sight Auschwitz I looks disarmingly normal, a Polish Army Barracks of 20 barrack buildings built in the 1920s to which the Germans added a further 8 brick built barracks in the same style. But here you find horrifying stories of Auschwitz-Birkenau and a clique of fanatical, ruthless SS-men. And you find stories to bear witness to goodness - in Auschwitz the missionary Jane Haining refused to reject her children and showed herself to be a saint. And Oscar Schindler came to Auschwitz to save 300 Schindler-women from certain death. He managed to do it - the only shipment out of the Nazi death camp during WW2.

In his book Sheltering The Jews the Holocaust historian Mordecai Paldiel later wrote:

"Never before in history had children been singled out for destruction for no other reason than having been born. Children, of course, were no match for the Nazis' mighty and sophisticated killing machine .."

Prisoners at Auschwitz were slowly and systematically starved, and their pitiful rations were barely enough to sustain a child: one cup of imitation coffee in the morning, and weak soup and half a loaf of bread after work. When food was brought, everyone struggled to get his place and be sure of a portion.



The Auschwitz concentration camp complex of over 40 camps was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime. It included three main camps, all of which deployed incarcerated prisoners at forced labour. One of them also functioned for an extended period as a killing centre. The camps were located approximately 60 kms west of Krakow, near the pre-war German-Polish border in Upper Silesia, an area that Nazi Germany annexed in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland. The SS authorities established three main camps near the Polish city of Oswiecim: Auschwitz I in May 1940; Auschwitz II (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau) in early 1942; and Auschwitz III (also called Auschwitz-Monowitz) in October 1942.



Auschwitz I, the main camp, was the first camp established near Oswiecim. Construction began in May 1940 in an abandoned Polish army artillery barracks, located in a suburb of the city. The SS authorities continuously deployed prisoners at forced labour to expand the physical contours of the camp. During the first year of the camp’s existence, the SS and police cleared a zone of approximately 40 square kilometres’ (15.44 square miles) as a “development zone” reserved for the exclusive use of the camp. The first prisoners at Auschwitz included German prisoners transferred from Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany, where they had been incarcerated as repeat criminal offenders, and Polish political prisoners from Lodz via Dachau concentration camp and from Tarnow in Krakow District of the Generalgouvernement (that part of German occupied-Poland not annexed to Nazi Germany, linked administratively to German East Prussia, or incorporated into the German-occupied Soviet Union).


More than 4,000 children were sent from France to Auschwitz, and every one of them was murdered.

Similar to most German concentration camps, Auschwitz I was constructed to serve three purposes:

1) Incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of time;

2) To have available a supply of forced labourers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises (and, later, armaments and other war-related production); and

3) To serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi Germany.

Like most other concentration camps, Auschwitz I had a gas chamber and crematorium. Initially, SS engineers constructed an improvised gas chamber in the basement of the prison block, Block 11. Later a larger, permanent gas chamber was constructed as part of the original crematorium in a separate building outside the prisoner compound.

At Auschwitz I, SS physicians carried out medical experiments in the hospital, Barrack (Block) 10. They conducted pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults. The best-known of these physicians was SS Captain Dr. Josef Mengele. Between the crematorium and the medical-experiments barrack stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners.


"Black Wall"

Auschwitz-Birkenau also contained the facilities for a killing centre. It played a central role in the German plan to kill the Jews of Europe. During the summer and autumn of 1941, Zyklon B gas was introduced into the German concentration camp system as a means for murder. At Auschwitz I, in September, the SS first tested Zyklon B as an instrument of mass murder. The "success" of these experiments led to the adoption of Zyklon B for all the gas chambers at the Auschwitz complex. Near Birkenau, the SS initially converted two farmhouses for use as gas chambers. “Provisional” gas chamber I went into operation in January 1942 and was later dismantled. Provisional gas chamber II operated from June 1942 through the fall of 1944. The SS judged these facilities to be inadequate for the scale of gassing they planned at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Four large crematorium buildings were constructed between March and June 1943. Each had three components: a disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens. The SS continued gassing operations at Auschwitz-Birkenau until November 1944.

In July 1942 Heinrich Himmler again visited Auschwitz. There were approximately 30,000 inmates there at the time, most of them Jews and Polish political prisoners. He inspected the main camp, the expansion at Birkenau, and the synthetic rubber factory being built in nearby Monowitz. Himmler also witnessed the gassing of Jews, and he promoted Rudolf Höss, Auschwitz’s commandant, to SS Lieutenant Colonel.

