Last week I uploaded my 20,000th photo to Flickr. That is a lot of photos, the equivalent of 18 photos a week over 21 years, and also a lot of effort trimming, labelling and geolocating them all. One day someone'll pull the plug on Flickr and it'll all have been wasted, but for now it's a marvellous resource as well as an amazing time capsule of places past. The 20,000th photo was of the Network SouthEast clock outside Victoria station, by the way.
One thing Flickr allows me to do is look on a map to see where all my photographs are located. It doesn't allow you to do this, that facility was withdrawn years ago, but I'm allowed a map so that I can drop every fresh photo onto its correct geographical location.
I wondered if there were any parts of London I hadn't photographed, so I used Flickr to cobble together a giant map of the capital and started looking for the gaps. Last time I tried this (for 15,000 photos) the largest circular gap had a diameter of three miles. I plugged all of those in 2019 and today the largest gap is more like two miles across. I should say only gaps that fall within the Greater London boundary are included.
Altogether I found nine large gaps where, inexplicably, I had still never uploaded a photo. I had been to all of these places and generally taken photos, just never stuck any of them on Flickr. Sometimes the area was a bit dull, sometimes the weather had been miserable and sometimes I just decided not to upload one. But today I thought I'd raid those unFlickrd photos to fill in the gaps, and to see if I could tempt you to take a look at ten belated shots.
Gap 1:Between Ruislip and the A40, mostly around RAF Northolt Why the gap? Highly secure airfields are obviously off limits. Walking alongside the A40 here is strongly ill-advised. I have yet to blog about the Yeading Brook. New photo: The seriously unlovely entrance to Ruislip Gardens station. The tube station opened as a temporary halt in 1948 but this boxy frontage dates to 1962. Originally it featured a concrete butterfly canopy but that's long gone and the only note of interest is the wall of vertical grey Westmoreland slate strips. John Betjeman's famous poem ("Gaily into Ruislip Gardens runs the red electric train...") was written in 1954 so preceded this characterless portal. [photo taken 2019]
Gap 2:East of Hadley Wood up the Cockfosters Road Why the gap? Other than the mansion avenues of Hadley Wood, away from the station, most of this area is open farmland in the valley of the Salmons Brook. My photos of the Trent Park obelisk and Camlet Moat on London Loop section 17 came out badly. New photo: Spring daffodils along the side of Cockfosters Road, quite near the end of Ferny Hill. I used this photo in a blogpost about the demise of the 84 bus while testing out the ridiculous 399/299 alternative, but never uploaded a large version to Flickr. [photo taken 2022]
Gap 3:Enfield Highway, between Brimsdown and the Great Cambridge Road Why the gap? The former A10 is fairly monotonous and this isn't its most interesting section. Hereabouts is non-stop interwar suburbia and not in an exciting way. Enfield Wash and Ponders End I've been to many times but mainly only passed through Enfield Highway. New photo: Some of the shopping parade, also the tips of St James' tower (1831), also the sadly-closed Sporting Green pub (shuttered 2024), also the substation in the next photo, also the local Co-op. I always associate Enfield Highway with the Co-op, the Enfield Highway Co-Operative Society once being one of London's largest with several stores, thousands of members and a brief penchant for house-building. Alas the modern store is called "Hertford Road's Co-op" so no nod to the past there. [photo taken yesterday] Another new photo: The North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company brought electricity to the Lea Valley between 1900 and 1948. Their bricky substation is part-shielded behind another historic throwback, an annotated map of the 90 stores along the length of the Enfield Highway Shopping Centre. [photo taken yesterday]
Gap 4:Seven Kings, between Ilford and Goodmayes Why the gap? Seven Kings is one of the more featureless Crossrail stations. When I walked the Loxford Water, a proper minor unlost river, none of my photos made it to Flickr. New photo: I didn't take a great selection while river-walking but approaching ducks in the lake at South Park is probably the best. [photo taken 2019]
Gap 5:The godforsaken lanes on the edge of Havering beyond Rainham Why the gap? It's grim out here in what I like to call the Hacton void, a nomansland of landfill and backlanes with occasional scrappy homesteads. I've only explored the area once on a snowy November day and have no burning desire to go back. This was one of my 3-mile Unflickrd gaps back in 2019, and thethreephotos I added still left a two mile gap. New photo: Flytipping in Little Gerpins Lane, a backway to the council tip that Havering sometimes blocks off so the despoliation doesn't get worse. [photo taken in 2017]
Gap 6:Coombe, the affluent avenues between Richmond Park and New Malden Why the gap? Inexplicable. I've been to Norbiton station, Kingston hospital and the Ladderstile Gate several times. I've walked private Warren Road to see the fourth telegraph station on the way to Portsmouth. I've had every opportunity to fill in this larger than average Flickr gap but never have. New photo: Many years ago as part of Heritage Open Days I got to look inside Coombe Conduit, a springhead used to pump drinkable water three miles to Hampton Court before Henry VIII moved in. English Heritage open up for a few hours on the fourth weekend of the month (Apr - Oct) and it's free to take a look. [photo taken in 2010] Another new photo: Dickerage Road. If I piqued your interest yesterday, here's a chance to enjoy an erection by the mini-roundabout (over 16s only). [photo taken in 2022]
Gap 7:Upper Woodcote Village, north of Coulsdon Why the gap? They're not keen on visitors here, a lot of the lanes west of Purley being luxuriantly private. Other suburban avenues north of Coulsdon have names like The Grove, The Ridge, The Vale and The Wend, and unless you're passing through on the 434 bus there's no reason to intrude. Wow, I really should have dropped in before. New photo: William Webb built a pioneering Garden Estate here in the 1890s, followed by a Model Village with a four acre green surrounded by unfeasibly large rustic houses. It's a gorgeous spot complete with fake stocks and what looks like a pub in one corner but was actually a temperance house and still doesn't serve alcohol, just a lot of froth, cakes and eggy brunch. My photo is of the Lord Roberts On The Green beside the war memorial, packed behind very necessary free parking, and I absolutely have to come back to tell the story of this premium enclave properly. [photo taken yesterday]
Gap 8:Off-arterial suburbia between Erith and Barnehurst Why the gap? I think because I genuinely hadn't been before bar changing buses once. The backend of Bexley is unremittingly residential in a lowbrow manner, with just the one tower block and occasional glimpses of the QE2 Bridge at the end of a semi-detached canyon. The joy of Unflickrd is discovering London still has neighbourhoods left to reveal even after two decades of full-on exploration. New photo: It's quite flaggy out here but this house on Hurstwood Avenue excels itself - one full-on St George's cross, a lot of bunting and a questionable amount of fake topiary almost like they buy another leafy bauble on every visit to the garden centre. [photo taken on Sunday]
