At Eastbury Manor
Some tickets are available for The Gentle Author’s Tour this weekend, 18th & 19th June
If you are seeking an afternoon’s excursion from the East End, you can do no better than visit Eastbury Manor in Barking, which is only half an hour on the District Line from Whitechapel yet transports you across four centuries to Elizabethan England.
Once Eastbury Manor stood in the centre of its own domain of rolling marshy farmland, extended as far as you can see from the top of its pair of octagonal turrets, but today it sits in the centre of a suburban estate built as Home for Heroes in the twenties in the pseudo-Elizabethan style, which casts a certain surreal atmosphere as you arrive. Yet by the time you have entered the gate and walked up the path lined with lavender to the entrance, the mellow brick facade of Eastbury Manor has cast its spell upon you.
Built in the fifteeen-sixties by Clement Sisley, Gentleman & Justice of the Peace, Eastbury Manor is among the earliest surviving Elizabethan houses, combining attractive domestic interior spaces with an exterior embellished by showy architectural elements in the renaissance manner. This curious contradiction of modest form and ambitious style speaks of Sisley’s eagerness to impress as a self-made property developer and landowner. He owned a house in the City of London and thus Eastbury grants us a vision of how those lost mansions that once lined Bishopsgate and Leadenhall St might have been.
Formerly part of the lands of Barking Abbey, after the Dissolution the property was sold to an absentee landlord before it was acquired by Clement Sisley in 1556. From apothecary bills, we know he fell ill and died in September 1578, bequeathing arms, weapons, armour and dags (guns) to his son Thomas ‘to him and his heirs forever at Eastbury’, in the hope that the manor might become a family home for generations to come.
Yet within only a few years Eastbury Manor was tenanted by John Moore, a Diplomat and Tax Collector, and his Spanish wife Maria Perez de Recalde. They were responsible for commissioning the lyrical and mysterious wall paintings, depicting an unknown European landscape rich in allegorical potential, glimpsed through a classical arcade of baroque barley-sugar-twist pillars.
Over two hundred years, the old house spiralled down through the ownership of a series of families with connection to the City of London until it became a farm, with animals housed in the fine Elizabethan chambers, and was threatened with demolition at the beginning of the last century.
Octavia Hill and C R Ashbee of the Survey of London, who had been responsible for saving Trinity Green Almshouses in Whitechapel, began a campaign to save Eastbury Manor by seeking guarantors to purchase the property from the owner. Once they had done so, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings arranged for the National Trust to accept ownership of the building in 1918. Thanks to the initiative of these enlightened individuals a century ago, we can enjoy Eastbury Manor today.
It is a sublime experience to escape the blinding sunlight of a summer’s afternoon and enter the cool air of the shadowy interior with its spiralling staircases and labyrinth of chambers. Ascend the turret to peer across Barking to the Thames, descend again enter the private enclosed yard at the rear, enfolded by tall ancient walls, and discover yourself in another world.
Eastbury Manor in 1796
Nonagenerian guide Dougie Muid welcomes visitors to Eastbury Manor – ‘Children often ask me if I have been here since the house was built’
Visit Eastbury Manor, Eastbury Square, Barking, Essex, IG11 9SN
You may also like to read about
Doreen Fletcher’s New Paintings
Some tickets are available for The Gentle Author’s Tour this weekend, 18th & 19th June
Meanwhile, Doreen Fletcher‘s new exhibition, TRACES opens at Townhouse, Spitalfields, this Saturday 18th June and Doreen will be in the gallery on Saturday to meet guests. Below she introduces a selection of her new and recently completed paintings.
Elvis Holds The Laundrette
It is almost twenty years since I last painted a launderette and this picture would not exist if not for Covid. During the pandemic, I became interested in exploring my neighbourhood, seeking out possible subjects for paintings. At the same time, I was lucky enough to engage in one of the few activities to thrive during lockdown, dog-walking.
In my picture, I depicted two of the characters I often encountered, who live a stone’s throw from the launderette. David sits inside musing whilst Elvis, his dog, stands outside guarding the entrance.