Sixty miles northeast of Warsaw, the SS built a death factory called Treblinka. Unlike Auschwitz, its only purpose was to kill people. Ultimately, about 800,000 Jews, many of them deportees from the Warsaw ghetto, were gassed or shot there. It was second only to Auschwitz as the most murderous place in the Nazi state. A clearing in a forest and memorial stones are all that is left of it today.




Gas Chamber Auschwitz I - All the others were destroyed

New arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau underwent "Selection" on the Judenrampe, the platform where the trains halted after going into the camp through the “Gate of Death.” To be sent to the right meant slave labour; to the left, the gas chambers. The SS staff determined the majority to be unfit for forced labour and sent them immediately to the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower installations to mislead the victims. The belongings of those gassed were confiscated and sorted in the "Kanada" (Canada) warehouse for shipment back to Germany. Canada symbolized wealth to the prisoners. The vast majority of the victims - who came from both Western and Eastern Europe including Belgium, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries - were unaware of their destination and of their fate. They were transported like animals in cattle-cars and arrived in a state of total collapse to the camp. Most of the people actually never really entered the camp, but just crossed it on the way to the gas chambers.


Luggage being collected from an arriving train at Auschwitz

The dehumanised minority often became registered prisoners with shaved heads in striped uniforms. Jews chosen for slave labor were stripped of everything, including outward differentiation between male and female. Prisoners' personal identities were taken mainly by the act of tattooing their arms with numbers - replacing their personal names. As you walk about Birkenau it is not difficult to picture the squalor and anguish that victims had to endure. The living accommodation tended to be built like makeshift barns. There were no foundations, and little defence against the elements. Unsurprisingly, inmates were plagued by ill-health - the bitterness of the Polish winter must have been unbearable.


Judenrampe Birkenau


Selection Birkenau ramp

On October 7, 1944, several hundred prisoners assigned to Crematorium IV at Auschwitz-Birkenau rebelled after learning that they were going to be killed. During the uprising, the prisoners killed three guards and blew up the crematorium and adjacent gas chamber. The prisoners used explosives smuggled into the camp by Jewish women who had been assigned to forced labour in a nearby armaments factory. The Germans crushed the revolt and killed almost all of the prisoners involved in the rebellion. The Jewish women who had smuggled the explosives into the camp were publicly hanged in early January 1945.


Zyklon-B

With the Soviet Army fast approaching the fit Auschwitz prisoners were led onto evacuation marches to other camps westwards with many dying or shot enroute. In January 1945, the SS set about their final steps to remove the evidence of the crimes they had committed in the camp. They made bonfires of documents on the camp streets. They blew up crematoria II and III, which had already been partially dismantled, on January 20, and crematorium V, still in operational condition, on January 26. On January 23, they set fire to “Kanada II,” the complex of storage barracks holding property plundered from the victims of extermination. The almost 9 thousand prisoners left behind in the Main Camp (Stammlager), Birkenau, and the sub-camps as unfit to join the evacuation march found themselves in an uncertain situation. The majority of them were sick or suffering from exhaustion. The SS intended to eliminate these prisoners, and only fortunate coincidences prevented them from doing so. The SS did manage to murder about 700 Jewish prisoners in Birkenau and the sub-camps in Wesoła (Fürstengrube), Gliwice (Glewitz IV), Czechowice (Tschechowitz-Vacuum) and Blachownia Śląska (Blechhammer) between the departure of the final evacuation column and the arrival of the Red Army.



On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying. It is estimated that the SS and police deported at a minimum 1.3 million people to Auschwitz complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these, the camp authorities murdered 1.1 million. The Soviets were stunned by what they discovered as like most of the outside world the did not realise the scale of the Auschwitz complex which from the air looked like labour camps for the many factories set up by IG Fahren and other German companies in this industrial region of East Silesia. They conducted 534 autopsies on bodies they found and set up a Commision of Enquiry to document what had been found.

During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, which consisted of Auschwitz I (Main Camp), Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz and the sub camps). Incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number which was sewn to their prison uniforms. Only those prisoners selected for work were issued serial numbers; those prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered and received no tattoos.


