Tuesday, 21 August, 2018
Liat came to stay for about ten days. We looked about a bit other than our visit to the Tate Modern.
Liat’s visit
Chatsworth Road Market
Sunday, 3 June, 2018
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Chatsworth Road Market. It’s not one I go to very often since it’s a bit out of the way, is quite small, and is increasingly becoming one of those “food court markets.” Still, it’s a nice road and, besides, I had run out of peanut butter.
A few years ago, when visiting the One Change shopping area, I found a stall selling peanut butter from New Zealand. I wasn’t keen to try the sample I was offered but, after being promised there was no sugar, I did try it. It’s amazingly good. The flavour is perfect, the level of roast works really well, and there’s no sugar or palm oil or anything other than peanuts (and salt in some versions). I sound like an ad but there’s no going back now. Anyway, it’s Pic’s – I sound like an ad!
Chatsworth Road Market is in Homerton (originally Humberton) east of Upper Clapton. Homerton used to be a very rundown area and it’s probably still one of the least desirable parts of Hackney. I’ve seen photos of Homerton High Street at the beginning of the 1900s and it was a bustling shopping area then. Now there’s not much going on at all.
I took the bus to Homerton Hospital. This is our local hospital and serves a large community. I was shocked some years ago to hear that there are 5,000 births there every year – this is as many as my big city hospital, Women’s College, in Toronto. More about the hospital another day, when I have to visit, but for now – it’s a sprawling low-rise hospital across several buildings and annexes. I’ve been treated very well there.
At the end of the road before I head up to the peanut butter and the market, is Brooksby’s Walk. I can’t find out who Brooksby was so the search continues. Right at the junction is Chat’s Palace, which has been an arts centre and music venue for thirty years. It’s housed in the impressive former Homerton Library.
The peanut butter is in a Spar supermarket. Spar is a huge chain in Europe but here in the UK it’s pretty minor. It’s a high-end market with lots of independent branded groups. Here in Hackney it tends to bring in a lot of local businesses too – bakeries, florists, and food that’s ready to go.
The Castle Cinema is a recent (yet old) addition to Brooksby’s Walk. It was originally the Castle Electric Theatre, built in 1913 opened on 8th September 1913 as an independent single-screen cinema., seating less than 700. It became a bingo hall, then a warehouse, then a snooker hall. And it got pretty run down in there. Then a few years ago Spar was opened and it seemed a shame to ignore the upstairs cinema. The cinema was actually restored and opened after a very successful Kickstarter project. Over 650 people raised 120% of the target! I’ve never been inside but I hear it’s gorgeous, including a very lovely original bar, with velvet, beads and some gorgeous bar lamps. I hear you can even eat dinner here. I’ll have to go to one of its movies one day to check it all out.
Meanwhile, the Spar isn’t too shabby either. You just have to get past some of the prices in here!
Visitors – Shoreditch, Skygarden, Marylebone…and…
Friday, 4 May, 2018
My friend, Virginia (Jinni), and her husband Dave are visiting London. This means a lot of guiding and walking. Most of what I see is familiar but I do sometimes spot something new and that’s always a nice suprise!
On Monday, I met them for a local walk around for groceries. Instead of the fish and chip dinner I thought we might have we went to a pasta place close to their hotel. To my mind, the Italians tend to undercook ravioli. At least, I know that it’s supposed to be al dente and that’s fine but I think I prefer my ravioli and pasta a bit more tender than that. Doesn’t have to be soft but … yes, tender. It’s made me more determined to make a little of my own. After making it with a machine and with a rolling pin, I say the machine wins for the thinner, more tender, dough.
We started our walk near Arnold Circus (my usual route). The middle garden area was looking like Spring was taking hold. A nice oasis in busy Shoreditch.
We aren’t wimps but let’s say we are getting older. We stopped in The London Tea Exchange on Brick Lane. The server comes to your table and asks what you’re looking for and then choose a few options for you to smell and consider.  I chose the Green tea with Rose. It was very fragrant and refreshing. I was already starting to feel the warmer weather after the past several wet and cold ones. Five pounds well spent? Hmmm.
I had booked three spaces at Ottolenghi so we arrived and ordered our dinner. The prices have gone up – no surprise – my cold main and two salads was £18.80. I enjoyed it but thought I might have got the end of the roast since it wasn’t as rare as it used to be. Still, I made good choices – with Roasted butternut squash with nigella yoghurt, grilled spring onion and green chilli, Green beans, red endive with miso tahini and toasted sesame, and the fillet of beef.
I had been trying for over a week to get some spaces at Skygarden. It was definitely frustrating me. On Monday morning I was ready to grab spots for Tuesday and stupidly was waiting for something to show up while still on the April calendar. When I figured out what I was doing wrong, it was too late, no spots. Still, I knew that cancellation spots turned up if you keep checking and to my surprise as we left Ottolenghi, five spots showed for 3pm. I quickly selected three spots and prayed I’d been on time. I was! It was 2:20pm.
Every time I go to Skygarden now I think I don’t need to come back, but there I was and, despite the dull sky, I took a few photos for posterity!
Continue reading “Visitors – Shoreditch, Skygarden, Marylebone…and…”
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.
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.
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”
A little bit more about Ridley Road Market
Thursday, 8 March, 2018
Ridley Road Market is the largest market in my area of Hackney, I assume in all of Hackney. It dates back to the 1880s. Originally, it was on the (Kingsland) High Street. But when they started to run trams along that road (hard to imagine now) it moved around the corner to Ridley Road. My family remembers when it was a very Jewish market. In the 60s it became a Caribbean market, then a Turkish and Greek market after the 70s. Today it’s an Afro-Caribbean market again. Slowly as the new and expensive developments have sprung up and the upwardly mobile people are beginning to take over, the ‘English’ traders are creeping back in, with a few fancier food trucks along the market route. One day it may either vanish or become more trendy, like Broadway Market.
It’s still a rag tag and messy/shabby market these days, though. The smells from the African and Caribbean hole in the wall market shops aren’t familiar or pleasant to me but they must all get trade since the same ones are always there. At the top of the market there are reminders of the old East End, the barrow boys yelling their wares if you’re lucky enough to hear them. However, in years gone by it would have been much noisier with everyone shouting their wares and bantering. And I understand that it was normal for the stall keepers to wear a shirt, tie and a hat. I would like to have seen that.
I love markets but I don’t buy much here. I’m not a clean freak but it feels too dirty. The price of fruit is very low but it often looks unappealing or is sold in large bowls for £1 – too much to eat. I have bought mangoes (two for a pound), and eggs from the egg man. I pass by the butchers selling odd bits of animal, the too-smelly fish stalls, the hardware places with cheap pots and pans, the two or three stalls selling only incense – all too heavily jasmine-based for me. I know people who shop there very successfully. Maybe one day I will try to buy more and see how I do.
