East End Vernacular

Provisional cover design featuring ‘St James Rd, Old Ford’ by Henry Silk

With your help, this October I plan to publish EAST END VERNACULAR, a beautifully illustrated hardback book celebrating the work of artists who painted London’s East End streets in the 20th century.

In recent years, the East London Group of painters has been successfully reclaimed from obscurity – but I have found there are plenty of equally wonderful artists who came before and after who also deserve to be recognised, and a survey of all this important work is long overdue. Many of the paintings in the book have not been published before and many of these are by artists who have been unjustly neglected.

There are three ways you can help:

1. I am seeking readers who are willing to invest £1000 in EAST END VERNACULAR to help me bring recognition to this important aspect of East End culture, by cherishing these magnificent paintings in a handsome book. In return, we will publish your name in the book and invite you to a celebratory dinner hosted by yours truly at the end of June. If you would like to know more, please drop me an email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com

2. Preorder a copy of EAST END VERNACULAR and you will receive your copy in the first week of October when the book is published. Click here to preorder your copy

3. If you own a painting of a street scene that you believe should be included in EAST END VERNACULAR please send me a photograph of it  spitalfieldslife@gmail.com

On this page, you will find a selection of works from some of those artists we mean to include in EAST END VERNACULAR: John Allin, Pearl Binder, James Boswell, Roland Collins, Alfred Daniels, Anthony Eyton, Doreen Fletcher, Geoffrey Fletcher, Barnett Freedman, Noel Gibson, Charles Ginner, Harry Harmer, Elwin Hawthorne, Rose Henriques, Dan Jones, Nathaniel Kornbluth, Leon Kossoff, Cyril Mann, Jock McFadyen, Ronald Morgan, Grace Oscroft, Henry Silk, Harold Steggles, Walter Steggles & Albert Turpin.

The book will include a Prologue with paintings by nineteenth century artists and an Epilogue with works by artists painting the East End streets today including Nicholas Borden, Peta Bridle, Eleanor Crow, Adam Dant, Marc Gooderham, Joanna Moore & Lucinda Rogers.

I shall be opening the Write Idea Festival at the Idea Store in Whitechapel in November with an illustrated lecture on the artists in EAST END VERNACULAR and we are working with Hatchards to promote the book in the West End. There are forthcoming exhibitions this autumn of East London Group paintings at the Nunnery Gallery in Bow and at Southampton City Art Gallery where we will be doing EAST END END VERNACULAR events. Additionally, Townhouse in Spitalfields will be hosting a new Doreen Fletcher exhibition in October.

Consultants to the book include: Fiona Atkins, an expert on 20th century British Art and curator of Doreen Fletcher’s debut exhibition, David Buckman, author of From Bow to Biennale which rescued the East London Group from obscurity, Vicky Stewart, the genius researcher who discovered the Spitalfields Nippers and Alan Waltham who is the authority on the East London Group.

The book is designed by Friederike Huber, the distinguished book designer who has previously designed Brick Lane, East End, London Life, Spitalfields Nippers, Travellers Children in London Fields & Underground for Spitalfields Life Books.

Over the next week, I shall be publishing features about some of the artists from EAST END VERNACULAR

John Allin – Spitalfields Market, 1972

Pearl Binder – Aldgate, 1932 (Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

James Boswell – Petticoat Lane (Courtesy of David Buckman)

Roland Collins – Brushfield St, Spitalfields, 1951-60 (Courtesy of Museum of London)

Alfred Daniels – Gramaphone Man on Wentworth St

Anthony Eyton , Christ Church Spitalfields, 1980

Doreen Fletcher – Turner’s Rd, 1998

Geoffrey Fletcher – D.Bliss, Alderney Rd 1979 (Courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives)

Barnett Freedman– Street Scene. 1933-39 (Courtesy of Tate Gallery)

Noel Gibson – Street Scene in Poplar (Courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives)

Charles Ginner – Bethnal Green Allotment, 1947 (Courtesy of Manchester City Art Gallery)

Elwin Hawthorne – Trinity Green Almshouses, 1935

Rose Henriques – Coronation Celebrations in Challis Court, 1937 (Courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives)

Dan Jones – Brick Lane, 1977

Leon Kossoff – Christ Church Spitalfields, 1999/2000 (Courtesy of Annely Juda Fine Art, London)

Cyril Mann – Christ Church seen over bombsites from Redchurch St, 1946 (Courtesy of Piano Nobile Gallery)

Jock McFadyen – Aldgate East

Grace Oscroft – Old Houses in Bow, 1934

Henry Silk – Snow, Rounton Rd, Bow

Harold Steggles – Old Ford Rd c.1932

Walter Steggles – Canal at Mile End

Albert Turpin, Columbia Market, Bethnal Green

Click here to preorder a copy of EAST END VERNACULAR for £25