News and Events

January seems to have lasted an eternity. 5 Monday’s in one month, with freezing weather to match. Long live February! To make sure you start the month off right, we’ve compiled a list of highlights as usual, picking the best bits Bethnal Green has to offer so you don’t have to!

Tower Hamlets Labour Party Winter Jumble Sale -3rd February – St Margaret’s House

Whether you enjoy politics or not, everyone loves a bargain and that’s exactly what you can expect to find at the Labour Party Winter Jumble Sale. With a range of gadgets, toys, books and kitchenware all on sale at rock bottom prices, pop down to St Margaret’s House for some austerity essentials. You can also donate items that are cluttering up your life – drop them off at 11am on the day. 

Entrance is 50p for Labour members, £1, for others

12pm – 4pm, St. Margaret’s House 21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, E2 9PL

Super Bowl Party – 4th February – The Star of Bethnal Green

Touchdown at The Star for the screening of the 52nd Super Bowl. With special Super Bowl themed food, special drinks promotion and pre-game entertainment; there will be nowhere better to watch the game and soak up the atmosphere. All tickets come with a free beer and a bag of popcorn to kick things off. What better way to check out the banging refurbishment at one of Bethnal Green’s smoothest venues?

£5 ticket – complimentary beer and popcorn

£17 ticket – complimentary beer and super bowl platter (Smoked BBQ Rib Chunks, Spicy Buffalo Chicken Wings, Deep Fried Pickles and a Homemade Potato Salad)

10pm – 3am, The Star of Bethnal Green 359 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6LG

New Acts of the Year 2018 Comedy Selection – 6th February – Rich Mix

Comedy nights can often be extremely expensive, especially in and around East London. However Rich Mix are showcasing new, exciting young comedians battling it out to be chosen in the heats for their New Acts of the Year series, where 12 will eventually feature in the showcase final. With free entry, go have a laugh on the cheap!

18+, 7.30pm Rich Mix

35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

and from the team at Oxford House….

“The Green” – 20th February – Oxford House  –  Tuesday 20th Febraury

“The Green”, our monthly meeting, will meet once again at 6pm, Oxford House, on Tuesday 20th February, to discuss ourlatest business support news as well as taking a look at the issues that are affecting residents in the area. 

This month, our guest speaker is Michael Smythe, project lead at Phytology and the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve. Michael explores mental and physical well being in our increasingly cramped urban environments. We’re looking forward to hearing how access to nature and complex ecosystems is really important for this.

To get involved in the meeting and to add an agenda point you feel needs addressing please email: bethnal.green@oxfordhouse.org.uk

The strength of these meetings is in the guestlist, so please do share this opportunity far and wide; businesses, residents, organisations  –  all welcome.

Oxford House, Derbyshire St, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG, United Kingdom

Compiled by Thufayel Ahmed

Photo is from Museum of London and shows an evicted matchbox maker, circa 1910, in Bethnal Green.

Funded by Tower Hamlets Council

Supporting our High Streets and Town Centres

If you’ve ever wanted to run your own film society, pop-up cinema or mini film festival, here’s your chance to learn! The Hamlets Pop-Up Cinema project will not only bring world cinema screenings to diverse venues across Tower Hamlets this autumn and winter, but also give free training to twenty local people on the legal, technical and promotional aspects of running their own community cinema. The project is being delivered by arts and film charity Balik Arts, and is supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Starting in September, The Hamlets Pop-Up Cinema will run three monthly one-day training courses. The first session will take place at Four Corners on Roman Road, E2, between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 30 September. Run in collaboration with Cinema for All and Independent Cinema Office, The Hamlets Community Cinema Course will cover programming (how to select the right films for your audience and obtain them), film licensing and legal requirements, and marketing and publicity, immersive cinema (special events), sustainability (volunteer management, fundraising etc), and the technical aspects of film screenings.

The training is open to young people and adults who are resident or work in Tower Hamlets. Participants will acquire knowledge and skills, which they can then put into practical use by helping to run the borough’s new pop up cinema, with a view to continuing the screenings long after the initial project has concluded. Course participants will also gain valuable insights about a sector that is often difficult-to-access: armed with hands-on experience and industry contacts, they can pursue similar work in a voluntary or paid capacity in the future.

Tower Hamlets Council is funding The Hamlets project through its Thriving High Streets programme. The free training course is open to a maximum of 20 people aged 18 or over. No prior experience in the sector is needed.

To register your interest to attending the training courses, email info@balikarts.org.uk with your name and address, with ‘The Hamlets Community Cinema Training’ in the subject line. You will be sent a link to an online form, which you should complete and submit. You’ll be informed by 27 September if your application is successful.

Tramontane (2016) will be the first film to be shown as part of The Hamlets Pop-Up Cinema, screened at Oxford House on Friday 6 October. The feature film, set in Lebanon about a young blind man, premiered in the International Critics’ Week section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded the Grand Rail d’Or Audience Award.

