This weekend is Baishakhi Mela, the Bengali New Year Festival, and once again the East End will be the site of Europe’s largest open-air Asian festival. A quarter million people are expected to descend on the area around Brick Lane known as Banglatown for the tenth annual festival.
Continue reading for the thirteen best things to do at the festival this weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
You would think that after the Forest Gate debacle, the Met would have learned to be a little more sure of their “intelligence” before they went kicking in peoples doors again. You’d be wrong however.
At dawn yesterday morning the Met anti-terror cops stormed a house in Shadwell and spent five hours tearing the place apart before realizing that they were in the wrong place. It seems that they were looking for a man in Manor Park, seven miles down the road.
How it can take five hours of tramping about in a terrace occupied by a very scared couple and their cat to realize that the person that they (presumably) can recognize is not there is beyond me.
Said Scotland Yard:
“We apologize for the inconvenience, our actions were in good faith.”
So, bad intelligence plus good faith equals what exactly? A trashed house and no disciplinary action, just like before…
In Aldersbrook (E12), nestled between Shoulder of Mutton Pond and Heronry Pond, lies a Bluebell wood, which Ham over at London Daily Photo has a beautiful picture of up on his site.
A Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta, syn. Endymion non-scriptus, Scilla non-scripta) wood is a wood that in spring-time has a carpet of bluebells underneath a newly forming leaf canopy. Bluebell woods may be found in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Bluebells are a common indicator species for ancient woodland, so bluebell woods are likely to date back to at least 1600.
If you visit, be aware that In the United Kingdom the common bluebell has been a protected species since 1981. This legislation was toughened up in 1998 under schedule 8 of the wildlife and countryside act and as such the trade in common bluebell bulbs or seeds is an offence. Landowners are prohibited from removing bluebells on their land for sale. Wild bluebells are protected by the legislation and it is a criminal offence to remove the bulbs.
There is another Bluebell Wood in London. Up North in Haringey is a wood that covers the Eastern edge of Muswell Hill — a Bluebell wood that is one of the ancient woodlands of London.
[Thanks to Ham @ London Daily Photo]
Effra has a piece up at Caught Offside about the astounding roller-coaster ride that West Ham supporters have been on this season. Now, I am new to East London, and new to West Ham football, but if my response as a newcomer is any indication, the ride must be absolutely sickening for the die-hard supporters, the type who will have their ashes scattered over the pitch…
You can tell yourself a hundred times about ridiculous good luck, remind yourself that beating Arsenal one week and losing to Sheffield United the next is the kind of thing that West Ham have been doing for eons, or just remember that we well could stay up and then have all that heroic passion smashed to pieces by some suits meeting at the other end of town, but you won’t be able to help succumbing to the belief that the great escape is now part of the script.
Manor Gardens Update: Diamond Geezer has another excellent article up, this time covering the Manor Gardens Allotments, which I have written about quite a bit here.
Rough Trade is coming to East London: After thirty-one years in various West London haunts, the world’s coolest record store (and label) is opening Britain’s largest music store in June near Brick Lane.
Daggers Going For The League: Dagenham & Redbridge FC are a mere eight points from promotion into the League for the first time in their history. More here.
Not A Drop To Drink: Some Stepney residents have been without running water since the beginning of the year…
Diamond Geezer has a bit up about the new Starbucks Coffee in Whitechapel, which will soon be followed by a Tesco Express, in his words, “bringing even greater multinational homogeneity to a spot where previously there was none”.
The LDA refuses to meet with the Manor Garden Allotment holders, preferring to order the destruction of their gardening plots from afar.
Not to be left out of the fun, it seems that Havering might get a Superchurch to complement Newham’s possible Supermosque.
Kingsway International Christian Centre, an evangelical church has applied to Havering council for permission to build a £50million 8,000-seater church on a 10-acre site that is part of the disused Beam Reach Business Park in Rainham.
The plans include a gigantic auditorium with cinema-size screens showing the pastor on a large stage, office buildings, a giant 1,200-space parking lot and a multi-purpose building housing a children’s church, restaurant, crèche and gym. A fleet of at least 30 minibuses would pick up worshipers from surrounding stations to take them to services.
At six am yesterday morning, Met counter-terrorism officers stormed a house in Walthamstow and arrested a 27-year old man suspicion of the ‘commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.’
Supposedly the arrest and charges stem from the alleged plot to to blow up passenger jets flying from London to the US, last August. The suspect was not named, and is being held in central London.
This arrest makes the ninth person from Walthamstow to have been charged under the Terrorism Act.
Council leader Clyde Loakes said he was aware of the arrest:
“The council and its partners are working very closely with the police to reassure the community and manage the impact of this incident”
The investigation into the airliner bomb plot has so far cost more than £30 million and a total of 11 men have been charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
It has not been a kind season for West Ham fans. The team has been taken over, had it’s skipper fired, faces relegation, and now it seems may be docked some of the few points it has managed to amass this season.
It seems that the proposed transfer of Javier Mascherano to Liverpool has prompted the league to ask questions about the eligibility of both Mascherano and fellow Argentine Carloz Tevez.
Mascherano and Tevez’s registrations are held by the Media Sports Investments corporation, seemingly in contravention of league rules, which state that top-flight clubs in England are not allowed to sign players who are owned by third parties.
If the arrangements cannot be explained, the league will likely dock points, effectively ending West Ham’s chances to return to the Premiership next season, and the team could also see legal challenges from other relegation-zone teams claiming that they were unfairly disadvantaged.
That would also mean that Tevez would have to leave Upton Park and return to Corinthians. When does it ever end?
THE bells of St Paul’s Cathedral, St Mary-le-Bow (’Bow Bells’) and 28 other churches will ring out on March 1 to herald a six-day cultural festival in East London.
With more than 400 events, East represents a “unique collaboration” between Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and key organisations covering performance, art, history, fashion and food. Activities will take place in and around Spitalfields, Brick Lane and Whitechapel; Wapping and Docklands; St Paul’s and the City; Hoxton, Clerkenwell, Dalston and Hackney.
Activities will range from full-scale live performances and club nights to Bangla rock and orchestral strings. The festival will also include history and art tours, fashion talks, makeovers and workshops, plus family activities. There will be shopping, from second hand and vintage to cutting edge new design, as well as a major food festival.
You’ll probably run into me at some of these events - I’ll be the guy with the camera and the funny American accent. I’ll post more details as the festival gets under way.
