Comments on: Ben Hur In Stepney https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:50:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Gary D https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1760669 Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:50:25 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1760669 In response to Matthew Diamond, may I help clarify?
The Ben Hur and the Palaseum were indeed not the same cinema.
The Ben Hur was previously The Palacedium, a similar name, but not the Palaseum, which as Mr Diamond correctly states was elsewhere in the vicinity.

]]> By: Matthew Diamond https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1708578 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 11:47:25 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1708578 A grat story about Ben Hur, both the man and the cinema. But I need to correct a small error. The Palaseum and The Ben Hur were not the same cinema, the former being on Commercial Road and the latter nearby on White Horse Road. The Palaseum was demolished in the 1980s and on its site now sits a Tesco Metro.

]]> By: Melissa Solomon https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1369380 Fri, 26 Feb 2021 13:31:28 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1369380 Henry Ben Solomon is my great grandfather. I am so proud of what he achieved and how he helped the community. In the footage you see two young lads in their teens play fighting – the one with the glasses on is my grandad Richard. Thank you for publishing this. If there are anymore articles and footage on the internet that you find, please do let me know as id be very keen on seeing it.
If you ever saw a picture of my father, you’d see the resemblance between him and my great grandfather.

Melissa Solomon x

]]> By: Ros https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317421 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 23:24:43 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317421 Fabulous piece of film and I love the connections with Doreen’s evocative painting and Rose Henriques’s transformation of the stances and sturdiness of parents and children into paint. I could watch the piece of film over and over, for the variety of places and people it shows and their unambiguous pleasure in celebrating and seeing themselves on screen. And yes, people look healthy, proud and well-dressed. I’d like to know where the street markets are and whether the streets still exist.

]]> By: Anne Scott https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317392 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 13:20:35 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317392 Thank you so much for posting this!

]]> By: Maddy Johnson https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317391 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 13:19:56 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317391 An absolute delight to watch this; I echo the comments of Jill Wilson and wonder how many of those kids were evacuated; how many enlisted or called up, what was their fate; and of course the effect of the Blitz on all those happy people. But here you can see the community spirit that saw them through. Thank you for sharing this wonderful film.

]]> By: Libby Hall https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317385 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:46:44 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317385 Wonderful! wonderful!! I know I will watch this again – more than once.
Who could be downhearted looking at those exuberant smiling faces?
Such a glorious connection to the past. Our past. My past. The East End’s past.
Wonderful!

]]> By: Sarah B Guest Perry https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317381 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:33:50 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317381 Loved the film. Thank you!

]]> By: Paul Loften https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317379 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 10:02:19 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317379 The East End threw up some tough characters. Some on the right side of the law. The Jewish gangsters at the time, the most widely known was Jack Spot, is another untold story

]]> By: Di Corry https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/10/09/ben-hur-in-stepney/#comment-1317375 Wed, 09 Oct 2019 08:05:39 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=177327#comment-1317375 Absolutely delightful. I loved it.

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