OUR MONTH OF WEST LONDON HISTORY HAS FOUND CLUES TO THE PAST IN SHUTTERED NIGHTCLUBS, ABANDONED FACTORIES AND SHAKY TV FOOTAGE. BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN THE ONLY CLUE IS A GAP ON THE MAP? DARRAN ANDERSON WENT IN SEARCH OF LOST PLACES.

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner wrote. Where is it, then, we might ask?

It may reside in a physical place, which, even when it changes beyond recognition, retains clues in language or archaeology. It may reside in memories and in records: photographs, postcards, or books – such as Faulkner’s rarely-read Requiem for a Nun from which the quote above originates. Even when the past is almost completely gone, the absences themselves leave traces: dead ends, meandering paths, unexplained gaps. Such clues are scattered across West London, often hidden in plain sight.

....