The City of London is truly iconic, with a wealth of landmarks and instantly recognisable buildings, which even people who have never visited the capital can identify. I first visited London when I was at secondary school in the early seventies and something about it hooked me even then. In all probability, it was the colours and furious activity of the city, red buses, black cabs, neon lights all of it packaged and produced to catch the tourists eye in the form of gifts and souvenirs just waiting to be taken home.
Since then I have visited London many times and each time seen a different aspect to it, from the darkened streets near the docks, to the heart of theatreland, the rush of Oxford Street and the bohemian stalls of Soho. Probably my favourite visit so far has been the Notting Hill and Portobello Road area, with the long stretch of market stalls, quaint shops and beautiful houses.
Even though I have only seen a tiny fraction of the capital, it still evokes a certain nostalgia and longing - something best described by the welsh term '
hiraeth' or german word
'fernweh' and dutch
'heimweh' - which describes a "a longing for a home, a place, or a feeling that no longer exists or never existed." A friend described the word as "the wistful sister of wanderlust" - which I think encapsulates it rather eloquently.
Its a strange concept, but when I do visit the city, there is an odd sense of familiarity to the streets - possibly as its placement near a major river puts me in mind of my hometown of Liverpool, or more probably due to the fact that it is a place which is so very often portrayed on screen and in fiction, so that places which I have seen in cinema and tv seem almost real and create a 'false memory' on arrival.
The esoteric and romantic sounding names of the tube stations also serve to reinforce the mystery and mystique of London and the history behind many of the places is equally fascinating and beguiling.
Looking for old photographs recently, I came upon a bundle of old postcards and a few cigarettes cards fromthe fifties and sixties. The cigarette cards are quite large - about 2.5" x 1.5" and were issued by Ardath Tobacco - probably in packs of small cigars. The colour postcards are classic tourist fare, with garish colour and iconic sites.
The Piccadilly by Night card is interesting as it clearly has a painted illustration of two passing londoners pasted on to an original photograph of Piccadilly Circus, but as the background is so dark and shows little in the way of human activity, the producers obviously felt it needed a little addition!
Compare it with this daytime view of the Circus, complete with a trio of London buses, bright advertising hoardings and a bustle of people around the iconic statue of Eros.
The city looks very different today, although just as fascinating and colourful. On each visit, I try to document as much of my journey as possible, in effect creating postcards to send to myself, so that when I am at home again, I can look at them and be transported back to that point in time.
On an earlier visit, I was driving back to the station to come home, when we paused at the lights, just outside the Law Courts and I bagged one of my most favourite shots ever. A fellow street photographer, snappily dressed like an extra from the Iprcress File, was taking shots with his camera and I managed to snap two shots with my phone before we drove off.
His pose, classic outfit and unwitting situation right next to the sign in the wall made for the perfect shot, after a little cropping.
