Thursday August 12, 2021
Every time I’ve gone to Liverpool Street with Krish (who goes on to Guys) I’ve meant to check out the new shops they’ve built into the Broadgate exit from the station. Before, it was a shop-lined walk back to an open area where you could sit on the steps and enjoy your lunch. Inside the Broadgate circle were some popular chain cafes – places I’d think of eating and then was put off by queues and prices. In that respect, it hasn’t much changed.
Now from the back of the station where you’d walk at ground level to Broadgate, you can go an alternate route to an upper level — up the escalators to some fancy new shops, look out at Old Broad Street from the top and circle around to Broadgate Circle where it’s expanded to some upper cafes where I’m plagued by queues and prices! Somewhere in my head I’m thinking maybe it always was here. Such thinking can give me a headache though, so I’ll just say that, if it was always there, it’s been refreshed. It’s open, bright and very, very different than the old station roads of Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate.
A little something about Broadgate – it’s a hub of office buildings linked by public squares located on the original site of Broad Street station (closed in 1986) and beside and above the railway approaches into Liverpool Street station. It covers 32 acres and brings the world of finance together with food, retail and culture. 19 million people come here to work, and to shop, dine and be entertained in the mainly-pedestrianised development. Building started in the mid to late 80s. Broadgate Circle was completed in 2015, not so long ago.
I considered each fast food place. The dim sum was motioning, the poke bowls were fascinating, but I moved on towards Finsbury Avenue Square, an area I didn’t recognise as having seen before. To get to it I had to walk in a seemingly narrow area by an interesting metallic structure.
Finsbury Avenue Square had had a sunken floor apparently, and this has helped me remember what it looked like before. It looks so different, transformed into an outdoor dining and events space. There is still some construction here.
Interesting to see people sitting with cocktails and little plates of food at Bar Douro, a Portuguese mini chain restaurant. Everything seems almost back to normal.
I had a plan to meet Krish after his appointment and had a bit of ground to cover, so I set off out of the complex.
I got quite ‘lost’ once out here. I knew where I needed to be and I could see the bus terminal at the station but, when I got closer, a parking attendant stopped me saying, you can’t go down here. So close to where I wanted to be but now I had to go around the outside and it felt like it was all around the houses. I have a terrible sense of direction, even with Google voice to help me along, and it felt like I was heading off into an area quite opposite to where I wanted to be.
However, as I rounded one more corner (I must have completed a circuit) there was Exchange Square, the last bit of the Broadgate area. Now I could relax, knowing exactly where I was and where to head next. I haven’t really explored Exchange Square, but it’s always been architecturally interesting. I hear there are plans to create a garden back there, so maybe I should take a closer look. Somewhere, somehow I have to find the time for it all.
It was easy from here. I headed through Spital Square, surprised to see how busy it was becoming after being so ghostly, and through the alleys to Middlesex Street. I had a date with a new ramen place before meeting Krish. In the back streets, time has stood still again and I’m away from the glass and metal towers.
Sandy’s Row is a very narrow street that I see all the time, but somehow always go the wrong way to look at the synagogue (1854). It’s I’m quoting my brother now: ‘Our mysterious great grandfather Charles/Lewis Simmons and great grandmother Kate Lees were married in Sandys Row synagogue, which is the oldest Ashkenazi, i.e. not Spanish-Portuguese, synagogue in London. The Lees family was from Holland, as were the founders of Sandys Row. Since the Simmons male line came from Portugal-Spain, I can only conjecture that the bride’s (or her family’s) wishes prevailed.’ So it’s with reverence that I stand outside the place now, which was indeed the church for the Jewish Dutch (the Chut, pronounced like the beginning of chutzpah!) and part of my history, as I did when I got the chance to go inside some years ago. It was as narrow and crowded inside as it looks from the outside. I remember standing on one of the balconies looking at some old photos and wondering if the structure would hold me and the other people. It’s survived this long, so probably…
Away from the heady space that is an ancestral memory, and on to find the ramen at Muragame. I really didn’t have time to eat, but I did want to go inside to see how it was. The restaurant I’d wanted to visit is Muragame on Middlesex Street. It’s known for ramen, udon, and tempura. It’s so new, though, that it still gets quite a queue, especially now that inside dining is more limited. I hadn’t expected the number of people I saw, and I also knew there’d be other opportunities to visit, perhaps around 3 after the lunch hour. It’s a long, narrow restaurant and I’m sure I’ll get there. No way was that happening today.
There are many other interesting things to see on that street, but I didn’t have a lot of time to get to the Herongate Tower to meet Krish, but I lingered just an extra minute or two to look at some old favourites.
Back on Bishopsgate, I was just in time to get a text from Krish asking me where to meet. I let him know I was walking to ‘the Sushi Samba building’ and was two minutes away. As I walked I couldn’t resist going down a really narrow alley off of the main road. I confess to feeling slightly nervous, but could anything happen so close to the bustle of Bishopsgate. There was a pub at the bottom, which was only a couple of metres from the entrance. It looked closed. I felt brave and hurried out again.
Krish had found an oasis off the busy road and wanted to show it to me. This was a courtyard, 100 Bishopsgate Courtyard, made by a few modern office buildings. There were a few tables and there wasn’t a soul around. We can’t have been more than a few steps away from the Gherkin (you see its reflection in the first photo) yet here it was as quiet as could be. We talked about coming back with a picnic – will we? – and I admired the sculpture that Krish said was made from hoardings around Hackney. What a coincidence! So I looked it up: ‘Rough Neck Business – Mike Ballard…made up of hoardings sourced from several sites across London. They include green hoardings from the Olympic Park and blue hoardings from Dalston and Hackney Wick.’
Hackney hoardings! And so back home to Hackney.