I lived in Moorgate last year but my boyfriend had lived in South London for years and years and he convinced me to join the club, which I very happily did and we moved to Brixton last July.

I love it here. I love going to the village on a weekend and I’m a particularly big fan of a Full English at the Duck Egg café on Coldharbour Lane. It has got me through many a Sunday morning. I’ve still got a lot of exploring to do in Brixton, there’s stuff left on the horizon of Brixton just waiting to be discovered.

I first picked up a viola when I was 10. At my school you had to choose either a string or a wind instrument. They handed out the instruments and we got to try each one – the viola just spoke to me! Everyone plays the violin so I didn’t want to play that. The cello is so cumbersome – I didn’t want to have to schlep that around so the viola was a nice compromise.

For those not in the know, the viola is bigger than a violin and is lower in tone. It has more of a sultry character.

When I was 14 I went to this summer camp run by Interlochen Centre for the Arts in Michigan. It’s an 8-week intensive program which kids audition for. I was 14 and really passionate about what I was doing and it was so great to be around others that felt the same. It showed me that it was possible to do this professionally.

I’d been having private lessons for years and I was very lucky that there was a famous viola teacher living in Atlanta. She was my guide for all of my teenage years. I played in a youth orchestra, auditioned for the country’s big music colleges and then I went to study in Boston.

Before I moved here I hadn’t been to London. I had just finished university and I didn’t really know what to do. My mentor recommended a teacher in London and it just so happened that that summer I was playing in Holland. I thought that while I was in Europe I would pop to the Guildhall and have a lesson. It was fantastic and that helped me to make the decision to move here and study.

I love London. I mean, one of my only complaints is that you get to a point where you are quite spoilt for choice. I have all these dates of things that I want to go to but there are only so many hours in the day, only so many exhibitions that you can go to!

I love working with composers. You know, you can’t work with Mozart of Beethoven but when you work with current composers you can ask them “right, what did you mean by that?” You can work alongside them to help them achieve their vision of what they were trying to achieve when they wrote the piece.

I’ve always loved the act of performing in any guise really. I did a lot of theatre when I was a child and I like the rush and the spontaneity of being on stage and the heighted sense of everything. I do get a bit nervous but the trick is that if you’re prepared then it’s the good kind of nerves, not the bad.

We have the neighbours from heaven. My partner is a pianist and so we have a piano in the flat. It’s a rather cacophonous abode! All we have ever heard from our neighbours is “Oh, you sound fantastic. Play more, the baby loves it!”

The idea for the album is that I am an American studying in London so it’s English and American music of the 20^th and 21^st century and looking at how composers from both countries approached writing in the same time frame. We’re recording at the end of July.

Playing in Salzburg was fantastic as it’s the home of Mozart and has a very specific vibe. In a way I think you understand the music more when you see where it came from and the culture of the people who wrote it. You get more of a sense of its historical context.

My parents, although not musicians themselves, used to take us to concerts all the time as children. It was always something that we did together as a family; it was always an event that occupied a special place.

I once played the violin on the X Factor with Craig Colton and Janet Devlin. I didn’t get to meet Simon Cowell but I have to say I am a desperate fan of Kelly Rowland so it is possible that I stood outside of her room and waited for her to come out. It just so happened that Justin Bieber was there too. I wasn’t particularly bothered about that one.

The dream? I think just doing more of what I’m doing now.

At the moment I’m working on a project called “Sounding Motion”. It’s basically two musicians – myself and a percussionist and then three dancers. It’s live music and live contemporary dance on a particularly small and intimate scale. Our first shows are taking place May 18^th and 24th. We’re in an intensive period of rehearsing at the moment – it’s an exciting experiment!

You can see more of Sounding Motion’s work by clicking here – http://www.soundingmotion.com/. Performances are taking place at the Chisenhale Dance May 18^th and Testbed1 in Battersea on May 24^th as well as the Oxfringe Festival in Oxford June 7-8.

You can buy your tickets here – http://www.wegottickets.com/soundingmotion

Look at Stephen’s website here – http://www.stephenupshaw.com/

F: It all started off the back of my final MA project on Design and Sustainability. I’ve always been a little bit obsessed with food, how it connects people and how it can engage diverse communities around the issue of sustainability. My project led me to meet a few people in Brixton and across London and one of the guys I met was Steve, the chef who launched the People’s Kitchen in Dalston. He told me that he wanted to spread the idea and so I decided to do it in Brixton.

C: I got involved because in September I had just moved back to the UK from Berlin. There they have similar things all over the place, it’s a really normal thing to find in a pub or a café. You could eat every night in a People’s Kitchen in Berlin if you wanted to – just on a donations basis. It’s the same idea – bringing people together and eating well on as little money as possible.

C: I had been to the People’s Kitchen in Dalston and when they told me that Fan was setting one up in Brixton, I got in touch. We met up to brainstorm, Fan had a lot of great ideas and so we decided to hold a test event at the Women’s Institute in Brixton.

C: To get supplies for the event we went to New Covent Garden Market and took some of the food that is thrown away there. This market supplies all of the other markets in London so they have amazing organic produce. We went in the morning with a girl who was a bit more aux fait with the process and we were just amazed at the piles and piles of fresh fruit and vegetables, all in such good condition, which for some reason have been thrown away because they don’t quite make the mark. This was just a one-off event. Since then we have built up relationships with other shops and they give us food rather than us having to take it from bins.

F: We felt weird just taking it. There are mountains of perfectly good food going to waste and you just wonder why! You see other people doing it who are obviously regulars. We split into two groups of two. On our side, everyone was friendly, the workers told us to come back and made jokes asking us “what’s for dinner tonight ladies?” but on the other side the girls had quite a hard time, there was a security guy bothering them. It’s a weird experience. Everyone agrees that it is wrong to throw that amount of food away but it’s these guys jobs to tell us off for doing it!

F: After the event at the WI we decided to hold our first Brixton People’s Kitchen at Myatt’s Field Park. I live really close to there and they run some really great projects.

C: They run a lot of events there that are designed to bring the community back together. They have a community greenhouse, which is great because we sometimes get food from them. The first event went really well but it was freezing! It was the middle of winter and we were in a shed! Everyone was cooking in their hats and scarves!

C: Up until recently our main supplier has been “As Nature Intended” an organic supermarket in Balham who are really good with their waste. They let their employees take waste and they leave leftovers outside for people. We got in touch and explained what Brixton’s People Kitchen does and now all we have to do is call them and they will put lots of food aside for us which is great! We get bin bags full of really great food and veg.

