Friday 8 June 2007

De-industrialisation - # 132

Still on the theme of boats, the river, and life styles: the luxury housing "ant-hill" seen beyond Teddington Lock is on the site of the old Turk's Boatyard that was once a by-word around the area. As the economy has transformed the land has become more valuable as a site for expensive housing. My aim in the photo is to highlight the change in the industrial scene, but also bring out the lines of the housing and the angles and lines of the railings, the steps and concrete work of the lock. There's also the steely, molten metal texture of the grey river water.

Teddington Lock is the first lock on the Thames. Up until Teddington the river is tidal.

The weather at the moment is very grey. The skies are flat grey and come out white. You may not like the photo. The detail in the sky was brought out using the "post-processing" techniques on Picasa. I had fun doing it.

4 comments:

  1. The Thames lanscape is really changing! Mostly to the better - or what do you think? Maybe earlier, you did not like living on the river and today you cannot afford it?

    Anyhow, a nice and descriptive photo, which opened in large!

    (When I was a very young boy, I spent a summer, manually opening and closing some locks in a small canal in Sweden - now pureley for tourists who have to open an close themselves.)

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  2. I like your series of photos. This one looks nice too and I liked the homes on the hill.

    Abraham Lincoln
    My Post: Local woman dies in house fire
    Brookville Daily Photo

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  3. Peter, I'm fairly happy with the changes along the river. A lot of very rough old industrial sites have been cleared and the banks are being re-opened to people for walking and enjoying and living. The architecture is good, though large scale, because often these are big sites. And....the new economy seems to be pretty robust...so, let's go for it!

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  4. Thanks for these comments! I commented yours on my blog today.

    I don't know too well about Richmond and its surroundings (except for what I can read on your site), but it's certain that London has gained a lot in attrictivity the last decades. I love London!

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