eccz's travelogue: Kopapa & Boxpark

Throughout the weekend, my housemate H has been asking me to accompany her to try out a restaurant in Covent Garden, called Kopapa. It is an asian fusion cuisine restaurant that serve a variety of breakfast all day. I thought that it might be a good idea for us to take a break from our coursework and assignments to get out of our neighbourhood (our neighbourhood where our university is located) and explore a bit about London. So, I randomly chose a place from my "Places-to-visit-in-London-list" and combine it with H's chosen place to become our itinerary of the day, which is...

Kopapa at Covent Garden (H's chosen place) and Boxpark at Shoreditch High Street (my chosen place).

#1. Of course, other than taking a break from our coursework and assignment, I also thought that this outing might be good chance for me to explore the ideas suggested in this book to explore the city.

#2. This is my second pair of legs as it bring me to every corner of London;

this is my compass, it will lead me back home if I am lost;

this is the Northern Line, the vehicle of 252,310,000 passengers per year.

Although the restaurant that we wanted to visit is located in Covent Garden, however we decided to get down from the tube at Leicester Square Station and walk to Covent Garden. With this, we can explore more about this area surrounding as we have never walked from Leicester Square to Covent Garden before.

(As an outcome of the walking from Leicester Square to Covent Garden, we found out that both places are actually located quite closely to each other.)

#3. While walking to Covent Garden, I have found this boutique along the street. I am not sure about the boutique's name, but I found it quite interesting that the shop owner used a kitchen glove as the mannequin's glove.

#4. This is probably the most common kind of road junction that you will find in city of London.

It is not a cross junction nor a T-junction, it is a star junction.

#5. Rectangle is all I see in this view.

Rectangle bricks, rectangle doors, rectangle windows, rectangle road, rectangle signage, rectangle flag...

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#12. Construction workers in one of the shops in Covent Garden.

After our breakfast and a short walk around Covent Garden, we decided that we should get going to our next destination - Boxpark, which is located right beside Shoreditch High Street overground station. However, we decided that we should take a the tube to Liverpool Street station and walk to Boxpark (about 10 - 15 minutes of walk).

#13. It took me for almost two years to realise that the monograms of the seats inside the train of Central Line are the illustration of London Eye.

#14. Liverpool Street Station.
An architecture that have a mixture in preservation (design of the building, the column) and modernity (class roof, electronic signage, ecalator).

#15. To me, vandalism is not a destruction or spoiling anything beautiful.

It is a way to make a thing or place unique.

Vandalism can be beautiful too, it solely depends on how you perceive the image of the thing or place.

The walk from Liverpool Street station to Boxpark has given me a chance to explore the neighbourhood around this area as I did not step into this area before.

In this side of London, you can find a huge contrast between modernity and traditionalism.

Modern side

During the starting of the walk, I saw various kind of skyscraper around me, they are all at least 10 storeys high covered with green and blue windows whereby some are reflective some are not. I guess this is where the word "glass ceiling" came from, because from the bottom you can see the offices on top of you, but you may not necessary enable to work in that position (pic17).

The people around there are all dressed very formal (mostly grey and black) with a serious expression on their faces and have little interaction with others. For Max Weber, the origins of modernity are located in the transition from organic to mechanical society, a shift in which people operate as individuals, on the basis of self-interest, with each person seeking to profit from interaction. Probably this explains the interaction and facial expression of the people here, because of the basis of self-interest it has gradually lead to self-isolation.

#16. William Mitchell has once claimed that everything that you see, heard, touch or smell may stimulate your memories and emotions.

Indeed, every time I see a construction site, it reminds me of what my father told me when I was young, it would be like a instant flashback of the scene in the car where he told me that the height of the construction crane represent the height of the building that is going to be built.

Up till today, I do not know if what he said was valid, but what matters the most here is have the memory of it.

#17. Indirectly, glass architecture was meant to induce and exemplify the organisation's transparency, honesty and clarity. Wether that really is true or not..

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Preservative, traditionalism, expression side
After the very modern side of the neighbourhood, with all the various heights of skyscrapers, along the street as we walk, I had started to realise the instant difference of this area. From skyscrapers to old bricks shop lots and houses. This area had the mixture of both an international multimillion dollar businesses and domestic small family inherited businesses.

#18. City of London

#19. Construction jobs, I call it the "someone-need-to-do-it-job", without them, the city wouldn't be like how you see it today.

#20. The contrast between two different area that is separated by a thin layer of wooden wall.

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#22. Driving in the city. We tend to rely on the signage on the road.

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#25. The grey pipe on the upper right of the building look like a handcuff to me. One the left of the painting it has mentioned that shoplifters (crime) are welcome into the shop, then on the right there is a drawing of a hand stealing something off a briefcase (illegal, crime). Hence, the sudden appearance of the grey piping system there on top of the drawing hand's wrist subconsciously has send a message to the people that it is illegal to steal that you may get caught.

#26. Everything here are being painted and covered. The car is covered with advertisement stickers, the wall of the building is painted with words, the pillar is covered with red and white plastic.

#27. This train of thought leads nowhere. No point of you thinking without action.

#28. This picture along with the picture below (pic 29) is found in a street across Boxpark, these wall are the wall of the building's back alley. The wording of this wall form the word, extortionist. I find this wall very relevant to the drawing I came across earlier (pic 25). Perhaps these painting tells something about this area.