A not very good random snapshot of London life from an average AMATEUR URBAN SNAPPER!

A BIG THANK YOU

2006-06-01T19:54:00.000Z

for looking in again, wherever you are.

PLEASE READ ON!

Sadly there will be no more updates here. You will have noticed over the last couple of months my postings have become rarer, and there have been no snaps of 'real people', which are generally my personal favourites.
Ditto with my Cemeteries photoblog, which has sets of snaps from thirty two cemeteries/burial grounds on it.
Briefly: An old/ex friend helped me set up this photoblog, and she did all the tedious work of uploading them. Without her help none of this would have been possible at all. I am truly grateful for all the help & hard work she did for this.
Unfortunately just before Easter she decided to stop, without giving a reason, nor an explanation, and did not reply to my emails. And she has not been in contact since, despite me knowing her for,at least, twenty years. Sometimes, maybe, friends are not quite what you think they are...
Whilst I am saddened by this, it's not for me to reason why, for without her giving an explanation for her actions, I don't feel it was anything bad on my part.
It does mean that I cannot update this blog, as I do not own a home computer, and do not understand them well anyway. I have just published the last (large lot) of snaps I had in draft. Rather than drag this out by posting a few at a time I have decided to publish them all now.

I am still taking photos, another friend is saving my snaps onto disc for me, until I can upload them. When this will be I do not know. But I hope to obtain a computer of my own within a year or so. So I will be back in the not too distant future.

If you would like to be notified when I am back online with my snaps please email me a contact so I can let you know sometime in 2007 or 2008!
You can do so at dulwichrabbler@hotmail.com

In the meantime my wordblog will continue....if you know where to look! ;-)

Thank you all once again!

Love you all!!!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of your box

2006-05-31T23:29:00.000Z

I can't remember what this art
installation was called, or who it was by, but
it was in the main turbine hall of the Tate
Modern, on the South Bank in London.
It's a huge space, and they have a rolling
programme of changing things. Not even sure
what's there at the moment, but I was only there
a week ago, so I can't have been that impressed.

All change!

2006-05-31T23:00:00.000Z

Two quick snaps of the Old Showgrounds, in Prague, Czech
Republic. I was on a touristy vintage tram trip, & this is where
it turned around.

House of Horror

2006-05-31T22:16:00.000Z

Where Sir Alfred Hitchcock lived in London, on
Cromwell Road.

On the gravy train

2006-05-31T21:18:00.000Z

The OXO Tower, on the South Bank of the Thames.
At the top is a rather posh restaurant.

Sit down if you've got the hump

2006-05-31T21:16:00.000Z

I'm sure there's a great tale behind these
benches along the Victoria Embankment, near
Westminster. But I'm far too lazy to find out..

The Swiss Centre

2006-05-31T20:47:00.000Z

by Leicester Square, in the West End,
but no longer owned by the Swiss.
Recently sold I believe, & to be
redeveloped in the not too distant
future. The glockenspiel clock will
stay I think.

Jewish Prague

2006-05-31T20:08:00.000Z

I took these way back in October 2005,
so can't remember which synagogues were
which, in the Jewish Quarter.

This is the famous Jewish Cemetery, of which you can find
lots more snaps taken by me, by searching here.

Jewish sport:

2006-05-31T20:07:00.000Z

Not too clear these, snapped through glass cases, on
display in one of the synagogues in Prague.

Just a remnant of rubbish...

2006-05-31T19:42:00.000Z

No way to describe the Union Jack, but this tattered
bit was on the floor of a Protestant part of Belfast,
shame sectarianism can't really fade away that easily.

Our four legged friends

2006-05-31T11:47:00.000Z

This memorial stands in the middle of Park
Lane, in central London, remembering all of
those who helped, and died, in past wars, but
had no say in it at all.

An arch through an arch

2006-05-31T00:34:00.000Z

This is an actual Roman arch, in Cologne, Germany.

Not quite my London Pride

2006-05-31T00:14:00.000Z

Give me a sculpture of two naked blokes anyday!
This is on the South Bank, outside the National
Theatre.