Soviet troops with survivors

Initially, the SS authorities marked prisoners who were in the infirmary or who were to be executed with their camp serial number across the chest with indelible ink. As prisoners were executed or died in other ways, their clothing bearing the camp serial number was removed. Given the mortality rate at the camp and practice of removing clothing, there was no way to identify the bodies after the clothing was removed. Hence, the SS authorities introduced the practice of tattooing in order to identify the bodies of registered prisoners who had died.

Auschwitz is not an easy place to visit but it is a visit which must be made. Each of the barracks at Auschwitz I is a memorial to a different aspect of the Holocaust, for instance one is a monument to Slovakian Jews, another to the Romany who perished here. It is difficult to preserve because obviously it is a memorial and the Polish authorities don’t want to enhance the site in anyway but rather preserve it as a testimony to the victims and a resource for study and research. For me some three aspects stood out.




Auschwitz Shoe Heap


Auschwitz suitcases

Firstly, the cruel and callous way the victims were “harvested” by the Nazis. Their hair was shorn and made into cloth, socks etc. They were stripped naked and their clothes and shoes sent back to the Reich to be used by the German population. Their possessions were looted and dealt with the same way. And worst of all after being killed their eye glasses; prosthetics and teeth fillings were systematically removed by other prisoners who were obtaining a temporary reprieve from the same fate.

Secondly there was the whole system of slave labour where major companies (many of which still exist) paid the SS for labour and the contracts which compensated them when prisoners were executed. The same contracts also called for the labour to be in good condition so those who were sick or weak were “culled”, sent to the gas chambers or beaten to death by the Kapo, German criminals who were the most brutal guards.



Lastly there were the deliberate policies of humiliating the prisoners and stripping them of the last vestiges of human dignity. The roll calls, the use of dogs, and the 40 seconds you were allowed morning and evening to use the communal toilets, the roll calls in freezing weather for hours on end, the thin striped pyjama uniforms, the public executions and the constant violence. This is most apparent amidst the bleakness of Birkenau where 400 prisoners were accommodated in 300 wooden “huts” with no services which were originally pre-fabricated German Army stables for 56 horses each.




Birkenau Barracks


Birkenau toilets

Despite the fact that the tens of thousands of prisoners who survived Auschwitz were witnesses to the crimes committed there; despite the fact that they left behind thousands of depositions, accounts, and memoirs; despite the fact that considerable quantities of documents, photographs, and material objects remain from the camp—despite all of this, there are people and organizations who deny that hundreds of thousands of people were murdered in this camp, that gas chambers operated there, or that the crematoria could burn several thousand corpses per day. In other words, they deny that Auschwitz was the scene of genocide.




SS Private Oskar Gröning

"It was not long before I was assigned to supervise the luggage collection of an incoming transport. When this was over, it was just like a fairground, there was lots of rubbish left and amongst this rubbish were ill people, those unable to walk. And the way these people were treated really horrified me. For example, a child who was lying there naked was simply pulled by the legs and chucked into a lorry to be driven away, and when it screamed like a sick chicken, then they bashed it against the edge of the lorry, so it shut up.

We were convinced by our world view that we had been betrayed by the entire world, and that there was a great conspiracy of the Jews against us. The children, they're not the enemy at the moment. The enemy is the blood inside them. The enemy is the growing up to be a Jew that could become dangerous. And because of that the children were included as well.

I see it as my task, now at my age, to face up to these things that I experienced and to oppose the Holocaust deniers who claim that Auschwitz never happened.

And that's why I am here today.

Because I want to tell those deniers: I have seen the gas chambers, I have seen the crematoria, I have seen the burning pits - and I want you to believe me that these atrocities happened.

I was there."

Oskar Gröning: SS Garrison, Auschwitz


Auschwitz burial after liberation

Over a million people were slaughtered here, 80% of them when they first arrived here. The vast majority of the victims, roundly 90% were Jews, 430,000 from Hungary and 330,000 from Poland. Also killed here were 22,000 Roma, Poles including many clergy, political prisoners, Gays and Soviet prisoners of war who were first used in the experiments with Zyklon-B, the “cost efficient” poison gas used to kill 800 people at a time. Our Polish guide Lukas was passionate that the memory of this crime scene must never be forgotten and when asked why he worked showing visitors around Auschwitz and Birkenau mentioned that his Great-Grand father had been a prisoner here and like many Poles is bitter that the companies which used slave labour are still trading and are now considered respectable.


