Paul Bommer's 'Delft' tiles and other cleverness

Hurry hurry... only a matter of hours to go....!!!
Paul Bommer's selling exhibition at 15 Wilkes Street, E1, finishes this afternoon at 6pm.
I very much doubt there will be much left to buy as everything was selling like hot cakes on Friday eve.
The fake Delft tiles are wonderful; Paul has made a set of 120 one-offs, each depicting locations, people and businesses. I was really surprised and pleased to see he'd done one for me with my initials above a clay pipe. When I say 'for me', I mean I had to buy it(!).




Due to the individual surface crackles on each tile I thought he'd got hold of a load of plain crackle-glazed tiles and over-painted them. But no; Paul points out that they are pastiches made using acrylic panels. He thought this process might disappoint but I think it takes more time and effort to make each one and so I think I've got a lot more for my money.
As well as the tiles there are 15 illustrations and cartoons all available as limited edition prints. I have to go and collect my tile tomorrow... I may be tempted to get something else... watch this space.
For details for the exhibition, scroll down to the bottom of the link above, which also contains many more of Paul's cheeky illustrations.

Top Hat is TipTopTaptastic

I went to see Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre last night.
I am not normally a fan of musicals, by which I mean the Abba and Queen variety*. But being a sucker for the old black and white singing and dancing films, especially Busby Berkeley movies such as this corker, and anything with Fred and Ginger in it, saying yes to this show was a no brainer.
This new stage version of Top Hat is wonderful. That Tom fella off the TV who won Strictly is in it and he's rather good indeed. As is Summer Strallen who makes tap dancing, especially high kicks, look so easy and, boy, can she sing! They are supported by a great supporting cast. I loved every minute of it. It's all based on the simple old story of boy meets girl mixed with mistaken identity (aren't they all?!). A few extra numbers  that were not in the original have been cheekily added but hey, why not?!
Reduced seat prices are available here.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven..."
Now I feel the need to watch the original 1935 film of Top Hat again... here's a clip. Notice how it's mainly a simple continuous wide shot so you can see the dancing in full, which contrasts with all silly close-ups etc we get in films and on TV these days featuring unnecessary cuts to the audience. Also note the lovely soft film quality.
"I'm putting on my white tie..."
Nice.
No photos of the show, but here are some of my London hats:

Top: Hollen St, Chenies St, Goswell Rd, St James St

Middle: Ely Place, Hatton Gdn, Jermyn St, Shepherd Mkt
Bottom: Lambeth Walk, Prebend St, Wilkes St, St Martins Place.


*though I am always prepared to be proved wrong, so if anyone has any spare free tickets for any of the big 'modern' musicals, then please do get in touch ;-)

Small traders' livelihoods threatened – again

I have just read the latest post by The Gentle Author about rising rents in the Spitalfields area that are forcing small businesses to close down or move out of their long-held premises.
This saddens me. If big corporate chains continue to trample rough-shod over everything, it means we will end up with the same shops everywhere; not just in London, but worldwide. Every city will be the same, selling identical products shipped in from China or the far east. Why bother with specialist traders offering bespoke goods and services when you can just drive to the local plastic shopping city or get your must-have factory-made designer items delivered to your door?!
I have written about my concerns in this vein before in posts about Notting Hill, Lambs Conduit St, Hanway St and Charing Cross Road.
Are homogenous or empty high streets what we really need and want?
Support your local traders!!!!
Read the Gentle Author's article here.

World Shakespeare Festival

An international festival starts today to celebrate the Bard.
It's his birthday you know. He's 448 today.
You might have read about him or heard about one of his plays. He wrote quite a few of them.
For those who have never heard of him (!!!) it's all in the link above or here.
Below are some of my Shakespeare-related images. The top row shows a pub, a theatre, a house and another pub. Perhaps you might know where they are?
The next two rows hint at Shakespeare plays – "prizes" to those who can identify the plays and/or the locations shown.

Bog standard bogs

The toilets in the ICA are piss poor. (Very droll, Jane!)


I wrote this in 2008. I know it went live because it has comments. I just found it in 'drafts'... somehow it had un-posted itself. So I am paying it another visit.

The London Marathon

Watching the London Marathon in my dressing gown on the sofa drinking endless cups of tea (not doing Spitalfields Market today).
The roads are lined with plastic event-specific signs. And balloons. And people are waving those plastic air-filled sausage things.
So what happens to all this plastic after the event? is is biodegradable?
Answers here please.
Or perhaps it ends up like this?

Ha ha ha... the Udderbelly is back on the South Bank

The purple upsidedown plastic cow is back on the Southbank for 12 weeks bringing comedy and fun and laughter to us, prior to a lot of the performers taking their shows to the Edinburgh Festival. 

I am going to see The Joy of Sketch this Thursday 19th... perhaps I'll see you there.

