Albert Turpin, Painter
Last chance to book for the VALENTINE’S CARD WORKSHOP tomorrow Saturday 10th February 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Townhouse, Spitalfields.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
Salmon & Ball, Bethnal Green, c.1948
When the Daily Herald asked Albert Turpin (1900–64) about his motives, he declared his wish “to show others the beauty in the East End and to record the old streets before they go.” Born in Columbia Rd into a family that struggled to feed themselves on his father’s salary, working as variously a tea-cooper, feather sorter and casual docker, Albert walked into Shoreditch Town Hall and enlisted at fifteen, giving his age as nineteen years old.
In the Royal Marines, he won success as a heavyweight boxing champion yet found time to explore his sensitive side too. “Out came my paint box and canvas and, making myself comfortable on the boat deck … I painted away to my heart’s content,” he told the Hackney Gazette in later years.
After the war, Albert married Sally Fellows in 1922, whom he met at the Hackney Empire. He took up window cleaning with the aim of finishing all his windows by lunchtime so he could spend the afternoon painting. He attended classes at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Institute and at the Bow & Bromley Commercial Institute, and showed his paintings at the Bethnal Green Museum.
During the General Strike of 1926, while on the way to such a class, Albert heard a speech by working class activist, Bill Gee. In his autobiography, Albert wrote that Bill Gee “did not teach me anything I did not already know, but what he did do was to make me forget all about my art class and join up with the organised workers right there.” Signing up for the Labour Party, Albert began his long political career by drawing cartoons for local newspapers.
He exhibited ten canvases in the East London Art Club exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in December 1928. One of these depicted a man eating food scavenged from a bin, entitled Man Must Eat until Albert changed the title to The Dust Bin to avoid offending public sensibilities. This show was so successful that Charles Aitken, Director of the Tate, transferred some pictures to his gallery, including several by Albert – from which the wealthy collector Joseph Duveen bought The Dust Bin. Subsequently, when the Lefevre Galleries in St James launched its annual exhibitions of the East London Group in November 1929, Albert showed three pictures and in following years he contributed regularly to their shows.
During the thirties, Albert became a member of the Bethnal Green Borough Council and an active anti-fascist protester, drawing the wrath of the blackshirts. They issued a poster in 1936 announcing, ‘Turpin responsible for East End disturbances.’ He also joined the Ex-Servicemen’s National Movement for Peace, Freedom & Democracy and supported the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, writing “On many occasions, I was arrested for offences ranging from rioting and assaulting the police, to chalking anti-war slogans on walls at nights. To me, these incidents were like medals to a good soldier.”
When war came again, Albert joined the London Fire Brigade and became an official Fire Brigade War Artist. Awarded a certificate by the Society for the Protection of Life for saving a child from a blaze in Bethnal Green, Albert was unanimously elected Mayor in 1945. The Evening News reported that he “won’t be wearing the mayorial robes because he thinks it is waste of taxpayers’ money.” As a compromise he “wore a gold chain of office, which competed for glitter with his brightly polished firemen’s buttons.” Always possessing a strong moral sense, Albert disapproved of gambling and loathed drinking, refusing to wash pub windows when he resumed his window cleaning duties after the war.
For the rest of his life he continued to paint the East End and in 1960, he wrote to the East London Advertiser pleading for the importance of preserving people’s memories. ‘Don’t they mean anything to anybody?’ he asked.
Albert Turpin, Artist, Window Cleaner & Mayor of Bethnal Green
Columbia Market, 1952/3
The Arches, Cambridge Heath Rd
Cable St
Marian Sq, Hackney
Three Jolly Butchers, Cabbage Court, Brick Lane, c.1953
Bellevue Place, Cleveland Way
Rebuilding St Matthew’s Church, Bethnal Green, c.1956
Verger’s House, Shoreditch, 1954
Shakey’s Yard in Winter, c.1952
Hackney Empire
Images copyright © Estate of Albert Turpin
Click here to buy a copy of EAST END VERNACULAR
Looking Down On Old London
Last tickets left for the VALENTINE’S CARD WORKSHOP next Saturday 10th February 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Townhouse, Spitalfields.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
In my dream, I am flying over old London and the clouds part like curtains to reveal a vision of the dirty monochrome city lying far beneath, swathed eternally in mist and deep shadow.
