The life and photography of Mr Bunny Chow

the theme this week was architecture and given that I’m lucky enough to live in a city full of wonderful architecture all I had to do was get on a train and take a picture of St Paul’s, the Tower of London, or even one of the modern monstrosities like the Shard or Gherkin.

Now where would the fun be in that, it’s just not my style to do things the easy way and anyway I really wanted to try to capture some of the gritty old buildings in my own town of Croydon (a suburb on the Southern outskirts of Greater London) it doesn’t have the best reputation and I’m sure that some of you at least will remember the images of large swathes of it being on fire during last years rioting.

I’ve lived here going on for 10 years now and despite one burglary have been fortunate enough to personally avoid any incidences of street crime or antisocial behavior, maybe I look tough or maybe I just look poor, I certainly am not stupid enough to think that this isn’t a tough area and I don’t take too many risks.

anyway this weeks theme has turned into a bit of a photo essay with lots of grimy gritty shots and odd injections of colour.

Above is the end of terrace shot I chose for my actual project submission mostly because I like the strong contrast and lines.

This is the opposite end of the same row of terraces.

despite walking past this pub almost every day it is so dingy and grimey that I’ve never even ventured through its doors and I like pubs with atmosphere and sawdust on the floor.

There’s a really odd mix of light industrial buildings mixed in with Victorian era terraces, if it wasn’t for all the satellite dishes this picture could have been taken any time in the last 100 years.

see there is colour here, one wonders what happened to the window though.

I love the way these doors look like a union flag

I can’t recall if it was the door or the pipe that were wonky

I just liked the lines and colour of this factory

it’s a truly lovely corner of south-east England

I can honestly think of no reason why there is an Art Deco beach apartment block in the middle of this industrial estate.

again I’m at a loss as to the point of these decorative touches.

there are some truly lovely architectural touches too.

And nature is even trying to reclaim some of the more hideous buildings

There is even some interesting textures available to be had

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this little porthole into my local architecture and the area where I live.

Next week we’re going to be talking about love and what that means so keep your diaries free.

Please let me know what you think in the comments section below

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow