Janice

7th May 202210th May 2022

Norwich – King Street Quarter and the Cathedral (mostly)

Wednesday, 27 April, 2022

Our fridge was now stocked so I made sausages with toast for breakfast. Such a good idea. We were loving having a kitchenette.

We left the hotel room with no clear direction. First we walked right from the front door, instead of left. We were on St Faith’s Lane and headed over to Recorder Street. On the corner was a little garden with a lovely gate.

On the street outside was a row of houses leading up to the main road, Prince of Wales. The ne on he corner was my favourite. I wondered what the cost of houses was here in Norwich. I don’t have a clear idea of when these houses were built, but they were pretty – a line of them leading down to what is or was a theatre.

We had thought about going down past the station today to Riverside, but instead we crossed the road and headed into what was called the Kinge Street Quarter. This area promised lots of historic houses and it delivered. It’s also where Julian of Norwich counselled the citizens of Norwich, had her 16 visions, which inspired her book ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ the first book written in English by a woman. It’s considered quite a literary area. The historic houses date from the 12th century. Below, the house with the timber frame over flint rubble and brick ground floor is the Dragon Hall, a former merchants’ hall, dating from the 14th Century. The oldest house is the Music House – 12th century – and I don’t think I photographed it since, looking at the images online, it wasn’t that remarkable! If you know Norwich and see it below, please let me know.

And, although we thought we weren’t going to Riverside, this area does border the river and there it is, with its brand new housing.

We considered takng a look at a model home in the area but it didn’t tempt us for long. It was just funny seeing Pizza Hut and TGIFridays in such close quarters to the timber framed buildings on the street outside.

And the churches and churchyards continued.

Talking of continuing so did our jumbled sense of the geography of this place. Turning away from the river, we were suddenly in the Castle Quarter so again close to the market. This suited us since we had decided that we would have a ‘chip off,’ the market Lucy’s fish and chips vs Grosvenor.

The market was bustling but I didn’t have any step in me so Krish headed in for Lucy’s while I sat at City Hall, a building with a crazy tower on top. It’s supposed to be very interesting inside – we never made it in.

Krish was gone for quite a while and came back with some chips and three fish bites. Krish couldn’t resist the onion rings, but wish he had. That’s always the case. Verdict later.

To get up to Pottergate we walked through the newer pedestrianised shopping area and into The Forum (a mix of free exhibitions, events, activities, catering, shopping and learning opportunities) for a bit.

I think the next photos might show the Guildhall. I’m not sure! I’ll be perfectly honest and say that I have no idea which photo belongs to what anymore. But I photographed anything that struck me and hope you enjoy them.

This time we found Pottergate and the Grosvenor Fish Bar easily. Time for the second part of the chip off. We had chips again, a cod goujon, and some gravy – my request.

And the result. Divided! Krish liked Lucy’s chips, while I thought them a bit too well done and with an odd taste (beef fat? although I think Grosvenor also uses fat instead of oil. Both had a batter that was thicker than we liked. Lucy’s batter tasted nicer but Grosvenor’s fish was a larger piece so moister and more flavourful. Neither won prizes with us but I’d choose Grosvenor. Fun, though!
Continue reading “Norwich – King Street Quarter and the Cathedral (mostly)”

1st May 202210th May 2022

Norwich – The Lanes and City Centre

Tuesday, 26 April, 2022

It’s not that I haven’t been anywhere or done anything, but I’ve been lazy about putting it all together.

We planned a two-night trip to Norwich, somewhere I’ve wanted to go for some time. I didn’t know much about it and tried to research a bit before I went, but these days I’m just as happy to be away as to actually go out and discover new things. In fact, I didn’t spend that much time just relaxing but walked every day until I couldn’t manage another step.

The journey there was uneventful. We got the train to Stratford and from there another train all the way to Norwich, about an hour forty minutes for the longer ride. Luckily, the train was fairly empty and fast.

Norwich station was quite old fashioned and small. I was happy that we came straight in without any stairs to climb before we could leave. My friend, Julie met us there and we started our walk to have lunch together.

Norwich looked small-townish, but there were some interesting old stone and brick structures. I was itching to take photos already. However, we headed for a restaurant. The food wasn’t good and I think I made the best choices of the three of us – just some squid, and a papaya salad.

The Old Post Office – I was surprised to see three Nathan Bowen art pieces, and others throughout the city

From there we walked to where we were staying on St Faith’s Lane. It wasn’t far from the station – a small curved back street with a view to the cathedral. We were staying in a studio apartment which I’d found online. I forgot to take photos but it was decent – we had a full kitchen along one side, an armchair, a bed, a little table with two chairs, and a bathroom with a big walk in shower. It would do nicely for our two half and one full days.

