Comments on: Raphael Samuel’s Farewell To Spitalfields

By: Tom Old

Tom Old — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 11:58:07 +0000

Spitalfields Market and that lovely old Girls School, Central Foundation , both deserved to have been preserved , But, It really is quite simple, Have you any idea what it was like , each Christmas , to spend one or two nights sleeping in your Van or Lorry , in order to have a parking space convenient to the Fruit Wholesalers Premises, !!!! Simply because those New Huge / Gigantic Continental Fruit and Veg Lorries could Not cope with the confines of VICTORIAN SPITALFIELDS MARKET, which had been designed for Horse and Cart Haulage, And, the Local Council and their Architects , Must Have been Salivating at the prospect of the City Corporations fighting to pay hundreds of millions of Pounds for future Building Plots, similar to which occurred on The Isle of Dogs , Now called ” Canary Wharf ” it really is quite sad, BUT, Spitalfieds Market, was Doomed, Along with those Thousands of Beautiful Old English Country Mansions and Estates that were Demolished after The First World War, due to Death Duties and Shortage’s of Cheap manpower / and General Domestic Staff,

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 13:32:53 +0000

Raphael was a lovely man. Great photographs.

By: John evans

John evans — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 19:36:27 +0000

I used to live in brick lane and remember it well going over to spitalfields market for Mongolian goat stew from a small hatch inside the market

By: Bridgett Bardwell

Bridgett Bardwell — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 15:04:49 +0000

Both my grandfather and father worked in this market. I have some fabulous photos of the Children’s Christmas parties organised and paid in for by the workers of the market in the 50s and 60s

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 11:46:04 +0000

Raphael was a great historian and a visionary. Valerie

By: Josephine Rogers

Josephine Rogers — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 11:33:11 +0000

This brilliant article exactly sums up what is happening at this moment all over London with the small work places under constant threat of destruction in favour of unaffordable -to local workers- high rise blocks of offices and apartments. What a crime to wipe away this vibrant place! Beautiful photos, so nostalgic.

By: Reginald Beer

Reginald Beer — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 07:47:06 +0000

Wonderful to see Raph’s photo at the end of the piece. A lovely man and a great historian. Stolen from us far too early.

By: Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 07:26:29 +0000

Fruit & veg market a beautiful building, I didn’t go until the 90s and it was bits and bobs market – my friends sold lightboxes they made. The new wave. That was a good market too though, better than the one now which is much chainstore market tat, as opposed to individual’s market tat – much like Camden etc etc.
I bet very few people in the market now know the ‘market myth’ about Robert Horner.