Mychael Barratt’s Whitechapel Mural
Every time I walk down Mile End Rd, my attention always wanders to Mychael Barratt‘s mural high on the wall beyond Trinity Green Almshouses, conjuring the presiding spirits of this corner of Whitechapel.
“No artist can refuse a mural,” Mychael admitted to me with a grin and a shrug, introducing the unlikely story of the origin of his vast painting, executed over six weeks in the summer of 2011. When lawyers, TV Edwards, who have been established in the East End in the vicinity of the docks since 1929, were refused permission for a large advert on the side of their building, senior partner Anthony Edwards, saw the possibility for a creative solution to the bare wall in Mile End Rd. So, after noticing Mychael Barrett’s work on a hoarding while going over Blackfriars Bridge in a taxi, he gave the artist a call.
Mychael came to London from Canada in the eighties. “I was travelling around Europe and I was only supposed to stay in London for a week, but I never left,” he confessed to me. Yet Mychael’s Huguenot ancestors first came here three hundred years ago as refugees and the history of the capital has proved an enduring source of inspiration for his work.
Mychael at work on the mural in the summer of 2011
The mural was painted by Mychael Barratt, James Glover & Nicholas Middleton
| 1 | George Bernard Shaw was an early member of the Fabian Society who regularly met on the Whitechapel Rd |
| 2 | William Booth started The Christian Mission and The Salvation Army on the Mile End Rd |
| 3 | Captain James Cook lived at 88 Mile End Rd when not at sea |
| 4 | Prince Monolulu was a gambling tipster who frequented Petticoat Lane and Mile End Market with his famous call “I gotta horse!” |
| 5 | Frederick Charrington turned his back on his family’s brewery to start a temperance mission. He is here depicted taking a dray horse out of service |
| 6 | Dockers – This is loosely based on the statue of dockers at Victoria Dock |
| 7 | Vladimir Lenin planned the Russian Revolution in Whitechapel |
| 8 | Joseph Merrick also known as The Elephant Man was first publicly exhibited in London in a shop on the Whitechapel Rd across the street from the London Hospital |
| 9 | T V Edwards started the law firm T V Edwards in 1929 |
| 10 | Anthony Edwards is the senior partner of T V Edwards. As a young boy he would accompany his uncle on his rounds, carrying his briefcase |
| 11 | Bushra Nasir studied at Queen Mary University and became the first Muslim headteacher of a state school |
| 12 | Mahatma Gandhi stayed at Kingsley Hall in 1931 when he came to London to discuss Indian independence |
| 13 | Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 2009 |
| 14 | Samuel Pepys frequented the Mile End Rd, as his diary attests and his mother was the daughter of a Whitechapel butcher |
| 15 | Isaac Rosenberg was a First World War poet and a painter who was one of a group of artists known as The Whitechapel Boys |
| 16 | Mark Gertler was another of The Whitechapel Boys |
| 17 | Edith Cavell trained as a nurse at London Hospital before working in German-occupied Belgium during World War I |
| 18 | Reggie & Ronnie Kray frequented The Blind Beggar. |
| 19 | David Hockney had his first exhibition at The Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1970 |
| 20 | Scout This is my dog |
| 21 | Eric Gill’s sculptures grace the New People’s Palace on the Mile End Rd |
| 22 | Gilbert & George live nearby in Spitalfields |
| 23 | Market stalls that line the Mile End Rd |
| 24 | A reference to London’s docks |
| 25 | 30 St Mary Axe also known as the Gherkin |
| 26 | Christ Church, Spitalfields, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor |
| 27 | House by Rachel Whiteread was a cast of the inside of a house on Grove Rd |
| 28 | The East London Mosque |
| 29 | Clock tower from in front of The People’s Palace |
| 30 | The Royal London Hospital |
| 31 | Guernica by Pablo Picasso was displayed at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1939 |
| 32 | The Whitechapel Art Gallery |
| 33 | Blooms, famous kosher restaurant on Whitechapel Rd |
| 34 | The Whitechapel Church Bell Foundry |
| 35 | Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd |
| 36 | The first V1 flying bomb or Doodlebug fell in Whitechapel in 1944 |
Mychael Barratt at his studio in Bermondsey
Arnold Circus and the Breathless Brass Band, oil painting
Images copyright © Mychael Barratt
Great Mural. Does anyone know if there are postcards of it? Details please how I can obtain a copy for my collection.
Thanks
Melvyn Brooks Karkur Israel
The mural is wonderful! Valerie
A remarkable collection of local history here thank you Mychael I hope its durable and lasts its so valuable historically. John Barrett the Poets Soc, Bristol
Lovely! Didn’t know about that – will seek it out.
If you ever do prints Michael/ TV Edwards, I will buy one!
A wonderful mural but incorrect about the first flying bomb.
That hit the railway bridge in Grove Road, Bow E3—not Whitechapel E1
fascinating!! an amazing work. my parents knew prince monalulu but in the west end when i was a toddler. i remember being terrified when i met him.
and i worked in a play centre in rochelle school in arnold circus in around 1966. memories!!! thanks for this.
Love Mychael Barratt’s work and he’s such a nice man, too!
A great post and great illustrations. I love these murals, in fact I love all of those that spring up in the East End. I have a friend who haunts the area and photographs the walls as the lose one mural and gain another.
Thanks for all the great posts. If I don’t comment on each one its because of time constraints. I read each one assiduously and gain a lot from them. Oh, I too, remember Prince Monolulu.
Wonderful piece of work, and says so much more I’m sure, than the original planned advert. I love seeing old adverts or shop names on end walls of buildings. Real social history of trader or companies long gone.
An interesting piece. Back in the 90s I worked at Bankside Gallery and bought 2 of Mychael’s prints from an RE show (Oscar Wilde and Van Gogh) . They have been to 3 different houses with me, one in London and 2 in Scotland.
I’ve now moved to Switzerland and Mychael’s prints are being shipped here with some furniture and other personal belongings. We just love them!