Walking – Page 18 – slightly weird

25th February 20189th March 2018

Esmeralda visits, Playing groupie in Brick Lane, the impressive St Pancras Grand, and a short visit to Broadway Market

Sunday, 25 February, 2018

Just about able to see Esmeralda, who was visiting from Bologna for the first time since 2004 or maybe 2003. I was just recovering from having a virus but now Krish was sick and it was tough to tell if I could leave him alone or not. The day before I’d been to my mentor assessment day and then come home to find Krish in bed barely able to lift his head.

Thank God for the NHS. They advised me over the phone to get hold of the doctor, who then called me back to talk about his diagnosis and off I rushed to the drugstore before it closed. After just one double dose of antibiotics, Krish could get out of bed and inhale some steam. Relief! And some hope for the next day.

Esmeralda arrived in Dalston some time around noon and we set off pretty quickly to do some exploring.

Quick visit to the Eastern Curve Garden - Esmeralda was impressed — **Quick visit to the Eastern Curve Garden – Esmeralda was impressed**

No surprise that I followed my usual route. We made a quick stop at Shoreditch Church, then a peek into Leila’s, Arnold Circus and the glorious buildings on Boundary Estate.

Hard at work inside Leilla's — **Hard at work inside Leilla’s**

**Lovely piece from Shok-1 near Redchurch Street**

Not many photos of that area today – I was feeling better but tiring quickly. Redchurch Street looked good, Boxpark was doing its retail thing, and on down to Brick Lane, watch some salt beef beigel action and a beeline to Meraz.

I ordered what I always do – no objections from Esmeralda. What is it? The tarka dhal (I really like their version), the sag aloo (not too spicy today), tandoori lamb chops sizzling wonderfully, and Es was brave enough to ask if they’d make a small portion of chicken korma – Of course! So delicious after a week or two of rather bland food. Esmeralda was pretty happy. What was really cool was the owner, Sami, arriving and coming over to shake my hand and say he hadn’t seen me for a long time. Oh, the groupie in me!

'The usual' at Meraz — **‘The usual’ at Meraz**

**A piece by Fanakapan on Hanbury Street**

Embarrassing how I love this sort of encounter and I had one more to come.

I’m a huge fan of graffiti artist, Fanakapan. His art is so well executed – the 3D images he produces are spectacular. The first one I ever saw, in Star Yard, I honestly thought was a metallic helium balloon stuck on the wall! It was totally 2D but you’d never have guessed it. When we got into Star Yard, the first thing I saw was a hideous metal shed now built into one corner! The yard will never be the same! What’s it there for? There was an artist up a ladder working on the large wall at the entry. It was difficult to make out what he was doing but then a graffiti tour guide wandered by and mentioned the word Fanakapan. When he left, I asked the man on the ladder ‘Are you Fanakapan?’ He said he was and I managed to say that I was a huge fan of his work and delighted to meet him. He came down the ladder, asking my name and shook my hand. I had seen him before but never this close up. The piece he was working on wasn’t obviously his work and wasn’t finished. We moved on.

Fanakapan working on his newest - anamorphic - piece — **Fanakapan working on his newest – anamorphic – piece**

Later that night, I saw a photo of the finished work. It had only appeared to be far from finished. It was in fact an amazing piece of anamorphic art – you can see it at https://www.instagram.com/p/BfgYq8JhsGm/?hl=en&taken-by=fanakapan I must go back and see if I can take it from the right angle. He let me know on Instagram what to do:

Instagram from Fanakapan — **Instagram message from Fanakapan**

So now you know too!

We took a quick look at Christchurch, Spitalfields Market, and Artillery Lane, then on to Liverpool Street Station to put Esmeralda on the train to Borehamwood, her next stop. Continue reading “Esmeralda visits, Playing groupie in Brick Lane, the impressive St Pancras Grand, and a short visit to Broadway Market”

30th January 20183rd February 2018

A street art walk around Commercial Street and Great Eastern Street

Wednesday, 30 January, 2018

The end of January! Did I mention how grey and dark it’s been? Yes, I have.

