My first awareness, growing up outside London, of the Old Kent Road was playing Monopoly as a child. The first square on the board and the cheapest property to buy the connotations were laid out from the start. Obviously as a child I wasn't that interested in finding out much more about what was to me some obscure road in London, but I must have assumed that it had importance like every other square on the board, why else would they have been chosen?

When I moved to London I lived in the North East and it wasn't until my work as a photographer took me to OKR that I started exploring and thinking about the road. I had a few jobs which required me to walk expansively around the area and found it fascinating. It felt to me quite hostile at first, the road is busy, loud, dirty and the industry along the road is dusty and scruffy looking. The people though seemed to know each other and were friendly.

There isn't a wide variation in height along OKR the variation comes in space on the ground, some premises are tiny whereas others seem to take up the whole of your gaze. It struck me as quite an jarring place, the juxtaposition of huge supermarkets, with their vast car parks, industrial garages and workshops against small retailers and cafes is stark.

Until you see an area every day it's hard to understand the way it works. When I moved to SE London I started experiencing OKR every day on my bus route, the 363. Fascinated at the culture and how the area got to where it is now with regard to it's fame and heritage I began reading its history and future, I decided I wanted to document the road as it stand today.