The London Daily Newsletter Thursday 9 February

On 9 February 1965, the United States sent its first combat troops to South Vietnam A U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion was deployed to Da Nang. President Johnson had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there. This was the first commitment of American combat troops in South Vietnam and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of U.S. involvement in the war. Predictably, both communist China and the Soviet Union threatened to intervene if the United States continued to apply its military might on behalf of the South Vietnamese. In Moscow, some 2,000 demonstrators, led by Vietnamese and Chinese students and clearly supported by the authorities, attacked the U.S. Embassy. Britain and Australia supported the U.S. action, but France called for negotiations.

Arkley
Arkley is located north-west of London, and at 482 ft above sea level is one of the highest points.

It consists of a long village strung out between Barnet and Stirling Corner roughly centred around the “Gate” pub and is composed of the ancient hamlets of Barnet Gate, Rowley Green and Arkley hamlet. It is also home to one of the oldest windmills in southern England. From at least the early 19th century until the 1890s, Arkley was commonly known as ’Barnet Common’ or ’West Barnet’. It is thought by some that Hendon Wood Lane was originally a minor Roman road. Certainly the name, ’Grendel’s Gate’ (now Barnet Gate, and formally known as ’Grims Gate’), is associated with the monster from the Saxon epic, Beowulf. This implies that the place was of modest importance as early as 1005. It may have been a centre of a small but significant community, founded on a woodland economy. The area is latter referred to in medieval documents as ’Southhaw’, and may have pre-dated the settlement at Chipping Barnet. Certainly, Barnet manorial court was held here in the 13th century. Nobody is sure what the ’Ark’, part of Arkley means but the ’ley’ means a “clearing of some sort”. Its earliest appearance is about 1330. By the 16th century, these woods had been cleared, and the subsequent clearing formed common. Important buildings in the area include St Peter’s Church, designed by George Beckett. Built in 1840 at a cost of £5,000, it contains the monument of its benefactor, Enoch Durant (died 1848), and a bell cast by Thomas Mears. St Peter’s can be found opposite the War Memorial on Barnet Road in Arkley. Arkley, as an ecclesiastical district was established in the same year, and as a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1905. Arkley Windmill was in use by 1806. It is marked as ’corn’ windmill on the Ordnance Survey of the 1860s . From photographs, it appears to have had only two of its original sails by the 1890s, by which time it may have been powered by steam. It ceased to be a functioning mill during World War I, and was restored in 1930, but not as a working mill. The Gate Inn retains some of its original features. Until the early 1960s a large tree grew up from the floor of the pub and out through the roof.

TUM Book Club: Tube Mapper Project
Photographer Luke Agbaimoni created the Tube Mapper project allowing him to be creative, fitting photography around his lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute.

The Underground is the backbone of the city of London, a part of our identity. It’s a network of shared experiences and visual memories, and most Londoners and visitors to the city will at some point have an interaction with the London Underground tube and train network. Photographer Luke Agbaimoni gave up city-scape night photography after the birth of his first child, but creating the Tube Mapper project allowed him to continue being creative, fitting photography around his new lifestyle and adding stations on his daily commute. His memorable photographs consider such themes as symmetry, reflections, tunnels and escalators, as well as simply pointing out and appreciating the way the light falls on a platform in an evening sunset. This book reveals the London every commuter knows in a unique, vibrant and arresting style.

Mansion House Engraving by J Woods based on a work by Hablot Browne and R Garland.

J Woods

Video: You Can’t Always Get What You Wanstead
Jago Hazzard went to the far reaches of the Central Line