hitch

My flat on Leytonstone High Road is steps away from the birthplace of Alfred Hitchcock. He is celebrated locally with a collection of fantastic mosaics along the walkways to Leytonstone Underground station. These mosaics are marvellous, clever in their depiction of characters and places, skilled in design and use of colour. This morning, the view from my flat was blurred with fog, edges softened, timeless, by the time I'd walked to the station this had cleared to become a dull December day. 

This work is called The Hitchcock Gallery, opened May 3rd, 2001. The gallery celebrates the life and work of the great film-maker Alfred Hitchcock, born in Leytonstone on 13th August 1899. The mosaics were made at The Greenwich Mural Workshop.

 Young Alfred by his father's shop

Number 17

 The Pleasure Garden

 Hitchcock the Director

 Strangers on a Train

 Psycho

 Vertigo

 Suspicion

 The Skin Game

  North by Northwest

 The Birds

 Saboteur

 To Catch a Thief

 Hitchcock with Dietrich

 Rear Window

 Rebecca

The Wrong Man

kin

London Underground trains rattle and rumble along dark tunnels and its fun to look at the distorted reflections of passengers on the curved windows opposite. Sometimes, out of the corner of my eye I see someone knitting and have a mini jolt of excitement! Thrilling! What are they making? Only to discover, on furtive second glance, that they are untangling headphones. Mixed with a heart sink of disappointment is laughter at myself because this has happened on countless occasions. I'm tuned into the makers, the menders, the stitchers, subconsciously searching for kin, as we all are.