The Old Winter Gardens

This is one of my favourite buildings along the coast of England –the old Winter Gardens on Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile. It's a building with a great history going back well over a hundred years. Originally, in 1878, it was built in Torquay along the south coast, but in 1903 it was re-erected in Norfolk where it has stood ever since, though sadly it had become very neglected and run-down when I took this picture. I have very fond memories of the place from the 1970s when it was known as the Biergarten and its inside was transformed into a kind of alpine landscape, complete with mock cabins and painted mountain landscapes along the walls. Our local town band used to perform summer concerts there, but in its time it has been used for all many of recreation -espcially teadances and pageants but also rollerskating and nightclubbing.Here though, it stands forlornly waiting to be fully appreciated and used again. Panes of glass are missing, the ironwork is rusting in places and the once gleaming white paint is faded and flaking off. A sad, buu beautiful spectacle. The great news, however, is that earlier this year funding from the UK's National Lottery was given to fully restore this wonderful and majestic Victorian structure and bring new life into its great space. And I for one, can't wait to visit it when it's finished...

Location: Great Yarmouth, England

Iconic Railway Clock

Tonight the clocks go forward, marking the start of summer time, so I'm posting another picture of a Joyce railway clock -and this one is particularly iconic because it featured in my favourite film of all time: "Brief Encounter"– which was filmed largely on this railway station in the northwest of England. The clock, originally from 1895, was lovingly restored and reassembled piece by piece in 2002 after bits of its original features had been removed and dispersed accross England over the years In 2020 the clock was temporarily removed for further restoration prior to the 75th anniversary of the release of "Brief Encounter". I took this picture a few years ago when I had the chance to visit the station and its excellent exhibition devoted to the film, and also enjoy the hospitality of the equally iconic refreshment room seen straight ahead... "Cake or pastry?" anyone?

Location: Carnforth, England

Night Train

An empty train waiting to depart at Paddington Station late one night. Nothing special about that, except that Paddington, of all London stations, is always a thrill to visit –a true and vast cathedral to rail travel. And it's so spacious that one never feels crowded there, except perhaps when busy commuter trains spill out their passengers of a morning. At night, it's quieter (but never still) and in places a little bit ghostly, but I love to walk along the platforms and imagine the many destinations the trains standing there will pass through. The lighting is alluring -in places, such as against the huge curved ceilings it is blue, like a nightclub. You only see a tiny bit of it here, but I like this picture because it seems to catch something of the essence of what makes train stations so alluring and romantic (at least for me!) I like the variety of lines and the mix of light and shadow and particularly the long stretch of windows along the sleek side of the empty train. All aboard!

Location: London, England

Old Level Crossing

This is a level crossing on the Mid Norfolk Railway –now a heritage line, but formally an important local rail route through the heart of Norfolk.Sometimes freight is still transported on this line, but more often than not it's vintage trains run by ethusiasts that roll down these tracks. Most of the time however the gate is closed, as here. I like the criss-cross effect of the various lines and the geometric shapes that are created by the old-school level crossing, and the contrasts work particularly well in silvertone –which also echoes something of the history behind the motive –which for me admittedly (as with anything to do with trains and railways) always remains romantic.

Location: East Dereham, England

Waiting for a Train...

Like everyone else, I'm longing for things to return to normal in these strange, unprecedented times. I long to get out and about travelling again, socialising, visiting interesting places and discovering the odd and wonderful and taking photographs. I've taken all sorts of pictures right through this pandemic, more close to home, but I've been very lax in posting any here. So I thought it was about time I offered at least one picture, if only to demonstrate that I am still alive and kicking... unlike (perhaps) these boots –which moonlight as novel flowerpots next to a stretch of the mid-Norfolk Railway. Standing as if in anticipation of an arriving train (you can almost see one of the toes tapping impatiently) they at least put a smile on my face when I spotted them last year.

Location: Wymondham, England

Summer Sky Ices

It's hot all over Europe at the moment and ice-cream vans like this are doing brisk business on promenades and beaches and in parks across the continent. Though taken at the seaside, this picture is from a colder season –a sharp winter's day on the coast of England. I found it somehow cheering to see the ice-cream van, even though it was parked and empty, resting before its big period of activity later in the year. the name of the van is optimistic –skies in England can be many things, even in the summer. Yet here, the clouds were rather beautiful, and though the day was chilly and the air sharp, it was an uplifting experience to be at the seaside.

Location: Lowestoft, England

Tower Bridge

This is probably not only the most photographed bridge in the world, but one of the most photographed man-made motives of any kind, and no prizes for guessing that we are in London. For some reason, many people insist on calling this London Bridge –for few things symbolise London more (well.. Big ben, The London Eye, Nelson's Column...). BUT, of course this label is wrong; for this is TOWER Bridge –named for its proximity to the Tower of London and for its two distinctive towers. It's one of the most distinctive bridges anywhere and it was a true delight to fulfil recently a little dream I've had of walking across it. But it's perhaps best seen from a distance from the one of the riverbanks, and if you're very lucky you might see it with the two halves of the bridge's road raised. Here, however, I have captured the bridge –as I try to do with all London bridges– with a bright red double-decker smack in the middle! On a purely technical level I realize I should have captured more of the sky above the bridge to make this picture more balanced, but sadly I was too awe-struck by the sight of the bridge itself that all my composition knowledge went for a burton. Sorry!

