Comments on: Sophie Spielman, Shorthand Typist https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Wed, 15 Nov 2017 02:17:23 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Yvonne Cheyney Saul https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1180016 Wed, 15 Nov 2017 02:17:23 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1180016 Having just been in London where I grew up, visiting from Southern California, I walked past your flats. I went to school at Robert Montefiore in Vallance Road and left school at 16 in 1958. I had not been back to the area since then and was so interested to see all my old haunts this past summer, 2017. We walked past the school and down Hanbury Street to Spitalfields and then over to Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street. Also Brick Lane. Hoping Mrs. Spielman can live in her flat as long as she wishes. I was also a shorthand typist.

]]> By: Marcia Howard https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177407 Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:23:28 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177407 What a tough cookie you are Mrs Spielman – a truly amazing lady. Sending every best wish that your home is saved. We’re behind you every step of the way!

]]> By: Annemarie Schöne https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177325 Mon, 30 Oct 2017 09:41:21 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177325 I always enjoy the GA blog especially when he lets us know about spirited people like Mrs.Spielman who fight for their rights. I was truly moved by her biography & send her my best wishes to carry on with her strength & determination. Let us know the what happens with the flat, please.

]]> By: Adele Lester https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177240 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 23:50:14 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177240 Keep up the fight Mrs Spielman! You are a true inspiration. GA, thanks for bringing us stories such as this. Please keep us updated on Mrs Spielman’s progress.

]]> By: Alison Ashfield https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177204 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 19:23:34 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177204 Fascinating story. I hope Mrs. Spielman is able to continue to live in her flat until such time that she decides to do something else, and it is appropriately maintained. I have just read, closely, the terms and conditions on the rent card. It suggests a different time, when occupants of Council properties were expected to maintain them, for fear of having their tenancy terminated. I suppose that the majority of tenants did? My grandmother was ‘bombed out’ during the Blitz and evacuated to Wales, where she had family. Returning to London postwar was very difficult and I think they might have lived in some sort of ‘prefab’ before being allocated a Council maisonette. It was beautifully kept and she and her husband lived there, very contentedly, for many years. There is a sense of entitlement now, amongst some people – fortunately the miniority, which seems to suggest that to be allocated a Council property is a ‘right’ and that there is no attached personal responsibility to maintain it. Such a pity, given the number of people in dire need who would seize the opportunity with both hands and live happily there, looking after the property as if it was their own.

]]> By: Rupert Bumfrey https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177203 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 18:57:49 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177203 It says something about the state of UK when this is happening, as The Guardian wrote way back in July ‘It’s social cleansing’ https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/28/social-cleansing-whitechapel-east-london-fighting-demolitions

Absolutely disgusting behaviour and obviously not something that causes Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, to lose any sleep – no surprise that he is proving to be merely a self-serving politician, only good for soundbites as was his predecessor!

]]> By: rosemary Hoffman https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177127 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 09:32:52 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177127 i rember Sophie as her relation Mozelle was our next door neighbour in the 1960s and Gloria and Shireen were first cousins . I wonder if Sophie remembers me?

]]> By: Doug https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177118 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 08:59:07 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177118 Thank you for this inspiring interview. I do hope Sophie’s home is repaired and preserved. What price humanity?

]]> By: Milly Rich https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177117 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 08:46:22 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177117 What a beautiful woman. Thank you for publishing
these images. Reading this, the words of the
gentle author take us right to the person
herself as if she is talking to us.
Wishing you the best in your determination
to sort out the Council Sophie – my father
carried on against our Freeholders well into
his 90s by which time we’d won!
Love from Shula – Milly’s daughter

]]> By: Glenn https://spitalfieldslife.com/2017/10/29/sophie-spielman-shorthand-typist/#comment-1177094 Sun, 29 Oct 2017 05:28:02 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=161110#comment-1177094 Fascinating lady with an fascinating life. Why can’t these and other flats be renovated and refurbished instead of being demolished?

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