East End

After the excitement of seeing those bats in their feeding frenzy I decided to have a different kind of experience on Friday. John worked from home in the morning. His colleagues were all attending a company cricket match. Since he doesn’t know a googly from a wicket he decided to pass on a visit to the pitch (too much local colour?).

In the afternoon we hopped on a bus for a nice ride to the East End of London. This is the home of Cockney speech, Jack the Ripper, beigels along Brick Lane and, of course, that great British soap opera: EastEnders.

We arrived at a place called Old Spitalfields Market. We had been here 10 years before, but now didn’t recognize a thing. Built in the 1880s as a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, it became a general market where vendors sold antiques, bric-a-brac, clothing, artwork and the like. It was a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon when it got very crowded. The run-down market was a special slice of London life.

Well, we found 2/3 of the historic market had been demolished. Where once there was a Victorian iron-and-glass canopy there is now a steel-and-glass commercial office complex, complete with designer brands, attitude and gourmet food. The general market still takes place in what's left of the old place, but in our opinion it's been scrubbed a little too clean and its quirkiness is gone.

We left the market hoping to find the remains of the East End we once saw. Still standing across from the Market is an interesting old pub called The Ten Bells. It was the place where two of Jack the Ripper’s victims were last seen. It still retains a worn shabby look, but it's a planned shabby-chic look for tourists like us. The beer was OK but no ghostly apparitions to report.

We also stopped in Christ Church across from the pub. It has been restored magnificently, reversing the effects of a misguided Victorian "renovation" (what was wrong with those Victorians?) and decades of neglect. The church is a beautiful example of "English baroque" architecture.

After the church tour (sounds so wholesome) we headed to Brick Lane. This street is something like a one-block version of the Lower East Side of New York. Over the past 2 centuries every recent immigrant group established a beach head and now there is a commingling of cultures with some chic fringe. This is one place you can get a nosh at two in the morning if you have a craving. We headed to one of the famous beigel emporiums (that is bagel shops for you Yanks). What a bargain: 6 fresh plain bagels in a bag plus 2 filled bagels (that means one with tuna and another with butter) all for 2.50 GBP ($5). This is the cheapest thing you can buy in London. We finished the afternoon off by stopping into a South Asian grocery store and buying enough spices, sauces and assorted things to satisfy any curry cravings for a while.

Click here if you want to see my photos from this outing.