F: It doesn’t matter if you come along and you can’t cook because there is always someone there who can. There is always something to do whether it is the chopping, washing up or even just telling jokes! I really like the idea that no matter what you can do, there will be a job for you – no matter how bad your cooking skills are!

C: Since the weather has been nicer we’ve been outside more which is great because we get a lot more passers by come and eat with us and that means we get a really diverse group of  people. Last time we had a group of young boys who were just cycling around and they eventually plucked up the courage to come and eat with us. It’s a really good mix of families, young, old, single. A lot of people come from an interesting background, they’re interested in food waste and the issues surrounding it. We’ve met some fascinating people.

F: We have about 15 volunteers who come and cook and maybe 40 or so regulars who join us for the meal. People always seem to enjoy it and come back.

C: I’m always amazed at what we produce. It’s really exhilarating getting all of this free stuff. We sort it out on a big table and then people start saying ‘right I’m going to take this”, “I’m going to make this” and it’s just really cool to start from a pile of food that would be thrown away and make them in to these amazing meals. It’s improved my confidence when it comes to cooking and it’s made me more adventurous.

F: I love going there not knowing what’s going to happen. I love seeing how people interact and how things take shape, how everything works out and becomes a meal. Also, because I’m not from London I don’t know that many people here and don’t have any family here so it’s really nice to be able to meet people in my neighbourhood of all ages. It’s a family feeling.

C: You meet people that you wouldn’t normally come across or get to talk to.

F: It’s a mixture of very local people and some that come from quite far away. There are a lot of South London people who have heard about the Dalston People’s Kitchen and are curious. It’s a really tiny kitchen! We only have four hobs but we make it work!

C: We’ve got a lot better at co-ordinating the people and getting things done – the first time was quite stressful!

F: It’s becoming more of a challenge to find volunteers who are happy to go around collecting the food – that’s quite a big task. We’d love to have more man power and have more people around with the time to help us go around collecting the supplies.

C: We’d like to collect the food without the use of a car so at the moment we are looking at teaming up with a bike delivery service and we’re hopefully going to get a trailer so that we can pick up food on our own bikes.

C: Shops quite often ask us whether there is somewhere that they can donate more regularly than just the once a month that we hold events. We are looking in to setting up a food bank or something like that so that this can happen and so that this food doesn’t go to waste.

F: If I was trying to persuade someone to come along I would tell them that we help to reduce food waste which is so important and you will also get the chance to meet interesting people from really diverse backgrounds plus, it’s fun and really creative. One of the nicest things that someone said to me after one of the People’s Kitchen was that she hadn’t realised how creative it could be – that was really nice. It’s not just about cooking a meal and cleaning up – it’s about creating something that people can enjoy together.

You can support Brixton People’s Kitchen by visiting their Facebook Page. Their next event is THIS SUNDAY. More details can be found on the Facebook page. Why not go along, eat something tasty and show your support!

Email brixtonfoodwaste@gmail.com or contact Fan on 07810288879 if you would like to cook and contact Camilla on 07884418319 if you would like to donate food.

This week London’s Stories chatted to Marvin, an occupational therapist from Strawberry Hill who has just returned from a three month trip to India.

We chatted about how his travels opened his eyes, how he fell in to his career and what he hopes for the future…

I was born in Reading, and brought up in Wokingham (a small town in Berkshire). I had a great upbringing. I used to be obsessed with snakes and was surprisingly allowed to keep them at home. I must have had very understanding parents, either that or I just drove them crazy until they caved in!

I have a very big family who are spread out all over the place – I feel grateful for each and every one of them.

I moved to London around seven years ago to start university. My first place was in Isleworth. There were definitely no academic records set in that first year, although probably some drinking ones I’m sure.

I love London’s diversity. So many different people and so much opportunity. I love the Royal Parks, the river, the live music, the old traditional pubs. I could go on. It’s definitely one of my favourite cities in the World.

As a teenager I used to burn the candle at both ends like most people of my generation. So many funny memories when I look back, well those that I can remember anyway.

My first trip away was around 10 years ago to India and South East Asia. A friend and I started in Mumbai and Goa. I came off of my scooter very early on and ended up with a fractured wrist. I remember that evening my friend putting his paramedic skills to work by fastening a mobile phone to my wrist with cello-tape as a makeshift plaster cast before leaving me alone while he went out chasing girls!

This trip was life changing for me. I met some amazing people and got to do things I’d always dreamed of doing. To me travelling the world can be one of the most enriching things a person can do, especially when visiting countries where the culture is so different to the west.

What did travelling teach me?  That my knowledge about the world was very limited. It awoke a desire within me to study and start doing more of the things that were really important to me.

I work as an occupational therapist which is a therapy that focuses on empowering the individual to enable them to continue doing the things they love doing in the midst of physical/mental illness/disability.

After returning from Asia I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do. A few things sprung to mind – I considered zoology or music originally but then I looked at healthcare. I had a good friend who worked as an OT and every time she spoke about it it just sounded so interesting. I made the decision to enrol at university and the rest in history. Taking this step in my life was most definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I love my job because a lot of the time it doesn’t feel like work. To make a positive contribution to people’s lives is so rewarding, I feel so privileged.

Of course like any job there are the politics, however working with the patients makes all of the other stuff irrelevant. I’m really interested in human behaviour and health so it’s the perfect field for me to be in.

One of the best things that I have done is taking a trilogy of self development courses over the last couple of years with an organisation called ‘Outlook’. My girlfriend told me about the courses when I was at university. I had been interested in self development for a little while and when I started to study to be a therapist, personal growth became more important to me. The courses themselves involve spending time in a training room for the weekend with a group of strangers (of all ages and from all walks of life). Over the weekend you do a variety of group and solo exercises that give you an opportunity to see how you can hold yourself back in your life. It was a brilliant experience. Self-development work, whatever it is can give you really useful new insight. It’s great to start to live more consciously and less automatically.

I met my girlfriend at university. We were only ever friends at uni however towards the end we started to spend more time together. Then it went from there, and this summer we will have been together for four years. I’m sure some people probably think that I’m one of her ex-patients, however I can assure you that is not the case!

She really is an incredible woman who is a big role model for me, we always have such a great laugh together.

I’ve recently returned from a three month trip to India and Sri Lanka. I went to study to become a yoga teacher. It was a brilliant experience. I met some really interesting people and got to really deepen my yoga practice.

Whilst over there, I spent some time in the Western Ghats visiting some of the tiger reserves and national parks which was an amazing experience. To spend time with wildlife photographers and naturalists was really inspiring and right up my street. I also got time to spend time with a good friend of mine in Sri Lanka which is such a stunning country.

