We had a great outing with the shop at the Hackney Wick 2012 Community meeting. Peter Marshall kindly brought along some wonderful photographs of the lea valley in the 1980's which we'll be putting in the shop. Our Hackney Wick Song went down a treat and will is available here now. We'll be doing more songs and hope for one to include from the local police community officers! James Robertshaw came and showed his local photographs and we met Penny Clift whose project 'The Big Blue Fence' we'll also be linking to in the shop. Steve Dowding from Hackney Marshes users group and Games Monitor donated some 'no homes, no games' badges and people enjoyed sampling the traditional 'clarnico' cream mints that the shop is constantly supplied with.

Posted in News on January 24, 2009 17:39 by Hilary Powell

The Wick Curiosity Shop will be havning another local outing as part of the Hackney Wick 2012 Community Meeting 3-7 (meeting goes on until 8.30pm) thursday 22nd January 2009 in the Hackney Wick Community Centre, The Old Baths, 80 Eastway, Hackney Wick, London, E9 5JH

We'll be showcasing shop contents including film screening and are keen to hear and collect more local stories, objects and songs. We 'll be launching and selling the Wick Curiosity Shop 2009 calendar and also a new Hackney Wick Song!

Posted in News on January 18, 2009 16:28 by Hilary Powell

The Wick Curiosity Shop had another outing at the Building Exploratory with the Senior Bee's 'Wild Christmas Party' hosted by Pudding Mill River:Purveyors of Sporting Spirits and Foodstuffs. This was a follow up to the 'Walk on the Wild Side of the Wick' exploring Hackney Wick and the Greenway with the Senior Bee's in September. Hilary presented her film ' The Games' and other creative work going on around the fringes of the Olympic site before opening up the Wick Curiosity Shop website and exploring it on the (quite) big screen. Plenty of fascinating new information and stories emerged immediately from those like Graham who had actually worked in the Lesney Matchbox toy factory and Bella and Richard who live in Hackney Wick - we'll be updating the shop asap accordingly and hope for more links and stories to come.

The event was accompanied by Pudding Mill River's popular Bow Back blackberry crumble cake and the first chance of the season to sample the ultimate 'Olympic Spirit' in the form of Sloe Gin made from Hackney Marsh sloes. Tex put it well by saying 'a bird cannot fly with one wing....' - after some confusion this led to a second shot of the strong stuff all round!

The Senior Building Exploratory Explorers are a very active group meeting regularly to explore the built environment and all the issues this involves. Karen Elmes (Lifelong Learning Officer) runs the sessions and Ruth Clarke was on hand to introduce plans for 2009 and the O Space project exploring sporting buildings and history with particular emphasis on the Olympic development. Dan Edelstyn of Optimistic Productions was filming as part of a film being made for the Building Exploratory documenting their great exhibition and activities before they move location in the New Year and Optimistic Productions are also pleased to be working on the film for O Space in the coming year.

Posted in News on December 6, 2008 10:52 by Hilary Powell

As Part of the annual [SPACE] party the Wick Curiosity Shop web-site was officialy launched on the 1st of Dec. 2008 at Space studios on Mare Street. Over a glass of wine and nibbles we bumped into Steve Dowding, a contributor to the shop from Hackney Marshe's Edible Forest Garden and Tree Nursery. He shows us a new book about the Olympics called 'Five Ring Circus' which contains a brief foreword by local Martin Slavin who also runs the active Games Monitor.

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Posted in News on December 1, 2008 19:01 by Andreas Lang

As part of a series of films on the East End waterways German ARD TV have been exploring the area and talking to various locals about the changes taking place in the area. After hearing about the recent 'Salon de Refuses Olympique' they invited us to guide them up onto the Greenway for a chat in front of the vista of construction taking place.

Posted in Blog on November 10, 2008 15:23 by Hilary Powell

Roving reporters from the Hackney Citizen visited the Wick Curiosity Shop at Hackney Wick Festival and Pudding Mill River's CEO Professor Kronos Adam made a suprise appearance in this issue 2 (autumn 2008) amid an article on the Cultural Olympiad.

Posted in Blog on November 10, 2008 15:16 by Hilary Powell

The Wick Curiosity Shop will join the Salon de refuses Olympique  for an afternoon of presentations and discussions at Cafe Oto in Dalston on Sunday 26th October 3-5pm

TINAG festival includes the latest incarnation of the Olympic Artist Forum :
Salon de refuses Olympique
Join us on Sunday 26th October for the latest manifestation of the [ S P A C E ] initiated ‘Olympic Artist Forum’ - an afternoon of presentations and roundtable discussion exploring creative responses to the changing London 2012 Olympic site and surrounding regeneration zone. The debate will be accompanied by tea and cake made from the fruits of the Olympic fringe lands provided by Pudding Mill River: Purveyors of Sporting Spirits and Foodstuffs, sponsors of this event.
Participants include, Gesche Wuerfel, Leigh Niland, Emma Dwyer of MOLAS (Museum of London Archaeological Services) Tessa Garland and Stephen Cornford.

Download the full Salon de refuses Olympique - Programme

Download the full TINAG Festival Programme

Posted in News on October 18, 2008 20:51 by Andreas Lang

Fiona from [Space] organised a feedback meeting at the Senior Citizens Club to look back on the Festival and sound out where it should go next and what to consider for the coming years. It was really good to see a lot of people turning up and hearing all the different perspectives. Sadly I had to leave early as it was just getting into the nitty gritty of it all.

Looking forward to see the Hackney Wick Festival in the coming years.

Posted in Blog on October 18, 2008 20:13 by Andreas Lang

the Wick Curiosity Shop logo appeared on the blue fence.
Kindly supported by Games Monitor -> http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/

Posted in Blog on October 13, 2008 11:21 by Andreas Lang

We took a group of 13 Norwegian architects students and their two teacher on a walk through the Wick and along the blue fence. Highlight of the day was lunch at, and with the Senior Citizen Club which included a screening of Hilary Powell's / Optimistic Productions - THE GAMES - and a documentary about the Manor Gardens allotments called - THIS WAS FOREVER - by Polkadotsonraindrops & First Light Productions. As well as a good chat about times past and present

The group also produced a series of Postcards from the Wick which will go online in the shop very soon.

Also check this Guardian blog entry which talks about 'THE GAMES' and gives some other useful links

Posted in News on October 3, 2008 20:21 by Andreas Lang