The Last Tuesday Society.

The Last Tuesday Society is a shop/gallery filled with weird and wonderful things from across the world.

The curiosity shop holds lectures and parties it is an all round crazy place. To get in you have to ring the bell and you are greeted by a man dressed as though he is a professor in Harry Potter. It is described as a 17th century Wunderkabinett; a collection of objects assembled at a whim on the basis of their aesthetic or historical appeal.

Fabric Shops.

LOOP: 15 Camden Passage - yarns sourced from all over the world.

MERMAID FABRICS: 364 Mare Street

GALLIA TEXTILES: 9 - 15 Helmsley Place

WILLIAM GEE LTD: 520 - 522 Kingsland Rd

PRESTIGE DYERS: 12 Andre Street - one of the best known and most experienced garment dyeing factories in the UK.

WELCREST FABRICS: 6 Well Street.

Art Supplies.

CHROME AND BLACK LTD.
49 Bethnal Green Rd - everything you need for graffiti as well as clothing and art.

CASS ART.
66 - 67 Colebrook Row.

THE MAKE LOUNGE.
49 - 51 Barnsbury Street - contemporary craft workshops with a stylish social twist. You can learn new skills in a short time with some of London's best craft teachers in more than 35 different workshops.

Broadway Market Mews

This street is just off Broadway market, it is filled with artists studios.

THEORIES: Landscape playscapes

DIMITRA GRIVELLIS: Sand blasted porcelain

STUDIO 6 GALLERY: Ceramics by hackney potters

Broadway Market.

Broadway Market is a bustling saturday market just off Mare St and London Fields. Food, art, craft and vintage is what you should expect to find.

OUR PATTERNED HAND is a fabric and haberdashery with workspace and tuition. They sell up and coming textile designers materials. They are funky limited addition prints so not your avergae calico store!!

http://www.patternedhand.co.uk/

ours@patternedhand.co.uk

Onmy first visit to the shop I was talking to the woman who owns the store asking about the fabrics and she introduced me to one of the designers who sold her fabric there. She had studied textiles not that long ago at Brighton.

FABRICATIONS is a collective working with artists from the area. They sell projects and knit things created by the artists and promote their work.

barley@fabrications1.co.uk

http://www.fabrications1.co.uk/

The market stalls are filled with old music, vintage fashion and plenty of yummy around the world foods. Saturdays because of the market make the street incredibly hectic busy with young trendy people who sit around outside the numorous cafes and pubs filling the street with laughter.

Next to the market is London Fields. The canal is at the other end leading away from the market and giving a lovely escape from the hustle and bustle.  

Other shops to check out are:

ARTWORDS BOOKSHOP:

An arts bookstore with books, magazines, dvds and videos on contemporary visual arts. Architecture, art history and theory, fashion, graphics and photography.

L'EAU A LA BOUCHE:

A continental and british fine food store as well as a cafe and deli.

REBEL REBEL:

British flowers sourced from New Covent Garden Market.

STELLA BLUNT:

Packed with quirky furniture pieces.

FILM SHOP:

World cinema, independant film DVD rental and a selection of hollywood films, documentaries and childrens films.

Spitalfields Market.

Old Spitalfields Market is a lively, busy, trinkety market just off Brick Lane and close to Liverpool Street. There are stalls and stalls filled with some peoples junk that becomes other peoples treasure! There are old photographs, vintage tins, plenty of old cameras, retro clothing and jewellery and much much more.  

Within a huge building you can buy most things here for cheap prices and haggaling is something that happens on a regular basis with the stall owners. Its an escape from the high streets where you discover 'hidden gems' from fashion, arts to interiors and property, as you wander through areas steeped in history but recently immersed in creativity and cutting edge style. There something for everyone in Spitalfields!

The market stalls are open on thursday, friday and sunday each day has different stalls. The shops that surround the market are open all week and they sell interiors, fashion, foods, bits and bobs.

Thursday: Antiques and vintage 10 - 4

Friday: Fashion and art 10 - 4

Sunday: All the stalls 9 - 5

Generally shops are open from 11 - 7.

ANDROUET: Old Spitalfields Market

A specialist cheese shop.

THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE: 10 Lamb Street

A carefully chosen range of crafted furniture and accessories. They represent a select group of major international manufacturers, and offers a range of classic and contemporary pieces by established designers as well as exciting, up-and-coming design talent.

LOMOGRAPHY GALLERY STORE: 117 Commercial Street

This shop stocks all the lomography style cameras and accessories. It also holds exhibitons, events and workshops.

Columbia Rd and its Flower Market.

Columbia Rd Flower Market is a street flower market off Hackney central on a road lined with victorian shops and is only open on a sunday. It is open from 8am to 2pm there are a wide range of plants, bedding plants, shrubs, bulbs and freshly cut flowers. The shops that enclose the stalls are full of things like bread and cheese, antiques and fashion items.  

It is also a place popular by photographers and film artists who regularily use the street in their work.

L'ORANGERIE: 162 Columbia Rd

A small boutique filled with eccentric jewellery. It is like walking into a jungle with the decoration.

SUPERNICE: 106 Columbia Rd

Is a shop that works with designersand illustrators to make a range of removable wall art.

START SPACE: 150 Columbia rd

2 cafes that sandwich a gallery filled with figurative and abstract art. You can have a drink on one side browse the gallery and then have another on the otherside.

BEYOND FABRICS: 67 Columbia Rd

This is a fabric shop that stocks habadashery and retro and quilting fabrics. It also offers courses and workshops for beginners to the more experienced.

A touch of indian...

Brick Lane. Filled with Indian restaurants and food shops, painted walls, fabric and art shops and a hive for a lively music scene.

This place is very cool! Every surface outside is covered in some kind of artwork or incredible graffiti and there are many studios/galleries that showcase just as much vibrance.  

A few to visit:

ATLANTIS ART SUPPLIES: 60-68 Hanbury St (Off Brick Lane)

An art store filled with affordable materials, papers, all kinds of paints, and specialist items. You can get everything here!!

ROUGH TRADE EAST: Old Truwman Brewary

Here you can have coffee, browse albums of the latest movie and have your photo taken in one of those cool oldschool photo booths! Its hip and trendy and filled with such people.

SPITALFIELDS MARKET

SPHERE GALLERY: 73 Brushfield St (Old Spitalfields Market)

A gallery filled with infamous artists, anyone can put there work up in the space and the gallery owners work with the artists to help them advertise and get there work out there.

Brick Lane is filled with many small boutique fashion and jewellery shops, mostly made by independant designers. There are also vintage clothing shops like ROKIT LONDON and BEYOND RETRO.

There are many galleries as well including THE BRICK LANE GALLERY which has contemporary and street art, and also the STOLEN SPACE GALLERY which exhibitions 'Underground and Street art' in the Old Truman Brewary area next to Banksy and D Face graffiti works outside. 

There is plenty of things to do in Brick Lane even if its just looing at the walls! In the area though there are many places that often play live music.

VIBE BAR: 91-95 Brick Lane

A lively bar with live music, DJs playing funk, jazz, reggae, hip hop and house and food set in the heart of Brick Lane.

ALL STAR LANES:

A venue for bowling, american diner style food and cocktails.

Brick Lane is close to both Commercial St and Spitalfield Market.

EAST LONDON PRINTMAKERS

The East London Printmakers are a group based in Hackney. They provide an open access studio open to those with enough experience. The hold workshops, exhibitions and events. They have a massive range of facilities and the space is large and bright and clean. 

First time users must book an introductory session and then after that you are free to book time slots whenever they are available.

Booking is done all online in advance so give it one to two weeks so that you make sure you can get a slot!

They are open on thursdays and saturdays and you get 3-4 hours of printing time. The introduction takes an hour and outlines the health and safety and an introduction to the equipment, after that is done you can print for the rest of the session.

Session times:

Thursday: Session 1: 10.30 - 1.30

               Session 2: 2.30 - 5.30

               Session 3: 7.00 - 10.00

Saturday: Session 4: 10.00 - 2.00

Prices:

Introduction session: £20

Thursday: (3 hours) £13

Saturday: (4 hours) £17

Booking for:

Thursday: elp-thursday.eventbrite.com

Saturday: elp-saturday.eventbrite.com

The studio has equipment for: waterbased screen printing, etching, intaglio, relief printing, fabric and photo etching.

