Weekly Roundup #3

This past week was half term, with kiddies out of school and their exasperated parents trying to find activities in which to engage them. As the parks and big museums are free, these are a prime destination for families, with many venues planning special activities for the hoards of children pouring through the doors. Smaller museums are also popular family destinations, though to a lesser extent. And so, I decided to stay away from all of them. There's nothing that spoils a museum experience faster than a bunch of pushchairs, whinging children and general misbehaviour. Oh, and coughing. If your kid has a cough, please, please keep the wretched thing at home!

I hit the pavements again, starting on Monday with a long walk through the village of Primrose Hill, a bit into Camden Town, and back in a big circle around Primrose Hill itself. It was a gorgeous autumn day and I had a grand time. Primarily following a route laid out in Stephen Millar's London's Hidden Walks v.4, I roamed past upmarket shops in Regent's Park Road and along the length of pretty Gloucester Avenue. Heading further south, I did a loop on Parkway, Albert Street (with a stop at Ferriera's Deli, where the pastel de nata are only £1.50), Arlington Street with the enormous Arlington House (a Victorian doss house now used as council-supported transitional housing), over the canal at Camden Lock and back along the towpath to Gloucester Avenue again. From there, I resumed Millar's walk and looked at a former piano factory (now flats), blue plaques for W. B. Yeats and Sylvia Plath, and charming pastel houses, including the ones used for exterior shots in the Paddington Bear films. Back in the park, I walked past Shakespeare's Tree, then to the western and northern edges of the park before exiting and walking home. 

Whenever I visit London, I always try to explore one or two areas that are entirely new to me. Tuesday was my day to do just that with a mooch around Hackney Wick, Fish Island and bits of Bow. I had made myself a Google map from my pre-trip research, plotting out a route that would take me past some of the more notable streetart in the area, into a corner of Victoria Park and picking up the eastern end of Stephen Millar's walk of Mile End and Bow, which I'd started in 2017 but never finished, before ending at Fish Island (not really an island) and back to Hackney Wick overground station where the walk began. Weather varied throughout the day -- mostly overcast, occasional drizzle and glimpses of sunshine. 

I got the Overground from Hampstead Heath to Hackney Wick and had a butcher's around the nearby streetart (Noir's guitar players and the Lord Napier Pub) before crossing to the eastern side of the River Lee Navigation and then walking down the towpath for a while. This area is adjacent to the 2012 Olympic venues, now a park. I then crossed back to the western side of the Lee Navigation and headed down the towpath of the Hertford Union Canal and past several locks. These are the waterways evocatively depicted in Michael Ondaatje's Warlight, an amazing book that I read during lockdown. I nipped into Victoria Park to see the Burdett Coutts Memorial Drinking Fountain (restored just prior to the Olympics) and to eat my packed lunch, then crossed the canal again to go south into Bow. 

Zig-zagging my way towards Mile End Road, I saw a suffragists mural on the side of a pub, Georgian terraces, the lovely Tredegar Square (often used for filming movie exteriors), and the usual mashup of Victorian, Edwardian and new-build. Everywhere I went, I saw the ubiquitous purple Poplar wheelie bins. Along the way, I paid my respects to the Lansburies (a plaque to George and a clock dedicated to Minnie), and saw the recently unveiled blue plaque to the women and girls who struck the Bryant and May matchbook company in their struggle for better wages and working conditions. 

It was 4 o'clock by the time I reached my ultimate destination -- Fish Island. Not exactly a proper island, this Victorian industrial enclave is bordered by the Lee Navigation, Hertford Union Canal and the A12 motorway/Blackwall Tunnell Approach. As various creative people and streetartists have moved ever eastward, driven out of areas like Shoreditch and Dalston by gentrification and increasing rents, Fish Island seems to be a place they are moving to, even as construction sites abound and probably luxury flat conversions of old factory buildings. But it's still possible to catch sight of the vestiges of London's industrial past, including a peanut factory and the eyeglass frame factory where John Lennon's famous spectacles were made. From there, I crossed the canal again and walked the short route northward back to Hackney Wick station.

Whew! That brings me to Wednesday, a rather quieter day in comparison. I started by dropping in for some delicious coffee cake at the Primrose Hill Community Association. I've been joining in on some of their weekly walks and I wanted to check out their facility and re-opened (since covid) cafe. The facility is a fantastic asset for the Primrose Hill community, located in what was the boiler house of the former piano factory I'd seen on Monday. I'm not sure if the target clientele of the cafe are the less well-off residents of the area, in need of support and social contact, or anyone from this economically mixed village. Seems there is a broad umbrella. I chatted with a woman who is living in supported accommodation and facing the end of her time there, and with a volunteer, a former teacher, who gave me theatre reviews and recommendations.  

