St. Pancras is the station I use when travelling to and from London, with an occasional switch across to King’s Cross which sits literally next door if the timetables dictate.
It’s a grand old structure dating to Victorian times and consists of the railway station itself as well as a large hotel. The station was thoroughly modernised in the 1990s and now also serves as the international terminus for Eurostar trains to Europe via the Channel Tunnel, giving the place a feel not dissimilar to an airport in some ways. I’ve never travelled on Eurostar, so am not sure if the international terminal has duty free shops and similar as that part of the station is not accessible to regular travellers.
I remember travelling to St. Pancras before it was upgraded and it was a much more utilitarian affair. Where now you can buy designer clothes or expensive pastries, was once a somewhat dark and grimy feeling terminus, the air awash with the fumes from the diesel locomotives. Now you can have a glass of champagne while awaiting your departure.
It’s been a nice day today. Blue skies with hints of high altitude clouds and slowly spreading contrails from passing aircraft. It was cold, with a frost that required clearing the ice from the car before I could drive.
While I’d hoped to do some photography, I hadn’t planned on going out especially early, but I woke just before seven AM and after procrastinating within the warmth of the bed, decided that it might be worth getting up and making the most of the morning light.
I’ve been wanting to get out with the large format camera again after the disappointment of the last outing, and the day would have been ideal as, in addition to the good light, there was also little wind, something that can be a hindrance when shooting large format cameras. However, I also had two partially shot rolls of film in other cameras.
I sometimes find that partially shot rolls are a distraction. It”s perhaps just the weird neurodivergent way that my brain works, but I like to finish a roll before starting another one, so having two rolls with un-shot frames waiting to be used was pulling some strings in my head. One was a roll of Portra 160 that I’d half shot a couple of weeks ago with the Bronica ETRSi (on the day of the large format disappointment, in fact) which had about half the fifteen frames left. The other a 35mm roll of Kodak Gold that’s been in my Canon Sure Shot Z135 for a while (since the end of October, maybe) which still had about a third of the roll still to be used. While it’s not always possible, I much prefer to finish a complete roll of film than to have some left over. At the same time I don’t want to waste film on “nothing shots” just to use it up. Rock, meet hard place…
So this morning I decided to forgo the large format stuff and instead finish at least one of these partially consumed rolls of film. I had no real plan on where I would go (sometimes this is a problem all of it’s own that leads to me going nowhere due to not being able to make my mind up) but I remembered a scene that I’d passed a few weeks previously but been unable to take advantage of – some blocks of high-rise flats lit by the early sunshine. Not far from this is another location that I felt might be promising at this time of the day too, and from there I could drive out into the countryside and just see what might catch my eye. Not the most structured plan I’ve ever had, but certainly better than complete indecision.
In the end the morning turned out quite nicely and I managed to finish the roll of Portra, although about half-a-dozen frames remain on the Kodak Gold, so that one will keep nagging at me for a while longer, especially as I’ll hold out on getting the first roll developed as it’s more cost effective to send multiple rolls of film to the lab than to post them individually.
Sadly I can’t show you any of these photos today for the aforementioned reason, but they’ll appear at some point (although the way my backlog is, it might be sometime in 2024!). So, instead, here’s another picture from London. It’s a curiously old-fashioned looking picture showing the rear of the Apollo Theatre that (apart from the 20mph sign and the double-yellow lines on the road) probably wouldn’t have looked much different had it been taken in the 1950s.
These two pictures don’t really impart just how hot it was in Trafalgar Square when these were taken.
The mid-30s Celsius is probably nothing to make a fuss about in some parts of the world, but here in the UK that’s hot!
Paddling isn’t allowed in the fountains, but dipping your feet in is apparently fine, and so many people were taking advantage of the cool water in this way.
The second shot shows the Fourth Plinth, which I wrote about in a previous post.
I’m off to the cinema after work today to see The Marvels, so this shot of a theatre kiosk seemed an apt choice for today’s post. Do you think they sell hot dogs there perchance?
