Sunday 24 August 2014

The times they are a changing

Most of the shots around this post are taken around Fenchurch Street, though not Fenchurch Street itself as I have already shot that street.

Starting with Star Alley, the two shots below were taken outside a small traditional cafe, where you get served bacon butties and tea in random mugs, such as the Micky Mouse one in the picture below. I chatted to the guy in the first picture for a few a few minutes and he told me that the Cafe where he goes for his usual morning cuppa was closing down soon. The owner came out and spoke to me for a few minutes as well; he told me how rents were being put high so as to push them out, and probably build a new office block, no doubt with a Starbucks or Costa Coffee. Its a little sad; there is so much character in the city, but it is slowly being knocked down and replaced with shiny new buildings that they have to put a sun shade over to stop them reflecting the sun down on to the streets and melting cars.



Star Alley is just off Mark Lane, seen below in fairly poor image.


The following shot is from Dunsters Court, a private courtyard and home to the Clothworkers company.


The other side of Mark Lane is London Street, where the main entrance to Fenchurch Street Station is located. Just off he is a small Alley called New London Street.



Over to the other side of Fenchurch Street now and to Fenchurch Avenue; the building on the left is the Willis building.


Connecting her to Fenchurch Street is Billiter Square, a quite unattractive square which leads to a little alley leading to Hogarth Court.



The final shot of this post is about 5 minutes walk away on Batholomew Lane. Shown is the side of the Bank of England and the entrance to the Bank of England Museum, with perhaps the largest doors in the city.


Tuesday 19 August 2014

Catching up again

I am still catching up with the blogging as it has been a busy couple of weeks. In fact last week I didnt manage a single photo for the first time, so I am actually writing about the week before. Better get on with it then...

As mentioned I was a bit busy so didn't have the opportunity to go further afield, so instead a few short outings. The first was on the way home via Barbican tube, and walking down Aldersgate Street  I noticed a part of the Barbican estate that I had previously missed - Shaftesbury Place.


A bit further up the road off Aldersgate Street is a little alley through buildings called Braidwood Passage.


Close by is East Passage. Near the end of the ally, not seen in the picture, is Ye Old Red Cow, one of the oldest pubs in the area.


The following morning I got off the tube at Moorgate and crossed a few streets off the list on the way to work. First was Coleman Street Buildings which connects Coleman Street with Moorgate; this is a picture I am really pleased with -


Further down Moorgate and closer to the Bank of England lies Kings Arms Yard, which connects Coleman Street to Tokenhouse Yard, crossing Moorgate.


Speaking of which, the following picture is of Tokenhouse Yard. The street gets its name from a "token house" established in the early 17th Century, where tokens were produced to be given as change, prior to the introduction of the half-penny and farthing.The tokens were stamped with an emblem identifying a particular trader, and could only be spent with that trader, and acted much like gift tokens today. The practise lasted for about fourty years.



Saturday 9 August 2014

Another month over

Still a bit behind, but getting there. This post, although a bit late, marks images taken up till the end of July. I finally managed to finish off the area between Aldgate and Tower Hill, and started moving west a bit towards Monument.

Just off of Jewry Street near Aldgate is Sarcen's head Yard, named after an  inn that stood nearby in the 18th-19th Century. A bit more information can be found at Medieval London. The Yard looks a bit like a loading bay area as can be seen in the picture below.



A bit further down Jewry Street is Rangoon Street, which is very short and again a bit more like a loading bay. There really is not much to photograph, but I liked the look of the reflections in the building below. Colour really doesn't do anything for this picture, but in black and white it is a lot more interesting. One thing I love about my little Fuji X100s is the ability to see black and white through the viewfinder, and this has really helped me to visualise in black and white.


Jewry Street turns into Crutched Friars and a bit further down there is a junction with Crosswall and Coppers Row. In the previous week I passed Crosswall mistakenly thinking I had already photographed it. Crosswall was previously called John Street after King John, but bomb damage in the Second World War revealed parts of the old London Wall and it was renamed to Crosswall as it crossed the wall.



The aforementioned Coopers Row leads down towards Tower Hill Tube station, but also has a fairly well hidden entrance to Fenchurch Street station. As can be seen in the picture below there is little indication of an entrance to the station.



Just off Coopers Row is Pepy's Street, named after Samuel Pepy's, although as mentioned in my previous post he lived at the other end of here on Seething Lane.


Jewry Street, having turned into Crutched Friars then turns finally into Hart Street. On Hart Street, seen in the picture below, is the church St. Olave Hart Street. A church was first recorded on this site in the 14th Century, but it is believed that s a church of wooden construction was situated here prior to this date. The building dates from around 1450 and is one of the few remaining medieval building left in the City, having survived the fire of London thanks partly to Samuel Pepy's who put forward the idea of "fire breaks"; blowing up buildings to create breaks that would stop the spread of the fire. Pepy's lived around the Corner on Seething Lane and is buried in the church.



Opposite Hart Street is a little alley called New London Street (see the next post) which leads through to London Street/Fenchurch Place where Fenchurch Street Station is located; I had previously

photographed Fenchurch Place, not realising that it turned into London Street.



In the background of the above picture is Fenchurch Street and close by is on the left is Billeter Street which runs through to Leadenhall Street.


And that takes us to the end of July, and so I have an updated map showing progress.


Monday 4 August 2014

Better Late than never

I'm a bit behind with both blogging and editing at the moment. Work has been busy, but I also did a macro workshop up near Cambridge, photographing dragonflies and damselflies, and had a lot of photos to sift through afterwards.

Anyway, I haven't yet made it back around the Holborn/Chancery Lane area; I need to, but due to its distance from the office, I really need to dedicate a couple of hours after work in that area, rather than just a half hour or so on the way to the tube. Instead I filled in some of the gaps I had between the Aldgate and Tower Hill area. First up is Jewry Street, which is just off Aldgate.


Next up is possibly my worst photo of the entire project, taken on Carlisle Avenue, which is off of Jewry Street. I was taken by the irony of the sign and the damage to the building, but even if it has a little bit of humour, it still doesn't make a good image.


At the end of Carlisle Avenue is a little alley which leads to Lloyd's Avenue. There wasn't too much to photograph her, but I liked the stripes on the steps and ground. I was also a little intrigued by the giant light bulb and I wish I had found it what it was about.


At the end of Lloyd's Avenue I turned onto Crosswall, which I thought I had photographed, but hadn't, and onto America Square. Not much took my eye here, but just before the railway bridge, which I think still classifies as part of the the Square I saw lots of bollards and roadwork sings, which looked like they would make an interesting picture. Whilst I was trying to decide on my composition, one of the Chef'' from the bar came out for a  smoke -



Under the railway bridge is the very aptly named Crescent.


On the maps, there is a street at the end of the Crescent called Hammett Street, which leads to Minories. At the moment there is just a building site here, so its unclear as to whether or not Hammett Street will be swallowed up or reappear.

A few streets away is the brilliantly named Seething Lane, where Samuel Pepys lived. On Pepy's advice the king blew up many buildings to great fire breaks and to stop the spread of the great fire. It is largely due to this advice that Pepys house survived, but ironically it burnt down five years late. My image from this street is nothing to do with Pepy's but instead is the from the side of a pub.


The final image of this post is from Muscovy Street,which is towards the end of Seething Lane and leads to Trinity Square.  Apparently this street is named after Peter the Great who frequented a pub nearby (see Russians in London: Peter the Great ).