The Cosy Tea Room
For the last decade, I observed the slow decline of this building in Dagenham until I recognised a need to celebrate such a solid, unpretentious edifice. It has a certain dignity, despite its abused and neglected state. I loved the lettering, spelling out ‘The Cosy Tea Room’ on the apex of the building which grew more obscure each time I passed.
Nearby is the latest incarnation of the Ford Motor Factory, a ghost of what it used to be locally. During the fifties and sixties it employed around 50,000 workers and this tea room must have been a lively meeting place then.
The Run
After my painting ‘The Cosy Tea Room’ was completed in 2019, the building was still standing, despite the weeds and fly tipping. By 2021, it looked even more run-down and abandoned, a sofa made an appearance on the forecourt and a mattress lay against a wall – and I realised that another painting was taking shape.
The building was razed in the summer of 2021 and a new development is now rising, so this second depiction of ‘The Cosy Tea Room’ is also my last.
The Beckton Fox
This painting depicts something that happened as we were driving home one winter’s night, when we had to pull up sharply for a fox. The petrol station is more contemporary than my usual subjects but it offered the sense of theatre I hoped to capture. No matter how functional or artificial the structure, nature will always find a way in – creeping from the sidelines in this case.
All The Fun Of …
In my childhood, we used to spend a week each year at the seaside and, ever since, I have been drawn to the bright lights and brilliant colours that offer such a contrast to the greyness of daily life.
I was never attracted to the dare-devil rides designed to inspire terror yet – decades later – I still recall with pleasure the sight of lurid graphics and garish multi-coloured light bulbs, roundabouts spinning and striped horses bobbing up and down.
Until recently, a funfair arrived each year on Wanstead Flats but it often rained and the ground became a sea of mud. Even so, there was a glimmer of hope in the bright lights, gay colours, offering a promise of better times.
Nail Bar
Nail bars, which were once unknown, have proliferated in recent years. They are mostly small businesses run by owners who work long hours to keep them going. The pet shop next door had closed its doors earlier, but the nail bar had only just shut at 8pm on a November evening.
My initial interest lay in the challenge posed in portraying a brightly lit interior on a cold wet night, resolving the contrast between the light and warmth, and the surrounding darkness.
As a painter, I have never indulged in nail decoration because that my fingers would look awful again within days. But I must confess that, once a year, I visit a nail bar to have my toenails manicured and polished in preparation for the delights of going barefoot in the summer heat.
Smallholders Pet Shop
When I first moved to Forest Gate, I wondered how long this pet shop and mini garden centre could hang on, and during the following decade I watched the façade fade and become increasingly weather-beaten.
An elderly man in a flat cap used to stand outside guarding the shrubs, bedding plants and vegetables. Every spring I bought plants, receiving detailed advice about their care whether I asked for it or not. After he died, I discovered he had been there since he was fourteen years old and continued as a volunteer beyond retirement until his legs gave out.
Waiting At Five Star Batteries
The A13 possesses a post-industrial faded glory just as the London Docks did in the eighties. I used to wander the Isle of Dogs thirty years ago, when it was on the verge of transition, and I get the same feeling today on this stretch of highway.
Five Star Batteries stands on what was once the main A13 which has been supplanted by a raised dual carriageway to take the increase in traffic. Now a despondent air prevails, in common with the wreck of The Cosy Tea Room nearby.
What appealed to me about Five Star Batteries was the dissonance of colour, such bold orange in a place where the only colour emanates from the signage on car washes, garages and tyre outlets.
The lone man at the bus stop looks marooned, waiting in no man’s land for a bus that might take a long time coming.
Night Patrol
During lockdown, I developed the habit of walking our spaniel Charlie round the block after dark. I called this activity ‘Night Patrol’, acknowledging my desire to check all was well in our patch.
I love imagining lives unfolding behind dimly-lit windows obscured by drawn curtains. Occasionally I struck lucky and glimpsed a view of domestic activities but the reality was generally far less interesting than my imagination.
