Columbia Road Vibes

I woke up this morning to sub zero temperatures and frost everywhere. On the plus side, the sun was shinning bright in the sky which reminded me of the past few summers we've had here, which have been quite good - warm and sunny

In summer, there's a place in London that I love to spend time, and sometimes photograph. It's also a historically famous place for buying flowers. It's the very vintage, and very cool Columbia Road in London E.2.

On one of those warm summer days, I happened to have my Praktica BX20 with me. It's an old film SLR camera made in Germany back in the day. It was loaded with the cheapest film available at the time - the AgfaPhoto Vista 200, which I bought at PoundLand for just £1.

The camera itself had a damaged back door which let in some light unfortunately. You can see the effect in some of the photos. The bright splash of light is called a "light leak", which is exactly what it sounds like. The camera back is supposed to be light tight, otherwise photography would either be impossible, or at least impaired.

While that's an unfortunate thing that may not be discovered until it's too late - such as with these photos, this day and age, it's actually considered cool. There are digital filters you can get to mimic these film impediments now believe it or not. You can think of these as organic filters then :)

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Some of the things you can expect on and around Columbia Road include;

• The historic flower market that happens every Sunday. I have seen some interesting plants there that I had never seen before such as miniature pineapple flowers and plants with oddly coloured leaves.

• A bit of nature is available at Ravenscroft Park, right in the middle of the city with some farm animals on site.

• Artisan stores and shops where you can buy some unique London things, many of which are hand-made, sustainable and ecological.

• Coffee!. Need I say more? :)

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Columbia Road is a short walk from the more popular Brick Lane and can be accessed very easily via public transport. Old Street on London Underground is my preferred station to disembark, but you can also use Shoreditch or even Bethnal Green stations on the Overground and Underground respectively.

I recommend this place to people visiting London because you can get some of the feel of vintage London architecture there, which is still relatively well preserved.

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Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé

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