Special places archive

Walking the Circle Line

Instead of the standard graphic abstraction of the London Underground, here is the view from above the ground. Rob Gardiner takes us on an observant walker’s tour with his rudimentary camera.

I walked the circuit of London Underground’s Circle Line. I did it on foot, taking slow pinhole photographs. The official map is a lie: the Circle Line looks nothing like one in reality. It twists and turns, dives and rises, meanders arround London in anything but a neat oval. Commuters in their tin can trains oblivious to the world 50ft above their subterranean heads. I made the trek armed with a simple 4×5 pinhole camera, a simple wooden box with no lens, timer, or anything resembling a normal camera. This is what I saw. [from the photographer’s introduction].