September 2026. Stepney. East London.
A long trip down south for a dear friend’s funeral and some hospital trips at the in-laws, broken up with a night just shy of the Dartford Tunnel.
Can you really say you’ve lived if you’ve never been to Lakeside Thurrock shopping centre ?
It’s half an hour walk to Chafford Hundred station, less bucolic than it sounds, then half an hour more on what feels like a party train to Limehouse.
We’ll return to E14 and the Clement soon, but my target takes me across an invisible border to Stepney in E1.
This is genuinely thrilling, a Saturday night in a London suburb I’ve barely grazed before. Look at the map extract;
Canary Wharf, the Tower of London, Tandleman’s London pad, and the gorgeous Dickensian riverside pubs within easy reach.
Stepney itself is quite a small area now, bounded by the Blind Beggar, the Troxy, a city farm and some gorgeous churches,
But as always in London, it’s the contrasts you notice first.
I’m in Stepney for a couple of things, but achieve neither, leaving my crispy beef takeaway order too late, and finding the “recommended pub” unexpectedly closed. An “x” on my ale tick, if you like.
But as one pub door remains closed, another will be wide open…
…but, sadly, not that one.
retiredmartin 