Holloway Street Party, Saturday 10th July 2010

Gorgeous weather for a street party.

Well done to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen.

Sorry I got there so late, but hey, I took some good snaps....

Hairdressers and barbers

I was just about to put together this collection of interesting, ornate, old and decaying hairdressers' shops signs when someone emailed me about a series of events being put on by LIFT (The London International Festival of Theatre).

One of the items on the programme this year is Haircuts by Children. So if you fancy letting a 9 year old give you a free haircut then check out the site and pop along sometime between this Saturday 10th June and next Sat 18th.

Other LIFT events include 'Nevermore', a theatre production about the "Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allen Poe", 'Oxygen', a reworking of the Ten Commandments and 'We Built this City' where children can build a city from cardboard boxes (thinks, how can I make myself look like a 12 year old...?).

Anyway, check the LIFT site for the full list of events.

Top row: Dean Street, South Moulton Street, Balls Pond Road, Muswell Hill Broadway, Scotland Green.

Middle row: Newington Green, Caledonian Road, Chatsworth Road, Berwck Street, Leather Lane.

Bottom row: Holloway Road, Kings Cross Road, Pentonville Road, Seven Sisters Road (Fins Pk), Aberdeen Place.

All of the above, as far as I know, are all still in situ. But this one, on Royal College Street, uncovered whilst renovation, has vanished. Shame.

And perhaps I should have included this one!

Wimbledon 2010

There's a tennis tournament on in south London.

I have actually been watching some of it.

As I write this Andy Murray is taking on Rafael Nadal in the second semi final. I have no opinion on that, but I'd like Tomas Berdych to take the championship title final on Sunday after I saw him beat Federer on Wednesday and then Djokivic earlier today. I might even watch the final. Stranger things have happened.

I still haven't watched any of the football though.

Here's a collection of loosely-themed tennis pics:

Top row: Bethnal Green Road, Holloway, Centrepoint, Praed Sreet

Middle row: Kingsway, Kew, Balcombe Street, Kilburn

Bottom row: Gracechurch Street, Westbourne Grove, Well Court, Chenies Street

Art in my garden

Anna made this. It was on show at her degree show and now it's in my garden.

Result!

I need to help her set up a blog/site to show off what else she can do...

Art Art Art... Private Views at C&G of London Art School Degree Show 2010 and PayneShurvell

My talented sister has just finished her 3 year degree course in stone and wood carving at C&G Art School. I went along yesterday for the awards and presentations and had a quick look round at the diverse degree show which is just as good as last year with exhibits covering all bases; fine art painting and sculpture, conservation, installations etc.

I will be back there for the Private View on Thursday evening, and at some point over the weekend too, so why don't you come along and find me?!

Why they call these things Private Views is beyond me, seeing as anyone can stroll in!

Which reminds me that a couple of weeks ago I spent a very pleasant evening with a friend going from PV to PV in the Hoxton/Shoreditch area. The best show that night was the opening eve for PayneShurvell who have pulled together a really eclectic mix of artists for their show 'A Bright and Guilty Place'. I liked quite a lot of the work there esp Dan Hay's revised repetitive A-Z map of London and Anka Dabrowska's line drawings and her little 3D shops and houses which displayed a lot of love and care and attention. As regards work exhibited there, I was impressed that, even if I didn't like the finished product, I could see why it was created and how it had come about. It was a lovely contrast to an earlier show we saw that evening where an 'artist' had created large colourful ill-conceived and badly-executed canvasses obviously with an eye on the 'art as investment' market. Indeed, one man there told us that he already owned two other pieces by the artist's but he didn't really like them much and hoped they would make him some money. Oh dear. It's so wrong.

ART ART ART:

Top row: St MARTin's Lane, BARTon Street, BARTholomew Road, ChARTerhouse Square.

Middle row: DARTmouth Park, HARTley's jam factory, BARTon Street, CARTer Lane.

Bottom row: St BART's church, MARTello Street, White HART Lane, Brown HART Gardens

All of these can be found within my Flickr photostream

Football crazy; football mad

My life is already, through no choice of my won, dictated by football; living 5 mins from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, yet not caring a jot whether they win or lose, I always have to check the fixtures list or the signs at the bottom of my street to see if my visitors can park outside my home without getting a parking ticket.

