Pent Up Anger
Artist Aida Wilde is angry. She asked for local legend Edwin’s iconic slogan, ‘SHITHOUSE TO PENTHOUSE’ – an artwork curated by her – to be removed from the newly refurbished Lord Napier pub. She didn’t want the incoming landlords to financially benefit from Edwin’s cheeky provocation. Aida rightly asks, “I caused Hackney Wick to become […]
Meet Stephanie Galea
The enforced confinement of lockdown saw many strangely beautiful adaptations to the challenging circumstances. Photographer and fine artist Stephanie Galea produced the scorching images shown here for Vogue Arabia and Harpers Bazaar Arabia with the judicious placement of floaty backdrops and some planters up on the roof of her local residential block. “The weather was […]
The Wicked One: Martin Richman
How did you come to HWFI? We found the place I live at now when it was still a working factory. Around 2002 a developer had bought the site, he’s showing us round and I think ‘I would love to live here’. I got together with a few friends and we bought the whole back […]
Reinventing the High Street
From illegal-squat raves and graffiti to repurposed derelict buildings, Hackney Wick’s history is written on its streets. And while the near weekly-opening of new businesses, coupled with the hordes of ‘tourists’ might appear to bring a sanitisation of the area, one local organisation is hoping to steer the neighbourhood towards a new unique future. The […]
Jirkeeyga collection
With the continuing rise of fast fashion and the devastating consequences it is having on our environment, sustainable fashion is strengthening its offensive. Organisations like Swap Nation are being erected with the aim of making ‘sustainable fashion affordable for women in the UK’. Clothes are being repurposed and vintage being back in vogue is further […]
Upcycle, recycle, full circle
For some years, scaffolding boards and other ‘waste’ materials from the Olympic Park were used for mezzanine-building, warehouse modifications and much more in Hackney Wick. Almost a decade ago, Tom Fletcher created his Rejuce factory in a Fish Island warehouse, collecting discarded fruit from a wholesale market. Another warehouse-dweller I knew fantasised about closed-circuit hydroponic […]
Meet DollyOlli
How did you meet each other? Marie: We met at a non-reality party, far, far away on the planet fantasy. Money doesn’t matter there, its full of eccentrics, there are no grey square rectangular buildings, they’re all round and colourful. Everything is illogical. How long have you been here? M: The Olympics finished and we […]
Wellbeing in the Wick
Kevin Hempsted is a born and bred Eastender, and runs White Post Lane therapy and counselling centre A Balanced Life. He talks about how the pandemic has impacted health, and why the local community is so essential to all our wellbeing. We’re still processing the trauma of the past year… Lockdown has taken away part of community we all need – that contact with […]
Esports Explosion
The esports industry has grown astronomically over the last few years, and the popularity of computer and console gaming has been the main driver. Since 2012 the global games market has more than doubled in size from $70.6bn to $180bn in 2021. East London, and the Here East campus in particular, has become a hub […]
Fit out to public house
It’s said that the celebrated photographer David Bailey’s grandmother collected glasses there and was paid in gin. Certainly printers, mechanics, scrap metal merchants and more all bowled into it before its closure in the mid-90s. Then all-night ravers and partyheads found more discrete ways in until the door was breeze-blocked a few years back. An […]
