I found these photos when I developed my film from Barbados. I think they’re from 2011 given that they’re of the South Bank’s Festival of Britain, which was that year. A little time capsule of summers past.
Category Archives: london
Lichtenstein: A Retrospective at the Tate Modern
Lucky me – the Tate Modern invited me to a press preview of their new Lichtenstein retrospective on Monday. He’s one of my favourite artists so it was quite a treat to get a quiet(er) viewing of the show before the crowds. Oh, and I was allowed to snap photos!
Besides the comic-strip ‘war and romance’ pieces he’s best known for, this show does a great job of displaying the other sides to Lichtenstein’s work, and across 13 rooms charts out the many phases he evolved through during his life’s work.
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Recent Eats
Feeling hungry? Time for a little round up of things I’ve been eating on my way round London lately…
First up, Sweet Thursday, a new neighbourhood pizzeria not too far from me in De Beauvoir town. There’s a wine shop out front and a big clay oven out back: my kind of place. The pizza menu’s small but the pizzas themselves certainly aren’t: you could definitely share one with a few of the antipasti-type sides for dinner. They are the properly charred and chewy-crusted types too, with lovely flavourful toppings. Will be back soon.
I had to run an errand in South London a few weekends ago, so we popped to Brixton Village to make the most of this rare foray. I loved how vibrant and energetic it was, with all the hip new popup places like Wishbone, Bukowski and Honest Burger elbow-to-elbow with the Caribbean grocery stores and kitschy gift shops. Unfortunately I don’t think we picked the best place for lunch – the Mexican was the only place without a queue but it wasn’t anything special. Coffee and a brownie in Federation afterwards made up for it, though, and we’ll just have to go again to try Mama Lan’s noodles, Okan’s okonomiyaki or the best-ever pizza at the original Franco Manca.
Finally, Josh’s parents kindly treated us to lunch at La Porte Des Indes at the weekend. To be perfectly honest, it’s not the kind of place I would usually choose – the bonkers French-colonial decor, high prices and Marble Arch location put it off my radar. But I was extremely pleasantly surprised by our lunch: they do a buffet on Sundays with street food starters, curry mains and fresh little fruity desserts. I went back to the starters table twice: each little dish, from lentil dumplings in fiery soup to mini beetroot dosas to crispy spinach fritters, was a tiny taste ‘pow’! Of course I then sampled three curries for main and couldn’t resist the vibrant dessert table either, so left feeling very full indeed.
That’s it for indulgence for the rest of the month now – we’re off to Barbados at the beginning of March (!) so it’s health kick to get beach-ready before then. Um, anyone have any foody tips for Barbados?!
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Abney Park Cemetery
More snow photos? Oh, go on then. We took a slightly bracing walk into Abney Park Cemetery yesterday – it’s basically on my doorstep and I’ve never visited it in seven years of living in the area. Shameful, as it’s really beautiful; ‘like Narnia’ as Josh put it. It’s much bigger than I thought, with loads of pretty trees and some beautiful old grave monuments, and even a somewhat creepy abandoned church in the middle. It didn’t really stop snowing here all day, so it got pretty thick.
Beautiful type on these 19th century graves
Trying to throw snowballs through the church windows!
God’s Own Junkyard
Sarah and I popped down to God’s Own Junkyard on Wednesday night, a fabulous pop-up collection of new and vintage neon signs, movie props and retro advertising signage on Beak Street, Soho. The curator/artist Chris Bracey collects junked signs from movie sets then repairs and resurrects them into brand new art pieces. The temporary exhibition/shop is only there for another couple of weeks, and I highly recommend visiting while you can – as you can see it’s quite stunning.
The popup shop at 47 Beak Street is open until January 25th; check the website for opening hours.
North London wander
We took a lovely long North London walk in the sun on Saturday. Here’s a little map of where we went, and Instagrammed-guide below.
Kicked off with a hugenormous doorstop sourdough sandwich and tasty Nude flat white at the darling Maison D’Etre on Highbury Corner. From there we walked up Holloway Road, stopping at Ooh La La vintage shop on the way. Lots of furniture and curios to be found for reasonable prices.
We dodged the football crowds streaming out of Arsenal and cut back towards York Way, admiring the pretty houses with gorgeous front gardens – it’s always remarkable to me how many beautiful leafy streets London has tucked away. We made a special trip over here because Josh wanted to stock up on beers at Kris Wines. They didn’t disappoint, with a huge range of bottles from American rarities to Danish Mikkeller and local heroes like The Kernel all well catered for.
Right next door is a fabulous vintage store I’d never even heard of before called Paul’s Emporium. Piled high with ephemera, statues, furniture, lighting and signage, it’s a real gem. I’ll be back soon for another rummage for sure.
We then meandered down the quite unlovely and industrial York Way back to Kings Cross, stopping for a cider and coffee-infused IPA at the new Caravan (the food here is fantastic too, by the way). It’s good to see this area regenerating – with the pretty Regents Canal basin and new St Martins campus, it’s getting quite lovely and improvement works are still going on.
Final stop was a quick duck into the Relic Antiques Warehouse behind the station, which I’ve been meaning to go into forever. It’s pretty small with a rather quirky range of stuff – giant beaded peacock head anyone?
I hope there’s chances for a few more London walks before the cold sets in. Anyone else got a favourite neighbourhood for a weekend wander?
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Fifteen Street: video
Last weekend we had a good day out at the Fifteen Street party in Hoxton. Lots of great truck food, rum, and ice cream = my idea of fun. Rather than just take photos, I challenged myself – at Josh’s suggestion – to put together a little video of the event. So here it is:
Despite being pretty wobbly and amateurish I am quite proud! It only took an afternoon and I didn’t swear at Premiere once. Like it?
I took some photos too of course:
Olympic Park
I almost went the entire summer without visiting Olympic Park, but I suppose it was inevitable that I’d find myself there at some point – and then only because Sidekick kindly bought us all tickets for Friday, the penultimate day of the Paralympics. I’m not really into any sport at all, but the Olympic Park itself was definitely worth seeing, especially on such a beautiful sunny day.
Whoever decided to plant wildflowers all over the site deserves a medal.
The velodrome is a beautiful piece of architecture.
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Ropewalk, SE1
Well well, the area around Maltby Street near Bermondsey has certainly levelled up since the last time we visited. Now christened The Ropewalk, it’s more like a mini food market, with the suppliers in the archways spilling onto the narrow lane to feed the through traffic. From wine bars to coffee, cocktails and local cheeses, it’s a great place to hang out on a sunny Saturday lunchtime.
That sports thing in London…
It’s funny to think that Voldesport is taking place right now in the same London borough as me, about three miles away. I heard the fireworks from the opening ceremony last night before I saw them on TV!
The spectacle of it all has left me pretty cold, but I have been enjoying getting into sport on my own little way: going for a morning run in the local park. It’s made much easier by how very beautiful it is, and the weather’s helping too.
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