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Bloomsbury Jamboree Lectures

December 1, 2024
by the gentle author


Design by Rob Ryan

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You are invited to our annual BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE which runs from 10:30am-4:30pm next weekend, Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th December at Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Sq, WC1N 3AT.

We are showing the work of our favourite makers and are proud to present these accompanying lectures. Tickets are £10 which includes entry to the Jamboree.

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PETER PARKER, SOME MEN IN LONDON – QUEER LIFE 1945 – 1967

(Winner of The Times History Book of the Year)

Author and biographer Peter Parker will be discussing his new, highly acclaimed two-part anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer men in London, from the end of the Second World War to decriminalisation in 1967.

Peter explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as Francis Bacon, Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams, or living lives of quiet – or occasionally rowdy – anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.

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Click here to book for Peter Parker’s lecture at 11am on Saturday 7th December

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Photograph by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies

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RUPERT THOMAS, A YEAR AT DENNIS’ SEVERS HOUSE

For 22 years Rupert Thomas was editor of The World of Interiors, but in January this year he took up the role of Director of Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields.

Dennis Severs’ House is both an extraordinary survival and a complete fantasy. As the presentation of historic open-houses become increasingly sanitised, the unique qualities of Dennis Severs’ House allow a more charismatic and thought-provoking way to present the past.

In this illustrated talk, Rupert will discuss the challenges of remaining true to Severs’ maverick spirit of theatricality and immersion, and of offering visitors something beyond the norm.

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Click here to book for Rupert Thomas’ lecture at 12:15pm on Sunday 8th December

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Photograph by TimWalker

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SIMON COSTIN, THE MUSEUM OF BRITISH FOLKLORE

Simon Costin is an internationally respected art director and curator. In this illustrated lecture, Simon outlines how his life-long passion for Folklore has resulted in the creation of the Museum of British Folklore celebrating the UK’s rich folkloric heritage.

“Folklore is a vibrant element of our living cultural heritage; these beliefs, customs and expressions link the past to the present and help us understand our specific communities and cultures, as well as our shared humanity. Far from being static or an ageing genre, it remains relevant by adapting to new circumstances, with the ‘Folk’ (people), and the ‘lore’ (stories) continually informing and influencing each other.” – Simon Costin

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Click here to book for Simon Costin’s lecture at 1:30pm on Sunday 8th December

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Photograph by David Hoffman

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THE GENTLE AUTHOR, ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971 – 1987

The Gentle Author will show photographs of Whitechapel in the seventies from David Hoffman’s new book. David’s bold, humane photography records a lost era, speaking vividly to our own times.

When he was a young photographer, David came to live in a squat in Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel and it changed his life. Over the following years, he documented homelessness, racism and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vital photographic testimony of resilience.

Thanks to the courage and determination of the squatters who stopped the demolition, Fieldgate Mansions still stands providing invaluable housing to families in Whitechapel today.

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Click here to book for The Gentle Author’s lecture at 2:45pm on Sunday 8th December

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Design by Marion Elliot

Bloomsbury Jamboree 2024

November 30, 2024
by the gentle author

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In gleeful collaboration with Tim Mainstone of Mainstone Press and Joe Pearson of Design for Today, I am hosting our annual BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE, a festival of books and print, illustration, talks and seasonal merriment next SATURDAY 7th & SUNDAY 8th DECEMBER from 10:30am until 4:30pm.

It takes place at the magnificent ART WORKERS GUILD, 6 Queens Sq, WC1, which was founded in 1884 by members of the Arts & Crafts movement including William Morris and C R Ashbee. These oak panelled rooms lined with oil paintings in a beautiful old house in Bloomsbury offer the ideal venue to celebrate our books, and the authors and artists who create them.

There will be book-signings and a programme of ticketed lectures and readings plus we have invited our talented friends to exhibit, including print and paper makers, small press publishers, toy makers, potters, craft workers and importers for food by small producers. We present a selection of the work of some of our exhibitors below.

