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Two Pieces Of Good News
Alfred the Great repairing the walls of the City of London by Sir Frank Salisbury, 1912 Thanks to the large number of letters of objection – many written by readers of Spitalfields Life – the...
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St Jude’s In The City
Our friends at St Jude’s, dealers in contemporary British prints, are staging an exhibition of some favourite printmakers – including Mark Hearld, who illustrated the first Spitalfields Life book –...
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Adam Dant’s Coffee House Map
Click on the map to enlarge and read the stories of the Coffee Houses These days, London is riddled with Coffee Shops but, at the start, there was just the Jamaica Coffee House, which was opened in...
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A Walk To View The Gasometers
When we get such bright winter days it becomes an imperative to take a walk and enjoy the benefit of the sunlight, especially now we have arrived at the season of the year when a clear sky becomes a...
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Paul Gardner Goes To Downing St
Today is East End Independents’ Day celebrating the small businesses and shops of East London “I just hope something might happen” Paul Gardner, the fourth generation paper bag seller of Spitalfields’...
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On St Nicholas’ Eve
On St Nicholas Eve, Paul Bommer tells the tale of St Nicholas and Gimlet Bar are serving cocktails at Leila’s Shop tonight from 6-9pm if you fancy a seasonal celebration… Illustration by Paul Bommer St...
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Bob Mazzer At The Ace Cafe
Contributing Photographer Bob Mazzer & I joined a Bike Couriers Reunion at the Ace Cafe on the North Circular recently. Despite their fearsome black leather outfits, we enjoyed a generous reception...
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Sarah Ainslie’s Bingo Portraits
Ever since the Mecca Bingo Hall closed in Hackney Rd last year, pending demolition and redevelopment into luxury flats, a bus has departed most nights at five-thirty from the nearest street corner...
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At Benjamin Truman’s House
Behold, the winter dusk is glimmering in this old house in Princelet St built in the seventeen-twenties for Benjamin Truman. A hundred years later, a huge factory was added on the back which more than...
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Nicholas Borden’s Recent Paintings
Click the image to enlarge this painting Any eagle-eyed readers who have been sitting on the top deck of a number 8 bus going through Bethnal Green in the last few days may have spotted Nicholas...
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Brutal East End
Ashington House, Bethnal Green There is little that divides opinion as sharply as concrete modernist architecture, inspiring an unreconcilable split between those who want it demolished and those who...
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The Still & Star Is Saved!
Thanks in no small part to the hundreds of letters of objection written by you, the readers of Spitalfields Life, the Still & Star was saved from demolition this week when the City of London...
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More Of Sarah Ainslie’s Bingo Portraits
Ever since the bingo hall in the Hackney Rd was closed and sold by Mecca for redevelopment into luxury flats last year, a chartered bus has been departing most nights of the week to ferry the bingo...
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The Alphabet Of Lost Pubs U-Z
As we arrive at the end of this series, I am delighted to report that since my last installment The Still & Star in Aldgate has been granted Asset of Community Value Status by the City of London...
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Some Christmas Baubles
Each year on Christmas Eve, I bring in the tree at dusk, fetch the box of old glass decorations from the roof to hang upon its boughs, and set to work, decorating the tree as darkness falls I do not...
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The Disappearing Pubs Of Marylebone
In the spring of 2014, I enjoyed a memorable afternoon undertaking a crawl around historic pubs in Marylebone but since then I have been receiving reports of an alarming number of closures in this...
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At The Whitechapel Mission At Christmas
Today I recall a visit to the Whitechapel Mission with my friend the late photographer Colin O’Brien Before dawn one Christmas Eve, Photographer Colin O’Brien & I ventured out in a rainstorm to...
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The Toy Theatres Of Old St & Hoxton
William Webb, 49 Old St, 1857 These days the vicinity of Old St is renowned for its digital industries but, for over a hundred years, this area was celebrated as the centre of toy theatre manufacture...
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Margaret Rope’s Haggerston Windows
A familiar East End scene of 1933 – children playing cricket in the street and Nipper the dog joining in – yet it is transformed by the lyrical vision of the forgotten stained glass artist Margaret...
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At The Blind Beggar In Whitechapel
Today we celebrate Historic England’s decision to list The Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel David Dobson, Landlord of the Blind Beggar Henry VIII at the gaming machine – a rare image of this...
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