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Among my mother's more exasperating foibles, when I was young, was an over-readiness to believe what she read in the daily newspapers. Her journal of choice was the Daily Mirror which was delivered to the house every morning, and her favourite regular feature was the "Live Letters" column, supposedly written by the Old Codgers. The Mirror was supplemented during the week by "Woman's Own" and "Woman", wherein her favourite contributors were Beverly Nichols and Godfrey Winn.
Perhaps she had lately read some especially chilling exposé of the White Slave Trade, or a crusading piece about paederastic vice in East Cheam. Anyway, for whatever reason, when I asked if I could go to London on my own her answer was "No" ...to which she darkly added, "London's a city of sin". I had been wheedling and "keeping on" about it for weeks, hoping to wear down her resistance, but this sounded final.
It must be added, in fairness to my mother, that I was only 12 at the time and that we lived in Bristol. In retrospect I can understand her anxieties. I had been besotted with London since a family day-trip in August 1962. We were due to return for a full fortnight's holiday ...the first we ever had... in July. But now, in May, I couldn't wait any longer. So, after my mother's refusal there was only one thing for it ...deceit. I told her that I was going to Gloucester with a schoolfriend and that we would go to his house afterwards. In fact, I went to Temple Meads Station, bought a half-fare day-return ticket (30/-) and caught the 7.15 train to London.
Far from being set upon by footpads and waking up in an opium den in Shanghai, my only misadventure that day was losing a ten-bob note ...in contemporary schoolboy pocket-money terms, a serious amount of money. At the time I thought I'd been pickpocketed, but probably I just dropped it in the street. This is a photogaph I took on that day, of the view west from the top of the Monument. There are a couple of modern office blocks in the foreground, but the building boom that was to transform this view out of all recognition had barely started. The skyline is still dominated, as any city skyline should be, by its cathedral. London's skyline had been dominated by the dome of St Paul's for 300 years. In 300 weeks the symbolism would be changed forever in a victory of Mammon over God.
Nederland, Gelderland, Zaltbommel, 07-03-2010; bedrijventerein en kantorenpark aan weerszijden van rijksweg 2 (autosnelweg A2), rivier de Waal met Martinus Nijhofbrug in de achtergrond. De zich steeds verder uitbreidende bebouwing op deze zichtlocatie is een voorbeeld verschimmeling of verrommeling van het landschap.
Businesses and offices terrain park on both sides of highway 2 (A2 motorway), River Waal with Martinus Nijhof bridge in the background. The building is continually expanding causing cluttering of the landscape.
luchtfoto (toeslag), aerial photo (additional fee required)
foto/photo Siebe Swart
It being ages since I've been out with my camera - any of them, as we're currently doing up a house - I found myself getting shutter withdrawal symptoms. That said I noticed the incredible patterning whilst applying glue to the back of a floor tile
Nederland, Zuid-Holland, Rotterdam-Zuid, 28-09-2014; Kop van Zuid en Wilhelminakade, met o.a. Erasmusbrug, Hotel New York en de torens van Montevideo, het World Port Center (Havenbedrijf Rotterdam), New Orleans en De Rotterdam.
Newly developed cultural center Kop van Zuid, urban renewal and modern architecture, high rise in a former harbour area.
luchtfoto (toeslag op standard tarieven);
aerial photo (additional fee required);
copyright foto/photo Siebe Swart.