Day 35 – 38 November 21st to 24th 2017 – London
A great selection of explore London books are scattered around our little AirBnB apartment and in one Time Out “London Walks” we found a local walk described as ‘Rags to Riches’ wending through the East End. On a fine sunny day we began the walk – taking the train from Bethnal Green to Mile End then following instructions via the book.
The walk began through a reclaimed park area with special note that the seats and rubbish bins were vandal proof – noted. On down Regents canal towards Limehouse Basin deciding to take the extension and walk on to the basin we then had a slight hiccup finding our spot again .
Eventually find it we did and began again at St Dunstan and All Saints with a more modern version of stained glass windows – depicting the scenes of the bombing of Stepney during WWII.
Many buildings with special interest along the way including an Alms house built by a man who had made his fortune in shipping and the architecture of the Alms house reflected his sea-loving character with model ships on each side of the complex.
On from the church we entered Stepney Green with some lovely examples of 17th and 18th Century architecture and the only remaining blue glazed cobblestone road in London!
Mile End Road was a mad mix of Bangladeshi, Asian and Indian restaurants, old buildings and modern chain shops. In the midst of all this was the Trinity Almshouses built by a sea captain and still retaining the ships models on the top. We continued hungry but determined to find the recommended lunch spot. Past by Mile End Market an endless row of stalls selling everything from bags to white goods.
Finally came to the East End Mosque and behind this with a bit of searching our late lunch stop Tayyabs – a Pakistani grill restaurant recommended in the walk book. After a quick and delicious feast we were off agaijn.
A diversion from the walk to get us home a little earlier – down Brick Lane and on to the Spitalfields Market – the latter – Oh what a disappointment. My image was of a lively produce market with many voices calling their wares and an abundance of stalls. What I saw was a covered building with many cafe type stalls, food trucks and shops. This feeling was epitomised by an older man jogging by in top to toe lycra. He stopped jogging on the spot as he inspected a stall – moved on and spotted a hat stall so again perused the stall while jogging on the spot.
