Day 19 - Isle of Dogs Photography Project

A view of the preserved warehouse buildings of Dunbar Wharf set on a small inlet of the Thames

In between other things, I’m still working on my Isle of Dogs project. For day 19 I walked along the riverside from the disused West India Quay pier to the point where the path leaves the river at Limehouse, passing the busy Canary Wharf river boat pier on the way. At the end of the blog I’ve added a map with the location of today’s section and the overall view of how far I’ve got.

I usually avoid midday photos. As you know, sunset, twilight and night photography is my thing. However, we’ve had such a grey summer in London and this day was one of the hottest we’ve had at 29 degrees, so I wanted to make the most of it. I went out with the goal to capture lots of sunlight, shadows, shapes and colours.

I’ve included lots of photos today and starting with the one below, they’re in the order of the walk, heading northwards. The tide was low to medium at this point.

I didn’t manage to capture anything I would offer as a print but a few of these could be useful as stock type photos for articles or social media.

West India Pier (disused), near Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, London

The disused pier of West India Quay is the first stop on the way. It’s at the end of Cuba Street which neatly ties in with the West Indies theme along with nearby Tobago Street. The pier is completely blocked off to people so it’s now a good home for the birds. This is part of the 184 mile long Thames Path which stretches between the Cotswolds (starting near Kemble in Gloucestershire) in the west, to the Thames Flood Barrier at Charlton in the south east of London.

Thames Path sign, near West India Pier (disused), Isle of Dogs, London

One of the things I wanted to do today was to find spots of shade with sunlight shining through in patches. This is one of my favourites of this type. A tall building stands on blue and white pillars and outside are silver birch trees. The leaves show a good mix of sunshiny highlights and shadow. I really like the restricted colour palette in this one. Just white, blue, green and light brown.

Thames riverside path on the Thames Path, near West India Quay (disused), Isle of Dogs, London, looking northwards, in the shade of some beautiful trees and pillared structures

Talking about a restricted colour palette set me off on a tangent because I love experimenting with colour. So, I ran a colour index from this photo and you can see below how our eye is deceived and there are actually so many colours in a scene that our conscious mind doesn’t recognise.

Colour index from an image

Following on from that I then experimented with the colour to show a different effect. In the next image you can see how the texture of the bricks and paving slabs really stand out. In the original photo you can’t even make out that the dark areas behind the pillars are bricks and in the second it’s really visible. This is an effect I plan to play around with much more in the future to highlight different areas of an image.

Thames riverside path on the Thames Path, near West India Quay (disused), Isle of Dogs, London, looking northwards

I’m continuing to focus on strong shapes with this one of an interesting street lamp where the globe shapes are echoed by the circles in the promenade railings.

And this one where a plane is flying into City Airport against the gentle curve of the Societe General bank building. It’s good to have a blue sky to work with after so much greyness this summer.

Plane flies towards City Airport London, past the Societe General building at Canary Wharf

Also thinking about shapes and colour this yellow railing and green fence caught my eye and I waited a little while for someone to cycle through.

Casual cycling guy navigates the barriers on the Thames Path heading north towards Canary Wharf Pier, London

The workers are back in Canary Wharf and it was good to capture some lunchtime strollers against the flower pots lining the restaurants on the riverside in front of Canary Wharf pier. This is a very typical scene from this area.

Office workers from Canary Wharf on a lunchtime stroll on the Thames Path, London

Moving on to the pier itself, here is one of the Thames Clipper fleet. This is the Meteor Clipper and its signature colour is red. Every one of the boats has a different signature colour. In the background you can see the Hilton Hotel pier where a small ferry boat takes people backwards and forwards between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf all through the day and evening. The hotel is large and spreads over all the buildings you can see on the bank. it’s a very interesting short trip to see the contrast between the two sides of the river. Rotherhithe is low rise with lots of housing and a lot more preserved properties while Canary Wharf is extremely high rise, filled with offices and has very few historical buildings remaining.

One of the Thames Clippers moored up at Canary Wharf Pier, London, while passengers load and disembark. In the background is Columbia Wharf and the Hilton Hotel pier

And the Meteor Clipper is off! Heading towards the City of London and Westminster.

The Meteor Clipper sets off for central and west London from Canary Wharf Pier

Looking back from the pier we catch a glimpse of One Canada Square with its pyramid shaped top. Still one of the most beautiful buildings (in my humble opinion) in the area.

From the riverside walkway, a view to the financial buildings of Canary Wharf

A viewpoint perched over the river, looking towards Limehouse, Wapping and the City of London in the distance

Now we’re heading towards Limehouse and a small inlet on the river still has some original dock buildings which have been converted to residential use. It’s good to see that a lot of these have been preserved with their original features. The Isle of Dogs blog recently published an article about the history of Dunbar Wharf, pictured here, and I’ve included a link to that at the foot of this page.

The preserved warehouse buildings of Dunbar Wharf set on a small inlet of the Thames

I like to play about with found objects just for fun. Here’s Dodgy Dave, looking even more dodgy since he’s a bit out of focus. I’ll just say he’s had one too many :) :)

I like messing about with found objects. This is Dodgy Dave who’s looking a bit cranky.

Turning inland now since the path leaves the riverside for a few blocks, and this is my finishing point anyway, we see the very beautiful tower of St Anne’s Church in Limehouse.

The tower of St Anne’s Church, Limehouse, London

Limehouse Causeway street sign

Here’s my latest section marked on the map. For such a quick walk it’s remarkably full of interesting diversions and contrasts. if you’re in the area and you’d like to follow this walk, then take the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf or the DLR to Heron Quays and then it’s a 10 minute stroll to the river.

Day 19 of my Isle of Dogs project

I did load a new print recently and in my next blog I’ll cover that and some more news of my (UK) travels over the summer. We did manage to get off the mainland to an island and I’ll show some photos from that.

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To read about the rich history of trading at Dunbar Wharf on the Isle of Dogs blog, click here

Until next time, Loren x