Fourth Weekend: Walks and Art

I can't believe that I just typed the title of this post, but yes, indeed, it is my fourth weekend here in Blighty. I've really settled into a routine and am feeling more and more like a local. I'm more confident and am consulting Google maps far less as I'm out and about, which sometimes leads to interesting or amusing consequences. 

Saturday morning started as usual with a walk up to the Parliament Hill Farmers' Market. No need for the map to get me there -- just head up Lawn Road past the streamlined, modernist Isokon flats and keep going northward. I can now easily find the foot bridge that takes me over the railway tracks to Parliament Hill Fields. Even before the bridge comes into view, I know I'm in the right place from the distinct odor of urine -- a pungent mix of human and animal -- that precedes it. (The smell dissipates once you reach the other side of the footbridge and the football pitches on Parliament Hill Fields.) At the market, I bought my veg, bread and a samosa, and then walked over to Highgate Road to catch the C11 bus back to England's Lane. But something looked amiss. Roadworks were taking place, and though cars and buses were coming UP the hill, none were going DOWN. I'd neglected to consult the Citymapper app and didn't realize that the C11 would be on diversion around the roadworks. And so I walked, laden with my purchases, past Gospel Oak station and finally met up with the C11 in Mansfield Road. 

Seeing the Isokon earlier was a nice set-up for my afternoon activity -- a walking tour with my friend Jane, featuring art deco architecture around Piccadilly. The meeting point was the ticket concourse in Piccadilly Station, a place I'm sorry to admit I've never been, next to the tribute to Frank Pick, the man who brought modern design to the underground. We were met by friends Malcolm and David (the other punter scheduled to be on the walk was a no-show). 

Jane explained the various art deco features of the station, and things to look for in art deco buildings in general, before leading our jolly little band out onto the busy streets, full of shoppers and people getting an early start on their Halloween revelry. We looked at exterior and interior details of some fantastic buildings -- the former Simpsons menswear store (now Waterstones in Piccadilly) with it's concave display windows, the former Austin Reed clothing store (now Uniqlo in Regent Street) that still has the fixtures of their art deco barber shop on the lower floor, as well as exteriors of several cinemas and theatres, etc. Because it was just us four mates, Jane was able to weave in places and stories she usually doesn't get to include when the tour keeps to a strict time table. The most fascinating tale was about the Electrophone company, based in Gerrard Street, and its subscription live audio system that began in the early 1920s. Think of it as a precursor to the BBC, National Theatre Live and Netflix -- you paid an annual subscription fee and called an operator to request to be connected live performances from various entertainment venues. Then, you and your friends would sit around wearing headphones with handles to enjoy the performance. Totally wild! I had so much fun on this walk, with looking at the buildings and chatting with my friends, that I forgot to take any other photos using the crap phone camera (that's what I use for this blog), so you'll just need to wait until I upload to ipernity the ones I took with my proper camera.

Once the official part of the tour ended and we all felt the need to escape the environs of Leicester Square, we headed to the Salisbury, a grand Victorian boozer, for a meetup of the old lags of the Guess Where London group on Flickr. We all met through the group and have known each other for 10 or 15 years. Covid and travel restrictions kept us apart the last three years, so this meetup was long overdue. It made me so happy to see these folks. They inspire me to continue to explore London and to keep up my photography, they embrace me when I visit London, and they keep me connected to Blighty when I'm back home. 

Each week, I've been trying for a low-key Sunday, with mixed success. This weekend I did a bit more than last, but didn't push myself too much. In the morning, I went on a guided walk about Modernist Hampstead -- an uphill tromp to the meeting point on Heath Street, then a two-hour tour around the area, seeing a variety of residential buildings dating from 1930-1950-ish, ending at the Isokon. Our guide Marilyn told us at the outset about the quintessential architectural elements of this period that we should be on the lookout for: form following function, flat facades, exterior concrete supports, minimal ornamentation but for stylized motifs, metal window frames and flat roofs (and maybe a few others that I don't recall). We stopped to look at many buildings I'd walked right past in my previous rambles, but I hadn't taken notice. We also stopped to look at some I knew well, like 2 Willow Road and 66 Frognal (my favourite). The official walk ended at the Isokon flats, where we were then encouraged to look at the gallery with lots of furniture and artifacts from the building's history. The gallery, open limited times and only in the nice months, is staffed by volunteers who are themselves residents of the building. One resident who was on duty in the gallery offered to show us his flat. He has collected furnishings and decorative items that were original to the Isokon and/or classic examples of the Isokon design aesthetic. We got a glimpse into a tiny, cosy art deco bedsit like nothing I've ever seen. So cool!

After a quick lunch back at my gaff, I got the tube for Waterloo to see Strange Clay at the Hayward Gallery. The Hayward has been closed a lot recently (covid, renovations), so this was the first time I'd seen an exhibition there in several years. I always like their exhibitions as they tend to be edgy, challenging your notions of art, and often downright fun. This one was all of that and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I nearly forgot -- on Saturday, one other thing I did was to pop into Hauser & Wirth on my way to the walking tour. I saw the exhibition of paintings by Amy Sherald, the artist who did the portrait of Michelle Obama that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. 

The sunny and warm days of October have now ended. We set the clocks back here on Saturday night, so sunset now comes shockingly early. The days have become rainier and colder. And thus we begin the slide into winter.

I've got two weeks left here, with as yet only a few activities slotted in. Watch this space for further developments. 

Stats:

Saturday, Oct 29

£12.90 farmers' market purchases

£10 Piccadilly deco walk

20,939 steps

8.83 miles

Sunday, Oct 30

£10 Hampstead Modernism walk

£2 Isokon donation

£7.50 Hayward Gallery (half price with Art Pass)

£1.50 veg

20,291 steps

8.28 miles