Thursday 23 July 2015

Catching up..again

Its been a few weeks since I posted and I'm quite a bit behind, so lets get on with it.

This post features covers quite a wide area, but mostly between Monument and Mansion House tube stations and south of these to the river. We are going to jump around a bit though, due to fact that many areas have a few streets dotted around that I still need to photograph.

First up are a couple of street just north near Monument Station. Talbot Court is notably only really for The ship pub, an proper old fashioned pub that existed before the great fire of London, but was destroyed and rebuilt after the fire.


Close by is St. Benet's Place a short alley with only a gym and some offices. I had walked past here many times wondering how to photograph it. I finally got a shot, but not a very good one.


Just east of West of Mansion House is Huggin Hill, a narrow alley running from Queen Victoria Street down to Upper Thames Street. A large portion of it was under cover due to construction work, which limited options somewhat.


A bit further along Queen Victoria Street is Lambeth Hill which snakes down towards Castle Baynard Stretet and Upper Thames Street. This shot was taken from a footbridge looking down onto the bottom of the "hill".



Jumping back over the other side of Cannon Street station now and in between Cannon Street and Upper Thames Street - Laurence Pountney Hill.


Close by and also off Cannon Street is Bush Lane of which there isn't really much to say or photograph.


The other (west) side of Cannon Street now, and to Cloak Lane. This street is named after the Latin word 'cloaca' which basically means sewer or drain, so I will leave it for you to imagine what this street may have been like in days gone by.


Runing down the side of Mansion House Station is Garlick Hill. At the bottom of Garlick Hill is St. James Garlickhythe church. As  stated in that link, the word Garlickhythe  refers to a landing place or "hythe" near where garlic was sold in medieval times. Fascinating. The shot below was taken at the top of the hill at the entrance to the tube station.




Crossing upper Thames street now towards the river is Allhallows Lane, another street that I had been down several times but was lacking in any inspiration. there is not a lot down here really, but of notee is a bar called the The Loose Cannon which is in a grade 2 listed building below the Cannon Bridge.


Walking along the river and under Cannon Street, the Thames footpath turns into Walbrook Wharf. The wharf is operational and freight is loaded onto barges here, at which times this section of the footpath is closed whilst the freight is carried over the pathway.


I have commented in a previous blog post about how the Thames footpath changes name frequently and rather annoying. Just along from here it turns into Three Cranes Walk. The picture below is the underside of Southwark Bridge.


On the other side of the bridge the footpath changes name again, this time to Three Barrels Walk.


The footpath then turns away from the river, but changes name again to Queenhithe. Queenhithe is small and very old ward of the city, the name of which derives from the "Queen's' Dock". The dock in question still exists but is no longer in use, but has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Running along the path is a 30m long mosaic which depicts the history and people that built and lived in the area. Part of the mosiac can be seen in the final image of this post below.


Sunday 5 July 2015

A little bit more of St. Paul's and elsewhere

We are now back in May, so moving on, but not really catching up. I have a few streets left around the St. Paul's area to start off with. First up is Panyer Alley. This shot was taken standing on Panyer Alley, but probably really shows Paternoster Row. Something interesting on Panyer Alley that I didn't spot though is a stone carving of a boy on a panyer, which is a bread basket. For some more information head over to Uncovering London and Hidden London


At the other side of Paternoster Square is Rose Street and this shot was taken from the end where it meets Newgate Street.


Just off Rose Street is White Hart Street, which does not have a lot of interest. The best I could do was to frame these two black vents (?) and wait for someone to walk past in the right position.



Now to the southern side of the Cathedral, and to someone else advertising the same fish and chip restaurant as featured in a previous blog. This time it is a different but equally bored person (wouldn't you be ? ) on  a different street, this time Godliman Street.


A bit further along St. Paul's Churchyard and on the southern side is Old Change Court. There is not much here really other than a cocktail bar, but I manged to get a shot I was happy with.


Carter Lane adjoins Old Change Court and runs Parallel to St. Paul's Churchyard to the Blackfriars area. Running between Carter Street an Knightrider Street is an unusual alley called New Bell Yard. Its at the back of  the (five star) Grange St. Paul's hotel and there is an entrance to the hotel, where they have some outside seating. The alley is not much longer than what can be seen in the image, so quite a bit of it is taken up by the hotel.


Lastly I am heading off somewhere completely different - to Hayne Street near Smithfield's market. Since I started this project there has been a building site next to this narrow alley with boards on one side and just a hairdressers on the other. Many times I have walked by looking for inspiration, and I didn't find any this time either, but came away with a usable image, of sorts.