Today in my free time I wanted to go find the new street art pieces by Alice, one of my favourites. In view of my walking resolution, I had the route figured out to get to them and then make my way home, taking the bus after the thirty minutes were up.

Again, my map reading skills (or lack!) let me down. I wandered around on the wrong side of Commercial Street for a while, wondering where Quaker Street was.

Hoists — **My journey to getting lost did take me past these houses with the old hoists at the back**

Elder Street 1 — **Going completely the wrong way, I was on Elder Street, home to the great Huguenot weavers houses from the early eighteenth century**

Elder Street door — **Lovely door on Elder Street**

**Back on track on Commercial Street. One day I’ll go into Gardners to see if it really does just sell paper and polyethlene bags**

I always feel pretty foolish when I get lost. In this case, I know I have walked along Quaker Street many times. I can even picture it but Google had to guide me to it by voice. Hanging my head in shame.

Then when I found it, I discovered a David Bowie piece and a lot of reconstruction but no Alice!

New construction — **Through what I call the canyons of London, more building. This one with the characteristic pile-of-boxes look I’m seeing so much of in East London**

The whole neighbourhood is painted and pasted and I could never photograph it all, although I do keep trying. It wouldn’t matter since most of the time there’ll be something painted or pasted over what I’m carefully recording – it’s a full time job.

Continue reading “A street art walk around Commercial Street and Great Eastern Street”

29th January 20183rd February 2018

Walking resolution

Monday, 29 January, 2018

(Guess what? No photos!)

I love walking, especially if I can build in some new sights or I have a goal at the end. As an agoraphobic person, there were years I couldn’t get very far. I’m still far better if I take along my camera or phone for taking photos, or if I plug into the radio – I prefer talk radio over music, though. Best of all is radio drama! I wish I liked audiobooks more – I think it takes a while to get used to listening to a book rather than reading it but I may try that again soon.

Back in 1990 or so, I joined a class where we learned to eat less and move more – back then it was a bit novel to say that! We learned about food and we spent an hour exercising – it was mostly Latin dancing (our leader was a champion Latin dancer) and I loved it. I never missed a class. On our days off, we walked by ourselves. Half an hour of target heartrate walking, minimum. It was fantastic. Sometimes I’d get so energetic, I felt like running instead.

So a while later I took a running clinic at the Running Room in Toronto. I was very keen and went every week without fail. I wasn’t the fattest person in the class but I was certainly the oldest by many years. I didn’t give up. And then I had to.

They had a great system of one minute walk, one minute run, rinse and repeat, adding a minute or more run to each segment as we gained strength and experience. But it hurt. Every time. Nothing stopped the pain, not stretching, not time, nothing. As well, I’d overheat. I dressed as lightly as possible and even invested in one of those cooling gel headbands. These helped but didn’t elminate how hot I’d get – hot enough that occasionally I’d retch.

So I went to see a sports medicine therapist. She told me I had shin splints, acute tendonitis. Her advice? Don’t run. I was devastated. From now on walk, she said.

So I switched to the Walking Clinic. We eased up to 5k walks and then to 10. Then the pain and the heat smothered me again. Back to the sports medicine clinic. And again I was told not to walk either and to work up to a maximum of one kilometer.

Still, I walked. Five, ten, more kilometers. I rarely took a bus. If I knew where it was, I just walked there. And then I got arthritis in my knees. It started with feeling uncomfortable climbing up or down the stairs at Robin’s apartment. I didn’t think much of it until the doctor confirmed that I had arthritis and that it would continue to worsen.

On top of the arthritis, on a particularly tough walk one day I had even worse pain than usual. This continued for a few weeks until I was out with a friend and suddenly couldn’t step down from the coffee shop stall I was sitting on. An ambulance finally arrived to take me to the hospital A&E, where they told me I had torn my meniscus and gave me crutches.

I’m going to skip the details, although those are also clear in my mind.

My knee healed, I walked with a cane for ages. I had no confidence but one day I tossed it aside when another therapist suggested I try weaning myself of it. Now I can walk about 5k in all, as long as I have a nice break in there somewhere, sometimes two or three breaks 🙂

So starting with late last week I’m walking a minimum half an hour a day again. It’s a bit more casual than it was back in my Latin dance days and I stop to take a photo or ten along the way but it’s a good resolution! And it makes for a good photo walk blog entry too.

