Welcome to Harold Hill ...

Fig. 1 Welcome to Harold Hill ...

where even the local pub is in ruins

Some readers might recall a post from 2016 in which I described the sad (but all too common) fate that has befallen my local boozer [1]. The Pompadours had once been a Harold Hill landmark, but is now just another derelict pub boarded up and still - nine years later - awaiting demolition (see fig. 1 above). 

 

In that period, things have, if anything - and despite Havering Council's promises of regeneration [2] - gone from bad to worse and my local shopping precinct, Hilldene, is fast becoming an area where even the ghosts are scared to venture after dark [3]. 

 

The air smells of car fumes, cooking oil, and cannabis and even Bargain Town - a large discount store mostly selling things priced at just £1 - has gone out of business; as has the pet shop and F. Cooke's, one of London's oldest established pie & mash shops. 

 

Natwest shut their Harold Hill branch two years ago; Lloyds and the Halifax having previously abandoned the area. The local estate agency has also relocated and even one of the (multiple) charity shops has closed.  

 

Thank goodness the local flower shop and hairdressers remain, as well as small-scale versions of Sainsbury's, the Co-Op, and Iceland. Other than that - and a couple of newsagents - it's basically betting shops, dodgy-looking fast food outlets, and a games arcade (though even Funland may have just pulled its shutters down for good).

 

And over all this, English flags and Union Jacks still pathetically fly (see fig. 2 below) ... 

Fig. 2 Welcome to Harold Hill ... 

where even Bargain Town went out of business

 

 

Notes

 

[1] See the post 'Ghost Town' (7 November 2016): click here.

 

[2] According to Havering Council's website - click here - consultations with residents have been ongoing since 2016 to try and decide the future of Harold Hill and, in particular, the Farnham and Hilldene shopping area. 

      In 2021, the Council committed to significant investment to ensure that the latter 'continues to be a beacon for the neighbourhood and the whole community to enjoy' and residents should rest assured a single masterplan vision is being put into place.

 

[3] Evidence of gang activity and associated issues, such as drug dealing and violent crime, in certain areas of Harold Hill, is well-documented. Police and local authorities, whilst aware of the issues, seem powerless to do anything (other than hold community meetings in order to warn people that the streets aren't safe). In the last ten years there has been a 167% increase in incidents of knife crime in Havering and Harold Hill East is recognised as the most deprived area in the borough.   

 

Little Weed Vs Havering Council

Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men, with their female friend Little Weed 

To watch a short clip of this BBC TV classic - with or without your mother - click here

 

 

I. 

 

In a very real sense, I belong to what might be termed the Watch with Mother generation (i.e., those whose televisual imagination was formed during the black and white days of the 1950s and 60s). And I remain grateful still to Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird for the programmes they created; some of my happiest (and earliest) memories are of Andy Pandy, The Woodentops, and the Flower Pot Men. 

 

So it's entirely possible, then, that my love for wild plants is a result of my pre-school fascination with Little Weed, who used to feature (and grow) alongside Bill and Ben in the last of these shows; of indeterminate species, but with a lovely smiling face.

 

 

II.

 

According to a statement on the Havering Council website, the spraying of (the possibly carcinogenic) weed killer glyphosate across the borough in every crack and crevice, is justified because alternative measures have been deemed ineffective and more expensive, and necessary because weeds "growing between paving slabs or along the edge of the road visually impact on an area and  [...] cause damage to property".

 

Thus, from March through to November, "steps are taken to remove weeds and prevent growth". 

 

Although this includes some manual suppression (i.e. the pulling up of weeds by hand, or cutting them with a strimmer), mostly this involves the herbicidal spraying of public highways and footpaths by a subcontracted private company (SH Goss) four times a year, who cheerfully boast of their long experience in maintenance of the environment via the killing of wild plants.     

 

 

III.

 

I'm sure there are other residents who are unhappy about this - if only because they are concerned about the health implications for themselves, their children, and their pets. 

 

But mostly, I suspect the residents of Havering are happy to see little green weeds and colourful wild flowers pulled up or poisoned. Indeed, I watch my neighbours regularly conducting chemical warfare and utilising high pressured pumps in order to protect their driveways from the unwanted intrusion of life. 

       

However, as I've said many times before on Torpedo the Ark, whilst brute force crushes many little plants, they always rise again and, ultimately, "the pyramids will not last a moment, compared with the daisy".*

  

 

Before and after pics taken in the roadside outside my house

 

* D. H. Lawrence, Sketches of Etruscan Places, in Sketches of Etruscan Places and Other Italian Essays, ed. Simonetta De Filippis, (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 36.

 

 

See also: 

 

'In Defence of Weeds and Wildflowers' (25 June 2015): click here.

 

'And No Birds Sing' (28 May 2016): click here. 

 

'And Fungal Life Shall Triumph'  (8 Nov 2021): click here.