Photo Essay: A Passageway to Harrow

While rushing around to drop my princess off at her drama class, I just happened to glance to the side of a very short passageway between the car park and the shopping street and noticed a very interesting thing on the wall. So I came back after dropping her and took some pictures of this passageway.

Here is the passageway in question, looking at it from the street side to the parking lot. About 15 meters in length. Very innocuous in view.

 

It had a blue rubbish bin when I started taking the pictures and then one chap came haring out of a shop and then dragged it away. Can you see the mural at the far end of the wall behind it?

 

Here’s the mural. Its graffiti actually, lol. Shows a policeman. And I felt that I had seen it before. Then it struck me, it was Banksy. Here are some of his works. He is absolutely brilliant. He has become iconic and actually people have started thinking that its art. But here’s the ironic thing. Its graffiti but art, and then somebody else has spray painted some more graffiti over it!. Its like graffiti-art-graffiti.

 

Here’s a close-up of the face. Shows a copper with a hatted pigeon on top!. Stool Pigeon? Crapping on the copper? Damn flying rats.

 

Here’s one of the damn rats in question. its sitting on one of the lights and dirtying it with its poo.

On the right, you can see some manky pipes, all discoloured but they have the anti pigeon plastic spikes on them.

Here’s another light on top of the mural along with peeling plaster.

There was obviously some kind of a leak from the flat on top of the passageway. And that leak has discoloured the ceiling. And the paint is peeling. And there is mould growing there.

The beam which is supposed to be very powerful and actually it load bearing. Its supposed to be supporting the floor of the apartment above. But look at it. The underlying netting which is supposed to keep the concrete safe is open. And you can see the rust. And its exposed to the elements. Not very safe is it?



Nor is the roof/floor. As you can see, the backing material is open and exposed. You can see the ceiling. It was reddish and all mouldy.

The protective paint on the wall is peeling off in large chunks as well as cracking off.

 

Here’s the underside of the staircase going up to the apartment above. You can actually see the staircase, which is open to the elements, the underlying cover has dropped off in manky bits exposing the wood underneath. With a boarded up cupboard.



Couple of beer cans, some wire, gravel, cigarette butts…typical detritus in any corner of a modern city.

A very old fuse box. All the fuses have been lost, but the base still exists, with a broken lid on top.

Strange patterns on the wall

Plaster has fallen off the wall exposing the brickwork underneath. And there are hanging wires. All this in 15 meters of passageway which connects an open car park with a busy shopping street. Pretty dismal if you ask me. But nobody notices, they are either heading to their cars or to shop, this bit is ignored and is left for the graffiti artists, pigeons and a sadly decaying set of walls.

Full '>'>slide show here.

Photo Essay: Loo Tiles

I was having dinner at the Leon Restaurant at Bankside when I had to go to the loo. And seriously, the wall tiles freaked me out a bit. They actually had tiles which showed the mid 20th century pinups!

 

 

I can understand having a large photograph or something, but a tile?

That’s supposed to be interesting? She looks manky

And she looks drunk

And she looks like she has a major headache

Even on the wall behind the basin.

And clustered around the hand drier.

Bloody weird. I tell you, you see much strangeness in Loo’s.

Photo Essay: A Rugby Day at Twickenham

I was invited to attend a Rugby game between the All Blacks and England at Twickenham and managed to get an extra ticket for the tyke. Here are some photographs of that trip.

It was a horrible day, raining like hell and flooding across England. On the weekend, the damn underground tubes also decide to go into maintenance mode and frequently stop working because some feather dropped somewhere or other. Anyway, we started our journey at Harrow and Wealdstone station.

Very crowded platform….

on this side as well. And on the other platforms as well.

As usual, the damn graffiti merchants have been here as well.

Somebody wasn't that excited about going to the match, but he is a teenager, who knows what they think…

very nice roof supports, made out of cast iron.

then we managed to get to Paddington. Nice light and dark alternatively as we go up the rail line

they have obviously tried to clean up the track but only on one side. Its like black and white. See the gravel on the right? Its nice and clean, but on the left, its oily, dark, dusty, dirty…Anyway, then we went to Gloucester Road, then to Earls Court and then too a tube to Richmond and then jumped into a cab to finally get to Twickenham. 30 minutes after kickoff. Damn thing. Missed out on the haka, but consoled myself by thinking that I will get to it at the women’s game

We were at the west stand and that central column is where our lift is.

There’s the south stand on the other side. Horrible weather.

there are the 2 tickets

Heading up in the lift, puffing and panting

The game had begun and we were there when the scores were 6-6. Damn.

The All Blacks were spending more of their time in our half!

I am constantly amazed how these very large solidly muscled men obey the referees, unlike in football.

 
Getting into a huddle.

Tried out my zoom. So many bright colours, and each colour had a separate meaning, uniforms, that is. The bright yellow were ambulance people, orange were first aid men, the bright green and black were stewards, the yellow green fellas with helmets were policemen, yellow and black were bees and the red jacketed fellow likes red jackets.

After another penalty

couple of substitutes warming up.

Photographers with their great lenses. One day when I grow up, I will get one of those sets :)

This was the cutest thing: A British bulldog stuffed toy at the half way mark.

And that’s the New Zealand try.

A fan getting all excited and waving the flag….

the kicker getting ready

The moment of the strike

the ball is launched

a row of solid English muscle

the box with the reflection of the stadium on the glass wall. It was quite amazing, the sound proofing, you could hardly hear anything once the doors were closed. This was pretty much better than Wembley!

another field goal

Highlighted with a lamp

Jonny Wilkinson, the Hero.

England with their sole try at their try

heading to the corner

so close….

and then it was lost

 

A throw in

The English and New Zealand flags on top of the stadium

The V’s coming together at the dying moments of the game

The game ended and handshakes all around.

The English girls practising before their game, as you can see, the audience is a bit sparse

And the NZ girls on their side

rows of empty seats

the stewards were sweeping up the seats.

 

It was fairly chucking it down.

Then the NZ girls came on to the pitch

And then the English girls came on, there were some strange fire balls blowing up in the background..it would have been better if the rain wasn't chucking down, but as it so happens, it was looking very sad indeed.

The two teams lined up for the national anthems.

the rows of empty seats

The Haka dance of the women.

And then they move in so close to the English girls. I wouldn't want to be in front of them, i tell you. Bloody frightening.

And the game started. We left after that point. It was getting late and Kannu was getting tired. We also had a very long journey (turned out to be 2.5 hours back) back home.

Shining jackets of the policemen outside the stadium

Here are the famous doors and entrance to the stadium. We started back. The game wasn't as good, not very impressed I am afraid, but still, it was a good time to be had despite the atrocious weather and the horrible commute.

Full Slide Show