Comments on: Harold Burdekin’s London Nights

By: Ronald

Ronald — Fri, 25 May 2018 14:48:44 +0000

I came across some Burdekin photographs in the current exhibition, London Nights, at the Museum of London and was so overwhelmed by them that I bought the original book, hang the eye-popping price. Bread and water for me for the next month. A masterpiece, ranking alongside Brassai and Atget. I’d love to know what camera he used. Almost certainly a 10×8 plate camera, or similar.

By: Douglas Reid

Douglas Reid — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 18:44:13 +0000

Thanks to Avril Towell for identifying the fact that ‘George Street’ is nowadays called George Court. (Thanks also to Pauline Taylor for engaging with my question.) What really intrigued me about that view up the steps to a monumental building was the latter itself. I did not notice the word ‘hospital’ on the superstructure until Avril pointed it out. This led me to realise that we are looking here across The Strand to the original Charing Cross Hospital, designed by Decimus Burton in 1831-4. It moved to Hammersmith in 1973 (confusingly, keeping the name), and the site was taken over by Charing Cross Police Station.

By: Avril Towell

Avril Towell — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:08:50 +0000

Douglas Reid, George Street Strand is now called George Court which is between the Strand and John Adam street. If you google this street, the view into George Court shows the stairway and the building beyond (hospital on Burdekins pic).

By: Kitanz

Kitanz — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 13:25:51 +0000

Like a Dream, these Pictures are amazingly Beautiful!

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 22:54:19 +0000

In answer to Douglas Reid George Street Strand is possibly one of those streets between Strand and the river which no longer exist. The offices of the Pall Mall Gazette were located in one such street and were described by Frederick Greenwood, the editor and my relative, thus. ‘We began modestly with a printing office on the naked foreshore of the Thames where the descent was made to melancholy flats from Salisbury Street, and with publishing offices in Salisbury Street itself. It has a castaway, precarious look, the printing office, as if, washed up from Wapping or thereabouts by one tide, it would probably be carried away by the next; but it was well appointed and perfectly comfortable except on the rare occasion when excessive rain or spring floods compelled the printers to go in and out on each others backs. It was a narrow, gloomy brooding little street, in which the roar of the Strand was lost; and its No 14 was so near the river (on the right hand side going down) that if any printer had really been in danger of drowning a life line might have been thrown from the editor’s window.’

There is more and I suspect that George Street and Salisbury Street would have been very similar. Salisbury Street ran parallel with Northumberland Avenue between Adam Street and Carting Lane. It was demolished in 1896 and Shell Mex House erected on the site. Northumberland Avenue was constructed in 1874 so some of the small streets which were more like passages were lost then.

Hope that helps.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 20:33:32 +0000

What wonderful, atmospheric photographs. I felt I was walking through those streets, alone

By: mark

mark — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 19:04:38 +0000

More “painterly” than Brandt he may have been, but showing the dead streets in the middle of the night is no substitute for photographing the living as Brandt so brilliantly did, thereby giving the streets and buildings some context. People in streets equals life!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 15:35:58 +0000

Fabulous, fabulous pictures and with the Duke Ellington band playing Mood Indigo, “that feelin’ goes stealin’ down to my shoes”.

By: Ana C R Quaresma

Ana C R Quaresma — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 14:33:59 +0000

Wonderful photographs !

By: David Cox

David Cox — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 13:19:29 +0000

These really are beautiful images. Thank you for posting, and you for a whole year of
Interesting and informative posts. Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year