These Days …
One of the last of my paintings in 2004 was of Brothers’ Fish Shop, situated in a row of small shops on Commercial Rd. So when I took up painting the East End again in 2016, I was surprised to discover this parade still standing. I made two small paintings of the Emporium and the Pharmacy, which retained their dignity even though they were closed by then.
By 2019, these shops had gone but the the taxi cab office was still standing. Its survival against the odds inspired me sufficiently to paint the taxi cab office more than once but, now the entire row has been razed to the ground, there will be no more paintings of this part of Commercial Rd.
Images copyright © Doreen Fletcher
You may also like to take a look at
Midsummer Bloomsbury Jamboree Lectures
Some tickets are available for The Gentle Author’s Tour this weekend, 18th & 19th June
Meanwhile, it is my pleasure to announce the programme of Bloomsbury Jamboree lectures on Sunday 26th June, including one by yours truly
You Can Still Do A Lot With A Small Brain
Paper-Cut Artist & Designer Rob Ryan telling stories with pictures and words and bits of paper.
Click here to book for Rob Ryan at 3:45pm
An Illustrator’s Journey, From Riso Prints to ‘His Dark Materials’
Melissa Castrillón outlines her path from Anglia Ruskin University to illustrating Philip Pullman.
Click here to book for Melissa Castrillón at 3pm
Drawn Direct To The Plate, The Story Of The Puffin Picture Series
Edward Bawden, Enid Marx, S R Badmin, James Gardner, Clarke Hutton, Paxton Chadwick… Puffin Picture Books were a roll call of the best illustrators of their time. Joe Pearson explores their genesis and the challenges of auto-lithography.
Click here to book for Joe Pearson at 2pm
Q & A With Margy Kinmouth, Director of ‘Eric Ravilious, Drawn To War’
To mark the release of the film Eric Ravilious, Drawn to War, Margy Kinmonth will be in conversation with Neil Jennings, Art Dealer & Ravilious specialist.
Click here to book for Margy Kinmouth at 1pm
China dogs by Rob Ryan
The Secrets Of Spitalfields Life
The Gentle Author tells the story of publishing Spitalfields Life daily for the past thirteen years, introducing a selection of remarkable characters and revealing some memorable adventures.
Click here to book for The Gentle Author at 11:30am
You may also like to take a look at
Just Another Day With John Claridge
Some tickets are available for The Gentle Author’s Tour on 18th & 19th June
Cobb St, Spitalfields 1966
One morning in 1966, photographer John Claridge met these four men working in Cobb St, Spitalfields. “They were bloody silly,” recalled John fondly half a century later, “and there’s not enough of that in this world.” It was John’s way of introducing this set of pictures which he entitles“Just Another Day.”
“They were good people – full of fun – and this picture was nice to take, it has a warmth to it.” he added, upon contemplation of the image. And, if there is a common quality among these pictures, it is an open-hearted delight in the quotidian, or as John puts it –“The daily things that people do, going to work, stopping at the corner, visiting the shops.”
Where others might find only the mundane, John sees the poetry of the human condition. There may be endless sleet in Spitalfields, freezing fog in Victoria Park, and the passengers are eternally falling asleep on the early train out of Upton Park, yet John always reveals the joy and the humanity of his subjects. A generous spirit informs his photographs.
“Some of these pictures are of life drifting by,” John informed me, “because there are gentler ways of seeing the world than the obvious.”
Cup of tea, Spitalfields 1966.
Kosher butchers, Bethnal Green 1962 – “It wasn’t very big and it did have a certain smell to it.”
The cap, Spitalfields 1982 – “I love the things you don’t know as well as the things that are explained.”
Four men, Spitalfields 1982 – “You could create your own story with that.”
The baker at Rinkoffs, Vallance Rd, Bethnal Green 1967 – “Having a cup of tea and enjoying a breath of fresh air as the light’s coming up.”
