Here is a short video by Tigger of the wasps we saw earlier.

Wasp
Video by Tigger

Not everyone likes, or even tolerates, wasps and as a child I was taught to smash them with a rolled-up newspaper.

I have been stung by wasps several times in my life but with age comes, if not wisdom, then at least a better understanding of our companions on the planet. I am now a fan of wasps and enjoy – if cautiously – their company.

We had the choice of staying in town or venturing further afield but as the weather was unpromising and Tigger needed more wool for her crochet, town won out.

We took a bus to Bow to visit a gallery there. We took a few photos along the way, of course.

Perched high on a wall is this memorial clock in honour of suffragette Minnie Lansbury. It was installed in the 1930s and unfortunately seems to have stopped working.

My botanical knowledge leaves something to be desired so I cannot name the plant but I can recognise the stripy wasps enthusiastically visiting it. I don’t know what attracts them unless they are imbibing nectar.

This is the local magistrates’ court and…

…this is the police station, dating from 1903.

Bow may have started as a Roman settlement or this may have succeeded an earlier native one. The origin of the name Bow is uncertain. Further research required!

This is Tredegar House, built in the mid-19th century by iron shipbuilder, Joseph Westwood. It later became a training school for nurses until the 1980s. I don’t know what it is today. Residential, perhaps?

When I first spotted this structure I thought it was an old filling station that had been repurposed as one of those modern churches. Of course it is a DLR station. Other stations on that network have similar canopies, no doubt designed for cheapness.

This statue of William Ewart Gladstone, anciently Prime Minister, stands in front of Bow Church. His right hand has repeatedly been painted red in memory of the matchgirls who worked for Bryant & May and went on strike in protest against their working conditions. Many attended the unveiling of the statue in 1882 and some shed blood on its base.

This is Bow Church, also known as St Mary’s. It is not the church within the sound if whose bells you need to be born in order to be called a Cockney even if the name causes people to mistakenly think that it is.

We now visited the Nunnery Art Gallery.

It is accessed by this alley.

Today’s exhibition was a selection chosen by Carey Young of works by Bow Arts studio artists. Admission is free and photography without flash is permitted. Below are a few examples. Make of them what you will.

This painting is Full Moon Party (2019) by Minjoo Kim.

This is one of those works described as “dimensions variable” because it appears differently arranged in different venues. By Kaveh Ossia, it is entitled Repress yourself, Don’t express yourself (2017-9).

This is Go on, say it by Miraj Ahmed (2019).

This shiny composition of ceramic and gold leaf is Surviving (2019) by Victoria Burgher.

All of these artworks had price tags, including payments by instalment – and that will give you some idea of the expense involved.

We took a bus that plunged under the Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel and found ourselves here, near the Millennium Dome, now called The O2.

(Not a very good photo, I agree.)

There is an art gallery here but it was closed.

So we settled for lunch in Café Rouge.

Then we took to the bus again and came to Docklands in search of wool.

That task completed, we rested a while in Starbuck’s and then started for home.

A long ride on two buses later, we arrived here:

(Photo by Tigger) Can you guess where? 🙂 Yes, back where we started this morning with breakfast: our local Jusaka juice and coffee bar, just a stroll from home.

On Fridays we usually dine out, partly to celebrate the end of the working week and partly, well mostly, I suppose, because we like it.

I’m not a food blogger or a restaurant critic, which is just as well because my tastes are more Workers’ Cafe than Ritz, if you see what I mean.

And, as it happens, the Workers’ Cafe, in Upper Street, Islington, is exactly where we went, courtesy of a number 43 bus.

There are so many cafes, restaurants, pizza joints and pubs in Upper Street that some wag nicknamed it “Supper Street”.

We took our usual round table near the business end of the cafe, that is, the counter and, behind it, the kitchen. From here, if you are interested in such things, you can watch your food being cooked.

While waiting for the food to arrive, Tigger went on with her current project in crochet work. (Photo by Tigger) I won’t spoil the suspense by saying what is – or, rather, will be – so you’ll have to wait and see.

This is mine: omelette and chips with peas on the side. I don’t know how many eggs are in the omelette but it’s quite big and very filling.

Tigger chose a Spanish omelette which has vegetables mixed up in it. I doubt whether a Spaniard would recognise it as home cooking but let’s not be picky. (Photo by Tigger)

By the time we had finished, it was already dark – the winter is coming on apace, despite the warm temperatures we have been experiencing lately.

We walked part of the way home as Tigger wanted to take some nighttime photos but by the time we reached St Mary’s Church, it had begun to rain and so we caught a bus for the rest of the journey.

We reached home in time for tea. But, then, it’s always tea time for us so no surprises there!

On the way home from work we stopped off at Jusaka for a coffee break.

Tigger’s latte is very prettily decorated. (Photo by Tigger)

Mine, on the other hand, is rather dull. Well, there’s not much you can do to a black Americano, is there?

Following an exchange of comments with Maristravels on my post St Stephen’s and Canonbury, I looked further into the history of Canonbury. Today, the district is known particularly for Canonbury Tower, a structure remaining from the manor that was rebuilt by William Bolton in the early 1500s.

The name of the estate, which is mentioned in Domesday Book (1086) as belonging to a man caled Derman, seems not to be known. The estate appears to have consisted of a manor house and a spread of good agricultural land.

The estate was eventually acquired by the Berners family who also held a neighbouring estate. Sometime between 1242 and 1253, Ralph de Berners donated the estate to the Priory of St Bartholomew in Smithfield. The prior and his canons probably occupied the manor, at least some of the time, hence the name Canonbury.

William Bolton became Prior in the early 16th century and rebuilt the manor, including the tower that still stands and can be visited. The manor house was rebuilt again in the Elizabethan period but most of it has been replaced by a line of terrace houses in Canonbury Place.

The above facts have been gleaned from a paper by Peter Dawkins, entitled Canonbury Place & Tower. (Note that this is a PDF file.) This paper gives a more detailed account of the history of Canonbury.

The exact etymology of the name Canonbury is hard to track down. A clue is given by the fact that the Berners manor was known as Bernersbury, giving the modern name Barnsbury. Reading between the lines of various sources that I have perused, I suggest the following. Manor houses were often, though not always, fortified, at least partially, perhaps with stout walls and a moat. Thus the term bury from the Anglo-Saxon burh, meaning a fort or fortified town, became attached to their name. In later times it would probably have meant little more than “manor”.

Thus Canonbury was the “Canoun bury”, the manor of the canons and Barnsbury was the “Berners bury”, the manor of the Berners family.

I emphasise that this is speculation on my part derived from thin evidence and subject to future correction.