Bradley L Garrett
Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital
Prestel; 2014
This is a beautifully produced book of photographs which peels back the layers under London’s streets and brings you clandestine views of all those things we depend on but which are largely out of sight: sewers, cable tunnels, the tube, communications hubs and even Crossrail construction.
It is the work of a group of either brave or foolhardy (depending on one’s point of view) explorers intent on making this infrastructure visible, often when the authorities don’t wish it to be. They follow on in the pioneering spirit of Duncan Campbell from 30 years ago, gaining illicit access — through manholes, ventilation shafts and derelict buildings often right under the noses of “security” — to that which is normally off limits.
The book contains relatively little text — just a single page of explanation at the beginning of each of the four sections, a couple of pages of introduction and a short foreword by Will Self. This lack of text is my only major gripe; I wanted more about the places and the exploits which got the explorers to them.
But the book is about the images, each minimally captioned, which record some of the places the group have penetrated. Much of the photography is excellent and strong; well lit, well composed and professionally produced — quite remarkable considering it was all done on the hoof, at speed and with the ever-present danger of the long arm of “security”.
A long disused Mail Rail train parked in an abandoned station which is still lit
and with a working digital clock which says 0424.
From www.placehacking.co.uk
To get a better idea of what these guys do — whether you call it “place hacking” or just “urban exploration” — there is a documented visit to the now disused Post Office railway (Mail Rail) over at www.placehacking.co.uk/2011/04/24/security-breach-london-mail-rail/ from which a handful of photographs in this book are taken.
This is a book for those that like to know what’s beneath their feet, how cities hang together, what “the authorities” don’t want us to see or to indulge in some vicarious dare-devil excitement. Yes, I like a bit of all of those, but I also appreciate the photography and indeed some of the (especially Victorian) architecture — see for instance the photographs early in the book of Finsbury Park Reservoir. This is stuff which is hidden from sight, but deserves to be seen and appreciated for both its beauty and its engineering.
Having said that, when you look at the haphazard state of some of the cabling, and the dilapidated state of many of the tunnels themselves, one really does start to wonder how anything functions at all!
So yes, this is a book for the geek and the vicarious explorer. A book to dip into to appreciate the photography, the beauty and the engineering. As such it is almost endlessly fascinating and it is only the lack of text which prevents it from getting a full five stars.
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
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