Waltham Forest | >Re-PHOTO

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum – 2015

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum: On Saturday 21st November 2015 I spent an hour covering a lunchtime rally and march about the housing problems in the London Borough of Waltham Forest before rushing to Whitechapel where Class War were holding another of their protests outside the sensational tourist attraction celebrating the horrific acts of ‘Jack the Ripper’.

Homes for All against social cleansing

Leyton & Walthamstow

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum

People met in Abbots Park Leyton for a rally organised by Waltham Forest Housing Action before they marched to a longer rally in the centre of Walthamstow. over the severe housing problems faced by those living in the borough of Waltham Forest.

The council has a housing waiting list of over 20,000 families, and although there is considerable home building taking place in the borough only 400 of 12,000 homes planned in Walthamstow in the next 5 years are for low earners.

As in most of London’s boroughs, mainly held by Labour councils, the ‘regeneration’ schemes begun under New Labour has led to the loss of social housing, pricing most local people in the many lower paid and middle-income jobs which are essential for the city to run. Regeneration has led to social cleansing with poorer residents being forced out to areas further from the centre.

The campaigners called for an end to housing evictions in the area – then taking place at twice the average rate for London, and the capping of private rents which are on average much higher than the maximum set by housing benefit, as well as a huge increase in social housing.

Housing benefit acts as a huge public subsidy for landlords, passing money to them. The public and those who live in rented accommodation would be much better served by money being spent of building social housing which would give a return to local councils from the rents.

Private rents allow landlords to get housing benefit and the excess rent paid by the tenants to pay off the loans they take out so they can buy property and get the benefit of increasing their capital – at our and the tenant’s expense.

Rising rents have increasingly made it impossible for many key workers – teachers, firefighters and others – to afford to live in the boroughs they serve.

*Press TV interviewed one of the campaigners who holds a placard ‘I have moved 4 times in 3 years! I want secure affordable housing’*

Although Press TV covered the event there was (as usual) no interest shown by mainstream UK media

Among the trade unions supporting the march were the National Union of Teachers and the Fire Brigades Union – who provided their fire engine as a platform for speakers and to lead the march.

Local politicians also came for the event along with Green Party Deputy Leader Dr Shahrar Ali. Among local groups with banners were residents of Residents of Fred Wigg and John Walsh towers on the edge of Wanstead Flats in Leytonstone., where the 234 social housing units are to be replaced by only 160 and new private flats were to be sold to raise £30 million.

I left as the march was on its way to Walthamstow to go to Whitechapel.

More on My London Diary at Homes for All against social cleansing.

Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’

Cable St, Whitechapel

I met Class War as they arrived outside the Jack the Ripper tourist attraction in Cable St with their ‘Womens Death Brigade‘ banner for another in their series of protests against the ‘museum’ which celebrates the brutal and macabre killings of working class women in Whitechapel in 1888.

*Owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe’s partner Julian Pino and an employee in the shop*

The murderer was an insane serial killer who ripped open the bodies of his victims, removing the uterus and heart and a whole industry has arisen over trying to establish his identity, spurred on by the particularly gory details of his crimes.

*An officer tells Puno to stop phoning ‘999’ as the police are already here*

Although the police at the time were unable to solve the case, they appear to have given up after Montague Druitt drowned himself in the Thames shortly after the final one of these murders. But those aiming to profit from the whole series of articles, books and films have done their best to build up doubt and uncertainty, putting forward others, often very unlikely such as painter Walter Sickert, as the criminal.

The protest was noisy but peaceful with many of those taking part wearing masks of the shop’s owner – who had lied about the site becoming a museum to celebrate women’s history to gain support and planning permission.

It was enlivened by the arrival of activist singer/guitarist Cosmo who performed three appropriate songs which raised everyone’s spirits, and even the police obviously enjoyed the protest.

