Fifteenth Annual Report
Fifteen years ago, I began to publish a daily story here in these pages. It has been such a eventful journey that I can barely recall any of it as sit here writing to you now, except to say that I am without regrets because it has enriched my own life immeasurably. I have met so many inspiring people and learnt so much that I should never have done without Spitalfields Life.
As I write this fifteenth annual report, I have two things in mind.
Firstly, this past year has been especially busy as we prepare to relaunch Spitalfields Life Books in October with David Hoffman’s two-hundred-and-forty page hardback photographic monograph, ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971-1987.
When David was a young photographer, he came to live in a squat in Whitechapel and it changed his life. Over the next decade, he documented homelessness, racism and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vitally important photographic testimony of resilience.
It is the forefront of my mind that we only have three weeks to raise the remaining £6000 we still need to stage the accompanying exhibition. If we can frame David’s photographs in museum quality frames, the Museum of the Home will host the exhibition from October until March and then take the pictures into their permanent collection as a legacy of our project.
CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE TO DAVID HOFFMAN’S EXHIBITION
Secondly, there is a new planning battle looming that is set to dominate the next year in Spitalfields.
I am sure you will recall the fight four years ago when the Truman Brewery applied for permission to build a hideous shopping mall with a block of corporate offices on top. Our fight to stop this reached the Supreme Court this summer and we hope for a verdict in our favour this autumn.
Regrettably, the shopping mall has proved to be merely the tip of the iceberg as the Truman Brewery has now submitted a new planning application to build corporate office blocks across the entire site.
I believe the needs of the local community for genuinely affordable homes and workspaces must be prioritised in the redevelopment of the brewery. This appalling proposal for soulless corporate style development would push up rents on Brick Lane, driving out the small independents and undermining the long-established Bangladeshi community, destroying Spitalfields as we know it today.
Yet, on contemplation,I realise that these two things I have in mind are not unrelated.
David’s Hoffman’s photography is a salient reminder of the enduring nature of East End communities, how they have united repeatedly through the years to resist different threats, and how they have always shown resourcefulness and thrived despite inopportune circumstances.
Thus, with all these thoughts in mind, I come to the end of the fifteenth year in the pages of Spitalfields Life.
I am your loyal servant
The Gentle Author
Spitalfields
23rd August 2024
PS You can still book here for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS through September and October
Schrodinger sleeping peacefully
David Hoffman’s monograph published October 14th
Office blocks planned across the Truman Brewery
The Truman Brewery’s proposed towers overshadowing Allen Gardens
You may like to read my earlier Annual Reports
Have Truman not heard office blocks are becoming redundant and money sink holes?
Dear Gentle Author
I came upon your daily blog about ten years ago and they have always been opened in the morning with my first coffee – usually to my delight, sometimes to raise my hackles (mulberry tree, bell foundry, Truman’s). So just a note to thank you for all your hard work – it has always been greatly appreciated and valued.
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.
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.
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…’
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!
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.
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.
Congratulations on reaching another milestone! Long may your fascinating daily insights and warnings continue.
Thank you so much for your wonderful posts! – you should receive a Knighthood!
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.
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.