east end – Where is Phil now?

Saturday 24 January 2015 – Shoreditch.

It was a glorious winter day with clear skies and a reasonable temperature, out of the wind it was quite nice, but there was a real bite of wind chill, especially in the shade. It was not a day worth wasting and with El meeting a friend for lunch I took the opportunity to re-visit some old haunts and go look at some street art. I have not been to Shoreditch since early November and I was intrigued to see if much had been going on since, I was fairly disappointed last time I was out. I had been reading stories of walls being knocked down and buildings closed and it was time to go and see it myself, plus it was a good excuse to do a walk through of Rough Trade and see if there was any essential vinyl to purchase. There is always essential vinyl to purchase as it happens, and today was no different!

My first stop was Rockwell House, I have been to a few parties and live painting events on the roof of Rockwell House over the past couple of years and it the studio home of Jim Vision and End of the Line – whose work I really enjoyed. Rockwell House has now been closed and will soon be demolished to clear space for a series of new offices being built across this end of the east end – the part where it brushes up against the city. We obviously need more space for bankers, lawyers, consultants and all those other vital cogs to the UK economy, no room for creatives in this modern world…

The cowboy painting by American artist El Mac has graced the side of Rockwell House since 2011 and is one of my favourite works of art in the area, it will be a shame to see it go – though I guess the transitional nature of street art is one of its greatest facets. The 13 Coins piece is quite new.

On the far side of the building there were quite a few painted walls, though unfortunately there was almost also a corresponding amount of cars to cover up the art. There were a couple of pieces exposed, one by Antony Lister – who I last saw hanging in a gallery with price tags way out of my league.

I believe this is by Jim Vision – I haven’t seen too many faces by him, really good too.

My next stop was the Leonard St Carpark, hoardings have been up here for a while so I knew there was some demolition planned, but it is a shame to see things disappearing. Nice hoarding by Boxhead though.

Round the corner from the carpark is Blackall St, which was a narrow one lane road that was covered in stickers, paste ups, graff and other painting. It has always been a favourite place to visit, but I was totally shocked to find that one side of the street was completely gone!

There are hoardings around the site, which have all been painted, but it is not the same… I guess we are lucky that the hoardings are painted as so many in this area are not.

A little bit of Blackall St style.

As I walked back towards Leonard St I caught a flash of a colour out of the corner of my eye so wandered off towards Scrutton st where I found this lovely new bird from Bailon.

And this possibly older shutter from Bailon, Dr Zadok and Sokar.

I wanted to see the Amara piece on the back of the Villlage Underground so headed back the way I came and found this quite cool piece by Jimmy C.

I was then shocked again to find the carpark at the back of the VU being dug up as well,, not that pedestrians were ever allowed in there to take photos, carpark security wouldn’t allow it. I sort of understood the situation , lots of cars and allowing people to wander around obviously comes with some security risks, but there were some good walls behind the security and I never got to see them properly. Still won’t I guess.

The Amara piece was pretty cool.

Back over on the Brick Lane side I came across this from Jim Vision, I think given to what has been happening to the inner East End lately, ‘no hope’ is an apt message.

The small car park off of Brick Lane is a regular spot for artists and viewers, though I have never seen this sign before – not that I come to the area much on a Saturday, I hope it doesn’t mean that this spot will be black listed as well.

The street art tour has become big business and I saw at least four large groups in the Brick Lane area in the short time I was there, these two large groups in Hanbury St effectively stopping anyone from seeing or photographing any of the street art. Luckily there was not a lot of change since the last time I was there.

Though I kinda licked this, but have no idea who it is by.

There was not a lot else to see so I popped into Rough Trade for a coffee and a record purchase or two, Hookworms – The Hum and Disappears – Era. On my way up towards Broadway Market where I had decided to go for lunch I found this fun piece from Graffiti Life, and that was the last new bit of art I saw all day.

Seeing so much change to the Shoreditch area was really disturbing, so much of the city is disappearing to allow new offices and apartments for wealthy investors to buy and not live. Soho is now under threat and the old ‘Tin Pan Alley’ – Denmark St has been given notice for demolition. Tomorrow El and I are going to Camden and there is a whole load more heartache there as well. All the good bits of London will be gone, probably before me.

Saturday 05 January 2013 – Hackney, Shoreditch, Spitalfields, Brick Lane – London

London’s run of not too awful weather continued for a few more days so Saturday afternoon I met a friend up in Hackney to go hunt for some of the great street art that has been made in the area.

My friend knows the area quite well so it was more like a guided walk for me and it was a lot of fun – though I will never find some of the places we visited again, I should have paid more attention 🙂

We started in Hackney Central and walked down through London Fields to Broadway Market. The market is open on a Saturday and mainly sells food and drink, I had a nice risotto for lunch followed by a really nice proper Vietnamese coffee – complete with condensed milk, yum. The market and surrounding area is hipster central. Loads of skinny jeans, short beards and checked shirts, single speed bikes all over the place. Book shops and second hand shops lined the street around the market. I loved it here, in fact I was pretty much in love with all the places we passed, I could easily live here!

Now I have described it as hipster central, my photos show other wise, always happens.

There was a Stik next to the Vietnamese coffee stall.

The next stop was Regents Canal, there is a lot art and plain old graf along the tow path, it was a nice walk down to Victoria Park, the area has a kind of post-commercial bleakness to it, maybe bleakness is a bit strong, but it is a bit run down in parts, just my sort of thing. There were an awful lot of house barges as well, which will be a whole photo essay by itself one day.

I really like these small pieces by Bortusk Leer, there are loads of them all around here.

There was also an old Eric Monopoly as well.

After stopping for more coffee at another very hipster cafe we strolled down and around Bethnal Green, Spitalfields, Brick Lane and Shoreditch – I will confess to having no idea where one bit started and another stopped as I was too busy chatting and looking around at the sights – and spotting things to photograph.

I had one of lifes weird little experiences as we walked. A couple of years ago Sam, a friend of my daughter from Bristol came and stayed at my place in NZ while he was on his travels. He has been living in London for a while now and we have talked about catching up one day. I ran into him on the street. Very nice to see him and totally weird !!

There is some really good street art here, the area around Brick Lane is especially vibrant, I liked that some of the new boutiques have not cleaned up their walls.

Unfortunately we ran out of daylight so I didn’t get to photograph a ton of good stuff, but it does mean I get to go back sooner rather than later. It was a good afternoon !

After a quite delicious Vietnamese meal we went to look at a couple of Banksy’s and saw a guy painting on a wall outside a shop. We stopped to watch and say hello and it was Paul Don Smith, I said I had seen some of his work in Portobello Rd and we chatted for a while. He had recently been doing graffiti on a movie set for a coming Brad Pitt zombie movie – World War Z and was doing a small stencil for it. It was interesting to watch him at work.

I will be back for sure. A few of my favourite pieces.

This is my favourite ! Jana and JS

Ben Eine – according to a graffiti tour guide we overheard as he was leading a tour in Brick Lane he is the only British artist to ever have work hung in the White House…

Jimmy C, there was one amazing Jimmy C that was too dark to photograph – I just need to be able to find it again. His pictures are very detailed.

More street art. [edit] Hmmm, seems WordPress has changed and I cannot do a slide show any more. I don’t like the “gallery” mode, oh well. m[end edit]