A Saturday afternoon at God’s own Junkyard
I’m a Londoner, not born exactly, but bred. I’ve spent my genuinely formative years living and working in this city. I’ve lived south, north and east in that order. No idea why I haven’t lived west, just the way it has worked out. Since my early 20’s I’ve crossed off many different areas or neighbourhoods. I’ve also spent most of my working life in the centre of the city. So I know it pretty well. I know it well enough to be able to drive from one side to the other without getting lost, and I’m always finding out new things to do and places to visit.
Because London is so vast, its also always possible to rediscover areas years later and marvel at how they have changed. For example as my teenage son is a vintage lover I was inspired last year to go back to Nottinghill to Portobello Road market. All I can remember about it in the 90’s is a few antique stalls. Butnow it turns out to be a hub of affordable vintage and secondhand items. As Nottinghill is such a well heeled neighbourhood the charity shops have the best selection ever, and there is an amazing range of vintage shops. Some of them are so carefully curated you are probably paying a bit over the odds. The ones I prefer are more chaotic and crammed. Here you find the best bargains – I’ll try and write a blog post next time I visit and share my treasures. If you are a visitor to London then I highly recommend a trip.
Owing to lockdown I’ve inevitably spent much more time in East London where I live, and today, also thanks to my son, who said he knew about it because he is in the right demographic :)… we visited God’s own Junkyard in Walthamstow. I took the trip with three teenagers in tow. To be honest this is probably mainly a place where millenials and Gen Z go to take photos for Instagram. Nothing wrong with that, but I was intrigued to see what else it had to offer.
I think its probably best described as a bar/cafe whose tables meander in and out of a plethora of neon signage. Its undoubtedly cool, its eclectic, its fun, but I think we were hoping to more of a gallery experience or trail around the various items. We ended up outside in a booth in the garden, it was actually a sort of shed. The whole space was overgrown with Virginia creeper, with a water feature at one end. Anyway I enjoyed it, it’s a personal passion project but it also works very well as a business.
As I knew it would be on the trendier side, it took a bit of time for me to decide on my outfit of the day. In the end I went for faux leather shorts, oversized coat and vintage nike trainers (just out of shot sorry). I nearly threw these out the other day, in my autumn wardrobe switch over cull but now I am glad I didn’t, as when I was looking for links for this blog – I was amazed to find a pair on e-bay. They are now worth £95! (I bought them in a shoe warehouse for about £5 in the early 2000’s) – so I am pleased I kept them…
This camel coat is available online from TK Maxx by the same brand and is quite similar.
As is this one by Monki, and makes a great autumn wardrobe staple and great for layering over knitwear etc. when the weather gets colder.
Here are some similar shorts from Mango, also at a great price.
