Banal and beautiful: Photographing London’s A406 North Circular Road
There are many striking locations to photograph in London: the pastel-coloured prettiness of Portobello Road, the glistening towers of the City, the neo-gothic splendour of St Pancras station or the brutalist genius of the Barbican.
Then there’s the A406.
Completed in the 1930s, the North Circular Road is the most polluted in the capital and the noisiest in the whole of Great Britain.
On the face of it there are few places less picturesque than London’s congested inner ring road, but for photographer Morgan Tomkinson-Burden there is beauty to be found in the banal.
Whether it’s the warm glow of morning sun on concrete, a gleaming tangle of metal pipes or the graceful sweep of an overpass, her images reframe this polluted interzone as somewhere quite poetic. They convey a sense of order, of calm and tranquility – an impressive feat considering the traffic thundering past all around.
Like all great photographers she has managed to find the remarkable in the unremarkable. Umbrella creative director Matt Reynolds caught up with her to discuss the project.
Hi Morgan. Why the North Circular?
During the first national lockdown, when we were allowed out for our daily exercise, I realised just how empty the road had become. I took the opportunity to shoot it because I knew nothing like this would come about again. Without the people and traffic you start looking at the architecture, the infrastructure – the things you wouldn’t usually look at. I realised it’s both banal and beautiful.
There’s a sense of peacefulness to your images, despite there being hundreds of people whizzing by in their cars. Is that deliberate?
Yes, I tend not to feature people within landscapes because I see them as a distraction. You look at the figures rather than the environment. Shooting the busiest road in London without people can be a challenge – I’ll frame a shot and wait patiently to be able to capture the right moment of emptiness.
“Shooting the busiest road in London without people can be a challenge – I’ll frame a shot and wait patiently to be able to capture the right moment of emptiness”
Did you feel safe? It’s a busy, heavily-polluted road that passes through areas of urban decay.
As this project has been going on for more than a year I’ve shot the road at many different times – during lockdown, at rush hour, at night. It can be eerie when there’s no one around, but sometimes you feel safe when it’s like that. You are alone amongst the concrete. But then at other times when the road is congested you seem to fit in with everyone else around you.
I’m always careful and have an awareness of the environment, whether it’s a run-down estate or industrial area. Some of these places come alive at night so you have to be alert.
“ I’m always careful and have an awareness of the environment, whether it’s a run-down estate or industrial area. Some of these places come alive at night so you have to be alert”
What surprised you the most?
The amount of noise! Everyone knows a road with six lanes can be noisy, but in some places like South Woodford where the vast flyovers are, you can’t hear the person standing right next to you, you have to shout at the top of your voice.
The thing that pleasantly surprised me was the sunsets. I tend to arrive at places just before the sun sets hoping there’s a beautiful sky – a time of day known as the ‘liminal stage’, just as the evening changes to night. Sometimes there’s no spectacular sky so I focus on the artificial street lamps and car lights instead, but at other times there would be a vivid pinky-red sunset. It can be gone in an instant, so when you’re moving your tripod you have to act fast – or it’s gone! Something you definitely wouldn’t expect to see over a congested A-road.
“In some places like South Woodford where the vast flyovers are, you can’t hear the person standing right next to you, you have to shout at the top of your voice”
Can the ‘unremarkable’ suburbs tell us as much about a city as its ‘picture postcard’ centre?
They can tell us an equal amount. More, perhaps. For me the city suburbs have a lot more character as they’ve not all been gentrified, whereas many central areas are clinical and regenerated. It feels like the centre is created by developers and the suburbs evolve more naturally to reflect their communities.
“ It feels like the centre is created by developers and the suburbs evolve more naturally to reflect their communities”
What came first, your interest in the urban landscape or your interest in photography?
I’ve always had an interest in the urban landscape and I’m fascinated by the history of places and comparing them to how they used to be. I use photography as a way to capture my environment, so that when I revisit in the future I can see how much it has evolved – especially if I’ve shot things that are no longer there.
What's next? Any new projects planned?
The A406 project is ongoing, but I’d like to explore more of the South Circular and the Westway in the coming months, too. In terms of other projects, perhaps delving more into the world of industrial landscapes, tower blocks, war-time structures like pillboxes and bunkers… and more night shoots too.
