Comments on: Phyllis Archer, First Lady of Fournier St

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 20:19:20 +0000

An interesting family story

By: Umi

Umi — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 09:49:41 +0000

Thank you for another fantastic story. So this lady was the first female homeowner in Spitalfields … what an amazing achievement in those days. Will definitely take a look at 31 Fournier St when next in the area. Kindest regards, Spitalfields lover, Ümi.

By: Jason Dowler

Jason Dowler — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 18:49:58 +0000

So wonderful to read this and to see these splendid photographs all of which bring back so many fond and enduring memories of having Phyllis and Rodney as friends and neighbours when I lived just a couple of doors away at 37 Fournier Street with the late John Gaze. We lived at 37 from 1984 (after spending a year restoring the house. I left in 1988 and John sold the house a few years later.

By: M D West

M D West — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 15:04:07 +0000

How much did houses in Fournier Street sell for in 1980? (Had they declined over the 60s/70s?….and how much now?)

By: Georgina Briody

Georgina Briody — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 13:53:59 +0000

Thanks for the whole story of Rodney and his mother moving to Fournier Street. I know only too well the days of outside toilets etc. but they were pretty tough to move to the house in such a state. I have visited Rodney’s garden several times now and when I go again in June will think of his mother’s ashes scattered there. Thank you for this story.

By: paul loften

paul loften — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 12:28:07 +0000

Phyllis’s wonderful story as told by Elayne began in 1980 when they bought the house. It must have been in a pretty bad state as there was no inside toilet. My own perspective of Spitalfields began in the late 1950s when I used to visit my ailing grandmother who lived in a small house in Raven Row behind the London Hospital. It also had no inside toilet and whenever I went to use the toilet in the tiny concrete back yard I was told not to sit down as a friendly rat may pop out from between my legs.

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 12:16:24 +0000

I was fortunate enough to visit the house of Phyllis Archer when I went to an exhibition organised by Rodney not that long before he died. Thanks to Elayne and TGA for preserving her mother’s memory. Phyllis was certainly the first Lady of Fournier St and her son Rodney was a kind and majestic host.

By: Annie Green

Annie Green — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 09:13:51 +0000

What a loving tribute, warts and all. And how blessed to have been able to live the life she wanted right to the end, clear-headed. I think that being perched above Spitalfields in an old house, free to come and go, would be a sound way to live out your days.

By: Eric Forward

Eric Forward — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:41:37 +0000

It is lovely that Phyllis loved the history of the place, and that she has also become part of that history too.

By: Bailey Jones

Bailey Jones — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:29:14 +0000

As they used to say in Lancashire, Rodney is the spit of his mother. In other words, he resembles her greatly.