27th January 201811th February 2018

Pictorial walk – lower Clapton and Hackney Central

Saturday, 27 January 2018

There’s a lot to see in my neighbourhood and many ways to walk towards the same point. There’s also a ton of history – enough to probably bury me under for years so I try to pick up bits of it as I can.

Just at the end of the road is the newest Pembury Circus development. It’s built on part of the Pembury Estate.

Pembury estate has two distinct parts; Old Pembury (divided into East and West) and New Pembury. Old Pembury consists of 24 walk-up blocks dating from the 1930s. New Pembury consists of streets of maisonettes and bungalows dating from the 1960s.

In recent years some of the Pembury estate was demolished and newer buildings were constructed along the periphery, called Pembury Circus. I have no idea how much of it is affordable housing but it was the beginning of big changes in the local community. One concession to the former residents was the inclusion of the community centre on the ground floor of the largest new building. There are many community events and a cafe serving breakfasts and lunches. One of these days I want to try their chana roti.

**Pembury Circus towering over the rest of the estate**

It's kind of fun walking through this space towards the much older neighbourhood — **It’s kind of fun walking through this space towards the much older neighbourhood**

At the top of the road that borders the estate is Hackney Downs Park, which gives its name to the station and my whole neighbourhood. This is one of many Hackney borough parks.

Walking away from the park and along the top edge of the park is one favourite way to get to Lower Clapton, another area that is just starting to change into more trendy, vibrant area.

I've coveted this house on the way to Clapton for a long time. Buy it for me! — **I’ve coveted this house on the way to Clapton for a long time. Buy it for me!**

I'm a bit of a sucker for narrow roads! This will take me to Lower Clapton Road — **I’m a bit of a sucker for narrow roads! This will take me to Lower Clapton Road**

**Pages of Hackney, a wonderful indie book store**

The historical Round Chapel in 1871, but its beginnings were in 1804 — **The historical Round Chapel opened in 1871, but its beginnings were in 1804**

The next part of my journey is probably my favourite bit – cutting through from Lower Clapton Road to the Narroway (the upper part of Mare Street, Hackney’s main road). To get there you walk from the now abandoned Clapton Police Station and through the grounds of St. John-at-Hackney Church. It amazes me that in very urban Hackney there are pockets of land that look mostly unchanged from their pastoral beginnings.

**Some tombs in the grounds of St. John-at-Hackney Church (seen in the background)**

To my right is St. John-at-Hackney Church. a very active church. the original dating from 1275. The current church building was built during the 18th century (1792). It was designed by James Spiller, who was influenced by Sir John Soane. (This a massive coincidence since I recently have been to John Soane’s museum.) St. John does a lot for the homeless as well as hosting large musical events. Of the old church only a tower, St Augustine’s Tower (substantially rebuilt 1520), remains. The tower is open to the public once a month so I will take some photos there when I can.

St Augustine's Tower, the only remaining part of the old church — **St Augustine’s Tower, the only remaining part of the old church**

At this point weve reached the Narroway (Narrow Way) which is being pedestrianised. It used to be the route for buses and, trust me, with so many bus routes in Hackney with a bus station entrance at the bottom

, that didn’t make it a very fun place to walk. I won’t lie – it’s maybe the lamest shopping area around. Its redeeming quality is a small Marks & Spencer.

Pedestrianalistion still underway — **Pedestrianisation still underway**

**Love this utility cover on the Narroway**

15th January 201827th January 2018

A walk to Tesco – pictorial essay

Monday, 15 January, 2018

Today I woke up to a very cold, windy and wet day. The skies are dark and I’m glad I have nowhere special to go. I’ve decided to document my neighbourhood a bit by taking a walk in different directions and doing a pictorial essay.

I’m planning several so if this is not your thing, move along!

My first walk was to the Tesco supermarket yesterday and nothing could be more routine than that. Explanations in the captions under each photo.