We need volunteers all day Saturday and Sunday. We offer bags of books and other goodies as rewards – if you can help us, please email hello@inkpaperandprint.co.uk

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Click here to book for our talks and lectures

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Design by Rob Ryan

Art Workers Guild

Art Workers Guild

Art Workers Guild

Le Lapin by Mark Hearld printed by Penfold Press

Tea towel by Marion Elliot

Wooden decoration designed by Elizabeth Harbour

Hand cut decorations by Printed Peanut

Cats by Lesley Barnes

Hand printed cards by Starch Green

Produce from small producers imported by Sail Cargo

Affordable solar-powered house made of boxes from Whitechapel Market by Robson Cezar

Patterned by papers designed by Enid Marx, Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden published by Judd St Papers

Cat Decorations by Printed Peanut

Fratelli Camisa, Soho, by John Griffiths 1959, published by Mainstone Press

Toy Theatres by Pollocks Toy Museum

Card by Pressed & Folded

The Fishing Lodge by Emily Sutton published by Penfold Press

The White Horses of Wiltshire published by Pressed & Folded

Plate by Rena Gardner from Portrait of Dorset published by Design For Today

Affordable solar-powered house made of boxes from Whitechapel Market by Robson Cezar

Silver bracelet by Anna Lovell

Wooden decoration designed by Elizabeth Harbour

Endurance & Joy In The East End 1971 -1987 published by Spitalfields Life Books

Tea towel by Marion Elliot

Eric Ravilious Seen Through The Eyes Of His Contemporaries published by Mainstone Press

Beauty & The Beast published by Design For Today

Figures by Lesley Barnes

Map of Maigret’s Paris published by Herb Lester

 

The Wicker Man by Catherine Anteney

Textile work by Doris Dyke Halliwell (1908-88)

From Meet the Typographer published by Design For Today

Pop-up book by Chisato Tamabayashi

Ceramic trees by Beth Morrison

The Life & Times Of Mr Pussy published by Spitalfields Life Books

A Memorable Meal, print by Amanda Ribbans

Design by Marion Elliot

The Closure Of Smithfield Market

November 29, 2024
by the gentle author

In the week that the City of London voted to close Smithfield Market for good after more than 800 years of trading, I publish the work of photographer Orlando Gili who has been down at the market, documenting the last generation of butchers to work at this ancient site.

Greg Lawrence Junior and Greg Lawrence Junior Junior, Owners of G Lawrence Wholesale Meat

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‘I arrived at Smithfield in the dead of night to photograph London’s renowned meat market which is set for permanent closure. The last pubs had long closed and it was a few hours before tube station shutters were wrenched open.

Walking towards the market, you are met by a wave of sound, beeps and wheels dragged over tarmac, bearing the weighty chunks of meat wrapped in plastic. Emitting at a different frequency is the grumble from a line of white lorries and vans, punctuated by shouts and low pitched chatter. Smithfield is very much alive and in full operational mode at this time. Within minutes of arriving, I am dressed in white overalls and deep inside the bowels of the market, photographing blood splattered butchers, and dodging lines of dead animals hanging from hooks.

Experiencing Smithfield at night is to uncover a secret parallel world that operates in the shadows while the rest of London sleeps. There is a sense of frenetic energy and unpredictability. Forklifts whizz past men in long jackets hunched over neatly stacked boxes, punching numbers into calculators and fielding phone calls. Inside the tall Victorian halls, behind large glass windows, carcasses are hacked into pieces at literally breakneck speed. It is a physical analogue space with a masculine atmosphere. There is a strong sense of camaraderie and familial spirit, many of the businesses are family run.

I returned on early mornings to develop a portrait series that celebrates the people behind the market. Night workers provide an under-appreciated role in modern cities. They risk significant damage to their health to meet the demands of the 24/7 city. According to a long-term US study of nurses, night shift workers are up to 11% more likely to die early compared to those who work day shifts.

The closure of Smithfield Market ends over 800 years of trading meat in Central London as part of a wider trend to sanitise inner cities with less palatable aspects of urban life kept out of sight.’

