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Eleanor Crow’s Fish Shops

September 23, 2019
by the gentle author

An exhibition of Eleanor Crow’s watercolours of classic London shopfronts featuring many paintings from her book SHOPFRONTS OF LONDON, In Praise Of Small Neighbourhood Shops is at Townhouse in Fournier St from Friday 4th October. You are all invited to the opening and book launch on Thursday 3rd October from 6:00pm.

Eleanor will giving an illustrated lecture at Wanstead Tap on Wednesday 9th October, showing her pictures and telling the stories of the shops. Click here for tickets

Click here to order a signed copy of Eleanor’s book for £14.99

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Victoria Fish Bar, Roman Rd

I try to eat fresh fish at least once a week and so, as I travel around the East End, I tend to navigate in relation to the fish shops. Eleanor Crow shares a similar passion, witnessed by these loving portraits of top destinations for fish, whether jellied eels, fish & chips or fresh on the slab. “These places are a reminder of our river-dependent history,” Eleanor informed me, “I love the look of London’s famous eel shops with their ornate lettering and wooden partitions. Nothing beats having a proper fishmongers’ shop or market stall in the neighbourhood – not only do the shops look good, but these guys really know about fish.”

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F.Cooke, Broadway Market

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The Fishery, Stoke Newington High St

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George’s Place, Roman Rd

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G. Kelly, Bethnal Green Rd

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Mike’s Quality Fish Bar, Essex Rd

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Davies & Sons, Hoe St

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The Fish Plaice, Cambridge Heath Rd

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Mersin Fish, Morning Lane

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Dennis Chippy, Lea Bridge Rd

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Kingfisher, Homerton High St

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Mersin 2, Lower Clapton Rd

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Golden Fish Bar, Farringdon Rd

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Tubby Isaacs, formerly in Aldgate

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L. Manze, Walthamstow High St

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Sea Food & Fresh Fish, Chatsworth Rd

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G. Kelly, Roman Rd

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Steve Hatt, Essex Rd

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Jonathan Norris, Victoria Park Rd

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Downey Brothers, Globe Town Market Sq

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Barneys Seafood, Chambers St

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Billingsgate Market

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CLICK HERE TO ORDER A SIGNED COPY 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.

6 Responses leave one →
  1. Greg Tingey permalink
    September 23, 2019

    Davies & Son, Hoe Street …
    Closed earlier this year …
    Now, if I want decent fish, I have to go to either Wanstead or Hackney!

  2. Neil Bartlett permalink
    September 23, 2019

    Love this blog and the artwork. Have enjoyed a lunch in all but one of those featured over the years including many an early haddock and poached egg breakfast at Billingsgate before starting work. Also arranged clearing the drains at Globe Town Market Square where the Downey boys operate. Very scaled up. Loved the couple who ran the Victoria chippy opposite, was another regular haunt when working round the corner in Victoria Park Square – shared with Sir Michael Young who started up Which. Cheers to all the chippies,

  3. Jan permalink
    September 23, 2019

    Fantastic drawings. Long live independent shops.

  4. Nicholas permalink
    September 23, 2019

    Good luck hope to make it

  5. Pauline Taylor permalink
    September 23, 2019

    These lovely pictures cause one to think, where did our Victorian families go to buy fresh fish? I wonder if my great grandmother’s poor little maid of all work was sent, from their florist’s shop in Upper Clapton Road, to a fishmonger in Lower Clapton Road and could it have been Mersin 2. Or did my other great grandparents go to one in Stoke Newington High Street, or Homerton or Lea Bridge Road, They surely must have bought fish and probably jellied eels and pies as well. I wish someone had painted such pictures in those days as I would love one of great grandfather, Owen Charles Greenwood’s, shop. I have a photograph in which it looks incredible with a fountain surrounded by ferns inside. He supplied London theatres with flowers and he had a market garden where these were grown, a descendant of a man who worked for him, contacted me and told me all her ancestor’s memories of the business together with a photograph of him with a carnation in his buttonhole which he, apparently, was never without.

  6. September 24, 2019

    I love these pictures. Some of them seem to me to have the very strong smell of fish, the details are so visually redolent. They bring back memories to me of such places that I’ll probably never (hardly ever) see again. I grew up in a part of the Bronx in New York City where we had shops like this and I spent some time in London and lived in Leeds where again there were such shops. Ellen

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