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Audrey withTulips by Garry Knight, on Flickr
I don’t usually like ‘graffiti’* but unless it’s entirely down to your photo skills, that’s remarkably effective,
Maybe partly down to the colours being commonly found in bricks and the incorporation of the windows etc into the design.
* Which that isn’t, as it’s presumably building decoration, but it shows what can be done if people were more interested in the substrate than their egos .
I guess my definition of graffiti woukd be stuff that’s done without permission -- obviously that would include the likes of Banksy so there’s no easy distinction .Thanks for your thoughts, Richard. I see it as street art. For me, graffiti is mostly badly-handwritten or sprayed text, name tags, or design-type images. A painted portrait or scene is street art. It looks like the artist has worked out exactly where different elements of the picture can fit in with the architecture with great skill. The Brick Lane area is particularly well known for its well-executed street art. I'll be sharing some more on Monday and Tuesday. And on Thursday I'll share a good example of what I think is nothing more than graffiti.
Wait by the Windows by Garry Knight, on Flickr
I gave you a for the “Street Food” indoors, bonkers .
Corner of Percy Street by Garry Knight, on Flickr
BTW “Bourne & Hollingsworth”! Presumably just because they can now the store has gone.
I pass through that area now and again, when not on lockdown, but I don't know it that well. I'm often there on my way to CeX. The Bourne & Hollingsworth Bar has been shut down for a long time. I didn't notice whether it was open on that day, or at any other time between lockdowns. But if the store has closed down, I imagine that the bar won't reopen.
Having googled, I find that “Bourne & Hollingsworth” are a “Lifetyle company”, whatever that is, so maybe they own the Newsagents. There is no mention of the store in their “History”.
Bourne & Hollingsworth were a big department store (no branches I think) on the corner of Oxford/Berners Streets (closed ‘83), I probably passed most day to shop for food in BerwickStreet Market & Old Compton Street.
I don't know about the newsagents. That's upstairs. The bar is down in the basement. I would think it likely that the newsagents and the bar are renting from whoever it is owns (or landlords) the land.
Ah! I thought the store had closed down recently, like Debenhams, Top Shop, etc. And I see that the Wikipedia article implies that the bar is still in business, albeit probably closed right now - after all, who goes to a basement bar for takeaways?
Berwick Street and Old Compton Street are two of the best places for street photography in central London. Wherever I go, I often end up orbiting that area.
I suspect Berwick St has changed a lot, it was always blocked of when I looked on Street View before
Old Compton Street I think has lost a lot of its traditional food shops, though I could be wrong, haven’t been there for 30 years .
The Camisa‘s who used to have shops in both streets (now online only I think), were locked up as enemy aliens in WW2 despite being long established there, a fate my maternal grandmother narrowly missed in WW1
Thanks for that, and its good to see Algerian Coffee’s still going. The original Camisa’s was in Berwick street almost the last shop before you turn to go to Old C St, very tiny shop. Apple Maps has recently upped the photo quality of their “street view” in the Soho area (maybe all central London) and is much better than Google’s SView. I’ll have at look at the Flickr.It's pedestrian only from Broadwick Street down to Peter Street. Has been for a long time The last time I was there (August? September?) it was still all cafes up at the north end by the pub, a mixture of clothes and material shops in the middle, the much-dwindled street market spreading down from around the middle, and the comic shop on the corner opposite the alleyway through to Brewer Street.
It has lost a lot of shops over the years, sadly including The Stockpot and Muriel's cafe, and even more during lockdown. However, Camisa is still there, or was last time I passed by. Here's a photo of it I took in 2013. The bike is still outside (during opening hours).
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/garryknight/8698590101/in/photolist-efExMp
And the Algerian Coffee Stores is still there:
View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/garryknight/21593862738/in/photolist-yUbc5f
And Gerry's is still on the corner of Wardour Street. I used to use their window to do lens tests - a mass of labelled drinks bottles with lots of verticals and horizontals soon tells you if your lens is sharp and undistorted. And Molly Moggs is still on the corner at the Charing Cross Road end. Of course, The Prince Edward Theatre and G-A-Y will be there forever. Here are some of the photos I've taken over the years in Old Compton Street:
Flickr Search — “old Compton street”
www.flickr.com
EDIT Hmm... I thought they'd be links, not the actual photos above. Oh, well, the post is off-topic anyway... the