Comments on: On Night Patrol With Lew Tassell

By: John Hyslop

John Hyslop — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 13:52:21 +0000

Used this cafe , worked in Fleet Street, drank in Welsh Harp, was in the cafe regular, every type in there, from taxi lads to printers , dossers to City boys, atmospheric.

By: Paul Haden

Paul Haden — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 21:37:57 +0000

I was PC 147 ‘B’ at Snow Hill from 1973 to 1976, before transferring to Sussex. I lived in Snow Hill single men’s quarters, then Golden Lane when we took it over from the Mets and finally in the Barbican (336, Ben Jonson House which sold for £670,000 in 2022!) when I got married. Sorry Lew, but I don’t think we ever crossed paths. I loved walking around those historic streets and experiencing the all-night buzz of Fleet Street and the markets. The Temple in particular was a little gas-lit enclave of 19th century London. So many of those little streets and buildings have changed now and the City has a 24-hour energy that it didn’t have in those day. Hours spent watching the Old Bailey overnight was one of the reasons I moved. I still feel nostalgic when I go up to London occasionally.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:22:54 +0000

Great photos. As a teenager in the 60s we would go to a club up West on a Saturday night, often Tiles and sometimes the Lyceum Ballroom in the Strand, looking for young ladies, and sometime between two to five in the morning walk back through Fleet St and the City to Whitechapel and Mile End and Bow, where most of us lived, often stopping for a break at Micks Cafe. Most of the lads had Sunday morning jobs in the Petticoat Lane area so, knackered, it was straight back out again after an hour’s kip if we were lucky. These atmospheric images of places and streets I knew so well bring back many many memories.

By: Marie Nicholson

Marie Nicholson — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 11:05:27 +0000

Late catching up with your articles, Lew, but they are very enjoyable to an ex-Londoner now living on the Isle of Wight. I remember these places very well and still return to visit, this time using the Clipper. Thanks for the memories.

By: Robert Murdoch

Robert Murdoch — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:06:05 +0000

Love the way that Che is looking over your right shoulder in that last picture. Very subversive for those days!!

By: Mario

Mario — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 06:23:56 +0000

These are excellent photos, and indeed, depict a very different time – Police in those days were helpful figures on the streets, and were mostly well liked. Can’t say the same today — nowadays, they look threatening , arrogant and distinctly unhelpful, and are mostly absent on the streets anyway, just as we really need them.

By: Lew Tassell

Lew Tassell — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 21:47:32 +0000

Thanks for that comment Craig, I always look out for “390” when I’m in the City but have yet to see it since I retired.

By: Craig.

Craig. — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 19:53:57 +0000

Lew, what a great article and photos. Amazing to see the City with no one around, slightly different now with the 24 hour culture. My wife and I are serving officers in the City. I believe she has inherited your old collar number, although it’s now 390cp, we dropped the A, B, C etc a few years ago.
All the best to you.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 07:38:19 +0000

Sometimes simple is best. A short read and some wonderfully atmospheric pictures

By: Lew Tassell

Lew Tassell — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 09:02:24 +0000

In reply to Roger Tiller and Andy Nemeth and their request for the technical details. The camera I was using was a Yashica TL Electro X. The film was Kodak Tri X and exposures were between 15 and 35 seconds at F8 or F11.