swan_tower: (London)
[personal profile] swan_tower
Words cannot express the weirdness of this photo set.

Some of the places in it, I've never been. Others I've passed through -- like Oxford Circus -- but they're not very familiar to me. But New Bridge Street? Fleet Street? I can point out the corner bookshop, tell you where the post office is, and how many blocks it is to Wasabi, where they have really cheap yakisoba. Which I traditionally eat on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. I've gotten lunch in the crypt of this church, and walked through this underpass more times than I can count. This is the London I know -- but not.

Words cannot express how bizarre it is to see those places utterly devoid of people. I've been there on a Sunday morning, when the City is mostly closed for business and so very few people are in sight, but "very few" and "none" are not the same thing. It's as if the apocalypse happened, and this is London in the moments before nature begins to reclaim it.

I'd love to see similar photos of Boston, New York, other heavily populated areas -- but I'm not sure you could ever catch them quite that deserted, even on a Christmas morning.

Date: 2009-01-04 04:58 am (UTC)
ckd: A small blue foam shark sitting on a London Underground map (london underground)
From: [personal profile] ckd
When we've stayed in London, it's been in Fitzrovia near Goodge Street tube. We'd always walk down Tottenham Court Road/Charing Cross Road/Oxford Street; many of those pictures were of places I recognized immediately without the labels.

There's a reason we always visit family over Christmas if we're in England. (Usually we catch the bus/train up to Coventry on the 24th and return to London on the 26th.) These photos make it clear why we do....

Date: 2009-01-04 05:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] swan-tower.livejournal.com
If I weren't so very fond of my Christmas Day traditions, I'd be sorely tempted to go for a wander around London. It would be awesomely surreal to experience it.

Date: 2009-01-04 10:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] leatherdykeuk.livejournal.com
They were fabulous - Gibson pointed out the link a few days ago. I love the silent, dead streets.

Date: 2009-01-04 04:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gollumgollum.livejournal.com
I can't look at those without hearing Cillian Murphy's echoing voice calling "Halloooooooooooooo..."

Date: 2009-01-05 03:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pathseeker42.livejournal.com
I'll be in London tomorrow!

Date: 2009-01-07 02:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sora-blue.livejournal.com
This reminds me of the Tokyo Nobody photobook. Shame kind of unsettling visuals.

Profile

swan_tower: (Default)
swan_tower

January 2026

S M T W T F S
    1 23
456 78910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 9th, 2026 03:10 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios