Petticoat Lane

I did a walk from Liverpool Street to Whitechapel Art Gallery today with Alec Foreshaw who was for many years the planning officer for Islington and has published several books on Islington, Smithfield and The City.  I thought I knew the area qute well, but he took us down several streets I had never visited and pointed out so many buildings of architectural interest.

I was pleased to see that there is still some life in Petticoat Lane.  I don't think I have been there since my parents brought me to London for the first time when I was 12.  I still remember the showmanship of how the stallholders would sell whole dinner services, precariously balanced in their hands.

What a mixed area it is!  In the extra is a tumbledown 17th century slum (housing a hairdressers) one block away from that temple of Mammon, the Gherkin.