Paul Corfield wrote:
On Saturday, 10 March 2018 16:54:53 UTC, Recliner wrote:
I came across this historic image on Twitter, showing the just-built DLR
viaduct crossing the derelict docks at Canary Wharf, before the skyscrapers
were parachuted in. The absense of trains suggests that the pic was taken
in 1986 or 87.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DX35RTNXUAYGYKe?format=jpg&name=large

Now, of course, the left of those three docks contains the future Crossrail
station, the centre has the Jubilee station and the third one still is
still full of water.

The undeveloped Greenwich Peninsula is also interesting.

I don't have an aerial shot like that but I have a few photos of the Isle
of Dogs in similar state when I had a walk round it in the 1980s. The DLR
had progressed a bit when I took my shots as test trains were running. I
have yet to scan the photos but they will end up on Flickr at some point.
It's one of those classic times when you wish you'd taken oodles of
photos given what the place has now become!


Yes, very much so. I don't think even the most enthusiastic proponents of
the LDDC could have predicted how it would develop. How easy was it to
wander around the Docklands area back then? Wasn't a lot of it fenced off?
That was one of the frustrations of the Olympic site, which was soon
surrounded by tall blue fences with no view of the transformation occurring
behind. The Greenway View Tube was the only publicly accessible place with
a decent View.

In the digital era, it's era it's so much cheaper and easier to snap away
with abandon, that I hope many more of this sort of 'before' shot will be
taken and survive. At least they don't deteriorate with age; indeed, if RAW
files are kept, they might even improve with age.