Due to the traffic disruption it can be a bit frustrating trying to use the bus or tube just before or straight after a match. During these times hoardes of "fully grown" men dressed as overgrown toddlers in three-quarter length trousers, bumper boots, multi-coloured logo'd polyester T-shirts and hardly any hair, fill the streets and pubs and chant rhymes. Ah bless 'em.

Have you noticed that sports news, at the end of the 'real' news on the TV, is really only football news? I fail to see why there even has to be a sports section within the news at all. Surely if people want sports news, sorry, football news, they can tune in to a sports channel? After all we don't get an arts news section on there, for instance.

And now the World Cup is upon us. Oh deep joy.

Actually, what am I saying? I don't mind the World Cup at all. To ignore the World Cup would be daft. It's like not being interested in horse racing and having a bet on The Grand National. Likewise athletics and The Olympics, and tennis and Wimbledon.

So I will be watching some of the matches wearing my stylish cotton T-shirt with 3 lions on it.

C'mon England!!!

World, cup, foot, balls, team

Boots, players, matches, posts, marks

Half, 3 lions, boot scraper

Passing, dribbling, crossed, tackle, stadium

(locations upon application)

Fox attacks babies in east London

Disturbing news today that twin 9 month old girls are being treated in The London Hospital after being mauled by an urban fox. Really?!

I know this isn't a good thing to put together a set of pics about, but it's going to be interesting to see how, or if, this changes what people think of these animals vis-a-vis the hunting ban etc. Here's Newsy's take on the subject.

Clockwise from top left:

Slug & Lettuce, Upper St; Southwark Bridge Road; Orford Road, E17; St Barnabas Street, SW1; Wardour Street, W1; coal hole cover; 2 pics of the Fox and Anchor, Charterhouse Street, EC1; Fox umbrella shop, London Wall, EC2; Surrey Docks, SE16

Luther; a wonderfully preposterous TV cop drama

I was a bit late finding Luther. I watched the first two episodes back-to-back on iPlayer and was hooked. Idris Elba, in the title role, is great. And Ruth Wilson, as Alice, is sublime. Paul McGann must be good too, because I despise him in it.

It's all so ridiculous that it's compelling. And I love recognising all the different places around London, like Blackfriars Bridge and Daniel Libeskind's building in Hollway Road, used as a place where Paul Rhys's creepy character held a press conference. Also interesting that his character's macabre art gallery was at 73 Leonard Street, an address that I am sure a company I used to work for moved to. The Shoreditch area, specifically Leonard Street, is used a lot in the programme and is in real life littered with art and art galleries, one place even has a suitable macabre name to tie in to this piece.

Top row: Cornhill, Old Broad Street, Leonard Street, Little Newport Street.

Middle row: Leonard Street, The Blackfriars pub, Holloway Road, Upper Street

Bottom row: Blackfriars Bridge above and below, Praed Street, Bow Street Police Station

Museum of London's Galleries of Modern London opening soon

I am a friend of the Museum of London and last night I went to the private view of the new Galleries of Modern London in advance of the official opening (this Thursday 28th May).

It was all a bit too much as there is so much to see; it's all laid out and arranged so well. The interactive screens and 'touch tables' are really informative and impressive.

I especially liked a room papered with Booth's poverty map where you can zoom in on different areas on the screen at the rear, a long blue 'touch table' depicting the river where you can find out about today's Capital Concerns, a wonderfully ornate Selfridges lift dating from 1928, a replica Victorian street with a tobacconist containing some full length clay pipes, and the sign that bloke used to cart up and down Oxford Street.

Also good was the use of projected films showing actors as part of the exhibits as in the Pleasure Garden and the Lyons Tea House. In the main foyer there is a film showing London today on a large screen; airports, markets, city, houses, parks. I could have watched it for hours.

So, to sum up, it's brilliant, go and check it out when these galleries are open... it's free!!!!

No Souls For Sale at Tate Modern

On Sunday May 16th I went to the No Souls For Sale event thingy at Tate Modern. They'd sectioned the floor of the Turbine Hall off into 70 spaces that were filled by a different gallery or organisation.

