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urban75 blog...rainy streets, neon signs, disused stations and broken lines... | |
Friday, May 02, 2008Boris Johnson? You're having a laugh. Latest reports have that toff fop buffoon Boris ahead in the London mayoral election. He might be a right laugh as a dinner guest, but having that clown in charge of London would be no fucking joke. Labels: london Wednesday, April 30, 2008Ken Livingstone in Brixton Me: Hello Ken. I run the urban75 website where Paddick used to post Livingstone: Is that the Anarchist website? Me: No. The press made that up in an attempt to discredit Paddick - it's never claimed to be an 'anarchist website' Livingstone: That should teach me not to believe what I read in the press!   Labels: brixton, ken livingstone, london, politics Link Tuesday, March 25, 2008London photos
A few snaps from around London town, taken with my trusty Ricoh GX100 camera.
 Man with a hat, Bedford Square.  Penguin and passer by.  Bins, Ogle Street. More London photos Link Friday, February 22, 2008Time Out Top 50 Site!
Woot! It was great to see urban75 being listed in Time Out's "Top 50 London Websites," especially as were number one in the 'communities' section. Nice!
 Elsewhere on the site, I've been obsessively updating the Brixton History features, posting up old billboards and adverts and taking a modern day look: 2-4 Atlantic Road, Brixton 58 Atlantic Road, Brixton 80 Atlantic Road, Brixton Walton Lodge, Brixton  There's also a big feature on Quin & Axtens, a long-gone grand department store in Brixton Road.  If proof were needed that perhaps my obsession is going a little too far, my recent feature on the Public Toilets in Tate Library Gardens could be it!  Sadly the Lost Pubs section keeps on growing, with new features on the Loughborough Hotel and the Hammerton Brewery. Still to post up are pictures from the fabulous Actionettes night at the 100 Club, Oxford Street. I'll sort them soon - honest! Labels: brixton, london, photos, pubs Sunday, February 10, 2008Hanway Street, London W1 I've just finished a photo feature on this quiet little street in the centre of London.  Rumoured to be named after Jonas Hanway - the man who introduced the umbrella to the streets of London and faced of a ton of grief from hackney cab drivers for his troubles - it's a fascinating little backstreet. See: Hanway Street feature  On a sadder note, I've had to add another entry to my growing list of Lost Pubs Of Brixton.  The beautiful Loughborough Hotel at 39 Loughborough Road, Brixton, SW9 7TB had already lost its famous ballroom to developers, but it now looks like the pub has gone too. Read the full story here: Loughborough Hotel, Brixton closes Labels: brixton, london, photos, pubs Nokia: a pipeline of champagne! Well, not exactly a pipeline, but there sure was a lot of champagne flowing my way on Thursday as I attended the launch of the Nokia Store on Regent Street, London W1.  With Apple having their own equally shiny and chrome/glass-laden store opposite, the rivals will be able to take part in staring competitions across the road. Or maybe slug it out in the street if things turn nasty.  I've never understood or been interested in the dire schleb culture, but it was amusing to see well known musicians like Dizee Rascal and Goldie being hired in to presumably add 'showbiz glamour' while Z List blonde women flapped around the cameras, almost begging to be snapped. Still, you won't hear me complaining when the free champagne is slopping around in such quantities, and I got to meet some interesting folks amongst all the swivel-action suits, PR backslappers and attention seeking pap-clingers.  We later retired to a restaurant bar called Cocoon near Piccadilly Circus where the onslaught of champagne continued until, in the words of the fabulous Elbow, "my speech was just a gas leak." Sadly, there were no free phones to be had, and I hadn't brought my proper camera, so you'll have to make do with these super low-res shots from my much loved Palm Treo 650 phone (the onboard camera is not its strong point). Sunday, February 03, 2008Return to St Pancras station I've always loved the High Victorian folly of St Pancras station and the adjacent Midland Grand Hotel, and after an uncertain future, it's great to see the place thriving.  I popped in today to take some photos (and managed to resist the strong urge to impulsively jump on a train and head for Europe!) and it's barely recognisable from the station I visited a few years ago.  St Pancras 2001.  Check out more photos here: Return to St Pancras, and browse hundreds of St Pancras photos here: St Pancras and Midland Hotel homepage. Friday, February 01, 2008Crystal Palace photos Two (overdue) updates to the photo gallery, with pictures from a summer and an autumn walk around Crystal Palace park and nearby Sydenham.  I went along on the Sydenham walk (called the 'Fungi Forage'), wooed by the prospect of a walk through the old railway tunnel, but it was not to be.  But I learnt a bit about picking wild mushrooms: don't, because I'm too stupid to work out the difference between tasty 'shrooms and poison-laden instant-death dealers.   I love Crystal Palace Park - all over the huge park there's remnants of its glorious Victorian past and bonkers things like Egyptians sphinxes, concrete dinosaurs and grand stairs going nowhere.  I discovered a pedalo half stuck in a tree, a considerable distance from any water, and there's headless statues scattered all over the park.  More photos here: Palace photos Sydenham to Crystal Palace park An autumnal walk around Crystal Palace Park Labels: crystal palace, london, photos Monday, January 14, 2008Morden Hall - Colliers Wood Walk A rare day of winter sunshine sent us scuttling out of the house on Saturday afternoon, heading off to the hitherto unexplored lands of darkest Morden and Colliers Wood.  The walk took us around the attractive Morden Hall Park, past some lovely scenery before we headed north along the River Wandle.  Next stop was Deen City Farm, which packed a load of pretty budgies, squawking turkeys, and pocket-sniffing goats - and this fella above.  In the last stretch we grabbed a snack in a nice cafe at Merton Abbey Mills, checked out the waterwheel action and then headed into Colliers Wood, which can proudly boast one of the ugliest buildings in London. More photos: Morden Hall Park Deen City Farm Merton Abbey Mills and Colliers Wood Sunday, January 06, 2008Piccadilly to Vauxhall walk
The weather wasn't great, but we shook off some of the festive lard and lingering hangover with a short (4.3m) walk around town yesterday.
