The London Walker

Started shooting around Bethnal Green last weekend Sunday, it was a little grey and overcast, the kind of day where you still need a scarf and a hat, but you feel spring is nearly hereabouts, crocus and daffodils in the park and as always plenty of people milling around Brick Lane, its stalls and funky shops and its environs. There’s a smell of freshly baked bagels, pulled pork, coffee and incense in the air. I love this area, its a multi-layered cake of the city’s population, and although it is not on the top of the economic ladder and has had its share of challenges, its a friendly and proud community. Indeed there have been so many communities and people who have called the East End their home, and these streets are filled with their endless cycles of stories, their arrivals and their assimilations. If walls could talk. Also what is so special about the area is there is so much vivid graffiti and street art, everywhere an abundance, a vibrance of colour and design, be it spread excitingly across the brickwork of the old brewery or the wrought iron Victorian lamp posts festooned with stickers and paint. Everywhere there is a sense of giddy invention and play. Please forever be like this. Love you Brick Lane.