The Kite Area, Cambridge, 1980s (F)

The Kite Area, Cambridge, 1980s

Image 1 of 33

The corner of Burleigh Street and City Road

This work was featured in a Cambridge News article in 2013.

A book featuring this work, together with that of photographer David Stephenson, is available from the site author or direct from Blurb.

During the 1980s I worked on a personal project to document some of the ‘Kite Area’ of Cambridge, so-called because on a map its boundaries formed a kite shape. The area was bounded by East Road, Newmarket Road, Maids Causeway, Short Street, Emmanuel Road, Parker Street and Parkside.

The Kite Area delineated on an old map of Cambridge.

I lived just on its boundary and it was within easy walking distance, even carrying my 5×4 camera. Everything I photographed there was, of course, on film, and all in black & white. I wish now that I had been much more thorough in my coverage, as by the time I started a lot of it had been demolished already to make way for the Grafton Centre development.

The story behind this – and some very useful information about the area generally – may be found on Dr Ian Kitching’s excellent (if somewhat old) pages. There are also some historic photos on Simon_K’s Flickr pages.

All of the photographs shown here are scans of silver prints. Many have been exhibited at various times and copies may be had by dropping me a line.