Preston Park in Brighton

This week's picture feature looks at Preston Park in Brighton. This is one of the best Victorian and Edwardian parks in the country. It has fine trees (including some of the few remaining elms in Southern England) and plenty of grass, together with cafes, tennis courts, bowling greens and a children's playground. Then there is Preston Manor and its adjacent church. The Edwardian manor house is of little merit itself, but its walled garden is a lovely place with flint walls and a charming little graveyard for pets. The pictures in this set include a headstone for one of those pets, as well as other features and details of this fine Brighton park.

Last week's pictures featured the book "Made in Brighton"

There's a good new book about Brighton, written by Julie Burchill and Daniel Raven and published by Virgin Books. It takes a witty and informed look at our infamous seaside urbs as well as seeing contemporary England through Brighton's peculiar and vivid prism. I took all but two of the photographs illustrating the book and last week's picture feature was by way of an advertisement for Made in Brighton. Since the reproductions in the book are black & white, it seems a good idea to show them here in their original colour. The best thing, however, about "Made In Brighton" is the writing, which not only tells you a lot about the place but will also give you a seaside bucket full of laughs. Buy a copy and put a smile on the faces of the authors as well.

Other recent pictures of the week

The weather was lovely and it was Easter, so the picture feature a fortnight ago was nice and simple and colourful -  roses.

The pictures three weeks ago showed some of the street corners in Brighton's North Laine. This district has featured in several weekly sets on this site over the years - and justifiably so. It is one of the country's liveliest and most individual urban areas and its streets, though small, are full of visual interest and activity. The grid of streets is an unusual mixture of residential, retail and commercial in buildings that are  mostly, but not all, from the 19th century. Nowadays the North Laine is a very expensive place to both live and start up a business. But what is remarkable is how the influx of money has not (yet) made the area look as glossy, clean and boring as somewhere like Weybridge. The North Laine is still a real place - and let's hope it manages to continue being so. All the pictures in this set were taken in April 2007.

Four weeks ago the pictures looked at London buses. Most of them feature the old Routemasters, though these now only run on just a single tourist route in the city. Why, oh why were they ever scrapped ? The red Routemaster was not just one of London's great icons. Above all else, it worked. The rot started, of course, years ago with the introduction of driver-only buses. Whatever excuse was given at the time, the real reason was to save money. And now we have the bendy buses, which not only get stuck but have also shown an alarming tendency to catch fire. The story of London's buses in recent years is, sadly, the same as for so much else in contemporary Britain. Management consultants and businessmen move in, fuck up everything apart from their own pay packets and then tell us there's been a marvellous improvement. No more room on top for them, I wish. Ding ! Ding !

About this site and picture library

There are now over 48000 images in the library and they can all be keyword searched from the picture search page. New or updated subjects include Preston Park, roses, Brighton's North Laine, London buses, Rottingdean, The Queen and women and hats. The site has several ways to help make relevant and fruitful searches, including index pages for both subjects and events & places.  There is also a useful search guide and information page.

A good showcase of the type and range of photography available can be explored in the pictures of the week series. Published on the site since December 2001, this now totals more than 2500 images. Every week there is a set of ten pictures about a particular place, event or theme. Almost all the library's pictures are available for personal or commercial reproduction. Digital files can be delivered by email or CD, prices start from as little as £8 and there is further information on the prices and terms & conditions pages. You can also contact David Gray for quotations and availability for new photography commissions.