Saturday, 29 August, 2020
I’ve been reading other people’s blogs, You know, the ones everybody reads…and I’ve been surprised at how many public-facing people, even celebrities, are confessing to feeling desperate or depressed. I like this pouring out of souls. It’s not just that I feel less alone and hopeless, but that I feel a connection with myself.
I’ve been blogging quite a bit lately, after a fairly long silence. I think it’s because of this connection with myself and my environment. It’s because I felt that, rather than feel imprisoned, I would reach outwards to what is achievable, and then inwards to what I can bring to it. I told Krish last week that I spent one to two hours going on walks to find local things, but that blogging about it afterwards took three or four hours. It enhances my experience. He asked me if this meant that I needed to walk in order to do my blog. I think he was getting at me walking more. No, it’s not that. It is what it is. I can blog about anything. The walking is a means to an end and, as an agoraphobic, that’s important. Walking for the sake of walking is more difficult. The goal of photographing, researching onsite and off, writing later – all of these motivate me. And lately, lethargy and inertia are always threatening to pull me in.
Researching isn’t easy for me. I am impatient. I gather the facts and they overwhelm me. What to choose, what to leave out, and essentially for me, how to write it so that it’s friendly and easily understood. It’d be easy to not bother embroidering my writing about things, places, and people without any background information. Going on guided tours has taught me that knowing a little can enhance. Sitting on my couch right now, thinking about this house, I’d love to know who lived here before, who lived here first – who were they, what were they like, why were they here, what did they do, who was the first…? Krish says that doesn’t matter to him. I’m not sure he means it.
So I have a few blogs in hand. There are bits and pieces of things. There are photos that were left over, areas that weren’t quite completed, photos that belong to little walks that aren’t worth a whole blog. Then there are things around the flat that would be good to talk about. Add all of these to my To Do lists and there’s plenty to keep me occupied, if not delighted.
So here’s a start – Well Street.
On the day we went to Fassett Square and the German Hospital, we took a bus on Graham Road over to Well Street. Originally we were going just to Lidl for some oil and chocolate but Krish decided – unsurprisingly, that he couldn’t resist some cod bites at Well Street Fish and Chips.
Well Street is a meandering road with one end at Morning Lane and the other on Mare Street – a good curve. We started at the point where it turns down into a small high street towards Morning Lane.
Well Street is in South Hackney, just 4.2 miles (6.8 km) northeast of Trafalgar Square (the recognised milestone of London when marking distance). There are records from the 1400s but nothing about a well, although the words like Water and Shore feature even today. Well Street also had a moated ‘Pilgrim’s House.’ There was a small settlement at first, and with a poorer population from the 1700s. By 1831 the whole of Well Street had houses and was quite prosperous, wth shopping and light industry including rope-making, boot-making, and leather working. A cinema arrived in 1913, the South Hackney Picture Palace, and by 1932 there were two housing estate, with two more following after WW2. Well Street has had many prominent residents and characters – Celia Fiennes the traveller and diarist in the 18th century (yes, she is an ancestor of Ralph Fiennes), and Jack Cohen the founder of Tesco who started off trading in Well Street Market.We have two main reasons to go to Well Street – the Morning Lane end of the street for fish and chips, and the Mare Street end to shop at the local Lidl.
Walking over to Lidl, we decided to take the back streets. It proved interesting. First we found Loddiges Street and Loddiges House. I’d learned quite a bit about the Loddiges family on the Heart of Hackney Tour. Conrad Loddiges, the grandson of Joachim Conrad Loddiges, owned the freehold around here.
We had a cool find on the final approach to Lidl. The long park that runs along the side of St Thomas Place, a street I’ve walked along many times. Things happen when you take your time and keep your eyes open, and I know there’s more to see.
This is what we found. The long green is actually a cemetery.
What I read is that this is a ‘long lost burial ground.’ It’s the site of the burial ground to a chapel of ease – a church built in 1810 for those who couldn’t easily reach the parish church – in this case St John at Hackney. After the chapel closed and was torn down around 1948, burials continued until 1876. About eight years later the grounds were converted into a public green, with some chest tombs left in place. Among local people buried here were members of the Frampton family – the nearly 1960s Frampton Park Estate is named for them. More recently, in 2008, 14 year old Shaquille Smith was stabbed here. There’s a memorial to him that I didn’t see. So as usual, it’s a photo for the next time. My list keeps growing.
Then one last thing before we went shopping. Krish noticed these houses side by side, with two very different dates on them – 1903 the shorter house on the left, and 1807 on the taller house on the right. Quite a gap, which shows nicely how eclectic the architecture of the area is.
Which house would you choose? And that was another walk that was. It would be easy to give up, when my knees are telling me to, but every discovery spurs me on and I’m glad of it.