|
A winter's walk around London's Brick Lane district
A chilly stroll around the East End
(Photos ©urban75, 13th December, 2010)
Here's some snaps taken on a chilly December evening as we wandered around the Brick Lane and Liverpool Street districts of East London.
Liverpool Street, with the Gherkin and the Heron tower block behind.
The delightfully Dickensian-looking Fleur De Lis Street.
Surviving relic of Bishopsgate goods yard, a once bustling freight terminal giving employment to over a 1,000 people in the 1930s.
The goods station stood on the Braithwaite Viaduct, one of the oldest railway structures in the world and the second oldest in London.
The goods station remained in use until the upper level warehouse was destroyed by fire on 5th December 1964, with the area remaining abandoned for many years. Part of the site is now used by the new Shoreditch High Street station.
Some 'professional' Eine graffiti adorns Ebor Street, W1.
According to Wikipedia, President Barack Obama was presented with a painting by Eine, Twenty First Century City, as an official gift from the British Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010.
And you really can't get much more street than that.
Disappointingly, the area around Brick Lane has rather unimaginatively turned into a clone of New York's Lower East Side (circa 2001) and Williamsburg (circa 2005), with the exact same style of graffiti and street artwork.
Notably absent in almost all the street artwork we saw was any kind of political message, campaigning or protest which is a bit strange considering the current situation.
It's not just the graffiti either, with vast tracts of the area seemingly populated by the same single speed-bike pedalling, tight trousered, wacky hairstyled hipsters.
I can see the appeal - the scene was pretty good in Willamsburg five years ago, after all - but it wasn't long before the area became completely gentrified, with all the interesting traditional cafes and shops forced out by grossly inflated rents and rich kid rentals.
Outside the fabulous Beigel Bakery on Brick Lane, where you can still buy a half dozen delicious bagels for £1.50.
Thank fuck the yups haven't seen off this traditional store.
More NY-style graffiti around Brick Lane, E1.
A well and truly painted-up building!
A mushroom.
Part of the new Shoreditch High Street Railway station.
The closed Crown and Shuttle pub, 226 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6PJ.
The pub took its name from the
Huguenot silk weavers who settled in the after fleeing religious persecution in France in the 16th century.
«back to London homepage
|
December 2010
Camera: Lumix GF-1
