Industrial bits of London

rainbow_carnage

I'm looking for some grotty, industrial bits of London for photo-taking purposes. Are there any left? I mean places that haven't been converted into loft-style apartments yet.

pseudonym

You could try Beckton gasworks out at Gallions Reach in East London. Its between a sprawling retail park and a yuppie development so you'd best be quick before it becomes an IMAX-cum-sculpture-park

poxy

Try this for inspiration / stealing... <http://www.derelictlondon.com/>;

David

Andy and I took a Saturday out to investigate Stepney Green recently. While not particularly industrial, its definitely a shithole and would qualify for the grotty criteria. Not London but my last tour of Tilbury docks and Harwich was particularly disturbing for the industrial side of things.

andy

Touring Stepney - this is how we spend our weekends. I think there's this part of London - I think called "South London", that's mostly industrial wasteland.

tink

I think if you walk out along the Grand Union Canal beyond Grenwich you get to proper still in use old shipyards and warehouses - might be quite interesting visually...

krappyrubsnif

I could be wrong but I didn't think the Grand Union Canal goes beyond Greenwich. In fact doesn't it stop at Limehouse on the N bank? I think you may be thinking of something called the River Thames.

David

A quick ride on the DLR from Stratford out to City Airport would give you some good points of reference for investigation around Silvertown. The Tate & Lyle factory and the gloriously run down [Spillers Millenium Mill](http://www.thesnappingbishop.co.uk/blog/imgs/Mill12.jpg) - also just off there you have Erno Goldfinger's three estates in Poplar, my favourite being [Glenkerry House](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenkerry_House), not sure why, think its the three chimney-like things out the block at the top, I always imagine it as a secret Lex Luther hideout. If you could get access to Spillers I reckon you'd have a field day.

andy

Actually, Silvertown is a good shout. The Tate & Lyle factory is the largest refiner of cane sugar in the world - a legacy of empire, because cane sugar came from african and caribbean countries to be refined in England. (Naturally the British wouldn't let those countries refine it themselves - the imperial policy of only taking commodities and "adding value" in the UK) So even today, it's a product of tariffs and world trade, whilst from a photographic point of view, a bloody great big dirty factory.

rainbow_carnage

Many thanks for all the suggestions. I'll check them out.

nat

We did the thames river cruise to the barrier last week and you can see a lot of these from the river - might not be great to photograph from the boat but would give you a view of a few potential sites in one go. its half price (£5) for the return trip if you book online.

Incidentally my favourite is Balfron, David - its the separate lift shafts that always do it for me.