Although most Londoners are familiar with this view today, as the first glimpse of home on the descent to Heathrow upon their return flight from overseas, it never ceases to induce wonder. So I can only imagine the awe of those who were first shown these glass slides of aerial views from the collection of the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute a century ago.
Even before Aerofilms was established in 1919 to document the country from above systematically, people were photographing London from hot air balloons, zeppelins and early aeroplanes. Upon first impression, the intricate detail and order of the city is breathtaking and I think we may assume that a certain patriotic pride was encouraged by these views of national landmarks which symbolised the political power of the nation.
But there is also a certain ambivalence to some images, such as those of Horseguards’ Parade and Covent Garden Market, since – as much as they record the vast numbers of people that participated in these elaborate human endeavours, they also reduce the hordes to mere ants and remove the authoritative scale of the architecture. Seen from above, the works of man are of far less consequence than they appear from below. Yet this does not lessen my fascination with these pictures, as evocations of the teeming life of this London that is so familiar and mysterious in equal measure.
Tower of London & Tower Bridge
Trafalgar Sq, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Charing Cross Station
Trafalgar Sq & Whitehall
House of Parliament & Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge & County Hall
Tower of London & St Katharine Docks
Bank of England & Royal Exchange
Spires of City churches dominate the City of London
Crossroads at the heart of the City of London
Guildhall to the right, General Post Office to the left and Cheapside running across the picture
Blackfriars Bridge & St Paul’s
Hyde Park Corner
Buckingham Palace & the Mall
The British Museum
St James’ Palace & the Mall
Ludgate Hill & St Paul’s
Pool of London & Tower Bridge with Docks beyond
Albert Hall & Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum & Victoria & Albert Museum
Limehouse with St Anne’s in the centre & Narrow St to the right
Reversed image of Hungerford Bridge & Waterloo Bridge
Covent Garden Market & the Floral Hall
Admiralty Arch
Trooping the Colour at Horseguards Parade
St Clement Dane’s, Strand
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may also like to take a look at
The High Days & Holidays of Old London
The Fogs & Smogs of Old London
Vinegar Valentines For Bad Traders
Only a couple of tickets left for the VALENTINE’S CARD WORKSHOP next Saturday 10th February 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Townhouse, Spitalfields.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
This selection from the Mike Henbrey collection of mocking Valentines at Bishopsgate Institute illustrates the range of tradespeople singled out for hate mail in the Victorian era. Nowadays we despise Traffic Wardens, Estate Agents, Bankers, Cowboy Builders and Dodgy Plumbers but in the nineteenth century, judging from this collection, Bricklayers, Piemen, Postmen, Drunken Policemen and Cobblers were singled out for vitriol.
Bricklayer
Wood Carver
Drayman
Mason
Pieman
Tax Collector
Sailor
Bricklayer
Trunk Maker
Tailor
Omnibus Conductor
Puddler
Postman
Plumber
Soldier
Policeman
Pieman
Policeman
Cobbler
Railway Porter
House Painter
Haberdasher
Basket Maker
Baker
Housemaid
Guardsman
Chambermaid
Postman
Milliner
Carpenter
Cobbler
Images courtesy The Mike Henbrey Collection at Bishopsgate Institute
You may also like to take a look at
Betty Levy Of Petticoat Lane
There are only a couple of tickets left for the VALENTINE’S CARD WORKSHOP next Saturday 10th February 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Townouse, Spitalfields.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
Betty
If you walked through the Petticoat Lane Market in the nineteen-twenties, you would frequently have seen Betty Levy with all her sisters playing hopscotch or skipping games in the street. You could easily have distinguished Betty because she was the baby with the mop of curls, and everyone knew Betty’s mother Hannah – famous as the best fish fryer in the Lane.