Meow!!

2006-05-31T00:06:00.000Z

Samuel Johnsons cat, in Gough Square, in the City
of London, off of Fleet Street.

The dear old GPO...

2006-05-30T23:50:00.000Z

as our post offices used to be called. This one was in
Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, SE23. The sorting office
now in an ugly industrial estate type warehouse less
than half a mile away. Progress I suppose...

Told you the new one was ugly!

Hidden history

2006-05-30T22:20:00.000Z

Blink...and you'll miss this, in
Rotherhithe, SE16.

A hardly noticed war memorial...

2006-05-30T22:14:00.000Z

It's down an alley by St. Martin-in the-Fields church,
by Trafalgar Square. A busy cut through for commuters
dashing back to Charing Cross Station. I've walked along
it, ooh, hundreds of times. Yest never spotted it before
I took these photos.

Bank robbers

2006-05-30T22:09:00.000Z

I'm not sure, but I think this was the bank where
they had that big £25million+ robbery in Belfast
a couple of years ago. Or was it more? Not that it
mattered...they withdrew all the notes in circulation,
and issued a brand new design.

Another London statue

2006-05-30T20:21:00.000Z

This one of the composer Henry Purcell,
at Broadway, SW1

Even I was lost for words...

2006-05-30T19:50:00.000Z

at "The Quiet Room", Belfast Airport, Northern
Ireland. A country divided by religion (albeit two
sects of christians) and they scrap the Chapel for this
load of PC bollocks! (That's political correctness, if you haven't heard
the phrase before.)
It had been pouring with rain, I'd been tramping the
streets looking at murals and cemeteries all day. There were
leaks in my trainers & my feet were soaked to the bone.
I'd bought some socks in the local Primark, just before they shut,
and got back to the airport. This room was empty. I stunk it out
with my smelly feet, wiped them clean, and put some
deodrant all over them. I then made up a packed lunch from the
bit of shopping I'd done in Tescos.
Nobody came in luckily...

1659

1662

1663

Belfast 'limo'ad

2006-05-30T19:41:00.000Z

Who says the Irish don't have a sense of humour?
An old police riot wagon instead of a stretch limo?
Pure class!

A Tram Hut...

2006-05-30T19:14:00.000Z

I'm not entirely sure what they were, but this is
apparently a very rare, obviously disused, one.
In Peckham, at the top of the Rye, near Cheltenham
Road,SE15.

A wonderfully weird museum

2006-05-30T19:08:00.000Z

This is the Sir John Soane's Museum,
at Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2

No photos allowed inside, unfortunately.
So check out the website.

Democracy (in)action

2006-05-30T18:26:00.000Z

There were more banners than people on this
protest opposite the Houses of Parliament at
Westminster!

Ugly or Icon?

2006-05-30T18:01:00.000Z

Depends on your view of modern/brutal architecture
I suppose.
This is the National Theatre, on the South Bank of the
Thames, by Waterloo Bridge.

With St. Pauls' Cathedral in the background, across
the water.

I can't remember the name of this...

2006-05-30T15:27:00.000Z

but it's in Prague, and rather grand.
They have classical concerts & that
sort of thing there.

This is to the left of it. An expensive (by Czech
standards) eaterie. I've been there once. A normal
meal is about £7 0r £8 elsewhere. Here it was about
twenty quid. Pricey, but enjoyable! I think I was
the only working class tourist in there.

Your flag's a bit out of date...

2006-05-28T22:16:00.001Z

the Olympics are coming to London in 2012, not
Paris, where this boat was on the river Seine.

Cox's Walk

2006-05-28T22:16:00.000Z

At the top of Lordship Lane in Dulwich. You
really wouldn't believe you're only yards from the
busy South Circular where I took this.

On yer bike!

2006-05-28T22:15:00.001Z

somewhere in Paris.

Lovely signs

2006-05-28T22:15:00.000Z

in Parisien parks.

Groundhoppers paradise.