Shop owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe had left a shop worker and his partner Julian Pino inside the ‘museum’ to face the protesters and their was one spot of farce when a police officer went inside to tell him to stop continually phoning ‘999’ as the police were already there.

A man claiming to be a local resident and seemed to be a friend of the ‘museum’ came to complain to Class War against them protesting against a business that was bringing investment to an area that was so obviously in need of it. He was told that this kind of investmentglorified violence against women and was clearly detrimental to the area and offensive to many – including the living descendants of the victims.

It was hard to avoid the conclusion that his intervention had been prompted and possibly funded by the owner of this tacky tourist attraction, which noticeably attracted no customers while the protest was taking place.

More on My London Diary at Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’.

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Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing – 2016

Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing; On Friday 28th October 2016, Housing For All activists from Focus E15, two dressed as cockroaches, went together with residents from the Boundary House hostel in Welwyn Garden City to the offices of Theori Housing Management in a Halloween-themed protest at the terrible living conditions for residents in their hostel.

The main statutory housing duty of local authorities is to provide temporary accommodation for those who are homeless, eligible, have a priority need and are not intentionally homeless. Priority can include living with a child, being pregnant, domestic abuse or emergencies such as flood and fire. Most of those who qualify have suffered some fairly traumatic experiences and deserve suitably careful treatment and adequate accomodation, but many do not get it.

Council make use of hostels run by companies such as Theori Housing Management who run hostels providing temporary accommodation such as Boundary House which provides temporary housing for residents from London boroughs including Waltham Forest and Newham for these vulnerable people for months or even years.

Those living in Boundary House say that rooms there have leaking roofs and mould on the walls, are infested with cockroaches, have upper floor windows that children could easily fall out of and dangerous faulty appliances. Several of them had come to the protest but most others were either scared to do so or could not afford the £15 off-peak rail fare into London. This also makes it impossible for those moved to the hostel to continue with any work they had in London as well visits to their doctors or clinics and for children to attend their former schools.

As I wrote in 2016, “Residents who make complaints are hung up on, placed on hold for hours and called liars, ignored, insulted and patronised.” So the campaign had come to bring their complaints to Theori.

Campaigners from Haringey Housing Action Group who were also at the protest “also have experience of poor hostel accommodation, provided by Haringey Council, and we know how hard it is try to go about your daily activities – going to work, taking kids to school – when you are living in cramped conditions, with little or no cooking facilities.“

Residents who have complained to their local authority housing departments complain they are not listened to and no action is taken. The campaigners call on boroughs to stop using companies like Theori who provide sub-standard housing and fail to keep it in good order, and say councils should house Londoners in London where they have schools, friends and jobs.

Focus E15 come from Newham, where Mayor Robin Wales has said that those who can’t afford it should not be living in the borough, where vast luxury housing developments are welcome, but social housing is hardly on the agenda.

They point out that Newham, a Labour stronghold, has hundreds of empty properties in what was a popular estate, the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford. These homes had then been empty and boarded up for more than ten years while the council has been trying to sell off the whole area for various development schemes. They also point out that Newham has taken out ill-advised loans which have resulted in incredible repayments of interest.

The campaigners tried to enter the Theori offices, pushing against the doors which were held by men inside, and Theori called the police. The two officers who arrived were obviously rather amused at having to talk to a cockroach. The protesters stepped away from the door to that one of the police could enter the office while the protest continued on the pavement outside.

They then held a Halloween party on the pavement outside the office before finally lining up for photographs.

More at Cockroaches at Theori Housing Management.

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1995 Colour – Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown

Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown: These pictures come from a number of visits to areas of London working on several different projects and are my final selection of colour panoramas made in 1995. There are a few more colour images, including some panoramas I made in 1995 in the images in the Flickr album as well as many I have not digitised; some very similar to those online, others that I now find of less interest. Some of these were taken as a part of my project on the Greenwich Meridian in London – you can see a set of 16 images from this on the urban landscape web site.

