So I write about Shoreditch and post pictures of Shoreditch all the time. But wtf is Shoreditch?! Shoreditch is the part of East London that I have moved to. Part of the up-and-coming East End it is close to Brick Lane and Spitalsfield Market and near the tube stations Old Street and Liverpool Street Station that I live. Back in the days it used to be very very run down and was always a part of town that was mainly inhabited by immigrants over the centuries ranging from French Huguenots, Irish Weavers, East-European Ashkenazi Jews and more recently Bangladeshis (Brick Lane also being called Banglatown). The area has seen a major revival in very recent years and is known for all the bars, pubs and nightlife to be found around here and attracts artists, designers and media folk. The public transportation corporation of London city has calculated that on regular weekend nights over 250,000 Londoners just come to party in Shoreditch. Its mainly proud of being alternative and grungy-ish and known for Spitalsfields Market and the nearby Columbia flower market. There are many small design and media studios here, scattered art galleries and many vintage clothing stores.
In 1851 though the area was apparently horrific and described as:
roads were unmade, often mere alleys, houses small and without foundations, subdivided and often around unpaved courts. An almost total lack of drainage and sewerage was made worse by the ponds formed by the excavation of brickearth. Pigs and cows in back yards, noxious trades like boiling tripe, melting tallow, or preparing cat’s meat, and slaughter houses, dustheaps, and ‘lakes of putrefying night soil’ added to the filth
Nowadays it is described as:
Known for:
Being a stereotypically scenester neighbourhood home to approximately four million art galleries, fashion boutiques and hairdressers specializing in silly haircuts.
Who’s there?
Hoxton art-punk overspill, a few suited City workers and bar-hopping Londoners who haven’t managed to make it home after a night of heavy drinking.
So today has been and is a fantastically beautiful day over here. Its been sunshine pure and really really warm! We had a lovely big early breakfast (courtesy of the bf) and then went to Victoria Park, walked along the canal, dropped by a market where we had a nice cooling Magners surrounded by people who are all just way too cool for their own good in particular and the planet in general :) then we walked another big bit along the canal back, then picked up another Magners at the Hoxton & made ourselves comfortable on Hoxton Square and just got home now. Now its eating and relaxing for a bit and then its getting dressed and heading out west for a big night out :)