The gallows where Rudolph Höss, the first Commandant was hanged


Rudolph Höss before he died



“When they were leading him to the gallows, Höss looked calm. I thought as he climbed to the gallows, up the steps—knowing him to be a Nazi, a hardened party member—that he would say something. Like make a statement to the glory of the Nazi ideology that he was dying for. But no. He didn’t say a word. And during the execution you thought: One life for so many millions of people, is that not too little?”

Stanislaw Hantz

Guard, Auschwitz-Birkenau


The Commandant's house where Höss's youngest child was born

“One woman approached me as she walked past and pointed to her four children who were manfully helping the smallest ones over the rough ground and whispered, ‘How can you bring yourself to kill such beautiful darling children? Have you no heart at all?”

– Memoirs of Rudolf Höss, Commandant of Auschwitz

Reading in July 1944 the first detailed account of Auschwitz, Churchill wrote:

"There is no doubt this is the most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe. It is quite clear that all concerned in this crime who may fall into our hands, including the people who only obeyed orders by carrying out the butcheries, should be put to death after their association with the murders has been proved."



The words of Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Auschwitz Holocaust survivor, stand as a testament to why we must never forget this dark period of human history:

"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future."

Elie Wiesel, Night, Preface to the New Translation (New York: Hill and Wang, c2006), page xv.

In 1933 nine million Jews lived in the countries of Europe that would be military occupied by Nazi Germany. By 1945 two out of every three Jews had been killed. 1.5 million Children were murdered - more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children.

In the words of the Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg: "There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times."

Remember the Shoah and respect the memory of the victims.



In writing this piece as well as information from the Auschwitz site I've relied upon and quoted from some of the extensive resources and documentation which is available to ensure the victims and the lessons of history are not forgotten.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

www.USHMM.org

Krakow Info

http://www.krakow-info.com/auschwit.htm

Yad Vashem - The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

www.yadvashem.org/

Jewish Virtual Library

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/

Holocaust Project

http://www.auschwitz.dk/index.htm

Jewish Kraków

The pages and the black and white photos of the pre-war National Geographic magazine in my collection are both mute and eloquent. Mute because they speak of a world which is gone, the great pre-war Yiddish culture of Poland. Before the war 10% or 3 million of Poland’s population was Jewish and Yiddish was the language not just of speech but of a unique culture, literature, cinema and music. At the very centre of this Yiddish culture was the centre of Poland’s Kings and culture, Kraków, the city of the Jagiellonian University, one of Europe’s oldest and most distinguished, the city of Copernicus, the city where Lenin lived in exile from the Tsarist Police and the city where Casimir the Great, King of Poland, granted privileges to Jews and where the area named after him, the Kazimierz created a unique and successful Jewish and Christian culture. For before the War and the terrible events which were to follow over 70 thousand Jews lived in Kraków, a quarter of the city’s population. And this city was at the heart of Mittel Europa owing its existence to its meeting point on the European trade routes from North to South and East to West. King Kazimierz was favorably disposed toward Jews and on 9 October 1334, he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Bolesław V the Chaste. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. Although Jews had lived in Poland since before the reign of King Kazimierz, he allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as people of the king.


Casimir the Great and Jews National Gallery, Warsaw.

And these black and white photos are eloquent as well as mute for eloquently they scream at us that within a few short years this great culture nurtured over 700 years would be virtually destroyed and those in the photos slaughtered mercilessly in a holocaust which consumed all before it. And so within living memory this great culture, literature, theatre, poetry and music was destroyed in the name of racial hatred on a scale and in a premeditated manner which chills any right thinking person to the bone. And the new state of Israel turned its back on the Germanic Yiddish language and adopted the inanimate Hebrew of the Bible as its official language.


Former ritual bathhouse



Before WWII, a third of Warsaw's population spoke Yiddish, the language of Central Europe's Jews. Yiddish culture disappeared along with its speakers, who were wiped out during the Holocaust. But now, young Poles are beginning to learn the language. Yiddish, the language spoken by Central and Eastern Europe’s Jews before the Second World War, now mainly survives in small enclaves in Lithuania, Russia and Belarus, as well as in the US. Those Jews who left countries like Poland for Israel after the end of the war now speak Hebrew, the language of the bible. Very few traces of Yiddish remain in Poland, once home to most of Eastern Europe’s Jews. But with the current interest among young Poles in Jewish culture comes an interest in the language they spoke.