Location: London, England

Sunset on the Beach

The sun sets on the pebbled beach where fishing boats and fishing nets linger in the golden light. I especially like the way the late sunlight here transforms the net from a a mere untidy mass of tangled line into an object of some beauty and, perhaps, mystery. It becomes almost like some weird sea creature that has been washed up. I also like the way the jetty breaks the background sea and sky, and most of all I like the warm atmosphere –a moment captured before the sun dips for beneath the waves and darkness falls.

Location: Hastings, England

Lunch for Two

Things that look similar or identical are often fascinating subjects for a photograph; people too, which is why twins invariable work well in pictures, whatever the circumstances. Whether these two workmen on their lunch-break are twins is unclear, but they could certainly be brothers; there's something tremendously satisfying about the similarity of their posture, the identical plastic bags between their legs and the same Hi-Vis vests. The location is, of course, the base of the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus -itself probably the most photographed spot in London. Against the dark base these two light up, enjoying a few minutes repose before returning to work. I liked the sense of "moment" and the somehow rather sweet pairing.

Location: London, England

Southbank

Big Ben is currently surrounded by scaffolding and undergoing necessary repairs, but this picture is from before the time when this work started and thus the palace of Westminster is uncluttered and Big Ben itself magnificent and proud in the early evening. We're on London's Southbank looking across the Thames. I've always adored the ornate lampposts that line the embankment on each side of the river. Here they have not yet been lit and are in the shade of the overhanging bridge so the decorative dolphins that enwrap each post cannot be seen but they are as much a part of London's landscape as Big Ben itself. I just liked this picture because it captured for me a moment and a mood and so much of what makes me love London.

Location: London, England

Window Shopping

Christmas is a-coming and day by day more and more windows take on a festive look. I've just completed doing my own decorating at home because I like to be as early and capture the Christmas mood in my own surroundings before being bombarded by it everywhere else. This year though will be a little different as I will be spending Christmas is hospital, most of December too; so it has been doubly important for me to have a little Christmas at home first.I wish that part of that involved eating my way through the many gorgeous-looking cakes displayed here. I was struck by the daintiness and the colours and the sparkling silver branch; the collection was somehow exciting, appealing and because nothing is really symmetrical or rigidly formal (which so many other window displays often are), there is a carefree lightness to the picture that I find rather infectious.There is a little bit of everything here, and that, to my mind, is just how Christmas should be!

Location: Norwich, England

Police Post

Here's quite an interesting piece of street furniture that I came across in London. I don't know if it's the only one of it's kind, but it's a post or bollard marking the site of a former police station, in this case the one in Gerald Road near Victoria. The garage doors behind were once those of the station. First opened in 1846, the police station closed in 1993 when the new Belgravia station was built. It is now a private residence. But at least a couple of reminders of its law enforcement past remain, including a blue plaque and a (once) blue lamp of the kind traditionally found above the entrances to police stations. But te real treat is this little constable –no more than a foot in height. I have taken the photograph from below deliberately because I felt it suited the authority of the memorial, but many people probably pass it without realising what it is. Some wit has drawn eyes and a mouth on the formerly blank silver face, but they've got the expression spot on. He seems to be regarding the world with a certain grim suspicion, enough to induce apprehension in any potential wrongdoers, but there's also a solidness to him that inspires trust.Even though he has no arms! I love quirky little things like this that one finds on the streets of cities around the world.

Location: London, England

Italian Gardens

Right at the north end of Kensington Gardens in London you'll find this fabulous feature, an Italian Garden in the heart of London. You may be heading deeper into the park but it is tempting to stop here and go no further for though just moments away from a busy road you are in tranquil surroundings and feel yourself somehow stepping back in time as you walk around these beds and basins. The gradens were originally set out in the 1860s by Prince Albert, designed by James Pennethorne and based on the gardens at Osborune House on the Isle of Wight. The gardens were fully restored in 2011. This picture is taken towards the end of spring, early one morning when I had an hour to kill after leaving my hotel and before my onward connection left. I stumbled quite by accident into the park and was enchanted by its genteel beauty. Later, there would no doubt be more colour in the flowerbeds but the grass was green and the sound of the fountains mixed with an impressive amount of birdsong were ample substitutes. I tried to capture the atmosphere of slightly heightened wonder and magical mystery that I experienced here; the big dark trees on the left seem to have turned their backs on the serenity below, yet they too form part of the whole. Essentially, I find the image a very peaceful one.

