T his column aims to be a longer-form version of the memes you may or may not have seen and know me for. A written take, if you will, of the visual cliches or wry observations of the world as I see it.
If you’ve been a follower of mine before you encountered me here, you may remember the early days of the page, when you’d often see multiple long-form stories throughout the day extolling random points that helped explain my dissections of London Society.
This is a version of that. Grown up, editorialised and presented back in the real world, not just on social media.
Welcome to column two.
If my last article looked at north London and the disparate differences that bring its people together, perfectly captured through the Endz Department of Research and Florrie – two other personalities you will know if you are chronically online – then this article leads us to examine why east London has gone from being somewhere people accidentally became creative because they lived there, to somewhere people move to perform being creative becausee they live there.
You can’t talk about east London (at least in the current sense, not in a Kray twins or pirate radio way) without mentioning Nathan Barley. The cult underdog Channel 4 miniseries coined the term “east London hipsters” around 2005. It highlighted the ultra-trendy, quirky-expensive “immersive” dining scene and strange fashion trends so well back then that it’s barely aged a day. If Chris Morris, one of the series’ writers (along with the illustrious social commentator Charlie Brooker, also behind Black Mirror), was an oracle for what the future of Shoreditch would continually develop to look like, then the east London-centric meme pages are his modern-day equivalent.
Twenty years ago, the joke was that east Londoners were known to pride themselves on their individuality – and it just so happened that everyone looked the same. Today, we’ve replaced the fedoras with the slick back, but there’s a small comfort in knowing we’ve not moved on.
The main striking difference from the Morris days is the new wave of Australian immigration to London Fields. What happened to Clapham and Battersea? Are Antipodeans the reason Broadway Market looks like a fashion runway most days? And why are world-renowned pop stars like Mrs XCX now having their wedding after parties at small local bars in Dalston Kingsland? These are all questions I ponder when I cast my mind to east.
I suppose the enduring appeal of east is the homogeny, the anonymity, the sameeeee-ness. It’s the place where you can think, with a shrug, “Well, all the trendy people are doing it, I will, too.”
Why wouldn’t you want to be hanging out and living around all of these attractive, stylish 30-year-olds? Where else are you going to uphold your ballet-flatty, Lime bike-powered, orange wine-fuelled “mysterious source of income” / “email job” / podcast with a name like Tea and Birkenstox or something “lifestyle”? It has to be east … (got that juice).
As much as you hate it or say you hate it, if you’re buying sourdough at Jolene or Perello olive oil ice-cream, you’re part of the east London “creative” trendsetter ecosystem.
You might think you’re different because you go to the Palm Tree in Mile End and not pay the £7.50 yuppie tax on Guinness at the more popular pubs, or personally know Nev from E Pellicci’s because you did a streetwear brand shoot in there in 2019 or something. But that’s sort of the point. The functional way to live in London is to be part of a community. Even if it’s a cliche east London-type community. You can’t just engage with the new “cool” businesses, and sleep on the places that have been there for decades.
On this tour of east London let’s meet the archetypes of “individuality” along the way:
First, our three-storey townhouse-dweller in London Fields: she’s a “Hyrox-matcha-big-sunglasses-with-a-tiny-dog-situationship” girlie. She is everywhere.
Walking down Goldsmiths Row to Columbia Road: this strip has had more treads of Miu Miu ballet flats and paw prints of Italian greyhounds that have higher dietary costs than your child does per month than anywhere else in the city. Where is the blue plaque?
In east London you see IRL the reels and London photographer pages (@londonersinlondon, for example) that display the swarms of Pinterest mood board-outfitted groups. These gaggles of street fashion clusters create a wide, sprawling cobweb of interconnected hyper trendy east-London-y people that all lead back to Broadway Market
You may ask “WHY HAS EVERYONE STARTED SMOKING VOGUES AND CHIC EURO CIGS?” again. Well, in east, it’s become a key accessory. Cigarettes are as essential as the big sunglasses or white flowy summer dresses. Not advocating the use of them, but apparently, they’re “fine” now.
A little further east, you’ll start to approach the new parent/young family clique, which pushes (read it in a weather report-reader style) into Victoria Park Village area. This spread is growing, evolving into other areas with a constantly developing breed of dubiously stylish deadpan-facial-expressioned Ssense-sale kewl-kids – between the ages of 25 to 38 – with babies. May also be seen with their huge black sunglasses, flat shoes, chains as belts, crop tops, big tees, cowboy boots, basketball shorts, ambiguous skull-tight scrape-back bun, high messy mullet or buzz cut. Also, Vibram toe shoes!
Job-wise, when not at The Sanctuary or Hackney Netil Market roof saunas, they all work from Ozone Coffee on a laptop with a notebook and their phone spread over a table for six hours per day. They’re perfectly comfortable on the wonky chair in Lodestar reciting a pitch deck for a £340k marketing campaign to themselves over Keynote.
They all seem to have time to never actually be glued to a desk – unless you ask if they’re busy, then they’ll jump at the chance to tell you they’re swamped with a deadline.
This unoriginal reflection on east London right now is not a dig; it’s a meme.
It can’t be rude if you’re laughing, and if you’re not, then maybe it’s because you recognise this in yourself. Maybe you’re one of these people we keep walking past. Maybe you’re in that video of slow-motioned slicked-haired individuals walking up and down Broadway Market at sunset drinking natural wine and laughing at nothing on a date with someone you met on Hinge that had “I love hikes and I’ve been to Japan” across their bio.
Whether you’ve moved to east London recently or in the last 10-plus years you’ve probably noticed pivotal shifts in style and the places people are spending their time year by year. I suppose it’s down to you to support the right places and find your own existence, whatever that might be”
