Page 129 - Spitalfields News Today

STAY: The Holiday Inn Express in Barrow A FORMER army sergeant mistreated his daughter and head butted a police officer while on holiday in Barrow last year, a court heard. The dad, 33, who cannot be identified, got so drunk he lay down on a bench and his daughter was rescued by a passing stranger who saw the little girl was distressed. Preston Crown Court heard the ex-soldier was staying at the Holiday Inn with his daughter, eight, and his girlfriend - who was not the youngster’s mum. ...

Men who spent their working lives underground found a new world of freedom in racing birds. In Ron Berry’s 1982 story ‘Time Spent’, Lewis Rimmer, a 57-year-old Welsh miner, decides to die among his pigeons. After ‘nigh on 30 years’ hewing coal in the Fawr pit, his lungs are full of dust and, since he can no longer work, the mine is forced to make him redundant. He is entitled to compensation and, as he is reminded, the union should help out, too. But the thought terrifies him. His who...

Last modified on Mon 5 Apr 2021 11.58 EDT Pete Pentecost, who used to hand out the free City AM newspaper to commuters at Bank station in London’s Square Mile, found himself placed on furlough when the first coronavirus lockdown was declared a year ago. It got worse: after three months, he lost his job and eventually applied for universal credit, which took seven weeks to arrive. “We thought we were going to go back in September, but they’ve taken all the racks away; City AM is just onlin...

Aerial view of Armona Island, Ria Formosa, Algarve, Portugal. Photograph: Eulalia Cayuela Martinez/Getty Images Aerial view of Armona Island, Ria Formosa, Algarve, Portugal. Photograph: Eulalia Cayuela Martinez/Getty Images Armona, off the Algarve, has been home since Covid’s second wave – and I’ve grown to love its beauty, simplicity and kindness Sat 3 Apr 2021 02.00 EDT The sun is slowly rising over the Atlantic and I sit watching from the house I have rented overlooking dunes on the sm...

Owen Pacey’s Shoreditch home is packed with artefacts he restores and sells Back to life: a magnificent restored French bedhead. Photograph: Graham Aktins-Hughes/The Observer Back to life: a magnificent restored French bedhead. Photograph: Graham Aktins-Hughes/The Observer Sat 3 Apr 2021 11.00 EDT On the ground floor of Owen Pacey’s house in London’sShoreditch, huge chandeliers dangle like dowager’s pendants from the rafters. Marble fireplaces, cool and veined, are propped next to gilde...

Time Out Group is seeking to raise £2million more than it originally planned from its fundraising round following strong demand from institutional investors. It now says it expects to raise £17million from issuing more than 48.5 million shares that constitute 17.1 per cent of the magazine publishers total share capital. The media firms announcement comes two days after it released financial results showing its year-on-year losses surged by 91 per cent in the last six months of 2020. Media fir...

By Tom Lowe2021-03-16T16:25:00+00:00 Peabody planning homes at former Ford Dagenham car factory in east London Peabody is planning on building 1,500 homes on a disused site in Dagenham after receiving an £80m grant from the Greater London Authority. The funding from City Hall’s Affordable Housing Programme has enabled the housing association to acquire the 45-acre site at the historic Ford Dagenham stamping plant, which opened in 1931 and produced over 10 million cars before closing in 201...

These are unusual times, and the state of affairs can change quickly. Please check the latest travel guidance before making your journey. Note that our writer visited pre-pandemic. There are a lot of experiential must-dos in East London, from visiting the flower market at Columbia Road to strolling along the Regent’s Canal, admiring the street art as you go and maybe stopping off at a historic pub or two. Its a slightly rougher, more creative side of the city – which of course adds to...

Clean air campaigners at the 2018 Tower Hamlets local elections - Credit: Stockshot/Green Party campaigners A film warning children about air pollution exposes an “environmental crisis” they face growing up next to the A12 Blackwall Tunnel approach.  The film  Time for Change - which is being screened next week - shows how traffic affects air quality. The six-lane dual carriageway running through Poplar and Bromley-by-Bow is one of the most-heavily used traffic routes in Lon...

Personal Story: Street fighting girls In 1980s Sheffield, we dressed in jockey silks, danced like we meant it and fought because we had to. I once left a letter for Tracey Emin behind the bar of her local, the Golden Heart, in Spitalfields, London. It was after I saw her film about auditioning in Margate for the British Disco Dance Championship, the crowd chanting “slag” when she began her routine. I knew as well as Tracey why the audience was afraid. Dancing tells them something about ho...