2006-05-28T22:14:00.000Z

An English style boozer in Paris.
(Groundhopper is an English term for people who like
to visit different football grounds, visiting them once,
not supporting a particular team, & generally are
social misfits, who get on everones nerves)
Unlike myself, who just loves football, & occasionally
visiting new places! ;-)

Offices

2006-05-28T21:45:00.000Z

of the Belfast Telegraph. No need to say what
city really!

What's that smell?

2006-05-28T20:36:00.000Z

The great cheese shop near Covent Garden, shame
it's all too bleeding expensive. Delicious mind!
They have a branch near where I used to work down
Borough High Street.

Getting ready for the hunt....

2006-05-28T11:38:00.000Z

A shop in central London for toffee nosed members
of the Tally Ho! brigade.

A nice little boozer...

2006-05-24T23:24:00.000Z

This is the Hobgoblin, in Forest Hill SE23.
It has comedy nights and live bands. Thankfully
licencing laws in England are a bit easier now, and
boozers can open later. But back in the 'bad old days'
I often ended up in here because it has a then rare
2.00am licence, rather than the standard eleven o'clock
and out the door one.

I took these snaps walking home from the
cemeterery where my parents are buried
last Christmas Day! (Hence the reason for this
on the roof!)

Not very cosy

2006-05-24T22:19:00.000Z

Someone's been dossing under the
arches of this railway bridge, near
Shoreditch.

A few snaps from the Louvre

2006-05-24T21:59:00.000Z

the great museum in Paris, more
willie spotting! ;-)

Couldn't take many photos, as there were large
areas you weren't supposed to take snaps.

These are for real

2006-05-24T19:54:00.000Z

in a Republican area of Belfast, and not just for
show for tourist buses on the main road. These
were tucked away in backstreets, totally safe to
walk around, but I was still very nervous!

It's not all political, but STILL brainwashing!

I just find these street murals amazing.

She's got a street named after her...

2006-05-11T23:22:00.000Z

Ayres Street, SE1 is in her honour.
This plaque is from the tiles at Postmans Park,
in the City of London.

The troubles are over...

2006-05-11T19:59:00.000Z

that's all I kept hearing about when in Belfast back
in December. It's us Brits that's fascinated by it...
maybe, but if there's no 'troubles' why does this
'peace wall' still stand to divide two rabidly mad
communities who hate each others guts?
A sort of urban, wesernised, inner city Gaza in
Palestine...

Non sectarian murals on the road gates, pretending
there's an air of normality...

Any playground, anywhere...

2006-05-11T10:17:00.000Z

Except this one is atop the Dawsons Heights Estate
in East Dulwich, SE22. And where I had a pre-arranged
fight with someone from schoolwhen I was about 14.
I didn't want to fight him, he didn't want to fight me, & I
lost. Not hurt though. I went up to the top of the block
(about 8 or 10 storeys high) and chucked the contents of
a milk crate raining down towards him. Luckily none hit
him, or I'd have been in Borstal on a manslaughter
charge. The stupidity of youth...

The Lion Roars...

2006-05-10T22:24:00.000Z

this one stands proudly near the underground
catacombs entrance in Paris.

A lovely piece of old history

2006-05-10T22:21:00.000Z

tucked away in Rotherhithe, SE16 in St. Marychurch
Street.

Sunday School

2006-05-10T22:15:00.000Z

in McDermott Road, Peckham,SE15. Where we
went as kids. It wasn't Catholic, but they had a
youth club we also went to, and more importantly had
a summer camp in Broadstairs. Taking over a local school
down there the whole Club went, and slept in sleeping bags
classroom floors. They were the only summer
holidays I had a child.

Cheeky bastards!

2006-05-10T20:41:00.000Z

I was doing my nut when I saw this shop in
Covent Garden! It's Sarf Lunnon anyway ;-)

Mural near Gare de Nord

2006-05-04T22:30:00.000Z

Just round the corner from where
you get off the Eurostar in Paris.

Willies galore!

