you last heard from me in june, when i was about to leave with my girlfriend, the indominatable mlle. laine, for europe. six weeks, seven destinations, eleven plane rides: we're back. it wasn't quite a whirlwind tour, since we had about a week to soak up each place, except for lisbon.

i am preparing ten threads that i will post in august and september. this is the first.

KILGORE IN EUROPE :: Photo Schedule

01 -- LONDON (Part One)
02 -- PARIS (Part One)
03 -- ROME
04 -- MADRID (Part One)
05 -- PARIS (Part Two)
06 -- LISBON
07 -- MADRID (Part Two)
09 -- PARIS (Part Three)
10 -- LONDON (Part Three)

the photos in this series were taken by myself, except for those taken by mlle. laine, which are noted.


LONDON
part one

it's been pointed out before, but needs to be said again: london is vast. it is a los angeles linked by rail instead of highways, a world unto itself in a way that only a handful of cities are. our time in london was spent exploring the city from morning until night, walking until our feet hurt and taking breathers on the upper decks of buses as they wound their way through the city.

there were many things i enjoyed about london -- its feeling of completeness, the cultural diversity, the consistent, low-level urbanity spread across hundreds of square miles, never overly intense but always busy, human-scaled and cosy. the place's expense was a real turn-off, though. although we found extremely cheap accommodations, we spent more here just to feed ourselves -- at supermarkets and the cheapest restaurants we could find, no less -- than we spent in total in any other city. everything was prohibitively expensive. everything but books and beer, that is.


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7 - photo by elaine tam
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32 - photo by elaine tam
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67 - photo by elaine tam
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Great photos! Nice to see pics of the people of London, and of places like Brixton!

Amazing pics!!

the place's expense was a real turn-off, though. although we found extremely cheap accommodations, we spent more here just to feed ourselves -- at supermarkets and the cheapest restaurants we could find, no less -- than we spent in total in any other city. everything was prohibitively expensive.

http://www.urbanphoto.net/gallerytwo/g2data/albums/London/039.JPG

Lol, you should have taken advantage of this grocery, 5 plantains for £1 isn't too bad! 4 Peaches for £1 in the other photo could have kept you fed cheaply too.

There are also £5 all you can eat buffets in Chinatown although the quality isn't always up to much.

But yes, London is expensive, even compared to the rest of the UK.

sure, taken in context, the grocery stores aren't too expensive. (50p croissants at tesco were our breakfast for the whole week!) but it's hard not to convert everything into canadian dollars... and by home standards, £1 for four peaches is very expensive -- and the bad chinese buffets here cost £2.50, not £5. it's silly but you can't help thinking about it.

thanks for the replies!

I love your pictures of people, I look forward to the rest of the threads

I'm sorry I'm going to say this, but I will. London looks like a total dump in those pictures. The pictures themselves are nice, perhaps a little dark, but it all looks so depressing. Many are the kinds of places I try to avoid.

great shots, cant wait for the other cities :)

I'm sorry I'm going to say this, but I will. London looks like a total dump in those pictures. The pictures themselves are nice, perhaps a little dark, but it all looks so depressing. Many are the kinds of places I try to avoid.

When you go outside the city-centre of most large cities, you will find a mix of places from poor to rich. "Total-Dump"? I see no slums, no serious poverty, no abandoned runs....

The pictures themselves are nice, perhaps a little dark

if the photos look dark, you need to adjust your monitor. if it's properly calibrated they should look fairly bright.

cool pictures of everyday life

I'm sorry I'm going to say this, but I will. London looks like a total dump in those pictures. The pictures themselves are nice, perhaps a little dark, but it all looks so depressing. Many are the kinds of places I try to avoid.

They are just pictures of everyday people and regular neighbourhoods rather than the usual tourist sightseeing trail and wealthy districts that people often post.I think this makes a nice change and I like goingto these type of areas when i'm visiting a city. I've yet to visit a city that doesn't have its scruffier parts anyway.

Great pics M. kilgoretrout. You've captured the London that I love. Liked that Corbusier-esque apartment complex in picture no. 26. Looking forward to seeing your pics from the rest of your travels.

I love it....you've captured the city, the activity, and the people so wonderfully


can't wait for the rest of the series :)

Cool series!

Excellent!

I think they are great photos of everyday life in London.

In which parts of London were those shot? They´re really awesome!

Forgetting the subject matter for a second, those pictures are extremely well taken. amazingly well balanced and composed. Youre clearly a natural photographer.

Nice shots of parts of London which the visitor usually doesnt see. The areas werent super wealthy, but the pictures showed the beautiful architecture that exists even off the beaten path in London, which is the greatest big city in the world IMO.

I'm sorry I'm going to say this, but I will. London looks like a total dump in those pictures. The pictures themselves are nice, perhaps a little dark, but it all looks so depressing. Many are the kinds of places I try to avoid.

haha, let your life pass you by Xenophobe

Just saw your Paris pics. These are great, too! Great youthful, vibrant, London life depiction.

