Comments on: East End Cobblers https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Tue, 10 May 2016 21:22:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 By: Linda Brownlee https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088248 Tue, 10 May 2016 21:22:51 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088248 Oh you can smell the glue just looking at the photos! I always get a cheery bit of banter from all the shoe repair guys I’ve ever come across – and agree one hundred percent it’s so reassuring to know you’re getting another winter out of your favourite boots – the ones that know the shape of your feet and fit nice and snug around your aching feet! We had a great wee shoe repair hut near the station in Bishopbriggs Glasgow with paper bags of repaired shoes waiting for collection stacked up on the counter.
I can remember my Mum’s friend telling her what a shock it was to discover that the Umbrella repair man couldn’t repair her collapsible umbrellas it was meant to be disposable!! What was the world coming to!

]]> By: Phil Maxwell https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088215 Tue, 10 May 2016 13:36:40 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088215 Thank you for capturing this trade with such insight & affection. Great pictures Sarah.

]]> By: Linda https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088212 Tue, 10 May 2016 13:03:43 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088212 About 20 years ago I worked in a gallery at Bankside and used to have my shoes mended by a lovely guy who worked from a little unit at the side of a hairdressers along the way; I believe the hair salon was run by his daughter and her husband – it eventually became a Starbucks years after I left. In the 80s I lived at Hornchurch in Essex and some young guys on the High St would do ladies heels for the bargain price of a pound, their shop went like a fair all day!

It’s nice to see cobblers are still able to earn a living. In my own home town in Scotland I think we are down to about 2 now, and a dry cleaning chain that sends them away for you.

At the moment I’m lucky enough to live in Switzerland where there seems to be a shoe mender on every second street, so people here obviously still value a something decent on their feet 🙂

]]> By: Cham Freedman https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088210 Tue, 10 May 2016 12:18:41 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088210 In the 1880’s there was a considerable influx of Jews to the East End from Russia and Poland.
Many of them were cobblers. My great-grandfather Jacob Freedman from Poland arrived in London about 1882. He was a slipper maker. He lived initially in a basement in the now extinct and unsavoury Dorset Steeet in Spilalfields, there my grandfather was born in 1886. In the late 1880’s the shoe trade was becoming mechanised and many cobblers were out of work.
So Jacob Freedman left his family in London and went to the USA where he lived in Brooklyn. Once established he sent for his family. But before they were able to join him they received a death certificate in December 1890. He had perished from the after affects of a fire in the Brooklyn tenament. So the family stayed in London where my father John Ronald Freedman was born in 1910. In 1921 the family emigrated to Australia.

]]> By: Linda Granfield https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088205 Tue, 10 May 2016 10:49:23 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088205 Thank you for this article. My great-grandfather was a boot-maker in 19th century Bromley. How I wish I had his shoe hammer. Amazing work these repairers do.

]]> By: Malcolm https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088187 Tue, 10 May 2016 08:14:59 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088187 Interesting story, as always.
There used to be loads of cobblers in Eat London (excuse the double entendre) who were real craftsmen. There was a very wonderful man who had a tiny shop in Limehouse, on the bend where West India Dock road met West Ferry Road. He was a real master of his trade and made shoes as well as repairing them. My Dad bought a pair of Oxfords from him that lasted decades. Beautiful leather. Sadly, like many artisans and craftsmen, the age of cheap disposable rubbish has seen their demise.
That’s Shoe Business (groan) in Leather Lane is my repairers of choice. They can repair shoes that others would throw in the bin. There’s nothing these blokes can’t do, and they’re cheaper than the Liverpool Street shoe bar. Also noteworthy is Hoxton Shoe Repairs in Hoxton Street.

]]> By: Caroline Bottomley https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088180 Tue, 10 May 2016 06:21:37 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088180 What a great piece!

Lovely looking chaps the lots of them – great photos.

And Gary’s bonus joke 🙂

]]> By: Valerie-Jael https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088174 Tue, 10 May 2016 05:20:28 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088174 Good to see that there are still people left able to repair shoes and leather etc, they seem to be a rare breed these days. Valerie

]]> By: Phyllis https://spitalfieldslife.com/2016/05/10/east-end-cobblers/#comment-1088138 Mon, 09 May 2016 23:46:07 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=145639#comment-1088138 I *love* getting my shoes repaired. God bless these artisans!

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