Five places I've been to in the last few days, and some thoughts.
Peckham - Rye Lane Market
I love a little arcade, a linear hideaway of trading units where you can buy anything and everything, the more independent the better. Such an arcade is Rye Lane Market in Peckham, a dogleg of glassfronted mini-bazaars stuffed with colourful goods and edibles. A quick wander reveals windowfuls of African tailoring, gold-looking jewellery, artificial flowers, dubious herbs, Peruvian hair, puffa jackets, churros, crystals, Caribbean vinyl, budget suitcases and of course an entire shop devoted to Body Shaper Girdles. I arrived so early that barely anything was open, just a hopeful guy in the phone repair shop and Heart Breakfast blaring out, so pick your moment carefully. But how wonderful that London retains proper retail catacombs like this, not just chain malls and overblown brand temples.
I went to Turkey Street and I saw these phrases plastered all over the station and I cringed.
» Create like a cactus without ration
» Another word for create is heavenly design like the North Star
» Even a unicorn can lose its powers when it stops trusting itself
» We are all weird so just knock your sadness out of your hands and bite into an apple
» Drain the beautiful struggle with play and learn to make your real life happy and happier
What awful twee platitudes, I thought, like a really crass set of motivational posters. Then I saw the logo of Arts Council England and wondered if this was an extension of the project that saw a sculpted fish/bird/squirrel/doghybrid appear in the neighbouring park. Then I saw all the quotes were by small children - youngest 7, oldest 10 - which perhaps excused things slightly. Later I checked and it turns out these are micro-poems created by ten children at an after-school club convened by an arts studio focused on dyslexic and neurodivergent creativity as part of a project called Words Without Walls. This doesn't excuse the writing but I no longer feel the need to sigh, more to applaud, and this is why when it comes to art context is all-important.
Tolworth - Ewell Road
I found these plaques on a bench in Tolworth while I was waiting for the 418 bus. One's to Councillor H. G. Reynolds (1888-1959) 'from his friends in the Labour Movement'. From the tiny screed I learned he was born in 1888, became a Justice of the Peace in 1933, was elected to the council in 1934 and died in 1959. I presume he served the Municipal Borough of Surbiton, that being the local jurisdiction at the time. But I was more intrigued and unnerved by the other plaque which just said "Also to Mrs Alice Dorothy Reynolds who shared fully in his achievements". Poor lady, her husband gets all the plaudits and all it says about her is that she tagged along. There's not even a year of birth, just that she died three years after her husband (by that time sharing nothing).
I've tried digging further and believe Henry George Reynolds had been a railway clerk in his earlier years, a conscientious objector during WW1 and lived at 171 Douglas Street. I've also learned that the couple's eldest son Douglas rose to become the first Labour Mayor of Kingston, spent six years as chairman of the Friends of Richmond Park and was awarded an MBE by the Queen shortly before his death in 2017. But Alice's legacy is seemingly just as an erased hanger-on beside a bus stop in Tolworth, defined solely by her husband, and thank goodness society's moved on since then.
South Kensington - V&A galleries 70-73
If you prefer a more traditional V&A display than the sparse eclecticism of their new East outlier, try the Gilbert Collection in South Ken. It's also fresh but unveiled with barely a fanfare, a full-on upgrade to a second floor corridor and some offices to create a new home for some iconic baubles. Rosalinde andArthur Gilbert used their real estate fortune to snap up exquisite decorative objects, many in gold and silver, with the express intention of gifting them to the nation after their death. They must have signed some mammoth cheques to obtain this lot. A particular love of theirs were micromosaics, intricate designs of teensy tesserae many of which date back to Roman times, so expect at least a roomful of those. Ian has a full report, but basically do drop by next time you're doing a V&A circuit.
Bow - Tesco
Imagine my joy when I rounded the frozen vegetable cabinets in my local supermarket and found the following array of goodies in the seasonal goods aisle.
So many boxes of Creme Eggs, both the standard and medley versions, all Reduced to clear and massively cheaper than usual. The label confirmed the price for five chocolate fondant eggs had been £4, then £2 and was now £1, which is an absolute bargain. It equates to just 20p each whereas the cheapest you could buy a single egg before Easter was 70p at Aldi and in some branches of WH Smiths more than double that. I stocked up. But I didn't go too over the top because every Creme Egg has a Best Before date of 31st July, and if you hold on through the hot summer the central goo soon hardens and the entire joy of eating one fades away. I mention this Bow stash in case you feel the need to dash round and replenish your stocks. I reckon there were almost 1000 boxes left on Friday (blimey, somebody sure overstocked) so they can't all have gone yet.
