Introduction
“On the route of the 19 bus” Joe Strummer from ‘Rudy Can’t Fail’ The Clash, 1979.
It's noisy, bumpy and not very comfortable - but, according to Vogue, the number 19 bus route is also one of the 14 most stylish locations in Britain, Evening Standard 2007.
The bus journey offers a unique opportunity for voyeurism; I am a spy across the city, invisible to the hordes going about their business and watching the city self-destruct in a frenzy of redevelopment. The 19 takes me from my home south of Battersea Bridge to Finsbury Park in the north, taking in the designer shopping of Sloan street, through West End tourist traps and the Cross Rail reconstruction of St Giles, on through trendy Islington and ending up in slightly run down, but moving towards ]1gentrification, Finsbury Park.
What becomes apparent from making this journey is how London is being torn apart by developers, the old run-down neglected parts of town which seem to be the soul of the city, are being ripped out and replaced by new apartments, office buildings and shopping malls. Ironically this homogenisation of London is destroying the very essence of what makes this city a desirable place to dwell.
Whatever my intentions these photographs can only offer a vague, sometimes blurred, impression how London streets and people look in 2014.
