Comments on: In Praise Of Stench

By: Adam English

Adam English — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 09:39:10 +0000

Please, Zena, don’t stick the boot into us stallholders at Old Spitalfields Market. We’re not all bland. Speaking for myself, I’ve been trading on a Sunday in the old market since 2001, you may have seen me selling vintage eyewear, optical frames and sunglasses, that I restore up the road at home in my workshop. Yes, we’ve been there since before the redevelopment 10 years ago as have many others who are still trading on Sundays: Mark who sells collectible annuals, comics and vinyl; Alison who designs her own silver jewellery; Steve who has a pile of vintage scarves in summer and vintage furry hats in winter, reminiscent of the yards 20 years ago down the Lane; Mo with his cow skin rugs; Freddie with his vintage Harris Tweed jackets; Miles with his hand made giant wooden mirrors; opposite him, Tom with his popular vintage stall for gents; Andy with his quirky glass designs; plus, off the top of my head: Ning, Chris, Diana, Michael, Jenni, Marvin, Dotan, Koby who all design their own clothes and not to mention Louie, an artist who is still here since the Sunday market started in 1992. All of us – plus many more that I can’t list here – have been here since before half the market was torn down in 2005 and it says something that through all that we’re still here today, running our boutique businesses from Spitalfields. One could argue that it is us that has created the popularity of the area (I know I do!). So please do not put us down. We’re still here on a Sunday and we still need the support of local people. I’ve heard that a lot of locals don’t come on Sundays because they feel it is “too touristy”, but you are missing out because most of us who still run our eclectic, unique businesses are only there on Sundays, the traditional East End market day. Hopefully, see you soon!

By: Moyra Peralta

Moyra Peralta — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 03:38:10 +0000

For multifarious reasons I do so love these composites. Some photographs just grab hold of you emotionally. SO well done…

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 17:46:04 +0000

The ideas in this post are powerfully portrayed with these brilliant images.

Especially Brushfield St, looking east, with the fire burning. Couldn’t be a greater contrast, past to sanitized present.

By: Herry Lawford

Herry Lawford — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 17:29:31 +0000

A fine and thoughtful piece

By: Ros

Ros — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 12:01:17 +0000

and you’ve contributed another passionate and so real piece above Robert – thank you again. Both it and the post by Julian Dobson couldn’t be clearer in spelling out what’s going on, and that London is no longer a place for all. It’s helpful even though a bit sobering to put things in historical context. And I too love the photo-montages and wish I could step back in time several times a week…

By: Zena Sullivan

Zena Sullivan — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 11:34:52 +0000

Thanks for highlighting some of the aspects of my intense dislike of the ‘new’ Spitalfields Market. It is mind-numbingly bland, the odourless stalls & stall-holders, who are inconsequential in their palatial surroundings. ‘Sanitised’ is a truly apt description of an irrelevant market, possessing no atmosphere, no ‘vibe’. It literally leaves me cold. Perhaps this was always the intention, so that the developers will ultimately get their way & carpet the area with faceless glass office blocks. Will John Biggs stand-up to any of this?

By: Annie G

Annie G — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 09:53:36 +0000

My sympathies to the previous commenter – one imagines the new residents chose to live there because it was a bit “edgy”, perhaps a tad “lairy”…and now that is just rather grubby. Ordinary people just won’t get out of the streets, will they? Walking about, talking, selling and not being interested in chai latte.
I think this has always been an argument in London as populations wax and wane, move out and move in. Brixton was originally a village, was developed as a Victorian suburb for the white middle classes and then became a hot-spot when immigrants arrived. Now the descendants despise the middle classes again. I hope London can find a way to accommodate everybody, cheek by jowl and hugger-mugger as it must be.
The sanitising of London is doomed to failure; long live the grubby, the slightly shabby, the cheap and cheerful. It was one of those shops in Whitechapel that sold me an invaluable rain poncho in a downpour, a stall in Petticoat Lane that provided emergency shoes. It would have been a cultural disaster if Spitalfields had been allowed to decay forty years ago and I hope it won’t be another if the wealthy force everyone else out. Not in the spirit of London. Certainly not the spirit of Spitalfields.

By: Marie mccartney

Marie mccartney — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 09:16:33 +0000

These are amazing and make me quite sad that the area has changed so dramatically. It would be wonderful if like the photos, the two Spitalfields could exist side by side. I remember when my mother in law worked in the crypt, as cook housekeeper, the bonfires at the bottom of Brushfield Street with people hoarded round them just like in one of the photos. I wish I’d taken photos then but didn’t realise than what a significant area it was and how much it would change.

By: Robert Green

Robert Green — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:39:58 +0000

The theme of this message is particularly relevant to me as a market trader in Sclater Street (Club Row) as many people will know the relatively recent completion of the Avant Gaurd tower that now occupies half the length of Sclater St has SIGNIFICANTLY changed the atmosphere of the area and is seen by many as the begining of the ‘stripping out’ process to rid the area of any remaining character which of course would also include (I believe) the traditional street markets, which are usually regarded by the ‘money men’ as standard bearers of privateers and individualism that are so vehemently despised by corporate property developers, as a long standing trader in this market I often find myself being unwittingly sited as spokesman for many of the stallholders and as word spreads this has also not gone unnoticed by some people in the new development which has unfortunatly had the knock on effect of making me the focal point of a number of vocal and in one instance even physical confrontation with residents of the new developmen, many of whom ironically now seem to regard the market as a ‘blight’ on THEIR lives, (totally disregarding the fact that THEY are the NEWCOMERS) and now with yet another substantial development already well underway nearby (which itself caused the loss of a large part of the market ) I can only see the opposition to people like me intensifying as the surrounding developments begin to close in, to me as someone often regarded in many ways as being at the bottom of the social ladder, it says everything I need to know about the mentality of faceless corporate developers with unimaginable wealth at their disposal that they can look at someone like ME, standing in the street with a board and trestles trying to earn a modest but HONEST living and feel NOTHING but DESPISED RESENTMENT towards me. PS, to ROS, thank you very much for your kind words on Sundays post, I was VERY humbled by your comment.

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 06:49:42 +0000

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing, Valerie