I chose to do this trip because I love wildlife and I also want to pass the gift of yoga onto people who really need it.

The most important thing in life? I think it’s important to be who you are and not compromise that to try and fit in.

I’m going to start teaching yoga classes very soon. I’m also set to start a nutritional therapy diploma in the summer which I’m really excited about. I’d like to write a book and also have a family eventually if we’re lucky enough. I’ve got so many ideas, I could go on forever.

I love watching football, cooking, kung-fu, going on nice walks with my girl, drinking real ale with my mates, reading about all sorts of random stuff, riding my bike and dreaming about getting a big dog called Ben.

I chatted to Barney, an employee of the co-operative  for 25 years, about how the shop works, the increase in people opting to cycle rather than drive and how he has seen Brixton change over the years…

Folklore has it that three guys were doing a bike ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End in the 1980s and they realised that there was no bike shop in Brixton.  They had the remarkable idea of starting one and making it a workers’ co-operative…

This was around the time of Red Ken, nothing was really happening at that time, it was just past the riots, rents were very cheap, we got a £50 grant and a £500 loan from a ‘right-on movement’ called the Industrial Common Ownership Fund and we opened the tiny, tiny shop on Coldharbour Lane.

We were there until about eleven or twelve years ago until Coldharbour Lane became a ‘golden mile’ for people who flogged booze and rents tripled over night so that’s when we moved to our current premises.

I’m probably the oldest co-op member but I’m also the biggest child. I ask a hundred questions a day to my co-workers. I think wisdom is knowing how little you know.

How we work together is hard to explain – we call it ‘human origami’. We love what we do; we love the chaos and the spaghetti management way that we operate. There are 13 of us, unlucky for people of faith!

If you work here for a year then you become a co-op member – a Director if you will. Equal say, equal pay. It is hard sometimes but we don’t have a big staff turnover because people either get it, or they don’t. I don’t think that anyone here would be working here if there was a boss.

I’m unemployable now, I haven’t had a boss for 25 years but when I have done that – worked for other people – I have found the mistrust that management have for their staff hard to deal with. When people are happy, they are more productive.

We’re like a happy family. I mean, of course we have spits and spats but generally we know how lucky we are. The average bike mechanic in London is paid less than poverty wages in this city and I just don’t know how they live. We’re lucky. We’re the best-paid bike mechanics in London.

We do have a line manager – he’s called Ben Nevis and he’s a dog. He’s our only management structure.

The hub of the business is the workshop. We sell new bikes that come with a year of unlimited labour. If you just push units and say goodbye, you never get the repeat customer. That’s the most important thing.

We only stock what we like because we don’t have a boss telling us to only stock what has the highest profit margin. We only sell what we would ride ourselves and we think that this promotes trust with the customer.

I haven’t owned a car for 25 years. I don’t know if you drive but owning a car is a bloody waste of time. I think most car drivers are there because it’s ‘keeping up with the jones’s’ or because they live with their mum and they need somewhere to listen to loud music.

Obviously I had a car at 17 but that’s because I didn’t have a girlfriend. Sexual politics make men buy cars.

There’s been an absolute revolution, with the Ken Livingstone Bikes they’re not Boris Bikes – they were invented by Ken, not a very nice man but a damn sight less ridiculous than Johnson. He’s a joke; he’s a part of the party that have taken my workers’ tax credit. It’s horrific – I don’t know how the British public put up with it.

With all the parking restrictions, people have caught on to the fact that riding a bike is not only for sandal wearing, incense burning hippies. It’s mainstream.

I do get annoyed with what we call ‘The Tribe of Yellow’ – ruddy-faced bankers in hi-vis jackets jumping red lights and getting in my way.

I applied for this job when I was 22 and I’m 47 now. I come from a family of cyclists so of course I hated it and wanted to spend all of my money on cars. Then, when The Ice Queen was in power I felt very inadequate, I couldn’t afford anything so I went to live in Wales, bought a mountain bike and it was like the clouds parted, Richard Dawkins pointed down at me and told me this was the way to go!

When I got back to London, I knew I wanted to work at a bike shop so I went through the yellow pages, got as far as B and I’ve been here ever since.

I know that old Brixton, you know the squatting, couriering crew are all grumbling about its gentrification but there are good sides to it. It’s good to be able to have a good meal!

I remember when crack landed in Brixton I did see a lot of knives, a lot of violence, a lot of aggression and as a young man it freaked me out.  I lived in central Brixton for a long time and I’ve come out of my house and seen man-shaped chalk marks on the pavement.

I’ve had people come in here who’ve said ‘remember me, I used to nick all your tools! Well, I’m back and I want a bike for both my children’. It’s important to treat people as people to keep them coming back rather than as a wallet or a threat.

If I see any bullying out on the skate park, I’ll storm out there – give them a bit of the baritone and try and cool things down a little bit.

You must never rest on your laurels, having advocates for the shop out on the street is worth millions.

One of our favourite customers, his nickname is Penfold. He is on a sea of prescription drugs. He gets a lot of hassle from the community because he has mental health issues but he’s beautiful. He’s a beautiful man. He comes in every day and brings us gifts. Redundant electronics. He comes and has little mini philosophical discussions with us.

There’s also a guy called Red Rodriguez who quotes us Plato and Marx. He’ll say things like ‘As Plato said, never put a 27 inch tyre on a 700c wheel!’ Pretty sure Plato never said that!

A lot of the kids are great as well you see them grow from rugrats to full grown hoodlums! They learn on us, they learn that they can’t just push in.

I think the thing that gives Brixton such a community feel is that people walk. If you walk, you talk.

We’ve got the Brixton BMX Club in Brockwell Park, they are brilliant male mentors. Then we have our cycle club where we are trying to get people who aren’t total anoraks into road riding – they meet every Sunday. It’s for men and women, not just angular blokes who haven’t seen a pudding their whole life.

After putting acting on the back burner to concentrate on his education, Harry set his sights on drama school and landed a place at the highly respected, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London at just 18 years of age.

London’s Stories chatted to Harry about the misconceptions people have of acting students, his latest roles and the challenges of filming entirely in French…

We’ve all seen the movies – what’s the reality of studying acting?

It’s gruelling but great fun. There was such a mixture of people in my year. People who had never really acted before, people who had been doing it all of their lives, people from all over the world. There were 24 of us in my class from an amazing range of places – all of different ages as well. The oldest was 28 and I was one of the youngest at 18.

