1994 | >Re-PHOTO

Leyton & Walthamstow Colour – 1994

*S. Gold & Sons, Gold House, 69 Flempton Road, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-43*

The name was Gold and the building was in a kind of pale gold colour and blue. The company was an independent wholesaler particularly in the music business, distributing records, CDs and videos as well as confectionery. It moved to larger premises at Uplands Business Estate on Blackhorse Road Walthamstow in 2001 and closed down suddenly in 2008 putting its 200 employees out of work.

It was a family business which began outside Sidney Gold’s delicatessen in Ilford in 1955 when his two sons began selling records from racks in front of the shop. From there the moved to a stall in Petticoat Lane before deciding to set up as wholesalers in Leyton.

*Lytham House, 19, Chelmsford Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-46*

Just an ordinary house in a long residential terrace but enlivened by decoration by a rather idiosyncratic resident. All the houses in this part of the street have tablets between the upper and lower bays, but this one has its name, Lytham House and decoration pointed out in red and green paint.

Probably the name was chosen by the first residents when this street was built in 1894-7, but the paintwork was rather more recent, and to me suggested a Caribbean influence. The house and wall have now faded to a rather duller appearance in keeping with its neighbours but still has its decorated windows.

Shandar, Lansdowne Rd, Queens Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-32 — *Shandar, Landsdowne Rd, 65, Queens Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-32*

Shandar is a Hini and Urdu adjective for something. It is Hindi and Urdu to describe something very impressive, excellent, grand, magnificent or beautiful, and used for this high quality takeaway. The render was scraped off the wall in 2008 and the wall re-covered and is now blank.

*Dyke Court, Gosport Rd, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-33*

A mural on the wall of Dyke Court shows different colour youngsters many with very odd hairstyles lamenting the loss of their Markhouse Youth Club.

Jimmy's Fish Bar, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-36 — *Jimmy’s Fish Bar, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-101-36*

You could get a steak and kidney pie for £1 and 60p of chips for a filling meal at Jimmy’s back in 1994, though I think you paid a little extra to sit at the solid wooden table to eat it in rather than take it away. But the colour scheme made me feel a little queasy.

A traditional English café with a wide range of puddings listed for 55p and a little more. Every table with an ashtray. This could well have been in Walthamstow but might have been elsewhere on my journeys around London.

A much more limited menu for this smaller cafe located somewhere in London – and again it could be Walthamstow. Two lists give the prices for TAKE AWAY and TO EAT IN CAFE.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Shops and More – October 1994

Pictures from the first dozen or so frames of a film taken as I moved around London near the start of October 1994, working on other things. I only recorded locations for two of these but perhaps someone may recognise where the others were taken.

*Chinese, Fish & Chips, London Rd, Norbury, Croydon, 1994, 94-101-63*

I think this is perhaps a Chinese takeaway rather than a fish and chip shop, though this counter could be a fish fryer and there does seem to be vinegar and salt on the counter. This is one of the few images in this section of the film that gives a location. Probably this was a corner shop as I seem to have taken the picture through a side window.

*Re-Upholstery, Furniture, London, 1994, 94-101-65*

A workshop in shop premises facing thee street which provides an advert for the re-upholstery service and a convenient location to bring in your chairs to be re-upholstered.

We have had some of our chairs re-upholstered in recent years at a rather more orderly workshop than this and it made them as good as new. Good chair frames on older chairs were made to last, though re-upholstering them cost us more than buying cheap new chairs. Two frames after the previous image this could too have been in Norbury – but I could also have been on the other side of London. Please comment if you recognise it.

Perhaps had I taken this on medium or large format instead of 35mm I would be able to find more about the location from the local newspaper at right or the lable on the wheelie-bin. But all I can tell you is that it was somewhere in London.

It looks rather crudely fitted out as a shop, perhaps converted from some other use. At right is a blurred image of my hand, held to largely avoid reflections as I took this though a glass front window.

