Photography and local history

Moving to a new area is exciting. When we moved to Brockley in South East London, I didn’t know anything about the area, except that it is quite underrated and many people have never heard of it. When I went for a walk to explore my new neighbourhood, I found a nice little bakery, a few cozy coffee places and plenty of restaurants.

But to my disappointment, I couldn’t find any local cinema.
Turns out I am about 50 years late, because that’s when many old cinemas in the area were destroyed.

I found this on the blog of Brockley Jack Film Club, who gathered archive pictures of local cinemas and pasted them onto pictures of today. I find the result completely shocking, not necessarily because of the change itself, but because almost all the streets changed for the worse! It really pains me to see how many of these old buildings have disappeared and I wonder how local people, who still remember them, feel about these changes. This is a trend which is happening in many places.

I always liked collage and I really like how using archival material in this project makes these seemingly boring street views suddenly burst with nostalgia.

You can see the results for yourself, more pictures here.

 

Eros Cinema in Catford, demolished in 1960

New Cross Empire, closed in 1954, demolished later

The Ritz in Brockley, demolished in 1960 (this is actually just around the corner from where I live now)

 

I remember seeing more and more beautiful old buildings being demolished my home country (Luxembourg). It would be interesting to start documenting this change before it’s all gone.

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