I can't wait for part two..
btw, can I make a suggestion for your next trip :D : Barcelona-Marseille-Amsterdam-Milan-Berlin.

sure, taken in context, the grocery stores aren't too expensive. (50p croissants at tesco were our breakfast for the whole week!) but it's hard not to convert everything into canadian dollars... and by home standards, £1 for four peaches is very expensive -- and the bad chinese buffets here cost £2.50, not £5. it's silly but you can't help thinking about it.

thanks for the replies!

I take it you are canadian then? which is strange you say this, as iv just been in Canada and I really didnt find it as cheap as i was expecting. Once converted into £ buying drinks in bars, with tips for each drink, often worked out more expensive!!

But anyway, I really think you have captured London, and admire the fact that you have ventured off the beaten track. You are also a brilliant photographer!

it's true that alcohol in north america is more expensive than in europe (€2.50 bottles of wine in france!) draught beer in particular is cheap in the UK, as i noted in my introduction.

but surely you noticed that most other things were cheaper in canada, especially food and transportation.

^yeah true i guess. I reckon things like rent are also where you would really notice the difference. Don't worry, im not even going to pretend that London isn't expensive (especially for somone coming from a country without a favourible exchange rate)!! I never find it a problem though, as in a city of London's size I can always find ways to do things cheaply, though I guess you have to live here to know many of the hidden secrets!

Either way, I hope London's price didn't spoil your stay too much!

London is really expensive, more than NYC. I remember when i visited London (my brother and I) had to buy food in the supermarket because the restaurants in the city center were really expensive and we didnt want to eat always fish and chips and mcdonals lol

http://www.urbanphoto.net/gallerytwo/g2data/albums/London/057.JPG

What what WHAT!?

I live here!

Anyway, great pics of the 'real' london (though of course, The City and Westminster are no less real.)

About the prices...yeah. It does hurt sometimes. Though when I went to the US, like apparently canada the drinks were more expensive - and as we went out drinking every night it soon mounted up...

They are just pictures of everyday people and regular neighbourhoods rather than the usual tourist sightseeing trail and wealthy districts that people often post.I think this makes a nice change and I like goingto these type of areas when i'm visiting a city. I've yet to visit a city that doesn't have its scruffier parts anyway.

First, I would disagree with hellolazyness by saying that these pictures certainly do not make London looks like a total "dump" even though most of them were not taken in its best areas; London still looks good.

Second, why does one has to visit scruffier or gritty areas to see the "real" city? Are nicer regions not real or parts of a city? Do they really exist only in the touristy areas? I’d be damned if grittiness is all that London has to offer outside it tourist zone. Last time I went to London, I made the conscious decision to stay away from tourist spots as much as I could, and still managed to experience many nice, leafy and cozy neighborhoods that I would also include among the everyday neighborhoods. How often do we see them on this forum?

Finally, aren't there enough threads going on that focus on London's grittiness such as "London they don’t want you to see" or "Old dirty London"? I think it would also be a nice change for someone to go into areas that are not in Central London, yet not so dirty. For instance, it is not often when we see threads on, say, Richmond, Fulham, Chishwick, Greenwich, Barnes, Ealing, Hamstead, Highgate, Golder Greens, Little Venice, to name a few. Or does it have to be Harlesdon for it to be "real" London?

great just great, stellar mate :cheers:

awesome art shots!

Huge respect for venturing into areas like Dalston! You went waaay off the tourist track there mate, well done to yourself. I grew up round those ends and everyone says it's a "no-go area". BOLLOCKS! Go to Ridley Road on a market day, the place is alive with energy. To people slagging London's poor areas off: never once have in my life have I been mugged or assaulted walking around those places, even in the dead of night. I feel safe anywhere I go in London, ANYWHERE. Not because i'm oblivious to what's going on, but because i'm not a sheltered insecure bag of nerves.

And for the people who say London's "nice" areas are just as much part of "real London" as it's poor areas, you are right of course and it's stupid to argue it. BUT there is still a very good reason why terms like "grime" and the "grit" do get associated with phrases like "real" and "everyday", and it's because the rich areas are far more segregated and exclusive than the poor ones. They are essentially rich ghettoes, the lifestyle there is very self-confined. If you're not rich and affluent then you don't feel welcomed. Whereas boroughs like Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth etc, things are much more mixed up. You can practically walk through a poor area to a middle class area and then back into a poor area again within the space of less than five minutes! People of all cultures, nationalities and annual incomes shop at the same places, eat at the same restaurants, drink at the same pubs and live in the same streets. THAT is real London. Ask your average person there what they think of places like Highgate and Chelsea, they will tell you that it's very nice and all, but like a completely different world to them. So it's true that we may live in the same city, but sometimes it's like we're existing in completely different worlds here.

Just trying to explain it like it is really. I am London born and bred, don't get me wrong I love the place with all my heart but fuck me it does piss me off sometimes! Gotta take a bit of rough with the smooth 'n all that, I guess.

I think the photos are very honest depictions of daily life in London. These are not typical tourist photos. They are not intended to make London look like some elitist bastion either. Give kilgoretrout credit. He goes on vacation and spends much of it snapping photos that he can share with the rest of the cyber world. He is a giver, not a taker.

I am curious to know where kilgoretrout is heading off to next. Perhaps South America, The Balkan Peninsula, Cambodia?.... or maybe....Philadelphia.

Best photos of London I've seen.

You captured London the way I know it.