London 2012 Hackney Citizens’ Diary: Day 5: Guide to Hackney Wick
Hackney Wick sign on Oslo House. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Sarah Birch writes:
On the day the official Designed in Hackney exhibition opens, I thought I’d take a wander through the backstreets of the borough’s most artistic quarter: Hackney Wick.
The Wick is a place apart – both physically (cut off as it is from the rest of the borough by the A12) and culturally as an area of warehouses and water.
The neighbourhood holds a calmness not found in other parts of the borough, and it is undoubtedly among of the safest places in East London to be out and about.
If you’re looking for something to do, this is the time to explore the Wick and the adjacent Fish Island. The promised hordes of tourists have yet to materialise, though several new cafes opened just before the Games, and the streets are beginning to acquire a boho buzz previously found mainly in the many private parties held in Wick warehouses.
Burning Candy Crew Graffiti on the Lea Navigation. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
In addition to the Hackney Pearl in Oslo House (Felstead Street) and the Counter Café in Stour Space (Roach Road), there is a bevy of new eateries, including the cosy Café Greenway (Dace Road), Carlton (Roach Road), the Hackney Cut (Roach Road) and the Crate Brewery and pizzeria in the newly-opened White Building (Queen’s Yard/canalside).
Cafe Greenway on Dace Road. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Shops are springing up as well. Around the corner from the Pearl on Felstead Street, Imperial and Standard is a quirky antiques shop that first opened last summer and has become a Wick fixture.
For music, head to Vinyl Pimp, the music emporium in Oslo House which sells records on behalf of individual collectors (hence the name).
Hon, the brains behind Vinyl Pimp, also runs the Hackney Wick Flea Market – a modern version of the 1990s junk market that inspired photographer Stephen Gill’s award-winning volume Hackney Wick. The market has been temporarily suspended for the duration of the Games, but plans for future events will be posted on their Facebook page.
Olympics stadium at dusk. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Galleries are what people have traditionally come to the Wick for, and these are still the jewel in the area’s crown. This tiny corner of London is reputed to have more artists’ studios per square mile than any other place in Europe.
Though the wonderfully anarchic Hackney WickED Festival of open studios has had to be replaced this year by a series of smaller events, there is still much art in the Wick for the passing visitor to see.
Pop in at Elevator Gallery in Mother Studios (Queen’s Yard), Schwartz Gallery (White Post Lane), See Studio (Oslo House), Stour Space (Roach Road) or Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery (Roach Road).
For the more hedonistic amongst us, the ever-entrepreneurial Lance Forman of the eponymous Smokehouse on Fish Island has created the ‘Fish Island Riviera’. True to its name, this is a beach club on a stretch of land overlooking the canal, with palm trees in the foreground and the Olympic Stadium just across the water.
If you’re in the Wick during the evening, check out the Yard Theatre in Queen’s Yard – a great place to catch some music or a play. They also have a lively bar and seating outdoors.
Suggested walking itinerary:
Exit the railway station and turn right. Head first to Oslo House (the building with HACKNEY WICK in large white letters on the top).
When you’ve looked around here, return to the railway line; walk under the arches and make your way up White Post Lane to Queen’s Yard and surrounding area.
Next, go a short way up White Post Lane to where it crosses the canal; turn right along the canal and follow it round to the footbridge.
Cross the footbridge to Fish Island and walk up Roach Road. Explore the tree-lined streets in Fish Island (possibly heading down to the canal again to see the Old Ford at the end of Dace Road or walking up the steps on this same street to get a view from the Greenway), before re-tracing your steps to the station.
Note to visitors: trains have been stopping at Wick stations both ways, though TfL has been informing people that the Westbound platform is closed.