Remu Synagogue Interior

Kazimierz, the heart of Jewish Kraków, is now a thriving district, a mixture of cultural festivals, café culture, antique shops, art galleries, restaurants and bars, a place to watch the world go by over a coffee or to catch up with friends. However, it would be wrong to talk about Kazimierz merely in those terms, for any visitor, regardless of nationality or religious persuasion, it's worth pointing out that Kazimierz's history spans centuries. It was originally established in 1335 and named after its founder, King Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir the Great), who intended it to rival the established city of Krakow.


Jewish Cemetery

It remains one of the most culturally significant Jewish areas in the world. In 1495, the Jews who were expelled from Kraków settled here, and Kazimierz became a mixture of Christian and Jewish culture. During the war the Nazis did all they could to destroy and ruin Kazimierz. After the war, decades of communist neglect left Kazimierz a crumbling ruin. It became a dark and dangerous place, a district to be avoided after nightfall. As recently as the year 2000 much of Kazimierz was still in ruins, a crumbling shell of its former self. Numerous houses, which initially gave the appearance of a squatters' paradise were, on closer inspection, unfit even for mice, since whole floors had collapsed, rendering many areas highly dangerous. Kazimierz was known as a dirty, not altogether safe place, inhabited by stray dogs and morose alcoholics. And to add to this there was the highly emotive issue of land repatriation.

Today, out of the blue, Kazimierz is undergoing a major renaissance. Both its Jewish and Christian heritage is being restored, and colour has returned to its alleys and squares. Just wandering about is an experience in itself, but not to be missed are the Corpus Christi Church, the Tempel Synagogue and ulica Szeroka - the heart of the old Jewish district. Either of the two cemeteries, the Remuh or the New, are also well worth a look. And of the more recent arrivals the Galicia Museum deserves a special mention.



With communism's fall, Kazimierz changed beyond all recognition. As well as the aforementioned art galleries and cafés, buildings have been renovated and museums opened. There has also been a reawakening in the importance of Jewish history and culture in Poland, for instance, the Jewish Culture Festival which takes place every year attracts thousands of visitors, both Jews and non-Jews alike. Perhaps one of the most important factors in Kazimierz's renewal was Steven Spielberg's film, Schindler's List, which was filmed here and which generated intense interest in the area. With its beguiling streets, unforgettable and unique atmosphere, synagogues and museums, as well as its cafés, bars and art galleries, Kazimierz is a place that anyone who comes to Kraków must visit.


Kazimierz Town Hall

The 15th-century Town Hall amid Kazimierz's Plac Wolnica central square was turned in the 16th century into a Renaissance edifice which now houses the Museum of Ethnography. Whatever was its king-founder's intention; the town of Kazimierz remained dwarfed by the nearby capital city and became part of the city of Kraków in 1800.

Oskar Schindler was a Sudeten German, a Nazi Party member, an unscrupulous opportunist and a war profiteer who paradoxically became one of the greatest humanitarian’s of the 20th Century. The man and his story were made famous by Spielberg's film, Schindler's List. In many ways he was a man of contradiction. At the beginning of the war Schindler seemed to be intent on making a fortune from the misery that was unfolding around him. In common with other Germans, Schindler took over companies that were previously in the hands of Jewish owners, in this case two enamel kitchenware companies. In October 1939 the "Emalia" factory was established in the Zablocie district of Kraków. It produced enamel kitchenware and was one of the factories that Schindler had taken over. Using his business contacts and the cheap labour that was available to him Schindler made a fortune. He lived the life of a very successful businessman and took every opportunity to enjoy his success being a regular fixture on the social scene.




Schindler Factory

The brutality of the Nazi regime brought about a change in Schindler from a man whose sole concern was profit into a man who made it his mission to save as many lives as he could. Whenever Schindler's workers were threatened with deportation to the death camps he could claim exemptions for them based on the fact that his business was deemed to be essential to the war effort. Without this status it is unlikely that Schindler would have been able to save as many people as he did. Where necessary, and at great risk to himself, Schindler falsified his company's records. For example, workers listed as experts in mechanics were in fact children. This courageous course of action saved many from certain death. When the Kraków Ghetto was liquidated in March 1943, Schindler used his close relationship with the camp commander at Plaszow (Amon Goeth) to set up a branch of the camp within his factory compound. In spite of everything that was going on around him Schindler managed to ensure decent treatment for his workers.