Orlando Gili

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Mark, Chicken Salesman

Horatio, Driver

Moro, Butcher

Harry, Shopman

Simon, Salesman

Ian, Chicken Salesman

Greg, Beef Salesman and Sean, Cashier

Jonny, Butcher

Elijah, Salesman

Tony, Retired Boxer, Trader and Restaurant Distributor

Roger, Fork Lift Operator

Dave, Salesman

‘Pig Ear Tony’, Pig Meat Salesman

Charlie, Salesman

Aaron, Butcher, Marcus, Salesman and Mark, Shopman

Luca, Production

Adam, Butcher

Kye, Unloader

Pav, Butcher

Russel, Butcher

James, Sales Manager

Grant, Butcher

Photographs copyright © Orlando Gili

Dan Jones At Bethnal Green Library

November 28, 2024
by the gentle author

Click to enlarge Dan Jones’ painting of St Paul’s School Wellclose Sq, 1977

Photographer Chris Kelly and I went along to join Dan Jones when he paid a visit to his splendid mural from 1977 of children and their rhymes in the playground of St Paul’s School, Wellclose Sq, which is installed at the Bethnal Green Children’s Library.

The Children’s Library is on your right as you enter the building and from the lobby you can see the huge colourful painting at the far end of a long room with windows facing onto the Green. Once I reached this point, I could already hear “The wheels on the bus go round and round…” sung by an enthusiastic chorus of toddlers and their mothers led by a librarian.

“In 1970, I was a youth worker and I ran a youth club in the hall on the right of the painting. I used to have two hundred kids dancing in there!” recalled Dan fondly, “And so most of the children in the school were known to me.” Living close by in Cable St, Dan, who began collecting rhymes in 1947, has followed the shifting currents of playground culture over all this time. “Some of these rhymes in the painting are still to be heard in the playground there,” he told me, “But others they don’t do anymore, or only sporadically.”

A local plasterer coated three boards with a fine coat of plaster to give a smooth finish for Dan to paint on and, inspired by Bruegel’s “Children’s Games,” Dan set to work upon the dining table in his front room, painting individual portraits of the children with their rhymes inscribed alongside. It took over a year’s work and Dan framed the life of the playground with the architecture of the school, including its weathervane in the shape of tall ship and Tower Bridge looming on the horizon – all portrayed beneath a distinctively occluded London sky. And now that most schools wear primary coloured shirts, it is fascinating to observe the wide variety of characterful clothing – reflecting the styles of the time – displayed by these children.

Astonishingly, the painting caused great controversy when it was first displayed, with the Daily Telegraph accusing Dan Jones of turning East End youth against the police force, because he included the rhyme – “There’s a cop, cop, copper on the corner, all dressed up in navy blue. If it wasn’t for the law, I would sock him on the jaw. And he wouldn’t be a copper any more, more, more…” A rhyme which Dan had simply recorded along with all the others in the playground.

At first, the mural graced the London’s Children’s Centre and for years it filled the narrow hallway of Dan’s house, but in the Children’s Library it fits perfectly as if it had been painted for this space. Dan’s picture hangs above the library corner, where children can play or sit on the floor and read books, casting a benign spell upon this favoured spot.

More than forty years have passed since Dan made his picture – the first of several on this subject and at this scale that he has done in subsequent years – yet it remains as fresh and immediate as the day he completed it in 1977.

Breuegel’s “Children’s Games,” 1560 – Dan’s inspiration.

Dan’s recent self-portrait

Dan Jones with his grandson Rumi

Photographs copyright © Chris Kelly

You may also like to take a look at

Chris Kelly & Dan Jones in the Playground

Dan Jones’ Paintings

Chris Kelly’s Columbia School Portraits

Dan Jones, Rhyme Collector

The Streets Of Old London

November 27, 2024
by the gentle author

Piccadilly, c. 1900

In my mind, I live in old London as much as I live in the contemporary London of here and now. Maybe I have spent too much time looking at photographs of old London – such as these glass slides once used for magic lantern shows by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute?

Old London exists to me through photography almost as vividly as if I had actual memory of a century ago. Consequently, when I walk through the streets of London today, I am especially aware of the locations that have changed little over this time. And, in my mind’s eye,  these streets of old London are peopled by the inhabitants of the photographs.

