Yesterday I visited another Vintage market at York Hall. This time really good place to find some vintage/retro pieces of furnishing or accessories for your house. Worth to arrive early, more choices. You can find also items such as comics, books, bags and few stalls with vintage clothes.
The vintage atmosphere is definitely there and you can have a break for a nice tea and cake.
Founded in 2010 from a gap in the market and some serious love for old-world furnishings, Judy’s founded ‘The Vintage Furniture Flea’ in our London residency, Bethnal Green. Covering furniture and homewares, textiles and electricals, the event was to be a mid-century celebration, a showcase of decoration from the fifties and beyond, all bound by affordability.
Recently I spend really nice day at Camden Town, North London. You can not be bored there. It’s an alternative place to visit in London. You can find great places to shop, eat, drink, get a tattoo or piercing or listen to music. The Camden Market is one of the famous and many famous pubs around.
You can get here easily by Tube, by bike by the canal or a boat :).
Camden Lock is great to sit down on a sunny day or have a coffee outside if is cold.
It’s very busy here on Sunday, so be ready that tube may be closed earlier.
I had a really good time, but I think I love Brick Lane more, especially on Sundays.
Sunday – great weather and perfect day to have a walk along Columbia Road Flower Market.
My walk started from Bethnal Green station.
Then towards Bethanl Green Road. The first stop can be at the pub The Sun, nice vintage interior.
Walk into Ellsworth Street toward Old Bethnal Green Road.
Then Durant Street, passing streets with coloured houses toward Jesus Green.
Columbia Road Flower Market!
It is famous for a fantastic range of flowers, herbs and even fruit trees. There is a lovely smell of flowers, coffee, food and lots of music, and flower sellers shouting “Two for Fiver!”. If you are in London, that’s a must see place, only on Sunday, even if you are not planning to buy flowers.
Shops and stalls:
On Columbia Road you can find many small shops, which are open only on Sunday or special evenings just before Christmas. You can find here plenty of ideas for gifts and presents and many hidden items from vintage items to household, makeup, pottery, children’s clothes, toys, hats to paintings and street art.
One of my favourites is Nelly Duff – a must see gallery, which sells great Street Art, graphics and illustrations. Check out the website to have a look yourself. Nelly Duff
Flowers:
There is no need for introduction, but you can find a range of flowers from around the world. Just before the closing time, the prices can go really down and you can grab a bargain.
Food and Coffee:
It’s great to arrive here at lunch time. You can have yummy fresh bagels or rolls, or some British cakes. Lots of traditional good quality food or Italian and Portugese kitchen. You can also buy some great olives or cheese, but if you fancy to sit down for a coffee, you have to wait for a chair or you can just sit down on the pavement and listen to live musicians.
Music:
Here, you can listen to The Hightown Crows Live:
Street Art:
If you have a good eye, you can find Street Art yourself, such as Pablo Delgado and Banksy.
Time to write something about Heuristic Play. If you have a child from one year up to five, this is a great fun. You can adapt it in your own way and find objects you like.
Heuristic Play comes from the Greek word ‘eurisko’, which means ‘I discover’ or ‘I find’.
It’s amazing how many possibilities you can have, it just depends on what resources you will collect to stimulate and satisfy children’s curiosity.
Here are examples of what sets of objects you can easly collect.
Cardboard Tubes
Set of tins
Set of Baskets
Yogurt Pots
Flower Pots
Wooden Pegs
Pebbles
Jar Lids
Variety of Brushes
Cotton Reels
Plastic Cups
Wooden Spoons
Metal spoons
Scarfs
There will be more examples next time!
With heuristic play there is no right or wrong; there is no sense of failure. Children are able to experiment and investigate freely as to what they can do with the objects.
