I remember the first time I came to the wick, it was hardly love at first site. I had got the train from my then home, in the suburban tranquillity of Ealing, to visit my friends Claire and Debs, who had decided to become very trendy by moving East, into a Warehouse.
What a shit hole! was my first thought, then followed by, why the hell would anyone want to live here? It felt like the arse end of nowhere, there was nothing about (apart from Dennis's Premiere shop and a greasy spoon cafe (with rough workmen) and with the Wick being mainly an industrial estate, it was hardly an oil painting. In fact it was just dam ugly and depressing. It grew on me a little, over the time I visited them there. They threw some good parties (why of course!) but I still wasn't sold on the idea of living in a warehouse in Hackney Wick. So how the hell did I end of living here, in place that I didn't even like? Well the answer is because, I was never meant to be living here! I had once again found myself living my nomadic existence again (A common occurrence with my job), sleeping on people's sofa's as I had nowhere to live in London, because I had been working in Manchester for 6 months. After moving from house to house for weeks, Debs and Claire said I could stay at their place for 2 weeks while they were on holiday. I never left, and 5 years later I find myself teary eyed, packing the few belongings I have into boxes. The truth is I don't want to leave. The Wick gets under your skin. It swallows you whole, this bazaar little community, where you know all your neighbours (a first for me in London); where there is always a party if you want one; and where everyone is slightly a bit crazy and odd. Maybe that's why I stayed. I finally found people like me.
If it possible to fall in love with four walls, I have fallen in love with the bricks and concrete (or more like plaster board in our case) of unit 24, Oslo House. I have lived with over 17 different people, in the last 5 years. Some have come and gone, others have become some of the most important people in my life.
I will miss lots of things. I will miss Alex telling me to take out the recycling; I will miss Oli telling me off for putting some thing wrong, in the dishwasher again!; I will miss turning the lights off after Angus has left them on; I will miss hearing my neighbour snoring at night (Yes! The walls are that thin)!; I will miss roof top BBQ's; I will miss my roof top garden; I will miss cats in the shower and in the sink; I will miss bike parts in the shower and in the sink!; I will miss falling to sleep with the pounding sound of a house party; I will miss Jon knocking on our door every two seconds; I will miss having a bottle of wine and a chat with Laura; I will miss Oli's cooking (God! It's so good); I will miss suckey time with Hank (This is not as bad as it sounds!); I will miss Moomin Trolls little noises; I will miss a 100 mile strokes with Cassius (Again not as bad as it sounds!); I will waking up to that picture of Tim Roth above my bed, that some one thought was funny to put there because I was working with him (Who put that there actually?); I will miss Wii bowling nights with the boys; I will miss popping down to Dennis for a bottle of wine, a Purdeys and spicy chili crackers; I will miss going to work early in the morning and finding my neighbour passed out face down in the corridor because he's got drunk again!; and I will miss the cold winters (actually I'm joking about that one)! I will miss all these things and so many more.
So I sit and look around the flat. I have experienced the most fun, happiness, laughter, love and joy in this place. I have also experienced the most pain, hurt, sadness and disappointment here too. I look around again. There have been so many times when people told me to leave this place, that it wasn't good for me anymore, but I stayed all the same and have no regrets with that, not for one second. It was the right decision, but now I feel its time to move on. There are too many ghosts now. So I close a chapter on my life and open a new one. I love you Hackney Wick and always will. I'll be back from time to time, but for now I'll just have to take the memories.
THE PARTIES
It's what the Wick is known for and believe me, we had some good one's over the years! Here they are:
THE 80's ONE
My first party in the Wick. Most memorable for me for dumping my dad with my sister so I could go; I didn't go in fancy dress (So unlike me); and it was the first time I met Fraser, who is now a good friend of mine (We met getting drunk while eating Haribo's)!
THE NATIVITY ONE
I still didn't live in the Wick when this one happened. Most Memorable for me buying my whole outfit from Warrington market and calling myself the "Chav Angel"; for getting so drunk and putting on a giant Christmas cracker that my friend had made and falling over in it, thus looking like a turtle on its back!THE MOUSTACHE ONE
My first party as a tenant in the Wick. Most memorable for it being the first time I had drank in over 3 months (I'd been really sick with a kidney infection); the band turning up looking like homeless people (I think they were?) with a dog; and for some bastard nicking my favourite hat.
THE ONE THAT WASN'T MEANT TO BE ONE!
I was sat in one night with my boyfriend of the time having a quite time, when my ex and all his mates turned up. Slightly strange at first, but turned into one big piss up. Memorable for me being really drunk and telling one of my ex's friends who I use to have a thing with that I really liked it when we use to lay in bed together and watched water colour challenge (no wonder I'm single)!
