Comments on: A Lost Corner Of Whitechapel

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:24:48 +0000

I too wonder — who would have originally commissioned the building-in of that wheatsheaf? A baker, probably. And when? It looks as thought it must have been when the shop building was first constructed. When would that have been? How early in the 19th century?

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 12:45:36 +0000

This photographer had the “eye” for contradictory-and-therefore-compelling images. I stayed with the image of the corner shop on Winthrop Street for quite some time. In just one photo, there is the old weathered venerable brick building although a “modern” high-rise loomed (menacing) over its shoulder. And the graceful/enduring embellishment of wheat shafts over-looked a scaly
doorway; studiously hand-painted with wobbly letters. (I’ve never been a fan of vertical typography, but I am making an exception here. I love the idea of someone, perhaps on a rickety ladder, trying to get the spacing of the letters just right. Not a bad job.) I try to imagine what the interior of the little building looked like, stacked high with a jumble of scattered possessions. I expect that although it might have been a sad array, there were some hidden gems in the back of drawers. I wonder………..

By: Helen Dixon

Helen Dixon — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 10:22:14 +0000

The picture with the corrugated boarding in the derelict gateway is, if I’m not mistaken, where Polly Nichols was found on 31st August 1888. She was the first canonical victim of ‘Jack The Ripper’.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 08:02:37 +0000

I worked at the London Hospital Medical College in Turner St from 1953 to 1956 and used to ramble in the area around there during my lunch-hours because my father was brought up in the vicinity. These images bring the sights back to life, although I don’t think I actually visited these streets.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 07:57:14 +0000

Love the sheaf of corn over the doorway on Winthrop Street

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 06:19:42 +0000

Out of respect

I wish to honour a friend John Kling who lived in Winthrop street the very photo you begin with .
He was a relative of President Dwight D Eisenhower.
I had this confirmed by his wife and was very pleased to pass the letter over from
Her Mama Doud Eisenhower .

It amazed me how anyone with such a connection could line in such a poor house .
Life is life .