Comments on: Jim Howett’s Spitalfields Shopfronts

By: Stella

Stella — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 09:21:37 +0000

It’s absolutely heartbreaking to go on google street view and see all the graffiti on these wonderful old buildings..does nobody care about removing it?

By: Sam Roberts

Sam Roberts — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:16:14 +0000

Do you happen to know the date that the Verde & Co front was restored?
Also, I presume that the A.Gold – Traditional Foods part of the sign is a contemporary nod to the previous Milliners, as that would be an unusual combination of goods sold…

By: Kate C

Kate C — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:40:07 +0000

It is of great pleasure to me that these shops on Brushfield Street have been so sympathetically restored.

Of particular interest to me is the parish-boundary stone above the number ‘44’ on the 2nd photo. The ‘R. A Cole’ – still clearly visible on the stone – was my 2x great-grandfather, Robert Andrew Cole, one of the churchwardens of Christchurch, Spitalfields. He was a grocer and tea-dealer who lived on Brushfield Street (originally called Union Street East) from the 1850s until the time of his retirement in the 1890s. I suspect (but can’t prove) that the arrival of the new market buildings in the 1890s cleared away his original shop . So, after a lifetime of living in first, St George in the East and then Spitalfields, he moved out to the suburbs of Walthamstow.

His son, also Robert, married into the Parnall family, an extremely wealthy Welsh family from Carmarthenshire who had one or two businesses on Bishopsgate. I have an original of Tallis’s London Street View for Bishopsgate and the Parnall shop is marked on it. Until I read your blog page http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/10/23/in-bishopsgate-st-spitalfields-1838/ I hadn’t realised that there were also paintings of all the shop-fronts. The Parnall’s businesses were at 100 and 187 Bishopsgate – sadly these frontages are not on your blog so I will have to pay a visit to the Bishopsgate Institute to have a look.

If you are interested in learning more about R. A. Cole, I have a photo of him (hand-coloured) and two of his children taken in the 1860s.

By: Eliza S

Eliza S — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:19:45 +0000

I love the before and after pictures of the work of Jim Howett in the above blog and have sat many times in Verde and Co having a lovely coffee. I thought the place was unique and your history of it and the other shops on the block is fascinating. It is wonderful that you are preserving all the stories of this area as it changes so fast. Since I last visited, The Market Coffee house, where they do super tea and cakes is now open in the evenings for dinner. These places have such character and charm, unlike the modernised end of the market opposite. When places are smartened up too much they loose the patina of age, unlike Jim’s magnificent work.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:44:08 +0000

It’s so nice to see these considered and beautiful restorations – thanks so much for sharing. I’ve walked past these shops for years wondering what their history was, a fascinating read. Does he continue to be involved in these sort of projects I wonder?