*Bow Locks, River Lea, Bow Creek, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-752*

Bow Locks separate the tidal River Lea from the Lea Navigation and the Limehouse Cut which offers an alternative route to the Thames to avoid the winding and dangerous Bow Creek. First built in 1850 they were remodelled in 1930. At the highest Spring tides water from Bow Creek would overtop the locks and raise the level of the canals here – the locks were modified in 2000 to stop this and avoid the silting it caused.

London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 5p4-743 — *London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 95p4-743*

The Poplar Gas Coompany built a local gas works here in the 1820s at the request of the Poplar Vestry after ratepayers lobbied them to provide gas street lighting. The site was cleared in 2011 and I was commissioned to photograph the removal of toxic earth from the site using barges on Bow Creek. Something around an eigth of the material was removed in this way, tides making the removal of more difficult. The original gasholders had to be built to special safety standards because of their proximity to the West India Dock wall. The last of the gasholders was removed in 2017.

London Galvanizers had modernised their galvanizing plant here in 1983-5 and were one of the most important jobbing galvanizers in London and the Home Counties.

*Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-862*

This street corner is close to the Meridian and I had stood here for some time outside the Chinese restaurant which was having some joinery work done. I liked the contrast between its orange paint and the blue on the opposite corner and the warm brown of the Birkbeck Tavern at right. I think I had made at least one exposure when a young girl in a red coat on roller skates came to see what I was doing – and I made this exposure as a red car come around, filling an otherwise rather empty grey space.

St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841 — *St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841*

The Meridian also passes through this cemetery and I chose a viewpoint which included the cemetery chapel with a fine group of monuments in the foreground, I think all for people of Italian origin.

Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, 1995, 95p4-963 — *Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham,1995, 95p4-963*

I’m unsure what this railway building to the east of the station was, perhaps a 1930s signal box. Parts of this area have now been redeveloped, and this has been behind fences for more than ten years and could stil be there, as least in part.

*King George V Dock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-171*

Finally four pictures from a walk along Woolwich Manor Way, this taken looking westwards along the south side of the King George V Dock. You can see the bridge over the dock entrance at right and the City Airport terminal and Canary Wharf at the end of the dock.

*Royal Albert Dock Basin, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-161*

At left is the old swing bridge that took the road over the dock entrance from the basin. To its right is the elevated DLR and the pumping station at the centre of the Gallions roundabout. Further on only two buildings were standing along the side of the Basin, the Gallions Hotel and the Royal Docks Pumping Station.

*Containers, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-162*

Land to the south of the Royal Albert Dock Basin just east of Woolwich Manor Way.

*King George V Lock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-153*

This swing bridge across the dock entrance is still there.

*Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1995, 95p11-262*

This was taken from Silvertown Way, looking across the Royal Victoria Dock. There are still cranes along the dockside here but the foreground now has flats. The Millenium Mills are still there, but there is nothing in the picture where the Excel Centre now stands and none of the other new developments on the north side of the dock. The council flats at the right have been demolished.

You can see these and some other colour pictures I took in 1995 at 1995 London Colour.

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1995 Colour Part 6 – Waltham Forest

1995 Colour Part 6 – Waltham Forest: Continuing my series of colour pictures I made in 1995. The previous post, Part 5 – Waltham Forest looked at panoramic images I made in that London Borough, but I also made images in colour using one of my Olympus OM4 cameras with a normal aspect ratio.

*Shop, LCC Flats, 32, Hatch Lane, Chingford Hatch, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-345*

Most of these images were made with wide-angle lenses , 21mm, 28mm and 35mm shift, but I also had a 50mm standard lens and a short telephoto. They were taken on various Fuji colour negative films but in the days before digital there was no EXIF data to record focal lengths or exposure details. Occasionally the 21mm revealed itself by recording one of my fingers in the right hand lower corner of the frame, a mistake rather too easy to make!

