London Calling: Green Street

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.

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

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 ;)