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The Spitalfields Bowl
One of these streets’ most-esteemed long-term residents summoned me to view an artefact that – until today – few have seen, the fabled Spitalfields Bowl. Engraved by Nicholas Anderson, a pupil of the...
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Leon Kossoff At Arnold Circus
Arnold Circus, Saturday Afternoon 2012 by Leon Kossoff Limited Edition of 300 prints produced for The Friends of Arnold Circus British expressionist, Leon Kossoff, grew up on Arnold Circus in the...
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At St George’s German Lutheran Church
The Altar and Pulpit at St George’s German Lutheran Church, Alie St In Aldgate, caught between the thunder of the traffic down Leman St and the roar of the construction on Goodman’s Fields sits a...
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Cries Of London Playing Cards
The latest addition to my collection, these Cries Of London Playing Cards were sent through the mail by one of the readers. Dating from the end of the nineteenth century, the object of the game was to...
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In Old Stepney
Albert Gardens In spite of the bombing, the slum clearances and redevelopments, the East End is still with us. My recent visit to Fred Wright, who has lived his entire life in the vicinity of Arbour...
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London Salt-Glazed Stoneware
As one who thought nobody else shared my passion for old salt-glazed stoneware, I was overjoyed to meet Philip Mernick and be granted the opportunity to photograph these fine examples from his vast and...
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David Hoffman At Crisis At Christmas
Almost by chance, at the end of the seventies, photographer David Hoffman found himself recording the formation of an organisation called Crisis at Christmas that opened up disused spaces and created...
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Christmas Meat Auction At Smithfield
I am publishing my story of the Christmas Eve Meat Auction at Smithfield today as a reminder to any readers who may wish to go along tomorrow, because - unless SAVE Britain’s Heritage is successful in...
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Viscountess Boudica’s Christmas
Let it be said that if anyone in the East End knows how to keep the spirit of Christmas, it is the Viscountess Boudica of Bethnal Green. At this time of year, her tiny flat near Columbia Rd is...
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The Gates Of Old London
For a while, I have been seeking a set of prints of the Gates of Old London to show you and, over the festive period, I came upon these handsome Players Cigarette Cards from the Celebrated Gateways...
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Bud Flanagan In Spitalfields
Bud Flanagan was born above his family’s fish & chip shop in Hanbury St Today I publish reminiscences of Spitalfields written in 1961 by Bud Flanagan, the celebrated Music Hall comedian, part of...
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At The Boundary Estate
Arnold Circus The Boundary Estate is one of the commonplace wonders of the East End. Hundreds live there and thousands pass through, so that over-familiarity may have rendered it invisible to some....
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Billy & Charley’s Shadwell Shams
William Smith & Charles Eaton – better known as Billy & Charley – were a couple of Thames mudlarks who sold artefacts they claimed to have found in the Thames in Shadwell and elsewhere. Yet...
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Morris Goldstein, The Lost Whitechapel Boy
Morris Goldstein, self-portrait When Raymond Francis showed me these pictures by his father Morris Goldstein – seeking to bring them to a wider audience and reinstate his father’s position among the...
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Three Lantern Shows & Two Courses
It is my pleasure to announce another three lantern shows presented in collaboration with Bishopsgate Institute in which Spitalfields Life Contributing Photographers show their pictures and discuss...
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Richard Dighton’s City Characters of 1824
Fat cats in the City of London are nothing new as these elegant cartoons of Regency bankers by Richard Dighton that I discovered in the archive at the Bishopsgate Institute testify. Images courtesy...
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Whitechapel’s Theatrical Terrace
As one of Whitechapel’s most appealing architectural features faces imminent threat of demolition, I tell the forgotten story that lies behind these extravagant facades in Vallance Rd. 3-13 Vallance Rd...
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Billy & Charley’s Curious Leaden Figures
“Curious leaden figures discovered at Shadwell” read the shameless announcement published in the ‘Illustrated Times’ of February 26th 1859, placed there by George Eastwood, eager dealer in the works of...
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The Gentle Author’s Wapping Pub Crawl
Four-hundred-year-old stone floor at The Prospect of Whitby Tempted by the irresistible promise of bright January sunlight, I set out for Wapping to visit those pubs which remain in these formerly...
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Adam Dant’s Map Of The Coffee Houses
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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