East End

February 24th,
Thursday after classes I decided to go to the East end of London to finish an assignment...plus it was sunny and a GORGEOUS day to be outside!

Assignment 2: The East End - London's contemporary art centre

After exiting Liverpool station, I followed the directions down Folgate Street, a street lined with Georgian houses where the weavers settled. I thought this street was really neat because the houses are carefully kept so that they look historically accurate. Many brick houses squashed together on this narrow street...It was very cute and quaint. :)
After that I went into Spitalfields Market to have a look around. It seemed that one side sold mainly antiques this day and the other was mainly clothes. I really liked one stall with printed t-shirts, especially the one with a cartoonish jar of Nutella drawn. It said "I like it." lol, I should have gotten it. :) We love nutella!! I also stopped in a costume/toy shop on the way out to have a look at their masks for a masquerade/ball. I really liked that this market had a roof over the top...it seemed like it was more of a "commercial" market.
I went inside Christ Church next, a restored English-Baroque church. The inside was small-ish, but I loved the white modeling and the architecture. 

Christ Church

Inside Christ Church

All the signs in this area are written in English and Bengali

Then I made my way to Brick Lane. There was supposed to be a French church/Great Synagogue/Great Mosque in this area...but I wasn't quite sure which building it was. :/
I went to the place where the Old Truman's Brewery was as well, with lots of quirky shops and the Brick lane market. Unfortunately I didn't go on a Sunday, so this market was not open. It was still a neat area though...it looked a little "dodgy" to be quite honest though...with some graffiti on the walls. We just don't have streets like this back home.
Apparently the Old Truman's Brewery was "the biggest brewery in London in the 18th center" but now it is a cafe-bar and center for art. I could see the old factory, but for some reason I couldn't figure out where the entrance was to go inside...which was a bummer. Maybe I just went on the wrong day or something. :/
I went back down Brick lane, Indian cuisine on every side of me (haha!) and went to the Whitechapel Art Gallery. Some of the exhibits were rather strange. I'm not an abstract art person, to be honest. I appreciate art that's based more from nature. But some of these just were cut outs of pictures in odd ways and just "odd" stuff in general. I did think the room with the light bulbs was really cool though! There was a square contraption set up with light bulbs all around it. I'm not sure if there were sound effects, or if the electricity actually made this noise, but the bulbs turned on and off...and made noise, louder depending on how many were lit.

Lastly, I went to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It's been at this site since 1738...but a nearby site since 1570!!! Many famous bells have been cast here including the Liberty Bell (ironic, since OUR Liberty bell was made in England...lol), the clock bell of St. Paul's Cathedral and Big Ben. I went inside the little shop and looked around at the small exhibits. It was pretty neat! I wish I could have gone into the factory on a tour or something, because I peeked through a window and saw some bells on the ground and it looked cool. The lady in there told me that they still make the bells the same way they did in the past. I wanted to get my g'ma a little bell because she collects them, but unfortunately they were really expensive.


Had some trouble getting back on the tube. haha! I kept getting on the wrong one, but I got there eventually. :)