Chris Miles’ East End
Chris Miles contacted me from Vancouver Island, where he describes himself as a Londoner in exile. ‘In the early seventies, I lived as a recently-graduated student in the East End, firstly on Grove Rd and then on Lauriston Rd above a supermarket,’ he explained and sent me his splendid photographs. Most were taken around Bethnal Green, Roman Rd and Mile End, and Chris & I welcome identification of precise locations from eagle-eyed readers.
George Davis is Innocent, Mile End Rd
Linda ‘n Laura
Getting a loaf, Stepney Green
S Kornbloom, Newsagent & Confectioner, Jubilee St
Corner Shop Groceries & Provisions, Stepney Way
Ronchetti’s Cafe, Piano’s & Kitchen Chairs Wanted
Snacks & Grills
The Bell Dining Rooms, Lot 63 Buildings at back
Leslies Restaurant, Fresh Up with your Meal
Harry’s Cafe, Teas & Snacks, Breakfasts & Dinners
Valente’s Cafe, Hackney Rd
Cafe Restaurant
Dinkie
Station Cafe
Fish Bar
J Kelly, No Prams or Trollie’s, Please
G Kelly
Charlie & Mick’s Cafe
Menu at Charlie & Mick’s Cafe
John Pelican
Joe’s Saloon – ‘We cater for long and short hair styles’
M Evans & Sons, Garn Dairy
Marion’s, Blouses, Trouser Suits, Smock Dresses, Ect.
Sunset Stores
N Berg, Watch & Clock Repairs
S Grant, High Class Tailor, Seamens Outfitter
Littlewood Brothers Ltd, Domestic Stores, Grocery & Hardware
J Galley & Sons, Established 1901
Henry Freund & Son, Established 1837
Rito for Better Roof Repairs
Common Market NO
Alan Enterprises Ltd, L & R Ostroff Ltd, Brick Lane
Photographs copyright © Chris Miles
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Love the photos of the old cafes which are a rarity these days.
More characterful shops and cafes!
And these photos bear witness to Robert Elms’s memory of London in the early seventies as being a city still patched with corrugated iron panels everywhere.
J Galley & Sons was in Roman Road.
Love these photos of the area that I grew up in. G Kelly’s Pie and Mash shop was in Roman Road Market. I had a Saturday job working for Lou Marks whose haberdashery and fabric stall stood directly outside on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Lou came from Mile End and was a kind, gentle man who had his stall for many years right up to his death in 1991/2. I remember the aromas of the cooking wafting out on to the pavement and the constant stream of customers. Happy days!
Wonderful photos of time passed.
G Davis is innocent is outside Stepney Green Tube Station.
‘No to Common Market’ is I think Ernest Street. The MP Mick Makardo’s aunt
lived in the house to the right before it was demolished.
M. Evans ‘Garn Dairy’ was situated in Globe Road, Bethnal Green, between Roman Road and Kirkwall Place. We used the shop regularly when we lived in nearby Hartley Street. The building was still there when I last visited the area a couple of years ago.
J. Galley and Sons hardware shop was in Roman Road, not far from the junction with Grove Road. I still have a manhole cover bearing the shop’s name which my parents brought from our house in Bethnal Green as a ‘souvenir’ when we moved from there in 1973. The manhole cover has been blackleaded and is currently displayed in my fireplace!
The photo George Davis is Innocent, Mile End Rd I would guess was taken just outside Stepney Green Station.
What wonderful shop signage typography – a lovely record – more please.
The three girls in the second photograph are so very “seventies”, the hair, the platform shoes. I suddenly saw myself at eighteen… Great pictures, please tell Chris Miles.
The Valente’s cafe frontage is in an Art Deco style seemingly shared with many other, similar establishments. Did one particular shopfitter offer this format? I wonder who it was.
The Jubilee St image prompts this question: Does any reader have an image of similar houses around the corner in Smithy or Lindley streets (where my ancestors lived until 1937)?
Bernie
These Pictures are a Sweet Treat. I wonder if any of them are still standing?