THE PANTO ONE
KYLEE'S BIRTHDAY
Oli and Angus decided to cook dinner for 30 people for Angus's girlfriend's birthday. Most memorable for great food and Alex standing up and taking the most unusual order ever (I Can't really say anymore than that, but I have never seen so many people's jaws drop in my life)!
Check out this video of the night.
JAN's ONE
My ex's 30th. Most memorable for it being the most crowded party ever and I didn't even know most of the people; a fight; some guy letting off pepper spray, so we had to evacuate the whole party; the toilet flooding; and basically the whole place getting trashed!
My 30th. Most memorable for tennis on the roof top; costume changes; and for someone walking in on me, in my room with just my underwear on, with a guy, but isn't wasn't what it seemed!!!!
We had all make grand plans for New Year again, which as usual no one put into play and we found ourselves on New Years eve with nothing to do and no where to go. We decided that as we were all adults now, so we would have a sensible adult like dinner party. As you can imagine, it being us, this did not occur and it turned out to me one of the messiest nights ever! Most memorable for sitting on a table and collapsing it; hanging the Christmas tree up side down in the corridor; and me being so wasted, I threw up and was rolling around on the bathroom floor as I thought there was an evil cat inside of me!!!
THE ONE ON THE ROOF
Josephine one of our neighbours, asked to use our oven due to the fact she was doing a dinner club for 50 people and didn't have enough space. Due to our generosity she invited us to eat at the dinner party as well. Even better there was a heat wave in London and she decided to do it on the roof terrace. Its most memorable for the cats sitting under the DJ decks, the boy's playing half naked table tennis, and being shut down by the police at 2.00am for noise pollution!!!
THE JANE FONDA WORKOUT V'S DAVID CARRADINE KUNG-FU ONE
I wanted to wear a leotard, the boy's wanted to do Kung-Fu moves, so we decided on both. Its most memorable for camel's hoof; Alex stripping on top of a table to Crystal Castles and then some girl saying "Its because of girls like you, girls get raped!" Well you can imagine how that went down.
THE LAUNDRETTE ONE
The wick always likes to do something different, and some bright spark came up with the idea to have one in the 24 hour laundrette, as it wasn't staffed. I have never been to a party before where I'm sat in a washing machine with a vodka and lemonade. I would of loved to have been a fly on the wall when they went into check on the laundrette the next day!!!!
MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN HACKNEY WICK
THE CASE OF THE £800 MONKEY
Me and my ex Jan had taken over the contract on unit 24. I had arranged everything, the bill's, changing over with the landlord's. I had only asked him to do one thing: To find a cleaner as with so many of us living there, it was a constant nightmare with cleaning. I kept moaning at him, as the time went on, and still he hadn't arranged a cleaner. Then one day at work I received an email from him, with a picture, saying, "I haven't found a cleaner yet, but I have found a monkey for sale in Bristol for £800. Can we get it?"
I was so angry, but then I kept looking at the picture of the monkey, and the stupidity of it all, and then I just couldn't stop laughing. Even now when I'm having a bad day I sometimes still look at that picture of the bloody £800 monkey and it still makes me laugh.
UNDERAGE RAVE NIGHT
It's my first night out in the wick, as an actual resident. Some one suggests we go to the Lord Napier, a squatters pub around the corner which holds rave nights, as they have heard there is something going on. We turn up and are just about to go in, when some guy stops me at the door.
"Sorry love you can't come in. Your too old. It's under age rave night!"
What! What! Under age rave night. What the hell is the world coming to. Apparently the under age rave night use to be a common occurrence at the Napier, but then the police clamped down. The other year though me and Rohan my housemate popped out to the shop to get a bottle of wine, only to find the streets crawling with drunken 16 year olds and police van's. We stood there with our arms folded looking on disgust, with the rest of the residents of the wick, as teenagers threw up everywhere, swore a lot, and threw stuff at the police van's as they were ejected from the rave. I remember it all feeling very ironic as we stood there looking at them in disdain, as done of us in the Wick are model citizens ourselves. That's why we live there.
MISSING CATS!
Everyone who knows us, knows how much we love our cats. We are a bit stupid with them. We treat them like our children. So if anything happened to them, we would be heart broken, and believe me over the years they have tested us, with going on their own little adventures IE: going missing! There was the time, I was at the opera and I got a million text messages saying that Moomin troll had gone missing (I'm not sure what I could do as I'm at the bloody opera)! I came home to find a load of missing posters around the building, but when I opened the door there was Moomin troll! Then there was the time I was in the corridor when I saw 2 guys looking a bit lost. "Are you missing a cat?" they said.