A side street, perhaps a market area off a high street somewhere in London. The blue palletsd look more substantial than some and are marked with the letter C as well as a short message illegible in my photo. The building they are in front of has a metal shutter, probably hiding a shopfront, and has some bright green paint which contrasts with the brown above that, as well as the oddly sloping straight drainpipes from its roof.

*Shops, Pembroke Rd, Erith Rd, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-101-52*

Thee very next frame after the blue pallets is of a street corner in Erith with a small parade of shops, probably built in the 1920s or 30s. Most were derelict by 2008 though only demolished in 2014. Three shops at the Pembroke Road end of the terrace were still there in 2025 but nothing had been built to replace those demolished.

*Reflections, Café Window, London, 1994, 94-101-56*

An image where I liked the reflection and the ambiguity it introduces into the image. I think there may be two sets of reflections here. My focus was on the shel which ruans across the middle of the image with bottles – the leftmost is opf Table Salt, the next probably vinegar. Under it some pies are keeping warm but apparently also in a passing car while to their right are some kind of controls on equipment I don’t recognise and a boy riding a bike, given a red cap perhaps by a bottle label. I can see no trace of myself reflected in the image, susggesting I made it at an angle to the glass.

And for a final mystery (at least for today) a shop window with Chinese items in it as well as a fluorescent fitting without its tube. At the top I think is a parasol and hanging below it a short-sleeved top. I wonder now if this picture was taken through tinted glass as I cannot really find a convincing colour balance. My shadow taking the image appears at bottom right.

More colour work from 1994 shortly.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Shops & Yards, Leyton – 1994

Shops & Yards, Leyton: Continuing with pictures from my walks around Leyton in September 1994 her is a final set of pictures of shops and yards which caught my attention. Although I originally captioned some as being in Leytonstone I think by this part of the walk I was back in Leyton. This post follows on from More Leytonstone Shops – 1994.

Cake Shop, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-56 — *Cake Shop, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-56*

This amazing brightly sunlit near-symmetrical window display in a shop selling cakes has as its centrepiece a rather unhealthy looking plant in a bright orange container with a pentagonal gold design on its front.

Under each box was a carefully placed doily – a decorative openwork piece first popularised by London Draper Mr Doiley in the 17th century as woollen pieces to be worn. Later doilys became used as head coverings, napkins and largely “crocheted tatted or knitted out of cotton or linen thread” and became used under jugs, plates, vases and dishes on dining and other tables. More commonly they are now made – like those in this picture – from paper.

The interior of the shop can also be seen, if dimly, in the picture, and there are also some reflections, including me at the bottom of the frame, though more obvious is a road sign warning of the low railway bridge which I now think is that Hainault Road – and which can also be made out across the top of the picture. The interior and reflections merge well and it is hard to sort them out.

M W White, Metal Dealer, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-43 — *M W White, Metal Dealer, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-43*

Somewhere in Leyton was a small and packed yard of metal dealer M W White and I think it was next to Midland Road station on Midland Road and I made this looking down from the station platform. This site was redeveloped before 2008.

*Lea Bridge Sauna, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-45*

The shop occupied by Lea Bridge Sauna at 171 Lea Bridge Road has undergone frequent changes of business since I made this picture and in 2025 was a mobile phone and vape shop. I think it has kept the central door but now has large glass windows on each side, though more often the whole ground floor frontage is covered by a metal blind.

*Tropical Fish, Lea Bridge Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-31*

I felt that one of the tropical fish in the ‘aquarium’ across the top half of the picture which had fallen off, leaving its outline and the bare wood behind was now swimming across the window below.

I think the only fish now for sale on the Lea Bridge Road are probably in fish and chip shops. I always enjoyed walking past the many shops on this road and at one time used to visit to buy bargain photographic paper and film at Marston & Heard at 378 Lea Bridge Road. In the late 1970s they became part of a larger group of dealers, the Phototec Group with various branches around London and elsewhere. Among other things in the early 1980s I bought fairly large stocks of Agfa Portriga paper which Agfa then no longer sold in the UK. The group disappeared around the end of that decade.

