Our Pre-Chistmas Metropolis Stroll – On Thursday seventh November 2017 I met up outdated pals, all photographers, for the early Christmas social occasion we’ve organised most years. It had proved tough to discover a date everybody may make and a number of other of the group had been lacking and we had been down to 5 of us.
It’s a sobering thought that six years on solely three of the 5 are nonetheless within the land of the residing, with first Alex and extra lately John having died. I’ve a number of occasions written about John Benton-Harris on this website over time and he additionally years in the past contributed two visitor posts, in addition to that includes his shock seventieth celebration in 2009.
I’d labored with John in recent times on producing quite a few books, together with just a few for the Café Royal Books sequence, together with his Saint Patrick’s Folks, although his main work, ‘Mad Hatters’ on the English sadly stays unpublished. And I’d gone with him taking photos to St Patrick’s Day occasions in London and elsewhere. Though he had some well being issues and was in his 80s, his dying nonetheless got here as an awesome shock to us all.
We met at St Paul’s Underground Station and our first go to was to the Guildhall Artwork Gallery, the place we went “down into its depths the place just a few years in the past the stays of the Roman Coliseum had been found and are actually slightly nicely displayed, earlier than trying on the Metropolis of London’s artwork assortment on show. It’s a slightly combined bunch with some nice works historic and fashionable together with some slightly tedious municipal information of nice events that might have seemed nice within the Illustrated London Information however don’t actually lower it as huge canvasses on the gallery wall.” (Quotes her are from my article written right here in December 2017)
Some years earlier in 2005 I had been to the opening of a present on the gallery that includes works by a few of London’s best-known residing painters curated by Mireille Gailinou for a now defunct organisation I used to be then the treasurer of, London Arts Café, ‘London Now – CITY OF HEAVEN CITY OF HELL’ and had given my opinion on the gallery’s assortment to the then curator who was very shocked after I’d mentioned I’d fairly fortunately burn one of many largest canvases. Thankfully that had not resulted in me being banned from the gallery!
That present is now lengthy gone, as too is the London Arts Café, however its site with extra about this and different exhibits and occasions we organised stays at the moment on-line. And regardless of my opinions the Guildhall Artwork Gallery continues to be value visiting each for the artworks and definitely for its Roman stays and entry is free.
From there we walked “on previous the Financial institution of England we walked into Adams Court docket and walked round in a circle earlier than pushed by thirst to the Crosse Keys, the place I failed to withstand the temptation of a pint of Smokestack Lightnin’, a beer from the Dorking Brewery, named after my favorite Howling Wolf monitor – I nonetheless someplace have the 45rpm document. It was the primary time I’ve come throughout the concept of a ‘smoked’ beer, and whereas attention-grabbing I feel it might be greatest drunk round a bonfire.”
John had left us once we went into the pub, saying there was nonetheless mild to take images and he wished to take advantage of it, however he appeared seldom to get pleasure from coming with us into pubs. The Crosse Keys is considered one of many attention-grabbing buildings – outdated pubs, theatres, cinemas, banks and many others – across the nation that Wetherspoons have taken over and preserved and although their proprietor has horrible politics and the chain poor circumstances of service they provide low-cost and customarily well-kept beer and plain good-value meals. Clearly their employees ought to unionise and battle for higher phrases.
We didn’t keep lengthy within the pub, only a fast pint on the balcony and a brief go to to the bogs within the depths, earlier than leaving. Alex mentioned goodbye right here, seeing a bus that might take him again residence to Hackney slightly than go west with us, and I led the remaining two “all the way down to the river, the place we turned upstream alongside the Thames path. The sunshine was fading slightly, however maybe turning into extra attention-grabbing, however once we left the river at Queenhithe it was time to make our means again to St Paul’s to catch a bus and get a desk for our meal collectively earlier than the town employees crowded in.”
All the images accompanying this put up had been made with a Fuji X-E1 and 18mm Fuji lens, an nearly pocketable mixture. The 18mm f2 might be my favorite Fuji lens, although typically I want the added flexibility of the marginally slower however nonetheless pretty compact 18-55mm zoom. Later I moved as much as the X-E3, which has higher auto-focus and a considerably bigger sensor and is barely smaller, however each are nonetheless very usable cameras, and the X-E1 is now accessible secondhand fairly cheaply. It’s nonetheless an awesome digital camera for road pictures and as an introduction to the Fuji vary.
A number of extra photos at Photographers Stroll.
Tags: 18mm f2, seventieth celebration, Adams Court docket, Alex, Cafe Royal Books, Christmas, Crosse Keys, Fuji X-E1, Guildhall Artwork Gallery, John Benton-Harris, London, London Arts Cafe, London Now – CITY OF HEAVEN CITY OF HELL, London Photographs, Mad Hatters, Mireille Gailinou, peter Marshall, photographers, Queenhithe, River Thames, Roman Coliseum, Saint Patrick’s Folks, Thames, Thames Path, Stroll, Wetherspoons
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