2006-05-04T21:56:00.000Z

A bit of classical homo-erotica here.
Thanks heavens the French aren't
as prudish as the English. No strategically
placed fig leaves here! (Once again
from the Louvre, in Paris)

These weren't suppposed to last

2006-05-04T19:53:00.000Z

This is a prefab home. Built as temporary
structures after the Second World War to last
for ten years, some are still lived in today!
This one stands in the Duxford branch of
the Imperial War Museum in Cambridgeshire.

Do you know what it is yet?

2006-05-04T19:30:00.000Z

It is actually a genuine piece of A 17th Century
skull I stole from these catacombs in Paris.
I don't think they'll miss it...

London's jewel

2006-04-29T23:28:00.000Z

Another snap of St. Pauls' Cathedral from the south
bank of the river Thames.
Take a second look, in case you never quite spotted
the hoardings, covering the renovation work.

Cowboy Cake shop...

2006-04-29T20:43:00.000Z

Wonerful pastries, if fresh, but I worked here
in Hampstead, NW3, in the mid eighties, and
Louis who owns it is the tightest rich git I ever
knew, and some of storiesI could tell about this place....
But I'll leave that for another time.

Ah the 'bird shit' cakes!

I used to love the domino cakes.

You would not believe what old shit went into
the pretzels...

Innocent or guilty?

2006-04-29T19:42:00.000Z

Shamed in your own community...this piece of
nasty graffiti was in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
If that was my boozer I'd keep a tin of yellow paint
to hand...

Watford play Prague

2006-04-29T15:17:00.000Z

Not quite! A play, whose name I can't remember,
obviously about football, Watford & Elton John, somehow
ended up trnsferring from the London stage to the
floorboards of Prague in the Czech Republic!

Urban art

2006-04-25T23:20:00.000Z

in Coronet Street,N1, leading up to Hoxton
Square.

This is what I'll end up like...

2006-04-25T22:31:00.000Z

if ever I burn the house down...
I came close a couple of times in
my drinking days. Don't cook drunk!
This was a sculpture from the
Pompidou Centre, in Paris

Outside the Army Museum

2006-04-25T22:08:00.000Z

in Paris.

It was the year that caught my eye

2006-04-25T11:37:00.000Z

1893- the founding year of Dulwich Hamlet
Football Club.

The posh end of town...

2006-04-20T23:27:00.000Z

This church is in Hampstead, NW3,
one of the richest areas of London.
You can catch some more snaps here
of the churchyard, if you're not
familiar with my cemetery photoblog.

Street artists

2006-04-20T22:32:00.000Z

in Paris.

A church hall in North Dulwich...

2006-04-20T22:24:00.000Z

the houses on the left weren't there when I frequented
the hall. It was an old church. I went there in the
early nineteen seventies with my two sisters, & hated
it. Ballet & Tap lessons. Billy Elliot I wasn't.
I don't think that's what 'made me' gay! ;-)

An Islamic Centre in Shoreditch

2006-04-20T22:22:00.000Z

Redchurch Street, E2. I snapped it because the fresh
graffiti looked so stange on a clean frontage.

Car clamped

2006-04-18T22:24:00.000Z

in Paris. It's not just our traffic wardens then...

Peek a boo!

2006-04-18T22:19:00.000Z

On a college wall in Old Street, EC1

Old and the new

2006-04-18T22:15:00.000Z

Snapped in Peckham,SE15.
It seemed like a 'good idea' for a photo, but it
didn't really work out.

On the banks of the Seine

2006-04-18T22:14:00.000Z

in Paris.

The Catholic Cathedral

2006-04-18T21:41:00.000Z

in the religiously divided city of Belfast.

Speakers Corner

2006-04-14T23:58:00.000Z

Not a patch of what it was in years gone by, when it
really was a hotbed of political & social debate, along with
the god Squad. But Speakers Corner can still be entertianing.
Now it's only got a few soap box orators who attend, and they're
mostly either Bible Bashers or Muslim Morons.
I used to pop up here most summer Sundays to be entertained,
& take part in the banter, in my mid to late teens, having seen
a free,obscure film at the Imperial War Museum, earlier to make
good entetainment for myself before I discovered pubs!
Ah, those were the days...

