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John James Baddeley, Die Sinker
“I haven’t time in my life for much else than work” These photographs show Sir John James Baddeley, Baronet – known colloquially as ‘JJ’ – taking a Sunday morning walk with his wife through the empty...
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In Old Finsbury
Does anyone know where Finsbury is anymore? If you ask people, they say “Do you mean Finsbury Park or Finsbury Sq?” It seems that the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury is as lost to us as Atlantis, El...
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At Tim Hunkin’s Workshop
Tim Hunkin at work on his Small Hadron Collider Apart from the brief trauma of getting locked in the lavatory, it was a relatively uneventful rail journey from Liverpool St up to Suffolk to visit the...
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Last Call For Huguenots!
Click to enlarge Adam Dant’s Map of Huguenots in Spitalfields Last year, we asked readers with Huguenot ancestors who once lived in this neck of the woods to come along to place their forebears on the...
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Upon The Origins Of Baddeleys
Last Sunday, I told the story of John James Baddeley, the journeyman die sinker who rose to become Lord Mayor of London in 1922, and this week I explore the origins of this extraordinary family...
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Good News For The Marquis Of Lansdowne!
Thanks in no small part to the campaign waged by readers of Spitalfields Life in spring 2013, Hackney Council refused the Geffrye Museum permission to demolish the 1838 Marquis of Lansdowne in Cremer...
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The Man Beneath Trafalgar Square
Henry Croft Trafalgar Sq is famous for the man perched high above it on the column, but I recently discovered another man hidden underneath the square who hardly anybody knows about and he is just as...
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Franta Belsky’s Sculpture In Bethnal Green
The Lesson by Franta Belsky (1959) For years, I passed Franta Belsky’s bronze sculpture in Bethnal Green every Sunday on my way to and from the flower market in Columbia Rd without knowing the name of...
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At The House Mill
The House Mill of 1776 at Bromley by Bow is the largest tidal mill in the world and the only remaining mill at Three Mill Island on the River Lea, an artificial island created in ancient times – like...
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From The Warner Textile Archive
Kate Wigley of the Warner Textile Archive in Braintree will be giving a lecture on The Royal Silks of Spitalfields on Tuesday June 9th at 7pm as part of Huguenot Summer in the newly-refurbished Hanbury...
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At The Fan Museum
The Fan Museum in Greenwich is the brainchild of Helene Alexander who has devoted her life with an heroic passion to assembling the world’s greatest collection of fans – which currently stands at over...
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Lucinda Rogers In Tottenham
Under a Mercedes Contributing Artist Lucinda Rogers draws on location, making her atmospheric detailed pictures with ink, crayon and watercolour, to capture the drama of workplaces and record these...
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At Dr Johnson’s House
I walked over to Fleet St yesterday to pay a visit upon Dr Samuel Johnson who could not resist demonstrating his superlative erudition by recounting examples of lexicography that came to mind as he...
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Ben Rea, Illustrator
Ben Rea has been Illustrator-in-Residence at Dennis Severs House recently, meticulously recording every inch of the rambling old mansion to create the elaborate cross section you can see below,...
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Argotopolis, The Map Of London Slang
It is my great pleasure to unveil this bravura collaboration between Adam Dant, Cartographer Extraordinaire & Jonathon Green, Lexicographer of Slang – ARGOTOPOLIS is a map of London slang organised...
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The Huguenots Of Soho
The two major destination for Huguenots in London were Spitalfields and Soho. As part of the current Huguenot Summer festival, Paul Baker took me on a walk around Soho and beyond to show me some of...
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Ubiquitous Unique
I could not decide whether to laugh or cry when I visited UBIQUITOUS UNIQUE organised by RECLAIM LONDON at the Red Gallery in Rivington St. Displaying elevations of generic box-like new buildings...
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At Spitalfields Oldest Family Business
Five years ago, I first wrote about Paul Gardner of Gardners Market Sundriesmen when he was being confronted with unrealistic rent increases which threatened to close his shop down, yet thanks to the...
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Alice Pattullo’s Alphabet
For the past year and a half, illustrator Alice Pattullo has been working at her studio in London Fields to create this splendid portfolio of screen prints of animals for each letter of the alphabet...
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Aminul Hoque & The Paradox Of British Bangladeshi Identity
Contributing Writer Rosie Dastgir meets Aminul Hoque as he returns to the familiar streets where he grew up, and reflects upon childhood memories of racism and football in Spitalfields in the eighties...
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