I suppose there were times when we were doing movement classes where if you had looked in on the class you would have thought, what the hell is going on there? You know, with all the stretching and black t-shirts and tights and stuff.

Are there any particular projects from drama school that you are proud of?

For my final year I opted to create a solo piece, which I had to write, direct and act in. Mine was about a boy who has autism. My little brother has autism so it’s quite close to home I suppose. My Brother’s fascination is films, he watches them so many times that he can recite them. This is why he loves flying – it means that he can watch films for hours on end! I set up a situation where a 19 year old that loves films as much as my Brother gets on a plane and when the TV doesn’t work he absolutely loses it.

The play cuts between him being in a youth offenders cell and the moments on the plane when it all unravels. I tried to develop it into a short film but it was so hard to find a plane to use for the set!

When you were acting when you were younger – were you aware that what you were doing was quite a big deal?

I was totally oblivious to it all. I come from a pretty grounded family – I’ve never been allowed to get carried away.

What have you been working on recently?

Last summer I was working on a French film, ‘Madame Solario’ directed by René Féret, which meant that I spent a month filming in Paris and a month in Lake Como. The majority of the cast and crew were French and it was an amazing experience, seriously challenging. I don’t speak the language fluently but my role was as an Englishman who speaks very good French. I had to brush up on my grammar etc.

For the most part, I was fine. However, there was one day when we were night shooting on the outskirts of Paris. I had a late night and our call the next morning was 09:30 to film the last scene in which I had to get very angry. The director decided to change the text that morning and I just couldn’t learn it.

Eventually we decided, fantastically for me, that maybe it would work in English because often when people get angry they revert to their own language.

How did you get the role?

I met the director when he came over to London with his daughter. We had two meetings where I read, did some improvisation in French (which was hard), and then got offered the part. The premiere is in April.

Can you describe what it was like being on set?

It was great! We had a lovely crew and my film set French is good now! The director had his bike on set and would often cycle around between takes to clear his head.

The whole shoot was 8 weeks. Working in a different language was tough because you have to fully understand what you are saying in order to act it and you don’t have the freedom to improvise if you forget your lines. I learnt a lot.

Have you done any professional theatre?

Yes. I played Cornelius in Hamlet at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield alongside John Simm.  He was amazing to work with. There he was on this epic journey playing Hamlet and each and every night he would take the time to check in with me before we went on stage. He was fantastic.

What would you say is your style – it doesn’t seem like you have started out the easy way – French film, Shakespeare…

Training at The Guildhall really sets you up for anything. When you’re a young actor you almost have to go for everything and see where the industry puts you to a certain extent. I would love to play Romeo, Hamlet one day and then King Lear when I’m older. I’d love to tackle those parts but I’m also keen to do the more modern stuff.

What’s the dream?

The dream, I suppose is to tackle the classical texts, get a real foundation in theatre, which is what I’m trained in. I’d then like to do some film and some great TV dramas as well.

What is about acting that you love?

I just really enjoy investigating people. I know that that sounds slightly weird but it’s one of the things that I’ve always enjoyed doing. I love the fact that it is such a spontaneous job. You’re always learning and of course, I love the performance side, it’s a lot of fun.

Do you get nervous?

Definitely but I’ve always tried to use the nerves to my advantage. It scares me when I’m not nervous because often it means my performance won’t be as good.

Have you ever had any nightmare auditions?

I had one where I learnt the speech the night before. I thought I had it- but I didn’t realise the audition would involve being in front of all of the other people who were auditioning – 50 or so others.  With the added pressure of an audience watching on top of the fact that I had learnt it last minute, I got two lines in and realised I didn’t know it. I had another go but that time, I got three lines in and had to walk off. That was in the middle of filming ‘Madame Solario’. It was good actually; it tripped me up a bit, but kept me on my toes. Preparation is vital.

What are the most common misconceptions that people seem to have about actors?

I suppose it’s the whole la-di-da thing. Being very extrovert. I mean, there are actors like that… but I think that the majority of us are quite humble. Our job is to portray people so if we weren’t people ourselves and hadn’t gone through our own experiences and learnt from them, it would be hard to do our job.

What’s the hardest part of the job?

The fact that you are constantly faced with a barrage of rejection. That’s tough. I got so close to a part recently and then got turned down at the last possible point. When that happens you have to start again from scratch. You have to be proactive and keep your body and your voice ticking along, you have to constantly have the discipline to hone your craft and that’s quite hard when you aren’t attending classes.

What do you like about London?

I love London. I love the diversity it offers. A guy said to me that London has the best of everything in England and I agree with that…and obviously theatre-wise there is so much out there and you can do it for a reasonable price.

Name one thing that not that many people know about you…

I’m obsessed with “buying on the deal” to the extent that supermarket shops take four times the amount of time than they should. I walk around scrutinising what is on offer. It has its advantages… My shopping is never the same from week to week!

What’s the naughtiest thing that you have ever done?

When I was around about 11 I was playing in the woods with my best mate when we stumbled upon some empty milk bottles. I decided that it would be fun to launch the bottles onto the road to create the sound of ‘World War 3′. Needless to say my parents stopped me. I think I deflected a lot of the blame onto my mate… Bad form, as it was entirely my idea. Fortunately no cars were hurt in the aftermath!

You can follow Harry on Twitter here.

Ekeno, 15

I got into music when I was 13. At first it was just a bit of fun with my mates – putting together rhymes. Then we heard that there was a music studio at a local youth club and so me and a friend went down there.

The guy asked me to spit some of my rhymes, he was impressed and told me I was good for my age. Until that stage, I hadn’t told anyone that I can sing but I decided to tell him. I sang him a Chris Brown song and the next thing I know, the guy invited me to come back to the studio to record my first track.

My musical style is young, fresh and unique. I want to be myself, everyone is created unique – I don’t want to be like anyone else. I don’t have a rap name, I use Ekeno – it’s Nigerian and my Mum gave it to me, it’s gods gift.

Inspiration for my lyrics comes from different things that are happening in my life. My track ‘Queen of Hearts’, that one’s for the ladies. ‘Winner’ is about overcoming any obstacles and being the winner no matter what. ‘I be on my Grind’ – that’s cocky; it’s telling all the haters that no matter what they do I’m always going to be in front of them. I wrote ‘Prayer’ when I was going through some personal stuff in year 9; it asks why good people have to die.

Ideas just come to me. Sometimes getting my lyrics down can take months; sometimes it’ll take less than a day. When I’m focused on it nothing distracts me. At the moment, I’m writing every day.

I listen to Angel, Wretch 32 and Tinie Tempah – people used to call me Tinie because I used to roll with the glasses.

