Look what I saw today

The East End is interesting.

(And yes, that's West Ham United football stadium in the background).

Where I Work

The astute amongst you may have noticed a new link over on the right... yes, Dad; another one for you. :)

In September, at the start of the school year, I started working at a comprehensive school called Brampton Manor in Newham, one borough east of Hackney. It's day to day supply work, meaning that I have no timetable, and just appear in the mornings to be told what I'll be doing that day. Sometimes that's good, other times... less so ;) But this is not about the trials and tribulations and occasional joys of a supply teacher in the East End of London - no, that's all going in my book ;) - this is just about getting an idea of the general area, which has definite similarities to Hackney, but a certain flavour all its own.

So come with me, if you will, and I will take you to Newham.

First, set your alarm for about 5.45am... you have to be at work at 8.00am, and the journey's about an hour, and it's so cold you want to make sure you have time for porridge before you leave, and then there's the hair-wrangling... set? ok then... once you're out of the house, skirt London Fields (or cut through that little south-west corner in the semi-dark and look at the frost lining all the fallen leaves) and make your way out to the bus stop on Mare Street. Jump on the 106 or the 254 or the D6 and stand in the aisle for about ten minutes as you lurch your way down to Bethnal Green tube station. Jump out, pass the cool guy in his woollen beanie and thick coat selling coffee from a portable stand at the top of the stairs, and sweep down with the clopping masses... grab your copy of Metro from the stand as you pass (if you're practised you'll be able to do it without stopping), swipe your Oyster Card (you're probably past giving superior and slightly patronising looks to the poor saps standing in the ticket line), and go down the escalator (stand on the right, walk on the left, as all good Londoners both know and, surprisingly, do).

Everyone else is going west, into the centre of town, but you're going east, so the trains are never crowded. Central Line east, one stop, and out at Mile End to change, but you're lucky, because it's one of the handful of stations where the change is a simple walk across the platform. You'll probably only stand there for a few minutes before a District or Hammersmith & City Line train comes through, but it may well be enough time for Train Man (is there one in every city?) to approach you and ask - gabble, really - 'next train coming soon? two minutes?'

It's five stops to Upton Park, but it never feels like that... it's a very quick journey. You'll probably only get half of Metro read.

You were clever and walked right up the platform at Bethnal Green, so now you can come out of the tube like a racehorse out of a gate and straight up the stairs; you COULD catch the bus but that's only a last resort for freezing days (and tired Fridays) so let's walk, shall we?

Upton Park station is on Green Street, a fabulous multi-cultural thoroughfare running almost north-south, and the heart of the area... not all that busy now, at just after 7.30am, but still busy enough. And the shops are interesting - if not all exactly beautiful - even when they're shut.

OK, briskly now; it's cold and icy and your breath is coming in clouds; it was nicely warm on the tube and of course you didn't remove your coat; no one does; so you'd better trot now to warm up again. Head south down Green Street, past Queen's Market, just setting up (it will be in full swing when you come back through this afternoon), and the last few shops; after a few minutes it will be mixed shops and residential, all old terraces. Except, of course, the massive exception to this rule - the West Ham Football Stadium, absolutely huge, coming up on the left.

Keep walking; Barking Road is coming up, with the beautiful

Boleyn on the corner; cross, pass the Bobby Moore statue (don't know who those other blokes are; everyone always just mentions Bobby Moore), and go down Boundary Road. It's all residential now, apart from the odd corner shop or off-license, and even though the houses are all the same at first glance, there is still a subtle beauty in that.

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If you're lucky, the sun will just be rising on a perfect winter day.

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Just as you crest the hill before the school, where Boundary Road has turned into Boundary Lane (for those following progress on the map, you will have just had to click the green arrow bottom centre) you'll pass the Greenway, a cycle and walking path which starts in Stratford (I think) and finishes I know not where; those two frosty photos I included in a previous post were of the Greenway.

And then you're there. It's a pretty standard comprehensive I guess; not much greenery (though there's more than can be seen in those photos; there are a couple of internal courtyards, including the Reading Garden, which are really quite pleasant), reasonably modern but not particularly attractive architecture, etc.

Anyway, that's it; you're there now; I recommend you have a coffee before starting the day, as you're probably up for more than five hours of teaching and general crowd control, the first four of those hours with pretty much no break at all... but let's gloss over all that, shall we, and you can meet me at the gate after the school day's ended? because then we could retrace our steps, going back up Green Street and past Queen's Market and Upton Park tube, and into the bustling and busy part of Green Street; we could look at cheap shoes, or saris, or any number of pound shops and bargain bazaars, or Middle Eastern sweet shops, or go into Zam Zam International, as I did today, and find a lovely wrap in beautiful muted browns and blues, for only £8, and end up spending twenty minutes talking to Farhana and Ruksana, sales assistants in Zam Zam, recently arrived from Bangladesh, and just lovely; friendly, funny, interesting, vivacious. Ruksana may well be the first woman you speak to who is wearing a burkha; don't let it put you off ;)

Brrrrrrrr!!!

It's winter.

Mornings that aren't frosty are misty... puddles freeze overnight on the footpath... coming home at twenty past four feels like the middle of the night... and standing for longer than a few minutes at the bus stop makes you uncomfortably aware of your feet. Everyone's breath billows in hazy clouds and sometimes all that keeps you going is the thought of fish and chips. I've been quite tickled by my acquisition of a - well, what IS it? it's black, made of wool, part shawl, part cape, I guess... it has fringey edges, and swirls about me quite dramatically in the wind, and can be draped in any way I choose, muffling my neck or hiding my hands in its folds. I tend to feel like I'm leaving the house wearing a picnic blanket, but then I persuade myself that it's more Zorro than Tea On The Lawn. In any case, I don't care, because it's WARM.

