A Stroll in London 20 Years In the past; On June twenty eighth 2004 I had an vital assembly at one on London’s main cultural establishments. It was a fantastic day, so I took an early prepare after which wandered in the direction of the assembly taking footage.
My stroll started at London Bridge Station and I walked in the direction of the River Thames by ‘Extra London’ a big space to the south-west of Tower Bridge owned and redeveloped by the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund’s St Martins Property Group with buildings designed by Foster and Companions architects.
In 2004 this was a latest improvement and in 2007 it was considered one of six on the shortlist for the Carbuncle Cup structure prize, an annual competitors by Constructing Design for “the ugliest constructing in the UK accomplished within the final 12 months“. However it, two different new London developments in addition to a Vacation Inn in Aberdeenshire and a high-rise residential tower in Birmingham all misplaced out to pupil accomodatiion for Leicester College.
I walked throughout Tower Bridge and continued into the East Finish, taking one other image of the Grade II* listed Wilton’s Music Corridor entrance in Grace’s Row. In 2004 this was starting to as soon as once more produce a diverse vary of reveals and was internally significantly restored from 2012-5, although I believe the doorway nonetheless appears a lot the identical.
The music corridor was largely destroyed by fireplace in 1877, however rebuilt and opened as a Methodist mission, The Mahogany Bar. This was an vital useful resource for the area people till it closed in 1956. The constructing was saved from demolition by a decided marketing campaign supported by Sir John Betjeman, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and others and in 1971 was given Grade II* itemizing and purchased by the GLC.
In Dock St, Wapping I photographed the window of a fish and chip store, The Codfather. I believe that is now an property brokers, though there are numerous different Codfathers across the nation.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish inventor, thinker, scientist and mystic lived on this space – then Prince’s Sq. – and was buried within the churchyard of the Swedish Church right here. He had stayed in London for 4 years as a younger man and returned right here aged 57 the place he had a imaginative and prescient of assembly the Lord who appointed him to jot down to disclose the non secular that means of the Bible. He deserted his different work and over the subsequent ten years wrote his 8 volumes of Arcana Cœlestia.
From 1747 till his dying he spent his time in Stockholm, the Netherlands and London, publishing this and one other 14 non secular works within the latter two to keep away from censorship by the Swedish Empire. He returned for the final time to London within the Summer time of 1771 and suffered a stroke in December. In February 1772 he wrote asking John Wesley to go to him, and when Wesley replied he couldn’t achieve this for six months he informed him that might be too late as he was going to die on March twenty ninth. And he did.
New Highway took me north.
Tower Home at 81 Fieldgate Road was a superior doss home which supplied these staying there with decency and privateness. Jack London stayed there quickly after its opening, in 1902 when researching his ‘Folks of the Abyss‘ and Maxim Litvinov and Joseph Stalin spent a while there when attendeing The London Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Celebration – however Stalin quickly moved out into non-public lodgings at 77 Jubilee Highway.
It was the fifth of the Rowton Homes to be inbuilt London as “poor males’s resorts” and opened in 1902. It was the primary to be lit by electrical energy. George Orwell described it because the ‘better of all widespread lodging homes with glorious loos’, although he discovered a few of its guidelines irksome, significantly that you would not enter your room earlier than 7pm.
Renamed Tower Home in 1961 it was acquired by the GLC for Tower Hamlets Council in 1983. Varied schemes to adapt in fell although and it was nonetheless derelict in 2004. A personal developer transformed it into luxurious flats in 2005-8.
The time for my assembly was approaching and I used to be having to rush again into the Metropolis, and took only some extra footage although relatively greater than I put on-line again in 2004. This view is of the Alban Highwalk main off south from Alban Gate, and the tower of St Alban Wooden Road in addition to the Metropolis of London Police constructing clearly seen.
I believe my assembly went effectively, however a few years later I had an important disappointment when the challenge was cancelled on the final minute.
There are only a few extra footage at Extra London and extra.
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Tags: 2004, Alban Gate, Alban Highwalk. Wooden St, Dock St, docks, Docks workplaces, fish & chips, Grace’s Row, Joseph Stalin, June 2004, London, London Photographs, Extra London, peter Marshall, poor males’s resorts, Rowton Home, Swedenborg, Swedenborg Sq.., The Codfather, Tower Home, Wapping, Wesley, Wiltons Music Corridor
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