Thanks to all our friends and customers for a very busy and successful year - we’ll be closing at 6pm on the 23rd December for a well-earned break, before starting back at 11am onTuesday 3rd January.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
They’ve been stuck in customs for a while, but our American Log Cabins are in store just in time for Christmas.
A word about our postage, and in particular our environmental policy.
At Labour and Wait we are careful to reuse all our packaging. We go through vast amounts of cardboard, paper and bubble wrap, and all this is reutilised as we send out our own mail order.
We have thought about buying in mail order boxes, or packages, or brown paper, or bubble wrap, to ensure that each package we send out is pristine and presentable, but that wouldn’t really be us. We are, if nothing else, functional. So we reuse everything that we receive.
So if your package has old stickers, or tape marks, or is scuffed or scribbled on, or if your dustpan brush comes in a box marked ‘enamel mugs - priced’, then don’t worry, the items inside will be perfectly preserved and ready to be used, so just think of the old saying: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Our Tokyobike collaboration took a trip around London on Saturday as part of the November Tweed Run.
Pictured above is a very dapper gentleman by the name of Neil, who would be happy to sell you a Tokyobike from his new showroom / workshop in the Sunbury Workshops, just around the corner from us here in Redchurch Street.
On the trip the Carradice Junior saddlebag attracted many admiring looks; we had a visit from Carradice recently, showing us a bag from their archive and discussing plans for the future. There look to be some great products coming down the line, tailored more for the urban cyclist rather than the traditional country hill-climber; more Peckham Rye than Pendle Hill.
We love traditional companies like Carradice. Owned and run by the same family for generations, they can tell you not only when each product was made, but in which factory, as the story of their expansion mirrors the story of their success.
When the Tweeders have lost interest, and dressing up as English Gent circa 1951 becomes passé ( or even outré ) there will still be companies like Carradice making great products for cyclists to use, and which make their bikes look even better. This is in complete accord with our philosophy of timeless functionality, favouring products that have always been and always will be desirable, outside of fashion or trends.
Carradice will be approaching their centenary soon, and they look as healthy now as they did in 1930.
Once again SCP have been very helpful in organising and co-ordinating all the Shoreditch shops of interest, and they have designed a map for the ‘Shoreditch Christmas Triangle’. Although slightly outside of the strictest limits of the triangle itself, we are part of the wider Shoreditch Rhombus and so we can present the map here - with Labour and Wait included on the Eastern fringes.
( Click on map or here for a larger, downloadable copy of the map ).
The map highlights all the design-based shops in the Shoreditch area, with their plans for Christmas events, and is the perfect guide to what is happening in December.
As mentioned below, we will be open until 9pm on Thursday the 8th of December, and we will be serving mulled cider and mince pies, so come along and beat the Christmas rush!
The French jams are arrived!
One of our perennial Christmas bestsellers, these French jams are perfect for presents or as a treat for yourself - we have six flavours: Rhubarb, Fig, Black Cherry, Quince, Greengage and Pear.
They will be on the website very soon or, if you can’t wait, drop us an email at orders@labourandwait.co.uk.
After last year’s blizzard-hit whiteout we’re hoping this year’s Christmas Shopping evening will be a bit more enjoyable! All are welcome on the 8th of December for mince pies and mulled cider.
All the shops on Redchurch Street and Calvert Avenue will be taking part, including Anthem, Aesop, Hostem, A.P.C, Sunspel, Luna and Curious, Tracey Nuel, Ally Capellino, Leila’s Shop and our new neighbours Carousel Emporium, so you can make a Christmassy East London night of it!
Thursday 8th December, 6 to 9pm.
We have received our delivery of books from Little Toller, an imprint of the Dovecote Press. From their Dorset base this publisher specialises in books of the English countryside, rescued from obscurity and reprinted in new editions inspired by the spirit of the original editions, replete with contemporary illustrations in a wonderfully tactile, sewn paperback.
We have chosen six titles, each a reprint of a classic depiction of nature or of rural life, from the centenary edition of the poet Edward Thomas’ South Country, to the exploration of 1970s inner-city wildlife that is Richard Mabey’s The Unofficial Countryside. As the winter evenings draw in, surely now is the perfect time to lose yourself in a good book?