Yet I am not haunted by the past, rather it is as if we Londoners in the insubstantial present are the fleeting spirits while – thanks to photography – those people of a century ago occupy these streets of old London eternally. The pictures have frozen their world forever and, walking in these same streets today, my experience can sometimes be akin to that of a visitor exploring the backlot of a film studio long after the actors have gone.

I recall my terror at the incomprehensible nature of London when I first visited the great metropolis from my small city in the provinces. But now I have lived here long enough to have lost that diabolic London I first encountered in which many of the great buildings were black, still coated with soot from the days of coal fires.

Reaching beyond my limited period of residence in the capital, these photographs of the streets of old London reveal a deeper perspective in time, setting my own experience in proportion and allowing me to feel part of the continuum of the ever-changing city.

Ludgate Hill, c. 1920

Holborn Viaduct, c. 1910

 

Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd, c. 1920

Throgmorton St, c. 1920

Highgate Forge, Highgate High St, 1900

Bangor St, Kensington, c. 1900

Ludgate Hill, c. 1910

Walls Ice Cream Vendor, c. 1920

Ludgate Hill, c. 1910

Strand Yard, Highgate, 1900

Eyre St Hill, Little Italy, c. 1890

Muffin man, c. 1910

Seven Dials, c. 19o0

Fetter Lane, c. 1910

Piccadilly Circus, c. 1900

St Clement Danes, c. 1910

Hoardings in Knightsbridge, c. 1935

Wych St, c.1890

Dustcart, c. 1910

At the foot of the Monument, c. 1900

Pageantmaster Court, Ludgate Hill, c. 1930

Holborn Circus, 1910

Cheapside, 1890

Cheapside ,1892

Cheapside with St Mary Le Bow, 1910

Regent St, 1900

Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

You may also like to take a look at

The Nights of Old London

The Ghosts of Old London

The Forgotten Corners Of Old London

November 26, 2024
by the gentle author

Who knows what you might find lurking in the forgotten corners of old London? Like this lonely old waxwork of Charles II who once adorned a side aisle of Westminster Abbey, peering out through a haze of graffiti engraved upon his pane by mischievous tourists with diamond rings.

As one with a pathological devotion to walking through London’s side-streets and byways, seeking to avoid the main roads wherever possible, these glass slides of the forgotten corners of London – used long ago by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society for magic lantern shows at the Bishopsgate Institute – hold a special appeal for me. I have elaborate routes across the city which permit me to walk from one side to the other exclusively by way of the back streets and I discover all manner of delights neglected by those who solely inhabit the broad thoroughfares.

And so it is with many of these extraordinary pictures that show us the things which usually nobody bothers to photograph. There are a lot of glass slides of the exterior of Buckingham Palace in the collection but, personally, I am much more interested in the roof space above Richard III’s palace of Crosby Hall that once stood in Bishopsgate, and in the unlikely  paraphernalia which accumulated in the crypt of the Carmelite Monastery or the Cow Shed at the Tower of London, a hundred years ago. These pictures satisfy my perverse curiosity to visit the spaces closed off to visitors at historic buildings, in preference to seeing the public rooms.

Within these forgotten corners, there are always further mysteries to be explored. I wonder who pitched a teepee in the undergrowth next to the moat at Fulham Palace in 1920. I wonder if that is a cannon or a chimney pot abandoned in the crypt at the Carmelite monastery. I wonder why that man had a bucket, a piece of string and a plank inside the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. I wonder what those fat books were next to the stove in the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries’ shop. I wonder who was pulling that girl out of the photograph in Woolwich Gardens. I wonder who put that dish in the roof of Crosby Hall. I wonder why Charles II had no legs. The pictures set me wondering.

It is what we cannot know that endows these photographs with such poignancy. Like errant pieces from lost jigsaws, they inspire us to imagine the full picture that we shall never be party to.

