Lambeth, Shoreditch, Bermondsey, Southwark, Greenwich, City of London, Soho

I am hoping to produce small books of walks/strolls through different parts of London. I was thinking of starting with the Southwark book that I did ages ago and moving on to my City of London walk afterwards. Names include...

• Secrets of the Square Mile (hidden City of London)
• Doing the Lambeth Walk (is that too cheesy? hidden Lambeth)
• Stars, Sails and Seadogs (hidden Greenwich)

My original Southwark book was called Dancing Monkeys, Dirty Bishops and Debt Collectors: A Walk Through Southwark - too long a title?

Istanbul

In a week's time, Wesley and I will be embarking on an adventure to Turkey. I am hoping to get some good photographs of street traders and people going about their daily lives in the bazaars and souks. Istanbul (originally the Byzantine capital Constantinople) has always been a treasure trove of cultures and religions. We are lucky enough to be visiting the city with the South Midlands Museums Federation, and will be exploring the city's museums and sites with like-minded people. It will give us a fascinating insight into the lives of people from the archaeological past to the present day and their culture, art, architecture, food and beliefs etc.

I am really looking forward to sampling the traditional food of Turkey - my only experience is at a lovely Turkish restaurant in Brick Lane and one in Marylebone. I am hoping to stock up on Turkish Delight - I seem to be the only one who likes it - all the more for me!

Following the Tide

Wesley and I walked in the footsteps of thrifty Victorian mudlarkers as we explored the North Thames shoreline just to the right of London Bridge, parallel to Lower Thames Street. Here for a few hours, the small, modest beach (if it can be called that) provided a wealth of interest. Perhaps the thing we noticed the most was the sheer amount of oysters - presumably from the days when they were commonplace. That, and clay pipe stems; I was excited by my first one, but I was soon chucking them away in hope of finding something more.

The next day we returned to the foreshore just off Wapping High Street - we had planned to follow the tide as it went out, but we were a bit late so had less time to search for objects. Other places we have explored include the 'beaches' of North Greenwich and further into the centre of town by the Tate Modern. However the places where we found most 'stuff' (I refuse to call it rubbish!) was on the northern banks of the river.

Items from Wapping and the City include an old 'angry face' from a Bellamine witch bottle (16th/17th century?) and many clay pipes. The earliest clay pipes seem to have a small bowl and have little decoration. Our later (19th century?) pipes had beautiful leaves decorating the bowl and small initials (of the maker?) on them.

The intimate views of the city from the Thames shoreline in the crisp January weather were stunning. Being at the same level as the water made me wonder who would have been upon the shores of the Thames in the past, and what might they have seen? It was far more magical than viewing the river from a bridge or embankment, or even a boat. The metal barges docked in the river rattled together and made great booming sounds, their chains and ropes collecting a treasure trove of bits of pipe, china, glazed ware and shingle. I ended up extremely muddy. Wesley managed to avoid the mess I was making - as he somehow always does!

New Scribblings

I have only a couple of weeks before embarking on my journey to Istanbul with Wesley - so I have been looking back through past pictures of Marrakesh and Tunis to give me some inspiration for any paintings and drawings that I can do. I have been experimenting colouring in on Photoshop which is a lot less messy! I have been using textures kindly given to me by Wes. I'm going to see if I can post them on this blog, but I have a feeling it might be too technical for me...

Anthology 2011

I recently joined a wonderful writing group Write Now! that meets up in Woolpit every other week, so I have been getting some much needed feedback for my writing. Sometimes we are given a theme to write about but we can also bring our own poems and stories that we are working on.
The Write Now! Anthology is to be launched from the Waterstones book store in Bury St Edmunds on 17th November 2011. It is a fab mix of short stories and poems, which are very varied in style and content. I have three poems inpsired by different parts of the UK.
I am very excited as I have not had a poem published since I was six - about the seaside!

Book on Greenwich

Wesley and I are thinking of producing a book on Greenwich - perhaps looking at the more hidden aspects of its history. We have thought of a title but as yet I am keeping it a secret! We would cover different aspects of the Borough, and these will be broken down into chapters - for example: Royal Greenwich, Maritime Greenwich, and Industrial Greenwich. There is scope for perhaps a Forgotten Greenwich chapter as well - maybe for those bits of the town that have now disappeared. For this we may need an archive of old photos and people's memories of what was originally here. The idea is hopefully to produce pictures of what Greenwich is in reality (no historical reconstructions from me - yet!), but also what it means to people, and how it may be changing, but it is still a very distinct part of London with its own stories, communities and landscape. The sadness lies in the fact that distinct areas of London (and many other towns) are fast becoming amalgamated into one, and we need to capture the uniqueness of Greenwich before it disappears forever.

New and exciting website of London - London View

Wesley and laura's new website:

We want to create a website where it is easy for people to buy our work - we may theme this website on London as most of our work seems to be based in and around the city. It would be good to have something with PayPal in order that people can easily transfer money at the click of a button. Also we would have prices of work, sizes, whether it has sold, mediums used etc.

London View is a possible title for the site...
(we wanted London Captured - but they already had that one!)
If you think of a better name, tell us!
email me your suggestions!

An online shop of images of London that can be purchased for a small fee!!!
etchings, paintings, sketches, etc. - my preferred theme is all things derelict and falling apart, but there may be pictures of more well known London landmarks as well.