London: Christmas past

And now for something completely different. These oldies were taken in 1972 and 73 with a medium-format Rolleiflex---which I still have. The black and white film brings out the bleakness of the surroundings. They show a London which has changed in some ways while others have stayed the same. Thus the world-famous landmarks are intact but many of the surrounding scenes have gone.

This was when I started to be fascinated by buildings ravaged by time, some of them so much so that they had to be destroyed. One can still find places like this in England but only in the north. Most of these were taken around what was then Docklands---Southwark (numbers 1 & 2) and Wapping (3, 4 & 5). Of course the sites have now been converted into shops, restaurants and bijou apartments. No. 5 shows a warehouse in St. Katherine's Dock where the fire might have been an insurance job. The final image is from Islington. The "LEB OFF" notice is not a command but advice that the electricity supply has been turned off.Read more