*Walthamstow Stadium, Chingford Road, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-342*

You can see larger versions of all these pictures and others from the same year in my Flickr album 1995 London Colour – from which the images in this post are embedded.

*Walthamstow Stadium, Chingford Road, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-341*

Some years later I covered a protest at Walthamstow Stadium against its demolition. The final race had been held in 2008 and planning permission was given in 2012 for its replacement by almost 300 homes, but the Grade II listed facade in my pictures here was retained.

*Lea Valley Motor Company, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-352*

*Keith Little, Turf Accountants, 81, Station Road, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-362*

I imagine this shop window in Chingford may have been inspired by the races at Walthamstow Stadium.

*Cuddles Creche, The Drive, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c03-231*

The illustration very much reflects the multicultural nature of London and I liked the name ‘Cuddles’. It was probably at times rather noisy inside and perhaps needed as the notice by the door stated you knock on the door rather than ring the bells between 12.30 and 2 pm.

*Shops, Chingford Rd, Chingford Mount, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c02-224*

*Artist, Shop Window, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c02-223*

There was quite a lot of fine work in shop windows in London, particularly in areas in the north east with large Greek, Turkish, Kurdish or Cypriot heritage communities.

*Southend Rd, North Circular Rd, Walthamstow Ave, South Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c02-335*

The North Circular Road runs across the borough and is a significant barrier to movement with relatively few bridges crossing it. Getting to places just over the road can mean a significant detour for people on foot. This fine 1930s building was a dairy company which delivered milk over a wide area. It has now lost its green tiles and is a Holiday Inn.

More in a later post. You can also find black and white pictures I took in the same area in 1995, starting on page 5 of my album 1995 London Photos.

1995 London Colour

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1995 Colour Part 5 – Waltham Forest

1995 Colour Part 5 – Waltham Forest: My Greenwich Meridian project had taken me into North London as far as Pole Hill in Chingford, but I also wandered more widely in the London Borough of Waltham Forest and even strayed into its neighbouring borough of Redbridge, photographing both with a panoramic camera and my ”normal’ pair of Olympus OM4s on black and white and colour.

*Pond, Epping Forest, Whipps Cross, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-262*

Most of the pictures taken with these OM4s were made with the Olympus 35mm shift lens which could slide vertically and horizontally in its mount, particularly useful for photographing tall buildings when it by shifting it up I could keep holding the camera level and place the horizon close to the bottom of the image, so avoiding converging verticals or including large foreground areas.

*Leisure Centre, New Road, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-441*

*Leisure Centre, New Road, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95-3o-23, 1995, 95c03-335*

But often I had the shift on a camera loaded with black and white film, with the 28mm on the OM4 with colour in it. I also carried an ultra-wide 21mm, a 50mm and a short telephoto lens for use when needed.

*Houses, Sunset Ave, Woodford Green, Redbridge, 1995, 95p03-142*

And just occasionally I photographed the same subject both with the swing lens panoramic and with one or other of the Olympus cameras – and I’ll include a couple of examples in this post. All of these pictures were made in February or March 1995.

*Lee Valley Viaduct, North Circular Rd, South Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p02-251*

*Southend Rd, North Circular Rd, South Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p01-233*

*Recreation Ground, Higham Hill, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p01-263*

*Sandpiper Close, Higham Hill, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p02-122*

*Sandpiper Close, Higham Hill, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95c02-352*

For these Sandpiper Close pictures I think the added angle of view of the panoramic greatly improves the image and gives for me a much more powerful impression of what I saw and felt standing there and looking down into the Lea Valley.

*Riverhead Close, Higham Hill, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p02-113*

Although the two pictures of the Leisure Centre where only taken a few feet apart, they are very different images. Standing further back for the panoramic gives a better overall view of the site, but moving closer concentrates on the foreground. The slight colour difference between the two images – neither of them quite right – also complicates the issue. Colour balancing many of these old negatives is often very tricky.

