Harry T Harmer, Artist
St Botolph’s Without Aldgate, 1963
The facts of the life of Harry T. Harmer (1927-2013) are scarce yet his distinctive paintings speak eloquently of his personal vision. Born in Kennington, Harry was afflicted with epilepsy and married his wife Ruby when they were both in their adolescence. Ruby offered Harry emotional support in the face of a father who did not recognise his disorder and the couple enjoyed a marriage that lasted through eight decades.
Disqualified from military service, Harry worked in the parks department and, possessing a strong sense of justice, he fought for the rights of fellow workers through many years as a union representative. In the mid-fifties, Harry discovered an ability to draw and paint, travelling around Kennington and north of the river to the East End, making sketches of places that embodied the living city he knew intimately.
Harry had his first exhibition in 1963 and continued to paint and show his works for the rest of his life. Although sometimes described as a naive artist, it is obvious that the sensibility behind Harry’s painting is far from unsophisticated. His compelling pictures are concerned with more than straightforward representation of places, offering instead emotional landscapes of the lives of working people rendered in his own individual style.
Ruby kept Harry’s treasured copy of the drawings of L. S. Lowry in two volumes as a token of his major artistic influence. Yet Harry forged a visual language of his own, placing his curious bird-like figures strategically within a delicately painted streetscape that appears on the point of dissolving.
For most of their married life, Harry and Ruby Harmer occupied a council flat in a dignified Victorian terrace in Kennington, where Ruby lived on tending to an appealingly unkempt garden and a posse of neighbourhood cats. In the back room overlooking the garden where Harry did his paintings, his small formica topped work table stood by the window where a box of his ashes sat beside a bunch of fresh flowers that Ruby changed each week. The popularity of Harry’s works meant that Ruby was the devoted custodian of just a few of her husband’s paintings, and a suitcase of his pencil sketches, press cuttings and exhibition catalogues.
Wellclose Sq, 1962
St Katharine’s Way, 1962
Cable St, 1962
Harry T. Harmer, 2009
Paintings copyright © Ruby Harmer
Published courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
Take a look at some of the other artists featured in East End Vernacular
John Thomas Smith’s Rural Cottages
Near Battlebridge, Middlesex
As September draws to a close and autumn closes in, I get the urge to go to ground, hiding myself away in some remote cabin and not straying from the fireside until spring shows again. With this in mind, John Thomas Smith’s twenty etchings of extravagantly rustic cottages published as Remarks On Rural Scenery Of Various Features & Specific Beauties In Cottage Scenery in 1797 suit my hibernatory fantasy ideally.
Born in the back of a Hackney carriage in 1766, Smith grew into an artist consumed by London, as his inspiration, his subject matter and his life. At first, he drew the old streets and buildings that were due for demolition at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Ancient Topography of London and Antiquities of London, savouring every detail of their shambolic architecture with loving attention. Later, he turned his attention to London streetlife, the hawkers and the outcast poor, portrayed in Vagabondiana and Remarkable Beggars, creating lively and sympathetic portraits of those who scraped a living out of nothing but resourcefulness. By contrast, these rural cottages were a rare excursion into the bucolic world for Smith, although you only have to look at the locations to see that he did not travel too far from the capital to find them.
“Of all the pictoresque subjects, the English cottage seems to have obtained the least share of particular notice,” wrote Smith in his introduction to these plates, which included John Constable and William Blake among the subscribers, “Palaces, castles, churches, monastic ruins and ecclesiastical structures have been elaborately and very interestingly described with all their characteristic distinctions while the objects comprehended by the term ‘cottage scenery’ have by no means been honoured with equal attention.”
While emphasising that beauty was equally to be found in humble as well as in stately homes, Smith also understood the irony that a well-kept dwelling offered less picturesque subject matter than a derelict hovel. “I am, however, by no means cottage-mad,” he admitted, acknowledging the poverty of the living conditions, “But the unrepaired accidents of wind and rain offer far greater allurements to the painter’s eye, than more neat, regular or formal arrangements could possibly have done.”
Some of these pastoral dwellings were in places now absorbed into Central London and others in outlying villages that lie beneath suburbs today. Yet the paradox is that these etchings are the origin of the romantic image of the English country cottage which has occupied such a cherished position in the collective imagination ever since, and thus many of the suburban homes that have now obliterated these rural locations were designed to evoke this potent rural fantasy.
