Derelict London - Photography, Social History and Guided Walking Tours
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    • Homes North of the Thames
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    • London's Lost Music venues 2
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    • Derelict East London Pubs >
      • East London Pubs from Dereliction to Demolition
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  • War - Bunkers and Pillboxes
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  • London's Long Lost Sports Grounds
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  • Derelict London Offices
  • Sponsors wanted!
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  • Homepage
  • 22 Years of Derelict London
  • Author's Guided Tours of London
    • Minories to Poplar
    • Woolwich Alldayer
    • Roman Road
    • Whitechapel & Bethnal Green
    • Derelict Limehouse & Poplar
    • Lost Docks of Wapping
    • Isle of Dogs
    • Grand Surrey Canal
    • London's Lost Rivers Tours
    • Shadwell & Stepney
    • Silvertown
    • Bow Creek: River Lea from Bromley by Bow to Leamouth via Canning Town
    • Croydon Canal
    • Dartford guided walk
    • Hammersmith
    • East Finchley to Gospel Oak
    • London's Lost Music Venues
    • Tower Hamlets Special
  • 2025 New Pics
  • 2024 New Pics
  • Books by Paul Talling
  • Contact
  • Dereliction and Beyond...Then and Now Photos
    • Derelict London 2008 Book Then and Now Pics
    • Then and Now Pics South of the River
    • Then and Now Pics North of the River
  • London Transport
    • Derelict London Tube Trains and Stations
    • Derelict London Railway Stations,Lines and Rolling Stock
    • Derelict London Trams
  • Factories and Warehouses
    • North of the Thames Factories and Warehouses
    • South of the Thames Factories and Warehouses
  • Derelict London Homes
    • Homes North of the Thames
    • Homes South of The Thames
    • Derelict homes now Demolished
  • Derelict London Cinemas
  • Derelict London Hospitals
    • Hospitals North of the River
    • Hospitals South of the River
    • Hospitals: Then & Now pics
  • Derelict London Pools and Baths
  • Music History
    • London's Lost Music venues 2
  • Various Derelict London Buildings
  • Derelict London Pubs
    • North London
    • Derelict East London Pubs >
      • East London Pubs from Dereliction to Demolition
      • East London Pubs - Dead Pubs to Conversion
      • East London Pubs Back from the Brink
    • Central London
    • West & South West London
    • South & South East London Pubs
  • Derelict London Cemetery & Churches
  • Derelict London Hotels and Restaurants
  • Graffiti & Streetart
  • Misc London Derelict pics
  • Derelict London Cafes
  • People
  • Porticos and Pillars
  • Shopping Trolleys
  • Derelict London Shops
  • Signs and Murals
  • Derelict London Sportsgrounds
  • Post Offices
  • Derelict London Toilets
  • Toys
  • Derelict London Telephone Boxes
  • War - Bunkers and Pillboxes
  • Waterways and Wharves
  • Wildlife
  • Vehicles
  • Long Lost Burial Grounds
  • London Riots 2011: The Aftermath
  • Derelict London Boats
  • London's Long Lost Sports Grounds
  • Derelict Kent
    • Derelict Kent DA postcodes
    • Derelict Kent ME postcodes
    • Derelict Kent TN postcodes
  • Derelict Essex
    • Derelict Essex RM postcodes
    • Derelict Essex SS Postcodes
    • Derelict Essex CO postcodes
  • Derelict London Public Buildings
  • Derelict London Offices
  • Sponsors wanted!
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies Info
  • T-Shirts
Derelict London - Photography, Social History and Guided Walking Tours
Picture
​DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION


DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION comprising of  various stuff including benches, drinking  fountains, allotments, and just plain old rubbish....

