Comments on: Steve Speller’s Redchurch St Portraits

By: Miranda

Miranda — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 01:09:51 +0000

Hi Steve I had no idea you lived in Redchurch Street! I had a studio above the veneer shop from 1990-1992. I used to sit in those windows and carried my sculptures on ropes from them as they were too big for the corridors. I was just googling the veneer shop to see if it’s still there and came across this website!

By: Gayle Durham

Gayle Durham — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:51:33 +0000

I am from New York, now Miami. I vacation in Shoreditch every summer for past 10 yrs, hotel or Airbnb on Boundary, Sclater, or Brick. I patronize local shops, play in the parks, visit weekend markets. Strive to “live like a local”. Mr. Green’s letter made me cry. But in my opinion, Brits do preserve better their culture, way of life.

By: Steve Maguire

Steve Maguire — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 15:44:09 +0000

We used to get mitre blades for picture framing sharpened at foremost grinding in the early eighties . The gentlemen in the photo looked just like that. Shame change takes its toll.

By: Jet

Jet — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 15:18:10 +0000

Great post, I have lived at 67 Redchurch Street (the triangular shaped house that crosses club row) for almost 6 years now, does anybody know what that used to be?

I was told a sweetshop and a cap makers before that, but haven’t been able to find anything on it.

Thanks,

Jet

By: tanya reynolds

tanya reynolds — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 19:42:58 +0000

wow carnival novelties is one shop i should have loved to visit
great post – keep up the good work x

By: Tim Cunliffe

Tim Cunliffe — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 12:33:47 +0000

Many thanks Steve for putting up this wonderful collection of photos from Redchurch Street. They have brought those times in the mid 80’s and early 90’s right back to me! I occasionally visit the area these days and walk down Redchurch Street and although it has a vibrancy and creative buzz, it has to be said it’s not the same and I feel lucky to have lived there during that period. There was such a wonderful mix of activities and characters. Do you remember the old guy Charlie who lived opposite -above where maybe the mosque is more or less. He used to hang out of his window singing and shout salutations to passersby in a squeeky northern accent! Ron from the cafe looks so young and it’s good to see a picture of Maria his sister. Sadly I think they fell out and she went back to Italy some time in the early nineties. Hope all is well with you and Alison and family. Be great to catch up sometime- and share some more memories.

By: Donald Parsnips

Donald Parsnips — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:34:26 +0000

Congrats on exposing the selection of pictures Steve .
They’re v evocative and have been much appreciated by the local community.
many of whom remember the old faces .
‘Foremost grinding’ has been a v interesting art gallery for quite some time now ( the building briefly housed a ‘ lady-pleasure-object-factory ‘ which probably could have operated under the same name!! ). The gallery still use the old metal doors and barred window .

By: Steve Speller

Steve Speller — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 11:39:44 +0000

In answer to Julia’s question, the printers at 44 Redchurch Street were Randbridge Printers Ltd (we still have a piece of their signage which we kept as a souvenir of our time there).

Thankyou to Donald Parsnips (of Club Row I seem to remember, and mutual friend of Simon Tyrrell who lived at No.48) for remembering ‘Foremost Grinding’. Can you remember which building they inhabited?

I see that a lot of people find the changes that have occurred over 25 years a little sad, but my wife and I always imagined that Redchurch Street would be subsumed by (and probably demolished by) the City as it relentlessly gobbled up Bishopsgate, so to see that so far it has survived that is actually heartening. Our memories of living there are mostly enjoyable and I think you sometimes have to welcome change even if it’s not quite what you were anticipating.

By: jane osullivan

jane osullivan — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 21:51:17 +0000

oh what I’d do to step back in time and enter carnival novelties , looks like a great shop,really enjoyed this before and after post , the artists studios were great , no mac book pros in sight , its another world all together.

By: Brian Walker

Brian Walker — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:30:00 +0000

Sclater Street was always ‘untidy’, that is what made it so interesting. It was full of real characters and craftsmen, not the trendy people playing at ‘having a shop in East London’. I walked through the market recently and was puzzled by the number of dull, boring outlets with no customers, but every one of them had straight faced, sad looking individuals staring forlornly out of the windows. The reason for my puzzlement? How the hell do they make a living? I long for the days when these ‘untidy’ stallholders called out to passers by and for all the backchat that was called back to them!