2LX — mia.

2LX

This photo tour begins on Falcon Road, facing towards Ingrave Street. I had very specific locations to photograph, but I also took pictures of what I remembered– Winstanley Estate, the massive block towering over everything else. The attached houses on the other side of the street, with every road opening up into it’s own little close. Normally, this road was a blur to me, sitting in the back of mum’s car. It was nice to slowly stroll, and take it all in after such a long time.

“The Falconbrook was a stream that rose in Balham and Tooting, draining much of those parishes then the south and west of the larger district of Battersea including Clapham Junction to enter the London reaches of the Thames. Before doing so it briefly formed the border of Wandsworth Town, reflected in the SW11/SW18 boundary today. The river was culverted in the 1860s and has become an important combined sewer.[1] In 2007 heavy rain caused this to flood, to low but still property-damaging depth, at Falcon Road near Clapham Junction station.” - Wikipedia “The school originally opened as Mantua Street School in 1876. It was rebuilt in 1913/14 then became Falconbrook Primary School in 1951.” - everybodywiki.com My great grandmother, grandmother, great aunt, great uncles, mother, aunt, cousins, big brother, younger brother, and myself all went to Falconbrook. My younger brother is the only one not to finish his primary school education there.

Val’s House (2022), photography.

The house furthest to the right used to be owned by my old babysitter, Valerie. She looked after myself and my younger brother at different times, but she’s also one of my mum’s dearest friends, and a mother figure for her. Five days a week for over 20 years, Val and my mum would walk to the three local schools in the area, picking up children for their respective jobs (private babysitter and Play Services worker). Sometimes they’d take the kids to banana park and let them all play together for a bit, each looking out for the other’s kids, making sure no harm came to them.

Val moved to Kent in 2016, I think.

Her and mum still talk, but it’s not really the same, is it?