A good friend of mine made an interesting statement about Covid19, back in May 2020.
He mentioned he was calling his girlfriend’s pug 'Covid' When I asked ‘why’? I was told, ‘its simple really…… it's stopping us going on holiday, we can't go out for an evening to the pub or restaurant and it poos everywhere'!
Both funny and apt.
I’m sat here writing this blog, returning back to work after my two weeks annual leave. No sun, sea or extravagant journeys unfortunately, lockdown in COVID-19 has kiboshed that.
I had some nice plans for 2020. April 2020 was supposed to be a trip to Istanbul with the kids. It was being billed as ‘kebabs and cameras’. I have been mesmerised by the street photography there for many years, in fact the tipping point was purchasing the excellent City of a hundred names, by Alex Webb last year. But alas not to be, this year at least.
Whilst this is depressing, it is providing me with some me time, catching up on photobooks, documentaries and also afforded me the opportunity to compliment my own body of work documenting these strange times.
It also provided a more grounded break with the kids, to have a couple of day trips.
First up was Broadstairs and Margate. I have always loved the allure of the British seaside town and all its kitsch foibles.
I hadn't been to Broadstairs before, and was given the nod by a work colleague. It was a lovely place with plenty of photo opportunities of the domestic holiday maker.
I wanted to take them to the Black Lives Matters exhibition at the Turner Contemporary Gallery, this was of interest to my daughter, who has taken an interest in the three marches that have been held Brighton over the summer, since the harrowing murder of George Flloyd by a police officer.
The exhibition detailed works evidencing black folks plight in the Deep South to get work through art and craft. It also had an excellent (albeit limited) collection of black and white civil rights photography front the 1960’s.
The Turner Contemporary Gallery is a stunning building situated to the east of the seafront, which also has an Anthony Gormley statue in the sea, at the rear of the gallery.
Whilst the town has regularly been voted the best seaside town in the UK to live, the remnants of the old Margate are omnipresent.
Arlington House is a beautiful brutalist residential high rise that dominates the skyline.
First completed in 1964 the site was advertised as “Britain’s first ‘park and buy’ shopping centre with luxury flats,” and marked the beginning of Margate’s redevelopment.
Arlington was designed by Russell Diplock Associates and built by Bernard Sunley and Sons, Originally the site was made up of 52 shops, a pub, a supermarket, a coach station, a filling station, a multi-storey car park and the 18-storey, 142-flat block.
I normally take the kids up to London for a day trip, but due to the depressed tourist market, we were fortunate to be able to book a 2 night stay at the Lancaster Gate Hotel, near Hyde Park. We snagged a bargain getting the room at 50% of the normal daily rate.
First up was West London, and Notting Hill / Portobello Road.
By daughter loves to see the whitewashed London terraced houses and flower lined mews.
For dinner we headed over to Tayyabs Restaurant for the mixed grill in Whitechapel, absolutely delicious. This place never seems to disappoint. I haven’t eaten here for nearly 10 years.
Day two was a mixture of shopping and sight seeing, we ended up heading over to Soho in the evening for a bite to eat at Bibimbap and to take some night photos of the lights in China Town.
As staycations go, it wasn’t bad, the kids and I remain healthy and well, so we can’t and shouldn’t complain.
Until next time, keep snapping.
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