London Villages Hipster Paradise - Shoreditch

An Overground for a change 

Penultimate outing for the 2018 London Villages walk and this time the meetup was an Overground station - Shoreditch most of the usual suspects made it there  and weather was agreeable (you'll find a possible explanation of the naming of the area here).

Disused arches 

Near the station there is a clear reminder of when the station in a number of 'arches' which are apparently to be preserved.

GCHQ graffiti 

The area around Shoreditch and Hoxton  is (perhaps) Hipster central for young Londoners these days  and it's festooned with street art and Pop Up shops - apparently the GCHQ is involved in some of this.



Some of the other street art is 'challenging. too this by Street Artist Sr. X

Okay - it's anti-consumerist in some ways 

A Panorama 

We also visited Hoxton Square and saw the Circus School (where you can graduate in Circus Skills) it's on a site /building  where electricity was once generated from waste  and nearby is a building Now a restaurant (Meat Mission) that was a Christian Mission Lewis and John Burtt are commemorated for their work there.

Trapezes and all 

Christian Mission/Meat Mission

A bit further on and we were in one of London's oldest squares and the area that saw the start of the regeneration by artists. (with the now infamous Blue Note venue).

Hoxton Square 

To counteract the 'right- on' art  of the time, think White Cube again  The Stuckists (remember them) moved in too.


The fantastic Town Hall is now a burgeoning Art's centre with a world famous restaurant - another indication of the importance of the creative industries in London .

Shoreditch Town Hall - now an Arts Centre

We saw example of Philanthropic Housing (Leopold House) and an area that was a market that's now housing and Arnold Circus a development that used the former slums to build a bandstand on! (Arnold Circus - Below Right)

It reminded me of a New York BrownStone