Category: Hackney

Jan 08

Dalston Rio and ‘It Always Rains On Sunday’

[This post has been restored following Website Death in 2009, I think it was posted in 2008 originally. Sadly the 'Silver Screen' matinees seem to no longer exist, but I did find a clip of the film which wasn't online back then.]

Last weekend I paid a visit to the rather gorgeous Dalston Rio Cinema, to watch It Always Rains On Sunday, which was showing as part of the East End Film Festival. It was one of their ‘Silver Screen’ matinees, which are free for the over 60s and include tea and cake in the ticket price. And let me tell you, the home-made victoria sponge was DELICIOUS, and not just because it was free.

Rio Cinema is very lovely inside, with a huge pale blue arching ceiling and a proper thick red velvet curtain across the screen. It has been a cinema for nearly a century, and there’s a detailed history page on their site, including pictures of it in some of its former incarnations, as the Kingsland Empire, the Dalston Classic, and the racy Tatler.

The film was ostensibly about a Bethnal Green housewife sheltering her escaped convict ex-lover, but actually the star of the film was Ealing Studios version of East London in the 1940s (including the line “Oh, I wish there was no such place as Bethnal Green!” which got a big laugh). There was a lot of detail about the daily life of the family, with their tin bath and their Anderson shelter and cheese ration. Plus a trio of Cockney crooks, a Jewish market wheeler-dealer and a philandering saxophonist. My favourite bit, however, was the switch to a film of a toy train set for the long-view action shot when the fugitive is escaping across a railway yard :-)

The only thing that slightly spoiled it was the commentary coming from some of the more elderly members of the audience, along the lines of: “Ooh, what’s this? He knows, he knows! Ah, blackmail yes. Yes. Oh no, don’t run! He’s coming home!” etc… But hey, I was crashing their performance, so I can’t complain.

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Posted in Bethnal Green, Film, Hackney, History, London

Apr 07

‘Trail of the Spider’: an East End Western?

This looks fantastic; a Western set firmly in East London. Here’s the East End Film Festival programme note:

Western genre motifs are transformed to the landscape of East London. Questioning and re-imagining the Western’s portrayal of the ‘Vanishing Frontier’, this film recreates the epic panoramas of the Western in Hackney Marshes, the Thames Gateway and Essex. Using landfills, wastelands and gravel pits linked to the construction of the 2012 Olympic Park, it questions volatile financial speculations, private interests and the spectre of the Olympic gold rush. Working with a large cast of actors and non-actors (many of whom are themselves residents of East London), the film explores the compromises of a population facing this new order.

Trail of the Spider Poster

Trail of the Spider Poster

The trailer manages to transform the scrubby patch down the road, where people walk their dogs and play frisbee, into something wild and strange. Even the hats and the accents don’t break the spell. You can also visit filmmaker Anja Kirschner’s site for more on the ideas behind it. It’s showing at Stratford Picturehouse on Monday 27 April, 8.30pm and followed by a Q&A. See you there?

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Posted in Film, Hackney, Newham, Olympics, Politics, Regeneration

Feb 14

Hot rockin’ fun part two…

Moved across from original Myspace blog (I know, I know) I will be revisiting most of these places in more detail later on.

27 August 2006

Brick Lane

I’m not that keen on the market itself, but there are some great places dotted around, so it’s good for a wander. Also if you get there early (before 11, say) then there are no huge crowds and all the godawful hordes of hipsters haven’t emerged yet.

There’s a cavernous vintage clothing shop under the rail bridge which is good for rummaging, though everything feels slightly damp and cold. The owners (staff?) are a bit Kool and can be hostile, but there *is* a giant robot at the back of the shop, so I’m drawn back like a moth to a flame.

The best place for coffee is the smaller Coffee@, near the Bethnal Green Rd end, which is very relaxed and strewn with bits of the Guardian. Plus they don’t seem to mind if you literally stay there all day, I’ve seen people sleeping there. The furniture is a mixture of community centre and gentlemen’s club, with some big shiny leather armchairs. It’s not too expensive, and their banana frappucino makes me see angels.

Also round here I *love* the Sunday Upmarket in the old Truman Brewery. You can buy supertasty food (Spanish Caravan tortilla is very filling for virtually no money) and check all the crafty things that other people have bothered to make for you. The website misses out quite a few of my favourite stalls, like the lady who makes little leather skull badges and awesome patchwork elephant-shaped handbags. Also a shoutout to the woman dressed as an usherette selling pink woollen eyeballs from a tray – you saved my Christmas.

On the way from Brick Lane to Liverpool St station, or vice versa there’s Spitalfields Market. There’s some cool stuff here, but I think it’s mostly a bit overpriced, and unless you get there before 11 it gets really jam-packed. (There’s a lot of pushchairs around too, weirdly, as it must be pretty scary for a two year old at knee height.) If you like kitsch, make sure you visit Queens – it takes tacky tree decorations to a terrifying new level (lipstick-wearing fish dressed as babies, anyone?)

Hackney

Proceeding in a rather ramshackle, hop-skip-and-a-jump fashion to Hackney: I recommend Hackney City Farm. It’s not the biggest one (I think that’s in Beckton… expedition report coming soon…) but it seems very chilled and it has a really nice cafe. I have a thing about pigs, and there were 3 big ones doing their piggy thing of sleeping a lot and getting all covered with mud – magic!

Sadly all the cows, goats, sheep and a lone donkey were all in one big pen, with access just on one side: the cows came up to the fence to say hi, but most of the others were lurking beyond reach. Lots of ducks and chickens wandering about, including some of those entertainly-feathered ones which look a bit like they’re wearing flares, and a load of cute furry things in cages.

I’m from the countryside originally (honest to god my best friend in primary school lived on a farm) but I still get a kick from seeing animals up close, especially their eyes – sheep’s eyes make them look like some sort of freaky alien being in a \”harmless livestock\” disguise. And pig’s eyes… they’re just so human, it makes me think of Spirited Away *shudder*. God, and that bit in Pinocchio where the boy is on his knees and his hands turn into hooves. Argh!

Slightly offtopic – has anyone else seen the awful live action / animatronic film of Animal Farm released a couple of years ago? It has this mighty mighty cast (Kelsey Grammer, Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Ustinov, Patrick Stewart…) but the pigs are so SO creepy and the tone so completely off that it’s just ridiculous. For example: Old Major doesn’t die in his sleep but plunges to his death from the platform in the barn. Sigh.

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Posted in Brick Lane, City Farm, Hackney, London, Spitalfields