Sheila Riddall-Leech in her book suggests what children could do at heuristic play :
– move or transport objects from one place to another in a variety of ways – put objects inside other containers and take them out again, including smaller objects inside bigger ones – roll objects across the floor or over different surfaces – bang objects together, sometimes connecting, sometimes not – make piles of objects and then knock them over, sometimes similar objects, sometimes just random choices – make collections of similar objects – turn and twist objects inside each other or in their hands – wrap objects up in materials, including putting things over themselves
I was looking forward to this Vintage Fair, however it was very small comparing to others Vintage Fairs I went to before. There were only few stalls with some vintage toys, books, games and fashion and some with handmade and organic clothing.
On the website, they described this fair as :
Transforming York Hall, Junior’s Vintage & Craft Fair is as much about family fun as it is hunting for goodies; putting a spin on their menu, the event will feature a vintage kids tea party with healthy snacks and games to boot. A magician is set to entertain, with face-painters and balloon artists on stage. For all those wanting some r n r, Junior’s beauty teams will be on hand, with special prices for mums and daughters wanting to get coiffed in the vintage salon. With a buggy park, changing station and flexible rules on entry all integral to the event, the fair looks set to offer pain-free retail therapy without leaving the kids at home.
We arrived just after 1 pm, maybe it was too late? not sure,
but the York Hall was a bit empty 😦
However we did find few treasures. Here are the pictures from today:
Only 2 more days to see the fantastic exhibition in Tate Modern – Edward Munch. I visited it in July. I would love to see it again before it ends.
I was very surprised of his work. I will now take you through the journey of the exhibiton.
Tate Modern is located a short walk from many stations, however the best view of the gallery will be a walk from St Pauls Cathedral through Millennium Bridge.
This exhibition examines the artist’s work from the 20th century, including sixty paintings, many from the Munch Museum in Oslo, with a rare showing of his work in film and photography. Munch is often seen as a 19th-century Symbolist painter but this exhibition shows how he engaged with modernity and was inspired by the everyday life outside of his studio such as street scenes and incidents. The show also examines how Munch often repeated a single motif over a long period of time in order to re-work it, as can be seen in the different versions of his most celebrated works:
The Sick Child (1885–1927)
Girls on the Bridge (1899-1900)
He was also able to create illusion of figures moving towards the spectator, this visual trick can be seen in many of Munch’s most innovative works:
Two great artists together in one place. The Gallery is just off main road Great Eastern Street on Leonard Street. Easy walk from Liverpool Street or Shoreditch High Street stations.
I think this is now my second favourite gallery with street art. First one is at Columbia Road. I will write about this one another time.
Pure Evil
To understand a bit about Pure Evil it is illuminating to know that he is a descendant of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor who wrote the controversial work Utopia and who was later beheaded by King Henry VIII. With this busy background (Sir Thomas was later canonised) it is only natural that Pure Evil should explore the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse, a belief in the life-changing event that brings history with all its conflicts to an end.
My favourite pieces of Pure Evil:
I want this one for my wall and the frame is great too! Live East Die Young!
‘The New Logo for the Hackney Looting Team’
Today’s art:
Pure Evil is famous for his Killer Rabbit and his artwork was in The Apprentice. The Pure Evil is seen on many London’s street corners (even the odd toilet wall).
Further mixing his medias for manuscript bunnies, or inking his pearly kings and to screen printing Dandy Highwayman. Or PE sprays onto pages from antique manuscripts laying out the laws of the land to the kings people, circa 1710.
I went to this gallery especially to see Pablo Delgado work. He does fantastic miniature street scenes featuring various characters, objects and animals from pimps, to prostitutes, royal guards to Jack The Ripper and various other crazy selection of characters.
My first spotted Pablo Delgado was a little Dinosaur on the way to Columbia Flower Market:
Another great Vintage Market. This time at Spitalfields.
Every first Saturday of the month you can find many vintage treasures in this big space. However not everything is Vintage. Old Spitalfields market is one of London’s finest Victorian market halls set up in an historic location in Est London, You can also find some unique designe clothes, usually from young artists. It is easy to find, short walk from Liverpools Street, Aldgate East or Shoreditch stations.
…
brickmum 