First off, many thanks to those of you who voted for this category.
Here’s my first archival collection of Windows & Doors from my travels around London. These are all moments I captured during my London travels during lockdown and travel restrictions in 2020. Some from the start of my new ‘theendoftheline’ adventures and some from elsewhere.
I hope you enjoy them?
No. #01/07 Empty chairs and empty tables – Brentwood December 2020
This is the night before the lockdown was temporarily lifted in December. Reminiscent of the song in Les Miserables, this shot of the Lemongrass Thai Dining restaurant in Brentwood cries out for diners to return.
No. #02/07 Tredegar House Stables – Newport, September 2020
This was a wonderful visit to the National Trust house and grounds learning about Welsh politics, the industrial age and the class divide between the landed gentry and its tenants.
#03/07 Peek a boo houses – Marylebone Station, October 2020
Is it ‘Mary le bone’ or ‘Mar le bone’? – you decide on how to pronounce it. This was taken from the platforms on the station looking over into Boston Place and I thought it made for an amusing shot. If you can’t build out, then build up seems to be the approach here.
#04/07 Ripe for Regeneration – Romford, June 2020
This is on the Waterloo Estate where all the ground floor properties had been boarded up. A desolate place which the vandals seemed to have turned into their playground.
But there’s hope on the horizon, as the LB Havering has recently submitted plans for the area’s regeneration.
#05/07 A Stranded Lighthouse – Kings Cross, September 2020
The most compelling research about this lighthouse is that it was erected in the late 19th Century to promote Netten’s oyster bar, on the ground floor of this building in Pentonville Road.
An interesting area steeped in history. Battle Bridge & the Regent Quarter was where a hamlet grew in the early 1800s. By the mid-1850s, the railway brought a mix of warehouses, small houses, factory complexes and industrial buildings with internal courtyards.
#06/07 Amba Hotel – Charing Cross, October 2020
Built by Edward Middleton Barry in 1865, its distinctive French Renaissance style exterior defines today’s view of the station.
The hotel’s success was partly attributed to the station becoming an international gateway with boat train services running from the station to Dover. And consequently, an extension to the hotel was opened in 1878 on the other side of Villiers Street.
#07/07 The time is 14:08:13 – Kings Cross, September 2020
Inside looking out from one of the main train sheds designed by Lewis Cubitt and now home to the Azuma train fleet operated by LNER. The station is also home to: Grand Central Railway, Great Northern Railway, Thameslink and Hull Trains. And a new service operated by East Coast Trains is also expected to start in 2021.
The End Of The Line 