We’re seeing the bigger picture of the City of London in the early 1990s through these panoramic photographs. We’re mooching around London’s ancient centre thanks to Peter Marshall, who bought his first panoramic camera at the end of 1991 – a Japanese Panon Widelux F8. It took around 22 images each 56x24mm on a normal 36 exposure 35mm film.
St Swithin’s Lane, City, 1992
“Later I bough much cheaper Russian Horizon cameras that worked in a similar way, a Chinese 120 model and a Hassleblad X-Pan. The standard lnes for the X-Pan just wasn’t wide enough to produce really panoramic pictures, so I bought the wide-angle lens to go with it,” Peter tells us.
“These swing lens cameras where the lens rotates through an angle while taking the picture took some getting used to and for general use needed to be kept level in horizontal format. Most have a horizontal angle of view of around 120 to 140 degrees, considerably more than is possible with a normal camera, at the expense of curvature of objects away from the centre of the image. But lines parallel to the image edges and across its centre remain straight.”
Watling St, Bow Lane, City, 1993
Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Bank, City, 1992
Thames Barrier, Pier, River Thames, Riverside, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1992
St Michael’s, Cornhill, City, 1992
St Botolph WIthout, Aldgate, City, 1992
Smithfield Market, City, 1992
The City less changes than it piles on layers of dust, glass and bones. You walk on the dead as you stroll around The Square Mile. You feel the ghosts.
Londinium was established in around AD50, seven years after the Romans invaded Britain. You can see the remains of the City’s Roman wall – the foundations of the Roman Temple of Mithras, Billingsgate Roman House and Baths, and London’s only Roman Amphitheatre. Then came business and the guilds, the coffee house culture and the free market. The best time to see it is when everyone’s gone – only one in 33 people in the City by day calls it home. Peter knew that. So one morning in 1992, he went for a walk…
Simpsons, Chop House, Ball Court, City, 1992
Rotunda, London Wall, Aldersgate St, City, 1992
Piers, Blackfriars Rail Bridge, River Thames, City, 1992
Highwalk, Grants Quay Walk, River Thames, City, 1993
Roman Wall, Barbican, City, 1992
Victoria Embankent, Blackfriars, City, 1992
Throgmorton St, City, 1992
The Cockpit. Pub, St Andrew’s Hill, City, 1992
Saint Botolph’s Without, Aldersgate St, Little Britain, City, 1992
Wardrobe Place, City, 1992,
Lloyd’s Building, 1 Lime Street, City, 1992
Leadenhall Market, City, 1992
Great St Thomas Apostle, City, 1992
Cannon St, Queen Victoria St, City, 1992
Blackfriars Bridge, City, 1992
Bishopsgate, City, 1992
Barbican, City, 1992
West Smithfield, Farringdon St, City, City, 1992
Stock Exchange, Alley, Throgmorton St, City, 1992
Rotunda, Aldersgate, Montague St, City, 1992
Royal Exchange, Bank, City, 1992
Monkwell Square, City, 1992
London Wall, City, 1993
Leadenhall Market, City, 1992
Dean Wace House, Wine Office Court, City, 1992,
Bow Churchyard, City
Bassishaw Highwalk, City, 1993
Still & Star, Pub, Little Somerset St, City
Ludgate Circus, City, 1992
River Thames, City
Building Site, Ludgate Hill, City, 1992
Lower Thames Street, City
Carter Lane, City, 1992
Swan Lane Pier, London Bridge, River Thames, City
Baynard House, Queen Victoria St, City, 1992
See more of London with Peter Marshall on Flashbak and his Flickr.
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