upper and lower clapton (the guardian of the nunnery and his epileptic pekingese)

so following a walk up to norton folgate on sunday (then down to crossbones cemetery) - horsemouth decided to wander further afield. first up the canals (limehouse cut, three mills, river lea past hackney wick almost up as far as the anchor and hope - near where amelia and helen once lived thought horsemouth nostalgically) to howard's in stoke newington borders (er. upper clapton). and thence back down towards wapping to pick up some chillies from an anonymous friend. (from stoke newington borders (!), where horsemouth one lived, down queensbridge road (where brenna once lived), through haggerston park where horsemouth would read and sunbathe, past the nags head where he once lived (and further down just off vallance road too) and thence back home down cable street/ various cycle paths and the limehouse cut again. (see there's something circular to this journey - about 8 miles all told maybe a little more).



the canalside was practically solid boat all the way up - but the boat people were friendly - the cyclists less so (fucking cyclists). new blocks (with speckled brickwork and julliet balconies) sprouted out of the nilotic mud and the sites of old pubs. horsemouth stopped off at the filter beds - ruins when horsemouth first discovered them in 85 by climbing through a fallen down bit of the wall. now artful victorian ruins - if not quite well-loved enough to have a coffee shop.

the destruction of hackney continues but on his walk horsemouth observed more of the continuities than the transformations - the sunbathers in haggerston park looked the same (though where was the guardian of the nunnery and his epilleptic pekingese and his friends in 'the regiment'). the street-drinkers had their resident spot on the bench just by the pond. the epileptic pekingese had died many years ago - leaving him with just the wolf hound - when horsemouth met him again a few years ago (up by st.clement's) he had been forgotten - so many new people in the neighbourhood.

true horsemouth had picked a route that avoided the masses and the main shopping streets. he mistimed crossing the road and had to back up - the driver gave him the finger (ah that reassuring 'up-for-a-fight' hackney rudeness). back down to wapping - still the new estates but also reassuring poverty. horsemouth waited in a park. the youth played football in the sun. people rented out boris bikes . horsemouth could have been in barcelona.