The Loneliness Of Old London
Lost in Old London – Rose Alley, Southwark, c. 1910
When I first came to live in London, I had few friends, no job and little money, but I somehow managed to rent a basement room in Portobello. For a year, I wandered the city on foot, exploring London without any bus fare. I think I never felt so alone as when I drifted aimlessly in the freezing fog in Hyde Park in 1983.
As I walked, I used to puzzle how I could ever find my life in London. Then I went back and sat in my tiny room for countless hours and struggled to write, without success.
Today, I am sometimes haunted by the spectre of my pitiful former self as I travel around London and, when examining the thousands of glass slides created by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society for educational lectures at the Bishopsgate Institute a century ago, I am struck by the lone figures isolated in the cityscape.
The photographers may have included these solitary people to give a sense of human scale – but my response to these pictures is emotional, I cannot resist seeing them as a catalogue of the loneliness of old London.
Alone outside Shepherd’s Bush Empire, c. 1920
Alone at the Chelsea Hospital, c. 1910
Alone at the Natural History Museum, c. 1890
Alone at the Tower of London, c. 1910
Alone at Leg of Mutton Pond, Hampstead, c. 1910
Alone in the Great Hall at Chelsea Hospital, c. 1920
Alone outside St Lawrence Jewry, 1908
Alone in Bunhill Fields, c. 1910
Alone in Hyde Park, c. 1910
Alone at the Guildhall, c. 1910
Alone at Brooke House, Hackney, 1920
Alone on Hampstead Heath, c. 1910
Alone in Thames St, 1920
Alone at the Orangery, Kensington Palace, c. 1910
Alone in the Deans Yard at Westminster Abbey, c. 1910
Alone at Hampton Court, c. 1910
Alone at the Houses of Parliament with the statue of Richard I, c. 1910
Alone in the tiltyard at Eltham Palace, c. 1910
Alone in Cloth Fair, c. 1910
Alone at Marble Arch, c. 19o0
Alone at Southwark Cathedral, c. 1910
Alone outside Carpenters’ Hall, c. 1920
Alone outside Jackson Provisions’ shop, Clothfair, c. 1910
Alone outside Blewcoat School, Caxton St, c. 1910
Alone on the Victoria Embankment, c. 1910
Alone outside All Saints Chelsea, c. 1910
Alone at the Albert Hall, c. 1910
Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
Take a look at
The gentle photographer insinuating into the composition a lone figure for interest and scale.
Constable went further and added a touch of red!
A fascinating post, thank you!
A lone figure certainly brings focus to the scale and dimensions of it all particularly the statue of Richard I at the Houses of Parliament.
Alone walking about in Old London was always a pleasure for me, no sense of loneliness, rather, more a sense of ‘no crowds’ giving one time to breath-in the air without the hustle and bustle of it all.
I was born and bred, never mind I too have no job and little money exploring London without any bus fare, there was the safety of back to home to mum ‘n dad the end of each day.
The struggle arriving London with so little in the pocket must have left many haunted by the spectre of their pitiful former self as they travel around London today.
A fascinating sense of perspective in all these photographs especially the glorious frontage of the Natural History Museum the road there empty and devoid of anything that detracts from that wonderful view the entire length of its façade.
A truly amazing set of images which made me feel really emotional as I have connections with so many of them, not least being born in a nursing home at Hampstead, while our family home was in Chelsea throughout my growing up years, and so it carried on through the images shown here… up to and including my own sons who had beautiful treble voices during their school years (in Berkshire) and had sung in the Royal Albert Hall (plus other well known London venues). Gotta recover my emotions now over a cup of tea….. but thank you Gentle Author
I came to London in the tail end of 1979 when I was 21 and remember well how lonely Sundays could be. I would walk for miles, which is the best way to really learn about a new location. I remember the cold and damp, then coming into a cold damp flat with the prospect of work the next day. There are parts of London that still make me feel dismal because they remind me of those days when I was just finding my feet.
People get nostalgic over the 80s but I mostly remember, despite the clubbing, how cold I was!
For me, Brooke House, Hackney is strongly reminiscent. though mainly because Brooke Road passed at the end of our own street of houses. I never did discover Brooke House itself, but my earliest memories include my mother taking me with her, in 1938, when I was about five, to the Post Office in Brooke Road, on Stoke Newington High St. She was to send a Postal Order to her youngest brother in the forlorn hope that he would use it to buy a ticket to London from their European village home. Alas, he died in the following Holocaust of European Jewry!
These photos (and your words) convey a deep sense of London-esque solitude — however, I have always enjoyed being alone and on foot in New York City. Although we have a reputation for being a rough heartless Metropolis……..don’t believe it. Strangers may share a paused moment enjoying a busker in the subway tunnels — and the next thing they are talking. Or, sharing a reverie in front of a painting in the Metropolitan Museum. And some quick observations are exchanged. Handing over money at a newsstand, or waiting at a cross walk, or ordering “take out” food. Wisps of conversation fill the void. People hold doors for one another, smile knowingly (or randomly), give up seats on the train for others, etc. Money is handed over to people in need, quietly and without fanfare, often with a hushed phrase, “hey, take care, OK?”.
In this season of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for the decades I’ve spent in Manhattan. A glorious place full of surprises.
Brilliant. The photos are amazing. And giving how teeming London has always been, remarkable. Very poignant. As someone who has wandered alone through very, very many cities, trying to figure out how (and if) I was going to ever fit in and feel at home, this was particularly meaningful.
A beautiful reflection. In 1978, I set off on my big round trip across the British Isles. I was on the road for over six weeks, travelling 6,500 km — alone! I also travelled through London alone, which meant a lot to me.
I still remember crossing Tower Bridge. And then heading towards Shaftesbury Avenue, where I visited a music shop that I had previously only been in contact with by post.
Travelling alone is, I think, the only way to really get to know a country and its people!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
I took have been lonely in London as a young person but not now. Now that I am older, I delight in having some time to myself to wander where I will, without having to compromise to someone else’s tastes. But then, in my working life, I am surrounded by people and often devoid of peace and quiet, so perhaps that is the reason.
These are fascinating images of London’s past. I’m always looking to photograph what remains of old London but I think that black and white photographs, or these plates, are much more enigmatic. I can almost hear the wheels of the carts trundling by.
I remember the feeling of London being a lonely place when I moved there in 1984. When I moved away it struck me I had got on the District Line every day for years with the same passengers from the streets around the station who all just sat behind their newspapers and never even said good morning. Moving back to Scotland for 10 years was a shock, I could stand at a bus stop for 10 minutes and get someone else’s life story!
Now I’m in Switzerland and just go with the flow, my German isn’t great but somehow I manage.