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Me and two friends were bored on Friday so we done the usual, popped out for some food, had a few drinks in a pub and then at closing time we decided to pop up Canary Wharf for a little walk about. I decided to grab my camera and we set off.
As soon as I stepped through the car park entrance to the actual street I got stopped by security.
What are you doing?
Walking around Canary Wharf...
Yeah, but what's with the camera?
I'm a photographer and there's some wicked views up here...
You're not allowed to take pictures up here unless you're a student.
Oh right...
At this point my friend interrupts and claims he is a student so I went along with it. We showed our driving licences as ID and my friend showed him his 3-year-old college pass. The security guard then let us go but warned us not to photograph any buildings as it's against the law. I nodded and agreed but it would be very difficult to avoid photographing buildings in Canary Wharf. I had no intentions of not photographing them but it's easier to just go along with it.
Before I got across the road I was stopped again. We could still see the original security guard but these two weren't interested in that. They asked the same questions again and took all our details down before letting us go again. We had now spent over 40 minutes talking to all the security guards now, and had been stopped twice by 3 security guards in total.
Started snapping away whilst my two friends were just walking about chatting and I got approached again.
What are you doing?
Taking pictures of the cars. I've just explained this twice to 3 other security gaurds.
We have to stop people a lot in case they're terrorists.
Right-o... Bye.
I ended the conversation as quickly as possible as I was getting annoyed now. Continued snapping and then out of the very same door yet another security guard approached me.
Excuse me...
Jesus, I'm not a terrorist. I've been stopped 4 times in an hour and you all ask the exact same thing and then let me go when I explain what I'm doing.
Yes sir, that's fine, but you're not allowed to use tripods on Canary Wharf in case you hurt someone.
It was nearly 2am by this point and the only people about were security guards and cleaners!
I just ignored him and continued -- he didn't do nothing about it. After 5 minutes of him watching me take pictures, he then said "That's a very terrorist-like thing to do." I nearly dropped my camera laughing. Bare in mind this bloke was about 50 years old, black and generally struggled with English. Anyway, I was done in that spot so I proceeded to catch up with my friends.
Yep, got stopped again as I looked suspicious 'walking at that pace with a large' camera... It got beyond a joke and I was sick to death of being stopped.
We continued and I said to my friends once more and we're gone. Sure enough, 3 guards were standing by the HSBC building and walked over when I sat the tripod down.
What are you doing?
I'm taking pictures of security cameras for my friend Osama bin Laden.
Needless to say they did not find that funny and escorted all three of us straight out of Canary Wharf.
As soon as I stepped through the car park entrance to the actual street I got stopped by security.
What are you doing?
Walking around Canary Wharf...
Yeah, but what's with the camera?
I'm a photographer and there's some wicked views up here...
You're not allowed to take pictures up here unless you're a student.
Oh right...
At this point my friend interrupts and claims he is a student so I went along with it. We showed our driving licences as ID and my friend showed him his 3-year-old college pass. The security guard then let us go but warned us not to photograph any buildings as it's against the law. I nodded and agreed but it would be very difficult to avoid photographing buildings in Canary Wharf. I had no intentions of not photographing them but it's easier to just go along with it.
Before I got across the road I was stopped again. We could still see the original security guard but these two weren't interested in that. They asked the same questions again and took all our details down before letting us go again. We had now spent over 40 minutes talking to all the security guards now, and had been stopped twice by 3 security guards in total.
Started snapping away whilst my two friends were just walking about chatting and I got approached again.
What are you doing?
Taking pictures of the cars. I've just explained this twice to 3 other security gaurds.
We have to stop people a lot in case they're terrorists.
Right-o... Bye.
I ended the conversation as quickly as possible as I was getting annoyed now. Continued snapping and then out of the very same door yet another security guard approached me.
Excuse me...
Jesus, I'm not a terrorist. I've been stopped 4 times in an hour and you all ask the exact same thing and then let me go when I explain what I'm doing.
Yes sir, that's fine, but you're not allowed to use tripods on Canary Wharf in case you hurt someone.
It was nearly 2am by this point and the only people about were security guards and cleaners!
I just ignored him and continued -- he didn't do nothing about it. After 5 minutes of him watching me take pictures, he then said "That's a very terrorist-like thing to do." I nearly dropped my camera laughing. Bare in mind this bloke was about 50 years old, black and generally struggled with English. Anyway, I was done in that spot so I proceeded to catch up with my friends.
Yep, got stopped again as I looked suspicious 'walking at that pace with a large' camera... It got beyond a joke and I was sick to death of being stopped.
We continued and I said to my friends once more and we're gone. Sure enough, 3 guards were standing by the HSBC building and walked over when I sat the tripod down.
What are you doing?
I'm taking pictures of security cameras for my friend Osama bin Laden.
Needless to say they did not find that funny and escorted all three of us straight out of Canary Wharf.