Men and the Fields - Adrian Bell
Introduced by Ronald Blythe, with a preface by Martin Bell. This edition restores the original colour lithographs and black and white line drawings by John Nash that appeared in the first edition.
‘I sat against an oak trunk, staring at oak trunks, tracing their boughs upward to the hurrying white clouds beyond, and wondered why one worried about anything. But then I ceased even to wonder, but dozed awake, like a tree.’
Four Hedges - Claire Leighton
Introduced by Carol Klein, with a preface by David Leighton. Includes 84 wood engravings by the author.
‘In the Sky, above our meadow, larks sing. I feel a sudden rush of pride in the ownership of this untilled land; it is not that I value possession, but I am proud to be landlord to the lark who pays for his home with such boundless song.’
The South Country - Edward Thomas
Introduced by Robert Macfarlane. Cover illustration by David Inshaw, with engravings by Eric Daglish throughout.
‘Unlearned, incurious, but finding deepest ease and joy out of doors, I have gone about the South Country these twenty years and more on foot… When, in the clear windy dawn, thin clouds like traveller’s joy are upon the air, it seems that up there also, in those placid places, they travel and know the joy of the road.’
Sweet Thames Run Softly - Robert Gibbins
Introduced by Luke Jennings. Cover by Edwin La Dell with wood engravings by Robert Gibbings.
‘All I could see was the rushes and their reflections on either side of the river. Nothing was visible beyond them, and the banks, following each bend, cut off my view ahead so that I seemed to be floating on some enchanted lake, high up on the very rim of the world.’
The Unofficial Countryside - Richard Mabey
Introduced by Iain Sinclair. Cover illustration by Mary Newcomb, with illustrations from Mary Newcomb’s sketchbook.
‘… the canal here was as clear as a chalk stream. Yellow water lilies drooped like balls of molten wax on the surface. Near the edge of the water drifts of newly hatched fish hung in the shallows. Anglers, fresh out of work, were setting up their tackle on the bank, and family parties chugged past in holiday cruisers…’
The Journal of a Disappointed Man - W.N.P. Barbellion
Introduced by Tim Dee. Cover illustration by Ed Kluz, with 3 facsimiles of handwritten letters by the author.
‘… my pen is a delicate needle point, tracing out a graph of temperament… You get all my thoughts and opinions, always irresponsible and often contradictory or mutually exclusive, all my moods and vapours, all the varying reactions to environment of this jelly which is I… the book is a self-portrait in the nude.’
Each book is £10.00, and all are available at our Redchurch Street Store.
There are many, many things to look for in autumn, just as there are at any time of the year. You will, of course, soon find things such as blackberries and hazel nuts, but if you know where to look you might also find the nests of the wood wasp hanging from twigs, or a bumble bee’s nest in the bank - in which you might even discover a field-mouse curled up.
By early September the swifts have already migrated to warmer climates, and the swallow tribe begins to gather on roof-ridges and telegraph wires in readiness for their migration.
These birds go south because there are not sufficient flying insects for them to eat during our northern winters. They return in wave after wave from April until June, when you may hear their wild cries of delight as they realize that at last they have earth - not sea - beneath their wings.
A full harvest moon is rising, though it is still only twilight. Farm buildings, ricks and church tower are still easily seen in the half-light, so also is the barn owl on its perch - on the look out for mice or any small birds that have not yet gone to roost.
If you have ever kept an owl as a pet, you will know what wonderfully soft feathers it has, and what sharp claws. One has to be careful when handling an owl, for it might grip tighter than you expect. It is always best to wear a glove.
September is the time for hop-picking, when large numbers of people come from the towns to help harvest them. Parents and children pick off the hop fruits, cramming them in bunches into the big bag or ‘poke’ - as it is called.
Hereford, Worcester, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire are the counties that have the most hop-fields, though hops are grown in some other counties as well.
A tawny owl is looking down from its high vantage point at the great bonfire lit for Guy Fawkes’ day. Not often does it see such a fire as this, and is astonished at the red glow and the many sparks.
Autumn, with its heavy rains, has filled the pond to the brim, and has flooded the track to the farm. In his raincoat and gum-boots the cowman is walking on the drier part away from the wheel tracks which are so full of water.
A LADYBIRD NATURE BOOK
Written by E. L. GRANT WATSON
with illustrations by C. F. TUNNICLIFFE, R. A.
First Published 1960 © Printed in England
