Comments on: The Loneliness Of Old London

By: PETER QUEALLY

PETER QUEALLY — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 15:10:21 +0000

Great piece to lose yourself in!
The solitary human figure gives the pictures a sense of awe in looking at the buildings. Puts you there. U can take in more on your own.
Looking at the same street views now is fascinating to compare, a lot of the magic of the past has gone – Rose Alley etc & even the area around Clothfair but the trees by the History Museum are a welcome addition imo.

By: Robert Devaney

Robert Devaney — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 21:43:30 +0000

I was very lonely in a freezing cold and dismal room in Stamford Hill 1986 to 1989. The stretch of the A10 up to Seven Sisters never improved my melancholy mood being so dismal.
Thank you for the lovely words and evocative photos.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:14:57 +0000

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.

By: Christine Swan

Christine Swan — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 23:10:54 +0000

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.

By: achim

achim — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:52:17 +0000

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

By: Carol Himmelman-Christopher

Carol Himmelman-Christopher — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 19:05:29 +0000

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.

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:07:36 +0000

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.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 13:03:11 +0000

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!

By: Catherine Morris

Catherine Morris — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:33:36 +0000

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!

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 09:46:21 +0000

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