Picture of bathroom sink with decaying debris in derelict house

Hounslow

This is a 1980s flat which is structurally sound but a bit messy inside. I am keeping the exact location secret as there is a story behind this one, and I had to alert the authorities due to my concerns.
Pile of dirty abandoned mattresses on a skip in South London
Final Resting Place for Mattresses - Crayford, DA1
  Sponsored Links:
"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) 
Wheelchair on a roof of a derelict old peoples care centre in Walworth
Elephant & Castle

Bromley By Bow, E14 - Area Around Ailsa Street

Old Joanna in East London. A piano carved out of wood by Leaside Wood Recycling Project in Bromley By Bow

Ailsa Street is immediately east of the Blackwall Tunnel northern approach road in Tower Hamlets. Some of the site is currently vacant & plots that are occupied contain a mix of uses such as scrap metal merchants and the Leaside Wood Recycling Project whose animal wood carvings are often displayed on the pavement beside the A12. The Project are dedicated to recycling and re-using as much wood as possible in the Greater London area

There were plans in 2012 to build a large waste disposal plant on the site but local opposition led to these plans being scrapped by the council. The London Thames Gateway Development Corporation had plans for the building of housing on this site and aimed for 2,340 new homes in this area that encompasses Imperial St, Sugar House Lane, Three Mills and Poplar Riverside. However the corporation was abolished in 2013 and land assets were transferred to  a subsidiary company of the Greater London Authority. Exact plans and timescales are unknown at time of writing

I have wandered around this site over the last decade (this is where the milkfloat in the 2008 Derelict London book was photographed) though don't expect it to remain in its present state for another decade.

abandoned zimmer framer in Broadwater in West Thamesmead near Woolwich
West Thamesmead
Boarded up building with barbed wire in East London, E16
Silvertown
redundant spinning sign for tyres in Bermondsey
Rotherhithe
pigeon on abandoned bbq in South London
Rotherhithe
Picture
Isle of Dogs
I Love You graffiti on derelict building in Clerkenwell now the Postal Museum
Clerkenwell
empty box and empty laughing gas canisters in London
Clerkenwell
Walls Pick up the cone ad on phonebox with traffic cone on it in Peckham
Peckham

​​Charlton, SE7 - Woolwich Rd

Picture of derelict Carpet Kingdom warehouse on Woolwich Road, Charlton SE7
Picture of Vote Conservative graffiti in South East London on derelict site
Picture of rubbish beside abandoned warehouse in South East London
Picture of dumped baths and other flytipping in ​​Charlton, SE7 - Woolwich Rd
Picture of Keep Out sign on derelict site in Charlton, London SE7
Picture of derelict car park near the Thames Barrier
Picture of disused car wash ​​Charlton, SE7 - Woolwich Rd
Picture of abandoned pushchair in ​​Charlton, SE7 - Woolwich Rd

ALL OVER LONDON - FLYTIPPING

Flytipping Wharfside Rd under Canning Town Flyover
Fly-tipping blocking Wharfside Rd in Canning Town on the way to Bow Creek Ecological Park
Fly-tipping  refers to dumping waste illegally instead of in an authorised rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land; waste dumped or tipped on a site with no licence to accept waste.

Households in many London boroughs can ring up the Council to come and collect a few bulk items and each borough has a depot where you can visit to dump waste for no charge (thats what you pay your council tax for...). Though this only applies to households and commercial dumping is charged at a premium so those man and van jobs who come offer to clear your rubbish have to pay the council to get the items disposed of in the correct manor so its far cheaper to just dump the rubbish elsewhere in any vacant space.Of course, not all removal firms are like this but its always recommended that the firm is registered with the Environment Agency as a licensed waste carrier and waste broker.


Below are some pictures of fly-tipping, firstly in Canning Town under the flyer and next is in Camden Town. The Camden sign does not seem to have made an impact here. This is just two sites that I have stumbled across in recent months.
Flytipping Canning Town A13 near the site of the old Bridge House pub
builders waste flytipped in Canning Town
dumped chairs beside the road in London borough of Newham
flytipping blocking road in Canning Town
flytipping in London Borough of Camden
Flytipping underneath No Dumping sign in Camden Town
Camden Environmental Department sign warning of fines for dumping offences
and down to Croydon:
Prosecution Threat? Croydon Council Illegal Dumping is Against the Environmental Protection Act 1990 & Carries a Penalty of Fine and Imprisonment
Dumped car and abandoned mattress and dead Xmas tree amonst rubbish sacks flytipped in Crodon, South London
Piles of rubbish abandoned and dumped in Croydon yard
Below is along the Regents Canal between London Fields and Haggerston. This is not so much fly-tipping as just the laziness of individuals of finding a bin to dump their takeaway wrappers, coffee cups and toy dolls...
rubbish dumped in and around overflowing bin on Regents Canal in Haggerston
overflowing bins and rubbish dumped beside the canal at Broadway Market, London Fields
rubbish floating on the Regents Canal in Hackney

