Another month passes

This post marks the end of November (still a bit behind) and I'm beginning to feel like the end is in sight, but only a little closer than the horizon. The shots here were taken on two days in the last week of the month and are a mixture of around Cannon Street or down on the Thames footpath.

First up is Abchurch Yard. Not my best picture but any means but I like the lead in lines here. The  building in the background is St. Mary Abchurch (another post fire of london Wren Church).

The following shot is taken on the steps at the entrance to Cannon Street station.

Next is Swan Lane which leads from Upper Thames Street down to the Thames. I have seen some great pictures of the building in the picture below in the past, with the bright yellow of the building contrasting against a clear blue sky and I have wanted to take such a shot, but didn't recognise the building at the time. Instead I opted for a reflection shot and perhaps it is a good thing that I found my own image rather than copied someone else's, even if mine is not as good.

I then walked along the Thames footpath, where the name changes frequently. The fist image below is of Oystergate Walk, and the second is Hanseatic Walk.

The following day I headed down to the river again, filling in a few streets along the way. Birchin Lane was one of the last, if not the last street between Cornhill and Lombard Street, that I still needed to photograph.

A bit further on and on the south side of Cannon Street is Martin Lane.

The bottom of Martin Lane leads onto Arthur Street where I encountered some construction workers engaging in traffic duties.

From here I crossed Upper Thames Street and onto Angel Lane whose most prominent feature is a large shiny building occupied by the Japanese bank Nomura.

At the end of Angel Lane is the Thames footpath and I walked westerly along here for a bit, My next image is of Steelyard Passage which passes underneath Cannon Street station. Its quite a dark passage but does have some ground level lights. It also features a sound installation that allegedly plays industrial sounds from days gone by, but personally I thought it sounded quite spooky.

My last shot of the day and of the month also was of Peters Hill, which leads from the river up to St. Paul's Cathedral. On the left of the image below is the millennium (or wobbly) bridge.

The updated map now looks as follows -

A half day - Part two

I am going to start off the second part of my half day with my favourite image of the day, and the second time I asked someone if I could take their picture. I did by a coffee but he was such a nice bloke I don't think he wouldn't have minded even if I hadn't bought a drink.The image itself was taken on St. Bride's Avenue in front of the church of that name. A church has been on this site since the 7th Century and was one of many which was destroyed by the Great fire of London, designed or built by Sir Christoper Wren and then again damaged during the second world war.

Now going back a bit in the afternoon and a much less interesting shot on Whitefriars Street.

Almost opposite here is Primrose Hill, which is not much of a hill, more of a gentle incline. I was lacking inspiration a little here, but thought the dark building with all its patterns and lines might look slightly interesting against a stark sky. I was right, but only slightly.

Between here and Dorse Rise lies Hutton Street a featureless street, which I tried to rescue with a bit of strong processing.

Close by is Dorset building, and another average shot really, but there is something mildly interesting to tell here. After taking an image I always take an picture of the street sign to remind me of the location when I get home. When I looked at the street sign picture on my PC I noticed the street sign said EC2 - but this area was surely  EC4, whilst EC2 is around  Liverpool Street, Bank and Moorgate. Surely it was a mistake, and you can just make out on this Google Streetview Image that there are two signs for the street directly opposite each other, one of which says EC2 and the other which says EC4.

Close by is Salisbury Square and the following shot was taken of a stairway leading from the square down to Primrose Hill - I was standing at the top of the stairs at the square so I am am counting it as that (and they are my rules so there).

Pleydell Street is few streets away from here, and geographically at least should have appeared in part one, as it is between Bouverie Street and Lombard Lane, both of which featured in that post. It is very short street and didn't have too much to photograph, so took a couple of visits to get something half decent.

Whilst heading back from Pleydell Street I noticed Salisbury Court, which is one of those annoying places that you think you have photographed only to find out that the street changes name. Salisbury Court is at the top (Fleet Street end) of Dorset Lane near the court of the same name (above). It was worth finding though as I came across this lovely building where the first edition of the Sunday Times was edited on October 20th 1822.

Heading back towards the first image in this post and to Bride Court, an image I really like, and Bride Lane, an image I like a lot less.

Close by is Ludgate Circus, which is basically the junction Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street meet Farrindon Street and New Bridge Street.

At this point I had had enough and it was starting to rain and get dark. However I had noticed some lights on the ground at St. Brides Passage earlier that I thought might make an interesting image, so headed back there. Climbing the steps up the passage though I saw another opportunity for a shot and waited a few minutes for someone to come up the stairs. It was my last image of the day, and very nearly my favourite.

A half day - Part One

The western part of city from the Thames up to Holborn and west of Farringdon Street/ New Bridge Street is the furthest part of the city from my place of work, and therefore the longest to get to. This makes it an impossible area to visit either prior to work or in a lunch break. I recognised early on in the project that I would have to complete this area prior to the onset of winter and the dark nights, but failed to listen to myself. Thus I had to take some the first of at least a couple of half days vacation, in order to tackle this area during the week and in daylight.

So I worked till lunch time and then headed off towards the river and down Kennett Wharf Lane, a little street off Upper Thames Street. There is not much to say about this shot except it looks like quite a few others that I have taken in this project.