I don’t know where music is going to take me but I definitely want to try and find out. My education is very important to me and I’m good at football. When I play, if you try and catch me, you wont. I’m too fast. I’m lazy though that’s my problem. Just ask my Mum and my sisters. My coach says I have the potential though.

The media just seems to think that every black kid is bad. We’re portrayed so badly. All of the people who think that every black kid is bad, I tell you now – they’re not. That’s a fact.

My friends would say I’m funny. Girls would say I’m cute, smart, cool – the whole package.

My biggest accomplishment to date is just me being me.

The best thing about being a teenager is that you get to meet girls.

RUTH, 14

There’s definitely a stereotype of what people think teenagers in Tottenham are like. People tend to think that we don’t know anything and that the area is a bubble that people can’t break free from.

People think that the streets are full of stroppy teenagers beating each other up but it’s not like that. There are bad places everywhere and it’s unfair that Tottenham is always portrayed badly – there are good people and good places here. I like it.

I’m passionate about music and my dream would be to be successful in the industry. I play the bass guitar in a band – we are a Cuban polyrhythmic group – lots of guitars, drums and percussion. I love it. My band mates are all so amazing and really inspire me to be better.

I think I’d like to be a session musician or maybe teach people. I’d like to be in a successful band but not have many people know me – I want to be able to walk down the street in peace.

I’m independent and hate being told what to do. I hate having restrictions forced upon me…not being able to go on certain websites because of my age, not being able to do anything because I haven’t got the money. It frustrates me.

To me happiness is being content with what you have.

I’m good at reading people – I can see when someone is unhappy and can make them laugh.

I sometimes worry about people not liking me. It also scares me that you can lose people so easily. I lost a large group of friends recently over a really stupid argument. I don’t know where things went wrong, we were all such good friends and now we never speak.

The hardest thing about being a teenager is constantly being in competition with people. I was bullied when I was younger  which meant that I was shy but it also taught me get to know myself.

If I could I would rebuild Montserrat – my Dad is from there and I really want to visit.

The most important thing in life is being around happy people that you can trust. Having positive people around. I’m fortunate enough to have been brought up without being surrounded by negativity – I’m lucky in that respect.

Rikcain, 14

I live in Palmers Green with my Mum, Sister and occasionally my step-dad but we don’t really get along that well. I get along really well with my mum though – she has always been there for me, she backs all of the decisions I make and guides me. There is nothing that I cant talk to her about.

I’d like to act in films and I like the idea of theatre – there just seems to be a little more depth to it. If I had to name my favourite actor it would be Johnny Depp – I like how he brings humour to his roles and he makes interesting film choices which I really admire.

I hate the fact that people tend to group young black teenagers into the same category as if we are all the same or as if we are all a certain way. We’re all different. The media goes totally overboard. I know people who constantly get stopped and searched by the police – I never have. I think it’s more to do with where you are, who you are with and the time. Some people are just unlucky.

It angers me when authority figures change things that then make things are harder for people of my age. I’ve wanted to go to university since I was 6 but it costs so much now, I just don’t know if it possible.

I think that I am good at making people happy, speaking to people and making them see that no matter how bad they think things are – things could be worse. I’m a leader, the idea of following other people is completely alien to me. I don’t like to be bored, not doing things is such a waste of time when there is always something new and amazing to be doing.

I like everything about London. I like the fact that you can get on the Underground and be taken anywhere that you want. I like all the different types of people with different personalities, it’s so multicultural. Everywhere you go, there is something to look at, people to meet. I like walking through the city and looking at the huge buildings when its sunny or raining – I like feeling small in comparison with the Earth.

I couldn’t live without my phone. I have had one since I was 11 – it’s for my Mum’s sake, it keeps her calm and stops her worrying about me.

I’m scared of failing. If I’m not too interested in something then I don’t mind losing but if I really enjoy something then I need to win, I want to win, I hate losing.

What makes me angry? The cost of university fees. Narrow-minded people, shallow people.

London’s Stories visited Park View Academy in Seven Sisters to chat to some of the Year 10 and 11 pupils about what their lives are really like, what’s important to them and the reality of what it’s really like to be a teenager growing up in Tottenham…

Ama Rock, 15

I met my Dad for the first time when I was 11 in Grenada in the Caribbean. It was nerve wracking. I had an idea of what a Dad  should be from TV and how my friends relationships were with their dads but it really wasn’t what I expected. He was very different to us. He’s from a different world in a way.

Him and my Mum got back together and he ended up moving back to London. We were crammed in the house together, it was awkward for me and we didn’t have a good relationship. They split up again last year. I talk to him some times but unfortunately it’s not a very good relationship.

It makes me really upset that we haven’t got a good relationship because, I wouldn’t want to say I’m jealous, but when I look at my friends with their Dads, I wish that I had that as well. I think that we’re just two completely different people. I didn’t know him for most of my life and I felt very angry at him for that.

When I was younger I was quite argumentative, I was always getting into trouble inside and outside of school for arguing with teachers, other pupils, not doing what I was told, I was…not a troublemaker, but I was very rebellious. Not with my Mum but in school. I just didn’t like the system. I didn’t get the fact that school treats everyone like they’re the same person.

This is kind of embarrassing but I watched ‘Law & Order’ one day and realised I want to be a barrister and that meant that I needed to get good grades. When I started to study the topics that I found interesting I found that I liked school! As soon as I was interested in learning, my whole attitude just changed.

My Mum is educated, she’s been to university, has a good job, she’s very open-minded. When I was little we used to go out to museums, I had a really good childhood and I think I’m quite cultured. We travelled a lot. But then again, I live in Tottenham. I’m from two worlds.

People do have a bad perception of Tottenham but I think a lot of it’s true. When I wake up and I look around, for me, Tottenham is boring, there’s nothing to do, I just really don’t like it.

I can’t see myself living in the countryside. I like the city so I think that I will probably stay in London. I like going down by the river.

People think that all teenagers smoke, drink and are in gangs. I see that kind of thing living in Tottenham but there’s not that many people in the school like that. There are a lot of people in Tottenham who are. I’m more scared of getting kidnapped than I am of being mugged.

The best present that I could hope to receive would be an around the world ticket for me and my Mum. I want to go to India, China, Japan, everywhere basically.

Annie, 14 

I live in Stamford Hill with my parents and my brother. He’s 13 and has autism. A lot of people don’t understand it. I see people at school being mean to him and of course I have a go at them, it makes me feel horrible, he doesn’t deserve that.

