Up on the roof

The Elephant and Castle isn't where you expect to find one of London's coolest dance spaces. But a red-brick building halfway between the chaos of the Elephant intersection and the Imperial War Museum is where innovative choreographer and dancer Siobhan Davies has made her base. I discovered the place thanks to my Pilates-teacher friend Denise, who organised a weekend workshop in one of its studios.

Light floods into windows at the rear 

Arriving on a cloudy grey Sunday morning, our mood was lifted by the landscape inside this unassuming exterior – layers of plaster stripped back to expose the bones of the old building, flashes of colour in pillars and planters providing a bright, contemporary contrast. The main stairway seemed to be suspended, hanging by cables from the roof above, while robust metal windows framed the view and allowed light to stream into the central atrium.

Stairway to heaven

Textural intrigue

But it was in the Roof Studio that architect Sarah Wigglesworth rolled out the most inspiring element in her award-winning design. As we took our places on the grey-lino covered sprung floor, we were able to gaze up at a sensuously undulating wooden ceiling, where curvy south-facing glass panels made the most of the daylight.

A hands-down winner

I wondered how it would feel to dance high above the hustle and bustle of the city. It certainly gave our Pilates practice added stimulation, we reflected afterwards, as we drank herbal tea and munched on Denise's delicious home-made flapjacks.

Crystal tips

My pal Hilary and I popped up to Crystal Palace on a recent sunny Saturday. With 200 acres of parkland, there's plenty to see and do. We also enjoyed a reappraisal of the National Sports Centre, looking its best in the bright spring sunshine. It was designed by LCC Architects Department in 1964 and is now Grade ll listed. 

The wall of windows lets light in to the pool

Wandering into the grounds we encountered a sculpture of a gorilla by David Wynne, created in 1961. It's a likeness of one of London Zoo's most famous residents, Guy the Gorilla, whose death in 1978 made the national news. The work a curvaceous one by the artist, who went on to human models, the Beatles and the Queen among them.

Bottoms up

A little further on, arranged artfully around a small lake is a group of life size prehistoric creatures. Originally planned to be part of a theme park, around the time as the Great Exhibition, the group was conceived in 1852 by Professor Richard Owen. He enlisted renowned animal sculptor Benhamin Waterhouse-Hawkins to create the models using fossils from the Natural History Museum for inspiration. It was a Victorian vision of what was roaming the earth at one time and resulting Mosasaurus, Megalosaurus and  Teleosaurus pre-dated Charles Darwin. It was the very dawning of palaeontology and the first public exposition of the theory that such animals did exist millions of years ago.

Jurassic park

Jurassic lassies

Continuing our loop we took a tour of the Crystal Palace farm, an urban haven to pot-bellied pigs, long, curly horned sheep, tiny Shetland ponies and a couple of llamas that looked as if they were well into their production cycle for a few dozen woolly jumpers.

Behind the doors of a rectangular shed we found a small aquarium with turtles and a couple of milky opaque creatures decorated with fuscia-pink gills. 

Walk this way

Feeding time

Need some ram?

Beyond the athletics track we arrived at the Station Cafe, for frothy coffee and shimmering cup cakes. If not for the four-year-old boys wrestling under the table next to us, it would have been a calm and cosy bolthole. 

Cake o'clock

Steamy windows

We supped up and moved on, walking the circuit of the sphinxes – part of the original Crystal Palace cast-iron and plate-glass structure when it was relocated to Penge following the 1851 Great Exhibition and gave the area its name. A fire destroyed much of it in 1936 and all that is left are the stone foundations and cellars, guarded by these serene looking fellows. And, of course, it gave the area its name.

Stoney silence

Leaving the park, we passed underneath one of the Crystal Palace radio towers and at this close range it was as impressive as Paris's Eiffel. More colourful certainly, as it's constructed using red steel girders. A useful landmark, too. A south east Londoner can always get her bearings by looking for these towering beacons. 

Tower and moon rising

Artist in residence

To the street art again, this time with my friend Filippa from Leeds. Filippa is an artist and I wondered what she would make of Stik and co.

With CEPT behind Franklins Farm Shop

She was especially taken with the curvaceous lines of Phlegm’s horn player, responding in her own unique way, and with bright red gloves.

With Phlegm on Goodrich Road

There was something about Filippa’s ability to strike a pose that perfectly complemented the mural on the wall.

With Stik on Hansler Road

With Broken Fingaz Crew on Lordship Lane

With Nunca's mural by The Plough

Filippa has done a lot of art outdoors, working up on Ilkley moor in Yorkshire, initially with charcoal on stones. Her latest work, Prayer Mats, saw her releasing them into the wind, up on the moor…

Filippa and charcoal on stone

Prayer Mat prep

Wrapping a trig point

 Catching the wind

Billowing over the moor

Lunchtime legend

A real treat of a sunny lunchtime, when I happened to have a Tuesday off, was a quick jaunt over to  Greenwhich where my friend Steven East was singing at the beautiful chapel inside the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College.

View across the river to Canary Wharf

Steve is a student at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. As campuses go, it doesn't come much more impressive, Trinity Laban having taken over a wing of the Old Royal Naval College overlooking the Thames. The chapel was originally designed by Sir Christopher Wren but its interior was completely recreated following a fire in 1779. Now it's a temple to Greek neoclassicism and an extra special location for a recital.