I then hopped on the tube to Old Street to make my way along the City Road to the Victoria Miro Gallery at City Road Basin. ("Up and down the City Road, in and out of the Eagle. That's the way the money goes. Pop goes the weasel.") If I've ever walked along this part of the City Road, it must have been a long time ago before it was so built up or else I've forgotten how awful it is. There are new, high buildings every (probably more luxury flats). The wind was blasting down between them to the pavement below, and the congestion and noise were horrific. Remarkably, the Euston Road, which I'd long held as the worst road in London, is more pleasant. The gallery, in an old warehouse, is capacious and quiet, however. I saw two exhibitions: Alice Neel and Secundino Hernández.

With time to kill until I was due in Islington for a tour of Canonbury Tower, I got a meal deal sandwich and meandered around, stopping in at Shepherdess Walk Park to eat my lunch and admire the mosaics. It was a lovely day for a leisurely stroll through a part of Islington I'd never seen. Canonbury Tower, built in the early 1500s (that makes it Tudor), is now owned by the Marquess of Northampton. Over the centuries, some famous names lived or visited here, including Frances Bacon, Thomas Cromwell and Oliver Goldsmith. The Marquess now permits the Islington Guiding Association to do a occasional tours for a limited number of people. My friend Jen was on the rota to lead the tour this week and invited me to come along. What a cracking tour it was! It's a unique and rather bonkers building, with lovely oak paneled walls (one with bullet holes in it -- allegedly), graffiti dated 1736, and a marvelous view across London from the flat rooftop 66 feet (20 meters) above the ground. Jen told us fascinating tales of people connected to the tower, and relayed the story of her first association with it, back before she ever thought of becoming a guide, when she won a treasure hunt that ended in the tower. I'm not going to give away the details, so you'll just need to book a tour for yourself. In the meantime, here is an article about the tower featuring one of the other guides. Sorry, but the Marquess does not allow photography inside the building.

On Thursday I finally got to visit Dungeness! This isolated spot on the Kent coast has long been on my list of places to see. It's part wildlife reserve, part working fishing community and part holiday cottages. My friends David and Janie had never been there either, and so we planned a day trip. It's difficult to get there by public trans, and I was grateful to have them offer to drive.

We ate fish lunches at the Snack Shack,

walked on the shingle beach to look at wrecked wooden boats,

and had a wonderful tour of Prospect Cottage, former home of the artist, film maker and gay rights activist Derek Jarman. For many years, even after Jarman's death in 1994, people could visit his rock gardens, lovingly planted over the years he lived in the cottage, using plantings that could survive in the harsh coastal climate. Since the death of Jarman's partner Keith Collins in 2018, the house has been maintained by Creative Folkestone and they have recently opened the cottage to visitors. Tours are limited in frequency and number of people (4 at a time). The gardens are lovely and show Jarman's creative hand, but it's inside the cottage that you really get a feeling for who he was and what was important to him. The cottage is essentially as it was when Jarman and Collins lived there, with furnishings and collections still in their original places. On the walls hang Jarman's paintings, many of which depict his emotional state as he lived and ultimately died of AIDS. Collins left meticulous documentation of the contents and the guides have soaked up that information. Whenever one of us on the tour pointed at an object and asked about it, one of the guides could give us full details. It's clear that the guides love working there and sharing this place with visitors. Again, no photography allowed inside, but we were allowed to spend as much time as we wanted taking photos around the exterior.

On Friday morning, I needed to do errands. First call of duty was to complete my absentee ballot and put it in the post back to Massachusetts. The local post office in Belsize Park, located inside Budgen's supermarket, is closed while the store is undergoing renovations. My next nearest options were Primrose Hill or Swiss Cottage. I opted for the latter in order to combine it with grocery shopping at Waitrose in the Finchley Road. After my great experience the week previous at the post office in Golders Green, I just assumed that any post office would give me efficient and courteous service. Was I ever wrong! When I arrived, I was sixth in the queue and soon there were at least another half dozen people behind me. It took a half hour for it to be my turn. The two women at the counter were working at a snail's pace and didn't give a rat's arse about being cordial to customers. Parcels were strewn all over and there was litter on the floor and counters. When looking up the location on Google, I'd noticed that the reviews gave this post office 2.8 stars. That is truly generous. 

