Forum Topics

Musical Museum survival appeal.

I'm a volunteer tour guide at the Musical Museum in Brentford, London. https://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/ It is a very satisfying role because I watch the delight and wonder on the visitors' faces when they see and hear the instruments used for music reproduction through the ages. We have musical boxes, polyphons (the precursors of juke boxes) self-playing organs and pianos including player pianos and reproducing pianos that play the actual performances of famous pianists of the past including Gershwin, Rachmaninoff and many others. There are phonographs, gramophones, juke boxes that play 78s and a mighty Wurlitzer Cinema organ in our concert hall. The collection is of national and international importance because it restores and preserves working examples of extremely rare instruments. Loss of income during the Covid shutdown followed by huge inflation in the museum's costs mean that the museum can no longer pay its way so this year, our 60th, might be the last. We have trimmed our costs to the bone but must find money urgently to keep the doors open as we change the way we operate. If you value a historic musical resource, you may wish to support the museum's survival crowdfunder but if it doesn't seem that important to you, I understand that and I apologise for the intrusion. Here's the crowdfunder link. https://gofund.me/5632515e If you feel able to, it would be great if you can also pass on the appeal to anyone you think might be interested.

David Lusty ● 45d0 Comments ● 45d

Letter sent by local teacher about new 'Clean Air' restrictions

This was posted on NextDoor and I thought it was worth sharing here. It is a letter from a teacher written to the council a few weeks ago which, apparnetly has not had a response.
‘ I am writing to share my concerns regarding the new cameras to the west of Wandsworth Bridge Road. I am not a resident. I am a commuter, so I understand that I am probably one of the people you are intentionally trying to force on to Wandsworth Bridge Road. However I would like you to take the following in to consideration: - I am a teacher in Fulham. I used to live in the area and know it well. For personal reasons I had to move out of the area but very much love it and the school I work in. I love the children I work with. I have worked there for over 10 years and know how hard recruitment has been in the last few years. The time and frustration that has been added to my journey is now forcing me to leave my position as I cannot sustain the added time it takes to get to and from work. This will directly impact the children I work with in your area. - I have considerably reduced the amount I spend in local businesses and I am sure I am not alone. I used to stop off for a coffee most mornings and would pop out at lunch time to buy my lunch. I no longer have time to stop in the mornings as I am sat on Wandsworth Bridge Road, and I no longer buy lunch as I have to catch up on work at lunchtime rather than doing it after school as I know it takes me longer to get home. - you have not addressed the problems with traffic on Wandsworth bridge road and Putney Bridge before moving even more traffic that way. It would be advisable to put measures in place there first before adding to it. (Doesn't help that Wandsworth bridge itself is currently one lane in both directions and traffic turning right on the fulham side holds up all other traffic on the bridge. I often queue from trinity road all the way to, and past, Fulham Broadway) Could I suggest restrictions to the time the cameras are operable? I would be happy to (and often do) travel outside of peak times (pre-7.30am and before 5pm) I hope you will take the wider impact of this change into consideration and not just the thoughts of local residents. Whilst you may find commuters irritating, we are willingly bringing money and skills into your area’ As the schemes are imposed across the borough we will lose more and more people who support us. https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-traffic-camera-exclusion-zone-spreading-across-fulham-without-consultation

Ellen Kearney ● 395d0 Comments ● 395d

River access to FFC

A lot of heated and emotional talk has gone on regarding the possibility of a passenger pier being added to the football stand development. The first issue is one of nature. The river on this reach rises and falls by about 6m and, due to the bend in the river, the foreshore in front of the new stand is exposed at the bottom of the tide. At spring low tides one will need to be in excess of 70m from the new stand to reach a depth of water of 1.5m. This does provide an opportunity to install a brow (ramp) that would be DDA compliant with a gradient of 1:12.  This would be a significant improvement on the accessibility of the existing Putney Pier. However I am sure that the owners of the vessels who might want to use the pier would think twice about mooring in a spot where they might run aground. The only way of reducing the distance out into the river would be to have the brow at an angle to the bank and to undertake significant and regular dredging operations.  This is might not be impossible but it would require detailed and lengthy hydrological modelling to see what the effects of such changes to the river bed might be.  One only has to go up to Hammersmith bridge at low tide to see the knock on effect and un-intended consequences of altering the river bank. The St Pauls School slipway, installed in the 1960's has led to a build up of silt on either side of it.  During the construction of the new stand, there have been barges and working platforms in the river. At low tide most of these sat on the foreshore. As part of the works it was considered necessary to employ the services of a guard boat. This was to provide safety cover for both river users and those working on the barges. The scheme might be acceptable to some of the traditional river users if the club offered to provide 24 — 7 safety cover.  Mention is made of the effects on the boat race, which only has two crews. Three weeks ago in the school's head of the river, there was one stage in the race where, due to differing speeds, five crews ended up side by side as they passed the football club. A obstruction such as pier extending out from the bank would form a significant hazard  and a risk  assessment could come to the conclusion that the head races could not safely take place.  A sailing boat, when travelling with the wind, can go in a straight line. However to progress against the wind they must tack. this will be restricted by any pier. Assuming that a pier was installed, there is then the issue of the river traffic. Rowing takes place from well before first light to well after sunset. Those who watched the BBC coverage of the Boat Race will have noted the hours that the athletes put into their training. Many Club athletes try to put in similar hours of training whilst holding down full time professional jobs. Training in the dark is a necessity and currently, with the River busses termination at Putney Pier there is no conflict. The oarsmen do not train below Putney whist the commercial vessels are operating.  At weekends, there are no services above Battersea and consequently, at the bottom of the tide rowing does take place below Putney.  Many of the recreational rowers confine their practice times to the very time when football matches might take place, a Saturday afternoon. The swell set up by the Uber boats when they slow down and speed up is enough to damage an eight and tip a single sculler into the river.

