I was on my way to Stratford to be interviewed and decided on the way to visit the section of path by Bow Creek to the south of Bromley by Bow. This is an isolated section of path tidied up and opened some time ago that somehow I’ve never quite managed to go along before. If you are on foot it’s a bit of a pain, because having walked around 2/3 of a mile you come to a dead end and all you can do is turn round and walk back.
But it was a decent enough day for a bike ride, so I took the Brompton up to Waterloo on the train and down the escalator then hopped on it on Waterloo Rd. Cycling in central London is really rather easy compared to the suburbs where I live, because there the traffic tends to be moving around 30mph faster than me, whereas most of the time in London it’s going at the same speed or slower.
First I revisited The Gas Light and Coke Company’s War Memorial, which is close to the start of the footpath. I photographed it a few years ago, but since I was there thought I’d do so again. I rather admire the statue of the boss, Sir Corbet Woodall, one of the great figures in the gas industry whose attitude to his workers – who he made partners – was remarkably enlightened by today’s often primitive standards. He looks the part too, standing there with his spectacles in his hands. Although he died during the ‘Great War’ he was 75, so I don’t think his death was attributable to enemy action, but many of his employees did die fighting for their country, and their names are listed on the panels in the memorial.
The footpath is wide and has a good surface for cycling, and in the hour or so I was there taking pictures I saw only two people who had come down it for a walk. But it’s a pleasant detour if you are in the area.
Near the end of the footpath
I was using the Sigma 24-70 and working mainly on manual settings with the lens well stopped down – mainly around f8, as I wanted to make some panoramas by stitching images. Since almost all the interest is along a fairly narrow strip there doesn’t seem to be much point in producing the kind of all-round views that would have acres of sky (and a lot of path) in them so I was making single-row panoramas, which it is fairly easy to do hand-held. Thought it would have been slightly better to have used a good tripod – there were a couple of pans I tried that won’t stitch well enough for me.
I tried a few 360 degree panoramas, but apart from getting very long and thin, I usually find I lose interest somewhere. Probably the best pictures come from around the 100-120 degrees that I used to get in a single exposure on film with swing lens cameras like the Horizon.
You can see more pictures from the Gas War Memorial and the path on My London Diary – where I give some more information about the walk. I’ve also posted 3 of the panoramas I made on a special page. The top one is a bit less than 180 degrees and almost fits my screen if I browse maximised. The second is less ambitious and around the aspect ratio I normally prefer, though I don’t find this particular picture as interesting as the other two. And the third is a full 360 degrees. To see all of that at one time I need to press Ctrl and – together a couple of times to zoom out in Firefox. And contrary to the end, this is the picture I like best.
