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Live Christmas broadcast from Fulham’s riverside church

The familiar All Saints Fulham tower from Putney Bridge

Christmas Morning Service on BBC1 is coming live from All Saints Church in Fulham.

It’s the church with the tower seen among the trees at the north end of Putney Bridge.

Its peal of bells was often rung when Elizabeth I was being rowed up or down the river between London and Richmond Palace.

The church retains a rural backdrop thanks to the once moated  Fulham Palace.

Walkers will also be familiar with St Mary’s Putney at the south end of the bridge where the Thames Path runs round the back.

The broadcast from All Saints starts at 10am.

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Nine Elms Bridge opponents grow

US Embassy at Nine Elms

The GMB Southern region which is highlighting opposition to the Nine Elms Bridge plan has called on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to withhold support.

The cycle and foot crossing would cost around £100m according to opponents.

The union statement follows a written reply by Sadiq Khan to a question in the London Assembly.

The unpopular proposed bridge would be opposite the already controversial new US Embassy at Nine Elms.

One issue is how much attractive open water should be covered by new crossings. This was a major objection to the Garden Bridge at Waterloo which failed to win local support.

The GMB claims that the following now oppose the major landscape change at Nine Elms:

Leonie Cooper, London Assembly member for Wandsworth

Tony Devenish, London Assembly member for Westminster

Sian Berry, Green leader London Assembly

Caroline Pidgeon, leader of Lib Dems of London Assembly

Westminster Labour Group

Wandsworth Labour Group

Westminster Conservative Party

Battersea Labour Party

North Battersea Alliance against the Bridge

Pimlico Alliance

Marsha de Cordova, MP for Battersea

Rosena Alin Khan, MP for Tooting

Ibrahim Dogus, former parliamentary candidate for Westminster South

Mark Field, MP for Westminster South

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May Morris and the River Thames

May Morris: Art & Life exhibition at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow gives  glimpse of her life by the Thames in London and Oxfordshire.

May was the daughter of William Morris who lived by the river at 8 Hammersmith Terrace in London and upstream at remote Kelmscott near Lechlade.

William founded the Chiswick Press which in 1903 published May’s play White Lies.

Nearby on the river at Chiswick was lived Emery Walker who ran the Kelmscott Press.

May was an active supporter of the Socialist League Hammersmith branch.

But she loved Kelmscott and a long embroidery in the London house featured a view of Kelmscott in middle.

In the country she lived a frugal but self-sufficient life.

A painting shows May in the dining room at Kelmscott Manor as she checks proofs of The Collected Works of William Morris which she spent years editing.

One of the black and white photographs is of May’s funeral at Kelmscott in 1938 when her body was carried on a farm cart.

The May Morris exhibition is at William Morris Gallery, Forest Road, Walthamstow E17 4PP until Sunday 28 January; open Wednesday to Sunday; admission free.

Kelmscott Manor is open in the summer.