Thursday, 12 November, 2020
I haven’t been to Old Street or Moorfields since lockdown, and probably for quite a while before that. I’ve had plans to get on a bus and walk around to see what street art has popped up. Somehow, I’d not made it there. This trip wasn’t going to achieve that either. It was dark, cool and windy, and the object of the journey was to keep Krish company on his latest visit to Moorfields Eye Hospital. He’s been a patient since July 2019 when his sight started to be strange after an episode of shingles during June of last year. Let’s skip over that story for now!
His appointment wasn’t going to last long, we thought (it lasted a few hours) and Krish had noticed that a huge Stik mural had been revealed during some construction. I wanted to see that. So the plan was that I’d wander around a bit and meet him after he’d seen the doctor. We took the 55 bus which goes along Mare Street, down Hackney Road, and across Old Street – a twenty minute or so journey.
An Instagram user told me a bit about this wall art —
That this ‘Shoreditch Past Present Future’ mural will be obscured by the Art ‘Otel is beyond irony…..they made a huge deal about how they preserved the Banksy when the old Foundry building was demolished but there were many other significant pieces of art in there that the developers had no interest in…..
It was hidden by a giant advertisement hoarding but occasionally came back on view for a few days/week as the ads changed. The new hotel is circular but there is a second building going up adjacent to the mural – not a high rise but we should all make the most of the current full view of this art.
So I’m glad I went to photograph it. I went there first in case I ran out of time. The light was already fading on a fairly dull day. I considered trying my original plan to go down Rivington Street and perhaps Great Eastern or even to Curtain Road to see some ancestor stuff John had told me about. However, the dark was encroaching and I thought instead I should meander over towards the hospital and see what I could see over there.
I headed down Leonard Street to Tabernacle Street, named for Whitefield’s Tabernacle a former church at the corner. The first church on the site was a wooden building erected by followers of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield in 1741. This was replaced by a brick building in 1753, and rebuilt in stone over a century later in 1868.John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, preached a sermon “On the death of the Rev Mr George Whitefield” here.
A surprise around every corner in London – often several!
I was feeling a bit hungry and, as the sun went down, I was feeling the chill. I walked up City Road towards the hospital – through the large roundabout I’ve always thought was so ugly. On the corner of City Road and Old Street is a massive red stone building that I’ve not usually paid close attention to. Today I would. Continue reading “Moorfields and Old Street”