Here's some of the pics:  Christmas swing ride in Leicester Square.  Georgian terraced houses of Northumberland Street.  Walking along the south bank of the Thames  Houses of Parliament. Central London and River Thames walk -photos Sunday, December 23, 2007Goodbye New Piccadilly cafe
A much loved London cafe lost forever.
 April 2006  December 2007 The New Piccadilly Café, 8 Denman Street, Piccadilly, London Friday, November 02, 2007Hammersmith Palais RIP
It's taken me ages to get around to posting these pics up but here's some shots of the very last days of this much loved music venue.
My own band headlined there once, although it's fair to see it probably wasn't a stand-out moment in the venue's prestigious rollcall of bands.  Hammersmith Palais Thursday, October 25, 2007A lighthouse in London I love this old building right by Kings Cross station.  The story is that the building originally served as an oyster house - oysters being the fast food of the day - with eateries often being marked by a lighthouses, much like McDonalds (spit!) uses the familiar Golden Arches to catch the eye of hungry punters. More photos: Oysterhouse Lighthouse, Kings Cross Monday, October 22, 2007Autumn in Regent's Park
I spent a lovely hour walking around Regent's Park on Saturday afternoon, grabbing a couple of autumnal scenes on my trusty Ricoh GX100 camera (long term test review coming soon!) as I kicked through the leaves:
  Couple more pics here Labels: brockwell park, london, photos Sunday, October 21, 2007A walk around Fitzrovia, London Had a nice walk around W1 and Fitzrovia on Saturday - interesting to see so many buildings closed and the huge development taking place by Great Portland Street.  Photos of Fitzrovia Tuesday, October 16, 2007A walk around Brick Lane, East End
Blimey, the place is gentrifying so fast you can almost feel your accent changing while you stand there.
Here's a few pics:    More photos here: Brick lane, East London Saturday, September 22, 2007Rose Theatre, Bankside By chance we stumbled across the Rose Theatre 'open weekend' last week and took a look inside.  There's not really a great deal to see, but it is kind of 'umbling to know that you're stood where people once saw some of Shakespeare's plays for the first time. Rose Theatre Thursday, September 13, 2007A walk around Lincoln's Inn Fields & Holborn  This is a great area of London to wander about in. The park is London's biggest public square and there's some fascinating architecture all around. See more pics here: Lincoln's Inn Fields   The surrounding area is fascinating too, with lots of quirky buildings and interesting sights. Well worth a visit! Holborn, the Strand and Fleet Street Tuesday, September 11, 2007Behold! The majesty of Tottenham Hale! Welcome to Tottenham Hale. All cars, roads, railings, roundabouts and concrete. Easily one of the ugliest places in London. This was taken on my route from the tube, a walk that involved trudging over a large concrete bus station concourse (busily transporting people to the Ikea in Edmonton), passing a hideous block of corporate food chains and then walking along a busy one-way road. Just before this scene, the ever decreasing pavement was eventually pushed completely off the road, making me walk through a run down council estate before I rejoined the road at this charming spot. Nice, huh? Thursday, August 30, 2007DJing, drinking and photographing
Blimey. What a week. Last Saturday I went to the Windmill, Brixton for the leaving bash of two of my friends, Scott and Jo. It was a fabulous night that involved a lot of drinking, although it's always a bit bitter sweet when your chums are leaving the country for good.
