Hackney – Page 13 – slightly weird

20th May 201821st May 2018

Green Park, and Piccadilly for lunch

Sunday, 20 May, 2018

I love going to the Galvin restaurants. A few months ago they closed what I think was their original location on Baker Street and customers (including me) got a conciliatory fifty percent off invitation to their Piccadilly location. At first I didn’t think I would make it since Krish is not a fan. Then my friend Caroline let me know she was free for lunch on the 20th. Booked!

Sunday morning dawned warm and bright so I set off as soon as I could, allowing lots of time to get there. For one thing, the Hackney Half Marathon was on. Since 7am the organisers had been outside planting beacons and Road Closed signs. They were very loud, as were the dozens of drivers who came along afterwards when they discovered their way was blocked. Add to this, Krish yelling out of the window for everyone to shut up and it wasn’t the most peaceful of Sunday mornings!

**The five way junction closed for the marathon and eerily empty**

So off I set on foot, knowing there were no buses to the station today. I had decided to take the overground and underground for once. I am not fond of underground travel so this was a challenge for me.

In the end, I got there so quickly it was silly. five super-packed tube stops from Highbury (which is itself only five to ten mins by overground from Hackney Central). I’d decided to wear a dress and some new shoes since Caroline is always impeccably dressed. I thought about throwing my running shoes in a back pack and decided not to carry that into a fancy hotel.

**The way to the tube at Highbury is so claustrophobic**

The platform isn't much better but there was only a one minute wait — **The platform isn’t much better but there was only a one minute wait**

Escalator Green Park — **A major obstacle for me is going down an escalator. I ask people to stand in front of me – vertigo! This is a shot upwards at Green Park**

Coming out of the station into Green Park is crazy. Instant green trees everywhere in such an urban area. Green Park leads down through St James’s Park and on to Buckingham Palace. St James’s is my favourite park in central London but today I wasn’t going to get there. Meanwhile, Green Park was resplendently green and dotted with deckchairs – a very amusing British custom.

**Stunning entry to the park from the underground at Green Park**

**Deckchairs out for the sun worshipers at Green Park**

Continue reading “Green Park, and Piccadilly for lunch”

19th May 201821st May 2018

Abney Park, Stoke Newington

Saturday, 19 May, 2018

This morning I watched the Harry and Meghan wedding and enjoyed almost all of it. I will go down as one who found Bishop Curry’s sermon overwhelming and annoying. I enjoyed the cello playing of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, whose career will surely skyrocket now. Windsor looked beautiful, Meghan was radiant, Harry was besotted and tender. What more can you ask for?

Wedding watching accomplished and BBC moving on to the FA Cup, I ventured out to Stoke Newington for the Abney Park Open House.

Abney Park dates from the early 18th century and is one of the ‘magnificent seven’ garden cemeteries of London. It’s a woodland memorial park, an arboretum, and a local Nature Reserve, as well as housing events and workshops. It’s a unique cemetery in that it’s non-denominational, doesn’t have an orderly layout, is as much a park as a cemetery, and has some amazing botanicals. Its 2,500 trees and shrubs were all labelled, and arranged around the perimeter alphabetically, from A for Acer to Z for Zanthoxylum. This planting was carefully designed to do as little as possible to change the existing picturesque land.

All of this gives it a ‘wild’ look. The grass and wildflowers are overgrown and the ivy climbs everywhere, sometimes obscuring the graves. If you go to any of the stones along the path edges and peer past, you’ll see other stones and graves further in, hidden by accident or design. And, although, it’s a cemetery housing many dead, it has a lived-in atmosphere since people wander in here studying the plants, and sit among the graves, picnic, and enjoy music.

I’ll confess to having had a hard time knowing what photos to include here. To me, this the most beautiful cemetery I’ve seen and so forgive the sheer number of images. There are many that I didn’t include.

People enjoying the park — **People enjoying the par**k

**While some graves appear to have been placed in some order, others are random and partly obscured, seeming part of the woodland landscape**

Continue reading “Abney Park, Stoke Newington”

22nd April 201824th April 2018

Heart of Hackney Tour

Sunday, 22 April, 2018

I’ve seen Hackney tours advertised quite often but they’re on Saturdays – I can’t manage Saturday before lunch. For some reason, the last time I saw a tour advertised it was on a Sunday so I set about rearranging my day before worrying about my ability to keep up with a group and on a tour that promised we would climb St Augustine’s Tower, all 135 steps of it.

