Comments on: At Gravesend https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Tue, 07 Sep 2021 21:32:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Ron https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/#comment-1405988 Tue, 07 Sep 2021 21:32:33 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=188537#comment-1405988 Thank you for a very interesting article. The Promenade Cafe is in a lovely position beside the Thames and there are some superb buildings all around the town.

]]> By: David Antscherl https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/#comment-1405858 Tue, 07 Sep 2021 11:15:01 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=188537#comment-1405858 Another delightful outing! Like Bernie, (see above) I never visited Gravesend when living on the Kent/London border many years ago.

However, today Homer nodded a little: Charles II and his brother James raced yachts, not barges, down the Thames in the 1660’s.

]]> By: Cherub https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/#comment-1405828 Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:57:29 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=188537#comment-1405828 I had no idea Gravesend had a Sikh temple, what a beautiful building and I am sure the Sikhs are an asset to the community as they are so kind and charitable. How I pine for a day out at the seaside when I read these stories.

]]> By: Bernie https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/#comment-1405824 Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:48:35 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=188537#comment-1405824 What a treasure your postings are!

I never thought to visit Gravesend during my formative years in London and now I am too far away and too old. But you provide me with a surrogate visit of immense value. Thank you so much!

Bernie

]]> By: Leana Pooley https://spitalfieldslife.com/2021/09/07/at-gravesend-x/#comment-1405822 Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:25:57 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=188537#comment-1405822 By an extraordinary but happy coincidence your Gravesend blog coincided this morning with Pepys’ Diary entry for September 6, 1668. (Lucky me – I receive the diary entries by e-mail each morning.) On that day Pepys too went to Gravesend but by boat. He set off at 9 o’clock and dined, at about one o’clock at The Ship. He did satisfactory business with Mr Hosier, Clerk of the Cheque and Muster-Master, Gravesend and, being the man he was, Pepys noted that Hosier’s wife was a “pretty tolerable woman”. He went on to write that “having done with Hosier I took boat again the beginning of the flood and came home again by nine at night with much pleasure”. Because he was having problems with his eyes his “boy” Tom Edwards read to him there and back in the boat and they sang together. “So home to supper a little and so to bed”. 353 years later the Gentle Author writes, similarly, “I was enchanted by my day trip to Gravesend”.

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