"No. Ours can't get out" I replied confidently.
"There is one in our flat and it looks like a tiger" they said.
"Hank!"
I rushed down to their flat and there he was; just sat there looking at me, meowing. It is still a mystery to this today on how he got into a locked first floor flat. Oh! and then there was the time When Cassius jumped of the roof and me and Alex spent most of the day crying and Oli put up loads of laminated posters around the Wick (He eventually turned up near the bin's)! But nothing can beat the time when I got a text message in South America informing me that Moomin had got stuck on the roof and 6 firemen were now attempting to rescue her! What the hell! It's a good job we love those cats so much!
FASHION, FASHION!
My old housemate Ssam was a fashion photographer. She lived and breathed fashion. She even said "Fashion!" a lot. She also brought fashion to the flat, by doing quite a few shoots at ours. I would often come home to find the place full of stylists and make up artists. The best thing though was the models. To be more precise the male models! Though the first time there was one in the flat I had just walked in after a 2 day bender and looked like shit! I quickly ran to the bathroom and piled on some make-up, though he turned out to be very dull (he was still good to look at; he just didn't need to open his mouth)! I even styled a shoot for her to, which Ssam had the poor model running around on the roof, nearly killing her, but the photos looked bloody good.
Check out this video for Glass Magazine which was made in our flat.
Everyone who knows us, knows how much we love our cats. We are a bit stupid with them. We treat them like our children. So if anything happened to them, we would be heart broken, and believe me over the years they have tested us, with going on their own little adventures IE: going missing! There was the time, I was at the opera and I got a million text messages saying that Moomin troll had gone missing (I'm not sure what I could do as I'm at the bloody opera)! I came home to find a load of missing posters around the building, but when I opened the door there was Moomin troll! Then there was the time I was in the corridor when I saw 2 guys looking a bit lost. "Are you missing a cat?" they said.
"No. Ours can't get out" I replied confidently.
"There is one in our flat and it looks like a tiger" they said.
"Hank!"
I rushed down to their flat and there he was; just sat there looking at me, meowing. It is still a mystery to this today on how he got into a locked first floor flat. Oh! and then there was the time When Cassius jumped of the roof and me and Alex spent most of the day crying and Oli put up loads of laminated posters around the Wick (He eventually turned up near the bin's)! But nothing can beat the time when I got a text message in South America informing me that Moomin had got stuck on the roof and 6 firemen were now attempting to rescue her! What the hell! It's a good job we love those cats so much!
HACKNEY WICK FLEA MARKET
Our friend Eric decided to organise a flea market in Hackney Wick and to show our support we decided to set up a store at the first ever one. It being us it was never going to go to plan. I turned up pissed from partying the night before; Ssam my housemate decided to sell off some of her clothes (She had so many), but didn't really get the term flea market as she was trying to sell Chanel and Jill Sander at high prices (Which doesn't work in the Wick), So she hardly sold anything as she didn't get the concept of bargaining either; and Kylee decided to sell sangria which did very well, too well in fact as I think we drank most of the profits. Basically we were shit in the terms of business but no one cared, the sun was shining and the Wick was at its best.
My old housemate Ssam was a fashion photographer. She lived and breathed fashion. She even said "Fashion!" a lot. She also brought fashion to the flat, by doing quite a few shoots at ours. I would often come home to find the place full of stylists and make up artists. The best thing though was the models. To be more precise the male models! Though the first time there was one in the flat I had just walked in after a 2 day bender and looked like shit! I quickly ran to the bathroom and piled on some make-up, though he turned out to be very dull (he was still good to look at; he just didn't need to open his mouth)! I even styled a shoot for her to, which Ssam had the poor model running around on the roof, nearly killing her, but the photos looked bloody good.
LILLI ES
I love flowers. Maybe its because I have been brought up around them, with my mum being a florist, and Lillie's are my favourites. It was my birthday and I came home to find that Oli and Angus had gone out and brought me the most amazing bunches of Lillie's. My boyfriend who had been completely out done, got in a bit of a mood and said they made him sneeze and that they had to go outside. I ignored him. They were so beautiful.
THE THINGS YOU FIND IN THE WICK
Oli my housemate loves collecting things, and especially from around the wick. He will collect any old shit. Usually these scary doll's which he knows I hate, but there was also a model ship and a huge dog mascot head I found one morning when I woke up. I'm sure though his favourite find is the 80's porno mags he found near the bin's. All I can say is they didn't have Brazilian's in those days!
Oh we know how to party in the wick. Check out this video of a street party at the 2011 Hackney Wicked festival.
