Comments on: Bud Flanagan In Spitalfields

By: Rob Lorrimer

Rob Lorrimer — Sat, 28 May 2022 20:06:50 +0000

I have a picture of my grandfather Libovitch the blacksmith and one of Hanbury St as it was with the dray horses lining up to be shod which your readers may like to see.

By: Connie Stanton

Connie Stanton — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:32:00 +0000

My father lived opposite in Grey Eagle Street and was great friends with him. They met two girls at a dance and took them home (they lived in Watford). Needless to say they missed the last train (no tube trains then). When they got home the next morning they both got a “good hiding” from their respective mothers who had been worried where they had been all night.!!!

By: David Lawson

David Lawson — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 20:07:28 +0000

My grandparents were Bud’s contemporaries. Their first home after fleeing Ukraine [then Russia – and perhaps soon to be again] in 1910 was at 35 Hanbury Street on the corner of Brick Lane. It was then a typical crowded tenement crowded with Jewish refugees. They moved within a short time to Fort Street on the corner od Spital Square, long ago cleared to extend Spitalfields Market and more recently for shiny glass office blocks.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 10:44:50 +0000

This article revived so many memories and made me sad to contemplate the passage of time and the neglect of so much that influenced my (and my family’s) development. Hanbury Street was just around the corner from my closest Aunt’s home and Uncle’s workshop. My father was born and bred in the neighbourhood. Yet growing up elsewhere in London I knew little of all this. Flanagan and Allen were notable as radio and music hall performers, but of the intersection of their background and my family’s life I was completely ignorant. Now, it is so poignant to read of and to think how my own upbringing might have been influenced, but wasn’t.

By: Jeremy Frankel

Jeremy Frankel — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 06:06:04 +0000

As much as the story about his birth and the family name being “changed by the registrar” from Weintrop to Winthrop, I’m afraid it’s just not true. One can look up the birth index and see that he was indeed listed as Reuben Weintrop; his birth was registered in the fourth quarter of 1896 in Whitechapel. Secondly, and not recalled in his reminiscence, was the fact that he was among the first Jewish boy scouts in the world. Along with my grandfather (Gustavus Isaac Frankel) ‘Bud’ was a member of Landsberg’s 1st East London Boy Scout Group, that was formed in 1908. Bud, my grandfather, and several others, served as “alumni” of the group many years later, donating money to assist the scout group in carrying out their work.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:57:45 +0000

Tip top article and the photos made me sentimental.
Nearly at my old school Robert Montefiore Primary in Hanbury St.
Well done Gentle Author,
Andy

By: Judy

Judy — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 14:47:00 +0000

Does anyone know where the Stapleton’s Depository building is and anything more about it ?

By: Paul Loften

Paul Loften — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:52:37 +0000

I saw Bud Flanagan on stage at the London Paladium billed with Judy Garland as the main attraction I must’ve been about 8 years old . I remember his performance with Chesney Allen and Judy singing “We’ll walk up the Avenue” or something like that . Bud was wearing his old tatty fur coat. Later on during the show Judy was singing and suddenly her voice cracked it was something in her throat she just couldn’t sing a note. Then I remember the audience just stood up and applauded her non stop

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:47:01 +0000

And another great look/listen that brings history alive, during the Second World War:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT7-TmiHEe4

By: Achim

Achim — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 09:17:18 +0000

Wonderful story, and a wonderful song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7HoMWuXCY4

Love & Peace
ACHIM