Comments on: Down Among The Meths Men

By: Frances Bevan

Frances Bevan — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:02:14 +0000

What an extraordinary and evocative piece of writing..

By: Gillian Tindall

Gillian Tindall — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 10:11:32 +0000

Apropos of Ron Wilkinsons’s comment – what was referred to as `meths’ was not methamphetamine, virtually unknown here in the 1960s, but ordinary old metholated spirits as sold then for use in litle stoves. I assume it has some intoxicating properties, and it was cheaper than alcohol.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:43:16 +0000

In Fletcher’s writing about the meth’s men there is an odd admiration; from a libertarian philosophical outlook these people have chosen an absolute form of freedom – to live a life that has squalor, death and the ecstasy of obliteration. There is no return.

By: Bailey Jones

Bailey Jones — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 09:33:34 +0000

‘Goblins in rags’ is such an evocative phrase and one that I will not forget. The Fae are never comfortable or straightforward and goblins, in particular, connote a vicious menace. How fearsome the meths drinkers must have seemed to the respectable city workers on their way back to their cozy suburban homes. As an adolescent, I remember studying the knarled and bloated faces of the homeless ‘alkies’ around the town. They were pitifully grotesque. I had compassion but was also afraid of the potential for anger and violence.

Whilst I really appreciate the quality of this writing, there is a danger of romantising the broken here. Done badly, sweeping homeless people off the streets may be nothing more than an exercise in gentrification. Done with constructive love and kindness, getting someone off the streets and into a better, safer life can only be a good thing.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 18:32:35 +0000

Magnificent description, by Geoffrey Feltcher, poignant, direct and very human. Thank you.

By: Rupert Neil Bumfrey

Rupert Neil Bumfrey — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 12:22:01 +0000

Where did they all disappear to, along with the countryside tramps?

No doubt the increased mechanisation of farming did not help, but within cities what was the cause?

By: Naomi

Naomi — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 11:24:21 +0000

What an extraordinary way Geoffrey has with words. His descriptions are so rich. And the drawings so candid yet tender. No way would photographs have been possible and these hasty studies suit their less visible subjects so well. I can see why you admire him – not just his skill in writing and drawing but his desire to preserve Skid Row and respect and appreciation for a community of people from all over.

I personally so identify with the sentiment ‘..London will have lost one of its major advantages, for there is nothing to be gained from well swept streets and office blocks.’

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 11:10:57 +0000

Beautiful prose. Desperately sad lives lived to their conclusion in the fetid gutters of Skid Row. Mind you, I would’ve joined them jeering the city gents streaming into the City out of Liverpool Street Station, going about their pointless but profitable villainy. I remember seeing a few meths drinkers in my childhood visits to the Smoke, scary men with bloodshot eyes with a look on the faces so far away, inviting death, sweet death.

By: Annie S

Annie S — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 09:19:43 +0000

So very sad, I can remember seeing a few meths drinkers from my childhood, it seems that cheap cider and beer have taken over.
A very interesting read about the area where, fortunately, many of the buildings have survived, including the Synagogue and Artillery Passage is very up market now!

By: andy.strowman1@gmail.com

andy.strowman1@gmail.com — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 07:45:12 +0000

I wrote about them and valued them and to me I was proud of them and I listened to them and they helped me and I helpee them and they were emblematic of my East End and my poetry.
They seemedvtp be the older version of the way the Ckuncil and Government could not care about us.
Look at people dying now and being so badly treated then we have pale shadows.
If anybody wants to buy my book, “Story of a Stepney bot” please tell me at andy.strowman1@gmail.com