What I love most about London is the lovely green spaces that exist even in the most central and busy parts of the city. Every area of the city has some park or another where people can go and get a bit of sunlight and fresh air. Particularly important since houses tend to be so small, you sometimes just need to get out to get some breathing space.
One day we went to one such green area near my office and it was such a fun time. Shoreditch is a very urbanized, hipster, trendy sort of area – it’s filled with all the big corporate offices, and I go there often for work, but one weekend, we decided to explore for fun as the kids also wanted to see where I work.
Just a short walk away from my office is this park.
The park isn’t particularly massive or beautiful. It was just a pleasant contrast to the urban jungle just a street away. It has many park things. The boy was thrilled to try this zip line – which didn’t go very far, but it was fun for him to experience something like this for the first time.
We then walked on to the City Farm to pet some farm animals.
The animals were all extremely adorable and very friendly. My favorite was this frisky pair of donkeys play-fighting over a ball.
We then ambled on to Brick Lane and on to Spitalfields Market. My mental image of Brick Lane was of an area full of Bangladeshi immigrants, from this old book – Brick Lane. But it’s completely gentrified now, full of art galleries and trendy shops.
There are still remnants of the old Brick Lane remaining, with a few Bengali restaurants scattered here and there, but generally, it’s now a vibrant, buzzing, arty corner of the city, and it’s one of the few areas that are amazing yet not overrun by tourists.
One last shot of Brick Lane, and then we turned the corner into Spitalfields market. Spitalfields was one of the infamous places associated with Jack the Ripper in the 19th century. Again, I had a certain mental image of the place after reading From Hell, but it’s now completely different. The market is filled with amazing vintage stalls, trendy restaurants, and overall, such a bright and positive place – nothing like I expected.
We picked up fresh donuts from one of the food stalls and had a little wander. It’s one of those places that I hadn’t expected to be so good. I loved the vintage kimonos, jewelry, and other knick-knacks. I really wanted a closer look, but I was also quite broke, so it’s probably a good idea that K quickly and efficiently steered us away from the market 😅. He did this by directing the boy’s attention to a stone elephant, and immediately the boy needed to pose in front of it.
Thus distracted, he quickly steered us to the nearest tube station – Liverpool Street, and off we were on the way back home.
Never mind, Snubnose and I have a plan to come here again one day without the boys and have a good rummage through the market.