Ginger cat on a flea infested mattress on an abandoned site in Silvertown, East London
Silvertown
Extremely decaying abandoned typewriter in Deptford
Deptford

Cast Aside in CAMBERWELL, SE5:

Camberwell abandoned wheelbarrow with booze cans
Wheelbarrow and empty booze can
Camberwell abandoned mattresses just off Burgess Park
Mattresses
Decaying redundant doors dumped in Camberwell
A collection of redundant doors

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:

Limehouse Kings Head pub angel
Limehouse. Probably not an original feature but a charming addition to this dead pub (The King's Head)
Dulwich Hospital Garden sculpture from demolished building with policeman's helmet
Evening All! Dulwich Hospital Garden. Maybe this sculpture once graced a recently demolished hospital building, minus helmet of course
Westminster City School near Victoria - a dandelion wind sculpture from recycled plastic bottles. Modern art
Westminster City School dandelion wind sculpture from 200 recycled plastic bottles.

Derelict London Summer 2013 Whitchapel corrugated iron fence with CCTV warning
Whitechapel
Discarded laughing gas bottles in London
Clerkenwell
Derelict London Summer 2013 Elephant & Castle police cordon tape
Elephant & Castle

LIMEHOUSE - EMPTY  SCOTCH  BOTTLES

This interesting collection of bottles were crammed into a gap between a window and a wire frame that was originally intended to protect the window.

More empty booze bottles and cans

Picture of abandoned White Lightening Cider cans in Cider
Shadwell
Picture of empty booze bottles in East London
Poplar
Picture of discarded empty drink bottles on Robin Hood Estate,  Poplar
Poplar

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


LAMPS


​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. 

Rubbish!



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.
The Diver is a sculpture by John Kaufman located in the Thames at Rainham

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.

 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


Abandoned mattresses in decaying part of Charlton
Charlton
Overgrown wooden stairway in Crystal Palace Park
Crystal Palace Park

London's Burning!!

Picture of fireman attending a blaze in derelict East End workshop opposite The Albion closed down pub in Mile End
A workshop fire in 2003 at St Paul's Way, Mile End, E3. The workshop and derelict pub across the road have long since been demolished and replaced by flats
Back in 2004, fireman Steve Dudeney sent me these excellent pics for me to put onto Derelict London which subsequently got buried in my archives. Better late than never.

Steve was raised in Stepney & Poplar. Aged 14, he used to spend a lot of time at his local Fire Station in Poplar volunteering to cook and make cups of tea and held a desire to become a Firefighter when he was older. In 1987 aged 18 he joined the London Fire Brigade and spent most of his career at fire stations in the East End. In 2002, he became Station Commander at Poplar fire station the station where he served in every rank. He later became Borough Commander for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Throughout his career Steve attended many incidents across London including the 1996 Canary Wharf bomb, the 2011 London riots, the Terrorist attacks at Parliament Square & London Bridge in 2017 as well as the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017. Steve along with three colleagues from Poplar Fire Station were among the first British Firefighters to fly to New York in the days following the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001 and became pivotal in the fundraising for the families of the New York Firefighters from within the UK Fire Service in the months after the attack. 
​
Steve's book, London Firefighter was published in 2022. The book is a memoire of his career in London Fire Brigade until he retired in 2018. The book can be found in all good bookshops and https://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Firefighter-Stephen-Dudeney/dp/1398463248
Picture
​Factory Fire, Ilderton Road, Bermondsey, SE16 2003. Demolished and now flats
More pics taken below by Steve circa 2002/3. All these fire pics are shown here by kind permission of Steve Dudeney who retains copyright.
Paul Talling's Derelict London - all photographs are copyright © 2003-2025
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