South of London Wall

I keep saying how I need to cover the streets furthest away from the office (the west of the city) before it starts to get darker earlier, but apart from a couple of outings that way I haven't really followed that plan. I will try to venture further a bit more, but perhaps I might need to take a couple of half days off work, especially once the clocks change.

In the meantime I am mostly ignoring my plan, and this particular week was no exception, when I focused on the area between Moorgate, London Wall and Gresham Street; this is an area where it is quite easy for me to get off or on the tube at Moorgate and photograph on the way to work or the way home.

Starting up with Coleman Street, a street I had photographed before, but I really liked this scene with the contrast created by the man in the suit, and his reflection in the window.

Off Coleman Street lies White Horse Yard, which is not very photogenic, but happens to have a sheltered spot favoured by smokers, which made for a slightly more interesting photograph than I would otherwise have achieved.

Following are a couple more streets that lie off of Coleman Street - Great Bell Alley which leads to Moorgate, and Mason's Avenue which leads to Basinghall Street.

There is not much to say about Great Bell Alley (above), but walking down Mason's Avenue, is a bit of step back in time, although you don't really get a feel for this in the picture. The name comes from the fact the Company of Masons were based here.After the great fire of London, there was much rebuilding work to be done, and masons would have been busy for many years, due to the banning of construction the construction of wooden  buildings. Also of note here is a pub, The Old Dr Butler's head, which gets it name from an unqualified physician who served King James I. A few more details on this story can be found here.

At the end in the picture above is Basinghall Street, where the Guild Hall takes up most of the western side of the street, part of which can be seen in the picture below.

At the junction with Basinghall Avenue the street veers left and leads on to Aldermanbury and Aldermanbury Square, the latter of which is pictured below.

The next image is of Guildhall Buildings, a large square surrounded by the buildings of the Guildhall, hence its name. The square has some really interesting paving, which makes for great black and white pictures.

the main entrance way to the Guildhall is via Guildhall Yard, where I spotted this old police telephone box. Of course since taking this picture I have seen lots of them and have probably walked past quite a few without even noticing them; that's what happens when you just rush around from the tube to work and back again, you don't take in your surroundings.

My final image of the shoot, was on Wood Street, where there an interesting modern glass and yellow painted metal building that features these colourful air conditioning vents.

That takes me up to the end of August, so now only two weeks behind. Below is the updates progress map which is also on the progress page.

Chaos on the Tubes

Tube Strikes caused major disruption to London this week, but luckily I was able to work from home during the two days of striking. I did however manage to take quite a few shots.

To start with though, is a shot from last week that I forgot to post. Sugar Bakers Court is a small passage off Greenchurch Lane, not far from the Gherkin. There wasn't much to photograph, but I quite like this shot. The immediate are of and surrounding this passage escaped the Great Fire of London, and shortly after confectioners set up here, which led to its name (although it was first called
"Sugar Bakers Yard").

The next image is of Throgmorton Street, and is my favourite picture of the week. I think it was the only evening where the sun was not hidden behind a drab covering a cloud, and hence resulted in lovely long shadows. The building in the background is the Bank of England.

From here I went towards Moorgate to catch the tube, walking along Coleman Street, where I saw an interesting piece of "art" outside one the office, and I immediately started looking for a shot where I could utilise the reflections in the metal.

Further up Coleman Street, to the left, is Basinghall Avenue, where again I was treated to some lovely long shadows. The building here is Girdlers Hall, home to The Girdler's Company, one of the 109 Livery Companies of the City of London.

In the book ("Bleeding London"), the character Stuart, who walks every street in London, marks them off with a black pen in an A-Z map. In order to keep track of my progress I am also marking off the streets in black on a map, but in slightly more hi-tech fashion. I want track this progress, month by month, and therefore decided to end this post at the end of April, with the map of my progress to date. I will post these images in the "Progress" page also.