Did I ever mention that I was a Perrier judge in 2002? Well, I was. I entered a competition in Time Out and beat thousands of others to be one of the two London-based Joe Public judges on the panel. It was a lot of hard work racing from gig to gig, especially when some of the acts turned out be less than disappointing, but there were also some real gems which made the whole experience worthwhile. It was the year Jimmy Carr was 'discovered'. Amazingly it was decided that he shouldn't be entered for the newcomer award because he was too good! Eh? He didn't win that year, but he's won in other ways ever since. 

You might see someone at the Udderbelly this year who goes on to be the next big thing... And there's won't just be comedy on offer in the purple tent... there'll be magic, kid's events, music, and lots more.

Alternative Fashion week

It's Alternative Fashion Week at Spitalfields Traders Market from Monday 16th April.

Amelia Parker's clay pipe jewellery stall will be there on Friday 20th & Saturday 21st, as well as Sunday 22nd as normal.

Top: Spitalfields Traders Market, Kings Cross, Chatsworth Road, Redchurch St

Middle: Balls Pond Rd, view from Brushfield St, Spitalfields Traders Market x2

Bottom: Spitalfields Traders Market, Whitecross St, Kentish Town, Walthamstow

Titanic Titanic Titanic... stop stop stop!

Is it just me? Or is anyone else sick of hearing about The Titanic? I only recently fell in (ha ha) that all this media interest is because it's 100 years since it sank and that's what all the fuss is about.
Plenty of other boats have sunk too you know. Well, none quite as big, and none have had a cringingly bad film made about them (you can't include the The Poseidon Adventure, starring the wonderfully named Red Buttons cos that wasn't real).
Over the years there have been maritime disasters with greater loss of life, so why has the Titanic become so famous?
The 3D version of James Cameron's 'Titanic' is in the cinemas at the moment. Don't bother. Just watch this better, shorter version; Adam & Joe's 'Toytanic' – genius!
There's a Titanic drama series on TV which I have so far managed to avoid, and people are going on ironically ill-fated Titanic memorial cruises. I noticed earlier this week that the Titanic Cafe in Holloway Road was putting up banners promoting some kind of special offer. Prices going down perhaps?! The business going under?! All hands on deck!!!
I have always more interested in IKB's final amazing engineering feat that was the SS Great Eastern which was launched just over 150 years ago, yet I don't recall much fuss about that except a couple of programmes on BBCs 2&4 a few years ago.

Update 
A friend sent me this from today's
The Guardian:

Below are some photos of boats/ships in London:
Find them all here.

Hot cross buns

One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns.
So why buy one when you can get two for the same price?!
I was singing this earlier and thought I'd put a collection of crosses together to relate to that Jesus fella and the buns.
I also had an idea to mention the story about the East London bun pub but, yet again, the Gentle Author has got there first, and done a way better job than I could have, so here's the link to it.
Various London crosses below. And here's a previous Easter collection.

Top: Holloway Rd, Kings Cross, Holloway Rd, Smithfield
Middle: Bloomsbury, Greenway, Temple, Battersea
Bottom: Carey St, Euston, W1, Holloway

An Alphabet of London

I recently got a copy of Christopher Brown's book 'An Alphabet of London'.
This little gem is filled with Christopher's lovely, simple and effective lino cut illustrations depicting approx six different London locations for each letter of the alphabet.
The main part of the book is the A-Z but I loved reading the first section of the book where he tells us about growing up in 1950s London and taking in, and being inspired, by all the wonderful sights and experiences that London had to offer him. And, towards the end of the book is a section about his creative processes, which reminded me of when I made lino cuts in the art room at school all those years back. It really is a pleasing and absorbing process, working as you have to, in negative, and achieving a different end result every time.
The Gentle Author has written a really good, and more in-depth, review of the book here which also shows some of the illustations.
I can't compete with any lino cut illustrations of my own so here are some close-ups of As, Bs, Cs and Ds that appear on signs throughout Central London.
Perhaps you can recognise some of them? Or cheat, and find (most of) them here.

First Class postage goes up to 60p

Tomorrow the price of 1st Class postage goes up by 30%.
I still think it's cheap. For 60p you can send send a letter to Scotland and expect it to arrive the next morning. I think that's amazing value. Try getting a private company to that for the same money.
But "First Class"... what does it mean? I think it used to mean it would arrive in the morning post rather than in the later delivery. But these days it's a bit tenuous. Here in Holloway my post rarely arrives before 11.30am. The next day delivery we have come to expect doesn't seem to work either, as often I've sent something with a first class stamp on it to hear that it didn't arrive until two days later, even just across London.
But then what do I expect for 60p?!
I still have a have a lot of stamps that I bought last December, albeit with Christmas images on them, that I never used because I didn't find the time to make any 2011 Christmas cards, so it's a good job they don't have 'use by' dates on them.
Below are some interesting letter boxes on London doors. More here.