N. Berg was a watch repairer at 385 Roman Road, E3. When he was open he could be seen in the right hand window at his work bench repairing watches, the bench was in the window so that he had maximum light. The shop door was locked and Mrs Berg would open the door to deal with customers. Mr berg was an expert , this was in the days of wind-up watches, he repaired two watches for me and they kept on working perfectly.
J. Galley & Sons was at 415 Roman Road, a few doors past Mr. Berg. The original business was started by Henry Freund in 1837, the shop was taken over by J.Galley in 1901, when he died his children Ebeneza and Ethel took over the shop, Tools sold by Galleys were always top quality,, I still have many tools bought there in use in my workshop at home.
Gary
I miss my pay packet with the crisp new five pound notes inside the envelope with the LV’s . There was a fair old trade going on in Luncheon Vouchers and they were taken as regular currency in some places. You could buy a holiday and furnish your home with LV’s and a thousand books of Green Shied Stamps ! Only the very hungry used them for lunch at the cafe.
These photos are wonderfully evocative – How different from Vancouver Island!
If Chris has any more I would love to see them.
Very nostalgic photos and equally enjoyable are everyones’s detailed anecdotes about them.
My favourite cosy café front is VALENTE – I imagine going in for roast lunch and not wanting to return to work.
l liked seeing the old style taxi cab’s bottom peeping out of the arch next to SNACKS & GRILLS while the driver had lunch.
J KELLY had such an expensive, ritzy silvery + mosaic façade, no wonder he discouraged prams & trollies.
MARION was keeping up with 70s fashion with her sign boards progressing from smock tops to the later tunic tops.
Likewise JOE in his saloon indicated he wasn’t averse to tackling the newer longer heads of hair.
Most curious was DINKI’E with an apostrophe. Just maybe the owner had written DINKIE’S on a piece of paper for the signwriter. Or in another lingo it is perfectly in order.
Thanks GA, Chris Miles and all the readers’ recollections of the shopkeepers, the use of LVs and souvenir manhole covers.
A great start to any day.
Shades of “Goodnight Sweetheart”
Oh and by the way, George Davis wasn’t innocent was he?
‘Corner Shop, Groceries And Provisions’ in Stepney Way was on the corner with Jubilee St, opposite Tadmans. We all knew the shop as ‘Sadie’s’ after the lady who ran it.
As can be seen from the picture of ‘S Kornbloom’, that part of Jubilee St was derelict at the time, and the Council sold off the ruined houses for, I think, a couple of hundred pounds each. I saw today that one of those houses is currently for sale for £1.6 million.
Thanks so much to everyone that has added details and recollections to these pictures. They become so much more when they are given a context and some of my memories of taking them are frankly a bit hazy now!
I wish there were a lot more and I’m slowly sorting through boxes of old negatives but this is certainly the core of the cafes project. I have another collection of Notting Hill Carnival photographs from around the same period and they can be found in the People and Places section of my website at http://www.cnmiles.ca
If anyone would like a digital copy of any one of the images please send me an email and I’d be happy to send a file.
Special thanks as always to The Gentle Author for all that this site does to make connections and enhance community.
Chris
The J Kelly pie and mash shop was on Roman Road near the corner of Usk Street. We used to stay with my nan during the school holidays and have vivid memories of being taken there for lunch by her. “Pie and mash twelve times, please!”
J Kelly’s was 150 Roman Road
L & R Ostroff were furniture makers at 28 Columbia Rd. They incorporated in 1943 and were listed as being in compulsory liquidation in 1993. The site is now an estate.
Is the Davies shop a Welsh Dairy? Garn is a Welsh word but I don’t know how the meaning fits.
Our family once owned the Littlewood bros Ltd hardware stores in London from approx 1850-1980s. The last family member with the Littlewood surname passed away in May 2020. We have come across a number of journals and accounts from 1908 and a few photos of other stores in London. During the 1970-1980s business took a turn for the worse With bigger name DIY stores cropping up and the remaining 6 or so Littlewood stores were sold to Robert Dyas Ltd.
Allan Enterprises and L and R Ostroff were both furniture suppliers. I used to collect furniture from them in the sixties and early seventies.