On Scotland Green, Ponder’s End
Near Deptford, Kent
At Clandon, Surrey – formerly the residence of Mr John Woolderidge, the Clandon Poet
In Bury St, Edmonton
Near Jack Straw’s Castle, Hampstead Heath
In Green St, Enfield Highway
Near Palmer’s Green, Edmonton
Near Ranelagh, Chelsea
In Green St, Enfield Highway
At Ponder’s End, Near Enfield
On Merrow Common, Surrey
At Cobham, Surrey – in the hop gardens
Near Bull’s Cross, Enfield
In Bury St, Edmonton
On Millbank, Westminster
Near Edmonton Church
Near Chelsea Bridge
In Green St, Enfield Highway
Lady Plomer’s Place on the summit of Hawke’s Bill Wood, Epping Forest
You may also like to take a look at these other works by John Thomas Smith
John Thomas Smith’s Ancient Topography of London
John Thomas Smith’s Antiquities of London
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana II
Colin O’Brien At Chats Palace
There is currently a posthumous exhibition of work by former Contributing Photographer Colin O’Brien at Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby’s Walk, E9 6DF. Colin had an affinity with young people and this show focusses on his photography of children in the post-war years. Curator Peter Young introduces the exhibition.
‘I first came across Colin and his photography in December 2006 when he exhibited at the Oxo Tower Gallery. The walls were packed with strong black and white images of working class life in London and beyond, portrayed in a straightforward and dignified humanist style.
Colin was on hand to chat and showed me a portfolio of prints which was where I first saw ‘Lady in a summer dress Chatsworth Rd 1980s.’ Benjamin the chemist plus the landmark clock, and Percy Ingle the baker, were all present and correct in the background. I had walked down that street for twenty years. This was by far the best picture I had seen which summed up the atmosphere of unexpected and quiet beauty that pervaded the urban backwater of Homerton and Clapton at that time.
In 2015, Colin became a patron of Chats Palace and the following year a small exhibition of his work was installed in the recently refurbished Blue Room where it hangs to this day. As with all his work, it shows the people of London in all their multifarious ethnic and cultural, working and non-working forms. Inquisitive, outward looking and confident.’ – Peter Young
Colin’s photograph of his pals, taken in 1948 at the age of eight in Hatton Garden.
Photographs copyright © Estate of Colin O’Brien
Take a look at more pictures by Colin O’Brien
Travellers’ Children in London Fields
Marie Lenclos’ Still Light
Artist Marie Lenclos introduces her new exhibition of paintings Still Light which opens at Townhouse this Saturday 28th September and runs until Sunday 13th October
Blue Door, Fournier St
‘When I first came to London in the nineties as an Erasmus student, Spitafields immediately became a favourite place to explore. For a young Parisian, there was magic in its dense urban fabric. Brick Lane was where you went to find a cheap bike or pick up old crockery. There were surprises at every corner, human stories or colourful stalls, and the tall town houses loomed over you with the weight of their past. I liked the fact I was a foreigner amongst many others.
This was before the creation of the Overground which opened a whole new transport route for me between my home in Denmark Hill and an area of London I still love to get lost in. I walk down Fournier St and the whole place feels like a museum to me, every street corner evokes a scene from another era. The industrial past is ever present and the richness of old brickwork is illuminated by the fleeting sunlight.
These oil paintings are a record of what I notice when I walk these streets. There is noise everywhere, the perpetual movement of passers by, hurried workers carrying coffees, cars starting and stalling, suddenly honking. But to me, there is only calm. When I focus on the scene in front of me, with its play of light and its colourful texture, it is like a mental pause.
My paintings are urban landscapes caught in a moment of calm amongst the chaos. Light is the most important actor, its role is to reveal the permanence and unexpected beauty.’ – Marie Lenclos
Red shutters, Fournier St
Lamp Post, Fournier St
Window, Spitalfields
View from a house on Princelet St
Brick patchwork, Off Columbia Rd
Across Old St, Shoreditch
Telephone Exchange, Shoreditch
Blue Gate, Kingsland Rd
Near Hoxton Station
Hoxton Arches
Posters, Shoreditch
Paintings copyright © Marie Lenclos
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Conservation At St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Cover price is £35 but if you order now you can buy it for £30 and you will receive a signed copy on publication in October.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER A SIGNED COPY OF ENDURANCE & JOY
William Palin, who is responsible for supervising the conservation of the historic James Gibbs buildings at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Smithfield, invited me over to take a look.
An intricate web of scaffolding has been woven through the these mighty structures to enable access to the ceiling for the restoration of the Great Hall and the cleaning of William Hogarth’s murals on the staircase, so I put on a hard hat and climbed up to take a closer look.
Afterwards, Will outlined the nature of his undertaking to me.