City Hall, Belfast

2006-04-14T21:48:00.000Z

Back to Northern Ireland, a few more from my
trip in December, I guess the sign is a bit
of a givaway, datewise. This was a grand Victorian
building. Unfortunately I never had time to
go on one of the free guided tours around it.

Any idea?

2006-04-14T18:39:00.000Z

This is the Methodist Central Hall, in Westminster,
SW1. A fine building, and one they often hire out
for political rallies, veering towards the left.
I've been inside many a time, just to hear political
orators like Tony Benn, Arthur Scargill &
Dennis Skinner in the past.

A street sign in East Dulwich

2006-04-11T23:15:00.000Z

as it says Colyton Road, SE22. that's Peckham Rye
Park in the background. Not the reason I took
the snap, I just wanted to remember what the
sticker was about on the sign, I assumed it was some
local wannabe musician, but I couldn't have been
more wrong.

St Clement Danes Church

2006-04-11T22:59:00.000Z

The Church of the RAF, in
The Strand,WC2

Sir Arthur Harris: dear old 'Bomber': Patron
Saint of Dresden!

And inside...

2006-04-11T22:58:00.000Z

Don't tell them your name Pike!

The Odyssey

2006-04-11T21:48:00.000Z

Home of the Belfast Giants...the only senior ice hockey
team in the whole of Ireland-both sides of the border.

Remembering your own...

2006-04-11T11:46:00.000Z

I stumbled across this statue in the
backstreets, on the green outside the
Western Marble Arch Synagogue, on
Seymour Street, W1. It commemorates
Raoul Wallenberg, who I had never
previously heard of.

Elephant & Castle, SE1

2006-04-07T23:59:00.000Z

How local can you get from someone who grew up on
the Aylesbury Estate? The Elephant & Castle: gateway
to the world! Such a shame I haven't done the
place justice for TWWSI. Sure I took a few snaps,
but I was paranoid, looking oiver my shoulder, not wanting
grief from anyone for taking their snaps. Rushing the ones I
did,without putting too much thought into them...
perhaps it was just a little too close to home?

Tomorrows fish and chip paper

2006-04-07T22:32:00.000Z

By a news stand in Paris.

Black painting

2006-04-07T22:30:00.000Z

Art is in the eye of the beholder & all that...
this bloke is taking copious notes on this painting
hanging in the Pompidou Centre, in Paris.
There's nothing wrong with the light in this, it really
is just a black canvas. What on earth was there
to write about?

Never celebrate being awarded a penalty...

2006-04-07T11:37:00.000Z

Because the bastard keeper might save it!
The Hamlet still beat Banstead Athletic 3-1 though.

Who's that at the window...

2006-04-07T11:36:00.000Z

Looks like none other than the Duke of Wellington
himself, in the boozer named after him in
Crawford Street, W1.

Don't rush past...

2006-04-05T23:29:00.000Z

At first glance it's just another shopfront in
Central London...

but have a look up at the roof.

Clowning about..

2006-04-05T22:32:00.000Z

In Paris, by the Pompidou.

More urban murals...

2006-04-05T22:19:00.000Z

This one by Hoxton Square, which I
snapped for The Way We See It
website a while ago. It is actually on
Mundy Street, N1.

If anyone can tell me what this is all about...

2006-04-05T22:15:00.000Z

I'll be delighted. Some sort of squat on one
of the main shopping streets of Paris.

Posters

2006-04-05T20:19:00.000Z

These were from the 'Forties House'
exhibition, at the Imperial War Museum.

Very snatched, and not lined up at all,
I'm far too lazy & impatient too take
proper snaps!

Quick snapshots...

2006-04-02T22:20:00.000Z

A random selection here....

Bus stop in Old Street

Urban art on a car park wall, behind that bus stop....

And one down the tube...

Remembering

2006-04-02T22:16:00.000Z

This memorial to Edith Cavell is at St. Martins
Place, WC2, outside the National Portrait Gallery.
Without statues like this I have no doubt
she would be totally forgotten.

What's in a name?

