LRSA City Trail Pt.1 - Cosmic 35

LRSA City Trail Plaque No.4 on the former Princess Charlotte pub

First up for the LRSA City Trail is the baby budget Cosmic 35, another Soviet-era classic that I recently rescued from a Car Boot stall for little more than the price of a Wetherspoon pint. A solid enough plastic bodied Viewfinder Camera, seemingly in full, if somewhat limited working order, although in truth it was the cool looking lens that attracted me. An instinct that would prove to be entirely correct as it turns out. As for the rest of the camera… well, let’s just say I have issues.

When it comes to vintage cameras I’m pretty much sold on Rangefinders, although I wouldn’t turn my nose up at an SLR or TLR if one came my way at the right price. This camera comes with no such aids to focussing, so as you can see (above) I appended the device with a cool, colour coordinated German Prazisa Rangefinder, an essential accessory for a manually focussing camera like this one in my view. You just have to remember to transfer the range indicated to the actual lens!

Other issues I have with this camera include the separate shutter cocking lever on the side of the lens, a great idea until you inadvertently catch your finger on it when shooting and overexpose the shot. Several bloody times! I got the hang of it eventually, unlike the Viewfinder which clearly wasn’t designed for the glasses wearer. The resulting photos are often quite badly framed so I’ve had to crop some of them as a result. Also, the separate cocking and wind-on mechanism means it’s all too easy to Double Expose with this camera if you neglect to wind-on, although I passed this particular test with flying colours. There may also be a few Light Leaks, and don’t get me started on the super fiddly Aperture adjustment…

Good things about this camera include a groovy name that tends to attract attention, it’s nicely compact and easy to load, and has a lens that in competent hands will give you pretty good images. It's also quite an attractive camera for all its plasticky faults, which is important, because who wants an ugly camera!

So on to the trail, which for convenience I'm doing in number order, starting at the bottom of Leicester's unique New Walk which means you too can begin the trail with a largely traffic-free walk from the Rail Station. I'll likely be using Kodak Gold 200 for the duration of this exercise, because my preferred developer has quite a lot of it, just past its use-by, and for a very reasonable price...

Plaque No.1 is one of the newly cast 2024 versions, mounted on the side of Esquires Coffee on King Street which was originally the site of the City Council Offices. New Walk continues for a very short distance past King Street which is where this attractive arched brickwork can be seen at the base of chimneys for a building on King Street. This photo suffered more than most with the terrible framing so not the best start to be honest!

Plaque No.2 can be found at the corner of Phoenix House on Welford Place, and is another pristine 2024 example. This attractive octagonal Turret with Weather Vane on the corner of Market Street caught my eye, I often wonder whether these 'fairytale' embellishments served any practical function, a look-out tower for ne'er-do-well's perhaps! I’ve no idea what went wrong with the exposure, possibly one where I caught the cocking lever part way up, but without entirely ruining the shot.

Another framing disaster for No.3 on Newarke Street, an original 1984 plaque mounted adjacent to ground level parking for a pretty ordinary looking concrete office block. It's perhaps remarkable that this plaque has survived on a street that's been largely rebuilt in the intervening years, the Magazine Pub being one of the more important losses for those of us who used it quite regularly. There's plenty of great architecture to see on the opposite side of the road, but the metalwork for this Carpark was what stood out for me in the midday sun.

This highly unusual Chimney near the corner of Newarke Street and Oxford Street is a structure I’d previously never noticed despite being adjacent to the (now closed) Princess Charlotte, a pub and music venue I visited frequently in the late 80’s and the site of Plaque No. 4, a 1984 original now painted black (top).

Much as I love this fabulous chimney, it’s the newish Hugh Aston Building (below) that’s the highlight of this vantage point. The lens of the Cosmic has captured the Verdigris of the copper cladding quite well, just occasionally a camera can make a subject look even more beautifully dreamy than it is in real life.

Plaque No.5 can be found on the modern brick wall of the Newarke Houses Museum facing the historic Magazine building, which would be the popular choice for photography I guess. I preferred the look of these decorative Chimney Pots with a puff of Cumulus Cloud ‘smoke’.

Even the guide book struggles to get enthusiastic about the vista from Plaque No.6, mounted as it is on the impressive Victorian edifice of Heritage House but overlooking the deeply unattractive Southgates Underpass (albeit with an attractive Mural on it now). From here you can see the former Shakespeares Head pub, until relatively recently an important heritage survivor with an unspoilt 60’s 'Deco-Style' interior that was sadly ripped out when converted to a short-lived restaurant, and latterly a Cannabis Farm! It was a good pub in its day, but sadly in the wrong place to attract the custom it needed to survive. Note the probable light-leaks on this photo.

Plaque No.7 is to be found in the very heart of Leicester's Castle Quarter, the historic part of the city that Leicester's many detractors never seem to visit. The plaque itself is an original example, appropriately covered in a 'patina' of pale green lichen. A whole day could be spent exploring the area around Castle Gardens and down to the River Soar, including the church of St Mary de Castro which is arguably Leicester's most impressive Christian place of worship, and frequently open to visitors. This photo suffered badly from the bright sky I was pointing the camera at, but I've managed to rescue these interesting heads over this decorative doorway through the power of digital editing.

I spent a good bit of time searching for Plaque No.8, which is apparently at the entrance to the Castle Mound and probably obscured by Ivy, but I couldn't find it. What was much easier to find was my first refreshment break, located just around the corner at the Grade II listed Castle pub. A relatively recent addition to Leicester's pub scene, the Castle is already a firm favourite with beer enthusiasts and students from the nearby Demontfort University. Here we can see a good example of the flare this lens tends to attract, which for my taste is anything but problematic. I've been shooting into the sun with my phone camera forever so it's nice to have a shutter that's safe for this kind of photography.

The final stop for this quarter of the trail is on Bath Lane overlooking the Soar Navigation. Plaque No.9 is on a (former?) factory building, and in addition to the historic West Bridge there are two items of interest within view. A monolithic artwork referencing the former Dyeworks that stood here is almost entirely overgrown and difficult to see now, but this recovered archway from Leicester's historic Wholesale Market makes a much better subject. I think this is one of the best examples of how the Cosmic's T-43 Lens delivers pretty good colour and contrast, particularly when the aperture is stopped down on a bright sunny day like this.

[Coming Soon: LRSA City Trail Pt.2 - The Zorki 4K]