I want to travel everywhere, there’s nowhere that I don’t want to go. I really want to go to Brazil. I’ve been to South East Asia with my family. We went to Thailand, Cambodia. We went to Mumbai as well – it was great, we stayed with families and in huts on the beach.

Some stereotypes about being a teenager are right, most aren’t. I don’t feel like I’m ever treated differently or badly because I am a certain age. Some older boys can be seen as bad but if they want to walk around with their hoods up, let them get judged. It’s nothing to do with me.

Education is important. I want to learn new things. I don’t understand anyone who wouldn’t want to – it makes no sense. I want to study languages to help me when I travel.

My parents are a huge influence to me. I’m not like most teenagers in the sense that I agree with my parents on a lot of things. I respect their opinions which is good because we can get into really good discussions.

I don’t ever feel peer pressure – I like to do my own thing and only do things when I want to do them. I know people who are affected but I’m not.

I don’t care what other people think about me. I have my friends. I like to surround myself with people who have different opinions so that we have lots to talk about.

My most valuable possession asides from my family and friends is my music, I cant stand sitting in silence.

I don’t have any hidden talents. Anything that I am good at, I am more than happy to show off to the world.

I’m scared of things going wrong. Not being able to travel. I’m scared of being bored. I would hate to be stuck somewhere that I didn’t want to be.

Ajay, 15

I’m 15, I’m from Whetstone. My dad is Sri Lankan and my Mum was from Mauritius. I have one brother and one sister.

I started taking piano seriously in year 9. It’s my passion, my past time but not what I want my career to be at this stage.

Sadly, my Mum passed away when I was in year 7. We were really close but now I am incredibly close to my sister and my dad. We’ve all been there for each other and have grown so much closer since my mum’s death.

I have a secret obsession with country music although unfortunately, it’s not so secret anymore. I love Dolly Parton. Her lyrics are so relatable, real and they’re not about sex and drugs for once.

I think love is when someone takes your breath away. When you meet someone who does that you should never let them go. There is a girl that I like but we’re just good friends – she doesn’t feel the same way about me. She’s clever – you can have a really good conversation with her. I doubt its love but I think it is, I’ve never felt that before, she’s the first person that I have liked so how am I supposed to know?

A lot of things make me angry. People who don’t listen. People who just assume that you are wrong without listening to what you have to say. That annoys me.

People think that all teenagers want to make trouble. It’s labelling to attach a stereotype without giving us a fair chance. I don’t really encounter bad behaviour but when I hear about it, I’m disappointed. I don’t understand why people want to make trouble and make things hard for the rest of us. The reality is that we are at an inner city school, there are going to be people who you encounter that you wont like. You just have to put aside how you feel and get on with it.

I’m scared of never working out what I want to do. I’m indecisive so I’m scared of not being able to make the important decisions that I need to make.

The best advice I’ve ever received is that sometimes you just need to unplug and switch off your feelings to help yourself. There is no point trying to hold on to something that you never had. It’s important to let go of situations that you can do nothing about. Don’t dwell on things or over think.

The hilarious pair have spent the last couple of years playing gigs around the country and notching up impressive awards including  2010 Musical Comedy Award Runners-Up and 2011 BBC New Comedy Awards Semi-Finalists.

On top of that they are busy preparing for fast approaching Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe shows.

London’s Stories caught up with Horse and Louis to discuss the reality of being stand-up comedians, to learn about their bizarre pre-gig rituals and to enquire as to how they like to deal with relentless hecklers…

Lets start with a little bit of background – what’s the story of Horse and Louis?

Louis – We met at Uni in Cardiff. I auditioned for a play that Horse had written with a mutual friend, they gave me the part and we took the play to Edinburgh. At some point the following year we started playing gigs as an acoustic covers band with me on cello and Horse on guitar. We added some jokes and realised we were better at those that we were at playing our instruments.

Horse – We basically became a comedy duo just when everyone else was doing things like getting real jobs, getting married or just generally growing up.

I have to ask…Horse?

H – The secret dies with me. And the horse involved. Actually, that horse is already dead. So it dies with me.

L – It’s a sex thing.

Describe your act?

H – Sketches to music. Jaunty messing around.

Tell us about your first gig? Did you bomb?

L – Our first gig was at a comedy night in a Hawaiian themed restaurant in Cardiff which bizarrely served a Chinese buffet before the show. I remember it going pretty well. I’m pretty sure that every comedian has had bad gigs, we definitely have.

H – One that springs to mind was at some student halls in Bristol. It was during their fresher’s week and they couldn’t have cared less. It was as if they were too trendy to laugh.

Any pre-gig rituals?

H – If it’s a big gig we do tend to sacrifice a goat to the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra. You know, better safe than sorry.

What do you take inspiration from for the act?

L – The Argos catalogue.

How do you deal with hecklers?

H – Most comedians only have their wit as a potential weapon against hecklers, we’ve got guitars. Take one of those to the chin and you’ll know about it.

It’s notoriously difficult to make a name as stand-up comedians – tell us a little about the reality…

L – There are a lot of people doing stand-up at the moment, it’s really popular, so I guess it’s harder to get noticed than it was. It takes a long time to get good as well. I think you learn from every gig.

H – True. There’s so many elements of doing live comedy that you have to enjoy, or at least be able to stomach, to keep going at it long enough to make any kind of name – travelling, late nights, small crowds, tough crowds, writing all the time. Like anything, you have to have a lot of belief and be prepared to work hard to get where you want to be.

Favourite and least favourite parts of it?

H – There’s nothing like testing some new material and it going amazingly well.

What do you both like about London?

H – London’s a 24-hour city. There’s always something going on and, as a bit of a nocturnal person, I love that. The spectrum of culture here is so much wider than anywhere else I’ve lived, whatever you want to do or see, you can.

L – Loads of my friends are here. There’s an endless amount of things to do, there’s a great live scene for pretty much everything and everywhere you go you meet new and interesting people. Also house parties – I love a house party!

Do you have favourite places in London?

L – Big Red is an American themed Rock Bar on Holloway Road with four pool tables and tattooed lady barmaids. They play great music and serve ridiculous burgers. It was our old local and it’s amazing. I also love Hampstead Heath. I used to go running up Parliament Hill which has a great view of London, I’ve stopped running and now look at London on Google maps… it’s not quite the same.

H – Venue-wise, the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell, Wilmington Arms in Clerkenwell, The Miller in London Bridge and The Tommyfield in Kennington are great – maybe just because we’ve got some very happy memories of playing there!

Are London audiences harder or easier to impress?