Cleaning up the South Bank

Leaving the Royal Festival Hall and walking up the stairs to the northern side of the Jubilee Bridge a few weeks ago I was disgusted (of Hollloway) to notice how filthy the 'clear' side panels were. And I noticed that the metal strips that run either side of the whole length of the bridge(s) are also grimy.
It reminded me that when I was in Roturua, NZ, a few years ago I saw a woman cleaner, armed with a trolley full of sprays, cloths and sponges, ambling up the street cleaning the street furniture by hand quickly and efficiently. No noise, no machines, no fuss; just a bit of elbow grease.
Here in London, and perhaps the whole of the UK, we build iconic structures and 'modernise' our public transport, but then let it all get filthy within weeks. For instance, I have often witnessed electric-powered rotary cleaners being used on areas with square corners. Need I say more?!
Specifically, on the underground, the lovely yellow and blue tiles at Kings Cross were replaced with small silver grey tiles that have, within just one year become dull with patchy areas showing exactly where new batches of grout were mixed. These same badly-laid grubby little grey tiles have also been used on linking sections of other platforms, especially within the Jubilee line, whose concrete utilitarian design now just looks like the builders upped and left without finishing anything – and on a Waterloo platform recently I noticed that the leaning bars along the platform were only clean in the places that people lean on them. Ugh.
Don't get me wrong; I am not a cleanliness freak (just see the build up of dust in my house!) but the above seems to contradict all the health and safety nonsense we see and hear – don't touch this/that; wash your hands etc. The government, our councils and LRT are sending out mixed messages. Surely we ought to be keeping things looking the best they can be, and especially so this year with all the extra people expected for the Olympics?
Let's get cleaning... in the case of the Jubilee Bridge(s), I reckon it would take less than a day for a handful of people to get them looking all sparkly again.
So, to the promo bit.... I am glad to report that there is a clean-up incentive happening along the South Bank at the moment. A group of 'clean artists', headed by Moose Curtis, are creating reverse/negative graffiti along various stretches along the Thames. See more here and watch a short vid about it here.
A great idea. Some promo pics of the event are at the bottom of this post but, in Jane's London style, here are some of my own rubbish photos:

The Ceremony of the Keys at The Tower of London

Last night I went to The Tower of London to witness the longest-surviving ceremony anywhere in the world... The Ceremony of The Keys. This locking-up of ritual has been taking place EVERY night, without fail, for over 700 years.
Halt! Who goes there? The Keys. Whose keys? The Queen's keys (etc.)
I remember doing a project on it when at junior school after a school trip. Which reminds me that in all my school years, excluding art trips in the 6th form, I can only recall ever going to three places; The Tower of London, London Zoo and Lullingstone Roman Villa...
The ceremony is free to attend but you have to apply here.
I haven't been to the Tower for a proper visit in decades, so another look around is well overdue, but I am not sure that this is the year to go, what with the Olympics and all the extra visitors headed this way. I'll just have to add it to my ever-lengthening list...
Here are some other London keys and keyholes:

Top: Holloway, Smithfield, Fleet St, Spitalfields
Middle: Finsbury Park (x2), Bloomsbury, Covent Garden
Bottom: Bloomsbury, Soho, Holloway, Kentish Town

Hexen 2.0 exhibition at the Science Museum

Hexen 2.0 is an exhibition by British artist Suzanne Treister on at the Science Museum until 20th April. 
According to the blurb, the exhibition "charts the coming together of diverse physical and social sciences in the framework of post-Second-World-War US governmental and military imperatives. Investigating cybernetics, the history of the Internet, the rise of 'Web 2.0' and mass intelligence gathering – using drawings, alchemical diagrams, photographs, text works and 78 specially designed tarot cards". 
Well, I couldn't have put that better myself!!!
I just love her drawings and illustrations and have ordered a copy of the book so that I can reconfigure history and map out hypothetical future narratives for myself.

If you have never been to the Science Museum... what are you waiting for? Go go go – it is fabulous and full of amazingly interesting stuff (for want of a better word!). 
And whilst you are there check out the Hidden Heroes exhibition too.

International Women's Day Fair at Spitalfields

March 8th marks International Women's Day.
On Saturday there will be a market and activities at Spitalfields Traders Market with music and live events. I will be there (of course).
Last year's event was good, so let's make this one even better.

