diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 974c58cc..d5742bf6 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 - add a compat stub, thanks Benjamin
 - python bandjoin is now just an instance function
 - small doc improvements
+- small vips7 C++ improvement
 
 7/10/15 started 8.2.0
 - added im_bufmagick2vips(), a vips7 wrapper for magick load from buffer
diff --git a/libvipsCC/VImage.cc b/libvipsCC/VImage.cc
index 6548f745..72f91a37 100644
--- a/libvipsCC/VImage.cc
+++ b/libvipsCC/VImage.cc
@@ -216,12 +216,9 @@ VImage::VImage() throw( VError )
 
 	_ref = new refblock;
 
-	/* This is not 100% safe if VIPS threading is not implemented on this
-	 * platform ... but it doesn't really matter.
+	/* This is not safe with threading ... but it doesn't really matter.
 	 */
-	g_mutex_lock( im__global_lock );
 	im_snprintf( filename, 256, "intermediate image #%d", id++ );
-	g_mutex_unlock( im__global_lock );
 
 	if( !(_ref->im = im_open( filename, "p" )) )
 		verror();