It's a wrap

I went back home from Christmas, like everybody does. Back home with mom and dad, back home with the family and the usual quarterly meeting with what used to be you old room. Quarterly meeting with what used to be your old computer and 6-hour train ride to the North to visit the relatives and time enough for self-reflecting.

It is past 21-12-2012 and we haven't died. This was a far bigger hoax than the stupid year 2K computer crash that managed to sell all sort of fixing crap to avoid a stupid figure disaster that some PhD IT engineer apparently didn't thought about back in the early days.

All and all 2012 has been a pretty good year. In fact, now aged 26, I am enjoying things, little things, even more than before. Seems like this great City has caught me right at the peak of my cultural development, so I have enjoyed every single minute of it.

2012 packed the greatest of celebrations and all that involves them: Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Games. Transport for London suffered a major facelift and now is looking better than Mel C post Spice Girls Era. Summer was surprisingly calm in the centre and London was dressed to impress all year long (let's not count Bishopsgate Road, near Dirty Dicks: this bad boy cannot be kept clean, not even putting a bin every foot).

East London has been crowned the official trendsetter and people is not afraid of popping around deep Hackney on the weekends anymore. In fact, hipster media says that you should be seen in postcodes around EC1 and E19, while WC1 to W1 are so 2010... Street Feasts conquered the hearts of us skint Londoners, which now we have forgotten about eating a meal sitting down. A fiver per item, and sitting on the floor of a derelict warehouse is what you have been supposed to be doing this last summer, while testing the new lager or real ale from the microbrewery round the corner. The 'shabby chic' has displaced the Swedish angular white furniture. This year's all new places required a menu written in white chalk in a blackboard, mismatched school chairs, exposed wooden floors and old mattresses as up-cycled lamps.

People in 2012 didn't want to eat small portions in a massive designer plate anymore. People pilgrimed around the city in search of the latest pop-up food joint to eat in cardboard boxes with their fingers. Because just in case you didn't noticed, hot dogs are not in anymore (except Big Apple Hot Dogs or Bubbledogs): the new fast meaty solution is the burrito in all shapes and forms. High end fast food.

But I lied when I said that E* postcodes were the only ones allowed this year. In fact, the dirty South is the alternative for the Dalston Superstars. SW2 is getting strength, and I could really support the fact since I moved to Brickstance (the stone of Brixi, a saxon Lord). I can support this affirmation as i brought with me on my train 4 London-related magazines which, as the season demands, wrap up the year, and all 4 of them affirm that the best Burger in town can be found In the upcoming Brixton Village, really, at Honest Burgers. Really good burgers are now the new fish and chips. We don't want more beans on toast. Because last year, the best burger was crowned up on the East, on a shy school yard, at the Netil Market in London Fields, off a caravan with old school speakers, but people thought it was a bit too much to pay 8 quid to eat the burger under the rain, Lucky Chip.

Before somebody asks, NO, I haven't tried those famous burgers, but I have had dinner in nearby places around the market and both for quality and price, I have reassured myself in the fact that I will never ever set a foot in McDonalds or similar again, as Prima Donna served me a burger in Ciabatta Bread of the size of my head for less than a Whopper menu. However, confessing myself as guilty as all of yours, I will admit breaking the rule when very late at night, after a big night out, the local chippie that offers chips and chicken for 2 quid is an effective reliever and needed cure for the next day hangover.

I must admit that now matter how hip people want to eat, they now and then want to it their buttocks in any sort of horizontal surface for a while. The same way that in spite of trendy burritos and Mussels and chips pop-up, people still adore the good old pizza, and for me there are two choices: South for Winter and East for Summer, and famous reviewers agree. I almost felt down off my communal wooden bench at Franco Manca at the Village but Hackney Wick rocked my socks after a very gloomy day, the sun finally set and showed my path to Hackney Wick and something divine served me Potato and Sage pizza at The Crate that made me forget about the Olympics and my wet socks.

And people back home keep telling me how bad food this in this great City, and I chuckle inside thinking: oh, you have now idea, and it is better it stays that way. People keep telling me about surviving the bad weather, which fair enough, has been a nightmare this last summer, but as cure for it, somebody decided to chuck tons of fine sand on top of the Roundhouse and named it the Camden Beach.

If still not enough, a group of people decided also to start a market down the canal and THAT was absolutely beautiful. Floating market: brilliant. 

I have eaten a two course dinner at a Supermarket and I have discovered secret roof terraces in Dalston

But yeah, living aside Street Food, Food Markets and pop-up shops, in spite of me being fully employed and spending horrendous amounts of time commuting, I managed to see probably all the bands I wanted in the best little venues of London, managed to go to crazy corners of the city: end of tube lines or brand new postcodes to discover derelict bunkers or party in potential festive venues that now have closes for stupid organisation and lack of safety.

Bands, lots of bands: Sleigh Bells, Spiritualized, The Raveonettes, Glasvegas, The Cribs, DZ Deathrays, Dark Horses, Two Wounded Birds, Mika (!!!), The Crookes, Hanni El Khatib, Jack White, Electric Guest, Crocodiles, The Pukes, The Futureheads, The Pukes, The Buzzcocks, La Femme, Dirty Beaches, Deap Vally, Django Django... Even one of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, with Imogen Heap included.

And I feel like awarding the venues: The Lexington for value/money and cool for having two floors (but he quiz night sucks), Roundhouse best layout, Shacklewell Arms for being awkward to get there, Birthdays for opening way before Rita's was built, Electric Ballroom for its quirkiness, Heaven for the stinkiest (piss and beer), The Union Chapel for being the most beautiful venue in London, The Old Blue Last for its convenient location and dead chip gigs, Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen is alright, intimate, Koko never fails but is way too red, Ally Pally for being ridiculously big (and sort of tropical) and Shoreditch Park (interesting story behind it) for being a cool park to host a city festival.