After lunch back at my gaff, I looked over my spreadsheet for a small museum that would probably not attract too many annoying children. I decided to head down to Holland Park to visit Leighton House (free with my Art Pass), which has recently reopened after covid and a major refurb to the reception, cafe, gift shop and toilet areas (now all in the building next door that had formerly been their admin offices). No kids inside, but lots of people, mostly elderly posh types. The rooms -- more of them than I'd remembered viewing before -- are a treat to see, especially the Arab Hall with its blue and gold mosaic tiling and soothing fountain bubbling up from the middle of the floor. When I was last here, it was to go to a souk that was taking place in the studio, making it hard to get a good sense of that room. Now I could enter it as one of artist Frederic Leighton's visitors, models or clients would, with light pouring in and beautiful objects on the rose-coloured walls. After wandering around all the rooms, I exited through the cafe into the large back garden to sit and enjoy the greenery, only to be met by two children running around and screaming at the top of their lungs. I left, a bit peeved but glad I'd made it to 4 pm on Friday without encountering annoying urchins and their oblivious parents.

Stats:

Monday, Oct 24

£1.50 pastel de nata

£1.49 bread

19,295 steps

7.91 miles

Tuesday, Oct 25

£2.50 carrot cake

£10 to top up my Oyster card

25,854 steps

10.6 miles

Wednesday, Oct 26

£2 cake

£2 sandwich

£18 Canonbury Tower tour

£2.50 Ginger Nuts & apples

£9.50 shirt from M&S

22,666 steps

9.3 miles

Thursday, Oct 27

£7 Prospect Cottage tour (half price with Art Pass)

£6.40 beverages 

£ some amount to travel to/from Zone 4

14,897 steps

6.16 miles

Friday, Oct 28

£4.20 postage to mail ballot to US

£10.75 groceries

£8 wine

16,127 steps

6.59 miles

Third Weekend

Well, it seems that I totally overdid it on Saturday and then I paid the price on Sunday. 

Even though the Primrose Hill Food Market is closer to my gaff, I really like the farmers' market on Parliament Hill, and so I trudged up there again this past Saturday. I'm beginning to figure out which vendors have the best prices on veg, bread, etc. and which have the things I like regardless of price. I've been buying one or two individual size quiches or veg tarts every week from a vendor called Popina. (They're good, but sadly they don't measure up to the pies from a vendor at the Sunday market in Queen's Park.) Some green beans, scallions, sweet potatoes and more olive bread sticks rounded out my Saturday purchases.

Once I caught the bus back to England's Lane and deposited my market haul at my gaff, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do in the afternoon. I consulted my ArtRabbit app and learned that the London International Pasteup Festival was going on over the weekend in and around Brick Lane. And it was free! I didn't even have to debate it -- I grabbed my camera and Oyster card and set out to get the tube to Moorgate and wander over into Shoreditch. The festival consisted of several designated pasteup locations where a host of street artists contributed to collaborative collages. I happily mooched around for several hours, taking photos not only of these walls but also exploring new streetart and revisiting old favourite pieces. 

New things I saw:

And old friends I checked in on:

Plus a few of my favourite buildings on/near Brick Lane:

By the time I got back to Belsize Park, I'd clocked nearly 20,000 steps on my Fitbit.

The day wasn't over yet, however. I had plans to meet my friend Jane at the Cecil Sharp House (the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society) to see John McCusker and Friends. With no good bus route to take me there, I walked the 25 minutes down the Regent's Park Road for the gig. It turned out to be so good that it wasn't difficult at all to stay awake. John McCusker is a fiddle player who has recorded in his own right and appeared on albums by various acts including Mark Knopfler, Paolo Nutini and Paul Weller (who I adore). The friends -- Ian Carr, Sam Kelly, Helen McCabe and Toby Shaer -- were all excellent musicians as well. 

I woke up Sunday feeling utterly rung out. My covid test was negative but I simply had no energy. Rain was pouring down all morning, so there was no point in going out. In the mid afternoon, after I did some laundry and the rain stopped, I summoned enough strength to go to the Courtauld Gallery to see the small exhibition of Helen Saunders, an obscure British woman who was one of the early abstract artists. Obscure early women abstract artists seem to be getting attention right now. I keep seeing articles about Hilma af Klint (who has ever heard of her, right?), a Swedish woman also described as a pioneer of abstract art and now the subject of a film. The Courtauld has been closed for a long time, during covid lockdowns and beyond, for substantial renovations. The galleries are now brighter, airier, more welcoming and really enjoyable to walk around in.

