A short One

This is a short post which will take us up to the end of June. Nun Court is a very small alley just off Coleman Street, itself quite a long street which runs between London Wall down to Gresham Street. Nun Court is perhaps the street that I have walked past the most during this project, and have wondered many times how to get an interesting image. I finally got some inspiration one evening and was very pleased with the end result.

The rest of the images here are in the area south of St. Paul's. Dean's Court, just off St. Paul's Churchyard, us  another street I had been down a few times and struggled for inspiration. I think part of the reason is that it attracts a lot of smokers, who are not moving and just look on,  wondering why on earth anyone would chose to photograph there. This time I managed to get an Ok image, and the smoker was too busy looking at his phone to notice me.

Dean's Court leads to Carter Lane and heading west you could easily miss a very small courtyard called Wardrobe Place. Previously I photographed and blogged about the nearby Wardrobe Terrace, and it is here at Wardrobe Place that the Edward III moved the royal finery in 1359, from the tower of London.  For a place with such history I have certainly not done it justice.

A short way further along Carter Lane is St. Andrew's Hill.

Close by is Creed Lane and off here is a small lane and certainly not a square, called Ludgate Square. 

This leads onto Ludgate Hill, and from hear I headed west a little. On the south side almost opposite Old Bailey is Pageantmaster Court.Its a short street, featuring only one building on either side so does not offer many photographic opportunities, but on this occasion I was blessed with some good light.

And that takes us up to the end of June, and with it an updated map.

Oops, Way behind

Crikey I almost forgot about the blog. Now are up to June and there is probably not too many more posts to come.

The next set of shots were taken on a couple of evenings after work. The first image, taken on Broken Wharf near the Thames and just off High Timber Street, is one that made me laugh when I saw the scene. Its a group of charity runners queuing for the toilets before the race, all with "Crisis", the name of the charity on their backs. I couldn't help thinking that it would be a real crisis if there was not toilet paper. Perhaps that is what the guy on the phone is ringing for.

Also just off High Timber Street is Stew Lane and Gardners Lane, neither of which presented many photo opportunities. Perhaps I was cheating a little with Stew Lane as it doesn't show the street as such but instead shows a ladder leading down to the river. I was on the lane when I took the image though, looking down over a wall at the very end of the lane.

High Timber Street is a fork off Upper Thames Street and on the other side of Upper Thames Street is another fork, Castle Baynard Street. Castle Baynard Street doesn't really have a lot going for it  - all of it is under a tunnel, which then comes out onto Puddle Dock.

Close by is  a foot Bridge crossing Upper Thames Street which leads onto Fye Foot Lane, a pedestrian only lane which takes you to Queen Victoria Street. There is not a lot on this lane, jus the sides of some office buildings, but there some quite nice shadows were being cast.

Near to the first image of this entry is Trig Lane seen below. In the background is the Millennium (or Wobbly) Bridge and the Tate Modern art gallery.

That was the last image I took on that evening, but a few days later I managed to get a few more images, which are all a bit spread out as I was filling in some gaps. Doby Court, is a very small yard outside an office and is not much to look at - you certainly wouldn't visit it unless you were mad enough to do a project like this. I struggled to know what to take, but then quite liked the combination of the bright red road side and the metal behind it.

Watling Court, between Watling Street and Cannon Street, is another uninteresting street, which is currently blocked off at the Cannon Street end due to some building work. I did have a good chat with the lady on the left of the picture though, who was very interested in this project. If she looked at the blog she is probably wondering what happened to her picture as its so long since I took the shot.

Queen Street starts way up at a junction with Cheapside but leads all the down to Southwark bridge, first turning into Queen Street Place at the junction with Upper Thames Street.  Here as you can see in these final images of Queen Street Place and Southwark Bridge, there were some lovely shadows being cast onto the street by the sun.

