Repton Boxing Club, East London, where British boxer, Audley Harrison, trained his way to Olympic gold, and the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was shot.
In his new travel coffee table book, Unseen London, London photographer Peter Dazeley documents historic London buildings, their architecture and interiors as they stand in the 21st century before they disappear. Like London’s once-abandoned 1930s Battersea Power Station, for example, which no one has ever seen inside.
Seeing as he was kind enough to send me a copy, I thought we could flick through today. There are pictures of the interiors of 50 buildings which makes it impossible to pick out favourites because they’re all equally fascinating in their own right, but here’s a taster.
Inside Control Room A at Battersea Power Station.The girls’ quick change area at the Theatre Royal.Inside HMS Belfast at the Imperial War Museum.The Gate Cinema, Notting HillFreemasons Indian TempleIn the sound effects drama studio at the BBC, is where old phones, doors and a range of household objects are as commonplace as digital instruments!The Great Hall at the Royal Hospital Chelsea was designed by Christopher Wren. This is the hospital’s biggest room, used today as a communal dining room for the Chelsea Pensioners – retired British army soldiers who live at the hospital.This is a disused platform at Aldwych Station. It opened in 1907 at the time of the Theatreland boom but closed in 1917 as it always struggled to become financially viable, mainly due to where it was located. Today it remains intact, and the booking office has been restored – making it a popular film and TV location.This beautiful Victorian theatre inside Alexandra Palace is being restored, having been closed to the public for 65 years!Dead Man’s Walk lies underneath The Old Bailey. It’s a route those sentenced to death would take from Newgate Prison to the courthouse gallows.Big Ben, of course!The main pump room inside the magnificent Victorian Crossness Pump Station in Southeast London. It’s a Romanesque industrial structure, built as part of a plan to clean up the Thames.
Buy your copy of Peter Dazeley’s Unseen London, here.
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The really surprising thing is how Peter became aware of all these beautifully photographed places in the first place. People must past by many of them every day unaware of their existance, let alone of how unchanged they are. Unseen London is an excellent achievement.
7 Comments
Brilliant research, would give alot to have walked around Battersea before the works started. Amazing photos.
Just magical! They all look like amazing film sets.
Oh hi Barbara! Glad you like them – I really want to see inside that boxing gym… might do some digging.
The really surprising thing is how Peter became aware of all these beautifully photographed places in the first place. People must past by many of them every day unaware of their existance, let alone of how unchanged they are. Unseen London is an excellent achievement.
It's sad to think so many of them might be gone in a few years, perhaps…
Would you be interested in writing a secret Brighton ?
Thomas Jonglez
http://www.jonglezpublishing.com
info@jonglezpublishing.com
Hi Thomas, thanks for your message. I've sent you an email.