Druid Street
Druid Street, London SE1, in the London Borough of Southwark has changed immeasurably in the 40 odd years I’ve been in and out of the area. I used to commute through here in the 1980s on my motorcycle, past the lock-ups located in railway arches beneath the line into London Bridge Station. Then, the arches contained small car mechanic firms and scrap merchants - the kind of businesses that the City workers across the Thames wouldn’t go near. The area was largely derelict, long overdue modernisation.
Today, in a number of ways, things haven’t changed much. There’s still a motor mechanic there from the 70’/80’s - they work with Porsche’s, particularly the older, now classic models - there’s still graffiti on the arches’ walls and a sense of desolation. But there are newer businesses - a bakery in one arch, a florist in another - but the big change here, and for about a mile running east along the arches into Bermondsey, are the micro-breweries that make up the Bermondsey Beer Mile. Druid Street, if coming out from the City, marks the start of this attraction which brings in large numbers of people every weekend, especially when the weather is playing fair.
There’s still a lot of derelict buildings, due for demolition. It’s a street of contrasts.
Photographed with a Fujifilm Xt-5 and XF18mm f/1.4 lens