Oskar Schindler


Oskar & Emilie Schindler 1946

In October 1944 and with the approach of the Soviet Army, Schindler was granted permission to re-establish his factory in Brünnlitz, in the Sudetenland (now known as Brnenec which is located in the Czech Republic). However, before his workers could join him there they were sent to Gross Rosen (a concentration camp near Wroclaw) and Auschwitz. Remarkably, Schindler secured their release and yet again saved the lives of his workforce. In total, around 1100 people went to Schindler's new factory in Brünnlitz where they were treated as well as conditions allowed and where his equally heroic wife, Emilie, ran a clinic to treat the workers. A truly heroic man, his factory still exists and can be found in Kraków at ul Lipowa 4. (Plac Bohaterow Getta tram stop). To walk there takes about 20-30 minutes from Kazimierz. Both Oskar and Emilie Schindler are honoured at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial to the victims of the Holocaust as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, or "righteous Gentiles", an honour awarded by Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at great personal risk. Oskar Schindler is the only Nazi Party member commemorated at Yad Vashem.


Public execution near Płaszow Pokocim train station on June 26 1942

The persecution of the Jewish population began almost immediately after the German occupation of Kraków. From November 1939, all Jews aged 12 or over had to wear armbands showing the Star of David. They were forced to work on the road's edge, the use of the pavement being forbidden, and they were also prevented from taking public transport or entering parks.

The harassment of Kraków 's Jews was constant, their day to day existence made worse by the continuous flow of rules and orders emanating from the occupying German forces. Jews could no longer claim their pensions; those aged between 14-60 were forced to work and were given particularly hard and humiliating jobs. The Germans took over Jewish property and seized possessions: companies, shops, tenement houses, valuables and works of art.


Ultra Orthodox Jews Kraków 1931

In April 1940, the order was given to expel Jews from Kraków, the majority being sent to towns and villages outside the city. Out of a total population numbering some 64,000, only 15,000 Jews were allowed to remain. The Kraków Ghetto was created on 3 March 1941 when Otto Wachter, the Kraków District Governor, decreed that, "for sanitary and public order reasons, a Jewish living quarter" would be established. (The Kraków Ghetto 1941-1943 by Anna Pióro. Published by The Historical Museum of Kraków.)

The ghetto was situated in the Podgórze district of Krakow and eventually housed 20,000 Jews, not just from Kraków, but also from neighbouring communities. Prior to the establishment of the ghetto, this same area had housed approximately 3,000 people.

A Polish witness wrote:

"We travelled over the Vistula River like many other families. On one side of the bridge we came from Podgórze, on the other side the Jews came from Kazimierz. I remember the silence of this removal... The silence changed into mourning and sighs." (Death-Camps.org)

Two factories were situated within the ghetto, the Madritsch factory and the Optima factory. Both factories used forced labour to help in the German war effort. There is no real sign of these factories now, however, anyone who goes to ul. Krakusa 7 will see the original Optima sign on the wall of the building. (The Schindler factory was situated outside of the ghetto).


Ghetto Gate 1940


Deportation from the Ghetto

The daily reality of ghetto life was one of hunger, disease and overcrowding. Illnesses decimated the population. Many died trying to get food or medicines from beyond the ghetto walls; the usual punishment for those being caught was to be shot by the Germans. Despite the prevailing conditions in the ghetto, an even greater tragedy was to befall its population. From March 1942 transportation to the death camps commenced. In June and October 1942 the two biggest deportations to the death camps took place, numbering a few thousand people. Overcrowded trains left for the camps from the Plaszow train station, the inhabitants having been earlier rounded up on Plac Zgody, known today as Plac Bohaterów Getta - Heroes of the Ghetto.

During these selections the Germans massacred hundreds people, the ghetto streets were soaked in the blood of their victims. The Germans executed hospital patients, the old, as well as children from the orphanage that was situated in the ghetto. The Optima factory saw the isolation of hundreds of Jews in extreme heat without food or water before their subsequent deportation to the death camps.

The ultimate liquidation of the ghetto took place on 13th and 14th March 1943. Around 4,000 people who were considered fit for works were taken to the Plaszow camp, whereas the elderly, the weak and children were shot on the spot, approximately 2,000 people were killed this way. The remainder, a figure in the region of 2,000, were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau.


