Fly past at Shoreditch

Miniature street art

Flypast for Queens Birthday

Me and another Banksy (HMV)

Having a domestic moment washing plates and listening to the boppy songs on the radio. 8am strikes and the BBC2 announcer wishes the Queen a happy birthday and plays “God save the Queen’. It makes me giggle, should I be standing to attention?

It’s time to head Shoreditch an area renowned for street art. We are joining Peter again for a tour, he promises to show us more than street art. We start off with a wall with locks and messages of love, Peter comes prepared with a lock for a couple on the tour as part of their hen/stag party.

We travel along back streets, main streets, one way streets and arrive at Arnold Circus this area was a massive slum that was turned into the first social housing in the world.  Overall Shoreditch looks very ugly and not a place you would want to visit, however as you start to see more it gets better and better. There is a big tussle between the high end design shops moving in and the traditional occupants.

We arrive at Shorditch Church and get lucky as Reverend Turk is there and the church is open this is the oldest continuous Christian church in Britain. Reverend Turk is on a BBC show and knows how to tell a story. He has us enthralled with the history of the church location starting with the first encampment of Roman soldiers here in the 4^th century, right through to a bell ringing demonstration that deafens us.

We move onto the first electrical generator ever, generated by garbage waste, a fake Banksy, one of seven painted on April Fools Day this year and the sites of the first playhouses managed by Burbage before they literally packed up and moved to Southwark.

The tour ends just as the fly past starts to celebrate the Queens birthday. Off to box park for a mash and pie lunch. Then it buckets down and we escape to Spitalfields markets for some retail therapy. Much better than Notting Hill, less touristy and more unique. Jane buys two lovely prints of ladies and we meet the artist, Charlotte.

Finally home via a long and windy bus route. Perfect sitting on the top deck at the front watching all the world go by and seeing another part of London.

Tomorrow morning at 4am we depart for Italy, blogging will be dependant on wi-fi and time. Ciao.