Four Days in London

I just returned this week from (what was supposed to be) a quick jaunt to London. I planned the weekend getaway around a special exhibition at the London Museum Docklands: Secrets of the Thames. Discovering relics from the past has always been an interest of mine, and for the last couple of years I have been following a handful of mudlarks on Instagram. Mudlarks scour waterways, especially along the banks of the Thames in London, for items of historical or monetary value.

“Mudlarks have been drawn to the water’s edge for hundreds of years, if not longer, searching for bits and pieces that could be sold. Today’s mudlarks are excited by the sense of discovery, of knowing that they are the first person to touch something in potentially hundreds or even thousands of years.”

Entrance, London Museum Docklands © Chelsea Pathiakis

                 
The items on display ran the full gamut, from an Iron Age helmet dating to 150-50 BCE (found in 1868), to a Medieval era leather belt with decorative studs, to Peter Fleming’s stolen Wimbledon medals, found by mudlarks and returned to their rightful owner (Fleming loaned the medals to the museum for the exhibit). Lost to the water were knives, swords, rings, shields, soldiers’ shoes, intaglios, and hair pins, as well as statuettes and figurines that were likely gifted to the river for religious or ritual purposes.

Iron Age Helmet, c. 150-50 BCE

Fashion Finds

Peter Fleming's Returned Medals

 

Offerings to the Thames

Various Found Knives

 

Rapier, c. 1594

Various Found Rings

 

Hairpins

Intaglios

Soldier's Shoe Soles

 
Modern mudlarks require permits from the Port of London Authority – before the pandemic, there were 250 active permits. During lockdown, that number rose to 5,000, and is now capped to protect the waterways.

Before I left, a friend recommended a book: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, “a dual-timeline historical fiction novel about a secret 18th-century London apothecary that sells poisons to women seeking revenge on men, and a modern-day woman who uncovers its mystery while dealing with her own marital problems, linking their stories through a forgotten crime.” The modern-day woman, Caroline, finds an old apothecary vial while exploring the shores of the Thames with a group of mudlarks. I don’t want to spoil any more of the story, but it really was the perfect accompanying text to this trip.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Because of the massive snowstorm due to hit New York just after I left, my flight home was cancelled, and I found myself in London for two extra days. Sunday through Tuesday, I decided to roam London and discovered I had muscle memory for the city tucked away from when I visited seven years ago. More than once I stumbled upon areas I’d intentionally looked for last time. I did take the Tube to areas I haven't explored before, like Marble Arch, Mayfair, and Canary Wharf. I also sought out a few new-to-me bookstores and stationery shops (Present & Correct was an immediate favorite), felt like a kid in a candy store at the London Graphic Center, and had the customary fish, chips, and a (half) pint.

 

 

All of the above © Chelsea Pathiakis

I can’t wait to visit again.

Year-End Roaming

As 2025 winds down, I decided to look back at my most recent city adventures.

There was a cross-town jaunt on Bleecker Street, which began with a trip to Casa Magazines in the West Village to purchase the latest Hotshoe magazine (featuring Stephen Shore!) and ended on the Bowery at Rainbow Restaurant Supply in search of an egg slicer.

 

Landmarked 625 Broadway © Chelsea Pathiakis

 

Then, there was a Christmas Eve tourist-destination outing with my family. Among other things, we wandered the Union Square Holiday Market and caught this moment.

Pigeon on Washington © Chelsea Pathiakis

And finally, this past weekend, a trip to the American Museum of Natural History to look at all the gems and minerals (my favorite!), a long-overdue visit to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the Village, and a Washington Square Park tree viewing along the way.

  

Christmas in Washington Square Park © Chelsea Pathiakis

On View: Stephen Shore's Early Work at 303 Gallery

It’s been a fair few years since I’ve ventured to my namesake neighborhood on the far west side. Parts of Chelsea, especially those around the High Line, have continued to grow and change (and gentrify), while other areas have blessedly remained untouched. I have poked around the galleries in the past; I am not typically a fan of contemporary art, but there are occasional exhibitions that spark my interest.

I’ve waited since his book talk in September to view Stephen Shore’s Early Work on display at 303 Gallery on West 21st Street. For such a prolific artist who had an extensive retrospective at MoMA in 2018, I was surprised to find only eight photos on display in a tiny room at the back of the gallery. However, in such an intimate space, rarely occupied on a blustery Saturday, I was able to spend time with each of the photographs up close.

Open House New York, Year II

This month I volunteered again with Open House New York as a site photographer. I had intended to shoot fewer sights this year, but there were so many interesting locations to choose from that I ended up with five over the two days.

Saturday

First up was the hard hat tour of ABC No Rio’s ongoing renovation of their space at 156 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. Executive Director of ABC No Rio Gavin Marcus and principal architect Paul Castrucci explained the motivation behind the $21M demolition and sustainable rebuilding of their premises as a high-performance “Passive House,” serving as a model for resilient, low-carbon, healthy building practices.

 

 

Next, I headed down to Centre Street to the Manhattan Borough President’s Office to see the Original Map of Manhattan. Executed by Johny Randal Jr. in 1820, this was the first map to plot the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan which established the Manhattan street grid from Houston Street to 155th Street. It was fascinating to see the early grid laid out and the names of all the landowners scrawled across their respective parcels. Another interesting discovery was seeing how much of the Upper East Side was expanded east with landfill, covering a significant inlet of water from the East River.

 

 

My final location on day one was back in Astoria at Spacetime, sculpture artist Mark Di Suvero’s studio in the yellow aluminum warehouse on the waterfront. Founder of Socrates Sculpture Park in 1986, Di Suvero is a master of interactive steel sculpture on a massive scale, and his work has been exhibited worldwide. Some of the pieces displayed in and around the warehouse were so enormous they truly defied imagination.

 

 


Sunday

My first location on day two was to the newly opened Printemps department store on Wall Street to see “The Red Room,” a landmarked mosaic interior space designed by muralist Hildreth Meière in 1931. While the recently renovated Art Deco building at 1 Wall Street was given landmark designation in 2001, the interior (walls and ceiling) of the Red Room could not be landmarked until 2024, once it was reopened to the public. Members of the International Hildreth Meière Association lead a very impressive tour of the space, delving into the history and significance of the room, as well as Meière’s history as one of this country’s most accomplished Art Deco artists.

 

 

The final location of the weekend was at Sky Farm LIC, located on the rooftop of the former Standard Motors building on Northern Boulevard. Run by the kids of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, the farm offers the children a chance to learn how to grow vegetables and flowers, keep bees, and participate in wholesome activities in a free third space. (There were no children present during the tours.) It also has a breathtaking view of the city!

 

 

Easily the best part of OHNY Weekend is checking out new areas of the city that I’ve either never been to or haven’t ventured to in a long time. I prefer to keep to one borough since the subway is notoriously unreliable on the weekends, this one included. As my roaming project is always in mind, I took the opportunity to shoot along the way. These are a few of my favorites.