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Piccadilly Line

Feb 272014
 

PICCADILLY LINE

The man sitting opposite me on the tube
is reading Moby Dick.
He’s not quite
halfway through.
I haven’t attempted the novel myself
as I’ve heard
there’s a lot of superfluous information
about whaling.
And I’m not that interested
in whaling.
But I am quite interested
in the man
who changes at Holborn.

LEIGHTON CRITCHLEY

About the author

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 Tagged with: Bloomsbury, Covent Garden, Leighton Critchley, Poetry, Romance, Transport, Tube, West End
  Old Canary Wharf Pier   Traditional London Street Games No. 3

Selections from the Smoke Shop...

From the Slopes of Olympus to the Banks of the Lea

£15

Soho!

[the Smoke board game]

£15

back issues of Smoke

£1.67 - £2.50 each

Click the images for more info, or HERE to go to the shop.

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Looking back through the clouds…


London’s Campest Statues No.15

Yuri Gagarin, Greenwich Observatory by Matt Haynes
When, at 06:07 on the morning of 12th April 1961, Lieutenant Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin of the Soviet Air Force strapped himself into the capsule of Vostok 1 as it waited on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and uttered the words “Let’s go!”, thus inaugurating the history of manned space flight, it always seemed likely that, should he return safely, he would be fêted around the world. [read more...]

Sherlock Holmes and the Howling Desert of South London

by Lucy Munro
I’ve been re-reading Sherlock Holmes. Not in the doorstopper collection with almost see-through paper that I bought when I was about thirteen and lugged to school and back for a blissful fortnight, immersed in its foggy miasma and gleefully drinking in the details of Holmes’ not-so-secret drug habit. No, this time I’m encountering Holmes in a £1.99 Wordsworth paperback comprising everything up to his demise at the Reichenbach Falls, a death from which he was never intended to return. [read more...]

The Oddfellows of Highbury Fields

by Jude Rogers
Highbury Fields, ten in the morning, the soft breaths of early summer rising from glossy blades of grass. Today, N5 is showing off in the sunshine, wiggling her shoulders, hoisting up her skirts, auditioning her exquisiteness for a Richard Curtis rom-com. [read more...]

… and these are some of the photos we took:

Jubilee River Pageant, Bermondsey - click to enlarge Rat graffiti, Hackney Road Signals at Royal Oak
CLICK ANY WHITE-FRAMED PHOTO IN ANY POST TO SEE A LARGE VERSION

NEW BOOK PROJECTS (still open for submissions)

Click on covers for more info. Most recent posts are below.

Night Bus to Camden

  • Mascara in Sapphire
  • The Lucky Cat Watches
  • Lit by Fury
  • Let’s All Meet Up In The Year 2000
  • Poppers and Opal Fruits

Smoke on the Water

  • Perigee
  • Going Underground
  • Reservoir Geese
  • Battersea Baptism
  • Morning Tea with George

Please Do Not Touch The Walrus

  • Please Do Not Point At The Sun
  • Please Do Not Practise Any Form Of Golf
  • Please Do Not Climb On The Horse
  • Please Do Not Hang About Aimlessly
  • Please Do Not Use This Oyster Reader
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