My Spitalfields garden
Maybe you have wondered what kind of garden I have, where I plant my Columbia Road purchases each week? Let me say, it is a privilege to have a garden in the centre of London – even if it is a small one like mine here in Spitalfields. Before I began to renovate last year, it was overgrown with evergreen shrubs and bamboo interspersed with those white quartz chips you see in graveyards.
To start, it took me a week to sieve the soil and remove the stone chips. Then I dug out the ugly shrubs and spent weeks squatting in the rain pulling out every tiny stubborn rhizome of bamboo until my fingers bled. Next, I mulched the soil with barrows of well-rotted manure that I wheeled down the road from the Spitalfields City Farm. Finally, I laid out a small central square of beach pebbles and bordered it with scallop shells kindly provided by Mr Button, the fishmonger in the Roman Road.
There is an old tree creating a canopy over my garden and I love looking out of the first floor windows into it – I can watch squirrels and even the occasional woodpecker from my desk. However, the tree means my garden gets little sun or rain and I have to choose plants accordingly.
Although I have planted shade tolerant plants, disappointingly many never came to flower this year and I understand now why my predecessors planted shrubs. But there’s no going back and, through self-selection, I am discovering the right plants for my garden. In particular, Foxgloves thrive and, as you can buy them at the Coppermill Market in Cheshire Street for a pound each, I have been planting them en masse in every corner I can find.
Next spring, you will see the results.
So long, Patsy Kelly & Reg Fuller
This wreath appeared at the top of Brick Lane recently to commemorate the life of Ada Patsy Kelly (maiden name, Fuller) who for many years worked on the Sunday fruit and vegetable stall at this site. She died at the venerable age of ninety four. You will be pleased to know that the stall is continued by her younger brother Reg Fuller (below) and I hope to see him there for many years to come.
A year later, I regret to report that Reg is gone too and now there will always be a space at the top of Brick Lane where they used to be. (updated 13th November 2010)
My life as an ant
As part of the Open House London 2009, I was able to visit the Broadgate Tower and One Bishop’s Square this weekend. The photo above shows Spitalfields viewed from the seventeenth floor of the Broadgate Tower (half way up). I was impressed by the clarity of spatial arrangement within this building which has open floors, each occupying an entire storey without partition walls. The floors are steel, the ceilings are white and the windows create an uninterrupted wall of glass from floor to ceiling all round the building.
When we reached the seventeenth floor, the entire party gasped at the spectacle of light, as we stepped from the elevator to be confronted by jaw-dropping views to the Olympic Stadium in one direction and the Millennium Wheel in the other.
By contrast, One Bishop’s Square is labyrinthine and grim with a dominance of dark surfaces and sinister gloomy atriums – like some high-tech prison or private mental clinic. What a strange experience it was to walk around in the basement through the auditorium and corporate gym, in the same “space” I had once walked, years ago, through artists’ studios under the old market building that previously stood here. Regrettably, it does seem that the effort that has been taken to place this new structure discreetly within the site of the former market has resulted (in spite of its vast size) in a cramped and introverted edifice.
I was relieved to escape onto the beautiful roof garden planted with lavender and offering this striking perspective on Christ Church, Spitalfields .
Columbia Road Market 4
After Saturday night’s downpour, the air was cool and clear as I set out for the market. Many more bulbs are in evidence now, but I passed these by wistfully because last year I planted so many and the squirrels ate them all. Instead, for five pounds I bought four Michaelmas Daisy (the feast of Michaelmas is 29th September) to bring some seasonal colour to my border where the Lupins, Penstemons, Astrantia, Gentian and Eryngium have all passed their flowering season. I chose the soft blue that is the most characteristic colour for Michaelmas Daisies and with a bit of luck these will now return year after year.
As you can see, I had company in the garden this morning while planting my Michaelmas Daisies.
At Broadstairs
I have not been more than a couple of miles beyond Spitalfields for over a year, while my friends have been on Summer holidays to China, Malta, Venice, Croatia and France. So I decided it was time to take some time off, walked down to London Bridge Station and took the train to Broadstairs. I have always wanted to go there to see the Dickens House Museum and I was not disappointed because I had a personal tour narrated by the official guide – a lady of advanced years and very dimunitive stature, who more than made up what she lacked in height with charm and volubility. At the end of my tour, she asked if I had any questions, so I asked to photograph her and as you can see, she obliged.
Then I turned north and walked along the coastline, following the edge of the white cliffs for miles until I reached Margate, childhood home of one of our most distinguished Spitalfields artists. After taking the photo below, I took the train back and returned to London, satisfied with my day out and arriving home in time for supper.
YBA (Young Brazilian Artist)
The title of this extraordinary bronze sculpture by Robson Cezar, Brazilian sculptor and Spitalfields resident, is I can’t run but I can walk faster than this. No surprise then to discover that Robson walks every day to and fro between Spitalfields and Chelsea College of Art (next to Tate Britain) where he is currently holder of a Sculpture Fellowship. You can see his most recent bronzes in the exhibition Gods & Mortals that opens tonight and runs at Chelsea until Friday 25th September. I suggest a trip down to Chelsea to take a look and then cross the road to see the recreation of William Blake’s 1809 exhibition at Tate Britain too, while you are there.
Whitechapel Market, the plums are here
The season is almost over, but I bought all these plums for a pound in Whitechapel Market. I love the culture of bowls of fruit and veg for a pound, and I can never resist the bargain of delicious ripe fruit that has to be eaten immediately. Once I have bought all this fruit, as a point of honour, I have to eat it up before it goes bad because I am incapable of throwing food away. In fact, I never ate so much fruit and veg in my life before I came to live in Spitalfields, which is a good thing. It certainly keeps everything moving, if you know what I mean – which brings me back to the plums because I couldn’t resist eating them all, so now I’ve got to run…