L – Every audience is different. A lot of audiences outside London, particularly in small rural areas, are great to play to because they’ve come out to have a good time. Sometimes in London you get the kind of audience that is clearly thinking ‘go on then – make us laugh!’

You’ve had some fantastic responses – won awards (2010 Musical Comedy Award Runners-Up
2011 BBC New Comedy Awards Semi-Finalists) – what’s next for Horse and Louis?

H – We just want to keep improving and doing bigger and better gigs.

L – Right now we’re working on our 2012 Edinburgh Fringe show so busy writing and testing material for that. We’re taking the show to the Brighton fringe in May which is both exciting and terrifyingly close!

Any fun tactics to beat the nerves?

H – See my earlier comment about goat sacrifice.

L – Get sh*tfaced.

Do you ever feel competitive with each other to be the funniest?

L – I think if we did then we wouldn’t work as a double act.

H – Said the less funny one.

Show your support for Horse & Louis by ‘liking’ their Facebook page here or to hear about upcoming gigs you should swing by their website here.

You can also follow these funny chaps on Twitter by clicking here.

After a year of saying yes to every question and request, she was surprised to find her career as an artist take an unexpected turn to become a ‘performance taxidermist’.

London’s Stories visited Charlie’s studio in North London to see some of her work, to find out what it is about taxidermy that interests her and how people tend to react…

How about you tell us a little about how you got in to taxidermy…

I’ve always been into wildlife. When I was a child we lived in the countryside – I would always be entertaining myself by being outside looking at dead stuff. I started bringing things home, much to my Mum’s distaste. When I got older, I moved into other places and was in a position to bring more and more things back.

When I was 22, I got my hands on a baby chick that had died. I decided to bury it and after a few weeks, I dug it back up because I was intrigued to see what had happened to it.

My brother knew that I was doing all these weird little things and one day he brought me a dead fox that he had found in a park. I thought “Well this is it, I have to do it now. There’s no turning back”.

So the fox was your first experience of taxidermy?

When I was younger my mum used to clean stately homes and they always had rooms that were full of taxidermy so I had always been interested by it.

The first animal that I actually opened up was the fox my Brother brought me. It was a pretty mammoth task and an incredibly emotional experience.Until then I had never been so close to something which had so recently been living and had just died. I said a little prayer and had a little cry. It was beautiful and really moving.

I got a knife and opened its chest. I didn’t really know what to do so I just thought, what do I know about basic preservation? I couldn’t bring myself to remove any organs or anything so I just covered him in salt and he still survives to this day!

What is it about taxidermy that interests you?

It’s something that you don’t see everyday. I’m fascinated by life, I love animals – inside and out! (laughs) I work alone so it’s very private, it’s very personal, you feel connected to the world in a weird sort of way and I find it really fascinating.

We didn’t do this in school and I guess that there is that taboo attached to it – you know, “you shouldn’t be doing that, you shouldn’t touch that” that’s why I started doing it in secret. When you do things in secret no one can tell you what to do and no one can tell you that what you are doing is wrong. It makes you more creative.

Have you always been artistic?

Yes. My Mum married an army man and we went to live on an army base that was right next door to a dump. Every day for hours and hours after school, I would play on my own at this dump making things. When you live in the countryside, there is nothing else to do but use your imagination and I used it creatively by making sculptures from the things that I found. I went on to art college in Bournemouth and then on to do a degree in sculpture at Camberwell College.

Did you enjoy college?

No because I didn’t really like being told what to do. They told you that you had to think and do things a certain way and would push you into conceptualising your ideas – I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to open up to a room full of strangers about what I was thinking when I produced my work.

I got into a lot of trouble and when I left, I told them that I was going to go and work on the shopping channel and never do art ever again because I hated it so much. They just thought I was a joke.

As soon as I was free from all the restraints of people judging me and constantly being on my case I went crazy. I started making stuff all the time, got my own studio. I was in London at the time, working at a corporate gym – it was a really, really bad time.

One day, I was sat there in this gym thinking ‘Jesus, what am I doing? My time is worth more to me than £5.75 an hour’. So I went to the photocopier, photocopied my face as a leaving card and from that point on I said that I would concentrate on being an artist. That’s all I had ever wanted to be so I decided not to let the people at art school tell me that I wasn’t good enough to do it.

So when did things start to move forward with your art? 

The only reason that this side career as a taxidermist came about is because I had a new years resolution to say yes to everything. Until then I had been working in secret and no one had ever seen my work but as soon as people started asking to see my work, I had to say yes.

People started telling me that it was amazing and that I should have an exhibition. I reluctantly agreed and from that I got another show. This is where everything really kicked off.

The gallery – The Nunnery in Bow – said that the only way that I could have a solo show would be if I did some kind of performance. I didn’t know what to do, I’m not a performer, I’m not a musician. I had just opened up the fox and it gave me the idea to do DIY taxidermy – live!  The thought at the time really made me nervous but I had to go for it!

How was your first live taxidermy show?

I did it in front of about 30 people and told a few stories as I went along. I had a couple of crows, a mouse, a huge knife, a bottle of vodka and salt. I basically did what I would do in secret, in front of an audience. Following on from that show, the concept has evolved and now it is like a combination of Blue Peter, on the Shopping Channel, featuring taxidermy!

I got asked to do another show and it was in ‘The Year of Yes’ so I had to do it. In that show, I managed to take the face off a deer – it was total fluke! Time Out Magazine happened to be in the audience and they invited me to come and teach them taxidermy for a feature in their magazine. I had to go to the studios with the photographers and journalists and everyone was saying “Oh you’re the taxidermist” and of course, I had to say “Yes, yes I am!”.

Fortunately, it all went surprisingly well. One thing led to another and I got another live show in Leicester Square which 300 people came along to.

Have you every had any adverse reactions to your live shows? It must be quite gruesome…

At the first show the fox I had smelt terrible. There was a life drawing class in the same space afterwards and people were being sick from the smell! People have walked out of the shows because it’s a bit too gory but on the whole most people come because they want to come, they want to learn. They come prepared for what they are going to see. It’s actually not as bloody or smelly as you would think!

How are attitudes towards it in general – people might see it as a bit creepy…

Yeah of course! A lot of people still don’t know what it is. Vegetarians always have something to say about it but I’m actually a vegan because the industries that produce meat, dairy and so on are incredibly cruel. Sadly, once animals that have been bred for food are stripped of their saleable parts, they are thrown into a bin. In my opinion, that’s much worse.

