Smoke and fire
I got off the number 30 bus at the head of the Narrow Way last week, just where a team of two men were re-laying the red surface of the bus lane. In the fading light the truck seemed full of flames, and the two men conjured smoke and steam as they nonchalantly poured the boiling mass onto the road and raked it out.
I loved that a mundane task became imbued with mystery, and sorcery, and fascination, just because of the time of day... and I loved that in the era of technology, and a machine to do EVERYTHING, they still had their fire burning and their rakes and their buckets...
4 comments:
Maybe if you search, you can still find some charcoalburners!
I'm trying to place your pictures in the map in my head, but I can't. By "head" do you mean the top? The road doesn't look like Lower Clapton Rd, but what road is it?
I must know ..... and I cannot get used to disappointment!
it's really Dalston Lane by that point...
any of the buses coming back from town that do that big dogleg to avoid the one-way Narrow Way come up past there... there are about three bus stops in a row, and the bus voice announces 'Mare Street Narrow Way', and it's the stop before Hackney Baths :)
So... that's an actual fire in the back of that truck? Cool! I wanna see a truck full of fire! :lol:
i've always liked the smell of that pitch in the cold, and with the steam and the manual labour it does feel very Victorian. I'm surprised they don't have some more modern system, but not disappointed.
Post a Comment