No matter. I arrived at Hackney Town Hall for 11am and hoped for the best! The group were mostly older but a few young ‘uns thrown in there. I think we were all more or less locals and wondering what we’d learn that we didn’t know.

The tour guide is Sean Gubbins and, because Hackney is a very large borough (the largest in London), every two or three weeks he tours around a different area. Today was the Heart of Hackney tour – around the town hall, the Narrow Way, and some stops on the way over to Sutton House.

Hackney Town Hall, it turns out, is the third town hall of Hackney. The first was a little one over on the Narrow Way. It became a bank at one point and I remember going in and seeing a plaque that said that Ted Cohen, the founder of Tesco, had started his business with a loan there. Now it’s a betting shop, one of far too many around the borough. The second incarnation was where the new one is now but closer to the main road of Mare Street. This one was very imposing but I do think that the new one, being set back from the road with the square in front of it and the new library and Hackney empire flanking it, is nicely located if not beautiful.

Hackney Town Hall with the library on one side and The Empire on the other — **The side of the Hackney Empire**

Ever wondered why there are palm trees at the Town Hall and around the borough?

A world-renowned Victorian nursery garden and hothouse once stood near Mare Street – where Hackney Town Hall is now. It was called Loddiges, founded by Joachim Conrad Loddiges.

Described as a ‘latter-day Eden,’ the original Loddiges was home to the world’s largest hothouse. Famed for its collection of orchids and ferns, the nursery was a pioneer in the import and cultivation of rare exotic plants into Britain and attracted visitors from all over Europe and was known as the Grand Palm House. Here palms flourished like nowhere else in the world, set amidst an array of other tropical plants.

Over time, Loddiges supplied plants to places like Kew Gardens, Woburn Abbey, Chatsworth House, St James’ Park and Kensington Gardens, as well as the Imperial Gardens of St. Petersburg and the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

Unfortunately, following the deaths of Joachim’s sons, William and George and due to the changing London landscape, Loddiges closed its gates in 1852. Two years later, Londoners witnessed the stately procession of thirty-two plumed horses as they drew a giant palm tree, the jewel in the Loddiges Nursery’s crown, to its final resting place at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. The Loddiges tomb can be found in the former churchyard behind St Augustine’s Tower. Continue reading “Heart of Hackney Tour”

21st April 201822nd April 2018

A wander in Stoke Newington, the high street, Old Church, Church Street, and Abney Park

Saturday, 21 April, 2018

My brother, John, has been a keen genealogist for some time and keeps me honest on these pages. The amount of history my family has – on both sides – with this borough of Hackney and that of Tower Hamlets is quite astonishing. No wonder I feel completely at home on these streets. Although it’s not as prolific as the connection with Mile End, Bethnal Green, Spitalfields and Whitechapel, there is a pretty strong line in Hackney so I’ve chased some of the places up.

‘Birth cert of Kate Lees (Samuel Simmons’ – my paternal grandmother – mother) of 1865 shows she was born at 25 Wentworth St. Terrible reputation but maybe the street was not as bad at that time.
Also, her mother Hannah’s last address was 140 Imperial. The Willing great grandparents also lived on Imperial (#37), not sure if they overlapped.’

So on a walk up to Stoke Newington for bread and fabric, I looked for ‘Imperial.’ On a street called Victorian Road is a complex of flats that I immediately recognised as one of the Four Percent Industrial Dwellings that are still scattered around the east end of London.

And part way along, almost where the road becomes a much more modern housing estate, is a chained and padlocked gate. If you look through the bars, there is Imperial Avenue – like a row of mews houses – a hidden pocket of homes.

**Imperial Avenue, seen through the bars of a sturdy modern gate**

I was interested and, as always, my own neighbourhood had surprised me with something I hadn’t seen before. And ‘victorian rd, imperial ave and coronation road. I sense a theme,’ I told John.

