Local news and culture magazine
George Burchett, known as the ‘King of Tattooists’, lived in Bow in the 1900s and tattooed Kings. His legacy as one of the forerunners of the tattoo industry as it is today survives him and his ink will go down in history.
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Simon Wheatley is an acclaimed photographer who spent twelve years documenting grime culture. His book Don’t Call Me Urban! spans the years between 1998-2010 and a selection of the photos were displayed recently in Cafe East.
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Ifti Latif is a local poet, who wrote a poem inspired by lockdown last summer. As the winter months take hold and people look for some positivity in the current climate, he has chosen to share his work which he hopes will ‘be something nice to think about, especially as we enter January’.
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We sent local photographer Phil Verney to capture the best Christmas lights around the Roman Road area.
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I wanted to capture intimate scenes of people’s autumn evenings on the boats.
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‘I come from a typically working-class, East End family,’ she says. So when I was young, I remember going with my mum to the market on a Saturday. And I distinctly remember what a social atmosphere it was here. How people on the streets would talk to each other.’
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‘When I first started I was mainly writing about how sad I was. Now I’m also thinking there are also these other things going on, like how I’m British Bangladeshi and how I come from East London but went to a really posh university.’
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Dizzee Rascal’s E3 AF (homage to his roots) is the follow up to Raskit, the hard hitting, banger filled album where Dizzee shows those who thought otherwise that he can still bar with the elite.
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‘There has been, rightfully, a lot of focus on supporting local businesses during the pandemic. And I realised that more people were discovering what’s in their local area over lockdown as well as they were exploring their neighbourhoods more now.’
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‘Even though you’re only about seven metres from the ground, you feel like you’re on top of the world. You can see Canary Wharf, you can see the park – there’s a great feeling of ownership of the East End. You think this is where I belong, this is my place’.
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‘I picked the inside of the Mary le Bow church because the Bow Bells are the iconic association with this area. And when I started researching historical people that we could include, I wanted to find someone who helped alleviate poverty because that’s what so much of the local history of this area is about.’
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Flipping through those pages, he shares a realisation he had recently. ‘Actually, these prints ended up being a strange lockdown diary of sorts. Because I can remember little things I did the day I made each print.’
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