35mm: North Bank

It’s been a few years since I walked along the north bank of the Thames in central London. Apart from “the embankment”, it used to be quite fragmented and the stretch from Blackfriars bridge to, give or take, Tower Bridge, involved quite a bit of street walking away from the river. Now that stretch has been “opened up” and it’s possible to keep to the Thames. A much nicer walk!

A highlight of this walk was Cleopatra’s Needle. Not that it’s a needle or anything to do with Cleopatra! It was created for Thotmes III in 1460 BC, so give or take it’s 3,500 years old. It came from Alexandria (Royal City of Cleopatra) and is therefore named after her. The specially designed barge that brought it here was also named Cleopatra – those Victorians were nothing if not imaginative! It had a terrible journey in which 6 men died, but eventually it was winched into place in 1878.

Above is the memorial to the Battle of Britain. In the image above I’ve managed to get in a spotter looking out for enemy planes, and a pilot making a dash from the “Scramble” part of the 25 meter long monument. Looking across to the south bank there is a good view of the London Eye.

This roll of Ilford 400 Delta I developed in ID11 at 1+1. That gave a development time of 14 minutes. The grain is finer than with Rodinal, but not much. I do prefer the contrast however and most of the scans on this page have had very little correction.

The rather swanky car above was being taken away by the police – I have no idea why, but I can image some speeding was involved.

Harry Potter. The statue of Boudica stands at the top of the steps that lead down to the embankment. She’s been there since 1902. Weird really, as part of her revolt against the Romans was to basically burn London down. Apparently, there is a layer of reddish ash soil if you could dig down far enough, archaeologists call “Boudicca’s Layer.” She’s had a name change, when I was young she was always pronounced Bow-dee-see-er, now she’s Boo-di-ka! She’s also been elevated quite literally. If one looks at photo’s from 1902, a tall man could have easily touched the top of the plinth, not any more! Be that as it may, eventually she poisoned herself rather than be captured, and was buried by her clan in a secret location, which is now believed to be somewhere between platform 9 and 10 in Kings Cross railway station. 9 3/4 – Harry Potter!