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We are fascinated by the stories hidden in our urban environment. They often stay unnoticed, quietly masked under the quick pace of our city lifestyle. But if we look close enough to these hidden messages, we can find out all sorts of interesting facts about the city we live in. In this exploring journey, we wander through Chapel Market and listen to the story time has to tell.
BUILDING SERIES
Angel Islington, London, U.K.
Time
Chaple Market's Time Capsule : Where the time is celebrated
- Click on the dots above to explore the area -
At the first glance, the similar street view and the continued market function are obvious from the image comparison. An overall improvement to the Chapel Market’s street scene is also observed. The newly erected market gate at the street entrance, the refurbishment of the building façade along the market street, and a green space replacing the former derelict, to us, all reflect on the community’s visible effort in improving the living quality of its residences.
If time could tell us a story, what would the story be?
More importantly, the images reflect a transition in the community’s social makeup. Of which, a shift from English monotony to intercultural diversity is evidental in the demographic change of the market vendors. Apart from the original English pie shops and cafes, the street now sells Vietnamese food, Indian dishes, Greek plates, and other ethnical specialties. The market becomes a street of diversity.
Although time has transformed Chapel Market’s building form and social dynamics, its disguisable character stays intact with its original value - a people's market. With redevelopments happening rapidly in London nowadays, Chapel Market is given the chance to be left alone to evolve in and morph on its own way to preserve its historical uniqueness while welcoming social improvements through time.
Each image set has a ~60-year time gap between them.
through studying each set’s similarities and differences,
we learn about Angel’s physical and social
changes through years of urban reformation.
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