London E2

🟡🟠🔴🟢🔵🟣 The World's Most Colourful District? 🟣🔵🟢🔴🟠🟡

It had been a pretty long time since I'd done this, mostly due to lockdowns, bad weather and general lack of motivation, but when I saw the weather on this day, I got up bright and early, grabbed my stuff and head out to the city. I mean the City, which is a term for London's financial district, which is also known as the "Square Mile". I used to work in this part of town for over a decade, so it's a place I'm really familiar with.

There is, however, an even more interesting district that is adjacent to The City. It's London's "artsy district" which consists mainly of the area called Shoreditch, but also parts of Bethnal Green, Haggerston, Hoxton, Spitalfields and Hackney. It's roughly the area that falls in the E2 postcode of East London.

---

This area is served by an array of public transport options. There are numerous busses, trains (underground and overground) and DLR services. It's also very accessible by cycle including the "Borris Bike" system. Like most parts of London, however, the best way to get around this area is on foot. It's very compact with numerous roads that all link up with each other.

---

As a very enthusiastic amateur photographer, I had my camera on me everyday back in those days in the city. During my lunch break, and on the way home from work, I'd walk through this district taking photos of people and scenes I found interesting. This is because Shoreditch and the surrounding areas are probably the most colourful and artsy places in the UK.

This area is also home to vintage fashion, indie music, artisan coffee shops and bespoke eateries. It's one of the most soulful places left in the UK even though, sadly, it is starting to lose this soul gradually as some of the old buildings are getting replaced by modern ones. A number of chain shops are also showing up in the area, replacing the little specialty ones that make up the character of London's artsy district.

One thing that makes Shoreditch stand out is the fact that it's right next to the "serious" district. If you visit Liverpool Street Station, which is the train station that sits on the border of these two areas, you will observe something nearly unique. You will see a bunch of very well dressed banker types. Men in expensive business suits and women dressed impeccably and with flawless makeup, all smelling like the perfume and cologne department at Selfridges. And then you will see, in equal numbers, mainly young hipster types, dressed utterly nonchalantly in torn jeans and vintage clothes and coloured hair. The contrast is staggering.

It is often said that The City is the serious district while Shoreditch is the fun district. During lunch hours, many city workers descend into Shorditch for better food, even though there's adequate food nearer their offices and even in in-house canteens.

As you can imagine, apart from good food and good booze, you can probably also get your hands on some, ahem!, other stuff 👀, to enhance fun and games in this area. City folk enjoy that convenience for after work merry making.

Ordinarily, E2 is a very old and bland part of London with many rundown and dilapidated structures. This is probably what initially attracted the young artsy folk, who are typically financially underprivileged, there in the first place. Those young people have turned the place into what it is today - a centre of arts, music and vintage fashion - over the decades.

A main feature of this area is the wall art and graffiti culture. I've only seen a handful of places in my travels around the world that match London's E2 in graffiti. One of such places is Napoli, Italy, which I place at the very top when it comes to graffiti. Napoli graffiti is in a league of its own. The level of graffiti and wall art talent here ranges from master artist (such as Banksy) to gang tagging garbage. Sometimes, unfortunately, a piece of incredible art would be tagged over by a no-talent hoodlum, which is quite frustrating for me personally when I see it.

As is to be expected with artists, there's a lot of political art in Shoreditch. A lot of it goes right over my head, but you can tell when you see a political piece. There's the usual anti-establishment stuff, but also human and animal rights activism displayed in the art there. It's was no surprise then when I came across some freshly painted Ukraine stuff.

Graffiti is actively discouraged in some areas of London, understandably, because it doesn't "fit the image" of the place. The tagging and gang insignia can also attract delinquent and anti-social behaviour to the area. It also has the potential to lower the market value of property in the neighbourhood.

Not in London E2. The opposite is in fact the case in this area. Graffiti and wall art is actively encouraged. This even includes tagging, insignia and posters - advertising and otherwise. I saw a few artists working alone, but also what looked like full art teams with fork lifts and all manner of machinery usually owned by construction companies. So you get a mix of basic amateur stuff to high budget pieces all in the same place. This is part of the beauty of Shoreditch.

Most of the best artwork in Shoreditch are respected and are left there for many years. There are some pieces that have been there for decades! On this visit, I did notice a lot of the old pieces were gone. Some had been panted over or completely covered in tagging and insignia or posters after having been there for many years. Some were gone because the entire wall or building was no longer there. I did, however, notice a lot of new stuff going up this spring. It's almost looks like a graffiti renovation of Shoreditch. Maybe it's been like that every spring and I just never noticed or perhaps these were accumulated changes since I hadn't been there in a while. Who knows.

There is one piece I was delighted to see. Not only has it not changed, it still is completely undisturbed and vibrant as ever. It's been there for many, many years now - over ten years at least. I wonder if the owner of the building somehow refreshes it. It seems too good to be true that such an accessible wall would be left that undisturbed. Whatever the case may be, I do hope it persists for many years to come since it's an absolutely brilliant piece. One that I have photographed countless times.

---

☕️ Coffee Break

As mentioned before, London E2 is home to some of the world's best coffee shops. Indoor sitting is usually great and very trendily designed, but I love finding a nice outdoor space to sit and just watch people go by. Of course, there is a lot of that. One of my favourite is at a place called "Allpress Esprosso Bar". You can read my review of the place here if you're interested.

---

Well, there you have it, a preview of one of my favourite areas in London. I hope to be back there soon since I only walked around about a third of the area. There are other parts that I didn't get the chance to visit due to suddenly running out of time. If you're ever in London and you like graffiti or colour, vintage fashion, indie music, good coffee, street photography or people-watching, then I can very highly recommend London's E2 postcode.

Peace & Love,

Adé