They have a large exposure unit for silk screens, 4x vacuum tables, a large rubber topped table, squeegees and coating troths, wash out units and drying racks. You can hire various screens.

There is also an etching press, exposure unit for photo etching, lightboxes, cutting mats and guillotines, specialist papers, system 3 inks and medium, large and small rollers and all other small utensils used when printing.

You can find all info at: http://www.eastlondonprintmakers.com/

http://www.eastlondonprintmakers.tumblr.com/

info@eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk

129 Mare Street Hackney Central

A Trail everyone should take...

A little trail for a sunny saturday or sunday. I'd go on the saturday though because that's the day the market is on and maybe take a picnic too!!

Starting out at Hackney Central walk down towards the library and museum where you will see a sign that says London Fields Path.

Follow this road walking along next to the bike path which continues the entire way with you and you'll cross two roads.

Under a bridge and out the other side you will see The Pub on the Park stop off and have a beverage and a bite to eat if you didnt pack lunch. (If its a saturday there will most probably be vintage clothes so have a browse.)

Next into the park where you can chill, play, run, swim, nap or play ping pong.

Walking down through the park you come to the end where there is Broadway Market.

Make sure you stop to look at the art that people draw on the floor before you cross over into the market!!

then you'll be at the market where you'll find stalls of delicious looking and smelling food, bits and bobs and plenty of vintage fashion.

You'll be surrounded by young fashionable people and planty of artists.

Carrying on through you will pass shops like the Jellied Eels restaurant and Rebel Rebel a wonderful florists.

Then you're at the river. Almost as if you're in another world! It'll be calm and peaceful and the perfect way to end your trip!

Either retrace your steps to get back or follow the river slightly on for another adventure.

Victoria Park.

Victoria Park spans a massive 86.18 hectares of open space. It borders with Hackney, Bethnal green and Bow. It was the first public park in London and offered people in the later 19th century somewhere to play and swim. For some this would be the biggest area of green they would have ever encountered.

'The Bathing Ponds' were the original source for swimming in Victoria Park but they were replaced by the opening of the Lido in 1934 which after the war was rebuilt but demolished in 1990.

Victoria Park as it is so huge has been a massively popular area for holding musicand other festivals. Every year in the summer different festivals take place in different areas in the park holding host to some top musicians and art installations.

Canal walks are also a very popular thing at the park as you can walk from Hackney central and further to reach the park with beautiful views and tranquilaty along the way. The river has been mostly untouched and almost adds in a touch of the countryside to the city transporting you almost to what feels like another place entirely.

 Get here: Mile End Tube (a short walk)

                Hackney Central - along the canal walk

Looking at London Fields

            London Fields, a beautiful fresh green park perfect for lazy summer days! Some say it is the only park in London you can legally have a BBQ!

                      

The park is a huge green space where many people gather to sit, play, eat and socialise. There is play areas for the children and plenty more space where people can normally be seen playing sports like football and frisbe. London Fields is also home to Hackney's first cricket ground.  

Situated a short walk/ cycle ride to the Canal London Fields Park is part of the bike track and leads onto Broadway Market a buzzing food and art market.

Also in the park is the Lido. It is a heated all year round family friendly outdoor swimming pool. This adds to the park making it even more of the perfect place to relax on a sunny day.

The Pub on the Park is a wonderful little pub full of character and tradition. Here you can eat and drink without worrying about spending too much money and on the market days they also have vintage fashion for sale.

London Fields is a great day out for everyone and anyone!! There is ping pong, swimming, sports and places to relax. It is very popular with the young fashionable people of Hackney.

Get here by : London Fields overground (a short sign posted walk)

                        Hackney Central overground (a short walk)

You can also walk along the canal until you reach Broadway Market or Mare street and then on from there. 



A little background...

The borough of Hackney makes up a great part of East and North East London.
It includes:
Brick Lane
Hoxton
Shoreditch
Dalston
Stoke Newington
Upper and Lower Clapton
Stamford Hill
Bethnal Green
Hackney Wick, Hackney Central and Hackney Marshes
Mile End
And Victoria Village and park.

Hackney is thriving with art, designers and creative people. Many places within the borough are filled with the arts, it is a truly inspiring place.