Clicking on any of the images above will take you to a larger version on Flickr. You can also find some of the black and white pictures I took on the same walks in my album 1995 London Photos beginning at this picture. My next post in this series will look at more of the non-panoramic images from Waltham Forest.

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1995 Colour – Part 2 – Greenwich Meridian

1995 Colour – Greenwich Meridian: The second of a series of posts on my colour work, mainly in London, from 1995, 35 years ago and when I’d been working extensively with colour negative film for ten years, though still continuing to work with black and white.

*Obelisk, Trig Point, Pole Hill, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-841*

In 1992 I began making colour panoramas using a Japanese Widelux F8 swing lens panoramic camera – and later I used a Russian Horizon which gave similar results. Both worked with normal 35mm film but produced negatives that were a little under 60mm wide rather than the 36mm of normal cameras. Both use clockwork to swing the taking lens around a third of a circle exposing the film through a narrow slit behind the lens. The film was held in a curved path – again around a third of a circle – with the lens at the centre of the circle so that the lens to film distance remained constant.

Peacham Hall, King's Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411 — *Peacham Hall, King’s Head Hill, Woodberry Way, Chingford, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-411*

This arrangement avoided the change in distance from the lens to film that gives some stretching of the subject towards the edges of the frame – and begins to become very noticeable in ultra-wide lenses, particularly wider than around 18mm focal length on a 35mm camera.

95p03-552-Edit — *Level Crossing, Highams Park*, *Waltham Forest, 95p03-552*

Using the curved film plane avoids this distortion and enables a much wider field of view, while using a fairly moderate focal length – the Widelux has a 26mm f2.8 lens and gives negatives 24x56mm with a horizontal angle of view of 123 degrees.

*Bridges, North Circular, Hale End Rd, Hale End, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p03-463*

But there is a downside. Creating the image in this way gives a curvature to objects which is unlike our normal vision which is particularly noticeable on any straight lines, though lines parallel to the axis the lens rotates around remain straight – so if you hold the camera level, verticals will remain straight. But other lines become curved with the effect increasing away from the image centre, giving what is often called a “cigar effect“.

*Raglan Rd, Lea Bridge Rd, Whipps Cross, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-373*

This is a constraint which makes composition far more difficult using a swing lens camera, and was not helped by a rather poor viewfinder on the Widelux. Usually for landscape work I tried to visualise the effect of the curvature and chose a suitable camera position, levelled the camera on a heavy Manfrotto tripod using the spirit level on the camera top plate, lining the camera up using two arrows on the top plate to show the extent of the view (more accurately than the viewfinder) and then pressing the cable release to make the picture.

Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford,, 1995, 95p4-922 — *Stratford Bus Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-922*

For photographing events and some creative effects this is a camera you can use handheld, but you have to remember that even when using its fastest speed of 1/250 second the camera actually takes quite a lot longer to scan around the curved film.

Crowley's Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672 — *Crowley’s Wharf, River Thames, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-672*

These pictures are from a project I began in 1995 with the approaching Millennium in mind. It seemed to me to make sense to carry out a project based on the Greenwich Meridian.

*Greenwich Boating Pond, Park Vista, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1431*

So I set about walking the Meridian, photographing it at various points in London and used some of these pictures in an attempt to get public funding for a Meridian Walk with some markers in pavements and a web site and publication. Panoramic images seemed a very appropriate format for illustrating the line.

*Greenwich Meridian, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1242*

Unfortunately my grant application as usual was unsuccessful, but I did go on to take some more photographs. In 2009 others produced a Greenwich Meridian Long Distance Path covering all of the Meridian in England from Peacehaven to Sand La Mere which of course goes through London and we also have The Line Sculpture Trail. Quite a few more Meridian markers were also added in London since I made this walk.

Many more panoramas from my Meridian project and other colour images from 1995 in the album 1995 London Colour.

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