Stoke Newington (aka Stokey) can be a grim area along the high street. It’s somehow escaped the gentrification of neighbouring Dalston. However, its age also brings some treasures and I’m very fond of things tour guide Eleanor Blum calls ‘ghosts.’ These are remnants of past times. Still partially there but not in keeping with today.

**This ghost sign on Stoke Newington High Street was painted twice, one on top of the other**

I often buy fresh burrata and newly baked ciabatta at Gallo Nero along the grubby high street. It’s not quite Italy but it’s packed with Italian goods.

Saturday, after a busy morning, I set off again to Stoke Newington. (The New Town in the Woods.) This time to Church Street (Stoke Newington Church Street) because I’d heard there were St George Day celebrations at the last remaining Elizabethan church in London, The Old Church. Contrary to the main high street, Church Street is charming, leafy and feels far different. Continue reading “A wander in Stoke Newington, the high street, Old Church, Church Street, and Abney Park”

20th April 2018

A visit to Haggerston

Friday, 20 April 2018

Summer heat has hit London. Temperatures are hitting as high as 28C for several days.

The difference this has made to the tree outside in the window in just a few days is remarkable!

The tree on Monday... — **The tree on Monday….**

...and on Thursday — **…and on Thursday**

Yesterday was an eventful day for me – unintentionally. Here follows a rambling account.

First I went to the doctor only to find out that my test results (expected two weeks ago) have still not arrived. sigh. But I had other things to do. I had to complete a sleepiness study to get back into the sleep clinic at St Barts hospital. and I asked about anxiety meds. Briefly – the doctors here have been refusing to give me Clonazepam despite my very good history with it. Every now and again I restate my case to get them. so I gave it another shot. He asked me questions and then said he was convinced that I should have it but needed to bring it up at the doctor meeting they had later that day. (He called me back to say the doctors said they also agreed but he had to now run it past the psychiatric arm of their practice. progress!)

Also I asked about the shingles shot and risks and benefits and they booked me in to see the practice nurse. she was one i’d seen before and really liked. so we chatted a bit and I got my shot, which instantly hurt like crazy – normal, she said. so far so good! feel OK. Arm a bit sore, was a bit tired but that’s not unusual these days.I then had to jump on a bus to get to my appointment at the volunteer office.

Chapter of accidents follows:

got in the bus
realised I was on the wrong one when it took the ‘wrong’ turn – got about three stops into the wrong route
walked the half mile to the road where I could get the right bus
knees hurt so waited ten minutes for a connecting bus
arrived 45 mins late!
told that I was in the wrong location for my appointment
walked with the receptionist another 1/4 mile to the right location
arrived an hour late!

Stupid thing is that if i’d realised where I should have been, there would have been no need for that connecting bus or the wait for it. Duh.

Anyway, Jane (the woman I had to see) told me that Shahanaz was already there. Shahanaz is the Muslim woman I’ve become friends with – one of those things where you are in a new group of people and somehow you end up becoming friends with the one you would least have expected! And the three of us had a great chat, most of which arose from Jane seeing my birth certificate and being fascinated with all the details. (it was an ID checking session). Jane mentioned that she had been to the Princelet synagogue one year and fell in love with it. Shahanaz was really intrigued by Jane’s story and asked me if I could take her. then Jane said we *must* include her. this whole thing felt really warm and inclusive – and curious in that there we were, one Jew, one Muslim, and one (Irish) Catholic – and I felt like we were a new circle of friends. that would be really nice actually. Anyway, the next open house is 10 September so I may not be in London but…

After the ID session, Shahanaz asked if we could go next door to the Waterhouse cafe – the place that catered our volunteer training sessions. This turned out to be a lovely space with a patio overlooking the canal.

I really enjoyed the brunch (poached egg with smoked salmon and asparagus) and Shahanaz asked if we could try a new coffee – she is discovering the world of coffee (sheltered!) through me. We chatted about our lives and then left to get home. When we got to Dalston Shahanaz remembered she had left her bag (with passport etc) in the cafe so she had to turn back. I came home and had a restful day.

My cheese is a week or two away from being ready to eat and my new dollies are enjoying the sun!

**Hoping the blue is the left one because that’s the one I pierced to encourage the blue veins**