Canal Distraction

My older daughter's decided to ignore the EU referendum, since she feels her peace of mind is worth more. The torrents of emotive words cascading from  TV, radio, emails and the internet are quite disturbing, but thank goodness most people I meet face to face are fed up of it all too, so it doesn't get discussed much.      

Exercise is a good distraction, but the weather has not smiled on us - mainly dark clouds or torrential downpours - ah, the English summer!  But one day it was sunny and we got in a bike ride from Camden Lock to Hackney Marshes via the Regents Canal.  And how nice it was! This canal has always been full of quirky things to see, and has been rapidly changing of late.

Anyway, this time, the first new thing that met my eyes at Camden Lock was Amy Winehouse and God, (I suppose), who was directing angels to carry Amy up to heaven.

She looks relieved, I'd say.

She looks happy about it, which is good.      A little further down the canal, I reached a canal bridge.  The picture below was taken in 2010, and shows the view as it was then. These evocative gasometers were seen beyond the Camley St. wildlife park, with the pinnacle of St Pancras to the right.

In 2012 the same scene looked like this (below). The gasometers were gone, they were being moved over to the other side of the river  to have - yes - luxury flats, of course,  built inside them,  

And NOW, here's the photo I took the other day showing that those flats are complete. To me they seem to make nothing of the wonderful shape of the gasometers.  

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However, a tiny circular park has been built inside one of the gasometers.  You're not allowed to sit on the grass - well, I hope THAT will change!  and it is surrounded by mirrored pillars and a pierced roof covering the path. I quite liked it but couldn't help wondering whose job it will be to polish all the mirrors after they've been out in the rain for a few months!

It's always fun seeing the narrowboats on London canals.  A nice thing about them is how you can use the roof as a sort of garden, like this blue haired lady relaxing with her book.

Maybe she got it from the boat bookshop

It has a cosy old fashioned feel to it, inside, and the books aren't expensive.

A bit further down, there was a mini garden for mini children, their tiny shoes were neatly ranged along the side, with a washable Astroturf lawn.

These plants were growing in boots and shoes. I was trying to decide what I'd plant in the ladies shoes on the right but then discovered that I don't actually like the idea of plants growing in shoes. I don't know why, really.. 

Had to smile at these kids, it was obviously their first time on the water and they were paddling themselves into walls and into the side of bridges, and into each other, but having a great time.  

They probably came from the Pirate Castle.  (this mosaic was snapped in 2012, I hope it's still there)

Their HQ is actually shaped like a castle..

There are some fabulous mosaics along the canal, but my favourites were always the Laburnum Rd School mosaics. When I first went down the canal, they were intact and glittering.  Over the years, they fell into disrepair, and the wall on which they were mounted has started to fall to bits and get overgrown. I've searched for photos of them in their prime - I know I took some - but even though my filing system is good, I can't find them.  I felt a bit like an archaeologist  uncovering the ruins of some wonderful civilisation.  These are two of the Laburnum Road kids, still just about visible.

The mosaic pieces were particularly beautiful, all kinds of shades and mother of pearl.

Trees have grown on top of these walls, so their roots run right along the wall, looking weirdly like the trees have feet....  or tentacles

like Kang and Kodos in the Simpsons...

At Islington, the canal goes through a long tunnel. 

Two narrowboats can pass each other in the tunnel with a few inches to spare.  In the days when the boats were pulled by horses, the boy that led the horse would lead the horse to the other end of the tunnel, and the boatmen would leg it through - lying on their backs on the top of the boat, pushing at the roof and/or sides of the tunnel with their legs. 

I've always liked old forgotten places, and I'm fond of this mostly derelict group of houses as you approach Hackney.  

The bow fronts of the ones on the right show that they were once part of a bow fronted Regency terrace

It would have looked a bit like these houses (they're not in London but are built in that style..)  I think they'd have been charming in 1825. Very Jane Austen. Now the place is a coach depot. I think it's beyond rescue, though there is always hope (and pizza)

We left the Regents Canal at Victoria Park, Hackney.  It's a good park, but I'll write about the onward journey some other time.  We did spot someone settled in for the day in the park with his laptop, papers, phone and in fact entire office. He said that he preferred working in the park to being inside.

And just where we left the canal, I spotted a moorhen flying along with a large orange carrier bag in its beak. By the time I'd go the camera out, it had returned to the water. It busily dragged the bag behind a boat and left it there.  I don't suppose moorhens really have a litter patrol, so  wondered what it thought it was doing!