‘We’re sitting in James Gibbs’ North Wing that dates from the 1730s. It’s a fantastic building of incredibly significant architecture with two spectacular interiors, the Great Hall and the Hogarth Stair. It has not been well looked after for the past thirty years, so we have a lot of problems.
Bart’s Heritage has taken lease of the building from the hospital and raised the money to do the first phase of conservation of the envelope of the structure, with around half coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
This consists of repairing the stonework, the brickwork, one hundred and sixty windows, stripping the roof slates back and laying new lead. For the interiors, it is a loving conservation project using the best experts and craftsmen from around the country, with training and apprenticeships built in at every level. They will be cleaning, repairing and redecorating the surfaces, and we will be reopening in September next year hopefully.
The Great Hall will then be splendid and open regularly to the public for the first time in its history. Until the end of January, you can join a Conservation Tour to go up onto the deck and watch the restoration of the ceiling and the Hogarth Stair in progress, meet the conservators and get a feel of what the project is all about.’
Click here if you would like to take a tour and learn more
‘Bird’s nest’ scaffolding supported by external trusses fills the Great Hall
Steps up to the roof
The letters B and H are interwoven on the ceiling as the insignia of the hospital
The temporary deck installed for the restoration of the ceiling
The plan of the ceiling design
Early ground and base coats revealed
Wooden panels honour donors in the eighteenth century
Paint samples for the repainting of the ceiling
A crack caused by water ingress
A cartouche with a grotesque face high up on the wall
The good Samaritan and his charge as portrayed by Hogarth and viewed through scaffolding
Jesus at Bethesda viewed through scaffolding
A wealthy woman seeking healing viewed through scaffolding
Poor women seeking healing viewed through scaffolding
The grand chandelier from the staircase has been removed for restoration
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Purim In Stamford Hill
Photographer Neil Martinson introduces his pictures of the Purim festival celebrated by an orthodox Jewish community in Hackney
‘It’s the most surprising festival in London, in which the largest orthodox Jewish community in Europe discard their traditional black clothing and break into a dazzle of colour and costumes for the festival of Purim.
Hackney has always been a place of incredible diversity and energy. The orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill has long been an integral part of the borough, and I wanted to share their story, particularly around Purim, which is such an expressive and joyful festival. I first took photos of Purim in 1981 when it was a modest event held in peoples homes.
The Charedi community was established in Hackney in the 1920s, growing significantly after the Second World War as survivors of the Holocaust and refugees fled the devastation of Europe. Now numbering at least 30,000, there are seventy-five synagogues within walking distance of their homes. As the community has grown so has the festival. This is a celebration of their strength, their joy, and their traditions.’ – Neil Martinson
Photographs copyright © Neil Martinson
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Click here to buy a copy of Neil Martinson’s 28 page book of photos for £11
So Long, Maxie Lea MBE
Cover price is £35 but if you order now you can buy it for £30 and you will receive a signed copy on publication in October.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER A SIGNED COPY OF ENDURANCE & JOY
Maxie Lea died on Wednesday aged ninety-four
Maxie Lea (1930-2024) – Ready for training!
At the top of Brick Lane, there was once a nest of densely populated streets where a group of young boys became friends in the nineteen thirties and although the topography has changed beyond all recognition, their friendship remains alive today. Max Lea was one of those who shared in the lively camaraderie engendered at the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club, which was based nearby in Chance St, where the boys met each evening to let off steam and enjoy high jinks, while escaping their crowded homes.
‘Maxie,’ as he was commonly known, became a member in 1941 and then a club manager in 1947, a post that he held until it closed in 1989. For many years Maxie organised the annual reunions and, in 2000, the Queen gave him an MBE for his stalwart devotion to the heroic boys’ club. Of diminutive stature and playful by nature, with his pebble glasses and exuberant humour, Maxie was always a popular figure, but his experiences at the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club encouraged his gregarious personality and his respect for justice – finding equal expression in the sporting life he pursued both as player and as referee.
I was born in the Royal London Hospital Whitechapel on 29th June 1930 as a twin, with a blue baby that died after eight hours. My parents lived at 265 Brick Lane in a small grocery shop. My mother’s family came from Lodz in Poland and they had a tailoring business in Plumbers Row, Stepney. My father’s family were from Russia but I don’t know where, he came with his family to Portsmouth in the nineteen twenties. They met through friends. My father travelled up from Portsmouth and they got married and lived on Brick Lane where he started a tailoring business in the house. Mum ran the grocery shop, which was opposite Gossett St. There were five children, we all slept in the two upstairs rooms and we kept ourselves together, we were never short of food.