I'd prepared a special set of old time country bootstompers for Scott, but he spent most of the time lying on the floor drunk in front of the DJ booth. His boots may not have stomped, but I'm sure I saw a few twitches...  The next afternoon I was DJing at the excellent Stumbleworthy event at the Duke of Sutherland Pub, Lorrimore Road, SE17. I was still nursing a king size hangover, so all those buttons on the mixer confused me for quite a while, but I stayed on for a drink with some urbanites. The Sutherland is a great, old-school boozer with cheap beer, pool table, Caribbean Soul food, board-games and a beer-garden. Well worth a visit.  On my beer-exuding walk over to the venue, I noticed this unusual sign, and posted up a page about it. Thanks to the folks on the urban75 boards, I discovered the background to its unusual name: "It's called the Onion Shed because until the early 1980's it was used by a group of Breton Onion sellers. You used to see them cycling round south London with their bicycles heavily laden with strings of onions and garlic. If I missed them in the street I would call round and buy my onions from the shed, where they would be stringing then together. I always suspected that they slept in the loft, although it was all fairly derelict."  Wandering around town today, I came across this lovely old Welsh chapel, Capel Bedyddwyr Cymreig. Find out more here. I've finally made a start on the Brixton section and have posted up an all-new homepage which I think looks loads better.  I've posted up a piece about Brixton Water Lane which has some beautiful Regency and early Victorian villas, as well as a dark secret: MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN BRIXTON, May 1900 Other new features and updates on the site include: Goodbye to the Hobgoblin boozer Adam and Eve Court, London W1 London's narrowest alley Vauxhall Cross Transport Interchange Camberwell Submarine Labels: brixton, london, photos Thursday, August 02, 2007Winter comes early to the BT Tower This was a good blag because I: (a) love the BT Telecom Tower (b) love wintery things and (c) love freebies ...and all three were on offer today as I'd been invited to the launch of BT's winter range of tech goodies.  It was a tad odd to be looking out over London from a mock up of Santa's grotto, but I was happy as could be scoffing strawberry champagne jelly sat next to a Christmas tree looking over the mighty metropolis. I was given a press pack as I left containing a very strange DECT phone which I'll review later. BT Telecom Tower photos Thursday, July 19, 2007Dulwich Village/Green Fair photos It's just a short bus ride from downtown Brixton, but it feels like a universe away with its quiet village atmosphere, posh houses, well tended verges and lack of shouting street nutters.  Dulwich Green Fair Dukwich Village Labels: dulwich, london, photos Tuesday, July 10, 2007London photos
Some more pics from my London ambles...
 A visit to the Tate Britain  Hyde Park, the Strand and Borough Market photos  Steam train at Victoria station  Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, the Strand and Liverpool Street Labels: london, photos brixton Tuesday, April 24, 2007Streatham Common Kite Day This was a whole heap of fun, with the skies around Streatham Common Kite Day being peppered with kites of every shape, size, design and colour.  I flew this triplane kite for a while (but I wasn't very good!). Streatham Common Kite Day Saturday, April 21, 2007A night at the Charterhouse bar, London EC1
Went to a friend's birthday at the Charterhouse Bar last night (oh, all right, he owns the place) and first impressions weren't good: the upstairs bar was jammed with extraordinarily drunk people grooving to some horrible funk groove thing, so we thought we'd have the one pint and make our excuses.
