#562 – Hartford Mill 3

I rarely talk about cameras on this blog. I find photography more interesting than cameras although I do own a few. I regard them as tools in the toolbox and I choose the most appropriate one for whatever / where ever I’m going. So when I decided to re-visit Hartford Mill a few weeks after…

#469 – Best of 2016 Part 2

The early year tour of mills in monochrome, came to a shuddering halt when I was approached by a PR company to do an urbex style shoot using the new Samsung Galaxy S7. London Road Fire Station in Manchester was the first location, a magnificent late Victorian building that was last used in the 90’s,…

#450 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 3

And so down into the basement…. Well actually it’s not really a basement as such. Four triple expansion compound steam engines were installed into a new building adjacent to the original one in 1897 to provide additional pumping capacity, but these were removed not long after in 1913 and replaced with Crossley diesels.The diesel engines…

#449 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 2

Beam engines – f***ing big beam engines at that. Crossness is home to four huge beam engines – Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward (the Prince of Wales) and Alexandra (the Princess of Wales). Prince Consort has been restored to full working condition and Prince Consort is now being worked on. At the other end of the…

#448 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Crossness Pumping Station 1

Crossness Pumping Station is somewhere I’ve wanted to go for years. The magnificent Kew may have a more central location, glossy website and some giant engines, but Crossness is a marvelous mixture of wrought iron, rust and symmetry that is incomparable. I was really blown away by the place. I trained as an engineer, I’m…

#447 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – Caroline Gardens Chapel, London

So this was an interesting choice for the second location on our Samsung photoshoot. Caroline Gardens Chapel in Peckham is a small chapel that is rented out for ‘shabby chic’ weddings and other events. It’s not derelict as such, just maintained in a state of (aesthetic) decay to give the right ambience, and the pictures on the…

#446 – Samsung Galaxy S7 Shoot – St.Clements Asylum, London

First location in London was the old St.Clements hospital on Bow Lane. Built in 1848-49 as a workhouse, it later became a psychiatric unit before closing in 2005. The site is now undergoing conversion by Linden Homes, and work had started to strip the place unfortunately. So I did what I always do in completely empty…