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HAVE been to the boundary, to the wall, to the places where the city ends, where the train tracks knot together, where the pylons hiss and fizz their dissatisfaction, where the workings show, the innards, the guts, the secretions, to the place where we hone our taste for fragments. Here in this kaleidoscope of ruins, here where the fabric develops stress fractures, where the plots unravel, and the old stories get for- gotten, where oral history is speechless, where myth dies, I have been both lost and found.” British author Geoff Nichol- son described the city of London with these words in his novel Bleeding London, written in 1997 and short- listed for the Whitbread award. A character in the novel makes a personal quest to walk every street in the city, keeping a journal of his progress. at quest is being recreated in an ambitious project to photo- graph every street in London – thought to be 73,000 of them – in a project organised by the Royal Photographic Society. Between March and October, 2014, Londoners and visi- tors are being encouraged to photograph all the streets in the London A to Z, with a view to a book and exhibition being released in 2015. Points will be awarded to contributors. e project is the brainchild of Del Barrett, RPS London’s Regional Organiser, who said she bought a copy of the book while waiting for a flight 17 years ago and was hooked. “If someone had told me I would have the chance of being in the same room as the man who penned these words I would not have believed it,” she said. Del got to meet her literary hero when he travelled from Los Angeles, where he now lives, to attend the launch of the Bleed- ing London project on May 17, 2014. In the morning, Del arranged a meeting of 16 photographers at the endangered “bungalow estate” in Catford – an area of 187 pre-fabricated homes erected immediately aſter the Second World War. e Excali- bur estate is due to be flattened and redeveloped by London & Quadrant, but the plan has been fiercely opposed by residents and as yet the work has not been carried out. e photographers split into four groups to document every street and alleyway on the estate, aided by Jane Hearn, a volunteer at one of the homes which has been turned into a museum dedicated to the pre- fabs. Jane received a £7000 grant from e Media Trust to work with the public, and engage digitally with the area and its surroundings. Part of the project involves photographing every house on the estate for a ‘memory wall’. “Really, the pre-fabs were the most successful social housing I Report: SHONA WALL Images: STEWART WALL www.Stewartwall.com Photographers in quest to take images of every London street Continued on Page 2 project our country has ever had,” she said. “ey had an inside bathroom and toilet, a fit- ted kitchen, hot running water, built-in cupboards and plenty of space. ese were unusual luxu- ries in 1946. e pre-fabs were only meant to last ten years, but they are still in use today.” It was easy to see their lasting appeal. Each bungalow had a good-sized garden, and the estate was extremely peaceful in the hazy sunshine when the photographers came to visit. Resident Dave Miller explained the economic realities facing many inhabitants. “e rent now is £90 a week, but in the “The project is about what London looks and feels like today” Launch: author Geoff Nicholson officially launches “Bleeding Lon- don”. Inset, Olympus is to donate an OMD EM-10 to the winner of the project’s bonus points league Facing economic realities: resident Dave Miller Life carries on: Mum of two Nicola Cowdery Jane Hearn shows the memory wall to a young visitor Lifelong resident: Sarah Clark at the Excalibur estate “