Rinkoffs, Bethnal Green 1967
Breaker’s yard, E16 1975 – “I was talking to her dad and she just wandered off and got in the car.”
Feeding the birds in Victoria Park, E3 1962 – “there was ice on the lake.”
Passing the graveyard, 1970s
Bridge repair, E3 1960s
The crane, E16 1975 – “I printed this photo for the first time last week.”
SOS motors, Spitalfields 1982
Sewer Bank, Plaistow 1960s – “Where the kids used to go on their bikes and I’d take my scrambler. The craters were fantastic, it was a different kind of playground.”
In Plaistow, 1961 – “Just down the road from where I lived. It certainly has a lot of charm to it, look at how little traffic there is. That could be my dad on the bike, coming back from the docks.”
Station stairs, Upton Park 1963 – “Sometimes I met my mum here after school, when she was coming back from Bow where she worked as machinist making shirts.”
Station entrance, Upton Park 1963 – “I like stations, it’s that feeling you get of arriving on a film set.”
Leaving Plaistow early morning in winter, E13 1963 – “I had a motorbike but I liked going on the tube if the traffic was bad.”
The shed, Plaistow 1969 – “This was at the top of the street where I lived. He used to go round with that barrow and pick things up, and sell bits and pieces in that shed. A very nice man and a gentleman.”
End of the day, Spitalfields 1963.
Photographs copyright © John Claridge
You may also like to take a look at
Midsummer Bloomsbury Jamboree
In gleeful collaboration with my fellow publishers Tim Mainstone of Mainstone Press and Joe Pearson of Design for Today, I am hosting the MIDSUMMER BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE, a one-day festival of books and print, illustration, talks and merriment on SUNDAY 26th JUNE from 10:30am until 4:30pm.
It takes place at the magnificent ART WORKERS GUILD, 6 Queens Sq, WC1, which was founded in 1884 by members of the Arts & Crafts movement including William Morris and C R Ashbee. These oak panelled rooms lined with oil paintings in a beautiful old house in Bloomsbury offer the ideal venue to celebrate our books, and the authors and artists who create them.
There will be book-signings and lectures, plus we have invited twenty friends to exhibit, including print and paper makers, illustrators, small press publishers, toy makers and craft workers.
Exhibitors include – Paper-cut Artist Rob Ryan – Pollocks Toy Museum – Copperplate Writer Pia Matikka – Travelling Printer Print Wagon – Artist Jonny Hannah – Paper Marbler Sarah Amatt – Herb Lester City Guides – Illustrator Clare Youngs – Artist Robson Cezar – Vintage Poster Dealers Travel On Paper – Illustrator Marion Elliot – Printmaker Mandy Doubt – Illustrator Sharon Hannah – Paper Toy Maker Sato Hisao – Neil Jennings Fine Art – Illustrator Melissa Castrillion – and Sail Cargo London will be offering olive oil and other produce from small farmers in Portugal imported by sail power.
We will be serving Pimms with strawberries and cream all day.
Click here to book a ticket for the MIDSUMMER BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE for £2
The programme of lectures and talks will be announced next week
We need volunteers on the day – if you can help please email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com
Rob Ryan
Print Wagon
Clare Youngs
Robson Cezar (portrait by Rachel Ferriman)
Marion Elliot
Sail Cargo London
Design For Today (Image from ‘Along the Pier by Louise Lockhart)
Jonny Hannah
Sharon Hannah
Pia Matikka (Portrait by Lucinda Douglas Menzies)
Mainstone Press (Print of Appledore by Suzanne Cooper)
Mandy Doubt
Melissa Castrillon
Herb Lester
Click here to book a ticket for the MIDSUMMER BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE for £2
Travellers’ Children In London Fields
These pictures are the result of a remarkable collaboration between a photographer and his subjects, in which the children command the frame with natural authority and strength of personality. And the late Colin O’Brien’s masterly photographs make an interesting comparison with Horace Warner’s Spitalfields Nippers of 1912, even though Colin O’Brien had never seen the work of Horace Warner when he set out with his camera through the East End seventy-five years later.