I'll leave you with some music by Bela Fleck. I have a really ambivalent feeling about this music. I honestly don't know if I love it or hate it, so it suits my mood of uncertainty at the moment. I'll certainly be very glad when the referendum is over, so we know what we will be living with.

Somewhere New

Yesterday, since it's hard to be travelling right now,  I decided to go somewhere new. Get on the train, get off at some unfamiliar station, see what I could see.   So I got on the first mainline train that came along, got off at the first station I'd never noticed before, and found myself in Canonbury.  

So what was there to see in Canonbury?

The first thing I noticed were these handsome vintage iron railings fronting what were probably mighty expensive early Victorian houses.   I'd guess many of these houses fetch close on a million pounds.  But there again, on the next street, I found this car repair shop with a friendly lion in it  ...

He's so battered that he has stopped being fierce and just likes to sit there like any amiable old fellow watching the world go by.  He ought to have a glass of beer down there by his pile of tyres.

I quickly spotted a very elegant church down the road.   According to the sign outside, it was called St. Pauls, and when I looked it up later, I found it was designed by Charles Barry, the co-designer of the Houses of Parliament.

Take a look at the old photo I found just now.   I think the tower even looks a bit like the Houses of Parliament, or is that just my imagination?

It's now de-consecrated and used as a Steiner School. (click here for info about Steiner schools) 

This Steiner school was having its annual Advent craft fair, and I decided to take a look.  Many other people had the same idea, as you can see from this photo of them flooding in. The church was well decorated with brightly coloured dotty garlands hung all over the nave.



I would not have chosen a Steiner education for my kids, because it seems a bit up there with the fairies for me - but I like its emphasis on spirituality and non competitiveness.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but when one of the mums told me they hope to restore the church, I could only think that they had a long way to go.  It's  in a bad state, the interior spaces divided up with wooden screens and plastic. You see below part of of the fine original reredos, but paint and plaster has all come off the ceiling and green plastic is keeping out the rain.

It's not exacty sad, because it's a spacious and interesting environment for the children.  Some of the parents had installed a little cinema and were showing the kids hand tinted film shorts  (such as this one).made by the Lumiere Brothers over 100 years ago.

In the nearby church hall, was a gigantic (and very inexpensive) buffet created by the parents.  Although there were huge crowds, it was well organised, with bright African print tablecloths on long trestle tables and lots of organic, wholefood and ethnic dishes.

And the kids were very well behaved, and some of them even tucked in happily to lentils and tomatoes. Most kids I know would have turned up their noses, but perhaps that's what a Steiner education does for you.

After lunch, I continued up the road towards the one-time village of Newington Green. Newington really does have what was once a village green in its centre. It's surrounded now by interesting shops and cafes, many of them Turkish, and a specialist Children's Cafe.  One of the buildings also sported a plaque to one of the world's first true feminists, the fascinating Mary Wollstonecraft.

Mary died young but she had an amazing life - read about her here - and she also wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women"  in 1792.  (Her daughter Mary - later Mary Shelley -  was also a writer, of a different kind - she wrote "Frankenstein".)

Here is a sketch of Newington Green (complete with sheep) during Mary Wollstonecraft's lifetime

and here it is now, minus sheep but plus a children's playground.   Recognisably the same, even though the little Dissenters' chapel has a new facade since the sketch was made  (if you count 1863 as "new" that is.)

Leaving villagey Newington behind, I kept walking, seeing all kinds of things.  A touch of surrealism in this old and faded mural, on the side of a house, and now overgrown by a tree.....

 Toy rats on display in a front window. Or are they mice? And firing a cannon?  Mysterious....

And this extraordinaryshop, haphazardly piled shoulder high with tools. Some of the tools were as old as the shop itself.   It did have customers, too. They were rummaging around in search of that perfect 1950s screwdriver, I suppose....

I liked this clock outside a builders' merchants, with numerals have been represented by builders items.

But I didn't like this scary nail salon which specialises in unusual nail treatments.

The nail salon is in Dalston, on the way from Canonbury to Hackney.   And to be honest, the nails weren't the only thing I found scary in Dalston. Not that anything happened to me, but when even the charity shops are trying to keep out the hoodies, things don't look too good.

But Dalston gets nicer as it shades off into Hackney, and Hackney is a very interesting place. Hackney  deserves a post to itself, though, and anyhow, it was getting dark by then.   So I hopped on the train and went home. I felt I'd had an interesting day.

The other thing I did was call over to our neighbour's daughter's 13th birthday.   Wow!  A teenager. And her mum made a brilliant cake.

So, a good weekend. And plenty of new things.