We were delighted to see that we are not the only High Street geeks out there: snapping London’s shop fronts seems to be a popular pastime. Which is excellent news: as John Londei’s exhibition showed us, things change, and it is important that someone is around to record what has been and what is before it becomes something else.
One of the best collections of such piccies we have found is by Emily Webber, who conveniently also contributes to the Londonist flickr pool. We asked her why she does what she does:
The shop fronts I choose tend to be a bit run down or some are shut down. They have something special about them and catch my eye, be it the signage, typography or decoration. They are a complete part of London at this point in time, a snapshot of this city in 2000's: as our highstreets change they are disappearing.
They are the sights of London that people tend to not notice or look at: showing them like this, full frontal with no people in the shots puts focus on how fascinating they are and asks questions about how they turned from new independent business ventures to be like they are.
Here are some of our favourites: enjoy them, but we would also hope that the sorry state of some of the premises will act as a timely reminder to you to look after your corner shop.