“I came across the travellers whilst I was photographing a deserted warehouse in the London Fields area in 1987. They had parked their caravans in and around Martello St, near the railway arches by the station. This part of Hackney was very run down in the eighties. The streets were littered with rubbish and many of the decaying Victorian terraces were being demolished. The area was neglected and dangerous, with graffiti everywhere.
The travellers were Irish, mostly families with three or four children, living in modern caravans which looked extremely cramped but comfortable. On the first week I started to take one or two Polaroid shots of the children which I gave to them to show their parents. Some of the parents then dressed the children up and sent them out for me to take more pictures.
I continued to take many more images over a period of three weeks and got to know some of the travellers well. They took me into their confidence and trusted me with their children. It was only when I started to print the images that I realised what an amazing set of photographs they were.
When I returned to the site on the fourth week the families had gone. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was – after all, this is what travellers do, they move on. I had no way of contacting them but I was left with an amazing set of pictures.”
Colin O’Brien
Click here to buy a copy of TRAVELLERS CHILDREN IN LONDON FIELDS for £10
Photographs copyright © Estate of Colin O’Brien
You may also like to take a look at the Spitalfields Nippers.
In The Lavender Fields Of Surrey
Click here to book THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOURS for June & July
I cannot imagine a more relaxing way to enjoy a sunny English summer afternoon than a walk through a field of lavender. Observe the subtle tones of blue, extending like a mist to the horizon and rippling like the surface of the sea as the wind passes over. Inhale the pungent fragrance carried on the breeze. Delight in the orange butterflies dancing over the plants. Spot the pheasants scuttling away and – if you are as lucky as I was – encounter a red fox stalking the game birds through the forest of lavender. What an astonishing colour contrast his glossy russet pelt made as he disappeared into the haze of blue and green plants.
Lavender has been grown on the Surrey Downs for centuries and sold in summer upon the streets of the capital by itinerant traders. The aromatic properties and medicinal applications of lavender have always been appreciated, with each year’s new crop signalling the arrival of summer in London.
The lavender growing tradition in Surrey is kept alive by Mayfield Lavender in Banstead where visitors may stroll through fields of different varieties and then enjoy lavender ice cream or a cream tea with a lavender scone afterwards, before returning home laden with lavender pillows, soap, honey and oil.
Let me confess, I had given up on lavender – it had become the smell most redolent of sanitary cleaning products. But now I have learnt to distinguish between the different varieties and found a preference for a delicately-fragranced English lavender by the name of Folgate, I have rediscovered it again. My entire house is scented with it and the soporific qualities are evident. At the end of that sunny afternoon, when I returned from my excursion to the lavender fields of Surrey, I sat down in my armchair and did not awake again until supper time.
‘Six bunches a penny, sweet lavender!’ is the cry that invites in the street the purchasers of this cheap and pleasant perfume. A considerable quantity of the shrub is sold to the middling-classes of the inhabitants, who are fond of placing lavender among their linen – the scent of which conquers that of the soap used in washing. – William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders, 1804
‘Delight in the orange butterflies dancing over the plants…’
Thomas Rowlandson’s Characteristic Series of the Lower Orders, 1820
‘Six Bunches a-Penny, Sweet Lavender – Six Bunches a-Penny, Sweet Blooming Lavender’ from Luke Clennell’s London Melodies, 1812
‘Spot the pheasants scuttling away…’
From Aunt Busy Bee’s New London Cries
Card issued with Grenadier Cigarettes in 1902
WWI veteran selling lavender bags by Julius Mendes Price, 1919
Yardley issued Old English Lavender talcum powder tins from 1913 incorporating Francis Wheatley’s flower seller of 1792
Archive images courtesy © Bishopsgate Institute
Mayfield Lavender Farm, 1 Carshalton Rd, Banstead SM7 3JA
You may also like to read about
CLICK TO BUY A SIGNED COPY OF THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S CRIES OF LONDON FOR £20
