From Viscountess Boudica’s Album
A tender scene from the childhood of Viscountess Boudica For the past seven months, Viscountess Boudica of Bethnal Green has been writing an autobiography – absurd, bawdy and magical by turns – in...
View ArticleAt Two Temple Place
If you were to take a turning off the Strand, walk down Essex St, then descend Milford Stairs to Milford Lane, emerging within the shadow of the nineteenth century edifice of Two Temple Place, then...
View ArticleEleanor Crow’s East End Cafes
Syd’s Coffee Stall, Shoreditch High St Illustrator Eleanor Crow made this set of watercolour portraits of cafes as a tribute to those cherished institutions which incarnate the essence of civility in...
View ArticleJames Brown at W.F.Arber & Co Ltd
James Brown & Gary Arber In the week before Christmas, I always want to go and visit my friend Gary Arber, the custodian of W.F.Arber & Co Ltd, the family printing business and former toy shop...
View ArticleFrom Bow To Biennale
David Buckman introduces his new book which recovers the lost history of The East London Group, one of the major artistic movements to come out of the East End in the last century yet – extraordinarily...
View ArticleRoll Up For Magic Lantern Shows!
Awaiting a Magic Lantern Show at the Bishopsgate Institute It is my delight to collaborate with the Bishopsgate Institute, staging a return to the glory days of Magic Lantern Shows that were such a...
View ArticleSave The Marquis Of Lansdowne
Tim Whittaker, Director of the Spitalfields Trust on the threshold of The Marquis of Lansdowne Since 1839, The Marquis of Lansdowne has stood on a quiet corner in Hoxton round the back of the Geffrye...
View ArticleJohn Claridge’s Boxers (Round Nine)
On Boxing Day, the day in the festive calendar traditionally associated with sporting activities, it is my delight to introduce Round Nine in the epic series of characterful portraits of the members of...
View ArticleAn Acquisition At Midwinter
Over all the years I have frequented the Spitalfields Antiques Market every Thursday, I have succeeded in buying almost nothing, tempering my acquisitive tendencies by writing the stories of more than...
View ArticleHappy Families
On Twelfth Night, when we celebrate the Feast of Misrule on the last day of Christmas and all the decorations come down, I dug out these gleefully grotesque picture cards from an old parlour game to...
View ArticleAt St Joseph’s Hospice Choir
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] “Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow, But, if we are wise, we know that there’s...
View ArticleAt The Cemetery With Barn The Spoon
Barn the Spoon, the spoon carver, asked me to meet him at Bow Cemetery last week. With characteristic generosity of spirit, he wanted to make me a “special eating spoon” and the purpose of our meeting...
View ArticleElwin Hawthorne, Artist
David Buckman author of From Bow To Biennale: Artists of the East London Group recalls the forgotten name of Elwin Hawthorne, a prominent talent in the Group and an integral part of the lost history...
View ArticleNicholas Borden, Artist
I came across Nicholas Borden standing with his easel in the cold, painting on the corner of Three Colts Lane before Christmas and, even at first glance, I was captivated by his work. But I was unable...
View ArticleEast End Snowmen
Yesterday delivered the perfect conditions for the arrival of the snowmen in the East End. At first I came upon them in yards and gardens, but before long they were scattered all over the parks and...
View ArticleClive Murphy, Phillumenist
Clive Murphy, Phillumenist Nothing about this youthful photo of the novelist, oral historian and writer of ribald rhymes, Clive Murphy – resplendent here in a well-pressed tweed suit and with his hair...
View ArticleAdam Dant’s Map of Industrious Shoreditch
Click twice to enlarge and study the details of Industrious Shoreditch A century before the New Industries that define Shoreditch today, there were once the Old Industries. Then, small manufacturers...
View ArticleCrowden & Keeves’ Hardware
Richard Ince proprietor of James Ince & Sons, Britain’s oldest umbrella manufacturers, showed me this catalogue published by Crowden & Keeves in 1930 which had been knocking around his factory...
View ArticleAt The Bruce Club Reunion
Celebrated Pianist Winfred Atwell arrives at The Bruce Club escorted by Ronnie Kray This photograph records a strange moment in the brief history of The Bruce Club when, in 1963, the celebrated...
View ArticleNicholls & Clarke’s Hardware
After I published Crowden & Keeves’ Hardware last week, several readers wrote to say they had other magnificent East End hardware catalogues. So it is my pleasure today to feature Nicholls &...
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