Future screenings will take place monthly in business premises in town centres across the borough, including on Roman Road West, Watney Market, Brick Lane and Bethnal Green. The local community will be able to watch a selection of films from around the world that reflect the borough’s diversity. The full programme will be announced next month, and will run until February 2018.

To learn more about the project and future screenings, visit The Hamlets pop-up cinemablog, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

On the 12^th of October, Oxford House held a special opening exhibition called fans for diversity, with free entry and free drinks and snacks provided it was no surprise then that Oxford House was as busy as I had ever seen it. The exhibition started at 6.00pm and finished at 9.00pm and the event was fully packed from very early on in the evening. With little room to move, various different conversations could be heard overlapping each other in a room and venue that seemed a perfect fit for an event such as this and helped add to the ambience of the evening.

The exhibition was put on by Kick It Out who are a campaigning organisation that work with professional footballers, football clubs and communities to tackle discrimination in every shape and form. At the heart of Kick It Out’s campaign is diversity, transparency and inclusiveness, not just in football but in the community too and this marries perfectly with the ethos here at Oxford House making it feel like an even more special, and even more natural exhibition.

The exhibition itself consisted of a series of photographs that had been expertly shot by Liam Aylott of fans during Euro 2016 football tournament. The photographs depicted fans of all nationalities, ages and genders showing varying emotions but all portraying the same intense passion whilst watching their teams. The photos were hung side by side on the wall of the gallery in Oxford House and this was an excellent way to display the pictures as it meant people attending the event got a chance to look at every single photo on their way down to the hall where the drinks and snacks were. In fact, there were so many brilliant photos that had been shot by Liam, the gallery space was not enough and a few more pictures were hung up on the walls of the hall.

The night has a huge success, with approximately 100 to 150 people wondering around the gallery and the hall perhaps even more at times. All the guests were fascinated by the photos, looking at each one in meticulous detail. Overall, it was a great night for Kick It Out, for Liam Aylott, for Oxford House and for all those who attended in general.

-By Thufayel Ahmed

Although the Boishakhi Mela was delayed this year from the second week of May to the last day of July the celebration is very much not over. The Boishakhi Mela, if you are not familiar with it is the celebration of the Bangladeshi New Year, and the Mela is a carnival of Bangladeshi culture where the streets all the way from Bethnal Green to Brick Lane are very much immersed in Green and Red (the colours of Bangladesh) and drowned in a plethora of Bangladeshi culture – from music to dance to traditional clothing. The extravagant nature of the Mela is what makes it appealing to so many people. Just to signify how big an event the Boishakhi Mela is, one of the headline acts – Ayuub Bacchu & LRB have performed in one of the most notorious, if not the most notorious venues in the world and that of course is Madison Square Gardens. Not only have they performed in Madison Square Gardens but they were also the first Bangla rock act to play there, certainly quite a coup then for the Mela, and the people of Bethnal Green.

Although that coup is hardly surprising considering the Mela is the second largest street festival in the UK, in fact it attracts about 80,000 people from all over the UK and is the largest open air festival.

-By Thufayel Ahmed

Jock McFadyen’s paintings are often described as gritty. Put this to him, though, and he laughs it off. “I know this is what people say…I think my paintings are realistic. If you wanted to make something grungier you would make it more grey”. He describes his work as an honest reflection of East London in the late 70s and 1980s: he has wanted to paint things he saw. “When people started writing about my work they said it was gritty. It’s not gritty – it’s just what it looked like when you opened the front door”.

Also known for risqué imagery, I ask him if this was a comment on the depravity of the area, “No, I am quite amoral. As soon as you open the door on Salmon Lane or whatever, you know you’re going to see grit.” Born in Glasgow, a six-year stint in England as a child meant that, when his family returned to Scotland, Jock ‘had become English’, to his contemporaries anyway. “I got chucked out and I hadn’t gotten into a degree course like all my pals”. This, along with having a young pregnant bride, led him to get “in the van and drive to London, so I went to art school in 1973 and I’ve been here ever since, 42 years”.

Alluding to his humble background, we discuss the issue of class in England. “Doing art is not hierarchical in the sense that it is not a recognised profession, you can’t be pigeon holed”. I agree with him that artists transcend class barriers. Jock laughs and says “I’ve arrived! Where the fecking chardonnay? I’m here to join in – I’m just like you”.

So what would he have been if he hadn’t been an artist? Cue Frankie Boyle’s comment on Peter Crouch: “If he hadn’t been a footballer he would have been a virgin. In my case, it was too late”.

-By Neesha Badhan

This article can be found in the East2 Insider’s Guide to Bethnal Green Magazine 2015. – See more at: http://issuu.com/walkeast/docs/east_2_2015_issuu_2 

Along with a couple of friends, I find myself locked in a room filled with logic puzzles, hidden keys, word problems, and a female mannequin in pilot’s goggles. We have exactly 60 minutes to solve all of the puzzles and open the final door, or be trapped in time forever! With the clock ticking down, and the adrenaline running high, I can only laugh at some of the alternative ways we’re trying to figure things out.

