"Blizzard"

I think the word "blizzard" might be a little excessive for what doesn't really appear to be too much snow, although nowadays this much snowfall would cause the entire country to grind to a halt for a couple of days.What's really interesting is to see a policeman still out there directing traffic in Piccadilly Circus. Actually, the surprise is not that they're still out there in the snow, it's that they're out there in the first place......
Read More

Going Underground

These are Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner tube stations, from February 1958. In so many ways, these look pretty much as they do today. The second one is remarkable in that there's no-one else there - when did you last see an empty tube station? The advert in the first one caught my eye - "We Want Watney's Brown Ale". From what I understand, it was a reasonable brew in those days, long before the dreaded Watney's Red Barrel and Party Seven....
Read More

Coronation, 1953

Westminster Abbey   Whitehall & Houses of Parliament   Piccadilly Circus A special bonus of three images this time, to round off the detour back into the really old 40's and early 50's stuff, before my dad had his own camera. I think these "half-plate" shots were taken on his mum's camera - I seem to recall him saying that he borrowed hers for the cycling trip to France. I have also just looked through another set of "half-plate" sized negatives that I brought back the other week, and these look even older. It looks like one of the associated prints is dated 1920, so these will presumably have been taken by my grandfather, or maybe even his father. There must be getting on towards 100 of them, so that's ramped up my scanning a bit more! Anyway, these three images are, as the title of the posting says, from around the time of the Coronation in 1953. I'm not quite sure what everyone is queueing for...
Read More