Richard Philips ● 714d3 Comments ● 616d

Fulham child killer.

Are all the links between Abertillery and Fulham double child killer Harold Jones and other unsolved murders just coincidences?


Here are the facts.


(1) Just before Jones was released from prison he repeatedly informed the prison authorities that he did not want to lose the desire to kill. That was the same desire that he admitted that he had in 1921 as a 15 year-old boy.


(2) The governor of Maidstone prison from where Jones was eventually released stated in a report: "He is callous but would be the last to admit it. Sad as it may seem I can see no hopeful prospect for Jones in the future." The prison chaplain also reported that he felt Jones was a "no-hoper."


Professor Mike Berry, (Consultant Clinical Forensic Psychologist.) visited Abertillery and a number of London locations during the filming of Dark Son - The Hunt for a Serial Killer over a 12 month period. His conclusion was that Harold Jones was the Hammersmith killer. (8 unsolved London murders that were the largest unsolved murders in British criminal history.) He stated that he believed after reviewing all the evidence that Jones after leaving prison had killed again and again,


(3) Jones had lived 2 streets away from 3 of the 8 women murder victims in Fulham and Hammersmith as well as 50-100 yards away from murder victim Ignac Ulycz in Putney. The police in the 1960's were not aware of Jones' past and he was never a suspect in any of the murders until after 2008.


(4) Jones' own daughter has stated that her father would leave her and her mother at home at the times of the killings and book into Rowton House, a  doss-house in Hammersmith whenever her parents would have a row. The daughter stated that she now believes her father would do this in fear that he may kill his wife in temper. Jones' own son-in-law stated that "There's no smoke without fire is there?"


(5) One woman prostitute told the police that she had got into a punter's car with a man who showed her a London Metropolitan Police warrant card. She panicked and quickly exited the car. The man offered her some cash. Was the man Harold Jones using his father-in-laws police warrant card. (His father-in-law John Widdows was a retired London Metropolitan police officer.) The woman some time later became the 7th of the 8 murdered women.


(6) Harold Jones stored the bodies of Abertillery murder victims Freda Burnell and Florence Little in Abertillery until it was convenient to dispose of their bodies. At least 4 of the Hammersmith victims were stored before being dumped at various London locations.


(7) All Hammersmith victims were demure and childlike in stature.


(8) Harold Jones had an oral fixation at the time of the Abertillery child murders. It is recorded by his then 13 year-old girlfriend Selina Mortimer that Jones had asked her to spit in his mouth. The Hammersmith killer also had an oral fixation by removing the teeth or dentures of his victims.


(9) At least 4 of the Hammersmith victims had been stored (in an electricity sub-station on the Heron Trading Estate Acton) before being dumped at various London locations. Jones' daughter has stated that her father had worked as a sheet metal worker in Acton but wasn't aware of where in Acton. This is something only the police would be able to ascertain.


(10) After Harold Jones was jailed for the murder of Florence Little he bragged about his ability to outfox the police during the earlier inquiry into the murder of Freda Burnell. He said: "The arrival of the men from Scotland Yard fascinated me. I had only read of Scotland Yard men before. Now I saw them in the flesh - and I beat them." I am convinced that Harold Jones went to his grave in 1971 knowing that he had beaten them again.


I am in contact with adult children of 5 of the 8 Hammersmith murder victims. Learning of the deaths of their mother's has had an incredibly negative impact on them. They all feel cheated that it seems as though the police have no appetite for reviewing the case.


I am also in contact with the families of 2 men that have been wrongly named as the killer. (Mungo Ireland and former world light-heavyweight boxer Freddie Mills.) They are also distraught that their fathers' good reputation has not been restored. Freddie Mills' daughter Amanda told me that owing to the stigma regarding her father that she hasn't told her teenage son that his father was a famous world champion boxer.


THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6BnF5FEmvQ

https://www.jarossi.com/the-hunt-for-the-60s-ripper/hunt-for-the-60s-ripper-on-youtube/?fbclid=IwAR0KLDA0Gs8jaaIHQM0MZcbMaZcu1RlMNswmJyiHLZXfp9wP1CwUQZAm_DY

Neil Milkins ● 629d0 Comments ● 629d