2006-04-02T21:15:00.000Z

No idea why this Peckham road was so called.
But it's the REAL surname of my good friend
Cleopatra, & her lil' boy Natty.
Reason enough for me to snap it.

Arse hole!

2006-04-02T21:01:00.000Z

I have no idea! It was in the Louvre Museum
in Paris.

Something fishy...

2006-04-02T17:45:00.000Z

This Bigfish sculpture sits by the River Lagan
in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Cut,SE1

2006-03-31T23:59:00.000Z

Who says a little bit of moaning doesn't pay off?
Edging even further southwards in from the
Thames is this weeks offering for The Way We See It.
Only a few hundred yards mind, but it's a start!

That's the Old Vic behind. If they didn't like
the performance do you think they blew
raspberries?

Awright me old China?

I was actually hoping they'd walk
either side of the letter box. Sad eh...

Dumped by Griff!

2006-03-31T23:58:00.000Z

You'll only get the heading if you're a Hamlet fan.
Griff is one of our staunchest followers, and responsible
for the Stuart Hall-esque rambling match reports.
Friday nights see him down the Club for the
Comedy Nights in the bar. A few weeks ago we
heard he was dancing with a mop on the stage in
the bar after the comedians had finished. He claimed
he was 'doing air guitar'. The following week he was drunkenly
treading the boards again...with a bucket on his head.
He obviously dumped the mop, and here's the
evidence down The Cut, SE1 !!

What's the score!

2006-03-31T22:16:00.000Z

Even in the old days they took a Hamlet defeat
badly! (This is actually from the Louvre, in Paris)

You tell 'em!

2006-03-31T09:56:00.000Z

This is in the pedestrian underpass,
near Marble Arch.
Well it made me chuckle anyway...

Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' 0 Accrington Stanley Bowles FC (Queens Park Rangers supporters) 5

2006-03-30T11:58:00.000Z

Not as bad as it sounds. They are a good side, and
have double figured us in the past! It's not the
winning but the taking part...

They're OUR fans. We didn't do much to earn a
clap, I sadly asked them to pose for my camera!

Their bloke is just out of shot, coming in to tap
the ball in. Oh dear!

One for my American 'fans' who look in...

2006-03-30T10:56:00.000Z

This is Grosvenor Square, WC2, which is the
home of your embassy.

Not sure if this is clear enough, I was just too
lazy to take notes at the time!

This chap's been a top honcho of theirs in the
past...

This is the memorial to British victims of 9/11;
or seeing as it is for the British people murdered
I'll date it correctly: 11/9.

Britain: One day capital of the United States
of Europe perhaps?

5283

How English:remembering our four legged friend!

Dr. Salter's Daydream

2006-03-28T22:37:00.000Z

This statue sits on the banks of the Thames
at Bermondsey Wall East, SE16. Alfred
Salter was the Labour Member of Parliament
for Bermondsey, before the Second World
War, when you could associate Labour with
Socialism, unlike the New lot today.
He is legendary in this pocket of south east
London, even now, more than sixty years
after he died.

He is waving at his daugher Joyce, who died as a
child, and he is an old man imagining her still alive.

Whatever became of the cat is unknown...

I'll go along with that...

2006-03-28T22:31:00.000Z

seeing I'll be a very old fart at 40 next birthday!
Despite the English this bit of street stencilling
was snapped in Paris!

Decent & cheap

2006-03-28T22:30:00.000Z

This was the gaff I stayed in on my last
trip to Paris. Basic, but adequate, as all good hostels
should be.

Not sure what bridge this is...

2006-03-28T22:15:00.000Z

but it crosses the Seine in Paris, and the big 'N' is
the crest of Napoleon.

This was as good as it got...

2006-03-28T19:38:00.000Z

at the 2006 London Youth Cup Final. Dulwich Hamlet
(in their change kit) meet the local dignitaries,
before losing 3-0 to Barking.
'Hello. Who are you?'
'I'm the nephew of Snaphappyman', one of them gets
ready to say as he's about to meet of the old dignitary
representing the London Football Association.
(Well he IS in the line up, but I made that up!)