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At Freed of London Ltd, Ballet & Theatrical Shoemakers
The shoes worn by the world’s leading ballerinas are made in Hackney by Freed of London the pre-eminent shoemaker to the theatrical profession, producing more than one hundred and fifty thousand pairs...
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At London’s Oldest Ironmongers
The frontage at 493-495 Hackney Rd is unchanged to this day. The factory at the rear of the shop remains just as in this engraving. London’s oldest ironmongers opened for business in 1797 as Presland...
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Announcement To Subscribers
Please accept my apologies for any disappointment that may have been caused by the non-appearance of the last three daily mailings. This may have happened because the titles of three stories ended with...
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New Delivery System
A new delivery system for subscribers is now in place and we beg your indulgence for any teething problems, strange deliveries or other curious anomalies that may occur while we get it working smoothly.
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At the Hula Hoop Festival
Lyndsay Hooper When I heard that London’s top Hula Hoop Artists were gathering at the Mile End Pavilion for their annual Hoopfest, I could not resist going along with Contributing Photographer Colin...
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More Crowden & Keeves’ Hardware
More magnificent hardware from the 1930 Crowden & Keeves catalogue in the possession of Richard Ince proprietor of James Ince & Sons, Britain’s oldest umbrella manufacturers, which he tells me...
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Simon Mooney at the Repton Boxing Club
Contributing Photographer Simon Mooney sent this dynamic photoessay of the life of the Repton Boxing Club in Cheshire St, taken at a recent training session when we went along to interview Club...
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Barnett Freedman, Artist
I was delighted to invite David Buckman, author of the authoritative book about the East London Group From Bow to Biennale, to write this feature about Barnett Freedman (1901–1958) who was born in...
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London Lore at Dennis Severs’ House
Mysterious forces are at work at the former Empire Pipe Factory in Hoxton where sculptor Richard Sharples is contriving boxes that contain moving figures and even apparitions – conjuring the world of...
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Terry Scales, Painter
Terry Scales Terry Scales has lived for more than fifty years in a quiet back street in a forgotten corner of Greenwich where the tourists do not stray. To find him, I wandered through narrow...
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In Old Soho With Leslie Hardcastle
At the House of St Barnabas-in-Soho There are some people who have the ability to transform a place that is familiar, by showing it to you through their eyes and revealing it anew. One such person is...
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Roland Collins, Artist
Roland Collins Ninety-four year old artist Roland Collins lives with his wife Connie in a converted sweetshop south of the river that he has crammed with singular confections, both his own works and a...
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Thomas Onwhyn’s Pictures Of London
Born in Clerkenwell in 1813, as the eldest son of a bookseller, Thomas Onwhyn created a series of cheap mass-produced satirical prints illustrating the comedy of everyday life for publishers Rock...
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The Rise of the East End Trades Guild
Founding members Paul Gardner, Leila McAlister, Shanaz Khan and Fiona Atkins sign the constitution of the East End Trades Guild on the counter at Gardners’ Market Sundriesmen Since the launch of the...
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Cockney Beanos
A beano from Stepney in the twenties (courtesy Irene Sheath) It is Midsummer, and we have reached that time of year when a certain clamminess prevails in the city and East Enders turn restless,...
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More East End Pubs, Then & Now
I am spending the whole weekend in the pub – publishing this second instalment of the collaboration with Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archive in which Spitalfields Life Contributing...
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On the Thames Sailing Barge ‘Repertor’
David Pollock, skipper of S B Repertor “It’s all my wife’s fault,” admitted David Pollock of the Thames Sailing Barge Repertor with a grin of pure delight, when I asked how he came to be the owner of...
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A Tourist in Whitechapel
Now that the visitor season is upon us again, I discovered this comic pamphlet of 1859 in the Bishopsgate Institute which gives a fictional account of the experiences of a French tourist in Whitechapel...
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The Return of Parmiter’s School
Pupils of Parmiter’ School, which moved to Watford from Bethnal Green over thirty years ago, returned to the East End yesterday to honour Peter Renvoize, one of their benefactors who is buried in the...
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On Colin O’Brien’s Publication Day
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] . Click to buy a signed copy of Colin O’Brien’s book for £10! . . . Portrait of Colin O’Brien copyright...
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