Thursday, 25 January, 2018
After some wet and windy days, when staying home seemed exactly what was best, there was some fair weather. Perfect for a long walk. I say long but these days 5k seems to be my limit. I find this very sad but carry on walking and taking breaks wherever I can.
My goal today was to find an art gallery, Victoria Miro, down at the fast developing area of City Road Basin which leads off of Regents Canal. I was also curious about a pub that claimed to serve authentic Creole and Cajun food. And from there make our way down to see the latest Wellcome Collection exhibit.
We managed all of it!
We started at Haggerston, by the canal. They’re really developing this area and it’s much prettier later in the year but it’s one of the more developed canal neighbourhoods. This side is a bit older.
Walking through the DeBeauvoir/Hoxton neighbourhood you come across Gainsborough Studios apartments on the south bank of the canal. The film studio was active between 1924 and 1951, best known for the Gainsborough Melodramas it produced in the 1940s, including the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The studios were demolished and flats were built in 2004.
The City Road basin area is developing quickly and looks to be yet another modern high rise neighbourhood. It’s shiny and clean but lacks the soul of the older streets. One day, I suppose all of London will look like this but I’m happy that I have the chance to see the old and the new coexist, each interesting in their own way. Today there was a lot of walking to do so there are no photos of the new basin flats – another time.
As soon as we saw the Victoria Miro gallery we remembered having visited it once before. However, it was closed for some reason. This wharf area is quite interesting, with more very new and very old residences and offices.
One of the modern buildings by the wharf had this really interesting clock. It took me a few minutes to figure out it was hours, minutes, and seconds. At first I thought it was different time zones
I had been interested in visiting the Plaquemine Lock pub, which serves Creole and Cajun food. I love Cajun food – especially blackened dishes. The Plaquemine Lock (formerly the Prince of Wales pub) is a tribute to owner chef Jacob Kennedy’s grandmother who was born into a famous Louisiana family in the town of Plaquemine near Baton Rouge. I went to New Orleans a few years ago with my sister, brother and sister-in-law. I loved the po’ boys we had at Traceys but never got close to the blackened chicken I was hoping for! I thought sharing a po’ boy would give me enough of a taste of the food to know if I’d go back to the Plaquemine Lock.
We ordered a lunch special of a beef debris po’ boy (£9) and an afterthought of the bourbon Tabasco maple wings (a small dish at £6.50). Both tasted quite nice. I have no argument with the flavours. My feeling is that London doesn’t, and maybe can’t, compete with the lavishness which is American cuisine. The hot-dog sized baguette, with the small portion of gravied meat and sedate slice of pickle, lettuce and tomato, and swirl of mayonnaise doesn’t satisfy. There’s no gravy or mayo dripping down your hand. There’s no big punch of anything here. It’s dainty and that’s not what this style of cooking should convey. The fries were nicely seasoned and are about the size of a small McDonald’s offering. So bottom line – tastes nice but still disappoints. Be braver, Jacob!
I’m a terrible navigator. Looking at the map now, I can sort of see how all the neighbourhoods connect from Kingsland Road over to Angel and surroundings. At the time, though, I was a bit surprised on leaving the pub to find myself approaching Upper Street at Angel Islington. I thought we were long past there!
We had a good walk through the Islington streets over to Kings Cross but I’m really struck by how squalid and ugly it can be around there. I know there are some lovely bits but for the most part I usually find it a bit suffocating with its dark, heavy architecture.
I realise that I didn’t take photos of the heavy dark stuff but found the gold amongst it!
I especially liked this Borough of St Pancras crest that I saw everywhere in the back streets around the railway stations.
In the middle is a depiction of St Pancras, the Roman saint to who the local church is dedicated. The cross and chequer on the left are taken from the town of Lewes, which was the first place in England to have a church dedicated to St Pancras. In the bottom right the seaxes of the county of Middlesex. The top right is a lion and the motto Constans Justitiam Moniti are taken from the Russell family arms, headed by the Duke of Bedford former landowners in the area. (Well Versed In Justice)
We reached the Wellcome Collection finally. It’s on Euston Road and it’s a different museum ‘ for the incurably curious – a free museum and library exploring health, life and our place in the world. ‘ The new exhibit is called Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian medicine so I was excited to see it. Every exhibit I’ve seen at the Wellcome has been intriguing (my favourite being one on Criminal Forensics) but sadly this one didn’t hold my interest. That’s a first!
I didn’t feel Ayurvedic medicine was explained well. I didn’t feel interested by the many pictures. I wanted to know why it’s used, how it’s used – to see examples of treatments and the results. It was too serious with not enough stuff to relate to. What I did carry out of it was that it was a holistic practice, something I admire. Maybe it was the material, maybe it was the way it was laid out, or presented. Maybe the concept of holism could have somehow been conveyed, rather than the separate and the serious, catalogue approach they took here Krish mentioned that they are economical in their approach, using the materials they already have in their library, but I think they should have a do-over that shows the value and wonder of this great approach.
I’ll be back to the Wellcome many times, I hope. But for now I chalked this one up and headed home in the rain.
