Bordering the west side of Victoria Park, Regent’s Canal serves as a pleasant walking or riding track, particularly on weekends when it’s at it’s quietest.
Damian Miranda is a graphic designer, photographer and excessive thinker originally from Melbourne, Australia. He currently lives and works as a freelance designer in London.
A small but specialist record shop built around proprietor Jean Claude’s extensive knowledge of 20th and 21st century recorded music. Connoisseurs in vinyl, you can expect to find an eclectic range of new and pre-owned rarities. Based on the 3rd floor of an office block in Noho, it feels like a secret hideout for super vinyl freaks.
Half a mile from Markfield Park down the River Lee is Springfield Park. The park rises steeply up from the river and has an amazing array of tree species making it beautiful in all seasons. At the brim of the hill there is a line of park benches each one surrounded by box hedge offering a private view across the Lee Valley, Walthamstow and beyond. The park warden was nice enough to give me a chestnut log a couple of years ago from which I carved a bench and two stools.
SOAS university has a small gallery space dedicated to exhibitions about Asia, Africa and the Middle East. There's a small but beautiful Japanese zen garden on the rooftop (currently closed for refurbishment)
In my opinion this is the best bookshop in London, it stocks all my favourite magazines and has a wide selection of photography books, I spend a lot of my time there just browsing through all the books they have. David Bailey once described the place as “maybe the best photography bookshop in the world”