respect
25-04-2005, 06:04 PM
source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/articles/18159410?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5
Emin proud to be Brick Lane girl
By Tracey Emin, Evening Standard
I could afford to live anywhere in London - Notting Hill, Kensington, Richmond. I could up sticks and go and live in a mansion in the countryside. But I have chosen to make my home in the East End because it's the most brilliant, vibrant place in the world. I don't want somewhere all leafy, I want to know I'm living in the heart of London.
According to my local Labour MP, Oona King, the area is "being set alight by racial tension", stirred by her bitter contest with George Galloway for the Bethnal Green and Bow seat. She has warned of a community catastrophe that could last a generation. But I couldn't disagree more.
I bought my house in Spitalfields (built by the 18th-century Huguenots) in 2001 and now I have my studio just a short walk round the corner off Brick Lane. Every day as I walk to work I just look up and gaze at the architecture, which has to be the best in town.
We also have the best shops, the best restaurants - my favourite is St John Bread & Wine on Commercial Street, which is open all day, and where you can buy delicious bread - and lots of really noisy pubs like my old-fashioned local, the Golden Hart. Come down here on a Sunday morning and I guarantee you will be in the trendiest spot in the world.
I have loads of friends who live nearby - such as Jake and Dinos Chapman. It's a high-voltage part of town that has such an exciting dynamic, full of artists, writers, thinkers, waiters, tailors ...
Multicultural But what really makes the place so special is the mix of cultures: there are more Bangladeshis here than anywhere else in the world - apart from Bangladesh, of course. There are Jews. Pakistanis. The first black people who weren't slaves lived and worked in this part of London. On the whole we all get along really well. We are not a tinderbox of racial tension.
My dad is a Turkish Cypriot and when he first came to London he had his tyres slashed, so I know what it means to be an outsider in this country.
Nobody can condone what took place last week when Islamic extremists stormed a hustings meeting, slashing
Oona King's car tyres and intimidating George Galloway, but I have to say that I feel very let down by King.
This area is terribly underfunded, there isn't enough support for young people who live here. There is too much poverty, not enough education. I could never vote Labour again, not after what they have done to this country, so I certainly won't be voting for Oona King.
She didn't listen when we said we didn't want to go to war, and she doesn't listen when we tell her what we need here. Walk through Spitalfields at any time of day and you will see prostitutes at the side of the road. Does any woman want to walk the streets? Of course there have always been prostitutes in the East End, but today it seems there is an epidemic. And nobody seems to care. Yet there is so much more to this part of London than you might think from what has been in the news lately. I know all my neighbours really well, which must be rare in such a big city. There is such a great village atmosphere. When new people move in they are just accepted; the locals look out for each other.
I know the man in the sweet shop, the guy in the off-licence and my greengrocer (thank God we don't have a Tesco on Brick Lane). Let's face it, how many people do you know who get a Christmas card every year without fail from their newsagent?
East End spirit There is a real cat community here as well. When my little tom cat, Docket, went missing for a week, my mum came up from Margate to help look for him.
We were walking the narrow streets of Spitalfields, chatting, and he heard our voices and started yowling. It turns out he was trapped in a derelict house, so I broke in and we carried him home. When we got to my house, there was a group on the Jack the Ripper tour walking past, and when they saw I'd found him, they all stood and clapped.
I feel really safe in the East End. I'm a single woman and I live on my own, but I always walk back home late at night through the ancient streets. I look up at Spitalfields church and feel really proud. Anywhere else would seem boring.
Emin proud to be Brick Lane girl
By Tracey Emin, Evening Standard
I could afford to live anywhere in London - Notting Hill, Kensington, Richmond. I could up sticks and go and live in a mansion in the countryside. But I have chosen to make my home in the East End because it's the most brilliant, vibrant place in the world. I don't want somewhere all leafy, I want to know I'm living in the heart of London.
According to my local Labour MP, Oona King, the area is "being set alight by racial tension", stirred by her bitter contest with George Galloway for the Bethnal Green and Bow seat. She has warned of a community catastrophe that could last a generation. But I couldn't disagree more.
I bought my house in Spitalfields (built by the 18th-century Huguenots) in 2001 and now I have my studio just a short walk round the corner off Brick Lane. Every day as I walk to work I just look up and gaze at the architecture, which has to be the best in town.
We also have the best shops, the best restaurants - my favourite is St John Bread & Wine on Commercial Street, which is open all day, and where you can buy delicious bread - and lots of really noisy pubs like my old-fashioned local, the Golden Hart. Come down here on a Sunday morning and I guarantee you will be in the trendiest spot in the world.
I have loads of friends who live nearby - such as Jake and Dinos Chapman. It's a high-voltage part of town that has such an exciting dynamic, full of artists, writers, thinkers, waiters, tailors ...
Multicultural But what really makes the place so special is the mix of cultures: there are more Bangladeshis here than anywhere else in the world - apart from Bangladesh, of course. There are Jews. Pakistanis. The first black people who weren't slaves lived and worked in this part of London. On the whole we all get along really well. We are not a tinderbox of racial tension.
My dad is a Turkish Cypriot and when he first came to London he had his tyres slashed, so I know what it means to be an outsider in this country.
Nobody can condone what took place last week when Islamic extremists stormed a hustings meeting, slashing
Oona King's car tyres and intimidating George Galloway, but I have to say that I feel very let down by King.
This area is terribly underfunded, there isn't enough support for young people who live here. There is too much poverty, not enough education. I could never vote Labour again, not after what they have done to this country, so I certainly won't be voting for Oona King.
She didn't listen when we said we didn't want to go to war, and she doesn't listen when we tell her what we need here. Walk through Spitalfields at any time of day and you will see prostitutes at the side of the road. Does any woman want to walk the streets? Of course there have always been prostitutes in the East End, but today it seems there is an epidemic. And nobody seems to care. Yet there is so much more to this part of London than you might think from what has been in the news lately. I know all my neighbours really well, which must be rare in such a big city. There is such a great village atmosphere. When new people move in they are just accepted; the locals look out for each other.
I know the man in the sweet shop, the guy in the off-licence and my greengrocer (thank God we don't have a Tesco on Brick Lane). Let's face it, how many people do you know who get a Christmas card every year without fail from their newsagent?
East End spirit There is a real cat community here as well. When my little tom cat, Docket, went missing for a week, my mum came up from Margate to help look for him.
We were walking the narrow streets of Spitalfields, chatting, and he heard our voices and started yowling. It turns out he was trapped in a derelict house, so I broke in and we carried him home. When we got to my house, there was a group on the Jack the Ripper tour walking past, and when they saw I'd found him, they all stood and clapped.
I feel really safe in the East End. I'm a single woman and I live on my own, but I always walk back home late at night through the ancient streets. I look up at Spitalfields church and feel really proud. Anywhere else would seem boring.