In Spring 2016 I photographed a couple of nights for Rooftop Film Club – their pop up on Roof East on top of Stratford Shopping Centre and a night celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of Top Gun at the Geffrye Museum (so not actually on a roof!)
London and pubs. The two go hand in hand. I’ve shot a selection of pubs across London recently and here are some of the highlights…
King William IV, Leyton.
The Bell, Walthamstow
Time Out London For Londoners book cover
The Coach and Horses, Soho
Finborough Arms, Kensington
Old Coffee House, Soho
Bradley’s Spanish Bar, Fitzrovia
The Lyric, Soho
The Sky Garden is a public space at the top of the Walkie Talkie building, (officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street) which opened in January 2015. It is home to restaurants and bars, plenty of foliage and great views of London. It is the highest garden in London and despite being only half as tall as the Shard, it’s well worth a visit (and it’s free!) See what happened to the Walkie Talkie building during construction here.
The Walkie Talkie building (with the less inspiring official name of 20 Fenchurch Street) in the City of London was completed in Spring 2014, and recently opened it’s top floors – known as the Sky Garden – to the public. In Autumn of 2013 during construction the building briefly became known as the Walkie Scorchie, as the sun reflected off of the concave glass creating a ray of light so hot that it melted parts of cars and heated the pavement to the point that you could fry an egg on it. This of course caused a media frenzy and I went along to photograph the events. [Since then the glass has been covered in a non reflective film to prevent this from happening].
As part of the excavation of a Crossrail site near Liverpool Street Station, a team of archaeologists moved in to find a huge amount of London history. A burial ground, Roman road and over 1000 artefacts spanning 2000 years has been dug up. This includes pottery, weapons and even a tiny golden phallus which would have been worn as a brooch to ward of evil spirits.
//// BEN ROWE photography /////// 