'ackney and the East End

Thought it might be interesting to show people a little bit of the local area... (remember you can click on any of these photos to see a much larger image; just click 'back' on your browser to return to the blog). I've been looking for a good map, but it's rather difficult to find one with any level of detail, so I'm going to try to link to one. Now, I've never inserted a link into my blog before, so bear with me... *five minutes later* gah; it all goes squirrelly, so what I'll do is this - see those links over to the right? I'll put a new one in at the bottom of the list, for a map of Hackney and London Fields and the local area round about, and you can go from there, ok?

So... find London Fields (not hard; it's right in the middle), and look down at the south-western edge... you'll see the word 'DRIVE' (part of the longer 'Lansdowne Drive'), and running off at a sort of right angle is Trederwen Road... where the two meet is a little circle, representing a roundabout, and we're right there, on the green side of the street. Buses go round that roundabout all the time and if I'm in my living room it can seem like they're going to come through the window... as apparently a car DID, back in the 70's. As Bron said, when I was moving in down here; 'one more reason to have your bedroom on the OTHER side of the house' ;)

All righty then, what else is interesting...? Broadway Market is right there too; you can see how close it is... pretty much the whole of its short length is used for the market on Saturday. There are some great restaurants there - our brilliant pub (more like a tavern), The Dove, which sells the only type of beer I enjoy (Belgian fruit beers) along with a damn fine menu, ranging from ostrich burgers through Thai dishes to a pint of chips (truly! they're served in a pint glass) to sticky toffee pudding; the Argentine restaurant, Buen Ayre, with the open grill which needed special approval from the fire department (Buen Ayre will be having its first birthday next month! that's gone so fast); Mediterranean Cilicia, with the beautiful gourds hung under the ceiling, all studded with coloured beads and glowing with gentle light... it's so beautiful in there... and of course don't forget F. Cooke, Live Eel Importer, trading from the same premises for almost a hundred years, and a classic example of an East End pie and mash shop, from the menu to the wooden benches and tables and the sawdust scattered daily on the floor... We walk down Broadway Market to get to Hackney Road and Columbia Road - if you use the green arrow at the bottom of the map to scroll down you'll see Goldsmith's Row (love that name), that links the two, and you can scroll westwards a little to see the rest of that area. You cross Regent's Canal at the end of Broadway Market - if you look to the north, you can see the fully-functioning lock gate, and if you go south-ish, and follow the tow path, you come round to Victoria Park.

Then there's Hackney Central, to the north east of London Fields - I usually walk from home if I'm going over there, but if I want to catch a bus I walk out along Westgate Street to Mare Street - buses to Bethnal Green tube station go south from there, so I have to cross the road, and buses into Hackney Central or beyond to Clapton or wherever go north up Mare Street. But walking is so much nicer - I cross the park, coming out on Martello Street in the north-eastern corner, and then go along the footpaths parallel to the main road, to the library (in Reading Lane, appropriately enough), past the town hall and the 'Ackney Empire (a WONDERFUL old music hall, in the old tradition; I've only been inside it once, but it was just amazing, with boxes and velvet and ornate plasterwork over the stage and so on)

and in to the shops... the main supermarket, Tesco, is on Morning Lane (along with a GREAT noodle restaurant where I can get a huge plate of the yummiest Singapore noodles EVER, and a drink, for a fiver), and then there's Woolworths and similar in the middle there, right at Hackney Central. Where Mare Street turns white on the map it becomes a pedestrian and bus road (interesting combination, I know), with more shops (the Pound Shop! source of many bargains), and the lovely 12th century church tower, right in amongst all the buildings... there's a lovely old graveyard there too, in off the street, and when I was over there in spring there was a gorgeous cheeky squirrel who came out and posed for the camera; he was very sweet. I walk right up that part of Mare Street on my way to church... (for those interested in finishing the journey - I'm looking at you, dad - I then turn right onto Lower Clapton Road, go left when it does, and the church is right there on the corner of Lower Clapton Road and Powerscroft Road).

Columbia Road

Columbia Road is shaped like a wide V, with the ends of both arms ending up on Hackney Road, about ten minutes' walk from home. It's pretty nondescript for most of the week - oh, there are some nice enough shops there, but there are a few of THOSE around London - no; what makes it special are Sundays. For on Sundays, there's a wonderful flower market there; stalls of flowers and plants and vines and small shrubs and trees lining the street for what seems like miles; East End stallholders all vying with one another for your business ('one for four pahnd; free for a tenner! lovely pansies; six pahnd a tray; I'll frow in a extra one wiv it; can't say fairer'n'at'), cafes selling aromatic coffee and bagels and pastries; pubs offering a fry-up (aka the 'Full English'); buskers; second-hand stores; the lot. People flock from everywhere; it's always packed. And all day on Sunday, wherever you are around Hackney, if you see a guy on a bike riding somewhat erratically whilst holding a massive bunch of tulips under one arm, or a young couple walking slowly, with frequent stops to put down the weeping fig in the black glazed pot, or an old lady with a spray of holly across the top of the shopping trolley she's trundling, you know they've been to Columbia Road.