Female London Underground employee standing at the bottom of escalators at Canary Wharf station.
Tracey Hayward, Customer Service Assistant, London Underground, pictured at Canary Wharf station. © Historic England
Tracey Hayward, Customer Service Assistant, London Underground, pictured at Canary Wharf station. © Historic England

I am London on the Underground

Celebrating the diversity and beauty of London’s culture, cathedrals, memorials and markets, Historic England helps keep our heritage alive by saving, caring for and championing places so they can be enjoyed now and for generations to come.

London’s historic buildings and places are as much a part of the city’s DNA as the people who live and work there. ‘I am London’ is a collection of portraits taken in 2016 celebrating the capital’s unique identity. Each one shows a Londoner in a place that is significant to them.

Historic England has partnered with Transport for London to install a series of 33 photographs celebrating London’s unique identity at five underground stations across the capital.

Aldgate East, Barbican, Canary Wharf, St Paul’s and Walthamstow Central stations are hosting portraits of Londoners including market traders at Billingsgate and Columbia Road, Big Issue seller George at his West-End pitch and Zookeeper Lucy at a Modernist Penguin Pool.

The installation is part of Historic England’s Keep it London campaign to get Londoners to notice, celebrate and speak up for the heritage of their city.

More about Keep it London

I am London at Canary Wharf

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

  • George Anderson, Big Issue Seller, photographed at All Souls Church, All Souls Place, Marylebone. The Big Issue celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2016.
  • George Gladwell photographed at Columbia Road Flower Market, Bethnal Green. George has been selling plants at Columbia Road since 1949, longer than anyone else at the market.
  • John, Stan and Jack Harris, of T Cribb & Sons, photographed outside City of London, Cemetery Church, Newham. T Cribb & Sons is a fifth generation family-run funeral directors established in 1881.
  • Mark Morris, Managing Director, Leleu & Morris Ltd, photographed at Billingsgate Market, Canary Wharf. Leleu Morris was founded around the turn of the last century and is one of the few fishmongers still owned and operated by the founding family.
  • Bob Dee, Head Waiter, Lloyd’s, photographed at One Lime Street, Lloyd’s insurance market, City of London. Lloyd’s began in 1688 when Edward Lloyd’s coffee house became the place to go for marine information and cargo insurance. Lloyd’s waiters were sent down to the dockside for shipping news; the company’s building staff are still referred to as ‘waiters’.
  • Peigi MacKay, Volunteer, Canal & River Trust, photographed at Camden Lock. The Canal & River Trust care for 100km of waterways across London, including the Regent’s Canal.
  • Victoria Cleland, Chief Cashier at the Bank of England, Threadneedle Steet and photographed there. The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, founded in 1694. The building is Grade I listed and near Victoria’s favourite building: the Tower of London, which was England’s first mint.
  • John Walters, Pearly King of Finsbury, photographed at Bunhill Fields, City Road. The London Pearly Kings & Queens Society began in 1875. Each London borough has a king and queen who continue the tradition of raising money for charities. John played in Bunhill Fields as a child. A proud East Londoner, it reminds him of happy days.
  • Liberty Clayton, Bespoke Tailor, photographed at Anderson and Sheppard, Old Burlington Street, Westminster. Anderson and Sheppard have been Savile Row tailors since 1906; the street has been home to tailors since the 1800s. Liberty came to London to pursue tailoring and believes she owes the city her career.
  • Tracey Hayward, Customer Service Assistant, London Underground, photographed at Canary Wharf station. Tracey has worked for the Underground since 2005. In addition to her duties on stations, she is active in mental health advocacy, sharing her personal experiences with mental health challenges in training sessions with colleagues from across the Tube network.

I am London at St Paul’s

  • The Very Reverend Dr David Ison, Dean, St Paul’s Cathedral, photographed in the Cathedral Library. For more than 1,400 years, a cathedral dedicated to St Paul has stood at the highest point in the City. Sir Christopher Wren built the present cathedral between 1675 and 1710. David has been the Dean of St Paul’s since 2012 and led the prayers for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving ceremony.

I am London at Barbican

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

  • Matt Pryme, Yeoman Warder, photographed at the Tower of London. The ‘Beefeaters’, as they are nicknamed, have formed the Royal Bodyguard since at least 1509. The Tower is a Grade I listed UN ESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Lucy Hawley, Zookeeper, photographed at ZSL London Zoo, Regent’s Park. Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) works to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. The Grade I listed penguin pool was designed in 1934 by Lubetkin and Tecton.
  • Anna Rolls, Scientific Instruments Conservator, Royal Museums Greenwich, photographed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. London’s only planetarium, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, houses the Airy Transit Circle telescope which defined the historic Prime Meridian of the World.