*C Barralet Builders Merchants, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-33*

The only information I can find searching on Google for C Barralet is based on these two pictures I took back in 1994, and this builders merchants otherwise seem to have disappeared without trace, though I’m sure will still be listed in out-of-date directories and other records.

In the background here is a distinctive huilding and further away two gasholders, presumably those of Lea Bridge (Clementina Road) Gasworks to the south of Clementina Road, which were taken out of use in 2012 and demolished in 2019. The parked gas can suggests this might be part of the gasworks site.

*C Barralet Builders Merchants, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-36*

Comprehensive redevelopment of this area since 1994 makes it impossible for me to precisely locate these pictures, and I think all of the buildings shown have now been demolished including the factory at the right of this picture.

*Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-23*

I think this industrial site was probably also in the same area south of Lea Bridge Road in Leyton and also now redeveloped. The buildings here seem to be largely steel frames covered with sheets of asbestos and I can identify none of the rusting stacks of products.

*Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-25*

Finally a closer look at the front of one of the sheds and the items in front of it photographed over the green fence with items of a similar colour and a large brighter green door. But what makes the composition stand out is the orange paint over parts of the structure of the large doorway, perhaps looking like some flat-footed robot standing arms outstretched holding vertical spears blocking the entrance.

I think this was the end of this walk in Leyton and I probably caught a bus back to Hackney Central for the North London Line.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

More Leytonstone Shops – 1994

More Leytonstone Shop Windows: More pictures from my walk in September 1994.

*Tailor, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-32*

High Road Leytonstone is a main road which stretches from around the junction with Cann Hall Lane and goes though the centre of Leytonstone to the Green Man Roundabout around a mile and a half to the north. When I made these pictures I had little interest in their exact location. It was the content of the picture that interested me, this plastic-wrapped head and arm-less torso in a tight top and skirt with rather odd chains with hanging tassels and the curtains with flowering branches and vases of flowers.

Tailor, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 94-903-33

I stood further back to take a more overall image, but this meant I was unable to control the reflection. This shows a rather distinctive end of a terrace of shops which I can’t now find on High Rd, Leytonstone, but there are some very similar frontages close to the south end of the road. But perhaps someone with local knowledge will be able to comment and post a more detailed location for this and the other images.

*Café, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 1994, 94-903-36*

A sparsely furnished brightly coloured café with shining clean tables, but strangely lacking in condiments, with just a single pepper pot on each table. And apparently nothing on the wall behind. Those double-side bright red benches look to me rather narrow and uncomfortable and a possible cause of friction with those sitting on the bench on the other side.

*All Occasions, Florist, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-61*

The lettering and decoration of ‘All Occasions Florists’ suggested to me a Greek or Turkish hand behind them, but the posters covering the windows indicated this was no longer in business selling Wedding and Funeral Flowers.

*Wig Shop, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-63*

I could never understand the large number of wig shops in all of the most deprived areas of London, and photographed many of the displays. And why at the front of the window was there a bright blue bald head?

*Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-51*

Most of the wigs seemed to be for women, but I was attracted to this window for men, with a head with a ridiculously fake moustache and behind, with staring blue eyes and ridiculous eyebrows, a figure with a crudely drawn collar and tie. And another bald head, this time white while the other male heads were – unlike those in the previous picture – some kind of skin colour.

*Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-910-54*

And a second, wider view of that same window, with at the bottom a photograph of a man wearing the ‘St Giles’ wig and giving some technical details: 60% human hair and 40% modacyrlic fibre it weighs 42 grams and is available in a wide range of colours.

People wear wigs for various reason, including to cover hair loss due to alopecia or chemotherapy as well as for fashion and changing their looks – as well as for theatre, TV and film. Apparently many people including some stars are never seen in public without one.

