21st Century
Dan Kirmatzis: Strand series
The Strandlines team periodically check in on photos tagged to the Strand (and surrounding areas) on Instagram and Twitter. We came across Dan Kirmatzis’s work on Instagram. A huge thanks to Dan for so generously sharing his photographs and insights into his inspiration and processes. “Although I take many photos in the street genre…
Read MoreClass of 2020: Graduating From a Distance
A common epithet to describe the coronavirus has been “the invisible enemy”. Not only does the use of the chosen adjective, ‘invisible’, hint at the nature of a biological threat, but it also perpetuates an understanding of the virus as an abstraction, this other-worldly description questions its reality. In a swift four and a half…
Read MoreSnapshots from lockdown
Lockdown in London was announced on 23rd March 2020, but many folks had been social distancing for a week or more before. It’s been heartening to see that the – very few – photos that are being posted on social media with the Strand tagged as the location are showing this main artery emptied of…
Read MoreSensible Stillness
In 1796 Mary Wollstonecraft reflected in print on her travels in Scandinavia. One topic she addressed was quietness. She alludes to the ‘stupid stillness’ of London on a Sunday… which came to mind as I walked along the Strand on a spring morning, 17 March 2020, the day before London lock-down because of coronavirus Covid-19.…
Read MoreProtests: spring 2020
Workers, students, and anyone visiting the Strand can’t have missed the picket lines, teach outs, and rallies taking place outside the King’s and Courtauld campuses over 14 days in March. Workers from across the both universities on the Strand – including cleaners and library staff as well as teachers – were joined by students and…
Read MoreCan you volunteer for Strandlines and Layers of London?
If you’re reading this on our website, we hope that you already know that Strandlines collects and shares histories and stories of this most central of London’s streets. Why not browse some of our existing ‘strands’ to see what our contributors have preserved so far? Layers of London is a huge collaborative effort to map…
Read MoreLet’s All Go Down the Strand – For the Age of Brexit
One night half a dozen toffs met together in Westminster A severing from the continent was planned Empathy and sense were summarily banned ‘Let’s inflame irrational nationalism! It won’t hurt us when it backfires’ Decorate a bus in lies Lie some more when they ask why And then dance around the union’s funeral pyre Let’s…
Read MoreThe Mau Mau Case: Post-Colonial Justice on the Strand
“This is a historic judgement today, which will have repercussions for years to come” – Leigh Day Prosecution team. The Mau Mau insurgency, also known in Britain as the ‘Emergency Period’, was an eight year span of violence in colonial Kenya (1952-60). In 2012, the British High Court of Justice, inside the Royal Courts of…
Read MoreNotes on the Kingsway Tunnel
Editors’ note: The Strandlines editors are always scouring for news and research about the Strand area. Below we’re delighted to be sharing an extract from ‘Here’s everything we learned from this map of London’s defunct tram network’, by Jonn Elledge. You can read the entire article on CityMetric. Anyone who has worked, studied around, or…
Read MoreExtinction Rebellion climate change protests on the Strand
A selection of photographs taken between 16-21 April along the Strand.
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