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The Derelict London website is sponsored by: |
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DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION comprising of various stuff including benches, telephone boxes, drinking fountains, allotments, shopping trolleys and just plain old rubbish....
"The seedy underbelly of one of the world's most regal and outwardly pristine cities is exposed to all in this poignant depiction of London's decidedly unseemly parts. Londoner Paul Talling has created a record of his many walkabouts and fashioned a rare portrait of the posh city that cannot be seen via public transport or guided tour. By foregoing the usual palatial pomp and circumstance and heading straight for the gutter shot, a grittier and more vivid (dare we say more interesting?) London emerges. Her abandoned cinemas and forgotten hospitals loom with quiet majesty, while her shoddy domiciles, unkempt corners, and pubs gone bust reveal an aging grand dame's "liver spots." Yet, even at her worst, London retains a hint of the glory we're more accustomed to seeing"
YAHOO! PICKS (DERELICT LONDON - BEST COMMUNITY WEBSITE)
YAHOO! PICKS (DERELICT LONDON - BEST COMMUNITY WEBSITE)
Elephant & Castle
Silvertown
Deptford
Limehouse Mattresses
"Sleeping rough on the streets of London is frightening, demoralising and isolating. Homeless people are some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded people in our society.
Homeless support agencies reported that around 3,500 people slept rough in London last year, which is almost half the number of rough sleepers in the whole of the UK. The life expectancy of a long-term rough sleeper is only 42 years, compared to 79 years for the average UK citizen. A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person in the UK." This text was taken from From the StreetsofLondon.org.uk website:
Homeless support agencies reported that around 3,500 people slept rough in London last year, which is almost half the number of rough sleepers in the whole of the UK. The life expectancy of a long-term rough sleeper is only 42 years, compared to 79 years for the average UK citizen. A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person in the UK." This text was taken from From the StreetsofLondon.org.uk website:
LIMEHOUSE - EMPTY SCOTCH BOTTLES
This interesting collection of bottles are crammed into a gap between a window and a wire frame that was orginally intended to protect the window.
HACKNEY WICK - FRIDGE FREEZERS
In around 2002-3, I used to frequent this manor and these piles of redundant white goods that I passed on the train fascinated me and were early inspiration for Derelict London and getting to do walkabouts with a basic camera around the Bow Backs Rivers long before all that Olympics talk.... Needless to say these white goods are long gone.
BENCHES
PUBLIC DRINKING FOUNTAINS
LAMP POSTS
CRYSTAL PALACE PARK - REDUNDANT STATUES
BOSTON MANOR - ALLOTMENTS
A great abandoned allotment beside the River Brent. These pics of it are a few years old. I went by recently and the site has been cleared and the adjacent park has expanded into this space.
PUBLIC TELEPHONE BOXES
Archway, N19
The era of the telephone kiosk is drawing to a close. British Telecom,has seen its takings from payphones plummet since 1999. "We've got thousands that don't make enough to cover their cleaning costs," says BT's payphones division. They have recently began a programme of uprooting uneconomic kiosks. Up to 12,000 are disappearing each year. There are also privately owned kiosks housing orange telephones all over London and the company has appeared to have disappeared and the kiosks have become derelict and councils have been taking their time removing them due to the cost of removing them and I believe they are trying to track down the companies responsible.
PLUMSTEAD SE18 - TELEPHONE BOX
In an Industrial Estate in Plumstead sits this decaying ex telephone box. Nothing to note about this industrial estate except that it was once the site of a football ground - The Manor Ground was home of Arsenal (then known as Woolwich Arsenal FC) before they moved to Highbury. Much more about this subject is on the London's Lost Losts Sportsgrounds section elsewhere on this website.
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POLICE PHONE BOXES
These telephones were linked directly to the local police station allowing patrolling officers to keep in contact with the station, reporting anything unusual, requesting help if necessary, or even to detain suspects until a vehicle could be sent to transport them to the station or to jail. A light on top of the box would flash to alert an officer that he/she was requested to contact the station. Members of the public could also use the phone to contact a police station in an emergency.
Police boxes played an important role in police work between 1928 and 1970, when they were phased out following the introduction of personal radios.
In 1997, a new police box was erected outside the Earl's Court tube station equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police. The telephone ceased to function in April 2000 when London's telephone numbers were changed, but the box remained despite the fact that funding for its upkeep and maintenance had long since been exhausted. In h 2005, the Metropolitan Police resumed funding the refurbishment and maintenance of the box (which is something of a tourist attraction due to the Doctor Who association)
Police boxes played an important role in police work between 1928 and 1970, when they were phased out following the introduction of personal radios.