More colour from Leytonstone later.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Looking through Windows – Leyton & Leytonstone – 1994

Looking through Windows – Leyton & Leytonstone: After photographing Claremont Road where the M11 protesters had covered many of the houses with some splendid art work I wandered off into the area around, eventually making my way from Leyton into Leytonstone. Many of the pictures I made on this walk were taken through the windows of shops that attracted my interest.

*Property Agents, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-66*

None of these pictures were taken from inside the premises, all looking in through their windows. To avoid unwanted reflections I held the lens against the glass and tried to shield the area around the lens. This wasn’t always entirely successful and some images have light areas in some corners. And of course occasionally I decided to include reflections in the pictures.

With a 50mm lens I could use a flexible rubber lenshood to seal around the lens and the window, but the lens mount on this created its own vignetting on wide-angle lenses. Much more recently a larger and much floppier version of this device which fits around a lens barrel has been marketed which I would have found very useful. So of course I bought one, but I can’t remember ever having used it – I just don’t take these kind of pictures any more.

*Chinese, Fish & Chips, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-65*

This walk, like most of my walks, was on a Sunday morning when few people were about, and I was seldom interrupted or asked what I was doing. I carried a cloth in my camera bag as I sometimes cleaned a small patch of window to get a clear view. I don’t think these pictures were unduly obtrusive as I was only recording the public face of these premises which was open to everyone walking past.

*Waiting Room, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-56*

Most of these pictures were taken using an Olympus 35mm shift lens which enabled me to move the frame up,m down, left and right a little to frame precisely. For some I used wider lenses, both a 28mm and also an ultrawide 21mm f3.5. Though an excellent and very small and light lens this does show more vignetting in the corners than the less wide lenses which I haven’t always entirely corrected.

Shooting through glass does introduce another optical element which can change the colour of the images, sometimes making the negatives difficult to colour balance. With the ultra-wide light from the corners takes a significantly longer path through the window glass which can give some colour casts towards the edges of the pictures.

*Hyams Gymnasium, 857, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-42*

I published a couple of black and white images of the gymnasium taken at the same time a couple of years ago, including one of this side wall in Gainsborough Road. Hyam’s was apparently a well-known sporting institution in the area, but as I commented then, is “now in very different use.

This is now The Walnut Tree, a Wetherspoon pub, and as often it has some history of the area it its web page, but this does not mention Hyams Gym. The figures on the building’s side have gone and its groundfloor windows have been bricked up but the rows of 8 or 9 upper floor gym windows remain.“

*Hairdressers, High Rd, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-43*

Using very wide-angle lenses which produce “normal” rectilinear results means that light going to the edges of the frame from the lens have a longer route and thus diverge more, distorting objects close to the edges of the picture. You can see this in the picture at extreme right of this picture.

*Chinese Takeaway, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-44*

Similarly the two blue and white plates are actually circular and facing the shop window, but that at the left is noticeably oval in this picture.

*Chinese Takeaway, Leytonstone, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-31*

There did seem to be rather a lot of Chinese food available in the area in 1994. When I grew up in the 1960s Chinese food was a rarity except in areas such as Limehouse and Soho. There isn’t a particularly high Chinese origin population in the area – around 1% of the population, one of the lowest among London Boroughs and a third of that Tower Hamlets and Westminster.

I had a particular interest in the shop interiors in recording how they reflected the varied ethnicities of their owners, often with very different decoration and layout etc to traditional English small shops. It was one of many different changes I had observed over the years.