The chapel ceiling

Sitting in the pew waiting for Steve to appear there was time to admire the surroundings, from the vast painting behind the altar to the ocean-themed marble floor.

The original altarpiece painting by Benjamin West

 Naval themes underfoot

Steve arrived and took a bow with his accompanist, Alexandra Kremakova, a pianist from Bulgaria and a fellow student at Trinity Laban. She contributed a solo piece, too, a furiously fast piece that involved her, at one point, banging the top of the piano with her hand. "The directions were there in the music, so that's what I did," she told us afterwards. Intriguing.

Steve takes a bow

Steve's programme included a series of pastoral songs by George Butterworth, a Purcell drinking song (yes, really) and a sublime Russian section of Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky pieces. With his gorgeously rich bass baritone voice filling the sacred space most divinely, all were so grateful to have ventured out.

Up the wall

The street art that popped up last summer, thanks to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, makes a great neighbourhood tour when people come to stay.

Stik on Hansler Road inspired by Unknown
Couple in a Landscape by Gainsborough

CEPT at the entrance to the newbuild on Bawdale
Road being covered by Grand Designs 

Take the other weekend, when my sister Moira was visiting from Aberdeenshire, with her partner Andy and nine-year-old daughter, Sula. As is the way with my family, the occasion brought on a family get-together of some considerable size, and widely varying ages. A tall order, to please everyone, but I was able to drum up a day of outdoor art and activity, without straying so much as a metre out of SE22. First up, the local murals and we kicked off with a few of the smaller ones, on Blackwater Street, moving on to Nunca's enormous Queen Bee by The Plough, more Stik opposite Push Studios, the fabulous Phlegm horn-player on Goodrich Road, the Discreet owl on Bawdale Road and Christian Nagel's mushroom atop Mrs Robinson on Lordship Lane. Prize spot, on the pavement outside the painted house on Lordship Lane was a Ben Wilson piece of illustrated chewing gum.

The 'tour group' on Blackwater Street, where a Stik piece
was recently nicked off the wall

Olivia and the Queen Bee

Hannah and the Stik family based on
The Guardian Angel by Marcantonio Franceschini

The kids with Phlegm's horn-player

Discreet's owl fascinates

One of Christiaan Nagel's mushrooms

Ben Wilson's zesty gum art

After a break for lunch we then took off to Dulwich Park, to hire recumbent bikes. Talk about Whacky Races. With such stunning autumn sunshine, blue skies sprayed with streaks of white, and the world and his wife out strolling in the last couple of hours of daylight, it's astonishing that none of our crazy bikers took the legs out from under some unsuspecting pensioner.

Moira about to take her daughter out for pole position

Rory and Lottie clearing the path of passers-by

The grown-ups were much more sedate – or on hand to pick up any casualties – me meandering gently and cousin Matt and his wife Zoe touring on a tandem.

Cate polices the Whacky Racers

A bicycle made for Matt and Zoe

Country matters

Living in SE22 we’re very close to the Kent countryside. The other Sunday I went with a group of friends for a walk in the glorious autumn sunshine. We were Howard, Kerry, Steve, Veronica and Trish, together with Trish’s dog-on-loan Maude.

Maude the dog is all ears

We chose a walk from one of the Pathfinder book, a great source of inspiration for Londoners who happen to be outdoor types. Our route took in the villages of Cudham and Downe, where Charles Darwin lived (his house is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public) and the network of meandering paths and bridleways in-between. Eight miles in all.

Five go trad in Cuckoo Wood 

So, just 45 minutes in the car out of East Dulwich, we found ourselves at the starting point of our walk, High Elms Country Park, a few miles south of Bromley and buzzing with welly-booted Sunday dog-walkers. The park was once a big country estate and the first part of our walk was through sun-dappled Cuckoo Wood. Kicking through the autumn leaves, Howard (or Nature Boy, as I call him), brought our attention to the abundance of sweet chestnuts, ready to roast and eat. Pockets were duly stuffed.

Nature Boy sweet on a chestnut

We followed on along tree-lined ‘lanes’, the centuries-old paths that were once the only way to walk between settlements, farms and remote houses. Emerging into high open fields we looked back and could see the towers of Canary Wharf in the distance. Next, we encountered a group of fluffy and friendly ponies, eager to get their noses into our packed lunches.

Ponies getting pally

In the village of Cudham we stopped by the 12th century church and spent some time admiring two immense yew trees in the churchyard, said to be over a thousand years old. One of the trunks was two metres wide and hollowed out inside. The yew is a symbol of everlasting life, which is why they’re often found in graveyards.

Awe-inspiring 1000-year-old yew

A little further on, in some spooky woods, we found a lonely teddy bear, left behind by his picnicking pals, and then more foraging fare in the shape of greengages ripening in the low autumn sun.

Teddy bear, desperately seeking picnic

Greengage plums soaking up the sunshine

We skirted alongside Darwin’s house but instead of popping in we made straight for the George & Dragon, where the pub’s ales and homemade pumpkin soup went down a treat. A few of us had brought our own grub, though, and as it was turning a bit chilly outside we headed to St Mary the Virgin’s church opposite the pub, where the 13th century porch provided the perfect picnic spot.

Our lunch venue, St Mary’s in Downe

Home-baked goodies were passed around – Yorkshire parkin by Trish and brownies by Kerry. I’ll come walking with this lot again, I thought… We finished the day on a humorous high, clowning around with this brilliant road sign.

You can take the girl out of primary school…