Miscellaneous

Derelict London - Photography, Social History and Guided Walking Tours

DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION comprising of various stuff including benches, drinking fountains, allotments, 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)

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.

West Thamesmead

Boarded up building with barbed wire in East London, E16

Silvertown

redundant spinning sign for tyres in Bermondsey

Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe

Isle of Dogs

Clerkenwell

empty box and empty laughing gas canisters in London

Clerkenwell

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 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

Silvertown

Deptford

Cast Aside in CAMBERWELL, SE5:

Camberwell abandoned wheelbarrow with booze cans

Wheelbarrow and empty booze can

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. 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

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

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.