I’d rather their lives meant something and allow people to appreciate them rather than just see them as something that comes in a packet. I wear fur, but only when I find it in charity shops. My thinking is that if you don’t appreciate them after they have gone then that animal will have died for nothing.

Where do you get your animals?

I started off with local farmers and stuff but since then my friends have been amazing. I’ve had a badger driven to me from Kent. I had to cycle all the way to South London to pick it up and then take it back on the Overground. I was carrying it in a plastic bin bag!

I only get my animals ethically – things that would otherwise be wasted.

Are their any particular pieces that stick in your mind?

My Mum used to hate the idea and whenever we saw dead animals on the side of the road, she would refuse to stop so I would literally have to jump out of the moving car if I wanted it. Recently, we came across a dead cat on the side of the road. She saw it and I saw it and she knew that she would have to stop. We left a note saying that we had buried it. I was so excited about it that when I got home I was waving this cat around in the front room in front of my Brothers new girlfriend!

I took it down to the shed and obviously when you are alone with it, you get hit with the more serious feelings – it was a beautiful creature, its owner loved it, now I loved it. Then I skinned it, kept the carcass and made a video with the skin. I don’t ever show people because they think that it is genuinely terrifying.

Do you have a favourite piece?

‘Damien’ is probably my favourite. He is a lamb that I filled with expandable foam and cut into three parts. The name is obviously a reference to Damien Hurst.

Any upcoming projects?

I have been working on an upcoming film about a taxidermist, whose house gets broken in to. It’s a black comedy about the bizarre relationship that forms between the owner of the house and the burglar. It was great, we had a session where the whole production team came along to help – I had them stuffing squirrels with sanitary towels!

What do your family and friends think of it?

My brother hates it, my mum now realises that she has to collect things for me. My sister keeps things in her freezer for me! My friends are great – considering what I have put them through…

Go on…

Something called ‘Flymageddon’ happened. There were hundreds of rooms in a care home that I was looking after so that squatters wouldn’t move in, so I devoted one of them to taxidermy. I let nature take its course but in an unnatural environment which basically involved putting lots of carcasses in a room, locking the door and turning the heating up.

I was moving a carcass from one end of the care home to another and these things were dropping out of it. At the time, I didn’t realise what they were but they were the shells of maggots which eventually turn in to flies.

I was out one day and I got a phone call from one of my housemates telling me that I had to come back immediately. Flies had taken over everything. I felt so bad, it made me think that I can’t live with my friends – I can’t keep putting them through this sort of stuff.

We actually got evicted from that care home because a woman had come round to check the rooms and had found the taxidermy room. There was a giant pigs head on the side as you walked in to the room, there was a whole deer on the bed. The woman had a complete nervous breakdown, she told me that what I was doing was unnatural and that I needed to be shot. My flatmates tried to explain that it was art and when environmental health came, they stopped them from taking it. I had to put everything in suitcases and hide it in the garden!

Have you ever carried anything else other than a badger on public transport?

I carried a fox once in a box that was nowhere near big enough so it’s little legs were poking out. As I stood up to leave, I turned around and there were hundreds of flashes as everyone around me tried to take a picture.

 Tell us more about The Year of Yes…

I said ‘yes’ for the whole of 2010. I rarely slept, I had no money. I did so many things that I would never have done. Going from being a private artist to then being so public was probably the hardest thing. I honestly had the best year of my life despite the fact that I was completely exhausted.

Fortunately nothing bad ever happened.  It always led to something positive, never to anything negative.

You can see some of Charlie’s work on her blog by clicking here.

Follow Charlie on Twitter @GoodnessGates

And check out and ‘like’ her Facebook page here.

Tucked in the corner of the famous, cobbled West Yard is a vintage shoppers paradise – think colourful leather shoes, boots and a myriad of sparkly accessories, hats and bags.

Married owners Mark and Emma met by chance a few years back and have gone on to run one of the most successful and well-loved vintage shops in London frequented by rock legends, movie stars and the late, great Camden Queen, Amy Winehouse.

London’s Stories spoke to the owners about how their vintage journey began and how it continues to go from strength to strength…

How did you guys meet?

M: It was back in 2002. We met at the Flowers Gallery on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch. Emma had been roped in for a days work stuffing envelopes.

E: Mark took me out for a fancy lunch of jacket potato with cheese and beans at a greasy spoon called the Titanic Café. He invited me along to his art show and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mark, you started the stall on Brick Lane, is that right…

M: Yep I started it three months before Emma and I met. I used to wheel the stall there every Sunday all the way from deepest darkest East London to sell sunglasses, vintage fashion and bric a brac. After we met, Emma started working on the stall too.

E: I was a teacher back then but decided to give that up to work on the business full time. There were a few raised eyebrows when I gave up my ‘sensible’ job to pursue this instead.

What led you to Camden?

E: It’s the second most visited tourist destination in London which means every day is busy.

M: Plus, it was only possible to have the stall on Brick Lane on Sundays. By moving to Camden we could open every day. We went from having just a stall at the market to having our first shop as well. We slept in the shop for a while too which was handy but God, so cold!

E: We opened the second boutique just upstairs in 2009 after our loyal customers started demanding clothes as well.

What do you think it is that has made Berty & Gerty stand out in a city so full of vintage shops? 

E: All of the vintage items are hand-selected. We sell a mixture of high quality period items from the 40′s and 50′s as well as selling vintage quality on-trend street fashion like ankle boots and denim shorts.

What do you like about being based in Camden Market?

M: We live and work here so we know a lot of the locals, it’s a real community.

E: Such a variety of people visit Camden. Fashion designers, singers, tourists, fashion students, actors, stage and screen costume designers. We are always meeting new people, catching up with other traders and waving hello to neighbours. It’s a just a great part of London.

Any favourite customers?

M: Meatloaf came to the store and snapped up a cheap £20 cowboy hat – he was later snapped wearing the very same hat at the Kerrang Music Awards. That was pretty cool.

Has being a couple ever caused any problems – any creative differences?

E: Not at all. We are both very creative and see the same point of view. Mark is more involved with the accessories shop and me with the clothes – we have been known to enter into a spot of friendly competition every now and then though.

What’s the best part about running your own business?

M: Everyday is different and it’s wonderful to be your own boss. We both love Camden and the North London area.

E: We live and breath the business everyday which is fantastic.

Do you have any favourite places in london?

M: We love the Russian Tea Room on Regents Park Road in Primrose Hill.

What’s next for Berty & Gerty?

At the moment we are concentrating on updating our online shop on the website weekly fashion blog and our new website launches at Easter.

Follow Berty & Gerty on Facebook here.

Visit their website by clicking here.