Clink Wharf, Clink Street, London 1976

A wonderfully atmospheric view of Clink Street in 1976, captured at a time when this part of Bankside was still a forgotten industrial backwater. The area, once dominated by Victorian warehouses serving the busy riverside wharves, had fallen into deep decline by the mid-70s. Many buildings stood derelict, including the stark, broken-windowed shell of Clink Wharf seen here — its fading painted sign just about clinging to the brickwork.

The narrow canyon-like street, hemmed in by soot-darkened warehouse walls and rusting iron shutters, hints at the area’s former life as a bustling riverside district where grain, hops, ale and tallow were stored and carted through these lanes. By the 1970s, however, the wharves were silent, the last of the cargo traffic long gone, leaving behind abandoned vans, debris on the roadway and buildings awaiting either demolition or rescue.

This bleakness makes the photograph all the more fascinating today. Within two decades, this entire stretch of Bankside would be transformed — luxury apartments, restaurants, the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe and the revival of the Clink Prison Museum would bring life back to the once-derelict riverside. In 1976 though, it still belonged to London’s forgotten industrial past, perfectly embodied in this haunting glimpse of Clink Wharf before regeneration swept it all away.