But maybe you do not remember, because maybe it is just too long ago for you? Yet that was certainly not the case for Betty herself. At ninety-two years of age, she remembered her childhood as if it were yesterday and given any opportunity she delighted to break into the same songs she sang then, accompanied by the ingenious lyrics she composed herself.
Betty left Petticoat Lane in 1954 but occasionally when speaking of the Lane, she said “And I’m still here,” and you realised it was a statement which transcended immediate reality, because while Petticoat Lane has changed almost beyond recognition, Betty still carried a world and a society and an ethos that incarnated the Petticoat Lane she knew, the place she always counted as home.
“I was born here, in Rosetta Place off Frying Pan Alley and my mother Hannah before me. My grandparents, Mark and Phoebe Harris, lived in Rosetta Place too and if we went in their flat, they always gave us something to eat.
My family have been here for generations, I always understood they were of Dutch descent. My father, Isaac, worked in Smithfield Market, he sold sweets to the porters and we never starved, so he must have made a living. They called him ‘Kosher’ and he sold the sweets from a basket round his neck. He got them from a small warehouse in Commercial St run by Mr Sam. If we were well behaved, he gave us one.
When I left school at fourteen, I went to work making dresses in Middlesex St, we were taught how to do it at school and I moved from one factory to another to better myself. I made all my family’s clothes, my children and grandchildren, and their bride’s dresses. If you spend your life doing something, you get a talent for it – I got to be as good as anyone at it. And I miss it now, I wouldn’t mind doing it again, part-time.
I was only seven years married when my husband Danny died aged thirty-nine, I think he had a heart attack. I met him at a dance at the Hammersmith Palais. We met dancing, we were both good dancers, not fabulous but pretty good. We were married at the Beaumont St Synagogue and we lived with my family at first. Then we found a house in Milward St, Whitechapel, round the back of the London Hospital. Although I was one of a large family, I only had two children – a boy and a girl, Irene and Stephen. After Danny died, my family offered to support me, but I wanted to be independent. If you’ve got to do it, you do it. I worked making dresses and I kept us, because I didn’t want anyone else to bring up my children.
I love the East End, there’s something in the East End that’s nowhere else. It is my home.”
Four of Betty’s sisters in Rosetta Place c. 1925
“We played among the doorsteps, for hours and hours
We never had gardens, so we couldn’t grow flowers.
Some kids they never had shoes, ’cause their dads were on the booze
But, we all lived together the Christians, the Jews
And the Jewish Free School was in dear old Frying Pan Alley.
Now there is not any doorsteps, they’ve knocked them all down,
They built a tower block where we played around.
The kids don’t play now like we used to,
On everybody’s doorsteps, in the East End of town.”
Betty’s new lyrics to the melody of ‘On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep’
The Levy Sisters. Sally, Phoebe, Lily, Carrie, Jennie, Becky and Betty (in front).
The Mitchell Family, neighbours in Rosetta Place. Betty Mitchell standing with Betty Clasper and little RayRay in front and Anita Mitchell, Barnie Mitchell, Siddy Segal and little Jo in line along the wall.
Some of the Levy grandchildren on the steps of St. Botolph’s Church Bishopsgate c. 1945. Alan, Diana, Bobby, Roy, Richard, Sallyann and little David.
Betty’s grandparents, Mark & Phoebe Harris, Spitalfields, c. 1920
Betty’s mother, Hannah Levy, daughter of Mark & Phoebe Harris, and famous as the best fish fryer in Petticoat Lane.
Betty’s father, Isaac in his ARP uniform.
Hannah Levy and friends in Frying Pan Alley around 1940.
Betty as a Land Army Girl in WWII, based at Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire.
Three Bettys (Levy, Cohen and Hyams) and three American airman at Westcliff-on-Sea c. 1945
At the centre (in a headscarf) is Betty with family and friends at the Coronation 0f Queen Elizabeth II. They slept out in Piccadilly to be sure of getting a prime position.
Betty sings at her ninetieth birthday party at Beaumont St Synagogue
Betty dances with her daughter Irene at the party.
You may also like to read these other stories of Petticoat Lane
The Wax Sellers of Wentworth St
Pamela Freedmam, The Princess Alice
The Dioramas of Petticoat Lane
The Scholar & His Cat, Pangur Bán
There are just five tickets left for the VALENTINE’S CARD WORKSHOP next Saturday 10th February 2:30pm – 4:30pm at Townouse, Spitalfields.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
Schrodinger sitting on my desk
I am very grateful to Chris Miles for drawing my attention this ninth century poem written by an unknown monk in Old Irish at or near Reichenau Abbey in what is now Germany. Unsurprisingly, I cannot help but identify with the author.
The Scholar & His Cat, Pangur Bán
(Translated by Seamus Heaney)
Schrodinger sleeping on my desk
The page of Richenau Primer in which Pangur Bán is written
You may also like to read about
Schrodinger’s First Year in Spitalfields
Valentine Delights From Dennis Severs’ House
I am thrilled to announce that Rupert Thomas, new director of Dennis Severs’ House and formerly editor of ‘The World of Interiors,’ has asked me to become an Associate Creative Director at the house, involved with devising and creating events including these below.
Photograph by Amy Merrick
Valentine’s Card Workshop
Next Saturday 10th February 2:30pm-4:30pm
Be inspired to make a gorgeous Valentine card for your beloved at a two-hour class in the beautiful eighteenth-century drawing room of Townhouse Spitalfields in Fournier Street overlooking Christ Church.
Introduced by Rupert Thomas, Director of Dennis Severs’ House, with an illustrated lecture on nineteenth-century Vinegar Valentines by The Gentle Author and a tutorial on the making of cards by floral designer and art director, Amy Merrick.
Vinegar Valentine from the Mike Henbry Collection at Bishopsgate Institute
Ticket price covers all materials including blank cards, replica Victorian paper cut-outs and a range of other decorative elements, as well as complimentary tea, coffee and freshly baked cake.
This event is in support of Dennis Severs’ House.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKET
Photograph by Lucinda Douglas Menzies
Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Dennis Severs’ House
Dennis Severs House is opening from 5pm – 9pm on Wednesday 14th February for a special Silent Night to celebrate St Valentine’s, providing the opportunity for wordless trysts and amorous assignations conducted solely in looks and smiles.
For one night only, Ambrose the pink canary will be guest of honour, trilling songs of love. And stylist Amy Merrick has created some Valentine details throughout the house as evidence of the Jervis family’s flirtatious spirits.
What could be more conducive to romance than exploring Dennis Severs’ House by candlelight with the intimate object of your affections at your side? Advance booking essential.
CLICK HERE BOOK FOR DENNIS SEVERS’ HOUSE ON VALENTINE’S DAY
Photograph by Amy Merrick
Valentine Card by Simon Pettet
This delightfully playful Valentine by ceramicist was designed by Simon Pettet, made when he was in his twenties and living with Dennis at 18 Folgate, creating all the magnificent delftware which adorns the house to this day.
These are large cards.
183mm x 190mm, accompanied by an off-white envelope.
Printed by Calverts of Hackney.
CLICK HERE TO BUY A VALENTINE CARD
Pellicci’s Celebrity Album
This month’s talk in the Spitalfields Series at the Hanbury Hall will be local resident Dame Siân Phillips interviewed by Basil Comely about her life and career, next Tuesday 6th February at 7pm.