We rested for a while and decided that we’d like to have fish and chips that night. One place, Grosvenor Fish and Chips in The Lanes area came highly recommended so we decided to head to The Lanes, which we could see the beginning of from where we had eaten. It seemed that if we plunged into the first sight of it and followed through, it shouldn’t be hard to find Grosvenor.

Walking through the back streets from St Faiths Lane. The cathedral is to our right. The houses here were very old and probably Flemish

This building was such a surprise. We were walking down The Lanes and it loomed ahead of us, reminding me so much of walking in Italy where huge churches dominate small squares

The Lanes are some winding, narrow laneways, often hilly and mostly cobbled. It’s a mix of tacky and interesting, the medieval and the modernised. The entire city is littered with churches and blue and other historic plaques, too many to read. And finally we found the Grosvenor.

I loved the fact that we not only found it in the maze of lanes but it was on a street called Pottergate, which I decided to call Harry Potter Gate. Its name comes of course from being where the pottery industry once flourished. I’ve now read that there are many haunted spots in Norwich, but I hadn’t taken the time to learn about the many ghosts the city has.

We could have stopped for fish and chips then, but the queue was quite long so we decided instead to explore a bit more. This was a mistake.
Continue reading “Norwich – The Lanes and City Centre”

14th February 202222nd February 2022

Going west – Belgravia

Monday, 14 February, 2022

I took a rest day on Valentine’s Day. It’s just a coincidence that I took that particular day. However, it occurred to me that if we did something we might end up eating something nice, somewhere.

The winter has been pretty grey with lots of rain, but on Valentine’s Day, although it wasn’t sunny, it wasn’t raining either. We decided that it might be a good day to take the number 38 bus all the way to the end – from Hackney to Victoria. It’s a well-known route. We’ve done it many times before, but typically we get off when we reach Shaftesbury Avenue, a street which runs parallel to Oxford Street – one one side is Soho, and on the other Chinatown. Lively in every direction. Going to Victoria takes you along fancy Piccadilly and past even fancier Park Lane, and into Buckingham Palace territory.

Full 38 bus route map from Hackney (Clapton Pond) to Victoria

First off, the photos seem lacklustre – because of the grey – or maybe I’m wrong, They all I have so they’re going here anyway. Secondly, I thought it might be interesting to show how the terrain changes as you move west, and I’m not sure I achieved that but here goes, anyway. All taken from the top of the bus, through the dirty window, but not too bad!

I took this photo on Balls Pond Road in Dalston. A typical East end main road row of houses

Leaving Balls Pond Road, the bus goes down Essex Road, where things start to space out a bit and there are more blocks of flats rather than just houses

At Angel the characteristic N1 Georgian architecture asserts itself. Things are looking more upscale already

Leaving Islington, you arrive on Rosebery Road, Clerkenwell, where you’ll see the art deco awning for the old Finsbury Town Hall. The inside is described as opulent, a mix of art nouveau, baroque and art deco. Building began in 1894.

With Mount Pleasant Post Office on one side and Exmouth Market on the other, this has always felt like the beginning of the west end, which is the centre of London. In fact it has a central post code, EC1

Feeling more central now, as you pass Gray’s Inn, Gray’s Inn is one of the four Inns of Court which have the exclusive right to call men and women to the Bar of England and Wales. The inn has existed for more than 600 years, but these buildings date mostly from between 1669 and 1774. Now we’re officially west, post code WC1

The Fryer's Delight — Leaving Gray’s Inn Road, you’re in Bloomsbury. It stands at the edge of the west end, just before you hit the shopping areas

Passing Holborn Station, looking more like the west end now. Here’s where they announced bus stop closures and a diversion ahead.

The bus diversion announcement told us after our next stop, ,Tottenham Court Road, we’d be going down Charing Cross Road, around Trafalgar Square, and up to Piccadilly Circus. A detour can be annoying but this one was nice – a scenic route for once. I can’t promise the route is accurate on the map. Maps and I aren’t good friends.

