Sunday 20 July 2014

Moving Swiftly onwards

Having completed the Barbican estate, I could now explore other parts of the City and I headed West of Barbican, continuing along the northern edge of the City, past Smithfield Market and onto Holborn.

Starting off at Long Lane which is on the south side of the Market. Smithfield's market has been a meet market for centuries and is the last remaining wholesale market in Central London. In previous times, Smithfield was a place for public gatherings and executions; William Wallace was executed there in 1305.


There are three roads that pass through the market - Grand Avenue, East Poultry Avenue and West Poultry Avenue and I managed to get passable pictures of the first two. First up is Grand Avenue -


The cock Tavern is on East Poultry Street and doesn't have the typical pub frontage. By all accounts it does a fantastic English breakfast, as it should situated at a meat market.


The north side of the Market is on Charterhouse Street. The following shot shows part of the outside of Fabric nightclub.


Charterhouse Street runs all the way to Holborn. Just before the junction with Holborn is Shoe Lane, which I was going to pass and come back to another day. However I saw a rickshaw driver (struggling somewhat even though he had no passengers), so stopped for a photo.


Onto Holborn and this shot is taken outside the Melton Mowbray pub.


Close by is  a side street called Dyers building.



Off the southern side of Holborn Circus lies New Fetter lane, and connecting it with Fetter Lane is Bartlett's Passage; there is no street sign here, nor is it named on Google Maps, but it is on Bing Maps. Another case of having to check multiple maps.


On New Fetter Lane is a new looking office and shopping complex, with a square, New Street Square, in the middle. Some musicians were playing whilst I was there and attracting a crowd, but I was too busy looking for an image to notice what they were playing. I love the reflection in the water that I manage to capture in the following picture.


Back to Fetter Lane and a bit of a nothing shot. Having since notices that Fetter Lane goes all the way down to Fleet Street, I will try and get a better image at some point, but for now I have marked it off on the list.



Just along from here is a little passage, Greystoke Place, with another round the corner Mac;s Place.




At the end of Greystoke Place is Cursitor Street, which I didn't photograph. But just off it is a little private square, Printers Inn Court.

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Cursitor Street leads onto Chancery Lane, another street for another day, but just off it is the wonderfully named Quality Court.This picture is taken from the courtyard looking down the passage towards Chancery Lane.


That's it for this week, but I am glad to be exploring a new area.

Saturday 19 July 2014

Completing Barbican

I think Barbican is a Marmite sort of place; people either love it or hate it. Personally I love it, and if I won the lottery, but not enough to stop working, then I would consider buying a flat in the Barbican and for use during the working week. Having said that I am glad to have completed photographing the Barbican for various reasons 1) Few of the "streets or walkways are on Google Maps, some are on Bing Maps, but neither is complete and neither is the sum of the two. This makes marking off progress difficult 2)  Being concentrated in the same small area for a while made me feel that I wasn't making much progress 3) It was becoming difficult to find new angles from which to photograph vast amounts of concrete. I do however think that the estate is very photogenic and will probably go back some time to photograph it again, but it was becoming a bit of a chore. Anyway on with the photographs..

First up is Moor Lane (which I had previously photographed), although the lane is actually not visible as it is below what is seen in the shot. The image was taken from Willoughby Highwalk and shows Moorfields Highwalk making its way through an old 60's looking building that looks to have been vacant for a while.


Silk Street joins onto Moor Lane, and at the end of Silk Street is Cromwell Place right below the imposing Cromwell Tower.



At the end of Beech Street, within the estate is Lauderdale Place. I struggled for a while to get a picture here, but in the end I really like what I came away with; a simple shot, but with lots of lines, patterns and angles.



Back up on to the highwalks and John Trimble Highwalk. The area below is Lauderdale place and the grate and staircase to the right are those in the picture aboce.


Close by is White Lyon Court, which is more like a ramp, leading down towards the now closed YMCA building.


And Finally Beech Gardens. I waited here for a while for someone interesting to come into shot, and after a few minutes was rewarded with two construction workers pushing wheel barrows, one of them containing a traffic cone.


Bye Barbican.

Thursday 10 July 2014

A very short one

I was only in my London office two days this week, so only managed to get out with my camera one evening after work. Thus I only have a few photographs and not much to say about them.

Starting off at Barbican again;I have nearly completed the Barbican, just a few bits left which I hope to tick off next week. Mountjoy Close is a small walkway at the end of Wallside, with an entrance to Mountjoy Walk at each end.



Round the corner from here is Thomas More Highwalk.



At the other end of Thomas More Highwalk is John Wesley Highwalk. This picture shows a staircase that leads down to Aldersgate Street.



My Final shot is of Rotunda, a roundabout featuring a building that is part of the Barbican; with a sunken garden area on top and walkways to the surrounding buildings.



Monday 7 July 2014

Barbican Part 3

This week I was only about to get out with my camera on a couple of occasions and so havent managed to tick off that many streets. My time was spent all in the Barbican, which I have now covered most of, but a few areas remain.

First up is are a few pictures of Moorfields Highwalk. I already photographed here, but saw a few nice opportunities for good photos.






Next up was Andrews Highwalk, where there was deep shadows and beam of light along the highwalk.


The next shot is taken from St. Giles Terrace, where St. Giles Church is located. Their is thought to have been a church on this spot for a thousand years. It was last rebuilt in 1394, but has required extensive restoration at various times, notably after the Great Fire of London and the Second world War.



On the other side of the lake from St. Giles Terrace is Lakeside Terrace. The shot below was actually taken from above the terrace on Defoe Place.


Talking of which, here a couple of shots taken from Defoe Place -



At the other end of Defoe Place is Ben Johnson Place, where Shakespeare Tower is situated. For many years this tower was listed in the Guinness book of Records as the highest residential building in Europe.


Frorbisher Crescent has two floors, named Frorbisher Crescent and Upper Frorbisher Crescent.



At the end of Frorbisher Crescent is Gilbert Bridge which connects to the Postern.




My final picture of the week is taken looking down on Beech Street and was my favourite image of the week.