june-2012

It was saved by Warren Dent, who
discovered its inimitable retro-British
stylings while scouting for a venue for a
magazine photoshoot.
“It’s still the same members’ club
downstairs,” says Dent, sitting at a table
in his half of the building, which hosts
anything from sock wrestling and David
Lynch-inspired cabaret to hot dog eating
contests and a monthly book club where
only novels by cult American author
Richard Brautigan (like Trout Fishing in
America) may be discussed.
It’s a world away from the bingo and
darts downstairs. “Sometimes the old
guys wander upstairs and see some
pretty unusual scenes,” he laughs.
Th e venue feels like east London in
microcosm — an unlikely fusion of the
traditional and the contemporary that
somehow works. Olympics organisers
speak enthusiastically about regeneration
and revitalisation, and in Stratford this
may be the case, but it’s been happening
across east London for 20 years, a
development not so much driven by
money as by an unquenchable creative
urge. It’s a process that isn’t only
transforming east London’s social and
cultural scene; it’s also breathing new life
into the green spaces — the parks, rivers,
gardens and farms that make this side of
town so rewarding.
Literally reaping the benefi ts of
exploration are Katherine Craughwell
and George Livesey of the Bulrush
Supper Club, a pop-up restaurant where
every dish contains ingredients found in
east London’s wild spaces.
“In Hackney we’ve found elderberries,
rosehips and edible pine that can be
made into a syrup for cocktails,” explains
Craughwell.
“Along the Regent’s Canal we found
crab apples, wild cherries and a few types
of edible plum, and around Lea Valley,
near the Olympics site, there’s wild garlic
and hawthorn bushes. Th ere’s lots of
food around Hackney Marshes, but be
careful, there are poisonous plants
around too.”
For a unique introduction to foraging
in east London, seek out Th e Amazings, a
local social enterprise that encourages
retired people to share their life skills.
One popular course involves looking for
food in the less-than-appetising setting
of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park.
For more unlikely urban nature,
Spitalfi elds City Farm, a volunteer-run
home for donkeys, pigs and goats a short
hop from Brick Lane and its famous
Bangladeshi restaurants, has recently
raised funds in a typically atypical east
London manner.
On the same day Oxford and
Cambridge universities race boats along
the Th ames, two caprine contenders run
a lap of the farm. It’s called the Oxford &
Cambridge Goat Race and this year it
took in almost £10,000.
Holland Herald 35