I am London at Walthamstow Central

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  • Bob and Roberta Smith, Artist, photographed at the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. Like the Victorian creative William Morris, Bob and Roberta Smith is an advocate for art education.
  • Dorothy Bohm, Photographer, pictured in Hampstead. In 1939, as Dorothy was being sent to Britain to escape Nazism, her father handed her a Leica camera. She has used her camera to capture lives around the world, and since the 1950s has called London home and explored its people and places through her lens. Dorothy helped found The Photographers’ Gallery in 1971 and was its Associate Director for 15 years.
  • Sterling Betancourt, Musician, photographed at Powis Square Notting Hill. Sterling was born in Trinidad and came to London for the Festival of Britain in 1951 as part of the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra. He stayed and sowed the seeds for the first Notting Hill Carnival, when he played a small gig to soothe tensions following the 1964 race riots.
  • Jacqueline Cooper, Owner of L Manze Pie and Mash Shop, Walthamstow High Street, photographed in the shop. Opened in 1929 by Luigi Manze, the Grade II listed pie shop’s interiors were designed by architect Herbert Wright. Jacqueline and her family have owned L Manze since 1986.
  • Morag Myerscough, Artist and Designer, photographed at her studio in Hoxton. Morag makes engaging and colourful public installations for communities to enjoy. Her bright and bold designs can be spotted across London, including in the Design Museum at High Street Kensington.
  • Fay Fullerton MBE, Head of Costumes, photographed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Opened in 1858, the Royal Opera House is home to the two world renowned artistic companies, The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet. Today’s Royal Opera House is the third theatre built on the Covent Garden site, following the loss of previous buildings to fires. Its Grade I listed main auditorium seats over 2,200.
  • Kate Barlow, Tutor at the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace and photographed there. Kate completed the Future Tutors programme at the Royal School of Needlework, which has been based at Hampton Court since 1987 and has had royal links since it was founded in 1872.
  • Sir John Sorrell CBE, photographed at Somerset House, wearing his Hornsey College of Art scarf, where he studied from 1964. He and his wife, Lady Frances Sorrell, set up the Sorrell Foundation to inspire creativity in young people.
  • Jonathan Trayte, Sculptor, photographed at AB Fine Art Foundry, Fawe Street. Jonathan studied at the Royal Academy Schools and works to transform organic objects into cast and painted bronze. He works at the AB Fine Art Foundry, which was founded in 1992 and can be found in what was Spratt’s Dog Biscuit Factory in the East End.
  • Marianne Cwynarski, Secretary to the House of Commons Commission and Head of the Governance Office, photographed in The Lloyd George Room, Palace of Westminster. The Palace of Westminster is a Grade I listed UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Palace was constructed after the Great Fire of 1834, and there has been a palace on this site since the middle ages.
  • Scottee, Artist, photographed in the Roundhouse, Camden. Scottee is an artist, activist, writer and attention seeker, whose work will often leave you covered in confetti. The Roundhouse was originally a railway engine shed and is now a performing arts and culture venue.
  • Kim Abraham, Year 6 Teacher, photographed at Netley Primary School, Camden. Founded in 1883, Netley is a diverse and inclusive school committed to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Brendan the Bear was a pupil’s favourite toy, gifted to the school’s charity sale. Kim uses Brendan to explain kindness to Netley pupils.
  • Tracey Hayward, Customer Service Assistant, London Underground, photographed at Canary Wharf station. Tracey has worked for the Underground since 2005. In addition to her duties on stations, she is active in mental health advocacy, sharing her personal experiences with mental health challenges in training sessions with colleagues from across the Tube network.

I am London at Aldgate East

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  • Bisi Alimi, Gay Rights Activist, Public Speaker, Writer, HIV and LGBT Advocate photographed at Tower Bridge. Bisi is proud of London’s openness and connectivity: “London is where the dream is. You can be who you want to be and no one will look down at you.” Tower Bridge is one of his favourite sites in London.
  • Craig Cassidy, Paramedic, London Ambulance Service, photographed outside Aldgate Underground station. In 2015, the London Ambulance Service celebrated 50 years of caring for the capital. It is one of the busiest emergency services in the UK. During the 7/7 bombings, Craig was one of the first responders at Aldgate station.
  • Sir John Armitt, past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), photographed at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford. The ICE was formed in a London coffee shop in 1818 and has become home to many of history’s greatest engineers. John was Chair of the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority. He oversaw the delivery of Olympic venues including the London Aquatics Centre designed by Architect Zaha Hadid (1950-2016).
  • Caroline Criado-Perez, Freelance Journalist and Writer, photographed at Parliament Square, Westminster. On 7 June 2016 – the 150th anniversary of the first petition for women’s right to vote – Caroline took a petition to Parliament to have a statue of a suffragette put in Parliament Square. The statue will be unveiled in 2018 to mark 100 years of female suffrage.
  • Tim Arnold, Singer/Songwriter, pictured at the Century Club, Shaftesbury Avenue. Soho has been a culture and entertainment hub since the 19th century. Tim’s career as a musician was inspired by his teenage introduction to the Soho area and its vibrant artistic community. He thinks of Soho as a village.
  • Di Robertshaw, Practice Educator, Cardio-Respiratory Team, photographed at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Founded in 1852, Great Ormond Street Hospital is the country’s leading centre for treating sick children.