Splashing a refreshing twist in the form of HDR filters on some of this city’s most photographed icons, Fred255‘s vision of London is a work of art. I’ve featured Fred on LLO many times before, so if you follow along, there’s no need for introduction. Here are 13 of his latest submissions to the Flickr pool with explanations below.

Pedestrian tunnel at Blackfriars Bridge.

Blackfriars Bridge, built to a design by Joseph Cubitt, Blackfriars Bridge was completed in 1869 with five wrought iron arches.





London looks good when I rains. City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA) which comprises the Mayor of London and London Assembly. It is located in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. It was designed by Norman Foster and opened in July 2002, two years after the Greater London Authority was created.

A different view of a Stothert and Pitt Crane in Royal Victoria Dock London.

Spillers Millenium Mills next to the ultra mordern Eastern Quays Apartment block.

Lloyd’s Building, such a photogenic building. It was designed by architect Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986. Bovis was the management contractor for the scheme. Like the Pompidou Centre (designed by Renzo Piano and Rogers), the building was innovative in having its services such as staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits and water pipes on the outside, leaving an uncluttered space inside.

The St Botolph Building, 138 Houndsditch, London, EC3. Designed by leading international architects Grimshaw, one of significant architectural meritsi s the glass cladding. St Botolphs is ideally located at the heart of the prestigious EC3 insurance district, a short walk from the Lloyd’s Building.

More of Lloyd’s Building.

30 St Mary Axe, better known by its nickname Gherkin, is one of the most eye-catching buildings in London and it stands out prominently in the city’s skyline. The Gherkin is one of several modern buildings that have been built over the years in a historic area of London. This is a 5 photo HDR, but instead of using the tone mapping process I used fusion.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was commissioned to design the building. His other buildings include Liverpool Cathedral, Bankside Power Station, Waterloo Bridge and the classic red telephone box.

The building is in fact a steel girder frame and Sir Giles designed the exterior brick cladding and the tower-like bases of the four chimneys. It is the largest brick building in Europe.

In effect Battersea is two power stations and the familiar silhouette of four chimneys did not appear until 1953 and for the first 20 years the building had a long rather than four-square appearance, with a chimney at each end. But even this appearance caused positive comments, described as a temple of power and to rank as a London landmark equal with St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 1939 a survey of celebrities voted it their 2nd favourite building when canvassed by the Architects Journal.

The construction of ‘B’ Station was begun a few months after World War 2 to bring Battersea to a total capacity of 509 megawatts and the 3rd. largest power station in the U.K.

This huge project, begun by the London Power company 30 years before, was to be completed by the British Electric Authority when the electricity supply was nationalised in 1948. Battersea “B” station began operating in 1953 and had the highest thermal efficiency of all power stations and provided one fifth of Londons total electricity supplies, ( 28 other stations generated the rest )

Throughout the whole of its life Battersea has been a symbol of the electricity industry to the media and the general public alike.

Battersea Power Station ceased all production of electricity in 1983 leaving the Electricity Board with the problem of what to do with the building. They had planned, before the Grade 2 listing was conferred, that demolition and sale of the 15 acres of land would bring “welcome revenue” but they were now left with the high costs of preserving the building instead. To rid themselves of this responsibility they decided to offer the Power Station for any alternative use that they deemed financially viable. They held a competition in 1983 to encourage developers to submit ideas and from a short-list of 10 schemes, a panel of experts lead by Sir Hugh Casson chose an idea for a theme park based on episodes from Britain’s industrial history as the only financially viable entry.

The Electricity Board had made a token attempt to involve the local community in the competition with a separate section for schools and other organisations to submit their ideas but there was no question that this section could win the competition.

Local people were allowed to vote on the different schemes through a self selecting ballot but the result was not to influence the panel, and an area of a mere 10,000 square feet was to be for the communities use in any winning scheme.

Local people had worked hard to make it the most efficient power station, many devoting their entire working lives to the success of the station. The surrounding area, largely housing estates for working people, would be affected by any new use for the station.

It still stands derelict looks like the so called developers are waiting for the iconic building to become so unsafe that it can be pulled down. The land is more valuable to them, without the power station. Myself and many others feel London would lose out if this was allowed to happen.

The Shard is a skyscraper in London, United Kingdom. Standing 309.6 metres (1,016 ft) high, it was topped out on 30 March 2012 and opened on 5 July 2012. The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union, and is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the 330-metre (1,083 ft) concrete tower at the Emley Moor transmitting station.

Regents Canal, Camden

On the banks of the Regents Canal.

Autumn light on Regents Canal

If you missed the previous posts featuring Fred’s work have a look in the treasure chest of the LLO archives.