Here’s a short doc I made for Russell Brand’s Trews Reports about the situation on the New Era Estate in Hoxton .
Then last Saturday the residents of the New Era organised a day of action where eviction notices were served upon Benyon Estates and one of Edward Benyon’s homes.
Map illustration by Nicolette Craven from This Other London – adventures in the overlooked city
This is the walk I did on Remembrance Sunday in 2012 following a neolithic trackway from Sudbury Hill to Hanwell. A walk that takes you over the summit of Horsenden Hill, according to legend the final resting place of the Saxon chieftain Horsa. Then down through Perivale where Sylvester McCoy’s Dr Who kept visiting in the late 80’s with one episode spookily referencing Horsa’s ghostly steed as told in The Legend of Horsenden Hill. Perivale was also where Horsa’s wife consorted with the little folk giving the name of ‘Fairy Vale’ (ok, there are more prosaic and plausible explanations for the name such as ‘Pure Vale’ for the quality of the corn grown there – or ‘Pear Vale’ due to the orchards).
Through the lychgate of St Mary’s you find this ancient church dating from 1135 with a C16th white weatherboard tower.
You pass through ‘Blood Croft’ where the bodies of seven Saxon warriors were excavated still wrapped in hemp cloaks fastened by bronze brooches (did they die in the epic battle between Horsa and his rival Bren who had married then dishonoured Horsa’s daughter Ealine? The point where Bren forded the river and was slain in battle took his name – Brentford)
The walk ends beneath the great cathedral of the Industrial Age – Brunel’s Wharnecliffe Viaduct opened in 1837 – the first Grade I listed building in the country. Stand beneath its cavernous arches and hear the whoosh of the turbo trains bound for Slough.
Made this short animation last night with a few facts about the rise of urban walking – particularly in London where ‘active urbanites’ as Tfl call them, are reclaiming the city.
This morning Blur crooner and Gorillaz cartoon frontman, Damon Albarn returned to the house in Fillebrook Road, Leytonstone where he lived till he was 10 to unveil a Blue Plaque.
Albarn referenced Leytonstone in his recent album, Everyday Robots, most notably with the track Hollow Ponds.
He also returned to the area to perform surprise gigs at Leytonstone Library and the The Red Lion.
The Albarn Family – Damon’s Dad, Keith Albarn was a notable artist in the 1960’s and 70’s.
Damon reminisced about seeing herds of cows wandering along Fillebrook Road on their way to graze on Wanstead Flats.
He offered to support the Save the Heathcote campaign, his Dad having frequented the pub in his Leytonstone years.
In his illuminating book, Ancient Paths, Graham Robb slips in this intriguing alternative source for the name of London while cycling along a ‘Druidic pathway’ in France unraveling the secrets of the Celtic world.
“The northernmost point of the meridian, five hundred kilometres from Chateaumeillant, lies at a place disconcertingly named Loon Plage. The ‘beach’ is a desolate zone of wind-bent poplars and container trucks queuing for the cross-Channel ferry. In the late Iron Age, when sea levels were higher than they are today, Loon was an island called Lugdunum, which means ‘fortress of Lugh’, the Celtic god of light.
Lugdunum shared its name with several other important Celtic towns: Laon, Leiden, Loudun, Lyon and perhaps London.”
London not as old King Ludd’s hill, or the Llyn din from Welsh meaning ‘lake fort’, or the Londinium of the Romans, but the City of the God of Light. On those days when London lies snugly beneath a duvet of grey cloud I must say it’s hard to imagine but it deserves to be added to the list – who knows, maybe the Druids had a sense of humour.
Here’s an excerpt from the talk I did at the essential Housmans Bookshop last September.
You can buy the book from Housmans here – it also has one of the best collections of London writing and psychogeography that you’ll find anywhere.