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

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