Unchartered Streets

could change the world, or at least someone’s world, which is really just as important. “Nothing quite prepares you for how songs take you unexpected ways and break your heart on every single day.” Indeed. Which reminds me: The Cords, also on @skepwax.bsky.social, were fantastic too. [4/4] #heavenly

about whether or not the hole had to be actually in the centre of the 7” or just somewhere nearby, we’d pull one last, battered, plainly much re-used and re-labelled C60 from its tatty jiffy bag, stick it in the machine and, thirty seconds later, realise we were listening to something that [3/4]

a song about @heavenlyamelia.bsky.social and Rob’s own record label; not only because it’s equally brilliant but also because, for me and @clarewadd.bsky.social, it can’t help but conjure up memories of all those magical moments when, at the end of a long day spent arguing with pressing plants [2/4]

A splendid afternoon at the Lexington yesterday watching Heavenly play songs from their wonderful new LP, Highway to Heavenly. Not sure where to begin with picking highlights – Scene Stealing, Excuse Me and old classic Portland Town all sounded brilliant – so I thought I’d post this, Skep Wax, [1/4]

An empty stretch of drab road beside a high wall topped with railings. Behind the railings are stacks of blue shipping containers, and on the railings is a black and amber banner saying “Bring Barnet Back!”.

Quite right. Also dodos, quaggas, woolly mammoths, the archaeopteryx and a Labour Party that understands basic morality, please. And Hatcham.

#Barnet #BarnetFC #EN5 #Hatcham

A scale model of North Finchley library on the pavement outside a branch of Sainsbury’s.

Cutbacks at Barnet Council have led to a serious downsizing of library provision throughout the borough, claim outraged book-lovers of North Finchley.

#NorthFinchley #Finchley #Barnet #N12

Ah, I never thought of that! I was just trying to avoid repeating the word "Shakespeare"...

only played for the fifteen minutes everyone had always known they’d only play for, and a legend was born. Despite Never Understand not being a patch on Upside Down. And the rest just being rock music. [5/5]

#thejesusandmarychain #jamc #Holloway #hollowayroad #N7 #jesusandmarychain #thejasmineminks

I just remember that, once most of the crowd had drifted off, anyone still on the steps was waved through. So me and Mark caught the end of the Jasmine Minks, and then watched as all the idiots down the front had the “riot” they’d always planned on having when the Marychain [4/5]

who seemed to think I had something to do with keeping them closed, when I was actually trying to open them because Mark had just appeared outside, looking confused and distraught. Apparently, Bobby Gillespie and Douglas Hart tried to kick the doors open, but I don’t remember this; [3/5]

who was coming down from Sheffield. It hadn’t occurred to us we’d need tickets; or that the venue might shut the doors even to people who did have tickets. As the melee grew increasingly fractious, I ended up inside, being sworn at through the glass doors by a man from Warner Brothers, [2/5]

A flight of three steps outside three arched doorways and a sign saying “London Metropolitan University”.

Don’t find myself on the Holloway Road much these days, and I think the last time I stood on these steps was in March 1985 after hitching up from Bristol to see the Jesus and Marychain and Jasmine Minks at North London Poly – as it was called back then – with my old fanzine mucker Mark, [1/5]

A large granite boulder in a muddy patch of park. In the distance is a Georgian terrace and two tower blocks. A crow perches on top of the boulder.

I’m guessing that Shoreditch Park is where a stray finger of the last ice sheet to retreat once prodded down into N1, having pushed this lump of granite all the way from what is now Aberdeen. There seems little other explanation.

[More photos from our walk to Barnet…]

#ShoreditchPark #Hoxton #N1

Side wall of a pub covered in graffiti and posters. At the top is a stylised representation of Romeo and Juliet entwined and possibly not clothed.

I’ve never read or seen Romeo and Juliet, but I’m really not sure this (top centre) is how William S. imagined his teenage protagonists. As always, though, when it comes to matters Shakespearean, I will defer to @lucycmunro.bsky.social (bottom right).

#Shakespeare #Shoreditch

What absolutely nobody seems to be saying about Gorton and Denton is that they never wrote anything else as good as Steptoe and Son.

Poster in shop window saying: “Jack the Chipper. Fish and chips restaurant. Opening Soon.”

Cod and chips twice, one mushy peas, and a portion of femicidal misogyny, please.