On reaching the river I took a little detour underneath Southward Bridge to photograph Fruiteres Passage. This rather lovely tunnel was built in the 1920's and is named after the worshipful company of fruiterers who had a warehouse on the banks of the river above. The walls of the tunnel feature murals depicting scenes of London, the originals of which are now in the Guildhall. I managed to catch some reflection of people at the far end, as they approach but before they enter the passage, which I thought gave the image a slightly ghostly feel, but that could just be me.

I then turned around and headed west again and onto Queenhithe and then back onto Upper Thames Street. In doing so I missed out a few streets, but this area was not my main goal of the afternoon, so if I was not immediately inspired, then I carried on my way. At the end of Queenhithe, there is  a bridge crossing Upper Thames Street; its questionable whether the southern side starts on Upper Thames Street or on  High Timber Street, but the latter had limited opportunities for an interesting photograph, so the following image of that is bridge is credited to being on High Timber Street.

I then took the following image of a tunnel on Upper Thames Street that I quite like. I think its all the diagonal lines, and I had a couple of images with a lone taxi, but in the end settled for an image with no vehicles in it.

Missing out a few more streets I headed back onto the Thames and onto Paul's Walk - this walkway stretches all the way to Victoria Embankment without changing name, a fact I was very glad of. Teh location of the image below was taken below Blackfriars railway bridge.

On reaching Victoria Embankement  I then headed away from the river and up towards Fleet Street; completing as much of this area as possible was my main goal of the afternoon. I started off on Tallis Street, where I photographed some of Boris' Bikes. I have photographed these a few times before as have many others but this was the first time I had seen a yellow one, and it contrasted nicely with the blue one; the workman in the orange jacket was an added bonus.

Continuing towards Fleet Street I then took a couple of pictures on Bouverie Street. The first is a bit more like my usual sort of short, whilst the second was an attempt to do something a little different and which I think turned out rather well - I like it anyway.

Just round the corner from here is Temple Lane, where I took a couple of more images.

At the top of Temple Lane is Lombard Lane, where due to a lack of inspiration, I photographed myself or at least my reflection. My shadow has appeared previously in the project and now my reflection.

Towards the top of this lane is a left turn that leads to Serjeants Inn Courtyard, where the following image was taken.

Around the corner from here and heading towards Fleet Street is a tiny footpath called Hare Place. After wandering and wondering what to shoot for a few minutes, I plucked up the courage to speak to the girl below, before she finished her cigarette break and vanished. I told her about the project and she was more than happy for me to take her picture -if you are reading this, then I apologise that it has taken three weeks to post the image (the likelihood is that she got bored waiting for it to appear).

Since this was quite a productive outing with lots of images, I am splitting it up into two posts; the second to follow.

More Between Cannon Street and Bank

I manage to fill in a few more streets on a quick afternoon walk (I rarely have a lunch break) and concentrated my time not to far from work, First up is Post Office Court - where the general post office was located from 1678 to 1829.

The following shot is of King William Street, which runs diagonally from Bank down to Monument, and should have lots of possibilities for an interesting shot. Unfortunately the best I managed was of a bus.

The next two streets are Abchurch Lane and Nicholas Lane, both I which I mentioned in my previous post, and which are parallel to each other and run from Lombard Street down to Cornhill. I'm quite pleased with the second image, which is of Nicholas Lane.

As it was a quick break from the office I headed back towards work, but managed to shoot a couple more streets on the way, both of which were near Bank tube. The first was of Mansion House Place where I spotted this girl with matching outfit and suitcase next to some rather large plant pots.

The other and last image of my short walk was of Walbrook, on the other side of the Mansion House, and is of one of the entrances/exits to/from Bank Tube.

Down by the river again, and elsewhere

I may be brief with this entry as I am about 4 weeks behind and need to get a few posts out in quick succession perhaps. I began the week with another walk down to the river, starting just to the east of London Bridge at Old Waterman's  Walk. This is a section of the Thames that can be prone to flooding and the markings on the pavement indicate the distance from the river.

The section between here and London Bridge is Grants' Quay Wharf and here I took a few half decent photos.

Continuing along the river but on the other side of London Bridge is Fishmonger's Hall Wharf. I must confess that at some point walking along the river I regretted a little, my decision to photograph anything with a street sign,since name changes frequently along this stretch of the Thames.

This particular outing was a lunchtime walk, so at this point I had to start heading back to the office, but still had time to cover a few streets on the way back. Sherbone Lane is one of the streets between Cannon Street and King William Street and it seems to be entirely under construction and closed to vehicle, and at this time pedestrians too, so photographic opportunities were limited

A couple of streets away is Nicholas Passage which connect Nicholas Lane with Abchurch Lane.

The last photo of the day was closer to work and at Royal Exchange Avenue, which as the name suggests is close to the Royal Exchange building.

The next morning a made a rare journey on the central line, getting off at Bank, and with a few minutes to spare managed to take a few shots. First was Cornhill.

Continuing up Cornhill and away from Bank, there are many little alleys to the side, some already photographed and some like Ball Court, still to be crossed off the list.

One other such alley on the other side of Cornhill is White Lion Court. There was not too much to photograph here, but rather appropriately there were two white lions at the entrance to one of the offices.

And then it was time for work.