More from Leytonshone in 1994 later posts.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

No M11 Link – Leyton 1994

No M11 Link: Although this was one of the major environmental direct action campaigns of the 1990s it was one I did not cover for several reasons. Protests were only a small part of my photography back then and Leyton was an inconvenient journey across London from my home. It was also a campaign which was being documented by a number of dedicated photographers on a largely full-time basis, while I was still working a full-time teaching job a two-hour journey away. But I did visit Claremont Road in Leyton and take a few pictures.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-56

The M11 Link was first planned as a part of the grandiose London Ringways scheme of the 1960s but fortunately most of this was abandoned after the disastrous effects of relatively short sections such as the Westway in North Kensington became clear in the 1970s. But the ‘A12 Hackney to M11 link road‘ remained on the table despite various public inquiries from 1976 on, where local activists were vigorous in their opposition. It was a Tory government in 1989 with their ‘The Roads for Prosperity’ white paper that put it firmly back on the table and preparations for its construction began in 1993.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-41

These involved the demolition of 263 properties along the route, some occupied by long-term residents but others by a wide range of newcomers who had moved in during the 1980s as planning blight affected the area – including many artists and squatters. When the campaign began in 1993, they were joined by “large numbers of anti-road campaigners from around the UK and beyond, attracted by the availability of free housing along the route” where properties had been compulsorily purchased and were empty.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-42

The protesters made use of a wide variety of direct action methods to make construction more difficult, including sit-ins, sabotaging of equipment and materials, concreting themselves in tunnels and a fantastic network of actual nets in the sky between houses.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-43

Police and security staff had to be employed in large numbers and had a very difficult job. The protesters also made great use of then new technology including Desktop Publishing and Fax machines to promote their activities, and achieved considerable news coverage in both the national newspapers and TV.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-46

The main centre of the protest in 1994 was a small street in Leyton, Claremont Road, where all the houses were to be demolished and all but one of the original residents had been moved out and the houses were squatted by protesters who formed a vibrant community. As Wikipedia states, “The houses were painted with extravagant designs, both internally and externally, and sculptures erected in the road; the road became an artistic spectacle that one said “had to be seen to be believed”.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-31

And it was this that I went to photograph in September 1994 and can be seen in the pictures here and on Flickr.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-35

Two months later around 700 bailiffs and police in riot gear arrived on 28th November to evict the protesters. It took them several days due to the various obstacles – and a secret tunnel that enabled evicted protesters to return to the street. The bill for the police needed to protect the bailiffs came to over a million pounds. The total cost of evicting protesters along the whole route was £6 million.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-51

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-53

Protests continued against the link road and slowed its progress and doubled its cost. You can read a good account of the Claremont Road eviction and the later ‘Battle of George Green’ on the green fuse web site.

The road was only finally opened in October 1999 as part of the A12. By this time it was an anachronism, partly because the M12 motorway scheme had been scrapped in 1994, but also because of the overall increase in traffic levels meant it was congested from the start. ” By 2014, the road had become the ninth most congested in the entire country.”

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-55

There are quite a few more pictures on Flickr – click on any of the above images and you can then go through the whole set. There are also eight panoramas from the site beginning here.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Leyton and a Puzzle – 1994

Leyton and a Puzzle: Pictures from walks around parts of Leyton in August or September 1994 and a puzzle from south of the river.

*New Spitalfields Market, Sherin Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-901-53*

Traffic congestion, lack of space and outdated buildings led the City of London Corporation to relocate its wholesale fruit and vegetable market out of Spitalfields to a purpose-built 31 acre site in Leyton which opened in 1991.

*New Spitalfields Market, Sherin Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-901-54*

Stratford Market, which had been founded in 1879 by the Great Eastern Railway as a competitor to Spitalfields also moved to the new site. According to Wikipedia, New Spitalfields Market “is Europe’s leading horticultural market specialising in exotic fruit and vegetables – and the largest revenue earning wholesale market in the UK.”

*New Spitalfields Market, Sherin Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-901-43*

There were plans for this, Billingsgate Fish Market (in the West India Docks) and Smithfield Market to move to a new consolidated site in Dagenham Dock and planning permission was given in 2021, but in November 2024 the City decided this was no longer economically viable. New Spitalfields will remain in use while there are now plans to relocate the two other markets to Albert Island at the east end of the Royal Docks.

*Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-901-45*

The market is on the east side of Hackney Marshes a short distance from the River Lea and I walked east along Ruckholt Road into Leyton. I think this building was probably in a side turning just off this road and I think has probably been demolished. But I was only interested in the colours an shapes.

*A E Cornell, Furniture, 363, High Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-901-46*

This shop is now occupied by Woodland Estate Agents who opened here in 2005 and the building looks rather less run-down. Of course I was attracted by the Union Flags in the windows and door as well as the Churchillian poster with its pointing finger, though I’m unclear what we should DESERVE. Perhaps someone will have memories of this shop.

*Chinese Takeaway, Fish & Chips, London, 1994, 94-901-32*

I think this was also in Leyton as another almost identical image is on the next frame of film to the picture of A E Cornell’s furniture shop. The Chinese Takeaway seems to have been at 17D and had a name ending in GARDEN. But of course my interest was mainly in the peeling mural of two rather strange-looking jockeys and horses on the side of the neighbouring bookies.

*Frederick Place, Bloomfield Rd, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1994, 94-901-24*

And finally a little puzzle from the same film but taken south of the river on Bloomfield Road in Plumstead. The L and the S are clear and there are hints of two other letters, perhaps an I and a T. There could have been other letters, out of frame to the left. The building has been demolished and replaced by new housing, though some parts of the unusual paving remain. I can’t remember now if I knew what the site was, but have a vague feeling it may have been a garage and there is still a garage at the back of the new houses.

Please comment if you know more about this or any other of the pictures. More colour from 1994 to come.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Hall Place & River Darent

Hall Place & River Darent: More from my walks by the River Cray and Darent in September 1994. Firstly a couple of pictures from Hall Place, Bexley where the River Cray runs through the grounds of a magnificent Tudor Hall.

*Park, River Cray, Bexley Hall Place, Bexley, 1994, 94-906-62*

The gardens are open free of charge all year round, and are well worth a visit – and dogs, footballs, BBQs or fishing are not allowed, making it very peaceful. I can’t remember exactly where in the grounds this was, perhaps at the north close to the A2 where there is a flood channel marked on the map.

*Hall Place, Bourne Road Bexley, 1994, 94-901-61*

Although you can see the exterior of the Grade I listed country house for free, you can only go inside on pre-booked guided tours. I once went on one of these and possibly these pictures were taken on the same day, but I took no pictures inside the house.

The main house was built in two stages, the first in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a wealthy merchant and former Lord Mayor of London with the fine flint and rubble walls in my picture. Some of the stone used in its construction was recycled from the ruins of the former Lesnes Abbey not far away in Abbey Wood.

When the house was sold to a second wealth London merchant, Sir Robert Austen in 1649, he decided to double its size, extending it in red brick. Later buildings including a lodge were added in the Victorian era. In the 1920s the last tenant of the hall, then owned by her wealthy American son-in-law Stephen Cox Brady, was the eccentric Lady Limerick who added some mock-Tudor interior features.

Brady died in 1928 and the house and gardens were sold to Bexley Council, but the eccentric Lady Limerick lived there as a tenant until her death in 1945. During the war the house was also in use by US soldiers who were involved in the decoding of German messages, part of the operation centred at Bletchley Park and had the code name Santa Fe.

I think the next pictures were made a few days later.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-912-23*

I’ve walked around beside the River Darent and on to the Thames and to Erith a number of times, and more recently on my folding bike. Usually I’ve begun my walk either at Slade Green or Barnes Cray stations, though I think I may once have done it in the opposite direction.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-912-42*

The land here is on the edge of the marshes and was marsh and grass land until the 1879s when the Thames Ammunition Works, later part of VickersArmstrong, was established here. During World War I it employed thousands, many of them women, working long hours in hazardous conditions. The site officially closed in 1962, having been run down for some years and became home to a number of smaller companies.

*Darent Industrial Park, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-913-32*

*River Thames, Crayford Ness, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-913-42*

Taken from the low-lying ground immediately upstream of the confluence of the River Darent with the River Thames. At left is the QE2 bridge, with the chimney of Littlebrook Power station on the south bank – only finally demolished in 2019 though the plant had closed in 2015, and at right the Darent Flood barrier built in 1982. The riverside path runs along the top of the grassy bank at right.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

The Cray Riverway – 1994

The Cray Riverway is a 10 mile long path which follow the River Cray from Foots Cray Meadows to the junction with the the River Darent and along side this to the River Thames and then into Erith. Back in 1994 I walked along most or all of it, paying several visits to the area as I was a photographer rather than a walker and liked to wander rather than stride out.

*River Cray, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-53*

I think I took two different swing-lens cameras on these walks, both a Japanese and a Russian model which produces very similar results in terms of angle of view (just a little over a third of the entire view around me) and quality. I used both on a sturdy Manfrotto tripod, mainly working from my eye level, and using a nine-inch carpenters’ spirit level to try to level the camera both from side to side and front to back as I found the built-in levelling insufficiently accurate (and I didn’t always get it quite right even with the larger level.)

River Cray, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-41

In 1994 I was processing my own colour negative film and I think at times the negatives suffered a little either from my inaccuracies or from chemical issues, and I find it hard to get the colour of some images exactly as I would like them. The rest of these pictures are from Flickr, but one I’ve worked on the one above again since I uploaded it there.

*Footpath, River Cray, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-42*

I’ve already featured some of these images on earlier posts, but here I’ll include a few different images.

*Crayford Riverway, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-905-51*

*A2, River Shuttle, Pub, East Rochester Way, Bexley, 1994, 94-905-21*

Some pictures by the River Darent in a later post, as well as more from Bexley.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Barnes Cray & the Cray – 1994

Barnes Cray & the Cray: Panoramas made with a swing-lens camera on a walk in September 1994 from Barnes Cray to Crayford Marshes in the London Borough of Bexley.

In 1750 Miles Barne, son of a wealthy London banker of the same name, inherited the large May Place Estate on the death of his father-in-law. Various members of the Barne family played important roles in the development of the area, with their names incorporated into Barnehurst and Barnes Cray.

Barnes Cray House had an interesting life not least when it was home to a farmer who went to the High Court to stop neighbouring land being used as a firing range by the company which became Vickers. Vickers eventually bought the house as a home for the man in charge of their Cray works, but when their factory moved away gave it to the local council who opened it as a maternity hospital. This closed in 1936 and the house was demolished.

River Cray, Crayford Flour Mill, Barnes Cray Bexley, 1994, 94-907-23

Industry came to the area in the Victorian era with a calico printing works using water from the River Wansunt, later making rubber goods, felt and finally making ‘Brussels Carpets’ – patterned carpets which have the loops of the pile uncut before being demolished in 1890. The Wansunt is a tributary of the River Cray which it joins close to here.

*River Cray, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-61*

The First World War led to a great expansion in the arms industry and Vickers built thousands of homes in Barnes Cray to house its huge workforce – at one point almost 15,000. The development was of good quality homes for workers with a nod to the ‘Garden Village’ vision. The development took the name Barnes Cray.

*Crayford Flour Mill, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-32*

An iron mill on the Cray was replaced in 1735 by a saw mill which in turn became a flour mill. In 1927 this began making Vitbe flour, with added wheatgerm to increase its Vitamin B levels, widely used by many bakereries including those of the Aerated Bread Co. In 1956 the company was renamed Vitbe Flour Mills Ltd and it was acquired by Associated British Foods in 1961.

*Landfill site, Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-22*

*Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-11*

I went for a lengthy walk on the Crayford Marshes, taking many panoramic images, but cannot remember the exact locations. Here is one of them but there are quite a few others on Flickr – you can browse this by clicking on this or other images in this post.

*Crayford Marshes, Barnes Cray, Bexley, 1994, 94-904-31*

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos