You can't blame the Queen for not visiting East London very often. You can't get the tube there from Buck House for starters, and since the Number 38 went 'bendy' the Corgis won't get on it. But this week she went to the remarkable length of flying to Istanbul to meet a group of teenagers from Hackney.
To be fair, she was on a visit to Turkey anyway. But she spent the day meeting pupils from Haggerston School and Hackney Community College, who are working on a special project (funded by the British Council) at a school in Kabatas.
The pupils - from famously Turkish areas of London - have been working together with local students to market a new eco-friendly hybrid bike. Whether 'her madj' had a go on one we don't know, but if she gets a taste for scooting around, she'll find it an easy and cheap way to transport herself across London to the East End.
By Matt Crossick
Image courtesy of dachalan's Flickrstream under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
