Ghostsigns guru Sam Roberts has added a Clapham Walk to his Ghostsigns Tours app. The new tour makes extensive use of my photos and ghostsign reconstructions.

The other walks available for the app are for Stoke Newington and London’s Bankside. The app is available for both Android and iPhone.

I’ve just added another eight churches to my collection of 360° panoramas of the interiors of Cornish parish churches. On my first foray I photographed Launcells, Week St Mary, North Tamerton and Treneglos. I did visit another four, but they were all locked with only two giving details of a keyholder. Of the two that did, one was out and the other slammed their window shut when I rang the doorbell and wouldn’t come to the door. Not much point in them having the key!

Later that week I contacted the rector of St Conan’s, Washaway to see if I could gain entry there as I know that church is normally kept locked. I was really pleased when he got back to me saying that the church has a key safe to which he gave me the combination. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more churches that feel the need to stay locked took up this idea. St Conan’s is a very small chapel attached to the parish of Wadebridge – the two main churches are Egloshayle and St Breock. It was built in 1883 but it contains a Saxon font, one of the oldest in the country. It also has a 16th century carved wooden pulpit brought from Germany from which Martin Luther is thought to have preached.

While my car was being serviced during a recent trip to Cornwall I took the opportunity to do the photography for a 360° panoramic tour of Truro Cathedral. The cathedral has a policy of allowing photography, but ask for a fee of £5 to use a tripod – which seems very reasonable to me. I made six panoramas for the tour, the west front, the nave, crossing, chancel, St Mary’s aisle and the All Saints chapel behind the high altar.

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Later this year – on Sunday 30 September leaving at 10am and 2pm from Clapham North Station – Ghostsigns and the Clapham Society are getting together to do a one-off tour of the ghostsigns of Clapham (follow CS link to book). I’ve been helping them to prepare for this with some local research and by letting them use some of my photos. I’ve also been trying out some different techniques to reconstruct how the ghostsigns might have looked when they were new.

Here’s a portrait I did about ten years ago of Oscar winning costume designer Jenny Beavan.

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St Peter’s Church, at Hascombe in Surrey was described by Betjeman as ‘a Tractarian Work of Art’. Built on a site of Saxon origins, by 1862 the medieval church which was then over 600 years old had become so dilapidated that rebuilding was considered the only option. Led by the Rector, Canon Musgrave, Henry Woodyer (a pupil of Butterfield) was commissioned to design a new church. The simple plan of nave and apsidal chancel became a canvas for a richly decorated interior. The walls of the nave are painted with the 153 fishes of the second miraculous catch of fish, all tangled in a net which is being dragged in by seven of the disciples. Above the chancel arch is Christ in Majesty flanked by the 12 apostles. The rood screen (a survivor from the previous church) was restored and repainted. Read more…

I’ve just completed a 360° panoramic tour of St Matthew’s Church, Winchester. The church is quite small so only needs four views: Nave, Chancel, Vestry and Gallery. The earliest parts of the church date to about 1200, but like so many English churches it probably stands on the site of an earlier Saxon building. The church has recently been lovingly restored and is certainly worth a visit. Read more…

I’ve just finished working on a new website for my wife, Caroline Reed who is just starting out on a new career as a glass artist, specialising in kiln formed glass. She has been experimenting with both open and lost wax casting and has made pieces in pâte de verre where she has experimented with shape, texture and the fragility of the pieces, basing some of her work on the Cornish coast where she spends a lot of time walking.

As part of the Cornwall Open Studio scheme Paul Jackson, an old friend of mine, asked me if I’d show some of my photographs alongside his pots. The last day of the show coincided with opening their garden to the public to raise money for the Red Cross of which Rosie (Paul’s wife) is president of the Cornish branch. The weather started out damp and grey, but by the time the garden opened the sun came out and they had over 200 visitors, raising nearly £2,000. Read more…

Ghostsigns are the old advertisements that were painted directly onto the brick on the sides of buildings. They are gradually fading away, although occasionally a new one is revealed when a modern poster site is removed for maintenance. Clapham is one of the best areas of London to see them. Read more…