Saturday, November 22, 2008

Eat Is The New West

Shot with Olympus E520
East may one day be the new West (as the faded sign on this building in Hackney Road asserts) but to be honest, it hasn't happened yet.

The natural order of things is for the east side of any town to be poorer. Largely historic, with prevailing winds from the West as the earth spins, the stench of the city would pervade the eastern side, while the west received fresh country breeze. It's been many years since a fresh country breeze has been spotted in London, but apart from that there was always the docks, and docks needed workers. The East End is where immigrants have arrived for hundreds of years and worked to make their homes in this country; that hasn't changed.

Things are changing, and 2012 will change more than I an imagine - but we're not there yet.

(The title "Eat is the new west" was a typo - but I've decided to leave it because I kinda like the sentiment matched with the fried chicken joint)

posted by Ham at 00:05 -- Comments here: 2

Comments on "Eat Is The New West"

 

Blogger Unknown said ... (02:20) : 

The "natural order"? Bollocks. In many world cities the east side is "nicer" than the west side (and in many cases the divide is more between north and south, anyway): New York, Melbourne, Tokyo and Chicago, to name a few off the top of my head. Just because something is true for London doesn't make it the natural order.

 

Blogger Ham said ... (08:07) : 

Ali, it works for almost all old cities that were around in the middle ages when cities were places that things were made and things that were made were smelly. If you had money you REALLY didn't put your house downwind of a tannery, say. Doesn't hold true for newer places (and new devlopment occasionally overwrites the old scheme)

 

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Name: Ham Location: London, United Kingdom View my complete profile