Mosaics, Mindfulness & Passageways ⛅
For this post the music element, which usually follows me when I travel around this time came to me way after the event. When I was wandering around the Capital on this little trip my head was full of nothing, literally I was just enjoying the moment, the sunshine, the peace in between the hustle of city life. Some refer to this kind of effect as 'mindfulness' i.e. being in the moment no cares or worries, just letting things wash over and relaxxxxed....
...Snap! and you are back in the room! And now onto the post...
Through The Avenues & Alleyways🎶
We had another little trot up to Islington recently. We have not long ago been there as per the previous post Something Ain't Right? 🤔, but after watching Rob's London on YouTube (at the link) and the story of Myddleton Passage I thought it would be nice to check it out and revisit around the avenues and alleyways of North London.
Around the back end of Sadlers Wells theatre lies a sweet looking little pub called The Harlequin (it was not open on the Sunday we were there sadly), but another for the list! Evidently the pub being so close to the theatre has a bell it rings to let you know when the performance will be starting. Anyway, over the road to this lies Myddleton Passage. The man behind the name was responsible for funding a project to divert clean drinking water to London hundreds of years ago. On one side of the passage behind the wall lay the water works and the other side of the passage way was also walled off making the long road a hotbed for robbing, mugging and murder back in the day. Police would patrol along the passage to attempt to keep law and order and obviously at times of boredom appeared to graffiti the wall with their uniform serial numbers, the year and how many ‘collars’ they had made. You can make out some in the photos below, for a better view check out LondonShoes.blog at the link.
Towpaths & Mosaics
We carried along the passage and onto Myddleton Square with its massive church and then retraced our steps heading back to Angel station, passing through the lovely gardens and beautiful flowers along the way, it was heating up now and the jackets to keep out the cold wind were becoming a little overbearing in the warmth. He headed down the steps and walked along the towpath of the Regent's canal where there were plenty of others enjoying the sun.
We headed up to road level again and I retraced my previous journey around this neck of the woods that I had explored a couple of years earlier. The entrance to Shepherdess Walk is easily missed, it is a tiny little opening down a set of steps and through a little tunnel which opens onto a park and on the right hand side a lovely set of mosaics, designed to look Roman but were part of a project.
A similar example of mosaics can also be found heading down towards Upper Thames Street at Queenhithe which depicts the history of the River Thames over the centuries.
Quirky Boozers
We finished there and dropped back around the corner to one of my favourite pubs along the canal called The Wenlock Arms for a now welcome drink and a sit down, it is a lovely little pub, they keep the beer nicely, good music and some great little quirks such as the gents toilet which opens out onto a dartboard (you have to whistle or give a shout when you come out of the toilets) 😜
We carried on from here taking a further walk up and over Essex Road and on into Cannonbury passing Cannonbury Tower and around the little side roads before heading on a nice bus ride home. It was a nice break away just to meander around London admiring some of the lovely old houses and other buildings, forgetting any cares and sweeping ourselves up into a light whirl of mindfulness.
And On To The Music
As mentioned earlier and inspired by the visit and some of the things we saw here we go with some music to accompany, both bands were on Independent music compilation albums I have in my record collection featuring some really good sounds from new wave/punk/post punk to ska and electronic music which you can get the track listings for at Discogs.com at: Various-The-Indie-Scene-82 & Various-The-Indie-Scene-79. The two tracks and links to the YouTube videos are below:
The Passage -XOYO released on the independent Cherry Red label in 1982. You catch more about them and their whole discography at the Discogs.com link.
The Wall - New Way released on the independent Small Wonder records in 1979 again more about them and their whole discography at the Discogs.com link.
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Until next time, wishing you all a good Easter Break🐰🐣✝
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GIF Thanks
Video Thanks
Photo Thanks
Photo by Lesly Juarez on Unsplash
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