Walk Through Time With The Gentle Author

Map of the Gentle Author’s Tour drawn by Adam Dant

In celebration of the festive season, I shall be hosting a walk on Boxing Day at noon.

Ramble with me through two thousand years of culture in the streets of Spitalfields and encounter some of the people and places that make this historic neighbourhood distinctive.

I invite you to join my tour in the footsteps of all those who came before, with a keen eye and an open heart, to discover the manifold wonders of this place.

Tickets cost £50 and include a signed copy of one of The Gentle Author’s books of your choice as a souvenir. To book please email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com

Sandys Row from the north

After seeing the work of photographer C.A.Mathew in these pages, Adam Tuck was inspired to revisit the locations of the pictures taken over a century ago. Subtly blending his own photographs with C.A.Mathew’s images of Spitalfields in 1912, Adam initiated an unlikely collaboration with a photographer of the beginning of the last century and created a new series of images of compelling resonance.

In these montages, people of today co-exist in the same space with people of the past, manifesting a sensation I have always felt in Spitalfields – that all of history is present here. Yet those of the early twentieth century ago knew they were being photographed and many are pictured looking at the camera, whereas passersby in the present day are mostly self-absorbed.  The effect is of those from the past wondering at a vision of the future, while those of our own day are entirely unaware of this ghostly audience.

It is hard to conceive of the meaning of time beyond our own lifespan. But these photographs capture something unseen, something usually hidden from human perception – they are pictures of time passing and each one contains more than a hundred years.

Sandys Row from the south

Looking from Bishopsgate down Brushfield St, towards Christ Church

Looking down Widegate St towards Sandys Row

Looking down Middlesex St towards Bishopsgate

From Bishopsgate looking up Middlesex St

 

In Bell Lane

In Artillery Lane looking towards Artillery Passage

From Bishopsgate through Spital Sq

Frying Pan Alley

Montages copyright © Adam Tuck

C.A.Mathew photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

You may like to read the original stories

C.A. Mathew, Photographer

In the Footsteps of C.A.Mathew