Sign on boarded-up window
Gallery: London, off the beaten track (urban erosion)

Gallery: London, off the beaten track (urban erosion)

London is a city of contrasts, where famous sights and almost palatial homes can rub shoulders with the worn and neglected. Just as its people are diverse and eclectic, so too are its buildings.

For this week’s CFFC topic of Urban Erosion, I offer a small selection of images taken in my home city in recent years. It is no coincidence that all of these are from the east of the city, whose neighbourhoods have always been tended to be grittier than their more refined neighbours to the west.

London isn’t just about Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. There are layers of social history all over the city just waiting to be discovered.

Chubb lock on pink painted door
Chubb in Wapping
Rusted letter box
Letters, Trinity Buoy Wharf
Marble bust seen through red-framed window
The Rotherhithe Picture Research Library
Large building with painted sign
Mather’s Whale Oil
Iron ring on weed-covered stone wall
Thames boat mooring, Wapping
Fragment of painted wood
Ship’s timbers, Trinity Buoy Wharf
Graffiti and posters
‘London Rabbit City’, Shoreditch
Stone wign on a brick wall
St Mary’s Rotherhithe ~ the Watch-house

23 thoughts on “Gallery: London, off the beaten track (urban erosion)”

  2. Brilliant post as always, Sarah. As you know I lived in Wapping for about 10 years and it is full to the gunwales (note the maritime reference!) with quirky little things like the Chubb lock. A I have told you many times before, you really have “the eye”.

    I hope you get this comment, you know the trouble I have had before.

    1. I got the comment, thank you 🙂 But I don’t know who you are as the email address and name were withheld, it seems! Although the fact that you lived in Wapping helps narrow down my ‘search’ 😆

  5. I love fossicking about London’s back streets and lest touristy quarters when I get the chance, But I haven’t yet added Wapping and Rotherhithe to my list. One day, London will be within my grasp again …

  8. There’s a similar split in Paris, where the rich folks live in the western half of the city and the poor folks in the east.

    1. I suspect many cities are similar. It’s not quite that well-defined a split in London these days, as neighbourhoods in the east are becoming gentrified and some in the west are less desirable than they once were. Most of my photos were taken in places that today would be considered quite trendy, apart from Trinity Buoy Wharf.

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