A lighthouse in London, you say!

At work we run a little photography club where a group of us get together and after work go on a walk with our cameras.  Generally it’s a nice slow paced stroll where we learn from each other in what we are trying to shoot but mainly we get to shoot with out friends and family rolling their eyes and telling us to hurry up.

I thought I would share with you the walk from the other week.  The plan was to go to an area in East London known as Trinity Wharf, the draw being that the wharf has London’s only Lighthouse.

The Wharf itself is now an arts centre with lots of street art, sculpture as well as space with working artists.  The lighthouse itself I believe is no longer in use, but was originally used to test lighthouse equipment and also train lighthouse keepers.

I will now take you on the walk with pictures and commentary. All the pictures were taking using an Olympus OM1n, 28mm Zuiko lens and loaded with Fuji Press 800 film, a film I had not tried before.

I took 800 film as all our walks take place in the evening and I wanted to be prepared for the fading light.

We meet at East India Dock station.  This station is on the Dockland Light Railway and is in the East of London, near the north bank of the river Thames.  We walked along the Thames path heading east.

The first view was the O2.  This is an entertainment, concert and sports venue.  It was originally built as the Millennium Dome as part of London’s millennium celebrations.  It was not very well received by many at the time and was known as a bit of a white elephant but architecturally it is impressive.   However over the last few years as the O2 it has become recognised as one of London’s best known entertainment venues.

The line and dots you see in the third picture above is the cable car crossing linking the north bank with the O2 which is south of the river, but more on that later.

From here we continued along the Thames past some derelict warehouses and across the East India Dock Basin.

The train you see in the third picture below is the Dockland Light Railway I mentioned above

As mentioned previously the area has a lot of street art and sculptures below are a couple of examples.  Yes that is a tree in a London taxi.

From here we headed into Trinity Wharf to see the Lighthouse. Unfortunately we were a bit late (it was around 7:15pm) and the Wharf gates were closing so although we walked in the security guard quickly stopped us and explained we had to leave as otherwise we would not be able to get out again.

A little nod to this guard, he was extremely polite, gave us the normal opening hours, a leaflet guide and told us who to contact for photography tours.  Thus I only managed a snatched picture of said lighthouse,oh well.

Thus we turned back and headed towards and through Canning Town.   A little note about this area for context.  Canning Town was built up in and around the old working docks of the Thames and the sugar refineries.  It was always known for its its working class roots as well as an area where poverty was prevalent.  There is a lot of regeneration happening here now.  You will be told there are lots of improved housing for the local community but all I could see were flats being built at around £500k for a one or two bedroom apartment for people who work nearby in Canary Wharf or City of London along with the generic coffee shops such is the way of London now.  The pictures below show some of the new flats as well as the regenerated station and surrounding area. As you can see it is still a work in progress.

 

Now remember the cable cars I mentioned earlier, well we decided that would be the next stop.  The light was fading fast so we had to rush but I think we caught it in time.

I hope you enjoyed our little walk.

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