Although built in the dimly lit 19th century by Holmes, Booth & Haydens to manufacture oil lamps, only the first floor was still used when I began making photographs here. At that time in an adjacent shed men still ran giant presses and ovens to produce large diameter, metal tubing used in submarines. It was all supposed to be top secret, and the old lampworks added a look of abandonment to the active tube mill. On the first floor of the lampworks a well-equipped machine shop kept the tube mill running, but the three floors above were vacant. Each floor seemed like a different universe to be photographed. The second, with windows only on one side, was dark and grimy and littered with parts, and the 4th floor attic belonged to the pigeons, but the third floor, with a suite of offices divided by glass partitions, was a photographic kaleidoscope of shadows and reflections that moved with the sun. The offices shared a common space that still had an ancient Graphotrype spewing rusting address plates into a pile of forgotten customers.
See also:
https://rothphotos.blogspot.com/2018/08/lamp-works-rip.html)
https://rothphotos.blogspot.com/2015/04/attic-pigeons.html
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