This proved to be an excellent find at a church fundraiser recently. First published in 2008, this small, pocket sized book was the brainchild of Paul Talling, one time music producer, photographer and street wanderer.
Having witnessed the destruction of a disused factory in Wandsworth, London he realised that many of the capital’s historic buildings were being systematically demolished and replaced with sterile office and apartment blocks. So he embarked on a pilgrimage of sorts to record what remained of the old London.
No building type escapes Talling’s lens; from churches to pubs, public toilets, shops, old football grounds to power stations. The sense of history and footprints is palpable. Those fringe spaces slowly decaying on the bottom of the developers list became the last remaining portals into a memory bank many locals were desperate to preserve.
Each photographed space is paired with a well researched account of its history including the events which would lead to their disrepair.
This is a wonderful introduction to a largely forgotten London, a field guide to the psychogeography of its edgelands and a reminder of how much of our past is so readily erased whilst inspiring us to walk our own paths and record what is left before it’s too late.
Further reading:
Categories: British History and Folklore, The Reading Room
retroculturati 