Posted on by Janice

A street art walk around Commercial Street and Great Eastern Street

Wednesday, 30 January, 2018

The end of January! Did I mention how grey and dark it’s been? Yes, I have.

Today in my free time I wanted to go find the new street art pieces by Alice, one of my favourites. In view of my walking resolution, I had the route figured out to get to them and then make my way home, taking the bus after the thirty minutes were up.

Again, my map reading skills (or lack!) let me down. I wandered around on the wrong side of Commercial Street for a while, wondering where Quaker Street was.

Hoists
My journey to getting lost did take me past these houses with the old hoists at the back
Elder Street 1
Going completely the wrong way, I was on Elder Street, home to the great Huguenot weavers houses from the early eighteenth century
Elder Street door
Lovely door on Elder Street
Elder Street
The length of Elder Street
Gardners
Back on track on Commercial Street. One day I’ll go into Gardners to see if it really does just sell paper and polyethlene bags

I always feel pretty foolish when I get lost. In this case, I know I have walked along Quaker Street many times. I can even picture it but Google had to guide me to it by voice. Hanging my head in shame.

Then when I found it, I discovered a David Bowie piece and a lot of reconstruction but no Alice!

New construction
Through what I call the canyons of London, more building. This one with the characteristic pile-of-boxes look I’m seeing so much of in East London

The whole neighbourhood is painted and pasted and I could never photograph it all, although I do keep trying. It wouldn’t matter since most of the time there’ll be something painted or pasted over what I’m carefully recording – it’s a full time job.

Enough getting lost! I wandered over to Great Eastern Street, getting my walk underway. Along the entire way, there’s plenty of art to see, some crude, some lovely.

Not everyone likes street art. Some think it’s vandalism and sometimes it is. However, to me it’s real art, accessible to all, anyone can paint. And to me that seems like it should be.

Millo in London
My friend Millo, a pretty old one too!
The Old Blue Last
The Old Blue Last – a gorgeous pub with a fantastic history, built in 1700
Nature! Garden Walk, Hoxton
Nature! Garden Walk, Hoxton
RIvington Street art
There is varied street art along Rivington Street, Hoxton
Rivington Street intersection
Rivington Street intersection, buzzing at night with the cool set
Glimpses
Glimpses
Perseverance Works, an old factory now offices and shops
Along Hackney Road is Perseverance Works, an old factory now called the Creative Hub of Shoreditch

Inside Perseverance Works
Inside Perseverance Works

About here, I ended my walk. I’ve left off so  many photos. So much to to see, impossible to see and walk it all, but if you have time, do read the history of the Old Blue Last