Along Charing Cross Road it feels very west-endish

Feeling like a tourist as we pass Trafalgar Square

In the very centre at the back of the photo is the very grand Admiralty Arch. It has some awful hoarding in front of it. One of my favourite views ruined…for now

Passing Waterloo Place — Waterloo Place, as we passed by it. Always always impressive and grand

Speeding along Piccadilly and barely managed a photo of The Royal Academy

Google tells me that this is the Royal Air Force Club – we are by Marble Arch and Hyde Park

Buckingham Palace stop — It seemed like the height of posh to be nearing a bus stop called Buckingham Palace. The bus doesn’t stop near there. Nothing does. But it did mean we were a hop away from our destination

And we were there. It had taken about an hour and a half, including the detour, but just one bus from door to door. We
were ready to explore Belgravia.

Continue reading “Going west – Belgravia”

7th February 202219th February 2022

Revisits – where do I go?

Monday, 7 February, 2022

I must confess to wanting to see somewhere different. Lately, I’ve been returning to old haunts, though. I have many trips in mind, but the pandemic hasn’t let go of us. I’m not sure where it will land us, but for now I’m just not keen to go too far. I have a birthday coming up in just a month and, while Krish talks about travelling a few hours to get a perfect Chinese meal, my sights are set closer to home. There must be something wrong with me! Or maybe not.

Before the pandemic we would go away at least a few times. That year, 2019, it was trips to see my aunts in Southend, an overnight to Leicester, six weeks in Toronto, a few days each in Glasgow and in Pembrokeshire. There may have been others. There must have been. Now Krish talks about revisiting Porto, Budapest, Torino, perhaps a new place – Istanbul, Valencia, Copenhagen… we’ve bounced the idea of Warsaw, of Marrakesh, Sicily… With the pandemic on our minds, we thought about the UK and there are still places that are on my list but untried – Nottingham, Colchester, Norwich..

Both aunts have died now. It takes me a while to let that sink in. I dreaded those journeys each time and always knew they would inevitably end. Now they have. Our Two Together rail discount card lies idle. At least it really helped with our couple of trips to Southend earlier, and to Sheffield and Leicester. When the weather turns warmer, there will hopefully be more.

And close to home we’ve stayed for the most part. Krish’s hospital visits meant I could explore alone or with him in areas that I didn’t know very well. Now he’s not going very often so revisits to closer familiar places are the ticket They’re an opportunity to find something different and have one of those why-did-I-never-notice-that-before moments. Somehow there’s always at least one. It surprises every time.

It worries me, when I consider returning to Toronto, that I can’t have nearly as many of those moments in a city built on a grid system and where there’s a certain uniformity of architecture. My friend, Esmeralda, once described it (after returning from her travels) as homogenous. I’d definitely have to adapt and be more willing to walk further and dig deeper.

So here’s a look at the familiar places I’ve visited in the last couple of weeks.

I took Krish to see Wood Street. It’s only a few stops away so an easy journey. I wanted to check out the Mexican Homies on Donkeys so we headed over to the Wood Street Market that had been closed when I was last there, before Christmas. The market is an indoor arcade filled with jumbled little kiosks and rooms. A notice at the entrance told us that this used to be The Crown Cinema, from 1912 to 1956 and is now a haven for antique and record collectors. I took photos of some of the colourful little shops inside.

The visit to Homies on Donkeys was to taste a taco or two and buy a bag of corn tortillas – so hard to find in London. I decided that I would taste the tacos first before investing in a bag of 40 tortillas. The choices weren’t ones I’d have ordinarily bought but I chose a milder chicken and a spicier pork one. Both tasted strongly of chipotle, and the extra guacamole I ordered was runny like a salad dressing. Not a bad taco but not a great one. I left without buying the tortillas.

Down the street we came across two Palestinian places. Only later did I think that maybe I could have taken some falafels home. We kept walking – I’d seen a sign that the William Morris House was close by so we aimed to walk there. It just wasn’t clear where or how far it was so we turned on our heels back to the station instead.

We had a run into Whitechapel. Krish wanted lentils, I wanted dumplings, and it was time for more samosas. I’d seen an ad for dumplings – three bags for 9.99 – at a store in Whitechapel that looked like it was new. As soon as we reached our stop, Krish decided he could do without the lentils – cross that off the list, then. Instead we went looking for the dumpling place. It’s called Tian Tian Market and it’s in the new complex near Aldgate East Station, where Guan (the supper club guy) lives. That store was so tidy! And spacious.

Whitechapel has a curious mix of architecture. Sometimes it’s very modern, sometimes it’s very old. Sometimes it’s a jumble of styles that make no sense.

It would be interesting to be able to see into the future and know what the area will look like, perhaps in fifty years from now. I have no doubt some of the old will remain, but I really think it will be unrecognisable. Continue reading “Revisits – where do I go?”

