Holywell Lane

Although I’ve been in London for about three weeks now, you don’t really feel particularly part of it a lot of the time. I’ve spent more time in the basement room or stoating around New Cross/Deptford. 


There was something on later in the evening at the Barbican and I decided to head in early for a bit of a mooch about. My first port of call was the Magnum Print room, London base of the word renowned Magnum Pictures. I got off the train early and wandered through bits of Shoreditch I hadn’t seen before, up to Islington.


You have to ring a buzzer and plead to be let into the Magnum place. Well, maybe not plead. But it wasn’t exactly user-friendly. Upon entry, the receptionist passed me a price list, in case I wanted to buy any of the prints on show. I think she’d clearly taken leave of her sense when I scanned the figures. I look more like a tramp than an art collector, surely?


The exhibition itself was a collection of prints from Chris Perkin’s Teds photo-book. It included a few previously unseen images. The books been a favourite of mine for a number of years, so I really enjoyed it. The exhibition was pretty small, though, so I was back on the street fairly quickly.


The talk wasn’t till 7, so I ended up wandering at some considerable length. Aimlessly would be an understatement. Unfortunately, I was in “The City of London” bit, which in retrospect, was a mistake. Unless you’re interested in the chain food store EAT. My mind literally boggled at how many branches of this place I witnessed. 


Much time killed, I headed to the Barbican to collect my tickets. It was then I discovered I’d come a whole day early. WINNER! 


So I took another hour or so of wanderings around Shoreditch/Moorfield while I waited for the peak travel period to pass before I returned home.


Twelve miles I clocked up. Twelve aimless miles. At this rate, hopefully, soon I’ll not have to keep looking at Google maps every two minutes to figure out where the hell I am...


The Mural pictured above is by the brilliant Artist Dale Grimshaw.