From Farringdon to Shoreditch - Part One

A little walk anyone?

A new-ish neighborhood?

A slightly differeing "angle of vision"?

Just about a month ago, I set off to rediscover the charms of London's multi-morphing East End.  (In the sunshine, for a change.)

Setting off from Chancery Lane, I wound my way thru Hatton Garden (where jewelry is to be found, if that's your thing)

scooted past Farringdon Station which is a now new part of the CROSS RAIL network (designed to improve access and properties values across the Southeast of England - and beyond to the "Continent" - YES!), and skirted the old Smithfield Market to the north of the Barbican.

A brief saunter along Cowcross, then up through St. John,  taking a  meandering and loopy path along

Old and Leonard Streets,  rejoining the hip epicenter of the East End

which locates itself

somewhere between Arnold Circus at the North,

via Club Row

at Redchurch St.

with Shoreditch High Street

station joining you up to Brick Lane.  These were, of course MODELS in the vicinity...it being Fashion Week.  This post concentrated on "The Views".  And the ever surprising patchwork of life.  Next week this time, come back for "The Destinations", won't you?

Late Summer Color - Regent's Park London

Forget the storms and showers.  (We had a few here in L.A. too but not as bad as yours, I think!)

How about

some

sun

and flowers?

Regent's Park never disappoints.

It's an antidote

to the hustle and bustle of the West End of London.

And if a little walk doesn't quite do it for you

Maybe some tea and cake?  How was the weekend, anyway?

Let's Have a Better Weekend

(Photo: Alaska Sea Life Center)

Taking a break from the London posts to wish you all a very nice weekend.  It's been a week of tragic news, thinking of the Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban because she was an activist in the cause of education for girls.   Sometimes one gets the impression that the course of human development has been thrown violently into reverse by some giant invisible hand.  

This story about Mitik, the 250 pound baby walrus being adopted by the New York Aquarium (more here from the New York Times) is cheering.

Hope it's a good one wherever you are out there.

Pretty as Poilane .... in London

Considering what "Poilane" translates to in French....

(Yes, "mule hair"....someone else will have to explain this to you...me, I got nothing!)

It's hard to find a prettier window.

I do have a birthday coming up.....anybody want to send me one of these?

Hint, hint.  (Mr. Paradis are you reading this?)

A nice crunchy packet of biscottes wouldn't go amiss, either.  So yummy with a cup of tea and fresh soft sweet butter.

Don't imagine that the loaves are flown in from Paris to London.  No sirree.  MADE ON THE PREMISES.  HERE: 46 Elizabeth St., London SW1 (Belgravia)

And p.s., a new Poilane coffee shop shamelessly stealing the Pain Quotidien concept and running hard with it can now be found at: 39 Cadogan Gardens, London SW3 (Chelsea)

Here are blog links to two great posts about these and other places-Poilane by David Lebovitz and a Chinese blogger Ahn Ma

What's New in London Is.......Underground

Or maybe not so new......In 2008 Boundary - By Conran was opened in Shoreditch.

The hotel/restaurant complex including the Albion  (where the brownies are SERIOUS, I do recommend them)
is the latest project by Sir Terence Conran.

And as usual, Sir Terence was way ahead of all of us insofar as his design choices.

Four years after opening, this stairwell, by Javaid Alvi, Muralist looks like the newest thing.

I don't think you would see something like this in a high end hotel or restaurant in the U.S. yet.  If ever.

The stairwell goes down quite far and is very narrow.  It's very Dickensian that way.

We did not follow it up to the roof terrace.  It apparently lightens in palette as you ascend.

We are saving that adventure for another, hopefully sunny, day.

Pubby Fun

A post in which........

A grimy urban street in London's East End, transforms itself into a pleasant village green with the help of an exuberantly defiant birch tree.....  and a little nice weather.........

some wet refreshment (Yes!  Fullers!)

and a handsome solemn cat.

(Who, though greeting me with a placid, welcoming blink of recognition and acknowledgement that he/she and I were indeed T-I-E-D to each other. He/she resembling so closely someone dear left behind at home - declined, out of loyalty one presumes - to the feeders and shelterers of this corner of the world - to have that welcoming expression recorded for posterity.  So you'll just have to take my word for it!) 

Allllllll 

the gingers were out....(yes I mean ginger hair)

So that I could do you yet another of those orangey-bluey posts this week.

It was not actually called the "Doom Bar".  But I liked so very much how the general mood militated  against a "doomey" tone.  Such a nice contrast.  

In the heart of ye old-ey London, just steps away from ye olde Brick Lane.

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYBODY!  Cheers!

Brompton Cemetery

......I passed the entrance on a walk through Fulham.

It is hard by the Chelsea Football ground - which I'm sure makes it a very much less peaceful

place on football Saturdays.  I've passed it a million times but never noticed it.  (Because it was usually a Saturday and I was just trying to get beyond all the football fans in their shiny blue jerseys.)

It was opened in the mid 1800's and many of those interred here were veterans of World War I and II.  Given that fact, it is all the more remarkable that many of the people buried here lived to very good old ages of 80 to 90.  Must give credit to the wholesome English lifestyle, the good beer, and simple food and rain which must make for hardy souls.

It has that Dickensian, Edward Gorey gothic appeal.  Unlike (the wonderful) Highgate, Pere Lachaise in Paris, or Recoleta (here) in Buenos Aires, there's noone really very famous here.  Or famous at all.

You might find it hard to believe that it is newly operational, after a decade or so of closure to new burials.

It is welcoming to those who WANT TO BE ALONE

to pursue unimpeded their quotidien pleasures.

It appears, generally, that you will likely

NOT BE DISTURBED.

You will not find fresh flowers on most of these graves.  And one might wonder what happened to those who might otherwise have left them.  Also resting here?

Anyway, it's a lovely old walk to be had, smack dab in the bustle of West London.  Earl's Court is just steps away.  And a wonderful way to feel quite away from it all on your holiday.  And one of those London places that make this city great. 

If you're not the kind of person who's idea of "away" is roasting on a beach.

From Wikipedia, some interesting facts about the Brompton Cemetery

Buried in the cemetery are 289 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 79 of World War II whose graves are registered and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a few of whom are instanced in the list Notable Interments (below).^[3]

Beatrix Potter, who lived in The Boltons nearby, took the names of many of her animal characters from tombstones in the cemetery and it is said that Mr. McGregor's walled garden was based on the colonnades. Names on headstones included Mr. Nutkins, Mr. McGregor, a Tod (with that unusual single 'd' spelling), Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock - and even a Peter Rabbett.

The cemetery is today a cruising ground popular with West London's gay men scene.^[4]