Portrait by Lucinda Douglas Menzies
For over fifteen years they have kept a celebrity album behind the counter at E.Pellicci, the Italian family-run cafe in the Bethnal Green Rd that was founded in 1900 by Priamo Pellicci. Salvatore (on the extreme left of the picture above) started the album after Julie Christie came in for a cup of coffee years ago and they did not think to ask for her picture until she had gone. So Salvatore decided that any celebrity who passes through must be recorded for posterity, either in a snapshot or at very least by an autograph on a scrap of paper. Regular customers will be familiar with this fat little album which is brought out frequently, whenever anyone feels like leafing through the pages of treasured images and savouring the memorable moments enshrined there, but now thanks to generosity of the Pellicci family I am able to publish a choice selection here for you to enjoy.
The distinguished gentleman with the stylish glasses who recurs throughout these pictures is Nevio Pellicci senior and the skinny young man who grew up to develop Groucho Marx eyebrows is Nevio Pellicci junior (in the green shirt above) whose glamorous sister Anna Pellicci is also to be seen completing the happy family group in many of the photographs.
Colin Farrell and Anna Friel were photographed at Pelliccis just last July whilst filming “The London Boulevard” and there is no doubt that Colin carries the picture above with his graphic features and charismatic emotional presence, just as we are accustomed to seeing him do with such exuberant success in the cinema. But in this instance, while he makes a plausible show of looking cool at first glance, on closer inspection there is an undeniable element of the-rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights about his expression, whereas on the right hand side of the picture Nevio Pellici junior is hamming it up with gleeful reckless abandon.
In fact, as I examined these pictures in detail, it dawned on me that the real star turn here is not delivered by any of the celebrities, it is Nevio Pellicci junior himself with his outrageous cartoon features who reveals the most potent star quality on display. Scrolling through these images, I was almost blinded by his dazzling grin that has a wattage sufficient to light up the entire Bethnal Green Rd at night. Only hoary old troupers like Michael Gambon and Su Pollard manage to avoid being upstaged by young Nevio’s incandescent smile.
The truth is that I find the open-hearted playfulness of this album irresistible. Here you see the Pellicci family (except Maria Pellicci who is always in the kitchen) at home over the last fifteen years as they participate in the long-running drama enacted daily at their beloved cafe. And by the end of this series, Nevio Pellicci junior has taken over from his father Nevio Pellicci senior in Bethnal Green, just as Michael Douglas took over from Kirk Douglas in Hollywood. Interestingly, a comparison of the images of Nevio senior and Nevio junior reveals that Nevio junior inherited his trademark smile from Nevio junior, just as Michael inherited the dimple from Kirk.
If you want to see the full album for yourself and pore over all the autographs too, you simply have to go round to E.Pellicci at 332 Bethnal Green Rd, and if you are a celebrity you should be aware that you cannot truly claim with any credibility to have arrived until you have got your picture in the Pelliccis’ book. Salvatore confided that he was thinking of getting the famous album insured, which sounds like a wise move to me because it is priceless.
Eastenders star Patsy Palmer, who grew up round the corner in Columbia Rd, experiences an emotional return to the cafe where she once enjoyed spaghetti as a little girl.
David Schwimmer takes a break from filming “Run Fat Boy Run” in Columbia Rd to chill with his new friends at Pelliccis in 2007.
Eager young Frank Lampard in 1998 when he played for West Ham before he transferred to Chelsea.
Better known as Sergeant Lynch from “Z Cars,” James Ellis knows how to froth a coffee.
Dizzee Rascal takes a break from filming a video to hang with his brutha in the hood, Nevio.
Clive Owen enjoyed a slap-up breakfast with all the trimmings.
Boxing legend Sir Henry Cooper is proud to make his mark at Pelliccis.
Michael Gambon, who signed himself as Dumbledore, re-enacts a ham sandwich for the camera.
Coronation St’s Ali King and Nevio Pellicci deny all the rumours.
Lil Peters flirts shamelessly with two Chelsea Pensioners.
Ross Kemp and the Pellicci boys.
Jools Holland always pops in when he’s in the East End.
“I’m completely stuffed,” declared Su Pollard.
