Clapton Pond Blog

Full moon and a street light

As viewed from Mayola Road yesterday evening. Cosmic.

That famous "former toilet" becomes Moore House

And so, ten years after complaints were made about the state of the legendary "former toilet" at the fork where Millfields Road and Mildenhall Road meet, a housing entity called Moore House is rising from the site. Will it turn out to be what it the original plans for it, produced in 2011, said it would be?

An overdue visit to the Castle Cinema

On Sunday, my wife and I went to the Castle Cinema above the Spar/Eat 17 shop on Brooksby's Walk for the first time. The outing was a belated birthday treat from my three younger children. It was also the keeping of my promise to myself to hurry up and visit this enterprising revival of a long lost local moving picture house.

Where the Ten Ten Kitchen is

Near Clapton Pond, it says inside. So it must be true. Also fireproof.

Memory of the Mothers' Hospital

One August morning in 1984, my first child was born in a maternity hospital on Lower Clapton Road which stood on the site of what is now called Mothers' Square. The Mothers' Hospital was opened by the Salvation Army in 1913, replacing the Ivy House Maternity Hospital on Mare Street and serving the same purpose, that being to cater for unmarried pregnant women and girls whom most other hospitals spurned.

Birthplace of the artisanal Clapton loaf

An artisanal bread shop has opened close by King's Hall. I know what some of you are thinking. I know some of you are thinking the opposite. So conspicuous a symbol of gentrification is bound to divide opinion, just as gentrification itself does (an issue on which middle-class liberals need to get their story straight, by the way). But let's be clear about two things. One, the bread is very nice and the range of loaves on offer cannily includes one called the Clapton. Two, the gents running the place have a sense of humour, as the spontaneous Usain Bolt pose nicely proves.    

Scaffolding on parade

I imagine I'm like most people in that I mooch along Lower Clapton Road sometimes noticing the shops but rarely lifting my eyes to the floors above them or seeing them as part of a single parade within a built entity in the form of a large block.

Sleepy fox

This fox was asleep on my kitchen roof at 6:30 this morning when I woke up. I took the photo as it finally stirred at around 3:00 in the afternoon. There's been a reduction in fox activity in my garden (and fox inactivity on my roof) in recent months. Perhaps normal service is being resumed. 

Biddles keeps EU flag flying as 2016 ends

A forlorn scene on a gloomy morning during the dead zone between Christmas and New Year, but not without a note of defiance from the builders' merchant turned bar in this heartland of Remain.

Merry Christmas, 2016

He used to operate outside Palm 2 until his high-pressure sales technique resulted in his being asked to move on. So now he's made Tesco his pitch, which is also handy for the bus stop. You can't fault him for enterprise. The picture was taken on Christmas Eve.