Last Friday, I went into London with my Mum and Dad as a sort of 'last day of the holidays' trip out.  With our plans to visit the BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery, we couldn't quite persuade my brother to come along too!

After having spent a lovely morning in the Seven Dials, walking with confidence into designer shops and pretending to be willing to pay £200 on a pair of jeans, we had a delicious lunch in a little Italian café before heading over to the gallery.   The Portrait Awards were great and my parents and I did our usual thing of picking our favourite as we went round.  

Once we were done, I was well and truly ready to get back to the station, as spending the day in London always seems so exhausting!  But oh no, my Dad was adamant that we should trek all the way to Bethnal Green, where we would find a cornershop made of felt.  He promised he'd heard about it on the news and couldn't wait to show me. I was a little skeptical about its very existence, if I'm honest. 

My Mum and I traipsed after him as we jostled the crowds of people queuing for school uniform , stopping every now and then to ask directions.  Seeing as it was so hard to find, I half expected to turn up at its supposed location to find just another derelict building, or at least just a normal corner shop.  

When we eventually found the right road, it had started raining and I was even less hopeful.  There were no other shops in sight and the only other people I'd seen were a few kids playing on their bikes.  But as we drew closer to the end of the street, we saw quite a few people gathered round a shop-front on this otherwise empty row of houses.  Sure enough, my Dad was victorious once again: we'd found The Cornershop.