Sheer Weight of Traffic

The Bricklayers Arms, Southwark - 2024

When I was growing up on the outskirts of London my dad used to drive us to school and we used to listen to the radio every morning. At that time the car was tuned to Capital Radio, the host was Chris Tarrant and the traffic reporter was Russ Kane in the “Flying Eye”

”The Flying Eye” was Russ Kane, in a light aircraft, reporting live from the air on the traffic situation across London, not super exciting for a small child you’d think. Well this small child paid attention and it stuck in my mind, the names of the junctions, of which I'd never been to or seen sounded so exotic and stuck in my mind too.

Names like:
The Sun in the Sands
The Hanger Lane Gyratory System
Charlie Browns Roundabout
The Crooked Billet Roundabout
Apex Corner and Staples Corner.

Most Londoners probably know 1 or 2 that they live near, the rest take on a sort of mythical status, we can name them having never seen them or been to them. They sound so much more exciting than they are and they have wonderful and varied histories, often named after pubs which stood close by.

Last year as part of an exhibition about Old Kent Road, I shot an aerial image (mosaic) of The Bricklayers Arms in Southwark. It was a little experimental, due to the technical requirements of shooting with a drone, i.e height restrictions and focal length, it required shooting a lot of images from different locations and then stitching the tiles together in post production. The resulting image was printed and exhibited on Old Kent Road at Livesey Exchange, I had good feedback and was excited that I had found a sort of beauty in something as mundane and procedural as a roundabout .

I’ve been researching junctions across London and this summer / autumn I’m going to begin documenting other roundabouts and junctions using the same technique. I'll also be digging in to their histories and exploring stories around these iconic road systems.

If anyone has any stories or memories similar to mine I would love to hear them
hello@whitewhitephoto.co.uk