The Sartorialist–through the usual web tunnel of distraction–led me to Spitalfields Life, a daily chronicle of life in that part of London’s East End.
From the site:
My Promise
Over the coming days, weeks, months and years, I am going to write every single day and tell you about life here in Spitalfields at the heart of London. How can I ever describe the exuberant richness and multiplicity of culture in this place to you? This is both my task and my delight.
Let me disclose to you the hare-brained ambition I am pursuing, which is to write at least ten thousand stories about Spitalfields life. At the rate of one a day, this will take approximately twenty-seven years and four months. Who knows what kind of life we shall be living in 2037 when I write my ten thousandth post?
I do not think there will be any shortage of material, though it may be difficult to choose what to write of because the possibilities are infinite. Truly all of human life is here in Spitalfields.
As promised, it’s varied and engrossing, and the kind of thing blogging was made for. I will not be doing Takoma Park Life, although I like the idea of Winter Hill life, which I now would have to make up…
From a recent Spitalfields Life post about Libby Hall, a collector of dog photography.
There’s also a sweet “dogs of spring” post.
For me, at least, the whole project is an echo of a great anthropological book, The Comfort of Things, about a single block in London. The researchers lived on the street for a year and wrote profiles of the inhabitants and the possessions in their life.
A Few Reasonable Words 