Comments on: The Ghosts of Old London https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Mon, 14 Nov 2022 09:14:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Winnie https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1491337 Mon, 14 Nov 2022 09:14:42 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1491337 Love these. The photos of the Inns especially. Oliver Twist. I look at the people and what they are wearing. Fascinated by the clothes and the stance.

]]> By: Rachel Gardiner-Hill https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1357427 Sun, 15 Nov 2020 22:28:23 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1357427 I’m currently time travelling across London in the company of my maternal ancestors. I’ve been in the Labour In Vain yard in 184 where my great great grandmother was born, part of the outdoor relief for the poor in Old Fish Street, then onwards to the notorious Bleeding Heart Yard and Saffron Hill of Dickens fame, and again into the appalling sights and smells of Sharps Alley then again into Cock Lane, where tantalizing I can see the wonderful old photos of the Fortune of War pub with the Golden Boy, knowing my Great Great Great Grandmother was just down the lane at No. 25 not far from the famous Cock Lane Ghost scandal. These wondrous photographs make all these stories come to life for me. They are so atmospheric of what was endured. May they always be available. Thank you.

]]> By: Caspar https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1352421 Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:13:02 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1352421 In response to an earlier comment here, yes, that does look like ‘toilet club’ in Borough High St. Intriguing. Of the two shops either side of it, one (apparently just selling tires) has a sign reading Chaplin & Co, and the other is a butcher’s called Redman. Charlie Chaplin’s grandfather was a South London butcher, so who knows, maybe these businesses were related.
This is a fantastic website, by the way.

]]> By: Chris Grant https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1325391 Fri, 20 Dec 2019 16:02:40 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1325391 Thank you for making this wonderful collection of photographs available. They are priceless in their way, and their informational value can only increase. Almost all this has now gone, and it is healthy to be able to see again what once was peoples reality not all that far back in time.

]]> By: Christopher Chorley https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1274730 Tue, 26 Mar 2019 19:57:37 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1274730 Great pics, thank you 🙂

]]> By: marc hopla https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1265285 Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:59:41 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1265285 Great photographs. It’s a sobering that we are only tenants of this world. In a hundred or so years time, many of the buildings we use everyday, like us, will be gone. All those people in the photographs belonged to somebody. An unknown ancestor to somebody looking at those very photographs.

Joyce Byrne, don’t worry, I’m always being accused of “LIVING IN THE PAST.”

]]> By: Joycebyrne https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1242576 Sun, 02 Dec 2018 10:07:44 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1242576 WOW! Great photographs – glad there are people out there who also love old photographs of a time long gone. My family think I’m crazy for being interested in Victorian life and what Victorian’s wore and what they looked like. They often say that historic photos are trying to tell me something about my ancestors and that I’m searching for enlightenment of my past. Glad there are people out there who are also history mad.

]]> By: Andy May https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1220609 Sat, 18 Aug 2018 09:37:15 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1220609 Wonderful pics ! One last galleried pub remains in London (similar in design to the Oxford Arms , White Hart and Queens Inn above) and that’s The Old George at Southwark. Restored and now owned by The National Trust, it sits under the shadow of the Shard so you can gaze upon teh splendour of 21st century architecture while quietly quaffing a beer in a building dating back to Bill Shakespeare’s day.

]]> By: Tina Mattocks https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1215375 Sat, 07 Jul 2018 13:34:48 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1215375 I love looking at these old photographs. My g g g grandmother said on one of the census returns that she was born in Drury Lane. Are there books with these photographs? I would love to buy them if there are.

]]> By: Jeannot https://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/12/26/the-ghosts-of-old-london/#comment-1169814 Wed, 20 Sep 2017 19:30:54 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=18611#comment-1169814 Those memories of the past leave me utterly speechless, struggling for air. A bittersweet nostalgia mingled with pain, with deep regrets, mourning and grieving for people just like us but never to be known, to be spoken to, hugged and loved. Photography may be seen as morbid, the clicking of the shutter literally cutting us off the past for ever, similar to a heavy blade. Nonetheless photography brings dead people back to life. No need for a time machine, photography does the trick. Having the option between a time travel and a trip into the future, nobody in their right minds woud chose the latter.

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