Secrets

My work takes me to some fascinating places. Yesterday I found myself in a building on the Strand, opposite the Adelphi Theatre. The building has been comprehensively stripped back to its carcass, revealing not only the steel and concrete frame but also giving up some of the previous building's secrets too, such as blocked up doorways, hidden rooms and unfathomable pipe runs. But it was the passageway at the rear that caught my attention.

The lane is gated at both ends, with no public access. Even the street sign is one of the old, pre-GLC, signs that are all too rare these days. The sandstone steps down from the Strand are worn down, presumably by the feet of 18th Century workers.

I understand this was the route to the long gone Ivy Bridge which once spanned the Thames. Now it's a grotty alley with noisy air handling plant and kitchen extract ducts. Shame really.