The towers of the City of London loom above Southwark Bridge. The most distinctive is probably 20 Fenchurch Street, popularly know as the “walkie-talkie” seen to the right of the image. There are a number of other towers planned, including 1 Undershaft, a blocky-looking tower almost as tall as The Shard on the opposite bank of the Thames.
Working in the sky
Will people in future be
Working from home?
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 19 August 2021
On London’s South Bank, not far from Southwark bridge, lies this small beach beside the River Thames. Downstream, St. Paul’s cathedral can be spied, and then the modern towers of the City of London.
Imagine yourself
Wavelets lapping at the shore
Standing on a beach
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Alice’s looks like it would be an interestig shop to browse around. I didn’t get chance to go inside, but from what I could see, and the items presented outside and in the windows, it looks like it will be full of all maner of interesting and esoteric bits-and-bobs.
I see the queen’s face
She’s peering through the window
As a girl walks by
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? Sadly, it’s just the thread title, but if I come up with some sort of funny punchline before I finish typing, I’ll drop it in.
Today’s picture depicts a stall on London’s Portobello Road market, this one selling a curious combination of vintage football equipment, plus a selection of silverware. The chap walking by is wearing his facemask in that off-the-nose style that I’ve noticed many people adopting. Given that he’s outdoors, and that wearing a mask in this way is unlikely to be effective in preventing the spread of covid (or other respiratory disease), he’d probably be better off removing it altogether. I suspect (being a spectacles-wearer myself) that he probably pulled it down below his nose to prevent his glasses from steaming up with condensation. Given that I’ve forgotten to put on or remove my own mask on quite a number of occasions, I shall reserve criticism.
No punchline was forthcoming. Sorry to disappoint any comedy fans – my stand-up career remains stalled. You can have a rubbish haiku though…
Walk past a stall of
Strange memorabillia
A mask at half-mast
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Today marks the one-thousandth consecutive daily post on my blog, having posted every day since the 1st January 2019. It feels like a milestone although, as I’ve said before back when the blog hit it’s first 1k mark (albeit non-continuous), perhaps a somewhat arbitrary one. I think the daily posting – originally intended to improve my frequency of posting by writing shorter, snappier posts, rather than infrequent but lengthier ones – has become something of a compulsion, especially as the one-thousand mark got closer.
I never started the blog to gain likes, followers, or for any sort of commercial gain – which is good as, despite having a few gundred followers (although how many of them regularly read my posts is open to question), it’s rare that I get more than a handful of like for each post, and the number of comments is similarly low – although I always try to respond when they arise. Indeed, glancing at the blog stats today, September 2021 marks one of the lowest visitor and views counts in the last three years – possibly even the lowest depending on the next few days.
Instead this blog was just for me to make some sort of small scratch on the surface of the world. It’s not particularly focused, more a case of me blurting out whatever is on my mind on any given day and showing a recent photo. This probably doesn’t help build an audience, but I doubt it will change. It will probably continue as it has – in a semi-autobiographical spew of whatever I want to talk about. Mostly regarding the pictures I made, maybe the circumstances in which they were made, and occasionally as longer-form pieces.
In some attempt to link to the set of pictures included in today’s post, I guess this place is like a marketplace for my work. But a marketplace where nothing is actually up for sale, and where there are few buyers for my own brand of whatever-it-is I do.
Let’s see if I make it to two-thousand…
One-thousand blog posts
Farting out my thoughts each day
To all who listen
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
“… are the flowers in your dustbin”
So reads the text on this t-shirt. It’s a fragment of lyric from the Sex Pistol’s 1977 track, God Save the Queen.
The image on the t-shirt is of a young man named Tuinol Barry, photographed in Chelsea, London, in 1981 by Derek Ridgers. There’s an article on the BBC website giving some background to the photograph here.
Interesting where a photograph of an image on a single t-shirt can lead.
Face of a skinhead
On a t-shirt in London
Forty years passed
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Trellick Tower is an apartment complex built back in the early 1970s, designed in the brutalist style by Ernő Goldfinger as it was falling out of fashion. Like many similar housing complexes, it became a site of crime, drug use and other misdemeanours. Over time however it found favour and crime was reduced by a number of measures, including the formation of a resident’s association, and it became a desireable place to live. The tower was given Grade II listing status in 1998.
The building has featured on TV and in movies on many occasions and is a structure I instantly recognise due to its distict shape and “outrigger” design. Despite this, other than it being in London, I didn’t really know where it was so I was pleasantly surprised when I turned a corner while visiting Portobello Road market and it appeared right before my eyes.
Brutalist buildings
A design for the future
Or so people thought
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Shades of the continent in this scene of two gents sat in front of this Spanish deli. People sitting outside cafe’s and restaurants isn’t unusual in the UK – especially since covid-19 hit – but this one really looks the part.
Perhaps some tapas
Maybe some cafe con leche
Watch the world go by
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
It’s one of those days again where it comes around to blog writing time and I find I either don’t have much to say, or am uninspired by my recent crop of pictures. I take my hat off to anyone who can produce interesting pieces of writing at, well, the drop of a hat… 🙂
Not a hirsute man?
Then use the cover of hats
To hide the sun roof
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
The shed-like structure in the middle of the street in this photograph is a cabmen’s shelter, one of thirteen remaining in London. The shelters were originally constructed in the late 19th century to provide drivers of hansom carriages, and later taxicabs, with a place to take shelter and get food and drink. Laws at the time forbade taxi drivers from leaving their vehicles unatended at taxi-stands, meaning they could find it difficult to eat hot meals or shelter from unpleasant weather. Parking elsewhere would mean having to pay someone to look after their cab while they were away from it for fear it may be stolen.
The Cabmen’s Shelter Fund was set up to construct shelters at major cab stands, with the buildings containing an attendant who would serve food and drinks from a kitchen (which could also be used by the drivers themselves). There were also seats and tables to accommodate drivers inside the shelters.
Drivers can enter
And find sustenance within
These cabmen’s shelters
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Lab developed in Xtol.
Taken on 19 August 2021
Steel City Snapper photography 