Street art running!

Thanks again to the 100 MC Aspiring Members group for the idea for this weeks running theme - graffiti! Luckily, east London is good for that, so it's been a good theme to have! And it's been so interesting to try to find out about all the pictures I often run past, although a little challenging, as street art changes so much!

27.02.2021 - 27 miles

Just a little bit of street art today, on the way to Hyde Park to do a marathon. This is just down the road, by Columbia Road (where the flower market is normally) and I think it is my favourite picture. It was painted in October last year, by artist Louis Masai, and is part of Project Pongo - a project to raise awareness of the orangutans in Borneo, whose habitats are threatened by palm oil plantations.

A little further on, on the Rich Mix arts centre on Bethnal Green Road is another artwork from the end of last year, called "200 Nationalities, One NHS", the largest mural in the UK to celebrate the work of the NHS (four stories high)! It is by artist ATMA, and Paint the Change, and has over 200 flowers that were designed by members of the public!

From here, we ran over to St James' Park, which was full of beautiful spring flowers.

Then up to Hyde Park, for four laps (and a spot of sunbathing).

Before heading back home, via a final piece of (relevant) graffiti! 

The route:

28.02.2021 - 10 km 

OK, big miles done, now time for serious art searching! I went on a street art walking tour with my Mum a few years back, and learnt about some of the artists who use the streets of Shoreditch as their canvas, so hunted down the ones I could remember. First up was Thierry Noir, who is considered to be the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall in the 80's (he painted over 6 km!) and is a forerunner of the street art movement. I love his giant brightly coloured figures. 

On the next street there are some beautiful paintings, one by Australian artist Aka Jimmy C.

 And another stunning mural, by Jim Vision.

There are a few of the next one, in this red and neon style, around the area, but I haven't worked out who the artist is yet.

There is so much street art around here, even the vans are painted if they stay still too long (easy to do during lockdown!)

Next it was down to the river, to the Millennium Bridge, which is where there is loads of work from the most random artist and the one I remember the most from the walking tour - Ben Wilson, AKA "chewing gum man"! There are hundreds of tiny paintings (each one about the size of a penny) all over the bridge, on discarded pieces of chewing gum. Early on, he got some unwanted attention from the authorities; but he argued, and won, that he is not defacing any property, the people that spat out the gum did that, he is simply recycling the waste and turning it into art. The one we saw on the walking tour a few years back was on Old Street roundabout, and I feel sad each time I walk past there now, and it's no longer there. I guess they only last so long with so many people walking over them. But here are a few from the bridge this morning!

I like this one near Liverpool Street station, as it is an accurate representation of how I feel before coffee. 

And this sparkly heart/ coffee pot combo, staying on the same theme.

This massive colourful mural is by MadC, a German graffiti artist, and she created it as part of the 2020 London Mural Festival.

And one final stop on the street art treasure hunt, by the artist Stik. His giant stick figures are all over east London, and I love them!

Art, sunshine, and running = a great combination!

Postbox Runs!

Thanks to Apryl and the 100 Marathon Club Aspiring Members page for the idea for this weekend's running - to collect different types of post boxes! Armed with the necessary info, Andrew and I set off on Saturday, to collect as many as we could find of the six different royal cyphers to be found on UK post boxes today.....

Living in London has it's plus points - there are a lot of post boxes! The first we found was a Victoria one (the oldest type)...

Closely followed by an Elizabeth II one (the newest type!)

And then a George V one, all within 3 miles!

Things seemed to be going first class, but then we hit some delays and didn't find another type for about 10 miles. It was a nice 10 miles though, all through St James' Park, Green Park and a lap of Hyde Park, including a slight distraction with a coffee and sit in the sunshine (the first moment in the year that it is warm enough to sit outside is always a highlight and should be celebrated!) 

Then, on the way home, our luck picked up again, and we found an Edward VII one....

And just across the road, another Victoria one, but a special one celebrating the bicentenary of Anthony Trollope, who introduced pillar boxes to Britain in 1852, and this street (Fleet Street) became one of the first streets in Britain to have a pillar box, in 1855!

After 17 miles we were back home, but still missing two types. We couldn't leave it at a second class job, so after looking up where we could find the two elusive red boxes, we headed out again this morning for another 13 miles...

First stop on the rounds was in Wapping where there is an Edward VIII post box. This was a good find! Edward VIII post boxes are rare, as he only reigned for less than a year and after he abdicated, most boxes with his cypher on were either modified or replaced. 

Enveloped in a feeling of satisfaction from this find, we parcelled ourselves off past St Pauls, and down towards the Inner Temple, to find the George VI post box. There are only 5 of these ones in London, and this is the only one in this area, but disaster almost struck, as the Temple complex has been closed because of Covid! Fortunately, Andrew is charming, and he charmed the security guard, who kindly let us in (probably only because our story of why we needed to take a photo of this particular post box was too bizarre for us to have made it up).

Then, to finish things off properly, we went in search of a golden post box. This took us down the Strand and Whitehall, where we got distracted by a parakeet.....

And soon we made it to Westminster, to find the golden post box there, which commemorates London being the host city of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

And all the boxes we found were Priority Post boxes too (where the home self-test Covid tests get posted and picked up from) - bonus! It was so warm and sunny, it feels like spring is on the way, so we had a celebratory coffee in St James' Park, before running home.

The Post Box Run is a first class idea, and gets a stamp of approval!

Frozen Marathons x 2 - 08.02.2021 and 13.02.2021

Good running week this week, two marathons. The theme this week was simply "keeping warm" as it was too cold to take gloves off and take photos too much, plus I hadn't gotten around to planning an actual themed run. Revisited an old favourite route for both days - the river route to Putney, plus an extra bonus loop around some of the royal parks. 

It was very cold indeed, snow on Monday! On the plus side though, this meant hot drinks stops were scheduled, in order to keep warm.

The snow had mostly gone by Saturday, but the forecast said it felt like -10oC! 

Such a bright and sunny day. A good long run in the sun is the best medicine for sure. 

Running past the lake in St James' Park (the oldest royal park), we saw a beautiful black swan gliding through the ice. 

Looking at the cold water sent a chill to the bones, so it felt like time that a warm up drink was on the cards. 

Suitably snug, we set off down the river, and getting towards Putney it was time for a checkpoint in the sunshine. Thank you Danielle for my fabulous letterbox gift this week! Such a lovely surprise, I am so lucky indeed! The shortbread hug in a biscuit was just the perfect thing for 10 miles in at -10oC!

I might have mentioned how cold it was once or twice, but really it was! Almost at Putney, and came across this fountain, to prove it!

Happy Valentines Day to you all! 💗💜💗💙💗💛💗