A couple hours later, I re-emerged from the Swiss Cottage tube station to find the rain starting up again. It wasn't much at first but later in the evening it really kicked off with torrential downpours and gusting wind. I was happy to be inside making a big pot of veg soup with my market purchases. 

Weekend stats:

Saturday, October 22th

£15 farmers' market purchases

£20 John McCusker & Friends at Cecil Sharp House

£5.40 beer at performance

26,528 steps

10.88 miles

Sunday, October 23rd

£6 bread from Panzer's

£ 7.75 wine & tinned tomatoes

10,567 steps

4.33 miles

Weekly Roundup #2

I invade London! (That Space Invader mosaic has been on the bridge near Southwark Cathedral for over 10 years.)

By the end of Friday, I'd been pounding the pavements for 17 days -- thus now making this officially my longest stay (in 2019, I was here for 16 days) and I haven't reached the halfway point yet. I'm settling into a rhythm, often doing an online Pilates class in the morning and then heading out the door around 11 or so. I'm still packing a lot in, but not at such a crazy pace as in week 1. The spider's web of bus routes is making more and more sense. I'm beginning to know which grocery store or market to go to for particular products, depending on who has the best quality or price. I say hi to the neighbours in Lambolle Road and a few say hi to me.

Again, for those of you who want the potted version: I saw some exhibitions (Cezanne at Tate Modern, Kaffe Fassett at the Fashion & Textile Museum, Executions at the Museum of London Docklands) and a giant globe, rambled around Hampstead on a warm, sunny day and Golders Green on a dreary one, spent time with an old friend and a new one, went to an excellent play at the National, and heard a book talk about London clay and the things it offers up on the foreshore of the Thames. Read on if you want the details.

The week got off to a fine start on Monday morning, when I met Jen at Southwark Cathedral to see Gaia, a giant globe made of NASA satellite images taken of the earth. As you watch it slowly turning, it's supposed to make you feel in awe of the planet and aware of our responsibility to maintain it. 

We then mooched around Bermondsey a bit, looking at the old warehouses and Georgian shop fronts, got sandwiches from Tesco and ate a leisurely lunch in Red Cross Garden (established by Octavia Hill, a woman who was an social reformer and advocate for decent housing for the working poor in the 19th century). I decided to head to Canary Wharf afterwards to see the exhibition of Executions at the Museum of London Docklands. The exhibition is full of images, artifacts including clothing worn by Charles I, letters containing pleas for clemency, tokens left by the condemned for their loved ones, and grisly stuff like chains, locks and gibbets. Matt Brown gave the exhibition a glowing write-up on Londonist, saying you could spend an hour there. Well, I spent an hour and a half and had to rush to see the final bits as the museum was closing. 

Tuesday dawned sunny, bright and warm. I decided to take a break from exhibitions, opting to spend four or five hours roaming the streets of Hampstead. My legs got a real workout as I climbed hills and steps, wandered down narrow passageways, poked around in graveyards, peeked in people's windows, stopped into the local library next to Keats's House and generally enjoyed myself. Hampstead is really like no other place, full of red brick houses, lovely shops and pubs, cobbled streets, an old lockup, a Grade II listed boilerhouse chimney, tons of plaques on famous people's homes and lots of atmosphere. It's no wonder well-off people chose this spot in the 17th and 18th centuries when they looked to abandon the filth and disease of London for the curative waters and clean air of this elevated spot.

I also walked past the Snappy Snaps that George Michael crashed his Range Rover into one drunken night in 2010. Fans used to leave tributes at the damaged wall. The owners have since repaired it.  

On Wednesday, I was back to looking at art and going to theatre. In the morning, I went to Tate Modern to see the blockbuster Cezanne exhibition. I got in at half price with my Art Pass. They were very good about controlling entry and letting people in according to the time on their ticket, but it was absolutely rammed with people, making it a bit difficult to edge my small self up to the wall text and the paintings. It's a very good exhibition despite the throngs, well organized and full of workss I'd never seen before. (I later saw a small selection of his paintings at the Courtauld, and thought they would have been excellent inclusions in the Tate exhibition, but I suspect the Courtauld isn't keen on letting them out.) The exhibition is arranged chronologically, putting the paintings in context with what was going on in his personal life at the time he did them. 