This wheel kinda looks like how I feel at present. I seem to be having a lot of trouble finding enthusiasm for anything, even things I enjoy, on a regular basis. I don’t think I’m depressed or anything, just that I can’t seem to find the energy to do stuff. My attention wanders but never really settles on anything, just drifts from one thing to another, not gaining any real benefit. I’m finding it difficult to focus on things, both at work and at home.
It’s not a permanent, 24/7 thing – sometimes I feel better, but it’s noticeable enough for me to be giving it thought. It’s especially frustrating because, sometimes when I have free time to do something I’d like I end up doing nothing, which is a big disappointment. Free time is something I have in limited supply and to waste it is not good.
I’ve started to wonder if I might have Long Covid or something, as these symptoms are often associated with that condition, but I don’t really have any of the other signs. Or maybe I’m just getting older.
When walking to the West End of London, after disembarking my train, I decided to take a route I’ve never used before. Instead of heading south down Woburn Place / Southampton Row, which is the way I would normally go if walking, I headed further west along Euston Road and then cutting south down Gower Street.
I didn’t have any particular reason for choosing Gower Street other than it’s a road I’ve never walked before (and might therefore have some things worth photographing), and that it would take me towards my destination.
I already posted a couple of pictures yesterday that I shot outside University College London, but the ones featured today are what I photographed as I continued down the street past rows of elegant terraced houses. One of the things that struck me about these was the number on chimney pots visible above each property, with ten individual pots being visible on most of the buildings. Each has five floors including basement and attic, so I guess two or more fireplaces on each floor – which doesn’t actually sound that many – but to see them all emerging from the rooftop together is quite striking. None of the houses in the estate where I live has any chimneys, they instead have a simple vented tile on the apex of the roof where fumes from gas fires can escape (assuming a gas fire is still in use – our h0ome, and I suspect many others, now relies totally on gas-powered central heating, with any fumes vented from a flue from the boiler.. Different times, I guess.
As promised, this post marks a change in imagery from all the Malaga pictures I’ve been posting. I’ve now moved onto a roll of Ilford HP5+ that I shot on a visit to London back in September. The trip was to see exhibitions at The Photographers Gallery (Evelyn Hofer), and The National Portrait Gallery (Sir Paul McCartney). Bot exhibitions were excellent, although I enjoyed the Evelyn Hofer photographs more.
After getting off the train, I decided to walk into the West End rather than catch the Tube, so was able to get a bunch of pictures during the amble southwards. These first two were taken outside University College London.
This point of view almost suggests that the bridge will carry pedestrians right across the Thames and directly into St. Paul’s Cathedral.
SPOILER: It doesn’t.
Apologies for another short post. I’m still feeling ill – although maybe a little improved over yesterday. Hopefully I’ll feel better still by tomorrow.
An artist begins work on their picture while stood just in front of the National Gallery in London (which is offf to the right in this viewpoint).
I went out today and shot the remaining frames on a roll of HP5+ that has been in my Olympus Trip 35 for a while. I’m not sure if this was a good idea given I have a cold at the moment (although the general concensus is that light to moderate exercise can be beneficial as long as it isn’t a chest infection – which I don’t think mine is. At this stage at least). Whatever the case, I shot the ten-or-so remaining images and can now get the roll developed sometime this week. I’m getting close to running out of fresh images for the blog and, even though I have loads of unpublished stuff from older rolls I can use, I always feel the compulsion to keep the fresh stuff coming. Hopefully this 36exposure roll will keep the lights on for a while. 🙂
The north-western plinth in Trafalgar Square, London was originaly intended to be topped by a statue of William IV on horseback but, due to insufficient funds, the piece was not completed. The plinth then remained empty while its use was debated for the next 150 years until, in 1998, three temporary sculptures were commissioned by Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Shortly after this, consultations were carried out to decide the future use of the plinth. It was decided that a rolling programme of artworks would continue to make use of the plinth, and this has been the case since.
To date there have been fourteen artworks displayed atop the plinth since 1998. The latest is called Antelope by Samson Kambalu. It depicts Baptist preacher and pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and European missionary John Chorley. Chilembwe wears a hat in an act of defiance, as this was illegal at the time. The statue of Chilembwe is larger than that of Chorley to elevate his act of defiance.
Steel City Snapper photography 