At nine, I was evacuated, at first to Soham and then to Stoke Hammond for eighteen months. The thing that always comes back to me was when we had a big snowfall, I was walking to school with my sister and the next thing she said was, “Where are you?” I fell into a ditch. Life was good, quite peaceful and I played football and cricket with the other boys. It taught me a lot about friendship.
At thirteen years, I came back for my Bar Mitzvah but on the day of the service I had Quinsy, a swelling of the throat. I was lying in bed and I could hardly speak. I heard my mother and father downstairs, saying,“What are we going to do?” At that moment, it burst! We went along but I could only say a portion of the Torah – just the pages in the front – and after that I went back to bed.
Then, at fourteen, I left school and, as my brother was a pastry cook, I decided I was going to do the same and I went to work at Joe Lyons in Coventry St, Piccadilly. Going to work so early in the mornings, the good-time girls used to take my arm and say “Come with me.” But I said, “I’m on my way to work!” I didn’t hardly know what it was all about – I was just a little fella.
In 1941, I joined the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys Club in Chance St. Until then, the only holiday I ever had was Southend, staying in Mrs Lewis’ boarding house for a week while my father travelled back and forth to work each day. Joining the club, I got to go on camps and Harry Tichener, the club manager known as “T,” became like a second father to me. He was a photographer by profession and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. At fourteen, I joined the committee as a junior officer. It built a life of comradeship for us. And it taught me how to deal with others and how to talk to people. It taught me management, that you don’t say, “Oi, Can you do this?” You say, “Can you please help me?”
I moved out of Brick Lane in 1960, when they pulled the shop down and offered us a place in Vallance Rd. But it was under the railway, so we moved to Rostrevor Avenue instead and eventually to Stamford Hill. My mother ran the shop all this time and I lived with her until she died at seventy-seven in 1976. From being a pastry chef, I became a stock keeper for sportswear company and then I worked for Tower Hamlets Housing Office, staying until I retired in 1995. When I was working for Tower Hamlets, I used to deal with new properties and, one day, a lady came in to present the papers of 265 Brick Lane and my heart stopped. “What’s the matter?” she asked, and I said, “Before they pulled it down, I used to live at that number.”
Maxie had been back only twice to Brick Lane since 1960. “Each time, I went for walk and got lost,” he admitted to me with a crazy grin of self-parody, “but it’s just as mixed now as it ever was.” Yet although the streets are changed and the building in Chance St has gone long ago, Harry Tichener’s affectionate and beautiful photographs survive to witness the vibrant world of the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club – which once offered an invaluable taste of freedom to so many young men from the East End.
Maxie was in regular contact with the friends he made in Brick Lane in the nineteen thirties and he lived Stanmore surrounded by trophies and certificates, commemorating his meritorious services to refereeing football matches. At first, I could not quite understand the appeal of refereeing until Maxie confided, “As a player you only make acquaintances, but as a referee you make many more lasting friendships. It has given me a very fruitful and interesting life.”
Max enjoys a casual cigarette at age eleven, pictured here with Victor Monger, 1941.
Boat trip, Max raises his fingers to his chin in the centre left of the picture.
Camp Banquet, Max is on the far left.
On Herne Bay Sands, Max stands in profile on the right.
Looking down on Dover, Max is on the left of the group.
Max is in the chef’s hat with a pipe on the left of this picture.
Max is pictured doing the washing up on the left of the table.
Max is in the centre right, paddling with his pals, Stanley, Manny, Butch & Ken.
Max & Stanley go boating.
Treasure Hunt, Max is centre left beneath the tree.
The Treasure Hunt continues, Max is on the right.
A Human Pyramid with Max at the top.
Tea in the orchard 1942, Max sits on the right drinking a mug of tea.
Max peels the spuds at the centre of this picture.
Harold goes for breakfast while Paul & Max look on.
1950, Shackelford. Max, Roy & Albert get water.
Weekend Camp, Easter 1955. Max with his head in his pal’s lap.
France, 1959, Max at the centre of this group.
France 1959, Max is seen in profile, waving at the centre left of this picture.
France, 1959, Max is at the centre of this happy group.
Easter, 1955.
Weekend Course at Amersham, Max at the centre.
Hastings, 1957, Max and his scooter.
Max & pals at Middelkerne Beach.
In 2000, Max receives his MBE for services to the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club.
Max Lea MBE –“The sporting life has kept me fit for all these years.”
Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys’ Club photographs by Harry Tichener ARPS
Portrait copyright © Jeremy Freedman
Read my other Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys Club Stories
At the Cambridge & Bethnal Green Boys Club 86th Annual Reunion
