Comments on: At David Kira Ltd https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Thu, 31 Aug 2017 05:21:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 By: Melvyn Shultom https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1166333 Thu, 31 Aug 2017 05:21:20 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1166333 I remember a lot of that story we traded in spitalfields buying from 1950 I knew the firm quite well and especially Nicky Glutman near and was a friend with Mevyn Worman who everybody knew well written article

]]> By: Stuart Kira https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162772 Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:32:17 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162772 Hi Mike, from your comments it would appear that you know me. Please forgive my lapse of memory but when & where would that be from? Also congratulations on spotting my deliberate mistake about the 647 bus route.
Stuart Kira

]]> By: Mike Brooke https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162745 Mon, 14 Aug 2017 08:42:39 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162745 Amazing that Stuart Kira looked the dead spit of his dad as a young man and as an older man – a real clone!
But what a fascinating tale of the banana trade in Spitalfields and how the War years put it ‘on hold’. The 1941 letter from the Fleet Street surveyors is an insight to wartime commerce, agreeing to reduce the rent by £100. I can’t imagine any estate agent doing that now, but no doubt the Blitz on London put all buildings at risk of destruction and it’s probable the landlords would not have found other tenants anyway.
Stuart recalls riding 647 trolleybus from Stoke Newington to Bishopsgate and having to walk through Brushfield-st to reach Fournier-st… Not quite remembered right – the 647 turned at Shoreditch before reaching Bishopsgate and came down Commercial-st to Gardiner’s Corner and the London Docks, so it passed Fournier-st itself and would have dropped him at the door. It was the 649 that went on to Bishopsgate (but a minor detail).
What is nice to know is how the property has been preserved since the Kira family’s banana business moved out 25 years ago, preserving just a smidge of the local East End heritage story.

]]> By: pauline taylor https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162683 Sun, 13 Aug 2017 15:19:46 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162683 Thanks to Gary. I don’t know if I feel better or worse now Gary but that creature certainly did look very menacing.

]]> By: Gary Arber https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162655 Sun, 13 Aug 2017 09:38:58 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162655 A note to Pauline.
The creature that came from your friends bananas was possibly a Brazilian Wandering Spider, one was found in a bunch of bananas purchased in a Lidl store in Germany recently.
It is venomous and its bite can be fatal. You were wise to despatch it with a broom and very lucky.
Gary

]]> By: pauline taylor https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162553 Sat, 12 Aug 2017 17:46:12 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162553 I arrived at a friend’s house for a coffee one morning to find her in a state of shock. The explanation was soon apparent, as underneath her kitchen table was a bright yellow creature which she said had come out of her recently purchased bunch of bananas. I have no idea to this day what it was but it was quite big, the body was over an inch in size and it stood up on legs (not sure how many legs) and it was banana coloured and shiny. I am ashamed to say that I grabbed her broom and hit it as hard as I could and we disposed of it in her dustbin. If anyone has any idea what it can have been please do let me know as I have been curious ever since and have searched in various books without finding a picture or a photograph of anything like it.

]]> By: Leana Pooley https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162520 Sat, 12 Aug 2017 12:36:40 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162520 Fascinating stuff about bananas. The “empty boy” is intriguing.

]]> By: Phil Maxwell https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162516 Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:50:12 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162516 Great story & it’s amazing how relatively intact the shop is today.

]]> By: Helen Breen https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162513 Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:04:57 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162513 Greetings from Boston,

GA, what an interesting account.

“My late father would be turning in his grave if he knew that bananas are now placed in cold storage, which means they will quickly turn black once they get home.”

That answers a question I have always had about bananas turning bad after purchase, particularly in winter.

]]> By: Gary Arber https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/08/12/at-david-kira-ltd/#comment-1162509 Sat, 12 Aug 2017 09:56:13 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=159391#comment-1162509 Life must have been dangerous in those days. Bringing large bunches of bananas from a warm ship into warm storage would mean that snakes and insects hidden in the bunches would still be alive.
Gary

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