Photos of London shopfronts
Emily sends in the London Shop Fronts blog, "a daily photo blog of shop fronts in London. This is an archive of the disappearing independent shops in London and a view of interesting and sometimes worrying typography and design choices of small retailers."
I love this kind of project, the recording of the overlooked minutae of everyday life -- a cross between the archaeology of the midden and the diaries of Pepys. These shots remind me of my friend Kevin Steele's striking photos of the western end of Queen Street West in Toronto -- nostalgic and loving.
London Shop Fronts (Thanks, Emily!)
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Love this!! Great colour, so much variety.
I'm obsessed with lower Clapton road shops:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardmcmillan/sets/72157608015058626/
great photos!
let's run to paradise
This would be great to have for past periods, ie storefronts from 1800, 1600, etc, all the way back to Ancient Rome.
I suppose some guy in the year 4008 will be able to look over 2 millenia's worth of this type of documentary photography, rather than our measly century-and-a-half's worth. Sigh.
This type of photography reminds me of the ol' Satan's Laundromat site. Link:
http://www.satanslaundromat.com/sl/
Giant gum!!
I love this shop. In fact, all of Chatsworth road! Well represented on the linked blog. Thanks!
http://londonshopfronts.tumblr.com/tagged/chatsworth%20road
East London is full of great, slightly iffy-looking independent shop fronts. Check out 'Olympic Kebab' near the ghastly scorched-earth 'Olympic Zone'... the photographer's comments are particularly astute:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeylaundry/2607985580/
Paradise Cottage is my local kebab house in Bethnal Green - a loyal, often drunken customer for the last 10 years - I plan on helping them through the recession with an increased intake - I'm pretty sure they will not have heard of boingboing, but I'll let them know "they made it" all the same
I love this genre of photography, because of its value for recording social history, and its direct aesthetics. I have also enjoyed the links to other sites that have been posted here. I was wondering if anyone has seen or tried to make these types of store-front photographs but in a way that included the shop owners? That makes the work more complicated but certainly the people who run these stores are part of the story. Thanks to anyone who replies.
Could a cheeseburger be halal? Just wondering.
#6
you cannot haz
@SHRDLU: according to Wikipedia at least, there are no restrictions on mixing meat and dairy in halal food.
And how long before she is harassed into giving it up by authorities increasingly paranoid about photographers.
#6
You CAN haz halall cheeseburger
but cant have a kosher cheeseburger, unless we are talking veggieburger
Halall is much easier to comply with and has fewer restrictions on the kinds of animals and seafood permitted.
"sometimes worrying typography and design choices of small retailers"
...I sometimes count the number of different and often contradictory fonts that small businesses use.... I swear they think that the number of fonts one uses is directly proportionate to how many people they will attract.
On the other hand, there is something quaint about that sort of design work - it's not all flashy and, um, super-palatable but, at the same time, it's homey.
Yeah, hold on there: Someone's been photographing and cataloging London street locations? Including shops with Arabic signs in the windows? And a CCTV cam at the upper right-hand side?
Oh noes!!! They are terrorists!!! Seize their doom-dealing camera weapons of mass destruction!! :p
Seriously, there are a lot of great period photographs of shop windows and displays in the US LOC's digital collections. Including a series of Surrealist windows in the 1950s from Bergdorf's, I believe.
Heh, my first reaction on seeing that shot was 'Is that Queen West?' Nice to see that I wasn't the only one.
No sign of my favourites from round Walthamstow where my wife used to live, "The Just Brothers Cafe", "Don't Worry It Will Grow Back" (Hairdressers), "God Knows Best" (Grocer - I had a vision of you going in for a six pack and the person behind the counter refusing to sell it to you, insiting you had milk instead, telling you "God Knows Best") and "The Egg Shop" which appeared to be actually selling something else.
@ #11.
Here's a fun game to try on a london street, Close you eyes and look in a random direction, open them and see if a CCTV camera is in you field of vision. 99 times out of a 100 there will be.
I am surprised that the photographer wasn't arrested for taking photos of public places!
@9: Thank you, Rebbi. I knew Muslims buy kosher sometimes, but not vice-versa. Didn't know if dairy and meat together was haraam.
@6: When I was a little kid, the mention of cheeseburgers gave rise to someone imitating John Belushi's "...cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no Coke--Pepsi...." Then in the '80s it would inspire people to sing Jimmy Buffett's "Cheseburger in Paradise." Now it encourages lol-cat speak. I should have seen that coming. Talk about a loaded word.
Isn't that supposed to read: Kebab's Burger's & Steak's?
A burger place that says "Welcome to Paradise".
Cheeseburger in Paradise?
@brianwood check out John Londei's shops and shop owners here: http://www.johnlondei.co.uk/gallery.php?gallery=Shops
Glad everyone is enjoying the photos and no I haven't been arrested - yet!
- emily
This is like a somewhat more intentional version of Google Street View. I for one hope the google street view data is preserved and available for historians hundreds of years from now.
Jethro Tull did a song called "Paradise Steakhouse." That's the first thing I thought of when I saw this picture. I wonder if it was inspired by a real eatery.
Gilbert Anonymous here:
Licensed? Shouldn't it be--in Brit-Speak--"Licenced?" With 2 "c"s?
Emily,
Love the one that merely says "Surgery." Frightening! Is this the result of a two-tire health-care system? "Let's all go down to the corner shop for an appendectomy, then a curry."
Amazed
@shrdlu
I think this is a American/British thing where in this case Surgery refers to a doctors clinic, rather than a place where you would have surgery, don't ask me why.
emily
People who liked this blog may like Derelict London:
www.derelictlondon.com