Bus Stops

Bus stops are the punctuation marks of life, the points at which you pause, draw breath, and see what comes around the corner. It might be the bus you want, it might be a new direction in life. The bus stop in this case was at the top of Oxford Street in Crookesmoor, Sheffield. The time was 1979.

Markets

I worked in Bradford for a time just after leaving school, and at lunchtime I would explore the wonderful old Kirkgate Market. It always seemed slightly more imposing than Halifax's Borough Market, as perhaps befits a city rather than a humble town. Bradford's market was torn down in the early 1970s and replaced with a concrete affair that seems likely to share the same fate before too long. Maybe I'm getting old and over-nostalgic, but I mourn the passing of the old, but not the new.

Memory

How many memories can you squeeze into a photograph? I crossed the road here each day on my way to junior school, and I caught the bus here each day on my way to secondary school. I bought bags of chips at the corner and comics across the road. I pumped petrol at the filling station for a Saturday job. A decade and a half of my life squeezed into a photograph, a decade and a half of my life squeezed into Northowram.

Multiverse

 

Some would suggest that we live in a multiverse in which parallel universes exist side by side. I have some sympathy with this theory because fifty years ago I moved from West Yorkshire to North Staffordshire. Here is a photograph I took at the time.

Albert And Rose

All praise those sainted mortals who

When given a photo know what to do

With pencilled words small and clear

Discreetly say on the photos rear

Whether it's Jack or Joe or God only knows

Or in this case, Great Uncle Albert and his wife, Rose.

Commercial Street

From the mid nineteenth century onwards, every northern town worth its weight in brass had a Commercial Street. To these streets the new generation of drapers, bakers and umbrella makers were drawn. I took this photograph of Brighouse's Commercial Street over half a century ago. It was busy then and, I'm glad to say, it's still busy now.