Friday's Fleety Friar

A complete lack of imagination sees me combine three street names into a blog title. These images are from one particular evening after work, all of which are in the vicinity of St. Paul's. The first street I photographed was Friday Street, which is just off Cannon Street to he west of the Cathedral. It is a street that I had walked down a few times without being inspired enough to take a photo, but this time I got something.

Next was Addle Hill which is not very hilly and not very interesting either although at the end I found a sign stating "No waste to be left in this area at any time" beneath which there was a lot of "waste".

From here there is the wonderfully named Wardrobe Terrace a small passageway that leads down to Queen Victoria Street. According to the londonist the name does refer to a wardrobe - the "Great Wardrobe" was responsible for kings garments and moved to this spot in 1361. The passageway runs down side of the church "St. Andrew by the Wardrobe".

Close by and just off Cater Lane is Friar Street.

Back up towards St. Paul's and just off Ludgate Hill is Creed Lane. The following shot was taken outside a typical souvenir shot aimed at the tourists.

Almost opposite here is Stationers Hall Court, where the worshipful company of Stationers and newspaper makers are located. The shot below was taken in the alley of the same name that leads to the courtyard.

Next up is Warwick Passage, which leads connects Warwick Square (of Warwick Lane) to the Old Bailey and which goes right beneath the famous courts. I had previously come across this passage from the square but fond the gate locked. This time I came across the passage from the Old Bailey and entrance was not prohibited.

My final shot of the evening was of Fleet Passage and taken along the side of the City Thameslink station.

This was also the last image taken in May, so it 's time to show the updated map.

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.

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.

Around St. Paul's Part One

Of all Sir Christopher Wren's churches. St. Paul's Cathedral is the most famous, and one of the most famous in the world. No one needs me a photo from me to know what it looks like, so I haven't taken one. But I do have images of all the surrounding streets.

The following two images are on an unmarked lane/street just off Paternoster square, so I assume it to be part of the square. Having photographed the square a couple of months ago I could have simply moved onto the next street, but you can see why I didn't. The two sculptures are actually air conditioning cooling vents, and amazing ones at that.

And then I took another image of the sculpture from Amen Corner.

The road going from left to Right in the above picture is Ave Maria Lane, of which there is not too much to talk about, other than the sculptures.

At this southern end of the lane is Ludgate Hill to the West and St. Paul's Churchyard to the east, which goes straight past the main entrance to the Cathedral. Of course the obvious thing to do here was to photograph someone holding up a big advertising board for a fish and chip restaurant. I have no idea what the fish and chips are like, but just follow the arrow to the right and you will find the restaurant on Carter Lane.

Just off Paternoster Square and going around the north side of the cathedral is Paternoster Row.

This then turns back into St. Paul's Churchyard according to the maps, and then depending on which map you look at back into Paternoster Row. However the street sign on the wall just by where I took this shot said it was St. Paul's Churchyard.

Off the row and leading heading north to Newgate Street is Queens Head Passage.

Jumping around a bit now back to Ave Maria Lane which heading north turns into Warwick Lane.

Just off of here is a little Square called Warwick Square, where I have a rare shot in colour.

More jumping again and back to the south side of the cathedral. Peter's Hill leads you down to the Millennium  or Wobbly bridge. What appears to be just one street is actually with Peters' Hill forking to the west to become Sermon Lane. You could easily miss this uninteresting fact, as I did previously when I photographed the "hill" but I had to come back to get Sermon Lane.

At the top of the above image is another tiny little street I also hadn't noticed before. It has the great name of Knightrider Court, and if you are of a similar age to myself you will no doubt be humming a theme tune from a time when David Hasselhoff was cool not just in Germany.

The court is no longer than what you can see in the image above. The figure above is heading down the similarly greatly names Knightrider Street.

One final jump takes us to the also wonderfully named Old Fish Street Hill which is Just off Queen Victoria street and leads up to Cannon Street and St. Paul's Churchyard via Distaff Lane.

And that takes us up to the end of April, so still a fair bit behind on this blogging lark.