London 1981

Peter MARSHALL


Wharf, Wapping, 1981
29g-25: wharf,street, derelict, Tower Hamlets,

You can click on the image to go to the next picture

I wondered why this section of wall where two demolished buildings met had been left here on Wapping High St, left for at least a season for the buddleia (or buddhlea) to grow out from it. Linnaeus got the spelling wrong in his Species Plantarum when he named this after English botanist Reverend Adam Buddle (1662–1715) but according to Wikipedia, the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature requires it to be spelt Buddleja, following Linnaeus. The 'j' was apparently a symbol commonly used for a 'long i'.
 
But rather than the shrub, I think I was more interested in the brickwork, with its small circular orifice, bricked up doorways and other oddities including the two cross ends of the bracing struts of the no longer standing building behind. Both sloping edges of the brick and the left vertical edge have also been covered with mortar for protection, unlike the ragged broken brick at the bottom and top right. I wondered if this brick had been left free-standing for many years, perhaps even since the area was heavily bombed in the war.
 
Building work was obviously going on behind these joined walls with what I think is an ORU on-site concrete mixer. The road sign (with E1 for some reason painted out) was I think probably opposite Clave St.
 
Although I can't remember having exhibited this image as a photograph, it was one I produced as a screen print in an edition of probably around 30 copies of which I probably have one or two left somewhere. It will have involved perhaps 5 or 6 printings with different colour inks (transparent and opaque), starting with a mid-tone and then printing in shadows and highlights from tonal separations with some blocking out of areas, and was a long and complex process.
 
Although I prefer the photograph, screen prints were definitely more saleable. I still have the home-built vacuum press and printing frame (bought, but stored in the rigid carrying case I made for it) in the loft but haven't used it for over 20 years. Photography is far more interesting