Eleanor Crow’s Shopfronts Of London
Seven years have passed since we first presented Eleanor Crow’s beautiful watercolours of East End shops in these pages and I am delighted to announce that Spitalfields Life Books is now publishing a handsome hardback collection of them SHOPFRONTS OF LONDON, In Praise of Small Neighbourhood Shops in collaboration with Batsford Books.
You can preorder to support publication and you will receive a signed copy in the first week of September. Click here to preorder for £14.99
At a time of momentous change in the high street, Eleanor’s witty and fascinating personal survey champions the enduring culture of Britain’s small neighbourhood shops.
As our high streets decline into generic monotony, we cherish the independent shops and family businesses that enrich our city with their characterful frontages and distinctive typography.
Eleanor’s collection includes more than hundred of her watercolours of the capital’s bakers, cafés, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. Her pictures are accompanied by the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers – stretching from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green and Walthamstow in the east.
We guarantee you will recognise many of the shops in Eleanor’s book and we publish a selection of her favourite ironmongers below.
Eleanor Crow at E. Pellicci by Colin O’Brien
Daniel Lewis & Son Ltd, Hackney Rd
C W Tyzack, Kingsland Rd
Bernardes Trading Ltd, Barking Rd
Bradbury’s, Broadway Market
Chas Tapp, Southgate Rd
Emjay Decor, Bethnal Green Rd
General Woodwork Supplies, Stoke Newington High St
Diamond Ladder Factory, Lea Bridge Rd
Farringdon Tool Supplies, Exmouth Market
Histohome, Stoke Newington High St
KAC Hardware, Church St
Leyland SDM, Balls Pond Rd
KTS the Corner, Kingsland Rd
Mix Hardware, Blackstock Rd
City Hardware, Goswell Rd
Travis Perkins, Kingsland Rd
SX, Essex Rd
Beautifully detailed drawings and a great celebration of small shops and their quirky selection of merchandise.
I love a good ironmongers shop and have been a frequent buyer in them ever since the rabbit hutch making days of my childhood, and I particularly like the ones run by men in brown overalls who really know their stuff.
Long may they continue to thrive in competition to the soulless DIY mega stores…
Very nostalgic! Tyzack is a name I well remember from my days living in Stoke Newington (1930’s to 1950’s) and travelling up and down Kingsland Road. I wonder whether it is the same premises now as then! What about Cakebread Robey on the corner of Tyssen Road? Another name to remember!
Lovely watercolours. Small shops are the life of a neighbourhood. Shopping centers are one of man’s most boring inventions.
Greetings from Boston,
GA, I enjoyed reviewing Elinor Crow’s delightful storefronts of London – such details. We have one such surviving hardware store in our next town. Going in there takes me back decades, especially at holiday time.
But things change, eh? What you describe as the “generic monotony” of high street retailers is now being seriously challenged by online sales. Who knows how this will play out?
Best of luck with your book.
Beautiful !!!
Very fine illustrations — congratulation!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Lovely drawings — and, may I say, an echo of the long-ago “High Street” illustrations. In the US we still have old-time hardware stores replete with bouncy wooden floors, rolling ladders, shelving full of mysterious/wonderful things, pot bellied stoves, and knowledgeable sales people eager to help out with a project or “chew the fat”. Peanuts-in-the-shell and popcorn (and lollipops for the kids) welcome people to come in and stay awhile. NO big-box cavernous home improvement store (no matter how well-equipped) will ever replace that experience.
Great compositions and an eye for patterns! Bravo!
Wonderful Paintings of these Stores. She is an Amazing Painter.
Reminds me of Mr.Ben, lovely.