Saturday at Ealing Park Tavern (and a new front for Mrs May - Heathrow)

Well done Helen and team at the Tavern

Great to be part of an Exhibition/Sale at Ealing Park Tavern (once the Penny Flyer) on Saturday.

The event was curated by Helen Duff who I've shared space with before and it was a good day with plenty of visitors and a nice atmosphere.


One of several good things about the venue was that we were able to break it down into several distinct areas with a variety of disciplines.


Very nice to have a good mixture of people and sales were made across the board - well done Helen.

A good crowd gathers

Heathrow and Government challenges.

Despite Theresa May's (political) obituary being written several times she's still in No 10 and running her own 'Coalition of Chaos' with the DUP delivering on their promises to her (and her presumably delivering her part of the bargain.
[I guess there's some extra pressure now on Northern Irish politicians with Ireland  reforming their abortion laws.]

Well as well as this and Brexit (come on Labour get off the fence!) Theresa May has decided now is the time to alienate quite a number of Tory voters (and Boris Johnston MP - serial soundbite merchant) by putting the pedal to the metal on Heathrow expansion - I've got to state I'm okay with the expansion as longs as there's no increase in noise or pollution - I fear this will not be achieved.

As well as Boris being put out Zac Goldsmith MP isn't going to swallow this too easily (some of her own party are calling for 'free' vote).

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

Bombshell (and radio)

When I'm digging weeding and planting  at the allotments I often have the radio on, most often tuned Hedy Lammar - so much more than a gorgeous film star - such was my fascination with the subject that I watched the new (-ish) film about her that is a  Susan Sarandon  Executive produced Film (it's on YouTube currently).

While I'm digging

to BBC Radio 4 - one of their excellent programmes is Great Lives- last week the person chosen by Guest Suzy Klein was Hedy.

A couple of other Gems - Desert Island Disc has a fine host with Kirsty Young - intriguing to hear philanthropist  Sir Peter Lampl  - many of the pleasures he described were those we can all enjoy.

And the other show that fascinates is 'Artist to Artist' - great to hear the famous quote of William Morris being (re)-used by Ron Arad on this weeks show.

Perhaps not William Morris was thinking about

City Lit London Villages - Wapping Walk

This Wednesday we met up at Tower Hill as the most convenient station for our walk around Wapping (in fact the place we had another City Lit course with Armelle - nearly 3 years ago)

Trinity Gardens A  sunny spot for office workers to enjoy their sandwiches

25 years ago mention of Wapping on TV was usually tied together with pictures of busses being driven into 'Fortress Wapping' - well City Lit London Villages walk showed a different side to expose what the area is now.

The tour started near The Tower of London that had once been the home to London's first Zoo - it eventually moved to Regents Park as Safety was an issue.

Once the location of a Zoo with Polar Bears

The area around Wapping was the centre of London's Docks - since containerisation this is has fundamentally changed the nature of the area - gentrification means that posh boats use the old docks as a Marina with expensive flats overlooking them.


Dickens Inn is a feature (it's not connected with Charles Dickens though being built far later). 

Dickens Inn backgrounds the Marina

Talking of the Times it's disputed Printing presses are  now long departed  and a Waitrose Supermarket is one of the new buildings there.

Now Waitrose

Old Dock buildings are now reused.

Old buildings have been preserved and new additions often seem to work well.

Some lovely buildings

Much of the community around the docks was tied up with Pubs and there's even one called The Town of Ramsgate, here fishermen sold their catches at lower cost to them than in the markets.

Nearby The Captain Kidd too

Town of Ramsgate 

Captain Kidd Pub 

A Rope reminds 

There was an area called Execution dock.

The Dockers had a hard life manhandling goods up steps - there was much 'shrinkage' which led to the first police force - and a museum reminds people of their purpose.

Down to the river

A Police station in the dock area

St Georges' Church Mortuary 

Again we saw an example of how efforts were made to educate the working classes - here St John of Wapping 

School remains

We also saw a fine Nicholas Hawksmoor Church (st Georges) that had a (now unused) Mortuary - we were told that this was necessary as some burials had been of live people!

We also learnt about early shopping arcade at the entrance to tunnel under the Thames at Wapping (Overground station)

And saw the famous Cable Street Mural where Oswald Mosely's Blackhirts were fought by Irish and Jewish communities - it's said that the two communities created the English dish Fish  and Chips -Fried Fish from the Jewish cuisine and Chips from the Irish