Paleys On Pilers

I made a rare excursion into London last week, and even more unusually had made the journey by train. As a result of pre-ordering a DVD of the films of St Etienne, I had been invited to Rough Trade East for a screening of all the extras followed by a Q&A with St Etienne themselves and the director, and I'd decided to attend mainly because it was a chance to meet their lovely singer Sarah Cracknell in person. I wasn't disappointed.

Apart from the odd short journey using Travelcards I hadn't been on a train journey for decades. I found the whole process from booking the tickets to the journeys themselves to be a minefield of stresses and strains and plan to resume using the car for future trips. However, it was an interesting experience and gave me a chance to explore London termini such as Paddington station.

I made my way first to Notting Hill, where I had some vouchers to spend at the Music and Video Exchange. After a lengthy browse, I emerged with, among other things, a Bob Dylan Mono CD box set - all his albums up to John Wesley Harding in their original mono, for the first time on CD (after that albums became stereo-playable-mono and so separate mono mixes died out) - beautifully packaged in cardboard facsimile sleeves.

When I emerged at Aldgate, I encountered this curious structure on a traffic island. I had no idea what it was but subsequently discovered that it is called Paleys On Pilers and is a tribute to Chaucer, built quite recently by Studio Weave, in collaboration with the Olympic Games team as it also symbolizes the gateway from the City to the Olympic Park in Stratford. This is fitting because the short DVD extras (and indeed the three longer films on the DVD) were mostly documentaries about the changing and disappearing areas of London including the Lea Valley which was largely re-shaped by the Olympic Games.

I explored the area around Aldgate, Whitechapel, Brick Lane, Banglatown and Spitalfields on foot. It is an area I knew slightly but hadn't visited for many years and it had obviously changed considerably. I found Spitalfields Old Market, still in use but as a very different kind of market. It was a baking hot day and all the pubs had people spilling over onto the pavement, including the well-known Golden Heart on Commercial Road. I'm not used to London prices which seem double those in Wiltshire. I went to a bar in Brick Lane market and paid £3 for half a pint of Italian beer.

I enjoyed the day, though, apart from the train journeys, and was able to get a lot of reading done, which would have been inconvenient whilst driving.

L.

20.7.2013

Blip #1022
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #1204

Alternative:
In Transit

A Day In London, 12 July 2013 (Flickr set)

Lens: Pentax 17-70mm

Finisterre (Film trailer)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
St Etienne - Finisterre (2002)
Featuring recitation by Sarah Churchill

One year ago: Smokey, 1346 hr BST