A Walking Tour of My Neighbourhood

Here is the street that leads to our flat. It is a fairly mixed industrial area. I think there is a butcher shop on this street. I was walking to Liverpoole St. Station, which takes me about a half an hour. I thought I would document my walk and let you see what it is like around here.There is a very multiculture community here, which means lots of variety when it comes to food. I know to get off the bus on my way home when I see the Mosque, and when I step off the bus there is a Russian Bar. Burgers, kebabs, halal butchers, vietnamese restaurants, organic food stores all exist in a very small area. Everything is so dense here.




I see these letters everywhere I go, not just along this street. They are nicely done and I wonder about them. Someone tells me they are an art project and that the person doing them gets permission to paint on peoples security doors. Apparently they spell something out. I wonder where you would find out where they start and end and what they spell?
The street I'm walking down is called Kingsland Street at Orsman Road but as I travel down it, it changes names twice before I get to the Tube Station, from Shoreditch High Street and then to Bishopsgate. I wonder why they do that? The streetscape transitions as I move along it. From Multicultural, to hip with coffee shops and clothing stores that young people would like mixed in with clubs and then it becomes more business oriented.

If you look closely in the picture above you will see a man in a green shirt standing in the doorway looking at me. After I took the photo, he jumped out and said in an angry voice "Why are you taking a photo of my business?" I was actually trying to take a photo of the sign that said "Nigerian Money Transfer" I said, "I am a tourist from Canada and an artist and I am just taking photos of London" His demeanour changed immediately and he said "Welcome to London, I hope you enjoy your stay. I thought you were with the government!"

There are lots of interesting things posted along the way, graffitti (some good, mostly bad), posters about getting crackheads out of the neighbourhood and even a sidewalk gallery. When I first got here and was afraid I would get lost, Hayley told me just to look for the Gherkin. If I wanted to go to the tube station, I should go towards the gherkin and if I wanted to go home, I should be going away from the Gherkin. I wonder if the Gherkin is its real name or just a nickname since it looks kinda like a pickle? It is a striking piece of architecture. Very distinctive. But sort of like a beautiful bomb. The closer I get to the tube, the more shiney buildings I see and pubs. I know I am getting close when I see "The White Horse, Gentlemen's Venue" The pub names are quite amusing to me. Dirty Dick's, Woodin' Shades, there is one called The Spread Eagle. They do have fun naming the pubs and some are pretty clever wordplays.




You can also see that at the Liverpoole Street Tube Station, which also has trains going everywhere in England, there is a Starbucks on one side and a Cornish Pasty Shop on the other.That's enough for today. This is the third time I have written this up and uploaded the photos. Both other times I lost everything right when I thought I was almost finished. So enough of this. I want to get out and explore some more.