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Restoration At Wilton’s Music Hall
Yesterday, I spent the morning exploring Wilton’s Music Hall and visiting all the secret corners to record the progress of the major restoration project which aims to preserve as much of the original...
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Visit Norton Folgate’s Victorian Warehouses
This weekend, Norton Folgate hosts Best of Britannia, a pop-up department store showcasing the best of British manufacturing and permitting the opportunity to visit the wonderful nineteenth century...
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A Petition Against The Goodsyard Towers
Just recently, Hammerson & Ballymore, who want to build the monster development on the Bishopsgate Goodsyard that threatens to blight the neighbourhood for generations to come, have submitted their...
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David Garrick In The East End
There are just a few tickets left for the rare opportunity of a tour of the Garrick Club tomorrow, Wednesday 1st July, as part of the HUGUENOT SUMMER Festival. Click here to book yours. “Have mercy,...
View ArticleAt Tim Hunkin’s Novelty Automation
Contributing film-maker Sebastian Sharples took his children along to visit Tim Hunkin’s NOVELTY AUTOMATION in Princeton St, off Red Lion Sq in Holborn, and this film is the result [There is a video...
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Mike Henbrey’s Vinegar Valentines
Inveterate collector, Mike Henbrey has been acquiring harshly-comic nineteenth century Valentines for more than twenty years. Mischievously exploiting the anticipation of recipients on St Valentine’s...
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Vinegar Valentines For Bad Tradesmen
This second selection from Mike Henbrey‘s extraordinary personal collection of mocking Valentines illustrates the range of tradespeople singled out for hate mail in the Victorian era. Nowadays we...
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Join Hands To Save Norton Folgate
. PLEASE COME AND JOIN HANDS WITH ME to create a circle around Norton Folgate as a symbolic gesture of our shared wish to see the buildings restored for new use instead of being demolished by British...
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Mike Henbrey, Collector Of Books, Ephemera & Tools
Mike Henbrey On the outside, Mike Henbrey’s council flat looks like any other – but once you step inside and glimpse the shelves of fine eighteenth century leather bindings, you realise you are in the...
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Mike Henbrey’s Collection Of Dividers
A few smaller examples from Mike Henbrey’s collection Yesterday, I went back to visit Mike Henbrey and we photographed his collection of pairs of dividers. “Once every trade needed dividers to make...
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Visit The Old Naval College At Greenwich
As part of the HUGUENOT SUMMER festival you can visit the unseen spaces of the Old Naval College hosted by Curator, Will Palin, on Monday 20th July from 1:30-5pm. Click here for tickets Water Gate at...
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A Portrait of Gary Arber by Sebastian Whyte
A year after Gary Arber closed his print works and W.F. Arber & Co passed into East End legend, it is my pleasure to present this sympathetic portrait by Sebastian Whyte entitled, STATIONARY [There...
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Joining Hands On Sunday In Norton Folgate
PLEASE COME AND JOIN HANDS WITH ME to create a circle around Norton Folgate as a symbolic gesture of our shared wish to see these buildings restored for new use instead of being demolished by British...
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Kirby’s Eccentric Museum, 1820
Each time, I visit collector Mike Henbrey, he shows me something extraordinary from his collections and he certainly did not disappoint yesterday when he pulled two volumes of Kirby’s Eccentric Museum...
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The Seven Ages Of Rodney Archer
In Rodney’s study I am sure you wish to join me in sending greetings to Rodney Archer the Aesthete for his seventy-fifth birthday today. To celebrate, he is opening an exhibition at his house which...
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D-Day For Norton Folgate
Reflecting the wider significance of the battle for Norton Folgate, my post today is co-published with Guardian Cities Please come to the meeting of Tower Hamlets Strategic Development Committee when...
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Norton Folgate Is Saved!
It is with great joy I announce the good news to you that, thanks in no small measure to the readers of Spitalfields Life – the 576 letters of objection that you wrote and more than 500 of you who came...
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Who Will Help Me Publish An Illustrated History Of The Cries Of London?
Brushseller outside Shoreditch Church by William Marshall Craig, 1804 For centuries, the most popular prints in the capital were the Cries of London. From the Elizabethan era onwards, these lively...
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Vote For The George Tavern!
In recognition of the magnificent achievement of Pauline Forster, who has devoted the last ten years to restoring the George Tavern in Commercial Rd, she has been shortlisted for an Historic England...
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The Huguenots of Rochester
In celebration of the opening of the new Huguenot Museum in Rochester, I publish these portraits by Contributing Photographer Lucinda Douglas-Menzies (who is of Huguenot descent) taken at the French...
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