Another report from my foray into E1, and this time it's quite a biggie, compared with the streets I've looked at so far.
Brushfield Street (left, with a view of Christ Church, Spitalfields, on the end of Fournier Street) runs along the south side of Spitalfields Market, a place that people keep telling me I'd love. Unfortunately I still have yet to investigate it fully as, by the time I found myself in the vicinity, it was pretty much closed up for the day.
I started off with a spot of people watching, sitting outside the lovely Patisserie Valerie, whose work I was familiar from a cafe on Russell Street in Covent Garden, which doesn't, despite what t'internet would have you believe, actually go by the name 'Patisserie Valerie', but I'm darned if I can remember what it does call itself. They stock some of their cakes, anyway, and very nice they are too.
Whilst I'm often quite content playing the 'happy loner', eating alone at places where you're served is one of those things that does make me feel a bit uncomfortable. But I'd just been to a wedding, so was uncharacteristically smartly dressed, and it was a sunny day, so I pulled up a seat at a table outside, ordered something to eat, and pretended to be someone else. This unusual air of sophistication was somewhat shattered by my interspersing the people watching with re-reading 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', but hey ho. I can't be looking too mature, can I?
Anyway, feeling nicely fueled I then took a stroll and discovered a wonderful array of shops. One
was bearing a "Save Our Small Shops" campaign sticker which is a nice sentiment, although net-wise it seems to have fizzled out, and even when it was launched there was skepticism as to whether it was too late. I am, however, pleased to report, that Brushfield Street is a place where the small indie shop seems to be thriving.
Brushfield Street seems pretty good for cafes. As well as Patisserie Valerie (yes, there are a few of them in London but they can hardly be described as a chain) there were a number of others: The Daily Grind has been recommended to me; I was tempted to get a cup of tea in the Market Coffee House (to people watch from the other side of the road) but they were just closing; and there was also the disturbingly named 'S&M cafe' which, upon closer inspection, thankfully revealed itself to be specialists in sausage and mash. Add to that a chocolatier, and many a happy hour of munching could be had on this street alone.
The lovely thing about the East End is the combination of the old and new side by side. Thus, the contemporary shops could be found alongside indications of trade from a previous era: the London Fruit Exchange and the London Wool Exchange once had premises here which were built in 1929, although that's pretty new by East End standards.
The one place that really had me fascinated, though, was "Verde & Company Ltd." (below), which didn't look as though it was in current use, but may have just been closed for the day. It appeared to have had various commercial manifestations over the years. The shop signage declares it to be a Fruit Importers, and a ghost sign suggests that it was up for sale in 1931. The window proclaims it to be "Pierre Marcolini - Chocolatier". (And yes, that is my reflection in the window - I told you I was ginger). Other websites, meanwhile, classify it as a 'delicatessen', a 'take away food shop', and an Italian Grocer's. As for the Scottish flag and theatrical cardboard cutouts in the window, I have no idea what that was all about. I think I'm just going to have to go back sometime during trading hours and investigate for myself!
Over to another part of the E1 postcode and this time Fournier Street. Something that I've noticed, particularly in this area where there is a long history of a lot of these places, is the wide variation in the style of street signage, even on a single street. Parliament Court was a particularly striking example - the sign at the opposite end to the Jack the Ripper graffito was rather bizarre - presumably it was either put there by the council (in which case it's incredibly shoddy), of a member of the public (which would show a curious dedication to signage).
Anyhoo, back to Fournier Street, whether that be in English or an alternative language. I'm not quite sure what point someone was trying to prove with their scribbling (top left) over the 'E1' 
postcode and replacing it with 'NW1' - perhaps some disgruntled resident was pretending they actually lived in Camden?
Fournier Street appears fairly residential (left) but nonetheless has several points of interest. On the corner, where it meets Commercial Street, is large pub called The Ten Bells (right), which looks as though it has had the same knocked out of it. At the other end of the street is Brick Lane, so we're definitely getting into East London territory.
The street is also book-ended by two quite contrasting places of 
worship. At one end is the imposing Christ Church, Spitalfields. At the other is the (apparently closed for refurbishment) Brick Lane Jamme Masjid. The latter had an interesting looking sundial near the top of the frontage - I have no idea whether this is a common feature of Masjids, or whether it was perhaps an original feature of a listed building. In The City/East End you never can be sure - I gather there's a building somewhere that has been a Church and a Synagogue and a Mosque at different points in its history.
The housing threw up some interesting sights as well. On one side of the road the houses looked a lot grander than on the other, which seemed to consist more of converted shops, judging by some of the shuttered 
windows. Not entirely sure why one house had British and French flags dangling out the windows, but I suppose it was Bastille Day. I can't guarantee they would be there for future visits! The most charming residential feature I saw was a house that had obviously been divided in two at some point, but instead of going for the 
conventional '11a' and '11b', the two homes were labelled '11' and 'Eleven and a half'. (Click on the picture at the bottom for a decent view).Finally, in one of the more curious pieces of local-authority labelling I've seen, some of the bollards had 'LBTH' on them. It took me a moment or two to confirm my instinctive assertion that 'This isn't Lambeth!?' and realise that it presumably stands for 'London Borough of Tower Hamlets'. A strange measure - perhaps they are worried that if they don't label them, some other council will pinch them. I guess this way they're safe from light-fingered councillors. Unless they are from Lambeth, of course...
I don't often find myself in the City of London (as opposed to the City of Westminster) but I was over there yesterday with a couple of hours to kill and a camera in hand. So don't be surprised by the next few entries being clustered around that area.
Parliament Court is a real hidden gem. I've only been able to pin its exact location down on one map out of three since I got home. Even Google Maps doesn't show it properly - just points 
to an blank space in between other streets. A passing glance suggests nothing but a fairly empty alley, and I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all if a couple of people weren't stood there looking at a grafitto/mural at one end of it. They were saying something about Jack the Ripper. It may well have been in 'tribute' to his presence in the area, but I doubt the original ever carried a spray can. Like Londonist, I wasn't convinced that, although in a stencilled style, it was the work of Banksy, but it was certainly eye-catching.
I figured I might as well go down the alley, not expecting to find much else, except perhaps for an alternative view from which to take a photo. I was rather startled, therefore, when I came across an even more striking graffito, this time very like a Banksy piece: an armed man firing doves out of his weapon.
I've been trying to work out if I've now seen a Banksy in situ for the first time. On the one hand, the black and white colour scheme, and the stencilled look of the gunman were very reminiscent of his work. On the other, it seems less elaborate than a lot of his other stuff. The doves looked like they had been block printed on, rather than stencilled, although I don't know if this is significant. Also, it didn't feature his tag, but rather a somewhat undecipherable signature (below). Googling got me nowhere (it just bought up the Londonist article), and looking at maps of the locations of his work doesn't tell me anything either.
So, I'm thinking it probably isn't. But it was a really great piece, and a wonderful surprise to see down a street that I could very easily have ignored. If anyone has any idea who created it, please leave a comment!
© Advancing Gingerly 2007-2009
Another report from my foray into E1, and this time it's quite a biggie, compared with the streets I've looked at so far.
was bearing a "Save Our Small Shops" campaign sticker which is a nice sentiment, although net-wise it seems to have fizzled out, and even when it was launched there was skepticism as to whether it was too late. I am, however, pleased to report, that Brushfield Street is a place where the small indie shop seems to be thriving.
