View from Chequer Street EC1

Braithwaite House, on the left, is having its cladding removed. Here’s the quote from Islington Council website (viewed today, 2 July 2017):

Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Islington Council’s executive member for housing and development, said:  “As a landlord, safety is our number one priority and we will do whatever it takes to ensure people are safe in our estates.
“Last night (Thurs June 22) we received results of tests on cladding on the side of Braithwaite House, and they have confirmed the presence of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).
“We’re arranging to have the cladding, which is only on the sides of the building, removed as soon as we possibly can by a specialist contractor.
“We’re also stepping up safety measures in the block immediately, with fire safety patrols taking place day and night from today until the panels are removed.
“Our housing staff were at Braithwaite House last night to carry out fire checks and clear any obstructions in communal areas.  We’re also taking advice from London Fire Brigade and will follow all their recommendations.

In the background, the other side of Bunhill Row is “The Featherstone”. The notice says:

“Hill are working with Southern Housing to create 65 new homes for affordable rent, shared ownership and private sale on the former Moorfields School Site.”

In the distance, the building with round windows is “White Collar Factory” on the Old Street Roundabout. No notice on the outside and a bit dark on the inside and it was unclear if you can just walk in. It was a Sunday and I didn’t feel like being challenged, so I didn’t walk in. Their website is hard to decipher. What are they exactly? The bit I understood says:

When it opens at the end of 2016, White Collar Factory will house one of London’s most exciting and diverse working communities.

So they are a shared occupancy building. It looked to me like there might be a café in there too.

Drawn and coloured on location, in the shade until the sun came around. 1hr 30min roughly. Kids playing in the paygound, trying to get a ball somewhere, perhaps in a net. They called “concrete”, or “stone” which was perhaps the intended destination of the ball. One kid called out “Hey, you hurt my eye”. The other kid said “No!”. Then he remembered himself and said, in a clear and respectful tone, “Did I? I’m sorry. Are you OK?”