[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-self-portrait-and-a-hawksmoor-walk":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"A new year means it's time to draw a new self portrait. I got a bit silly with this one.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/selfportrait_1jan13_clr_zpsebab00fc-ca51e6cd6a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nYesterday, Stuart and I went on a rambly architecture walk to visit a bunch of \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Hawksmoor\">Nicholas Hawksmoor\u003C/a>'s churches. (He'd cut out an article about it from the \u003Ca href=\"http://lcc.org.uk/articles/london-cyclist-magazine\">\u003Ci>London Cyclist\u003C/a>\u003C/i> but we did it on foot.) Really, it was just an excuse for a good walk and air out my brain after the previous day's tax form wailings and gnashings of teeth. First stop was just down the road in Greenwich, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Alfege_Church,_Greenwich\">St Alfege's\u003C/a>. I used to go there for lunchtime concerts in years past when I wasn't so busy with work. Really ought to try to catch one every so often.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_st_alfege_greenwich_zps4979405e-506877e0b3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for loads of Hawksmoor Walk photos under the cut!-->\\r\nLovely window in the road leading up to the church:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_greenwich_window_zpsd661fec6-fa95217377.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd Number 16's pulled out all the stops in its small garden space.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_greenwich_no16_zpsc1c19424-999f93804a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAfter we walked under the river at the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, we wandered around the Docklands in places we don't usually go with our bikes, and spotted these odd clocks. I wonder what they were for. Particularly that half clock on the right.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_docklands_clocks_zpsbbb50373-49c5a1b80a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOo, an owl! Railway arch in Limehouse:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_limehouse_owl_zpse29db3ec-b179a6b398.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSecond stop, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Anne%27s_Limehouse\">St Anne's, Limehouse\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_st_annes_limehouse_zps7c6b5d0a-7b228c8b7a.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe gates were chained shut, but we could still make out the creepy-ish pyramid in the churchyard. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_st_annes_limehouse2_zpsf5f8e81a-dac65aa3c9.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBeautiful old pub along the road, The Star of the East:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/star_of_the_east_shadwell_zps8001fd29-bc231ee61b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe followed the canal until it came out to Limehouse Basin; lots of boats.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_limehouse_basin_zps3d96a2fd-1da605adff.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLittle detail. Looks like one of those slightly generic pictures you get when you buy a picture frame at a furniture shop.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_life_ring_limehouse_zps83754527-c248ea10cc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis picture came out a bit blurry, but I still like it. It reminds me a bit of a Gerhard Richter painting, a lovely lady at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.gordonramsay.com/thenarrow/\">The Narrow\u003C/a> pub, where we stopped for coffee and crumble and warmed up by the fire.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_the_narrow_portrait_zpsa40eb185-622334afca.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nLove this guy's yellow trousers.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_yellow_trousers_zps6f338f3e-66798ed950.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBig dramatic clouds over the Thames:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_thames_limehouse_zps7457a737-6b55174b5d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nShadwell Basin, a hidden sort of dock:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_shadwell_basin_zps95a39a47-4511dfae50.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThis isn't a Hawksmoor church, but nice all the same, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Church,_Shadwell\">St Paul's, Shadwell\u003C/a>. Thomas Jefferson's mum was baptised there. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_st_pauls_shadwell_zpsfcbb53b1-9a55c8a0d3.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nNext Hawksmoor church: \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George_in_the_East\">St George in the East, Shadwell\u003C/a>. It has the oddest pepper-pot towers. Even though the doors were locked, we could enter the outer walls of the church to see a sort of inner church, built after its bombing in WW2. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_st_george_shadwell_zps858ec4dc-8c024729ae.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nBut what almost immediately grabbed my attention was this mural, just around the corner from the churchyard, in St George's Gardens. Isn't it amazing?\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cable_street_mural_2_zps59fd521c-7b9ca68d0e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt's called The Battle of Cable Street and commemorates a \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cable_Street\">street fight against Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists\u003C/a>, who paraded through the neighbourhood on 4 October 1936. You can read \u003Ca href=\"http://londonmuralpreservationsociety.com/murals/battle-cable-street/\\r\n\">more about the battle and the mural here\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cable_street_mural_1_zps250e8446-4eb0b61041.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI didn't even know the mural existed, it's slightly tucked away. And the plaque said it had been restored in 2011, so perhaps it's much easier to spot now.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cable_street_mural_4_zps2fa08f51-f01992ccf4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/cable_street_mural_3_zpse8e4d3ad-1bd9a54c37.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAfter the mural, we turned left past Library Place (and I thought the colours here were nice):\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_library_place_zps54206dd4-a1440f0435.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd we carried on to our last stop, \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Spitalfields\">Christ Church, Spitalfields\u003C/a>, across the road from Spitalfields Market. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/nyd_christchurch_spitalflds_zps50cdda4d-537ef0fe6d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe could have carried on to two more churches within the City of London - \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_Woolnoth\">St Mary's, Woolnoth\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s,_Bloomsbury\">St George's, Bloomsbury\u003C/a>, but we wanted our supper and it was starting to get dark, so we headed home.","2013-01-02T11:26:00.000Z","self-portrait-and-a-hawksmoor-walk",[],"self portrait and a hawksmoor walk",1776628724596]