Clik here to view.
My Facade Safaris
I have been scurrying all over London to photograph examples of facadism suggested by readers for inclusion in my forthcoming book. I call these expeditions ‘facade safaris’ and, as you can see from my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forty Years At The Golden Heart
Sandra Esqulant is celebrating 40 years as publican at The Golden Heart in Commercial St Sandra Esqulant “One day, about fifteen years ago, Sandra took a Hula Hoop and started Hula Hooping on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At The Canal Club
Novelist Sarah Winman visited the Canal Club in Bethnal Green recently with Photographer Rachel Ferriman to report on the threat to the community spaces at the Wellington Estate Toslima Rahman with her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At Ben Truman’s House
Behold the shadows 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 doubled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joseph Merceron v Ross Poldark
In advance of tonight’s episode of POLDARK, featuring the real life character of Joseph Merceron, Julian Woodford author of THE BOSS OF BETHNAL GREEN, explains how he uncovered the breathtakingly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ebbe Sadolin’s London
Danish Illustrator Ebbe Sadolin (1900-82) visited London in the years following the War to capture the character of the capital, just recovering from the Blitz, in a series of lyrical drawings executed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eva Frankfurther’s Drawings
There is an unmistakeable melancholic beauty which characterises Eva Frankfurther‘s East End drawings made during her brief working career in the nineteen-fifties. Born into a cultured Jewish family...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eleanor Crow’s Shopfronts Of London
Seven years have passed since we first presented Eleanor Crow’s beautiful watercolours of East End shops in these pages and I am delighted to announce that Spitalfields Life Books is now publishing a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hop Picking Photographs
This selection of hop picking photographs is from the archive of Tower Hamlets Community Housing. Traditionally, this was the time when East Enders headed down to the Hop Farms of Kent & Sussex,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Bethnal Green Mulberry Calamity
Yesterday I fell out of a Mulberry tree in Victoria Park while harvesting Mulberries for our campaign to Save the Bethnal Green Mulberry and broke my arm. One moment I was reaching from the top of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dan Jones Portraits
In recent years, Dan Jones has painted a magnificent series of portraits from different eras for East End Tales by the Speed History Writers Group. Many of these are well known but others less...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Treves & Lister Houses Are Saved
In an extraordinary reversal of policy by Tower Hamlets Council – delivering a landmark victory in the fight against redevelopment of council housing in London – Mayor John Biggs announced on Tuesday...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Whitechapel Bell Foundry Alert
We want Tower Hamlets Council to make it their policy to Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a working foundry and reject the developers’ rotten proposal to turn it into a boutique hotel. To this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bell Foundry Petition News
. The petition of local residents to Tower Hamlets Council to make it Council policy to Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a working foundry has already gathered more than 1750 signatures in less...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Whitechapel Bell Foundry Meeting
. In just over a week, we have reached our target of 2000 signatures of local residents on the petition to Tower Hamlets Council which triggers a debate at the full council meeting on 18th September...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Viscountess Boudica’s Domestic Appliances
Celebrating our tenth anniversary with favourite stories from the first decade Viscountess Boudica and her Berry Magnetic heater from 1940 When Viscountess Boudica invited me over to Bethnal Green to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Plaster Is Off & Other News
(Click on this image to enlarge) . I AM VERY GRATEFUL to the doctors at the Royal London Hospital who fitted a steel plate to hold my writing arm together. I shall remember them all fondly for the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
London’s Oldest Ironmonger
Celebrating our tenth anniversary with favourite stories from the first decade The frontage at 493-495 Hackney Rd The factory at the rear of the shop London’s oldest ironmongers opened for business in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Madge Gill
Last December, Sophie Dutton put out a call in these pages for anyone who knew the artist Madge Gill (1882–1961), as part of her research for curating the major exhibition MADGE GILL : MYRNINEST...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cecil Osborne’s Murals For Sale
The three lost panels by East End artist Cecil Osborne (1909-96) which once hung in St Pancras Town Hall in Euston Rd, and were recently rediscovered, are now up for auction at Roseberys in West...
View Article