Location: London, England

Old Doors

A return to the wonderful railway yard in my old home town in Norfolk –just about my favourite place in the whole world to explore photograph. The clutter and junk of trains has for me a curious beauty about it, as does here the textures and lines and uneven surfaces. You don't really have to be a good photographer to get a good picture here (a bit like Venice), you just point and shoot and you'll capture something interesting. Of course, some thought to composition and light does help, but I have found that very few of the many, many pictures I have taken at this railway yard have worthless or had to be discarded –certainly compared to anywhere else I take photographs. Everything is worth saving. And here, this applies to the old train carriage doors that have been stacked up against the wall of the workshop. How many people have stepped through these doors at the start or end of a journey? How many have stood in the window, waving to loved ones as the train slips out the station. Will the doors ever be used again? Who knows -it would be nice to think so. Yet here they now bask in the sun reliving perhaps their days of glory and swapping tales of late passengers and impatient guards...

Location: East Dereham, England

The Day Off

A picture that smacks of relaxation, independence and the joy of free time. I like the neatness of the photograph, Without the white beach hut in the foreground I think the image of the relaxing man would be isolated, but here it has a comforting presence. I also like how he is placed between the two buoys out in the sea. The motive may make us smile a little but it is the the composition that really makes the picture, I feel.

Location: Deal, England

Touch of Extravagance

You'd be forgiven for thinking this magnificent building is to be found in India or somewhere exotic, but it's much closer to home; Brighton, in fact, for this is a view of the famous Royal Pavilion, built for George IV when he was Prince of Wales and fancied a little hut by the sea. Originally designed by Henry Holland, the greater part of what we see today is the work of John Nash who extended the building greatly. Not so much a beach hut, but a veritable palace on the coast! It's a fabulous place to visit (equally spectacular inside) and endlessly fascinating. I don't quite know why I shot this one in black and white, though maybe it was because the building is a rather bland beige colour. But still, it evokes the Regency period and lavish extravagance –and we all need a little of that at times!

Location: Brighton, England

British Market

Norwich has one of the oldest and finest markets in all of England, so well established that it's permanently covered and many of the stalls are pretty much miniature shops; yet the atmosphere is still very much that of any other market, with the certainty that once you go in you will find things you never knew existed and emerge clutching half a dozen things you don't need for every one item you do. But that's the fun of a market, and I for one love to explore such places; this one has essentially remained the same since I was a child, yet remains just as exciting and enjoyable. Now, I find it equally rewarding to photograph there whenever I visit the city. On this occasion, the market was just closing for the day so most of the stalls were boarded up. Boxes were stacked in the passageways between stalls that usually throng with people but which now were eerily empty. The light was interesting –pale sunlight filtering through the coverings of the market stalls giving a pale, almost underwater-like feeling. Here, I was attracted by the contrast of this to the bright Union Jack on the side of the box, and haphazard beauty of the pile of boxes itself.

Location: Norwich, England

Escalator

I was fiddling with my camera, having just taken some fairly ordinary pictures of trains on the London Underground, and was returning up the escalator at Kilburn Park where I was staying at the time, when I was struck by the way the false light of the underground world is replaced by the real light of the outside world shining through a glass dome on top of the station hall. Then there were these golden ceiling lights that seemed in both illumination and style to belong a earlier age, giving a kind of welcoming warmth as one came up the stairs –and are a stark contrast to the functional strip lighting tubes below. Rather than making everything nice and straight and balanced, I wanted the angles to define the picture. Here, the dark lower ceiling cuts across diagonally at the top of the picture while the shadowy stairwells creates a sort of jagged effect below. These two elements create a nice frame for the lights, the destination. I liked the breaking up of composition and the dynamic quality of the various lines we see and I, at least, find the photograph quite exciting!

Location: London, England

Old Sea Dog

Though not at sea we are in the water here, for this is HMS Warrior, the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warship, built in 1860 for the Royal Navy. She is now permanently berthed by the wonderful Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth as a museum ship, and is well worth a visit, even though most visitors tend to head first for the even more famous HMS Victory which is also found here. But this means there are less people jostling about and –at least when I was there– no queue to get in; in fact, for a large part of my visit I had the great ship pretty much to myself, being one of the first guests to arrive that day. However, I was not quite alone, for pacing the deck was this elderly gentleman –presumably a guide but perhaps a ghost, who by the manner of his gait and poise was re-living days of glory at sea. I imagined him to be a crusty old captain, only really happy when aboard a mighty vessel. Here he seems content –the seas are calm and all is well; there is no mutiny today nor any sign of the enemy. There is time for reflection, and thoughts of a life devoted to the sea. I felt the picture captured both something of the grandeur of the ship and the story of a man, and I like that he is standing a little in the shade, hands behind his back, in control.

Location: Portsmouth, England

Benches at Sunset

A fairly hazy but pleasant autumn day on the south coast of England with the sun going down and bathing the beach and surroundings in a gentle, pale luminosity heightened by the haze. The sunset has been more spectacular and vivid earlier, but noe people are heading home as the air is turning chilly. These benches would have been occupied earlier by people looking out to sea, taking in the salty air, calmly contemplating... Now the benches themselves get to contemplate. I was intrigued by the way the light hit the slats, lifting the ordinariness of the benches to something special and perhaps a little bit magical (helped by the haze). They invite, yet one almost dares not disturb. There's also a nice line into the distance with the slats and the railings contrasting with the lines out into the sea of the breakers and pier.

Location: Hastings, England