Escape Land is no ordinary entertainment. In a city that has it all, Londoners are always looking for the next hair-raising challenge. Having to navigate your way through a series of brainteasers, under time pressure, offers a memorable experience.

Sandor Lengyel – the creative genius behind this ‘live escape game’ – opened Escape Land on Parmiter Street in June 2014. Inspired by his visits to puzzle rooms in Europe, and with a nod to the popular Crystal Maze, Sandor has created his own set of mind-bending puzzles here in Bethnal Green to test your creative intelligence. As Sandor explains, the key is to work together, pooling your creativity, lateral thinking and logic skills to find your way out. Families, friends or work colleagues – from 2-5 players – can collaborate as they grapple with anagrams and hunt down clues amongst the curious objects. It makes an alternative diversion for birthdays, social gatherings and team building, and Sandor tailors each game to suit guests and their occasion.

HELP! If you get stuck you can always grab a walkie-talkie to use your lifeline; Sandor is ready to give you a clue and point you in the right direction.

This is not for the faint hearted. But if you want to test your logic skills, have a laugh with your friends or just do something different – then this is the place for you.

-By Sarah Beydoun

This article can be found in the East2 Insider’s Guide to Bethnal Green Magazine 2015. – See more at: http://issuu.com/walkeast/docs/east_2_2015_issuu_2 

London Buddhist Centre

Located on Roman Road, the London Buddhist Centre used to be a fire station when it first opened in 1888. Nowadays its Victorian red-brick building is home not to fire engines but beautiful murals and ornate shrine rooms complete with Buddha figures and paintings.

Sunday 10am – 5pm

51 Roman Road, E2 0HU, London

Oxford House

Designed by Arthur Blomfield in 1891 (who also designed the Royal College of Music among others), Oxford House was the first “University Settlement”, allowing students from the University of Oxford to interact with urban London. Nowadays Oxford House is a community and arts centre, containing a theatre and a beautiful Victorian chapel. Oxford House is also just opposite a Pocket Park which was opened in 2014.

Saturday 10am – 5pm

Derbyshire Street, E2 6HG, London

Mint Street

Located on the corner of Coventry Road and Witan Street just off Cambridge Heath Road, Mint Street is a beautiful new housing development of 67 flats. The project calls itself a 21^st-century reinterpretation of the traditional mansion block, standing tall amid the hustle and bustle of the railways next door.

Saturday 10am – 1pm

corner of Coventry Road and Witan Street, E2 6JL, London

Trevelyan House

A modern, redesigned maisonette within a concrete block of maisonettes designed in the 1950s by Sir Denys Lasdun, who also designed the Royal National Theatre on the South Bank.

Sunday 11am – 5pm

7 Trevelyan House, Morpeth Street, E2 0PY, London

Visit http://www.openhouselondon.org.uk/towerhamlets  to see all the buildings in Tower Hamlets taking part in the festival, as well as opening times.

-By Abdul Huson

Read Part 1 about places to visit in Bethnal Green

Open House London, London’s biggest architecture festival allowing for free access to many of the capital’s beautiful buildings, is taking place this weekend, and there’s plenty to see in East London too. Many of Bethnal Green’s historic and fascinating buildings will open their doors for tours, walks and talks, allowing everyone to learn a bit more about architecture and urban design for free. In a two-part series, we will showcase some of the amazing architecture that you can witness here in E2.

20 Winkley Street

From the outside, 20 Winkley Street looks like a traditional brick house, located just off the old Bethnal Green Road. But enter and you are greeted with a contemporary three storey open plan house so well hidden from public view. The lack of doors and walls, as well as the vast glazing means that the assuming little building contains a vast amount of space, scale and light.

Saturday 10am – 1pm

20 Winkley Street, E2 6PY, London

Boundary

Located just off Boundary Estate, Britain’s first ever council housing, the Boundary building is home to a number of restaurants, bedrooms and a bakery. The original building was converted in 2008 from its origins as a Victorian warehouse, yet preserved many of its attractive industrial features – from the double height basement to the sash windows that flood the bedrooms with light.

Saturday&Sunday 10am – 5pm

2-4 Boundary Street, E2 7DD, London

Four Corners

Four Corners is a unique arts organisation located on Roman Road. Its website boasts that it is “where filmmakers, photographers, artists, trainees and local people work together”. The building itself was renovated in 2007, so it now includes darkrooms, galleries, a garden and a beautiful environmentally friendly roof.

Saturday 10am – 5pm

121 Roman Road, E2 0QN, London

Lawdale Primary School Community House

Completed just recently, Lawdale Primary School’s Community House received an extension by Tower Hamlets Council. The patterned design and details make direct reference to the local area. The architect will be present to share their vision of the space, which is used by a number of schools nearby.

Saturday 10am – 1pm

Mansford Street, E2 6LS, London

Visit http://www.openhouselondon.org.uk/towerhamlets  to see all the buildings in Tower Hamlets taking part in the festival, as well as opening times.

-By Abdul Huson

Read Part 2 about places to visit in Bethnal Green