DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION
DERELICT LONDON - MISCELLANEOUS SECTION comprising of various stuff including benches, drinking fountains, allotments, and just plain old rubbish....
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.
Final Resting Place for Mattresses - Crayford, DA1
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Elephant & Castle
Bromley By Bow, E14 - Area Around Ailsa Street
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
Silvertown
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Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe
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Isle of Dogs
Clerkenwell
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Clerkenwell
Peckham
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Charlton, SE7 - Woolwich Rd
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ALL OVER LONDON - FLYTIPPING
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.
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.
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and down to Croydon:
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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...
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Silvertown
Deptford
Cast Aside in CAMBERWELL, SE5:
Wheelbarrow and empty booze can
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Mattresses
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A collection of redundant doors
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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. Probably not an original feature but a charming addition to this dead pub (The King's Head)
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Evening All! Dulwich Hospital Garden. Maybe this sculpture once graced a recently demolished hospital building, minus helmet of course
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Westminster City School dandelion wind sculpture from 200 recycled plastic bottles.
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Whitechapel
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Clerkenwell
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Elephant & Castle
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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
Shadwell
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Poplar
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Poplar
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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.
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
Charlton
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Crystal Palace Park
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London's Burning!!
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
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
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.