Tiltyard Gate, Eltham Palace, c. 1930

Refuse collecting at London Zoo, c. 1910

Passage in Highgate, c. 1910

Westminster Dust Carts, c. 1910

The Jewel Tower, Westminster, 1921

Fifteenth century brickwork at Charterhouse Wash House, c1910

Middle Temple Lane, c. 1910

Carmelite monastery crypt, c. 1910

The Moat at Fulham Palace, c. 1920

Clifford’s Inn, c. 1910

Top of inner dome at St Paul’s Cathedral, c. 1920

Apothecaries’ Hall Quadrangle, c. 1920

Worshipful Company of Apothecaries’ Shop, c.1920

Unidentified destroyed building near St Paul’s, c. 1940

Merchant Taylors’ Hall, c. 1920

Crouch End Old Baptist Chapel, c. 1900

Woolwich Gardens, c. 1910

The roof of Crosby Hall, Richard III’s palace in Bishopsgate , c. 1910

Refreshment stall in St James’ Park, c. 1910

River Wandle at Wandsworth, c. 1920

Corridor at Battersea Rise House, c. 1900

Tram emerging from the Kingsway Tunnel, c. 1920

Between the interior and exterior domes at St Paul’s Cathedral, c. 1920

Fossilised tree trunk on Tooting Common, c. 1920

St Dunstan-in-the-East, 1911

Cow shed at the Queen’s House, Tower of London, c. 1910

Boundary marks for St Benet Gracechurch, St Andrew Hubbard and St Dionis Backchurch in Talbot Court, c. 1910

Lincoln’s Inn gateway seen from Old Hall, c. 1910

St Bride’s Fleet St, c. 1920

Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

You may also like to take a look at

The Nights of Old London

The Ghosts of Old London

The Loneliness Of Old London

November 25, 2024
by the gentle author

Lost in Old London – Rose Alley, Southwark, c. 1910

When I first came to live in London, I had few friends, no job and little money, but I somehow managed to rent a basement room in Portobello. For a year, I wandered the city on foot, exploring London without any bus fare. I think I never felt so alone as when I drifted aimlessly in the freezing fog in Hyde Park in 1983.

As I walked, I used to puzzle how I could ever find my life in London. Then I went back and sat in my tiny room for countless hours and struggled to write, without success.

Today, I am sometimes haunted by the spectre of my pitiful former self as I travel around London and, when examining the thousands of glass slides created by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society for educational lectures at the Bishopsgate Institute a century ago, I am struck by the lone figures isolated in the cityscape.

The photographers may have included these solitary people to give a sense of human scale – but my response to these pictures is emotional, I cannot resist seeing them as a catalogue of the loneliness of old London.

Alone outside Shepherd’s Bush Empire, c. 1920

Alone at the Chelsea Hospital, c. 1910

Alone at the Natural History Museum, c. 1890

Alone at the Tower of London, c. 1910

Alone at Leg of Mutton Pond, Hampstead, c. 1910

Alone in the Great Hall at Chelsea Hospital, c. 1920

Alone outside St Lawrence Jewry, 1908


Alone in Bunhill Fields, c. 1910

Alone in Hyde Park, c. 1910

Alone at the Guildhall,  c. 1910

Alone at Brooke House, Hackney, 1920

Alone on Hampstead Heath, c. 1910

Alone in Thames St, 1920

Alone at the Orangery, Kensington Palace, c. 1910

Alone in the Deans Yard at Westminster Abbey, c. 1910

Alone at Hampton Court, c. 1910

Alone at the Houses of Parliament with the statue of Richard I, c. 1910

Alone in the tiltyard at Eltham Palace, c. 1910

Alone in Cloth Fair, c. 1910

Alone at Marble Arch, c. 19o0

Alone at Southwark Cathedral, c. 1910

Alone outside Carpenters’ Hall, c. 1920

Alone outside Jackson Provisions’ shop, Clothfair, c. 1910

Alone outside Blewcoat School, Caxton St, c. 1910

Alone on the Victoria Embankment, c. 1910

Alone outside All Saints Chelsea, c. 1910

Alone at the Albert Hall, c. 1910

Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

Take a look at

The Nights of Old London

The Signs of Old London