While at Tate Modern, I also had a butcher's at the installation in the Turbine Hall -- Cecilia Vicuña's Brain Forest Quipu. 

After a lunch of sushi from Waitrose, ate while sat on a bench in Bernie Spain Gardens (named for a local woman activist), I went to the National for a matinee of Blues for an Alabama Sky. I had a cheap seat (20 quid) in the unraked first four rows of the Lyttleton Theatre. The seats are narrower in this section, but that's ok for a small person like me. Unfortunately, many of these level, narrow seats were occupied by LARGE men. My neck is still a bit sore from craning around these giants. So, the seat left something to be desired, but the production was excellent. As is expected from the National, the staging and costumes were fantastic and the acting was superb. The play was very moving -- with light comedy interspersed with some heavy themes. It may have been a tad too long, but that's not a major complaint. 

Since I had plans for Thursday evening, I got a late start on the day, doing an online Pilates class in the morning and just faffing about in my gaff. Then I got on the Northern line and headed to Battersea Power Station, for a short walk into Battersea Park to go to the Affordable Art Fair. I've never been to this semi-annual event before. I saw quite a few paintings and prints I liked, but I didn't buy. Instead, I collected cards from various galleries and made notes on what I liked for future reference. 

Bermondsey next, to go to the Fashion & Textile Museum to see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition. I knew about his line of yarns for knitting (and have a friend Janice who knit samples for him in the past), but didn't know so much about his textiles. This exhibition was all about fabric, specifically quilts made from his colourful and unique fabric designs. I enjoyed the exhibition (and my Janice enjoyed my snaps), but I wished for more. 

My last stop of the day was a talk by author Tom Chivers about his book London Clay. My friend Jen had tipped me off to this event -- it was originally scheduled to take place during the Totally Thames Festival in September but was rescheduled due to the queen's death. I met up with Jen and new friend Lesley at the event. Jen has read the book and highly recommends it. I'm going to order it as soon as I get home. The talk was utterly engaging. Tom told us about his long love of the south side of the Thames and the various smaller rivers that emptied into it long ago. He has both researched the geology of the river clay and explored the foreshore extensively, mudlarking for various relics that the river gives up at low tide. He read bits from the book -- historic, poetic and deeply personal -- and passed around some of the bits and bobs he has found. 

And now for Friday. I was too knackered to think about more exhibitions, talks, walks, etc., so I decided this would be a good day to go up to the post office in Golders Green to exchange the now-out-of-circulation paper 20 pound notes I came over with. The paper notes have been replaced with polymer ones and, as of September 30, are no longer good to spend. I arrived in the UK just a few days late to spend or exchange them at a variety of places. Now, they can only be exchanged at the Bank of England, which according to their website has queues of over an hour, or at six or eight post offices across the capital. The nearest one to me was Golders Green, and as I'd never walked around Hampstead Garden Suburb there, it seemed a good plan. The weather was iffy all day, alternately raining and overcast with occasional bits of sunshine. It took me all of five minutes to exchange my bills, and the rain was holding off (for a time), so I walked to St Jude's church in the heart of Hampstead Garden Suburb. The church has an amazing arts & crafts interior that I'd wanted to see, but alas it was locked up tighter than a drum. And so I mooched around a bit, looking at the charming cottages behind hedges and white picket fences. One of these days, I'll make it here during Open House Weekend and have a proper tour. 

As the plaque above the sundial says, "Let others tell of storm showers, I'll only count your sunny hours." 

Stats:

Monday, Oct 17

£1.40 sandwich from Tesco

£6.50 Museum of London Docklands (half price with Art Pass)

£10.41 groceries

19,191 steps

7.81 miles

Tuesday, Oct 18

£1 chocolate croissant

£1.40 package of Ginger Nuts

20,853 steps

8.50 miles

Wednesday, Oct 19

£10 Cezanne exhibition (half price with Art Pass)

£20 National Theatre ticket

£3.32 lunch

£9.50 wine and veg

19,313 steps

7.96 miles

Thursday, Oct 20

£6 Affordable Art Fair (early bird price, booked online)

£6.33 Fashion & Textile Museum (half price with Art Pass)

£2.15 cookie

17,157 steps

7.02 miles

Friday, Oct 21

£5.95 sandwich at a proper cafe

£1.65 ibuprofen

£2.50 banana bread

£2.96 yogurt and bananas

16,150 steps

6.59 miles