Gillette ghost sign; hidden in plain sight

Earlier today I was in near Oxford Circus and looked up and saw what I thought must be a recently uncovered Gillette ghost sign.
Excited, I took lots of photos, one of which is below and a close up here where you can make out the signwriter's name.
But I just checked on Flickr and it seems the sign has been visible since at least July 2009 when Maggie snapped it... so how have I not spotted it myself until now?!
As a friend says, 'sometimes things are hidden in plain sight'... they are right under our noses or in this case, above our heads. The same would apply to the Gillette ghost sign in Queensway and the one for Creamed Barley above Mornington Crescent tube station.
I have spotted faded Gillette ads all over London; in Whitechapel, New Cross, Dalston, Clapham, Kilburn, Kensal Green, Stoke Newington, Tottenham, Acton, Peckham, Willesden and Grays Inn Road (see them here), and I know of others, so there are probably many more out there to discover, either hidden under new advertising panels or in hiding plain sight.

Happy St David's Day

Isn't it.

Top row: Lambeth, W1, Deptford, NW1
Middle row: Mornington Crescent, Caledonian Rd, Kentish Town, Upper Street
Bottom row: Highgate, Cheapside, Piccadilly, Brixton.
Interesting to note that The PoW pub in Lambeth seems to have a nationality crisis

Today's news – the bloody Oscars

Here we are in a recession/depression and millions of people on the bread line, yet a disgusting amount of money is thrown at an event (and other similar events) to give awards to people who spend their lives pretending to be other people.
Actors. Hardly saving lives and planets are they?
Ooh darling... I am an actor you know.
Really? Like I give a...
And before anyone starts ranting back at me... I like films. I love films. I just don't see why all this lavish patting on the back is necessary. There may be awards ceremonies for bakers, nurses, charity workers, bomb disposal men etc. But these events are not on the news.
Go figure. Gold figure.

Clockwise from top left: Bank of England, Cockspur Street, Grays Inn Road, Haymarket, Victoria Palace, Oxford Street.

Tuesday day is Pancake Day – let's dance our cares away

So went the song we used to sing at school...
"...first you [something] your pancakes
then you toss your pancakes
Tuesday day is Pancake Day
Let's dance our cares away
Hop-sa Leisela
Hop-sa Marion
Dance our cares away
And a second verse finished with 'Dance-a Leisela, Danse-a Marion..."
But I can't find any reference of it anywhere.
To make basic pancakes you'll need eggs, flour and milk:

Top row: Stroud Green, Warren Street, New Cross, Stoke Newington
Middle row: Hampstead, Spitalfields, W1, Brixton
Bottom row: Brick Lane, Amwell St, De Beauvoir, Bloomsbury

Crouch End – Imagined and Observed

That's the name of a photographic exhibition now on at the Original Gallery within Hornsey Library. It brings together a group of local photographers who have taken on the wide-ranging theme of "Crouch End". My friend's photo has been used on the promotional material and features his oft-used big blue sky style.
The free exhibition on until 26th February. It's well worth a look.
Last year I put together a collection of my own Crouch End observations, so below are some more taken with my phone camera one afternoon last October:

The Pink Pound

No, I am not referring to our gay friends or a rose-coloured pig enclosure... I am talking about this.
Almost every other shop window is festooned with pink and red things which are supposed to entice you in to buy some sexy underwear or chocolate cake.
No thanks. I will be spending tomorrow evening taxing my brain with friends at a pub quiz at the lovely Shaftesbury Tavern in Hornsey Rise.
If you haven't been there before, do look in; it's recently changed hands and looks really good. The original curved bar has wood and glass fittings and there's a great room at the back complete with open fire and some great framed photos on the wall showing how the area looked in its Edwardian heyday.
Below are some pink things in London.

Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

I finally got to see this earlier this week.
The exhibition is a mix of Grayson's own work married with items he has chosen from the British Museum's vast collection.
What can I say? Wonderful, interesting, inspiring, thought-provoking, beautiful etc etc...
No photos allowed inside the exhibition, but the bike he travelled through German is outside, complete with an Alan Measles stunt double. If you can't get get a ticket before it finishes on February 19th then the bike is well worth the climb up the stairs. It's a great example of craftsmanship in itself; covered in wonderful details, and words including Patience, Doubt and Chastity.
Sublime.
Love the man.
Here's some of his older work.

Gun salutes to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Today is Accession Day and marks 60 years since Liz succeeded the throne after her father, George VI, died in 1952.
The main celebrations will take place in June but today there will be lots of noise at noon... there will be a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park followed by a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London... 
Blimey! That's a lot of noise.
She's 85 you know. Eighty-five!
Here are some gun- and cannon-related things in London.
(I will save my diamond collection for June)

Merhaba, I've been in Turkey...

And I had a lovely time; I always do.
Snow-covered roads, water parks, mountain views and gorgeous textures.
Coincidentally, here in Holloway, a lot of my local shops are turkish. But the weather's not the same.
A thought just occured... why is the large bird eaten at Thanksgiving so called?
I don't have any London pics with turkeys in them so here are some chickens and cocks: