More Colour from 1994 in Enfield

More Colour from 1994 in Enfield: In More Ponders End, Enfield Wash, Palmers Green & Brimsdown 1994 I posted a set of pictures made in the first three months of the year. This post includes some more taken in March 1994 mainly along by the Lea Navigation in the London Borough of Enfield and ends with a couple taken in April or May.

My archives from back then are a little disorganised but I’ll try hard not to post any that I’ve previously posted, although a one here is from a site where I’ve previously posted a panoramic images.

Factory, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-45
Factory, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-45

The Lea Valley was an important industrial area of London well into the 20th century and had been the source of some key inventions, including the start of the electronics industry. Some of the factories were along the river, perhaps originally on sites that had made use of its wharves, but now all reliant on road transport, with all of Brimsdown between the railway and the canal being huge industrial estates off Mollinson Avenue.

Factory, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-21
Factory, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-21

Here the separation of industry from the canal was emphasized with a concrete fence, now rather decaying at the edge of the bank and tell fence topped with barbed wire at an angle to keep intruders from the canal out of the site.

I don’t remember exactly where at Brimsdown this factory was, but like the rest of the industry here it will since have been demolished, replaced by large distribution sheds, some set well back from the water and almost hidden by trees and bushes growing unfettered along the water’s edge.

Hairdressers, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-42
Hairdressers, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-42

There are houses and a few shops at Brimsdown on the other side of the railway line in what is perhaps part of Enfield Wash, which then included this hairdressers. The Sun’s March 1994 topless ‘Page 3 girl‘ in the calendar (also part reflected in the mirror at right) confirms the date of the picture.

Columbia Wharf, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-24
Columbia Wharf, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-2-24

In a previous article I posted a panoramic view of Columbia Wharf looking down from the Lee Valley Road. Here from a little further East on that road with the navigation in the foreground you see the wharf and background the Ponders End Flour Mills, the gas holder and four tower blocks in Ponders End.

Much redevelopment has gone on in Ponders End and only one to those towers remains and there is no gas holder. But the shed at the wharf is still there and in use although Abbey Stainless Components Ltd are no longer there, nor is that large crane and the van boasting ‘NORTH LONDON’S CARRIER PIGEONS IN TRANSIT has long flown the coop.

Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-53
Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-53

A more pastoral panorama of Ponders End with Wright’s Flour Mills and the four towers in the background.

Hair Fashion, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-21
Hair Fashion, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-21

Lady Jayne remains a well known brand in the Ladies hair trade. I think this shop was probably in the High Street, much of which has now been redeveloped.

Tyre & Exhaust Centre, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-05-1-24
Tyre & Exhaust Centre, Ponders End, Enfield

Tyre Services Tyre & Exhaust Centre at 151 High Street on the corner with Stonehorse Road, a short ‘No Through Road’ off the High Street. This building was still there in 2022 but had became HiQ and then National Tyres and Autocare – a Halfords company and was by then permanently closed. I expect its days were numbered. Much of the area of the High Street around it was redeveloped around ten years ago.

More colour pictures from 1994 to follow in later posts.


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Ponders End, Brimsdown, Enfield Wash & Waltham Cross – 1994

In March 1994 I spent some time photographing in the London Borough of Enfield, and going a little beyond its borders into Waltham Cross. Mostly I was taking black and white pictures – some of which you can see on Flickr in the album 1994 London Photos – but I did also take some in colour, including a few colour panormas.

Builders Mate, Builders Merchants, The Arena, Mollison Avenue, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994,
Builders Mate, Builders Merchants, The Arena, Mollison Avenue, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-3-53

Mollison Avenue in Brimsdown is a busy road running roughly parallel to and between a railway line and the Lea Navigation with the area between these crammed with industrial and commercial sites. Now much of it is occupied by delivery centres and I think there are rather more fences than in 1994.

This was a picture largely about shapes and as with many olds getting the colours to look natural is a problem – as you can see particulary in the foliage here.

Bridge, Pipe Bridge, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-3-31
Bridge, Pipe Bridge, Lea Navigation, Brimsdown, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-3-31

The colour is rather better in this image of a large pipe bridge, possibly carrying gas, over the navigation. The view here looks rather rural, but as usual there is a line of tall pilons.

Here I made use of the curvature from the swing-lens camera – as well as the obvious pipe there is a second interlocking curve with the bridge, the grass bank and the towpath.

Columbia Wharf, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-3-23
Columbia Wharf, Ponders End, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-3-23

Columbia Wharf was now a wharf in name only, with lorries now delivering carpets. This is now a part of ‘Ponders End Waterfront’. I think this picture was taken from Wharf Road.

Launderette, Enfield Wash, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-1-63
Launderette, Enfield Wash, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-1-63

Enfield Wash is close to Enfield Lock station which I used several times to walk around the area. I have a small suspicion that this launderette may really have been in an area that locals would call Enfield Lock, but I decided given the subject that Enfield Wash was more appropriate.

Launderette, Enfield Wash, Enfield, 1994, 94-03-1-64

I still can’t decide whether I preferred the landscape or portrait version of this launderette interior – taken through the window when it was closed.

Cross, Waltham Cross, Broxbourne,
Shops and Cross, Waltham Cross, Broxbourne, 1994, 94-03-1-61

From Enfield Lock Station a short walk took me to the Lee Navigation towpath which is also the Lea Valley Walk and a couple of kilometres north uder the M25 I was out of Greater London and in Waltham Cross. At right is the Eleanor Cross, one of twelve built to the orders of King Edward I to mark the overnight resting places of his wife Eleanor of Castile who died near Lincoln in 1290 as her body was en route to Westminster Abbey.

Much restored it now sits in the pedestrianised shopping centre, one of only 3 surviving Eleanor Crosses. The one in front of Charing Cross Station is a Victorian 1865 recreation.

More from Enfield in a later post.


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