Jan 11, 2009 Earlier today, a quite remarkable milestone was passed as the 100,000th person looked at my Flickr collection of photos of an “Abandoned London” taken on Christmas morning – which is quite staggering.
When I got up on Christmas morning, I really had no idea if the photo session would work – it was just an idea to cycle into town and see what was possible. For all I knew, the West End would be as busy as a normal morning and the trip would be a waste, and to be honest I was really tempted to skip the project as, like half of London, I had a bad cold. Indeed, I was so grotty that I on the way into town, I had decided to stop at Tower Bridge, take some photos and go back home. Fortunately, I took a wrong turn and ended up at Bank for the first photos of the morning. Even though I knew the City would be abandoned, getting there heartened me to carry on to the West End.
That wrong turn probably saved the morning!
However, the one thing I never expected was the reaction to the photos once I put them up here on the blog and on my Flickr account. I hoped the photos would be interesting – and I am delighted that so many people seem to have liked the end results.
However, it has been truly quite staggering how people have reacted to the photos I took, especially as I am but an amateur with the camera and can’t consider the photos to more than just tourist snaps.
They were also featured on the Daily Telegraph‘s website, which was rather awesome and loads of other blogs and websites commented on the images.
One thing which cannot come across in the photos is the silence of the city though – and the experience of cycling around an empty city really is something which I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone willing to try it one Christmas morning. The photos are one thing, but to be there yourself – that is quite something else.
I get the impression from comments going around the place that a fair number of cities will have photographers out in force this coming Christmas – which should be quite exciting to see.
Stats Porn:
The Flickr Set > 100,000 views & 48 comments.
The individual photos > 317,000 views, 299 favourites & 123 comments.
7 Comments 
abandoned london, christmas day, flickr, Photos
Dec 25, 2008 A couple of years ago I had the idea that it might be fun to take photos of London without humans – yes, I was motivated by that scene in Westminster from 28 Days Later. Unfortunately, not being a film director I was not really in the position to have half of London sealed off for photos – but realised that on Xmas morning there could be an opportunity.
Alas, last year it poured down with rain – but this year the weather was good, and despite having a bad cold for the past few days I was determined to get up early and cycle around the West End of London taking photos.
Despite the early hour and nature of the day, there were still some people around, and as I started heading home at around 11am, some of the tourist locations were almost as busy as a normal day.
Below are some of my personal favourites, and the whole collection of 68 photos can be found on my usual Flickr account.
Most of the photos are literally as the scene presented itself, although on a few occasions there were the odd car I had to wait to pass, or just didn’t bother waiting and cropped the photo a bit.
Click on the photos for larger versions
The full collection of 68 photos availableon my Flickr account.
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