It was a mixed bag. There was a lot of stuff I couldn't be bothered to suss out, but there was also some interesting and thought provoking exhibits.

Most of the things that moved me came from abroad, from countries such as Italy or Vietnam... and now, looking at the NSFS site link (top line above) I am confused as to which site was for which gallery and I am kicking myself that I didn't make a better note of things as a lot of the posters in the link don't seem to tie up with the things I saw. Which is a shame. In fact some of the posters are better than the the exhibits I saw, and vice versa.

I really liked a stand in the middle that, on the outside, was made from old walnut furniture. And I loved the Buddah craved into a basbeall bat and the art books with contoured holes drilled into them. The square of white ribbons hanging from the ceiling was lovely, though I have no idea what it was meant to be about. In another area, children were having a great time throwing piles of little bits of paper with 'Local Artist' written on them up into the air. The big brown inflated globe that looked like a big Malteser was also strangely compelling.

Anyway... I took some photos.

Maria Nepomuceno and Grayson Perry at the Victoria Miro Gallery

Last week I went a private view at The Victoria Miro Gallery in Wharf Road, N1.

This gallery is always worth popping in to as I think over the years it has had some fabulous shows. This is where, amongst other shows, Grayson Perry's showed 'The Walthamstow Tapestry' and his some of his wonderfully detailed maps based on the Mappa Mundi. His atmospheric and thought-provoking 'Charms of Lincolnshire' show was also there in 2006. Check past exhibitions in theie site for more.

But to the point... Mr Perry was there on the night in one of his colourful outfits, but even he must have felt quite pale and insignificant against Maria's wonderful, almost organic, creations made of rope, straw and beads. I found her use and understanding of colour and fluid shapes to be mesmerising and uplifting.

If you are in any way of a crafty leaning, as I am, then I urge you to go and see her show and be further inspired. It's on until 12th June.

The pics below are of the last show that inspired me in this way; Hyperbolic Crochet at the Hayward Gallery, August 2008, where whole coral reefs had been created using little metal hooks.

London Bloggers Meetup, May 2010

Last night I went to a Meetup. (Thinks: that would be a good pun title for a collection of butcher shop related images...!). For those of you who haven't heard of Meetups, they are a great way to meet up with like-minded people and make new friends.

So Joanna and I pitched up at the Theodore Bullfrog pub in John Adam Street expecting a social get together. To be honest, we hadn't really read up on what it was about in advance and expected a bit of networking (ech, I hate that word) and chats over a few beers. We'd just about bought our drinks when a lovely woman called Tamara started giving a talk about blogging and how to get the best out of it, illustrating it all with her top 10 of dos and don'ts.

I must admit at first I thought, oh gawd no, please get me out of here! But listening to her explain how her site has become massive, and I mean massive, in nine short months, I was really impressed. Tamara puts an awful lot of time and effort into her site and posts more than once a day. The woman is truly obsessed. Or as she puts it, 'addicted'.

She had lots of great tips about tagging and links and keeping up with trends and the news and knowing who your readers are and following up on things. Some of it was relevant to me, a lot of it wasn't. But it got me thinking.

So when I got in last night I checked my stats for this site (and Jane Made This). It's something I don't do that often because it's like entering a vortex and hours can fly by.

It's fascinating; it's absorbing. For instance, the map above shows the countries coloured in different shades of green indicating where my traffic comes from. A lot of the paler green countries are deceiving because it turns out on closer inspection that only one person may have accidentally clicked in and immediately hit the back button (as in the case of individuals in Madagasgar and Peru, and 5 people in Thailand who probably put words like 'cock' or 'body parts' into Google!).

But it's heartening to know that 1,638 people in the UK have looked at this in the past month, 1,143 of them in London alone, spending an average of 2.47 minutes on here each time.

And then there are people from further afield; someone in Moscow was on here for an impressive 10 mins.

Jane's London was 2 years old last week, so it's really nice to know that you are all out there and I am not sitting here writing to myself.

A big thanks to those of you who keep coming back, and hello to all my new readers...

;-) xxxxxx!

A Belated Happy Birthday to David Attenborough!

The wonderful David Attenborough, naturalist and presenter of many fascinating TV programmes including the Life series, turned 84 on Saturday 8th May.

Eighty-four!!!

I have just been looking for links to clips for here and realised watching this that his comforting and friendly delivery (perhaps mingled with that of Michael Palin, who narrates the piece) sounds not unlike that of Oliver Postgate who created The Clangers and much more.

Planet Earth was my personal favourite of David's series as it was impossible to watch it without saying "wow!' at least ten times. And then "ugh!" as in things like this.

Thanks David, we love you!

Elephant, Kentish Town Road; Talking Parrots, Camden Parkway; Grasshopper, Cornhill; Goat, Kensington High Street.

Bear and Staff, Leicester Square; Bald Faced Stag, East Finchley; The Fox (Slug and Lettuce), Upper Street; Bull and Gate, Kentish Town.

Monkey, Holloway; White Horse, Parsons Green; Lion, Natural History Museum; Horatio Myers, Vauxhall.

Women! Know your place!

That's a ref to a sketch from the Fast Show that I was reminded of when I saw the wonderful old photo of suffragettes on the cover of a copy of yesterday's free Stylist magazine that I found on the bus home last night.

So I turned to read the article on page 41 and it seems women may have made great leaps and bounds since that photo was taken but apparently we still can't do our sums....

If you look closely at the standfirst it reads,'Thanks to the suffragettes, British women were finally given the vote in 1918. Eighty-two years on, how has this hard-won right shaped politics today?'

It seems we are still living in the past.

And on the loose subject of women, I went to see 'Women Beware Women' at the Olivier Theatre the other night. It's had mixed reviews, and don't be put off by what I think is a misleading title as it's bloody brilliant; the set, the costumes, the choreography. Wonderful. Go go go!

10 years of the Tate Modern – a really good bookshop

The Tate Modern is now 10 years old. According to this great article in The Times recently, it’s the most popular art venue in the world and one of the top three attractions (!) in the country (whatever that might mean), though it doesn’t mention what its rivals are.
I’ve never been a fan of the building myself. I have always felt that it’s an opportunity wasted. Pre 2000, when I heard the building was being converted for use as a gallery I was quite excited at the prospect, but when I went there I was so disappointed. And ten years on I still hold that view.
It’s the conversion of building itself that I have got the problem with, not the contents. Logic says that the main access to the building, and then to the art, should be through the door facing the river, especially if you have just walked across the Millennium Bridge. But no; if you use that door you will end up confused for a while wondering which way to go, trying to find a sign or a map to direct you to the art. On looking down into turbine hall you realise you may have to go down to go up. Hmmm. Once down there you'll realise the bulk of the art is on the floors above, so you then have to take a ride on a very long escalator like an extra in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
At the top of every escalator on every floor it feels, to me, like being in an institution or a hospital. There are some great works of art up there but the effort involved always seems to me to diminish the enjoyment.
In case you are still wondering, the main entrance is what looks like the delivery/service doors down the ramp on the west side of the building. Access by this route brings you directly into the vast turbine hall that almost everyone else (I am aware that I am so in the minority here) cites as so amazing. It seems to me to be just a big redundant space; the only way of using it being to commission works to fill its cavernous hole. I just don’t agree with a gallery commissioning art in this way. I have seen a few of the commissions and felt either that they were diminished/dwarfed by the building or that they reeked of commerciality.
Could this fantastic space not have been better used with rooms at high levels on the south side connected across the turbine hall by walkways? Something like Musée D’Orsay in Paris? Had they done something like this perhaps the need to spend money on the new extension wouldn’t have been necessary. But, again, I’m no architect, what do I know?!
Call me old fashioned but I like to walk into a gallery and be immediately tempted or distracted by what I can see through a door to the left, or the hall ahead. Tate Britain and the National Gallery, for instance, achieve this with ease and are always a pleasure to visit. You are ‘in the art’ within minutes.
Last year I was discussing all this with a friend on the down escalator at Tate Modern. A fella behind us joined in and said he totally agreed with me as he always liked to refer to the building as “A really good bookshop with an art gallery attached”. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Top row: Cleveland Square, W2; Barton Street, SW1; Reeves & Sons Ltd, Ashwin St, E8; Camden High Street, NW1.

