Comments on: Lawrence Gowing’s Departure From Mare St

By: Sue Batterham

Sue Batterham — Sun, 30 May 2021 08:20:54 +0000

I use to live in that very house on the corner back in (1968-1977). Never seen that painting. Fascinating to see. My parents held two addresses for there. 419 Mare Street, the shop address, and 302 Dalston Lane, the side address. Always confused me as a child.
Thank you

By: penelope gardner

penelope gardner — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 09:54:04 +0000

I heard him lecture at my art school during the 60’s. He had a spectacular stammer that rendered him virtually incoherant. He lectured in the dark and we were all transfixed by the steady sound of saliva splattering onto the floor.

By: Molly Porter

Molly Porter — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 09:30:40 +0000

This is a nice feature, and I really like the work of the painter shown. This end of Mare Street is better known to local residents as Narroway, and actually today is now an attractively brick-paved pedestrianised walk & cycle way, so it’s much nicer than when it was a heavily used bus route. It’s fascinating to see that it was once a tram route. (What appears as a Pawnbrokers on the corner of Dalston Lane where the Drapers shop was is now a general low-cost household goods shop, I think – must check when I next go along there.)

As the Gentle Author has sometimes shown, at the bottom of Narroway is St Augustine’s Tower, in the attractive grounds of St John of Hackney parish church, from the roof of which (pre and post pandemic) wonderful views of this part of central Hackney can be enjoyed when it’s open to the public.

By: Annie S

Annie S — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 09:28:49 +0000

I have a Hackney Society postcard of the painting of Mare St!
On the back it says Lawrence Gowing by courtesy of Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology so presumably it is held by them now?
Very interesting to hear the story behind his work.

By: Boudica Redd

Boudica Redd — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 06:56:24 +0000

A great story I used to visit Hackney regularly