17th January 202229th January 2022

Two faces of Hackney Wick

Monday, 17 January, 2022

This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about Hackney Wick, and it’s likely not to be the last time. The thing about the area is that it’s changing – rapidly. In a nutshell, it’s gentrifying. When I first arrived in Hackney, I found out that I lived close to a community of artists – largest in Europe, it claimed – so I wandered over. What I found back in those early 2000s days was a largely derelict area, kind of like a rambling collection of industrial parks, and being me, I was fascinated with the whole thing. I took photos back in those days – of walls and buildings covered in art, some accomplished, some scribblings, and of letterboxes and doors. No official nameplates there – just painted and written flat numbers outside old factories with names listed one below the other. I had flashbacks of being in San Francisco and of communes, everyone in together.

There was a street festival every year, Hackney WickED, so I went back for it. People sat around on the ground, on fire escapes, at booths. There were others spray painting new art. There were cafes, often vegetarian or the not talked about so much in those days vegan. There was live music. I walked by the canal and saw people sitting on rickety chairs. Beatnik, hippy, arty, unconventional, rebellious, eco warrior…I could go on.

I remember going to the Hackney Pearl – everybody loved that place and I thought I must be missing out. One visit there cured me of that. There was a Banksy in those days by the canal. I remember that. The whole place was a mess but somehow glorious. The Olympics changed all that. Hackney Wick was somewhat exempt, being on the over side of the canal to all the action, but it was brushed and that’s all it took.

One by one the scrapyards and the factories tumbled – converted or demolished. The artist-heavy community rebelled. They were always good at that. As far as I can tell, they didn’t get too far, although there are holdouts. What you see in Hackney Wick today is the remnants of what used to be alongside the very smart, but sadly no-personality luxury loft conversions and luxury flats. They have names that are a nod to the past – Bagel Factory, Shoe Factory, Ceramic Works. They don’t fix the past.

The protests continue…for some. Interestingly, in the local paper an interview with an older resident was glowing about all the changes. What works for some doesn’t for others.

Protest art on the side of the Hackney Pearl

The Lord Napier Pub has often been featured as an icon for Hackney Wick, since it’s been covered in graffiti for many years. It also happens to be Hackney Wick’s only pub something I find quite inconceivable for this city of pubs on every corner. On the other hand, Hackney Wick is perhaps just a corner. It’s posh inside now and the art continues (with new works by Tizer, Sweet Toof, Phelgm, Run, Mighty Mo, ThisOne, Oust, DKAE, Lucky, BuskOne, Will Barras, Greg Abbott, Teddy Baden & Cept.) I’ve also heard they have good Northern Thai food, but I haven’t been able to try it yet.

Lord Napier pub before regeneration (not taken by me)

On these next photos, with the ominous Phlegm figure threatening with an overhead anvil on the left, you can see the very modern building that’s now close to it.

The map shows how compact the area is and also a rough guess at where we walked. I’m sure I must have left some off but I have a terrible sense of direction and get completely turned around in my memory and in real life. The photos show some interesting sights along the way.

We had plans to eat while at Hackney Wick. I was quite keen to try the food at the pub, but Krish suggested we look for pizza and did some research to see where. He chose Natura. At first it didn’t look like much. A pizza and pasta place at the end of a street where the housing estate is. Inside there were rough wooden block tables with bench seats. At lunch time many of the regular sized pizzas are served with a drink for 8.40, about a third less than at dinner. We ordered a pizza with ham and some spaghetti with meat sauce. They were really friendly in there and we were relaxed, the only people in there. The server told us that it was usually a busy place in the evening but lunch times were quiet – so cheaper pizza! The pasta was so so, the pizza was well done. Krish wants to go back for lunch again and get a different pizza.

The estate hasn’t changed at all. I wonder how the residents feel about their area and all the changes it’s gone through, and their new well-heeled neighbours. And come to think of it, the estate is the third face of Hackney Wick.

We noticed a lot of orange-based graphics as we walked, along White Post Lane. It wasn’t until I got home and read the local Wick paper that I learned more. The artwork was an initiative called Paint the Town Orange by an enterprise called MEUS. MEUS is a tech company focused on the fitness and wellbeing of men. Ten top street artists created art to raise awareness for men’s mental health during men’s mental health month, November 2021. Here are just some of the pieces we saw on our walk.

The heart of Hackney Wick is small enough to discover all in one go, but we tend to take things in smaller bites, especially when they are so close by. There’s a barbecue spot I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time so there’s a good reason to be back soon. We headed back towards the Lord Napier, to our bus stop, and home for tea!