A very good selection of non-fiction, essays, and rare books. The Japanese book collection is gorgeous!

I found out an amazing fact recently about this place which weirdly enough relates back to my interest of analogue TV distortions in my work. The building where the restaurant stands is where John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of Television. If that doesn’t want to make you go there, the band Pulp also wrote a song of the same name on their Different Class album. Apart from these two great facts their food is pretty darn good too!

This painted of the shopping centre by my brother, Leo Verhoeven, shows a rather idyllic vision of the shopping centre we both share. Its pretty rough, full of budget shops and funny cafes and framed by a shanty town style open air market. I have a real soft spot for it as the classic under dog, thats so often slated and condemned but lives on.

Being an East London boy at heart I am partial to an occasional fix of café culture. Pellici's has been running since the start of the last century, to which me, my father and my father's fathers have all enjoyed its mix of tasty Italian/London grub and energetic atmosphere. If you're visiting, make sure you drop by, as it will provide a valuable, forever-depleting education into what East London is really all about.

Donlon Books is an atmospheric little bookstore on Broadway Market (in East London.) They sell rare art books, style publications, and homemade photography zines.