Over a dozen camera toting Bromley Camera Club members met on Tower Bridge for the start of our outing, with most electing to go into "The Tower Bridge Experience", where we took the lift up to the high walkways. They are completely glassed in, but there are several small opening windows to allow photography without the "benefit" of glass, and club members took full advantage of these, with a tripod appearing in front of most of them! The day was cloudy with intervals when the sun came out, and we were lucky enough to catch one of those intervals while on the walkways.
The space inside the south tower has a number of sculptures of workmen installed in the ceiling space, and more than one tripod appeared as members attempted to capture these figures. When that was all done, we descended in the lift and followed the blue line to the machinery room at the south end, where there were some interesting pieces of machinery, and some animated figures conversing about the opening of the bridge by Edward, Prince of Wales.
With Tower Bridge "done", a dockside cafe within St.Katharine Docks was the lunch venue, after which people scattered in various directions. I think some of them toured "HMS Belfast", and I know that our club president visited Thomas More Square, although I don't think he suffered the same fate I did there: a security guard told me that I needed permission to take photographs on private property. As the best views required me to step off the pavement, and as I work just up the road, I will probably contact the management for permission and return another day.
Stephen and I headed north from Thomas More Square, taking in Leman Street, where there's an interesting clock tower; Prescot Street, where there's a green and fawn coloured building with lots of round bits; and Minories, where there's a very interesting building with gold toned reflective windows. This building appeared to suffer less from the lack of direct sunlight that affected the latter part of the afternoon, so a certain amount of film was expended upon it.
Then we completed the circle and went back into St.Katharine Docks for some twilight photography. The shot I'd planned on taking proved impossible due to a large blue and yellow ship obscuring it, but I managed to improvise, and found a shot with the top of Thomas More Square and some reflections in the dock basin which may turn out to be a "photograph" rather than a "snap". Some of the other buildings in the St.Katharine Docks area are pleasantly lit at night, and a certain amount of film was expended on these, before we headed back towards Tower Bridge, which I'd never photographed from the north east before. The view isn't as uncluttered as the one from the south west, but a few more frames were reeled off anyway.
By then it was definitely night time and our feet were getting tired. When we discovered that the cobbled road past the Tower of London was shut, the idea of walking along the river front to look for any late photo opportunities was dropped, and we went back to Tower Gateway and made our way home from there, hopeful that there may be some Kerri Cup or Steinberger Cup material for next season among the day's photographs.
Helen
Click here for pictures taken during the day.
Last Revised: 17th May, 2003.