In 1997, a new police box was erected outside the Earl's Court tube station equipped with CCTV cameras and a telephone to contact police. The telephone ceased to function in April 2000 when London's telephone numbers were changed, but the box remained despite the fact that funding for its upkeep and maintenance had long since been exhausted. In h 2005, the Metropolitan Police resumed funding the refurbishment and maintenance of the box (which is something of a tourist attraction due to the Doctor Who association)
SHOPPING TROLLEYS
Rubbish!
BECKTON - THE BECKTON ALPS
Once Europe's largest gasworks - all that remains of the Beckton Gasworks today is a grass-covered heap of industrial waste - the Alp was the original spoil from the coke used in that gas making. The London Docklands Development Corporation created the 'Beckton Alps' as a monument to an extinct industry in the mid-1980s. Part of a railway locomotive from the works was discovered buried there during excavations at the site. The fight scenes (Hanoi) in Full Metal Jacket, were made by Stanley Kubrick in the dynamited ruins of Beckton gasworks. From 1989 to 2001 a dry ski slope ran down the Beckton Alps and "London's premier ski village" was opened by Princess Diana This has now been swept away presumably to accommodate the A13 widening and is being replaced nearby by a modern snowdome.
BROMLEY - THE WHISPER
The Whisper was originally commissioned by Sainburys as a resin work to be sited outside Homebase in Bromley in 1981. A bronze version was commissioned by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation as a work ideally suited to its site outside the MK public library, a space where people meet and socialize. Andre Wallace's distinctive heavy figures, larger than life-size, sit relaxed and at ease watching the world go by. In contrast to many public sculptures they seem to be the observers rather than the observed as one whispers gossip or comment to the other.
Andre Wallace has been undertaking commissions for public sculptures since the 1970s and his work can be seen across Britain - from Salford and Newcastle to London's Docklands
RAINHAM - THE DIVER
From a distance, I thought this was a bit of scrap floating in the Thames. The Diver is actually a sculpture by John Kaufman located in the Thames at Rainham, to the far east London and is the only sculpture standing in the River Thames. So not really applicable to be in Derelict London but as there are no rules I thought that I would share this with you anyway.
It's made of galvanised steel bands on a steel frame and is 15 feet tall and approximately 6 feet wide and is partly submerged every high tide. The piece is inspired by Kaufman's own family history. His grandfather was a diver in the London Docks c. 1900. The sculpture stands as a monument to this man and all working men of the area who have worked in difficult and dangerous conditions.
Soon after the completion of the sculpture, John fell ill and died in 2002. After his death, a wake was held at the location of the sculpture with family and friends.
HORNSEY & SPITALFIELDS - HANGING SHOES
Shoes hanging from overhead telephone wires. A number of sinister explanations have been proposed as to why this is done. Some say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold It can also relate to a place where Heroin is sold to symbolize the fact that once you take Heroin you can never 'leave': a reference to the addictive nature of the drug. Others claim that the shoes so thrown commemorate a gang-related murder, or the death of a gang member, or as a way of marking gang turf.
LEA BRIDGE - SUBWAYS
Disused subways in middle of roundabout
DENMARK HILL - RUSKIN PARK SUNDIAL
Ruskin Park occupies the site and grounds of several 18th century houses by Denmark Hill. The famous German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote a piano piece, inspired by the tranquility of the area, while staying at 168 Denmark Hill in the 1840's. (It is rumoured the piece, originally called 'Camberwell Green', only took off in popularity after it was renamed 'Spring Song'.) Living at number 163 was the Victorian artist & social reformer John Ruskin. In 1907 the houses were demolished and the park opened in their place. All that remains of the original houses is the portico from number 170 and a fenced-off terracotta stump is the last remnant of a sundial planted in 1842 to mark Mendelssohn's visit.
ELEPHANT & CASTLE - TEDDY BEAR
Teddy discarded on pavement after "drive by" shooting incident
CATTLE DRINKING TROUGHS
Cattle troughs provided by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association are still all over London. The Association was set up in London in 1859 against a background of a filthy rivers full of untreated sewage, rubbish and effluent from factories, water borne cholera and generally inadequate free drinking water. By 1885 over 50,000 horses were drinking daily from the Association’s troughs in London. These days the troughs are used as flower beds.
Various miscellaneous photographs taken around the capital
Charlton
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Crystal Palace Park
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