And is not all about music: I have managed to interact with a lot of my favourit artists working around the city and has left me thirsty for more. The annual meeting at White Cross Street Party introduced me to Milo Tchais and Stephen Ball, Rich Mix gave me a massive showcase of Cityzenkane, Tony's gallery showed me that a bicycle rode by Christian Grillitsch can turn out into pretty interesting art pieces, and the list just goes on and on.

Aw, good times.

Happy New Year 2013.

Definitely more stories.

Bells

More than a year ago, I used to have my CAD classes in Commercial Road. We used to travel from Holloway road after the other modules through Kings Cross, waiting patiently for Hammersmith & City, endlessly, until our arrival to Aldgate East. Then we discovered that actually, the new Overground lines opened in February 2011 could easily take us to Whitechapel, involving the same amount of walk that would normally take us from Aldgate.

This new route from Whitechapel Road discovered me a new area of East London: another perspective of Brick Lane, Whitechapel Market, Royal London Hospital, Mulberry St (always reminded me of the bags) and Plumbers Rd. I also ended up discovering Petticoat Lane Market one day getting lost.

But it was while transferring from Whitechapel Road to Commercial, in that Plumbers Rd corner, there was this brown wooden Front Shop announcing 'Church Bell Foundry', and at the back, sometimes  the big industrial garage door open that let me sneak peak the activity inside.

And I was able to see what I suspected: part of the foundry and the freshly made church bells. I remember how every time I had to come to my classes, I would cross the road, closer and closer to the foundry, trying to get a better glimpse of the activity.

As I usually do, by the time my interest on it grew to high level, I google-ed the foundry to know more about it and exploring the possibility of getting inside; to my dismay, the very few tours around available were fully booked even a year in advance, so I resigned myself to sneak over the fence every now and then.

Summer 2012. More than a year after and with my Masters finished, and again, through a discrete tweet by The Gentle Author (I just find amusing how many cool things I am managing to find lately via Twitter), lead me to find out that their doors were opening.

Funnily enough, the reason for this exception is a pure coincidence between logistics and chance. Turns out, due to the Olympics, trade in and out of London, specially the one involving big heavy trucks was predicted to be affected by the road closures, plus the normal expected disruptions from the Games and half of the country going away from holiday. Such amount of inconvenience lead to the board of the Foundry to decide to stop the manufacture for a couple of weeks and use up that time for exceptionally open its doors for the public during the time.

Obviously, I went to see it. First thing in the morning. 

The views from the main office.

Archives...

According to the tour lady, Big Ben, Liberty Bell and the Olympic Bell were designed and manufactured on the site (actually the Olympic bell had to be manufactured elsewhere, as they don't have enough melting capacity, so it was secretly transported). Mega!

As soon as the lovely tour lady told us about the Liberty bell from Philadelphia having being made at that site, I couldn't help but visualising the episode from How I met your mother in which the talk about licking the Liberty Bell. Yum... lovely taste of metal...

And the courtyard, between the main office and the factory. 

Although the Foundry was founded in 1570, it was originally based in Aldgate and subsequently moved to its current location around 1600 if I remember correctly. 

As the space was limited and the business was growing, eventually they had to grow towards the inside of the property, turning it into a very quirky and lovely courtyard.

The office building was actually and add-on.

A Burmese bell from around 1200 that came to the foundry to be recycled into a new bell but kept it. It was beautiful. 

Bells

Now inside the workshop...

Benches for preparing the bricks

Tea cabinet. Essential

Buckets

Just like the Three Wise Men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh, the bell makers need horse's hair, manure, clay, sand and water: the recipe for the mould. And just like making bread, they chuck the mix into an industrial mixer to come up with the doug for the bricks. The doug is called Loam.

For those geeks into metallurgy or just curious about bell manufacturing, HERE, a very clear explanation of how the process works.

Clay is a ceramic material. Porous and therefore refractary. Resistant to high temperature, allows and even and relatively slow cooling down of the molten metal. The manure probably provides with the bonding of all the substances involved.

Hairy bits. I imagine the hair acts assuring the structural integrity of the mix. Just like carbon fibre on the epoxy matrix in composite materials (here trying to apply my field to the matter).

Good old fuses

Different bases for different sizes of bell

And the form is filled with the bricks and the paste that will hold the molten metal when poured and provide the shape. The wholes allow the black paste to be relieved with the pressure. The central jig, called Strickle gives the internal shape.

An internal former, made of the same mix is needed. When given the shape, the mud is painted with graphite, to ease the remoulding.

Lumps of loam

In the process

Cooling down

The rebel alliance stronghold guardians of the...

The manager of the foundry cracking on...

Bolts, washers and nuts. I've seen a lot of those lately.

G-clamps: always handy

The workshop

Big Ben strickle on the left. Olympic Bell on the right

Tuning area

Massive drill. I bet I would not only not be able to drill anything with it but also, I would not be able to lift it at all...

Tongues or clappers to make the bell sound

Sand mould for the hand bells. Different process and different shape.

Clock in, clock out

What a lovely place and lovely staff. I am so glad that I managed to come. One off definitely, as there are no more bookings available until next year...

By the time I finished the tour it was poring.

But I had to run away to meet my friend K, waiting for me in Hackney Wick to go for a lovely walk. But as you know, that WAS another story.