Tim Marshall’s 12 Days of Christmas.

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All photos © Tim Marshall 2015.

Merry Christmas everyone.

… from The London Column.


Ten Old Men.

pensioner©DavidSecombeWoolwich. © David Secombe 1998.

 

190ae65e9dc5ace132d2c4282ae14b7eKing’s Cross. © Tim Marshall 2013.

 

Bowls©DavidSecombeFinsbury Circus. © David Secombe 1998.

 

8402dc4edc75ba1455d8ef46a0200b8038 bus. © Tim Marshall 2012.

 

ClaphamClapham Common. © David Secombe 1998.

 

d8234a761aef02bde0bd005b43ae2f2038 bus. © Tim Marshall 2011.

 

Tramp-fire1Spitalfields Market. © David Secombe 1990.

 

98f40c41bb9b0953260eae26302ab291King’s Cross. © Tim Marshall 2013.

 

7a6072a8b39c09733ad2e5f60e7222beKing’s Cross. © Tim Marshall 2013.

 

Victoria Way, Charlton, London, 1998Charlton. © David Secombe 1997.

 

See also: 38 Special, King’s Cross Stories, Underground, OvergroundDeep South London, Spitalfields Market, Park Life, Ten Imperatives.

 


Ten imperatives.

Nuisance(c)DavidSecombeBorough. © David Secombe 2010.

Camden Lock 1980sCamden Lock. © David Secombe 1985.

Protestor at the trial of Peter Sutcliffe, Old Bailey, 1981Protestor outside the Old Bailey on the final day of the Peter Sutcliffe trial. © David Secombe 1981.

boroughcdavidsecombe1Banksy stencil, Borough Market. © David Secombe 2003.

Props outside the Old Vic, London, 1988 Props outside the stage door, Old Vic. © David Secombe 1988.

Pet shop sign, Brockley, 2003Pet shop, Brockley. © David Secombe 2003.

Items-of-valueAbandoned pub, Bermondsey. © David Secombe, 2010.

Toilet, WaterlooPub toilet, Waterloo. © David Secombe 2008.

Eat Eternal JerkSign outside a cafe, Brockley. © David Secombe 2010.

Sign in Abney Park Cemetery, London N16Abney Park Cemetery, N16. © David Secombe 2010.


Up My Street. Photo: Dylan Collard, text: Charles Jennings. (5/5)

Mrs Darsham Patel, Nisa Food and Wine, Archway. © Dylan Collard.

Charles Jennings writes:

Booze

Booze in quantity: voluptuous and magical. There’s even a wistfulness in the expression on the face of the proprietess as she stands guard over (in all probability) a few grand’s worth of drink, as if it’s enough just to be close.

It’s a bit like an fabulous picture I once found in a Paris Match from 1952: a French family of four, posing with their entire annual food and drink consumption – Ce Qu’une Famille Française A Mangé Cette Année.

As you might expect, it shows two small parents and their two small children surrounded by everything they nominally consume in a twelve-month period: a double-page spread of scarcely credible eventfulness, containing entire sides of beef, whole pigs, several metric tonnes of bread and potatoes, some game, a lot of charcuterie, and, of course, alcohol.

Three hundred litres of wine; one hundred and sixty-eight litres of beer; fifty-eight litres of cider. The bottles are set out at the feet of the little quartet like a stockade, behind which they sit with understandable complacency. It is described as une ménagère économe, which nonetheless enables the mother and father to absorb well over a litre of booze a day between them (the kids are plainly too young), to say nothing of the apéritifs and digestifs (about four litres’ worth) which also grace the photo. As an advertisement of French priorities, it is hard to beat; and even now, has a cave-of-wonders feel which combines with a nostalgia for something one has never actually experienced, in a deeply affecting whole.

But it’s only the drink which makes one feel truly sentimental. The fascination of the stuff, bottled or poured, is really an inheritance from childhood – when it was not just dazzlingly jewelled in appearance, full of complex and occult signifiers, but also forbidden – and as such contains longings which are deep, unresolved, inadmissible. Just look at all that booze, glowing with the same coral intensity as the proprietress’s stretch top! How can she stand there so calmly?

… for The London Column.

Charles Jennings blogs on wine and other forms of drink at Sediment (‘I’ve bought it so I’ll drink it’)Up My Street is Dylan Collard‘s project documenting shops between Kentish Town and Archway. His exhibition The Twelfth Man is currently showing at Exposure Gallery, 22-23 Little Portland Street, London W1. Dylan is represented by the Vue agency.