h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

June 1985, I went on a school trip, of sorts to Southern England for 10 days. We spent 5 days in London and then 5 more days touring a few other cities; Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Cambridge (I think), and Brighton.

Well through the fog of time I can't quite remember some of the places I took photos. Now, obviously I remember some of these places, like the Battersea Power Station, Trafalgar Square, and Stonehenge. But some of the other views are harder to place, a park full of school kids, a garden, a castle tower, various streets and corners.

Have a look through these and see if you might recognize some scenery.


http://goo.gl/photos/n2osngPTFaWx92aM9


(I would have cleaned up these images a bit more, but considering how many there are and how much retouching most of them need, I'd never get around to posting them. And, no, that's not some weird Instawhotsit filter; that yellow stain is heat damage and age. These negatives spent 30 years in poor storage conditions. But thanks to Instawotsit and other popular photo apps, crossover and heat fog are acceptable and even desirable now.)

I recognise Bath and Oxford among those. Is there a numbering system so that I can tell you which is which?

oh my, those pictures of the Battersea Power station (big brick building with 4 cream-coloured towers) are fantastic.

I didn't get any further (and of course I keep saying "where's the pig?" )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pulteney_Street

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_Camera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulteney_Bridge

All of these are things I can see in your pictures.

I was thinking, if they went from London to Bath, why didn't they visit Stonehenge. I see it now, in the background of that picture of a rope fence.

http://www.warwick-castle.com/

There are four photos of Stratford after the street artist drawing horses. They show the first Chinese restaurant to open in the town and New Place garden.

That should say six not four, of course. The canal is Stratford, I think.

You visited Salisbury. You have a nice photo of Mompesson House, in the Cathedral Close:

http://d27xe58b9ijigq.cloudfront.net/c=ar16x9/s=w500,pd1/o=85/http://images.nationaltrust.org.uk/images/56072c.jpg

You also snapped an office I used to work at in London

http://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4842483,-0.1264891,3a,75y,19.37h,81.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_l2oNqH8uJTsd5c2JPicDQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I believe this is Google Street View for your first photo - it’s looking north-east towards Vauxhall station in London. On the left now is a major riverside property development, St Goerge’s Wharf, and if you travel forwards, just beyond it is the MI6 building. Battersea Power Station is behind you, but it’s about half a mile away.

Thanks folks!


You've corrected my memory on a few things. I obviously confused Oxford and Cambridge which so many of us tourists do. I did not remember Salisbury being on our itinerary at all. I suppose we must have stopped there briefly on the day we visited Stonehenge. Yeah, I had many more pictures of Stonehenge, but they were too typical to include here.


I'll republish these on my Wordpress page when I get the opportunity. I tried to publish these to both Wordpress and Imgur, but both sites gave me trouble.

I wanted them to all have the file names I gave them when I scanned them. They're numbered and categorized by location (what general locations I remembered.) When I do, I think I might open this conversation on Ask h2g2.


I had previously located a few sites, one of those was the old Mayflower (I had no idea at the time that it was Chinese) Restaurant which was directly across from the old town hall (which I didn't notice at the time).

Then: http://goo.gl/photos/qTH79x4thYMJU9Uw8

Now(ish): http://www.google.com/maps/@52.1915776,-1.7070698,3a,75y,77.42h,70.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stelOuwPU29E8Ws3gSSLL4A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1




One thing I should note. These images do not include some of my favorites. Several years ago, I selected what I thought were my best images and pulled out those negative strips for further consideration and eventual scanning. But somehow I lost them. I suspect they fell out of the case I had them in. I've hoped for years that I just set them aside somewhere and forgot, but considering that I've refloored my apartment and thus moved everything, I've lost hope of finding those best pics and the ones adjacent to them.

But losing those made me give a better look at these remaining ones (and a few others I didn't include here). Some of these are among my favorite images I've ever shot. I love the little kids in the park... which I now know is in front of Mompesson House in Salisbury, thanks Icy.

Our Prime Minister Edward Heath lived on Salisbury Cathedral Close - you'd have had to turn left to see his house (or at least the large iron gates).

Here's the corner I squatted on looking down Great Pulteny St.

http://www.google.com/maps/@51.3838177,-2.3558461,3a,75y,23.72h,78.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s43wXpphoUawtKonmOuH_FQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

They split our tour group up into smaller hotels this day. A few of us were lucky enough to stay on this street. I can't remember where I stayed, but I did get a great picture of three girls on the trip with us from the bus on this street. Two of the girls were leaning out of one window, giggling, picking and tossing flowers from the window planter. The other girl was in the room's other window looking pensively at something in her hand, maybe homesick. The juxtaposition and direct framing of those sandstone walls made the image rather striking. I still have a print, but lost the negative.

Warwick Castle is now a huge tourist attraction, with all sorts of pageants, the biggest working trebuchet in the world, live falconry demonstrations, dressing up as princesses, a torture dungeon and more.

In 2003 it got about half a million visitors a year. I suspect it is much busier now.

So I noticed from the website. Yeah, it looks a lot more fun now. I don't remember much other than you see in the photos. I think by this time the trip was starting to take its toll on us. The tour was rather packed and so many places started to blur together.


There was one place I have memories from, but no pictures. There was a lone tower on a hill top, probably in the Salisbury region. It was a ruins and all I can remember of its history was that someone was notably hung from it.

The reason I remember it so well is that was the day I first held hands with a girl as we climbed up and down that hill. I was a very happy young man that day.

It wasn't Glastonbury Tor, by any chance?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Tor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Tor

You honoured Victoria station with three photos. Here’s a Street View of the middle one (as near as I can get it). Much has changed!

http://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4953384,-0.1438989,3a,75y,205.61h,80.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNYdoZAn_-GXCoA44bTPHfA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1