Shoreditch

SHOREDITCH

Shoreditch, home of Yalla Yalla and The Hoxton, is just a 5 minute walk away from the busy train terminus that is Liverpool Street station and the City, work place of bankerman. 

We nipped over to Shoreditch or as it was known in a previous life as 'Sewer-Ditch' when the area was not much more than a boggy landscape. 

Well, you'll be pleased to know things have moved on since then even though the weather may still be the same, wet and very, very cold. Us Southern folk are such wimps when it comes to the cold. Fail!

The thrust of urban development is creeping little by little with new flats rising from what seems like the very cracks in the pavement and interestingly we came across the March for Homes, a demonstration against "social cleansing". Hundreds of people walked the streets protesting against the lack of affordable housing. Like most modern cities London is a place of extremes with people sleeping rough alongside 3 bedroom flats on sale for £2.4M. The March for Homes is said to be the first of its kind, bringing campaigners, retailers and trade unionists together to highlight the lack of affordable housing and spiralling rents.

March for Homes

Stopping off for an impromptu haircut at a Turkish barbers I managed to get warm again, whilst my old man had the haircut to end all haircuts.  Not having witnessed the intricate skills of a Turkish barber I nearly jumped off my seat when said barber set fire to my husbands hair and then proceeded to slap him with hot wet towels, followed by intense massaging of the upper body. With only a slight whiff of burning protein in the air my husband escaped with his hair intact, well what was left. In fact it was the best haircut he'd ever had, certainly the most entertaining.

Street art is everywhere....

Smokers take shelter

Foxy....

Damien Hirst at The Tramshed 

By chance we came across The Tramshed, Mark Hix's celebrated Chicken and Steak eatery and headed inside mainly to escape from the weather. Fortunately, for my purse, the Weekend Brunch menu was available and we sat and enjoyed a 'Cock 'n' bull hash with a double yolker' and a Salt beef sandwich. Its not everyday that you can sit under a piece of Damien Hirst artwork. A word of warning don't have the fries they're more expensive than the main course....cunning naughty sides! Well worth a visit and not just for the food. At the moment kids under 10 eat free!

Cock 'n' bull hash with a double yolker

Salt beef sandwich

Staff are friendly and food was delivered quickly and efficiently, they even had time for a chat. If you have time, pop into the Cock n Bull gallery for some arty inspiration.  Shoreditch....we'll be back when the sun comes out again.

Fish Island

You can smell the bagels from here!

Fish Island, literally a stones throw away or should that be a javelin's throw away from London's Olympic Park, is in the process of rapid urban and cultural transformation. But, this is nothing new for an area renowned for being a factory town not unlike something straight out of a Mad Max film. 

In previous lives this whole area has been a wasteland, a cities gutter, a bomb aimers drop zone, a whore's street corner and a fly tippers paradise for defunct white goods. It was even mentioned in an episode of DR WHO.

Now, gated apartments, painted in matt colours of red, orange and grey reach for the sky planted between terraced houses and derelict industrial buildings much like rotting teeth in a vagrants mouth. Many of those terraced houses have long gone but business is still booming with skip hire and scrap yard merchants on every corner.

Take the overground train from Platform 1 at Stratford International Station, I didn't think I'd hear those words in my lifetime, and after one stop disembark at Hampton Wick station to enter an east end world. Apparently, Hackney Wick station, was the scene of the first railway murder. Let your imagination wander and you can almost feel the Kray twins eyes on you as they wait ominously on the corner of Dace Road, ready to break your kneecaps or cause some other bodily disfigurement far too grisly to describe. Fish Island is now a conservation area. 

Many of the terraced houses and old industrial buildings cling on but they're not making toilet paper (The British Perforated Paper Co.) or mint creams (Bassett's Clarnico) anymore, but music. Dance and artists' studios have literally sprung up everywhere ensuring these important buildings are just not pulverised by over exuberant housing developers all in the name of progress. 

And before the whole area is cleansed beyond recognition why not take a Street Art tour, just follow the link.

Enjoy a handcrafted beer from Redchurch Brewery

One of the big employees on Fish Island is H. Forman & Son, who have been smoking salmon since 1905. The current family owner, Lance Forman, has plenty to say about the Olympic effect and how it has actually slowed down progression. Read what Lance had to say, just follow the link. Interestingly, H.Forman & Son has survived fire, flood and relocation by LOCOG who spent £10bn on building the Olympic Park, obviously they are set to remain here making the best of it. 

If all this talk of doom and gloom is making you thirsty then you'd better retire to Forman's restaurant for a glass of Shoreditch Blonde or Hoxton Stout and enjoy a delicious fish cake from the Brunch menu.

Now all the hype has died down and TV crews have left look at the Olympic Park from the corner of your eye and you'd be forgiven for thinking a UFO had just landed on an east end world.