But then Dexys came on as the DJ switched to let's "play anything that makes people smile" mode, and we began to warm to the joint. A few beers later and we were drunkenly getting down to the Psychedelic Furs, Billy Idol, Michael Jackson and all manner of cheesy tunes from the Great Vault of Stilton like the rest of them. It was fantastic fun: no burly doormen, no attitude, a good mix of people and a really, really friendly crowd with no one taking it too seriously - a bit like a really good PROD on full tilt. It's well worth a visit if you're in the area. Oh, and the DJs call themselves Rubbish which was a bit worrying because they looked to be far more in control of the decks than me at an average Offline. But, eeeugh. My 'ead today. Biiiig hangover. PS Expect an Offline club there soon - and don't forget our big night on Thursday this week. We've got great bands galore! Sunday, February 11, 2007"Oy you! You can't take that picture...." So, I'm walking along Avemaria Lane (near St Pauls) minding my own business. It's a quiet afternoon and there's barely anyone around. I've got my little Ricoh GR digital compact around my neck. Passing the entrance to an empty car park that interested me (well, I like these kind of shots!), I take a snap from the pavement and am about to walk on when I hear a loud, aggressive voice shouting: "Oy! Oy! You! You with the camera! " "'Scuse me?" "Yes you - you can't take pictures here" "Err, yes, I can actually" "No you can't" "Yes, I can. I'm on a public highway" "Don't give me attitude. If I say you can't take pictures you can't" "You're wrong, actually. I'm on a public highway and I am perfectly entitled to take pictures of anything I like, thanks. That's UK law." "Go on then. Try and take another picture, Go on!" "I've already got the picture I want, thanks" (aggressively pointing his walkie talkie aerial close to my face) "Go on. Take another picture" "are you threatening me?" (louder and more aggressively) "Go on. Try and take a picture again. Go on" "OK, if you insist." (takes another picture). <pause> (security man conspicuously puts walkie talkie to mouth) "Get me the flying squad" "You're calling the...(chuckle)...Flying Squad?!!!!!" "They're on the way" ...bursts into laughter and leaves. CHECK OUT YOUR RIGHTS Here's a really handy guide for photographers - make sure you read it before you go out street shooting so you know your rights!  Photographers Rights In The UK (PDF)Trafalgar Square to St Pauls
Some photos from my walk yesterday:
 ow turnout for the Biblical Gospel Ministries' in Trafalgar Square  Photographer's Gallery, Leicester Square  A statue of Fenner Brockway, an activist who I'd never heard of but now realise he was dead cool! See all the photos Monday, February 05, 2007A walk through Spitalfields and Brick Lane Here's the final part of my photo series from my west-east walk across London on Saturday.  I hadn't really explored the streets around Brick Lane and quite liked the 'Williamsburg' vibe there. Mind you, some of the new shops looked well posh, so I guess it'll all be changing soon.  Spitalfields and Brick Lane photos Sunday, February 04, 2007Jericho sculpture, Royal Academy Slammed down in the middle of the Royal Academy's Annenberg Courtyard, these two huge concrete towers provide a stark contrast to the Palladian architecture of Burlington House. I think they look great.  Jericho sculpture, Royal Academy Friday, February 02, 2007Three London theatres Battersea Arts Centre It's been a luvvy month for us as we've been to no less than three theatre productions in a single month!  Spamalot at the Palace Theatre Check out more photos and a bit of history here Labels: london, photos, theatres Saturday, January 27, 2007A London walk Ace historian Chris Roberts kindly agreed to take a gaggle of urbanites on a short walk of the Thames, with a focus on ghost tales and mysterious happenings.  More photos here Sunday, January 21, 2007A London walk
Armed with my camera, I went for a lone amble around London on Saturday, starting off at Borough market, and then walking along the Southbank to the Tate Modern and then across the river to Victoria Embankment, up Charing Cross Road, along Oxford Street, down Regent Street, into Mayfair and then headed home to Green Park tube.
 Borough Market, London  Tate Modern, Bankside, London  Southbank, London  York Watergate  Brydges Place - London's narrowest alley  The Singing Handyman, London Wednesday, January 17, 2007Clerkenwell, Smithfield and Red Cow Yard
Save Smithfield!
 Pictured above is the old General Market at Smithfields Market, part of a complex of fine Victorian buildings scheduled for demolition.  Despite much local campaigning and appeals from English Heritage, developers want to smash it down and replace it with a bland 7-storey office block. » General Market, Smithfields Market photos A walk around Clerkenwell  Clerkenwell's a great area to walk about (even if it is pissing down), full of nooks and crannies and quirky old buildings. I'll be doing another walk soon. » A walk around Clerkenwell The Mystery of Red Cow Yard  There's not a lot to look at here, but what is the red cow that this Clerkenwell street is named after? » Red Cow Yard, Clerkenwell, EC1 Secret St Pancras  Urban explorer extraordinaire Paul Holmes has managed to sneak his camera into sealed off areas of the marvellous St Pancras/Midland Hotel, which is currently undergoing restoration. Check out the photos and story here: Mission #17: 'Meet me at St Pancras' Return of the Penny Dreadful  Chris Roberts leads the revival of these damned Victorian novels! Return of the Penny Dreadful Sunday, January 07, 2007A rainy day in London Town
A walk around the rain drenched streets of central London with my new Canon Ixus 850IS camera.
 Trafalgar Square in the rain.  No takers at the funfair at Leicester Square.  Sheltering from the rain in the National Portrait Gallery. » A rainy day in London Town, January 2007 Tuesday, November 21, 2006London snapshots (D80)
I tested out my shiny new Nikon D80 dSLR and Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens over the weekend.
Here's a few of the results:    See more photos Labels: cameras, london, photos Thursday, November 16, 2006Early evening, Soho and Bedford Square
Some more handheld street photos taken with my Ricoh GR Digital Camera
  Check out the Bedford Square feature   More pics: Early evening, Soho
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