Part 2 of A Day with Dickens with a 21st Century Camera

 In this second instalment of The Magic Lantern Experience with our mutual friend Andrea Artz I will show the 21st Century perspective captured with my camera and eyes rather than paper and pen. First to Bedford Row mentioned in Sketches by Boz and Uncommercial Traveller.

Here we explored camera angles trying the vertical and horizontal.

 Then to Lincoln's Inn Fields, mentioned in Bleak House. Here we considered the rule of thirds.

I was a little distracted by the beauty of Lincoln's Inn Garden also mentioned in Bleak House. Surely there must have been roses in Dickens time?

 Then onto Cary Street which runs along Lincoln's Inn Court and we worked with linear composition and parallel perspective. As you can see I was intent on capturing some of the detail of The Wig Shop

At number 51

 Was it through here in Bleak House that the entrance was to the old square?

 'We passed into sudden quietude,under an old gateway, and drove on through a silent square until we came to an odd nook in a corner, where there was an entrance up a steep, broad flight of stairs, like an entrance to a church. And there really was a churchyard, outside under some cloisters, for I saw the gravestones from the staircase window.'

But the gates were closed to us today and so that little exploration will have to wait until another day.

Past modern day transport and Bell Yard

 Into Chancery Lane, mentioned in Our Mutual Friend, Bleak House, Sketches by Boz and The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club

 Here we played with depth of field and detail and I worked on reflection.

 Then to Gough Square and Dr Samuel Johnson's House which I chose to view from the perspective of his cat Hodge just under this sign for Boswell House. I like the way the light touches the statue and you can imagine him waiting for the door to open so that he could stroll in. The oyster shells empty are empty after a little light supper.

Then on to Fleet Street and  St Paul's, destinations mentioned in Barnaby Rudge, Hard Times and David Copperfield amongst others. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was suggested as being the tavern referred to by Darnay and Carton in A Tale of Two Cities  

' ...down Ludgate Hill to Fleet Street, and so, up a covered way , into a tavern.Here they were shown into a little room, where Charles Darnay was soon recruiting his strength with a good plain dinner and good wine.'

Some say it was actually The Cock which is on the other side of Fleet Street. But for composition today, cropping and scale we were happy to accept this version.  

We had started to look up, with St Paul's in the distance and now we needed to search the London skies some more.

 We had arrived at Fleet Street at Temple Bar, where the City meets Westminster. We shot into the light to obtain a dark image. Rather striking. Mentioned in Bleak House amongst many others and of course A Tale of Two Cities.

Heads still upwards as we entered Drury Lane, the land of Theatre so we could expect some dramatic scenes. Mentioned in The Old Curiosity Shop . We worked on reflections, shadows, architecture and some of us indulged in some street photography, we did ask first!

                          This reminded me of New York. But no it is London.

A fellow photographer .

I wonder what Dickens would have made of this character and what name he would have given him?

                           All is not beautiful in this city of London. I think this is supposed to be lovely but the planting had not been recently attended to and I loved the juxtaposition with the street sign.

Motion blur or panning. How different are these from Dickensian forms of transport?

The onwards to the end of our story, but the beginning for Dickens for many characters- The Seven Dials.

Quoted from Sketches by Boz

'Where is there such another maze of streets, courts,lanes,and alleys?The streets and courts dart in all directions until they are lost in the unwholesome vapour which hangs over the house-tops, and renders the dirty perspective uncertain and confined.'

                                                                 
                                                              Street traders

And my favourite for a contemporary consideration of how little character changes over time, it is just the year that is different.

So thank you Charles Dickens Museum and Andrea Artz for helping me consider the City of London through Dickensian eyes and record it with 21st Century technology.

Charles Dickens Museum

                                                              Andrea Artz