Guest Editor: Nathaneal Williams

In recent times it’s been easy to imagine the end of the world, but it’s remained almost impossible to imagine the end of music. And it turns out the way that most people like to eat, drink, dance or even sit to music, is together – at night. Food, drink, music, film, dance, fashion, art, […]

MEUS turn White Post Lane Orange

In early 2021, just as the world was opening up again, a good friend of mine Kevin – who owns A Balanced Life here on White Post Lane – told me they were building a third layer to his plot, and I liked the look of it. I knew that I wanted to be in […]

Think in Ink

I have a few tattoos. They were scrawled onto me in different parts of the world, usually while drunk and without much emotional meaning – or tactical skill. Certainly nothing compared to the art that followers of the new tattoo renaissance display on their bodies. So I’m keen to meet the tattooists of Hackney Wick […]

A Feast for the Senses

Marshmallow Laser Feast – a.k.a visual artists Barney Steel, Robin McNicholas & Ersinhan Ersin – immerse audiences in their wild creative world. We spoke to Barney to find out more

The Wicked One: Gordon Fryer

How long have you lived here? I was born in Woodford Green and went to school there. Then I joined the Navy for 10 years, came back and got married, and my first wife was from Hackney so we ended up here. We’ve moved around a couple of times, not away from the area, but […]

Pent Up Anger

Artist Aida Wilde is angry. She asked for local legend Edwin’s iconic slogan, ‘SHITHOUSE TO PENTHOUSE’ – an artwork curated by her – to be removed from the newly refurbished Lord Napier pub. She didn’t want the incoming landlords to financially benefit from Edwin’s cheeky provocation. Aida rightly asks, “I caused Hackney Wick to become […]

Meet Stephanie Galea

The enforced confinement of lockdown saw many strangely beautiful adaptations to the challenging circumstances. Photographer and fine artist Stephanie Galea produced the scorching images shown here for Vogue Arabia and Harpers Bazaar Arabia with the judicious placement of floaty backdrops and some planters up on the roof of her local residential block. “The weather was […]

The Wicked One: Martin Richman

How did you come to HWFI? We found the place I live at now when it was still a working factory. Around 2002 a developer had bought the site, he’s showing us round and I think ‘I would love to live here’. I got together with a few friends and we bought the whole back […]

Reinventing the High Street

From illegal-squat raves and graffiti to repurposed derelict buildings, Hackney Wick’s history is written on its streets. And while the near weekly-opening of new businesses, coupled with the hordes of ‘tourists’ might appear to bring a sanitisation of the area, one local organisation is hoping to steer the neighbourhood towards a new unique future. The […]

Jirkeeyga collection

With the continuing rise of fast fashion and the devastating consequences it is having on our environment, sustainable fashion is strengthening its offensive. Organisations like Swap Nation are being erected with the aim of making ‘sustainable fashion affordable for women in the UK’. Clothes are being repurposed and vintage being back in vogue is further […]