As my chauffeur eases the van between the over-hanging trees down the hill to Abbey Wood campsite, our excitement fizzes like Champagne in a flute. As two Londoners and now happy West Sussex denizens we still get that Champagne fizz when we return as tourists to the city of our birth.
No sooner have we parked under the parakeets perching in the ancient oak trees (12th Century Lesnes Abbey’s ruins are just over the road) and we’re off for the 5-minute walk to Abbey Wood’s Elizabeth Line. We’ve been promising ourselves this trip since the line opened in 2022.
In 15 minutes we pop into Whitechapel’s bustle: to the sari shop beside the salwar kameez shop, their mannequins decked out in luscious silks and voile; and the angel topped fountain, dedicated to Edward VII, from the ‘Jewish Inhabitants of East London’ in 1911.
Across the road, the mosque’s white and blue tiles and minarets are outlined against a Winter sky – centuries of immigrants to this area making it a vibrant hive of life.
Whitechapel Gallery has hosted works by Frida Kahlo, Picasso and colleagues and is still a cutting-edge exhibition space. The gallery was once the ‘People’s University of the East End’, used by Eastenders seeking a ‘sanctuary from poverty’ among periodicals which expressed radical ideas about ‘art, literature and politics’.
My scientific partner-in-crime is not usually terribly enamoured with my art adventures, but this time I have to prise him away from the Peter Kennard exhibition.
Kennard says his art “erupts from outrage at … [how] financial profit rules every nook and cranny of our society.’ Seán’s especially taken with Margaret Thatcher’s face superimposed on Queen Victoria, while I wander around the new exhibition entitled Archipelago because I’m addicted to colour and the sailing boat with collage printed sail is beautiful as is the modern reworking of the traditional triptych by Nigerian Austrian artist Cameron Ugbodu.
As we move closer to the skyline of the Gherkin and Walkie-talkie, passing Aldgate Station, the buildings are more upmarket.
Spitalfields is buzzing, the fairy lights in the trees making it seem as if we’re starring in a Christmas movie. Christchurch Spitalfields’ steeple and imposing steps to the colonnaded entrance is impossibly romantic.
As we poke our noses inside the lavender lit interior, the well tattooed vicar asks us to wait outside for the 5 O’clock service.
Instead we mooch around the market. I’m taken straight away by the My World stand, featuring a project from My London whereby homeless people are given a disposable camera to take photographs. The results are stunning. I choose four cards while chatting about the project with Richard Fletcher, who’s delighted I’ve selected his photo of ‘Homesick’ – a mural on a run-down building by artist Claudio Picasso.
Just outside Spitalfields Market, the street light shines on the Herd of Hope bronze elephants by Gillie and Marc.
One adult and twenty orphaned juveniles can be found in the area, each one representing a real orphaned elephant, with QR codes where you can watch a rescue video on each one. Whitechapel and Spitalfields just fizzes with creativity and life – a perfect Winter getaway.
Campervan Therapy 
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