Cafe Cyganeria

Even in these circumstances there were stories of resistance and heroism, most notably Tadeusz Pankiewicz with his pharmacy located within the ghetto. There was also a Jewish Fighting Organisation, but the reality of the ghetto meant that their capability to attack was severely limited. For this reason the JFO was active outside the ghetto. Following an attack in the centre of Kraków on the cafe Cyganeria the leaders of this organisation were caught and executed. The cafe was a meeting place for Wehrmacht and Gestapo officers, and was attacked by members of Krakow's Jewish underground on December 22, 1942. Eleven Germans were killed and 13 wounded in this action. Today, very little visible sign of the original ghetto remains. Perhaps the most obvious can be found on ul. Lwowska where a plaque has been placed on part of the former ghetto wall. In total, it is estimated that some 65,000 Polish Jews who lived in Cracow and its immediate vicinity were murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War, obliterating Jewish life and culture as it had existed before the War completely.




Ghetto wall

The plaque reads as follows:

"Here they lived, suffered and perished at the hands of Hitler's executioners. From here they began their final journey to the death camps."

So on the night of 15th March 2009, the 66th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto by the Nazis we found ourselves appropriately in the heart of Jewish Kraków on Szeroka Street in Ariel Restaurant enjoying a meal of Yiddish favourites, Gefilte Fish and Sephardic Carp whilst listening to Klezmer music and song by a Yiddish trio Sholem.


Szeroka Street


Ariel

A restaurant, cafe and gallery "Ariel" is located in the very centre of Kazimierz. There are 5 synagogues within 200 m distance, including one fully active (Remuh), a historical cemetery and a house of prayer, where a well - know cabbala master Natan Spira used to live and work. And at the top of Szeroka Street is the so-called "Old Synagogue", the oldest Jewish temple in Poland, where a Jewish museum is located. "Ariel" was established in a tenement house erected between the World Wars, occupying the place where an old 18th century "Rabbi House" used to stand, inhabited by uncompromising adversaries of Chasidism - rabbi Isaak Lewitan (died in 1799) and his son David Levy (Kraków `s rabbi in 1816 - 1832). Further along the street is Rubenstein’s, the family home which the perfume milionairess Helena Rubenstein left to make her fortune, firstly in Australia and then in America. Near also is the home where a survivor of the ghetto, the film Director, Roman Polanski, lived as a child.


Remu Synagogue


Old Synagogue


Rubenstein House

In listening to the superb Klezmer melodies and the haunting Yiddish lyrics we thought of the resilience of the human spirit, how a people who greet each other with “Shalom” – “Peace” and part with the word “L'haim” – “To Life” to have endured the unthinkable cruelty of the Shoah within living memory. In an calculated defiance of the ideology which made such crimes possible Jews and Goyam were on this anniversary gathered together here in the heart of Mittel Europa where the secular, the Orthodox and the Hassidic contended to drink to our common humanity and go into the dark night with a shared toast “L'haim”.




Sholem

http://www.sholem.pl



Not far away at Plac Bohaterów Getta - Heroes of the Ghetto there is a mute memorial to what has passed here designed by Krakow architects Piotr Lewicki and Kazimierz Latak. This memorial features 33 large illuminated chairs in the square and 37 smaller chairs standing on the edge of the square and at the tram stops. The chairs represent the furniture and other remnants that were discarded on that very spot by the ghetto's Jews as they were herded into the trains that would often take them to their deaths in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. At the other end of the square is the Apteka Pod Orlem (the Chemist under the Eagle) which was the only pharmacy allowed in the ghetto and funded by Roman Polanski it is being renovated and turned into a museum.


Plac Bohaterów Getta - Heroes of the Ghetto

There I thought of the words of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer recited in mourning;

“in the world which will be renewed”

“בְּעָלְמָא דְהוּא עָתִיד לְאִתְחַדָּתָא”

Today in Kraków there are around 200 Jewish inhabitants and in Poland as a whole around 5,000. However and hearthingly there is a great awareness amongst young Poles of the shared heritage and what has been lost which translates into a determination to preserve and revive the Jewish legacy in Poland. I've relied upon and quoted from a number of excellent local resources for this piece including;

Jewish Kraków

www.jewishkrakow.net

Kraków site devoted to Jews from Kraków

www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/krakow/

Kraków Info

www.krakow-info.com/JewishQ.htm

Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute

www.galiciajewishmuseum.org/

Cracow Life

www.cracow-life.com/poland/krakow-kazimierz