Walking Time–Space: A Photographic Journey Along the Thames River in London

In analyses of urban environments, the concept of palimpsest can be applied to the various stages of the construction and redevelopment of buildings and other infrastructure over space and time. It has become a useful tool in visualizing, mapping, and theorizing urban morphological evolution. Using repeat photography as an empirical tool, images of the same location taken over several decades can reveal trends such as gentrification, deindustrialization, and globalization that are visible on the urban landscape. Drawing from an archive of over 2000 images taken over five decades of walking along the Thames River in central London, this chapter offers a visual time journey snapshot of landscape changes that explicate the rapidly evolving nature of this important global city.