Comments on: Inside Spitalfields’ Oldest Building

By: Gillian Tindall

Gillian Tindall — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 14:45:48 +0000

Yes, lovely pics, and very informative. But I have for some time been abit puzzled about this building, regularly referred to as a `charnel house’ as if that was what it had been built as. But surely this is not the case? I don’t doubt that bodies may have been piled into it during the mid-fourteenth century hunger that followed on a succession of bad harvests (something that is itself confused with the Black Death) but I think it was built simply as a chapel. The care taken with the vaulting, the re-use of old, decorative stones and the traces of coloured work on them all point to something grander than just a body-store. The level at which it stands was, in the middle ages, the ordinary ground-level – as is suggested by the little contemporary picture of it, included in the blog, which shows an above-ground building with windows. These windows, indeed, were not blocked till two centuries later, when the Reformation overtook the whole place. By that time, presumably, with demoliton and new buildings, the land-level was rising, and was to rise still more when debris from the Fire of London was piled onto the Spitalfields.

By: Paul Cattermole

Paul Cattermole — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:44:08 +0000

Beautiful studies of the textures of knapped flints – Whole photo set has a great style and tonality. On whom should we be heaping our praise?

By: s berris

s berris — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 18:48:46 +0000

What lovely stonework (and photos). I t reminds me of a Cornelia Parker piece.

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 17:49:07 +0000

Great to know that this has been preserved so well, other developers please take note!! And thank you for giving us a chance to see the photos with flint knapping that is so reminiscent of Norfolk.

Pauline.

By: Pat Butt

Pat Butt — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:22:07 +0000

i read with great interest today’s article….who would have guessed so much history right under our noses?

By: Caroline Murray

Caroline Murray — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 10:23:53 +0000

Extraordinary and fascinating: and how nice to hear of a developer (for once) respecting the site’s past…

By: Beryl Happe

Beryl Happe — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 09:47:43 +0000

Wonderful blog Gentle Author, most interesting. What a fascinating place Spitalfields is.

By: Chris Dyson

Chris Dyson — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 09:26:01 +0000

wonderfully photographed thank you beautiful and wonderfully preserved

By: David Steers

David Steers — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 08:46:51 +0000

Absolutely fascinating, thank you for posting this.

By: Ann Balaam Miller

Ann Balaam Miller — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 06:14:23 +0000

I love each and every article you write. This one is hands down grand. Thank you gentle author. I’ve recommended to so many of my friends that they subscribe to Spitalfields Life. I know I will get thanks every time I recommend you, so perhaps I’m being selfish. It’s the perspective…