Middle row: Orford Road, E17; Charterhouse Square, EC1; Westbourne Terrace, W2; Highbury Place, N5.

Bottom Row: Crouch End Broadway, N8; Rivington Street, EC2; Farringdon Road, EC1; St Barts, EC1.

Race For Life

I have just noticed that today, Saturday May 1st (pinch, punch, first day of the month!) a 5k Race For Life, in aid of Cancer Research UK, is taking place at the O2.

Since 1994 women from all over the country have been getting togged up in pink outfits to walk, jog or run a course and in doing so raise money for the charity. I have never done this myself, and perhaps I should as the feedback on these events is really positive.

Future events in London this summer will be Battersea Park, Blackheath, City of London and more. Check the link above for more details.

Top row: Cheapside, EC2; John Street, WC2; King Henry's Walk, N1; Belgrave Terrace, Holloway Road, N7;

Middle row: Lambeth Walk, SE11; Terrace Rd, E9; Bermondsey Street, SE1; Arundel St, WC2.

Bottom row: Redfern's Rubber Heels make walking a pleasure, Chapel Market, N1; Pembridge Road, W11; King William Street, EC4; Lime Street, EC3

Blimey, I'm in the Guardian

Saturday 24th April turned out to be a very good day for many reasons.

One being that I discovered that Jane's London is listed on the Internet page of the Guardian Guide in a column about London blogs.

Wow! I had no fore-warning of this so did not manage to get a copy for myself. They even put some of pictures at the bottom as used in my 'Are you feeling frisky?' post, which I thought was rather amusing and a bit ironic seeing as they were so cheeky to use them without asking. Though they don't appear on the web version.

But hey, I hope this means I get some more traffic this way and people can see that there are some even more good London sites and blogs, as listed in the column to the right under 'Other relevant links'.

The Beauty of Maps

I love looking at maps; especially old ones. I have various maps of London pinned to the wall behind me as I write this and along the hallway walls.

One of the first books of London I ever bought was 'The History of London in Maps' and I lost myself for hours comparing the old with the new. Booth's poverty map, in particular, is fascinating.

So, this week I have really been enjoying BBC2's programmes 'The Beauty of Maps', which ties in beautifully with the British Library's free exhibition 'Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art' due to open on April 30th.

I am also pleased to see that Stephen Walter's contemporary personal maps of London are also included in the exhibition. I love his work and if I had a few spare £1000s (and more walls) I would have love to be able to buy his complete London map, but I have had to make do with just the 'Islington' section.

Clockwise from top left:

Piccadilly Station ticket hall; information board in Berkeley Square; Chris Marshall's 'Circumsphere', Deptford; pre-1920 tube map (LRT Acton depot); Streetmap of Holloway N7; Stephen Walter's 'Islington'; Cockspur Street, which was once lined with travel companies; Highbury Vale (thanks to Bikertect for this pic)

Blowing in the wind

On Saturday I hung my washing out on the line in the garden for the first time this year. Ooh the lovely smell of fresh, clean, air-dried sheets! On Sunday I helped to trim my neighbour's bush, but that's another story and would inspire a different collection of images.

Top row: De Beauvoir, Goldsmith's Row, Northwold Rd, Hornsey Rd.

Middle row: Crouch End, Chamberlayne Road, Coldharbour Lane, St Peters Street.

Bottom row: Kentish Town Road, Harrow Road, Prince of Wales Road, Kingly Street

Malcolm McLaren RIP

Malcolm died of cancer on 8th April 2010, aged 64.

As I write this I am listening to 'Waltz Darling' the wonderful album he made in the 80s with the Bootzilla Orchestra. It mixed together all sorts of different musical styles and time signatures. Something's jumping, jumping in my shirt... aah!

I remember a bizarre programme he did for TV over 10 years ago about Oxford Street* and its history which I'd like to see again. His version of Madame Butterfly is genius, though I don't know what this video has got to so with the lyrics. Very 80s!
Like him or loathe him, Malcolm was always coming up with new ideas and shaping a lot of what we now take for granted.

Except for the 2 generic King's Road pics the references should be fairly obvious:

Top row: Museum Street; The Rainbow; St Pancras Church; King's Road.

