Comments on: Alan Dein’s East End Shopfronts Revisited

By: Frank – Shopfront Elegy

Frank – Shopfront Elegy — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 11:28:36 +0000

[…] Frank, 7 Toynbee Street, Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1, 2004 • From the 1950s until his death in 1966 aged just 47, this was the base of Frank Conway (née Cohen), whose business Conway Automatics dealt in vending machines, juke boxes and much else. The shop lay empty for over 35 years, and here its final sign, reading ‘Conway’, has fallen off to reveal the first, plain ‘Frank’ – for its first trading name of Frank, Warehouseman. In 2014 it was renovated, briefly housed a Jack the Ripper-themed pop-up, then became a smart nameless unit. It’s a neighbour of Conway Trading, here – which was a later branch of this business run by Frank’s relatives. There has been a huge amount of interest in this old shop from many quarters, leading to the full story being told in a fascinating memoir by Frank’s son, Alan (with help from Nigel Mercer), here. There’s also a brief but interesting blog called Finding Frank by Frank’s grandaughter Emily, here. And the social historian Alan Dein photographed it in 1988 then revisited it in 2012, which is documented here. […]

By: Nigel Mercer

Nigel Mercer — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 08:55:31 +0000

You can read Frank Conway’s story, written by his son Alan, at my website. It covers his life and work at 7 Toynbee Street and gives an idea of the social and working conditions of the time. The article link is http://cards.littleoak.com.au/special_pages/abc_history/Nigels%20Webspace%20-%20The%20Frank%20Conway%20story.pdf.

I’m very grateful to Alan Dein for originating this story, and helping out with his photo and input.

By: Yeshen

Yeshen — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:10:55 +0000

Eastenders Social Club – n0t much change there then!

By: LM

LM — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:45:03 +0000

205 Mile End old town (presumably this is the same street), was a bakers from at least 1893 to past 1911.

111 was an amazing find I wonder if behind these other shop fronts there are other such gems?

By: teeceedee

teeceedee — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 01:38:59 +0000

Glad to see no 7 Toynbee Street tidied up after all these years, rather than it being left to decay further. I used to work in an office at the other end of this street in the late 90’s and the parade of (mostly) closed and derelict shops intrigued me. What was the story behind these shops and why were they in their current state?

Looking at the current day pics of places has me wondering one thing: what is it with cretins leaving shitty little graffiti tags everywhere? Looking at the old location pics, it is interesting to notice an absence (most cases) of graffiti, no matter how grim the locations otherwise looked.

Mr Gelkoff and his shop: Oh bless, looking at this pic I feel as if he is welcoming viewers into the shop to sample the wares!

Mr Dein: I am not sure I can get to the exhibition but would love to see a book of your photographs. I hope you are talking to publishers 😉

By: pat

pat — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:15:11 +0000

Great post, thank you……………

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 19 May 2012 17:32:39 +0000

That’s interesting, and some of the newer developments are rather good. I’d rather visit Mr. Gelkoff’s shop though….

By: Marina B

Marina B — Sat, 19 May 2012 15:11:54 +0000

Such a joy. Thank you!

By: Andy Willoughby

Andy Willoughby — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:57:35 +0000

Very interesting to compare. Many thanks for posting.