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Channel: Cultural Life – Spitalfields Life
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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...

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At 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...

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Eleanor 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...

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James 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...

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From 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...

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Roll 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...

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Save 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...

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John 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...

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An 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...

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Happy 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...

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At 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...

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At 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...

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Elwin 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...

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Nicholas 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...

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East 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...

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Clive 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...

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Adam 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...

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Crowden & 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...

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At 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...

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Nicholls & 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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