Tags
Angerstein hotel, antigallican, Charlton, East Greenwich, fire station, Frankie & Benny, Fuji X-E1, Fuji XT10, london, mirror shop, photography, photowalk, pickwicks, rose of denmark, SE London, SE7, south east London, Starbucks, woolwich road
I took my cameras for a walk along Woolwich Road between two landmark pubs, starting at the Angerstein Hotel; passing the landmark shops (‘mirror’, and ‘ass’); the unexplained shipping container of Holmwood Villas; East Greenwich fire station; Pickwick’s pub (recently closed); the motorway service station architectural vibes of Frankie & Benny’s and Starbucks; the Rose of Denmark pub; the out-of-town-shopping-centre-but-in-town incongruous mass of M&S and Sainsbury’s; Valley House (awaiting demolition); and finishing up at The Antigallican. The sun was belting hot and not particularly nice for photography, there was too much traffic, and there are far too many signposts and the like cluttering the view along there, but it was an interesting exercise; I might try it again in the winter.
NeilClasper 
I love the mirror shop pictures! And the area looks very photogenic to me 🙂
It was a shame the mirror shop wasn’t open – he usually has a large range of resin meerkats, pigs, etc, out on display in the street,
Brilliant photos, and a great way to chronicle how that particular part of the world is changing. I haven’t had a proper look around since the redevelopment there – there really is a huge contrast between old and new.
Thanks! It’s only when I started photographing them and looking more closely that I realised there’s a whole range of the ‘modern’ there, from the 80’s leisure centre style of the fire station, to the newer shops – which even differ in that M&S and Sainsbury’s are finished with much better quality materials than the even newer Starbucks and Frankie & Benny’s. It’ll be interesting to see how the replacement for Valley House fits in: will it help join it all up, or just be another development marooned amongst the traffic?
As much as I don’t mind a bit of variety, it would be nice to see some proper town planning when several developments take place within a short space of time. It seems a bit of a wasted opportunity to create some interesting public spaces that people want to spend time in, which is surely a benefit economically as well as just a Good Thing.
I love that mirror shop! I used to go as a child and it was always so exciting in there. Especially the random statues. Yes, the redevelopment round there still seems very strange- I used to live bang opposite where the M&S now is and it was just wasteland for years. Agree it would have bene much better as an open public space.
The shipping container is storage for a scaffolding company… Guess you know the history of the arches at the end of Holmwood Villas? Used to be a very impressive facade for a massive factory. Google image search for “Holmwood Villas” will turn up a sketch of what was… Shame it was not preserved.
Thanks Tony, that’s really interesting. I know the old tram depot was down that way – was it connected to the factory?