Middle row: Opera House; coal hole cover; Dog and Duck, Frith St; 100 Club.

Bottom row: Coal hole cover; Bayswater, King's Road; Willesden.

*This reminds me that I still haven't been along Oxford Street with my camera and done a definitive Jane's London version of it... what I need is a day when the shops aren't open... I miss those Sundays when everything except the corner shops was closed. I think we need that day off to recharge. And early closing one night a week too. Now it's all spend spend spend, buy buy buy!

This is one of the Best Travel Blogs about London

Well, so says The Travel Onion, and who am I to disagree?!

I was bemused when I got the email about it but am told it's down to giving a different point view of London that travellers might be interested in.

So I checked their site and there I am, one of only five sites listed in the London section the bottom.

Brilliant! Thanks Travel Onion!

Are you feeling frisky?

Are you full of the joys of Spring?

Well you should be, because today, 20th March 2010, is the Vernal Equinox which means it's Springtime.

And British Summertime starts next Sunday 28th, which means another hour of daylight. Well, not another one magic'd out of nowhere, but you know what I mean.

So, it's official. Time to come out of hibernation, peel off those layers, and get busy...

Top: Wenlock Arms, N1; Great Titchfiled Street, W1; Seven Sisters Road, N7; Willesden Green station, NW6.

Middle: Newington Green, N16; Harlesden, NW10; Goodge Street, W1; Kew Gardens, TW9.

Bottom: Thames Path, SE16; Great Portland Street, W1; Camden High Street, NW1; Essex Road, N1.

P.S. I was going to call this piece "In the Spring a young man's fancy..." which is part of a line from Alfred Lord Tennyson's Locksley Hall. I hadn't attempted to read the whole thing until just now. It's rather good, but about 20 lines in I noticed that it's rather long... hmmm... I'll read it properly some other time. Suffice to say it's about a soldier remembering a place he knew when he was a child. I have more important things to do, like looking at this or reading my pocket version of the Viz Profanisaurus.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Clockwise from top left:

St Patrick's International College, W1; ghostsign for Craven 'A' cigarettes, SW9; side alley of The Lamb and Flag, WC2; The Dublin Castle, NW1; Connolly's, W4 (and Robin Hood wore green!); The Green Man and French Horn (which he seems to have lost) and, yes, I do know he's a ref to England, not Ireland, but I couldn't find a pic of a leprechaun; Paddington coal hole cover; Guinness advertising board, SE1.

The Wonders of the Solar System

Last Sunday the first programme in the series 'The Wonders of the Solar System' presented by Dr Brian Cox, was aired on BBC2.

Due to him being in a few bands before getting his PhD, Brian has often been referred to as the 'rockstar physicist'. Never mind that, it's his far-too-good-to-be-true cheekbones and thick mop of hair that fascinate me as he is older than he looks!

His enthusiasm for his subject is infectious. I am hooked and really looking forward to the next four programmes.

And here are some London images that loosely tie in with the programmes.

Row 1: The Quays (previously The Half Moon), N7; Belgravia, SW1; Upper St, N1; St Lukes, EC1; St Pancras churchyard.

Row 2: Graffiti, E9; wall, Bethnal Green Rd; stink pipe, W3; Shoreditch High St; Thames Festival 2009

Row 3: Circumshpere, Deptford Wharf; coal hole cover; Crouch End Broadway; Paddington, W2; Cockspur St.

Row 4: (Mars) Marshalls, Dalston; (Neptune) closed fishmongers, W3; (Milky Way) Nestlé Milk, New Cross; (Venus) Lime St, EC3; (Saturn) doorbells SW1.

George the Imperial Great Dane

Last week there on BBC TV News there was an item about a Great Dane called George who has just got into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest dog, ever.

What interested me was that the presenter said that at 43 inches tall George was 2cm taller than the second tallest dog.

Imperial and metric in the same sentence. Ugh!

But any excuse for a collection of themed London pictures...

Top: Marylebone, Bloomsbury, Hoxton, Stamford Hill

Middle: Islington, Camden, Belgravia, Soho

Bottom: Barnsbury, Tottenham, Smithfield, Bloomsbury