I invite you to imagine how such ‘fragments’ could sit within a Kerbopolis fine art print.
Much of my work incorporates London’s historical ‘fragments’. I also travel to other cities and towns, going everywhere possible with my camera and notebook. It is truly rewarding to discover and record the things that will make up the layers of a Kerbopolis fine art print.
I invite you to imagine how these 16 fragments could sit within a Kerbopolis fine art print.
Which wall would you hang your Kerbopolis print?
Want your own Kerbopolis print? You can visit www.kerbopolis.com to see the fine art photography of Glenn Mottershead, maker & purveyor.
When the time is right, I capture the fragments I discover.
I discovered this extraordinary and magnificent sign whilst on my flaneur-inspired-walk with my camera and sketch book. It had only just been revealed during repair work to a London shop front. It spans the length of three huge shops and back in the day, this would have been an impressive place to be.
I can’t explain how aghast and truly set-back I was and with deep curiosity and concern for this sign being so exposed. Also, why was the shop so big back in the day? What did this space serve? Was Royal Arsenal Co-operative - RAC a large bank branch, food hall, both or more? I discovered that it was a Victorian department store and sometime later, in 1933 it moved up the road to larger newly built premises and was highly celebrated.
I have visited the location a few times now, to help resolve my utter disbelief on seeing this fossil of a frontage. To see first-hand the detail, not just in the immaculate and precise carved lettering, but the feast like layers of faded paint, the salmon pink, deep dusky ochre yellow and the majestic gold that only a successful business could possibly parade – WOW!
Also, having the privilege of being able to get so close to seeing the sign without the lens, I found the wood is yet another level of intrigue. The aged and untreated timber looked ancient, its grain and wafer-thin cracks of split wood as fragile as bone China. It was a beautiful moment.
I continue to imagine the shop, in its full glory, reflecting in its three shop length windows, the busy horse and carts, taxi carriages, omnibuses and trams going about their everyday. People flurrying in and out of this fine Co-operative establishment.
I always find immense joy in putting in the huge amount of passion and work into each Kerbopolis piece and it is these moments whilst walking through the city that I love coming across such finds – this one in particular is a very rare discovery and will find a place in Kerbopolis.
If you like Kerbopolis fine art photography prints and what I am doing in the way of walking, photographing and researching the city for Kerbopolis, please follow on my social media Facebook and Instagram @kerbopolis and visit www.kerboplois.com and consider supporting the growing and exciting adventure by purchasing a print.
In the meantime, I think you might like to read this in your spare time:
Precious pre-war film of Lewisham town centre, shot on the opening day of Tower House, the huge Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society store, in 1933.
https://replay.bfi.org.uk/video/ce2dc9db-66ff-532b-80bd-9d91940497d3
‘Crowds of local residents gather outside the new Co-op department store in Lewisham's town centre for its official opening, carried out by W.B. Neville, General Secretary of the RACS. In its heyday, Tower House was considered the largest Co-operative store in the south of England, boasting more than 70 different departments, including a travel agency and an ornate hairdressing salon.’
‘When nearby buildings were ravaged by a German doodlebug bomb in 1944, Tower House survived the devastation. After the dissolution of the RACS in the 1980s, the building was split up to accommodate various separate commercial concerns.’
Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Arsenal_Co-operative_Society
Historic London Shopfronts
Why I love the Kerbopolis development stage...
It’s one thing seeing digital prints on the computer or your phone, but it is something totally different when a Kerbopolis print is in your hands. The specialist archival paper and inks bring about an absorbingly rich and deeply velvety moment when observing the piece entirely or in detail. So, by having an actual Kerbopolis print in your hands you instantly become captivated and thrown into the narrative of the print. What an absolutely joyful experience it is too!
DESK BASED RESEARCH
With regards to my on going research, I have been reading a book about New York‘s infamously spectacular sidewalk. Written many years ago by Bernard Levin, a very proud Englishman abroad! he writes his experiences as he walks ‘A Walk Up Fifth Avenue’. I have been having such a wonderful stroll on paper.
All Kerbopolis prints
are made up of my bespoke
Photography
Every print has been made up of my precisely planned photography. Some images are made up of over 100 carefully taken shots, like puzzle pieces, they make up the whole. I travel for miles and for many hours both by public transport and on foot in order to capture the necessary urbanised fragments for my palette - sometimes this can take months of ebbing and flowing through streets, and often abandoned places. All-in-all, resulting in my visionary abstract art photography and wanting you to have special and enriching art pieces for your walls.
Wow what a full on week of creative thinking and doing.
Just completed a session with Ruxing from imageprintcentre.co.uk and just cataloging today’s Kerbopolis printing adventure.
I managed to find a matching Blackwing pearl pencil to go with my cotton photography gloves.
A total cherry on the cake.
I haven’t gone away !
I am working with my producer, Lorna and my fine art printer Ruxing of https://www.imageprintcentre.co.uk to create picture perfect results.
To do this I am having to take some time out to focus on my research and development.
So, I promise you, I haven’t gone too far and will return to open up the shop in Mid August 2026.