London 1981

Peter MARSHALL


Gravesend, 1981
29p-35: gravel

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It isn't always easy to read the images on my contact sheets, or determine the exact order in which they were made as frame numbers are not always legible, and I sometimes have to go back to look at the negatives. At first I was misled because the strips of images on this sheet were printed out of order, but looking more carefully I am now sure that this picture was made in Gravesend, though there are few clues to the actual location, but the frame numbers indicate it was taken just previously before reaching the ferry pier at Gravesend. The two chimneys which just poke up over the metal wall are those of East Tilbury Power Station on the opposite side of the River Thames.
 
This was a time when considerable redevelopment was taking place along the riverfront in Gravesend and when the river wall both in London and downstream in Kent and Essex was being raised to cut down the risk to flooding. The Thames Barrier was about to be completed - it came into service a few months after I made this picture, though not officially opened for another 2 years - and as a part of of this programme flood defences for 11 miles down river were raised and strengthened, with work also taking place further downstream at Gravesend.
 
Though given the nature of the image, which is all about shapes, pattern and texture I suppose it hardly matters.