Thomas James Front Page

A-Z Every Street

Over the course of twenty-twenty-one landscape photographer Thomas James set out of walk every street of his home-town.

The project reveals a quieter city hidden behind its noisy tourist facade.

I grew up in Bath.

I moved away.

Then returned later in life with my family to set down roots.

The city hosts five million visitors each year. An economy powered by heritage and cultural tourism makes it one the most photographed places in the world.

The transient nature of tourism means the flood of images on Instagram, travel-vlogs and magazines are the same picture postcard scenes repeated again and again; a Georgian Crescents, the Roman Baths, a medieval Abbey.

A real city – the cities people experience everyday – do not look like picture postcards.

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Culverhay Castle

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Rush Hill

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Odd Down

As twenty-twenty-one rolled in the realities of another year of the pandemic became depressingly clear.

I needed a project that would survive a set of ever shifting lock-down rules and provide some form of active meditation and calm.

The project was simple. I joined the growing community of people determined to walk every street of their hometowns.

In March twenty-twenty-one I bought a Collins A-to-Z street atlas and red sharpie and started to mark my progress.

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Odd Down

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South Stoke

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Over the next few months the A-to-Z dominated my spare-time.

Walking the city is as much a treasure hunt as it is a pilgrimage.

I would plan walks to cross out specific areas only to find tangles of paths leading off to areas I never knew existed.

Alongside the rigid markings of A-to-Z I found desire paths, ugly and unique buildings tucked away down side streets and unintentional patterns, rhythm and repetition in my images.

The everyday city ended up as a quirky living thing distant from the glossy-tourist facade for which it is known.

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Odd Down

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St Martins

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Odd Down

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Roundhill

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Odd Down

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Upper Western

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Odd Down

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South Stoke

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South Stoke

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Locksbrook

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Rush Hill

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Lyncombe Hill Fields

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St Martins

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Combe Down

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Combe Down Village

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Mulberry Park

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Rush Hill

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Horsecombe

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Combe Down

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Lower Western

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Entry Hill

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Rush Hill

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Rush Hill

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Fox Hill

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Fox Hill

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Popes Walk

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Larkhall

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Upper Western

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Lower Bristol Road

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Moorland Road

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City Centre

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Perrymead

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Fox Hill

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Landsdown Crescent

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Fox Hill

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Fox Hill

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Bearflat

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Bearflat

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Lyncombe Vale

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Roundhill

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Upper Western

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Pennyquick

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Widcombe

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Twerton

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Upper Western

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Lower Western

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Lower Western

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Charlcombe

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Ragland

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Summerhill

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Lansdown

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Charlcombe

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Twerton

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Twerton

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Claverton Down

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Bathwick

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Twerton

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Moorfields

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City Centre

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Larkhall

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Riverside

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City Centre

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City Centre

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Odd Down

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Larkhall

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Bathwick Hill

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Widcombe

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Combe Down

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Sion

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Riverside

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Fox Hill