#ElephantAndCastle #Elephant&Castle #SE17 #SE11 #SE1

Black felt-tip saying “1 mile to Finchley” alongside an arrow scrawled on a grey, rusty roadside cabinet.

Black felt-tip saying “1 mile to North Finchley” scrawled on a grey roadside cabinet.

Black felt-tip saying “Totteridge ½ mile” alongside an arrow scrawled on a white gas meter cabinet.

Black felt-tip saying “High Barnet station 1 mile” alongside an arrow scrawled on a grey roadside cabinet.

only to find out that we’d been worrying unnecessarily, as others had clearly made the journey before us, leaving behind them a trail of arcane inky markings to lead any who might follow to safety. [2/2]

#Highgate #Barnet #Finchley #EastFinchley #NorthFinchley #Totteridge #N2 #N6

Reasoning that fleeing the city on foot to hide out in the surrounding hills with only an out-of-date A-Z as a guide would be foolhardy, we spent yesterday prepping for the rapidly approaching apocalypse by walking from Aldgate to Barnet; [1/2]

In front of an electricity pylon, and with a traffic roundabout and concrete flyover in the distance, a pole supports a large oval sign that says: “Thank you for visiting Newham: a place where people choose to live, work & stay”.

Always a pleasure.

#EastHam #Barking #E6

A view along the length of a vast empty dock with the sun setting over the Tate & Lyle works at Silvertown and Canary Wharf and The City in the distance.

“Sunset over Silvertown.”

[View from the Sir Steve Redgrave Bridge, Saturday 14th February]

#Silvertown #NorthWoolwich #Beckton #RoyalDocks #E16

Speaking of West Ham, on Saturday we ended up amid the gloomy chasms of a drab new estate just off Green Street and, in the paved space between the high-rise blocks, found a flat circle of muddy grass some 20 yards across, with dead centre a small round plaque. I squelched over for a closer look.

A curved metallic panel depicting stylised primitive figures around a fire.

Near the rivery eastern fringes of East Ham, someone’s put up etched metallic panels telling the story of Newham from prehistoric days to the opening of the DLR to City Airport. This one, I think, shows West Ham’s notorious Inter City Firm mastering fire sometime in the 1980s.
#EastHam #Barking #E6

Leyton Orient warming up under the floodlights at Brisbane Road.

My big problem with US sports is the daft team names; Dolphins, Fires, Knicks, Giants – I just can’t take any of it seriously. But anyway, enough of that – we need to focus on this evening. And it’s Tuesday Night Lights here in E10, as Leyton Orient take on Plymouth Argyle. What? #lofc #leytonorient

View across traffic of a giant mural of a chihuahua on the side of a tower block.

If I were to tell you that the Chrisp Street chihuahua has now been protecting the people of Poplar almost continuously for nearly twelve years, you’d probably look at me in amazement and then say: “Hang on, what do you mean, ‘almost’…?”

#Poplar #E14 #ChrispStreet

The porch of a bar. The porch is gated and filled with rubbish. On the wall above are the words “Where winners drink”, while a notice taped alongside reads: “We are temporarily closed until further notice”.

If you build it, they will come. Unless you build it in Plaistow, because then they’ll probably go somewhere else.

#Plaistow #CanningTown #E13

“May be an image of the Cotswolds”. It is not an image of the Cotswolds. It is an image of Stepney. In east London. I thought all the muggers and the rampant street crime would’ve been a giveaway. And the terrified figure of Nadhim Zahawi cowering behind that tree.

#Stepney #Limehouse #E1

Two sides of a sunlit Georgian square with a large central garden full of trees.

… ah, you can’t beat Bloomsbury for leafy, sunlit, geometrically perfect Georgian squares… unless, of course, you jump on a number 15 down Commercial Road to Stepney. This was Albert Gardens, E1, on Saturday morning.

I just cross-posted this to Facebook, by the way, and FB’s suggested alt text was:

Some more photos from our Valentine’s Day walk from Aldgate to Plumstead via Beckton Sewage Works. There may be others.

#Stepney #Limehouse #CanningTown #Plaistow #E1 #E13

Best. Valentine's Day. Ever.

View over wasteland and River Lea from Canning Town flyover.

Being a soppy old romantic, I’ve decided to make this Valentine’s Day a truly special one by taking @lucycmunro.bsky.social to look at the view from Canning Town flyover. On a bright sunny day like today, you can pretty much make out Stratford.