onionbagblog

Upper Ground, SE1, The Way We See It.

“There’s not a lot of history to offer you this week for our location, but there’s a lot to see and shoot, and a bit of an alternative look at famous London landmarks.

Upper Ground runs between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridge, behind all the splendor of the South Bank. You might wonder why you’d want to go here; it does give you some interesting angles on the NT and the other brutalist pieces of architecture, not to mention a less sanitised look at London.

One reason for picking this location is how it will soon change. I’ve noticed recently how much work there is going on in London, and when you get to the end of this street, in a couple years time you’ll be in for a big change with the Beetham Tower, otherwise know as 1 Blackfriars.”

Brown Hart Gardens, W1, The Way We See It.

“A nice little central London curio for you all this week. Brown Hart Gardens was once a splendid little Mayfair garden for the working classes in Brown Street and Hart Street.

In 1902, green space didn’t seem such a great use of location and an ornate electricity sub station was build upon the site. Now we’ve all seen some pretty ugly substations in our time, luckily this isn’t one of them. Designed by a certain C. Stanley Peach, it’s a baroque (almost) folly in Portland stone.

There are a pavilion and steps at each end, and the idea was that the space above the substation be used as an Italianate style patio. This was closed by London Electricity in 1980 but has since re-opened.

Ossington Street, W2, The Way We See It.

“Over to North West London this week for a street that I couldn’t resist – even if it was only really for the name. Ossington Street is a little cut through from Moscow Road to the Bayswater Road, in effect connecting Westbourne Grove with Notting Hill Gate.

The street itself is such a curious place. Twenty years ago you couldn’t get anyone to live here; now you couldn’t even think of affording it. It has some of the most eclectic housing you can imagine.

On first look you might be unimpressed, but keep at it and you’ll be amazed at what you see. And if you’re not, have yourself a pint in the Champion and see if that changes things.”

Earlham Street, W2, The Way We See It.

“This week we’re a hunting down another London street market, this time one of the smallest, but one of great photographic interest.

Earlham Street is slap bang in the middle of town, and yet relatively little known. It runs from Shaftsbury Avenue to Seven Dials, and then down to Neal Street.

The market itself runs Monday - Friday and this little cut through always seems to be bustly when it’s on, especially around lunchtime when everyone seems to come out for a bite to eat.

On the other half of the street is one of the best theatres in the whole of London town, the very wonderful Donmar Warehouse.”

Cloak Lane, EC4, The Way We See It.

“A winding cobbled street of offices, Cloak Lane has little interest, until you question what ‘cloaking’ device is in use here. The name Cloak is a corruption of the latin ‘cloaca,’ which roughly translated means sewer.

How could such a lovely street be named a sewer I hear you ask? Well the clue to this lies in an unusual memorial at the Cannon Street end. It marks the re-burial place of the inhabitants of St John the Baptist upon Walbrook

This long gone church did sit upon the open river Walbrook, which like most of the hidden rivers in London, become an open sewer before being culverted. The church itself was destroyed in the Great Fire, and was sadly one of only a handful not to be rebuilt by the 1670 rebuilding act.

Today there’s plenty of action during the week and virtually nothing during the weekend - it’s one of those nice proper old London streets.”

Queensway, W2, The Way We See It.

“You certainly won’t be short of something to shoot this week. One of the busiest streets we’ve probably ever been to, Queensway is named after Queen Victoria.

The street contains no less than two tube stops, and if you’re into your retail therapy, you’ll know that it contains the site that was London’s first department store - Whitely’s, opened by one William Whitely in 1867. It is still there although the building you see today is from 1911.”

Milford Lane, WC2, WWSI

“I am afraid I have little history to offer you for this weeks location. Milford Lane runs from The Strand to the Temple Place. It’s one of those London streets where you go from modern concrete blocks, to quite an amazing old world charm.

Named from a ford over the Thames at the extremity, and a windmill in The Strand, the Lane once hosted the offices of the the Illustrated London News.

One of those streets that at first appears dissapointing, but spend some time here and you’ll notice more and more” [um, I didn't...]