Comments on: Fifteenth Annual Report

By: Venetia

Venetia — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 05:50:52 +0000

When are councils going to start being responsible and put people before profit? Who needs more office space? Post Covid the landscape has changed. Office furniture producers admit that their sophisticated desking systems are no longer required now that many people work half the week from home. Office blocks are no longer required! Low cost homes complete with shops and schools are needed instead to serve London’s communities. The same applies to many other areas of the country.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:13:46 +0000

Thank you for all your wonderful and enlightening posts over the years, and I endorse all the positive comments from others written above. I don’t know the Spitalfields area very well, although I did a case study on Brick Lane when doing my OU degree a few decades back. My growing up years were in Chelsea, a wonderful community too back in the late 40s & 1950s, although our ‘playgrounds’ were old bomb sites back then. We never came to grief though playing amongst the rubble, or looking down into bombed out cellars.

By: Clare Edwards

Clare Edwards — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 16:13:06 +0000

Thank you so much for your wonderful posts! – you should receive a Knighthood!

By: Caroline Murray

Caroline Murray — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 12:50:59 +0000

Congratulations on reaching another milestone! Long may your fascinating daily insights and warnings continue.

By: Jennifer Newbold

Jennifer Newbold — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 11:27:22 +0000

My life and perspective have both been enriched so much by Spitalfields Life over the years. I’m forever grateful that you made the decision to write this blog, and that I discovered it.

I feel eternally frustrated by developers. Why do they insist on proposing developments that do not serve the community? That’s a rhetorical question, because I know… money. To paraphrase a biblical reference, ‘One cannot serve both (humankind) and Mammon.’ What a contrast to David Hoffman’s squat of fifty years ago.

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 11:27:13 +0000

Congratulations, and great THANKS to you, GA.
Your daily dose of optimism and fascination is the best way to start the day.
Thanks for your stories about people, customs, art, communities, and cultural history.
You continue to shine a light. YOU are essential.

By: David Antscherl

David Antscherl — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 11:04:30 +0000

Thank you, GA, for your thoughtful, interesting, and occasionally provocative daily posts. I’ve enjoyed these for about one third of your run of fifteen years – so far. As an ex-patriot in Canada for many years, your entries help fill in what has been happening in East London; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

More power to your electronic pen in the years to come!

By: Milo

Milo — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:44:19 +0000

While its proper and good that writing these blogs has enriched your life might I point out what a lifeline you’ve been to deeply homesick bods like me?
I was all set to come back for a much needed infusion of London life when covid intervened and since then ive not been able to scrape the money together so you are much needed.
As for the proposed office blocks: ‘Once more unto the breach dear friends…’

By: Christine Swan

Christine Swan — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 08:01:38 +0000

I was asked recently why I left London as I obviously still hold it in great affection. It was a valid question and the answer was a simple one – economics. It was uneconomical for me to remain in the 1980s as house prices became unaffordable, even with the reasonably well-paid job of a full time science teacher. So, I moved north where property was cheaper ( but salaries were less).
This is why we must resist further erosion of its unique character. Anonymously owned, faceless office blocks are not the future. Preserving the communities of the East End must be the priority. Housing and affordability needs tackling – and not by forcing Londoners to up sticks and move somewhere else. Brick Lane is unique, diverse and wonderful as it is. A former resident was one of my ancestors, a trade representative of a union for silk weavers. He fought against the erosion of their livelihood due to cheap imports. It seems only fitting that I join the battle two hundred years later.
Congratulations on your incredible achievements over the last fifteen years dear GA. You are a tireless campaigner for communities, buildings and the very fabric of the East End. Thank you for everything that you do. What would we do without you? You enrich our lives too.

By: Bailey Jones

Bailey Jones — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 08:01:08 +0000

Congratulations on reaching your fifteenth year and becoming a creative and campaigning institution in the process. I wish you every success in your fight to preserve Spitalfields from corporate development.

I look forward to another 15 years of reading about the East End, London and other places of interest. To reading about the lives of local people – past and present and discovering more about art and photography.

Three cheers for the Gentle Author.