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
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CLICK TO BUY A SIGNED COPY OF THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S CRIES OF LONDON FOR £20
Battle For Brick Lane, 1978
Click here to book THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOURS for June & July
The march behind Altab Ali’s coffin from Whitechapel to Hyde Park, 14th May 1978
A new exhibition opens tomorrow of Paul Trevor‘s photography documenting the rise of protest in the East End after the racist murder of Altab Ali in 1978. This is the culmination of an oral history project to gather testimonies of participants as a complement to the photographs. We publish excerpts from some of these interviews below.
BRICK LANE 1978, THE TURNING POINT runs at Four Corners until 10th September
Anti-Racist Committee of Asians in East London, Commercial Rd June 1976
Anti-Racist Committee of Asians in East London, Whitechapel Rd June 1976
‘Every time there was a lot of people get beaten up… At that time people after six o’clock, nobody goes out from home, everybody from work once they come in they stay in, they don’t go out at all. They’re scared and all these things. Then I and a few others from the anti-racist committee go around in the evening looking for this and that. We go out patrolling wherever the Bengali people live and that’s what we used to do.’
Mohammed Gulan Ehiya (nickname ‘Khasru) – He is in the photograph wearing a checked suit
Sit down protest outside Bethnal Green Rd Police Station, 17th July 1978
‘This is something that I need to say, that a lot of our friends were arrested instead of racist people. You know our community were arrested, a lot of our Anti-Nazi League friends were arrested, a lot of Bangladeshi friends. I was not arrested, but my friends were arrested a few times. And we went to the magistrate’s court outside trying to get them released without any charge. And this is something that, you know, will reflect you on your history that you know, police were not very friendly to the Bangladeshi community for some reason, I don’t know. Is it perhaps I must say this was part of institutionalised racism and this is where I think the thugs, you know the National Front, felt proud that institutions like the police were supporting them.’
Syed Mizan
Bangladesh Youth Movement Against Racism, Brick Lane 17th July 1978
Brick Lane, September 1978
Hackney & Tower Hamlets Defence Committee Ant-Nazi League, 20th August 1978
‘It was very frightening to be very honest. My father warned me to be cautious of my safety because of the attacks on the streets of East London. People were mostly attacked at night. They were found walking alone coming or going to work because my father says to be careful about the skinheads, the racial abuse, these sort of things they do, you know.’
Jamal Miah – Jamal is the central figure in this photograph
Rally in Hyde Park by the Action Committee Against Racial Attacks after the march of Altab Ali’s coffin from Whitechapel, 14th May 1978
‘The day Altab Ali was murdered, I was in Brick Lane, and somebody says ‘There’s fighting going on the other side of Brick Lane’. I was at one of my friend’s factories. We see some fascists. So we run and, and we went near the park. I seen a lot of people and the police and the ambulance is there. And I didn’t know Altab Ali, I seen he was lying on the floor. And you know, he died at that point. We only watch his body lying on the ground surrounded by police. Well, it could have been me. I’ve been attacked twice on the street. Thank God and I’m alive. You know?’
Jamal Miah
Altab Ali’s coffin departs from Hyde Park to Downing St, 14th May 1978
St Mary’s Park (now Altab Ali Park), Whitechapel Rd
‘I think it was on a Sunday, one of the Sundays but I’m not sure and it was raining and then very muddy. Raining, because I got wet. And I don’t use the umbrella that I used to have. When I came to this country I used to use an umbrella. On days when snowing, raining I don’t know how many umbrellas I lost and all the things that then I give up, like using an umbrella.’
Mohammed Gulan Ehiya remembering after the march to Downing St
Photographs copyright © Paul Trevor
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Viscountess Boudica For The Ukraine!
Click here to book THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOURS for June & July
Inspired by the example of her illustrious namesake in standing up for oppressed people, our beloved Viscountess Boudica has written a candid illustrated memoir of her life with Guido Fawkes, the gunpowder plotter, with all thirty copies to be sold in aid of the Ukraine. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to acquire a unique historic document signed by the author and Guido Fawkes for only £20.
Buy a copy of MY PAST LIFE & PRESENT LIFE WITH HUSBAND GUIDO FAWKES
Viscountess Boudica at her new home in Uttoxeter
Boudica with her Gunpowder Plot friends
Boudica and Guido enjoy spring in Uttoxeter
At the Pound Shop with the Gunpowder Plotters
Viscountess Boudica at a banquet with illustrious friends
In the kitchen with Henry VIII
Date night at the ale house with Guido Fawkes
Gunpowder Plotters join Uttoxeter Public Library
Viscountess Boudica and the Gunpowder Plotters visit York, birthplace of Guido Fawkes
Photographs copyright © Viscountess Boudica
Be sure to follow Viscountess Boudica’s blog There’s More To Life Than Heaven & Earth
Take a look at
The Departure of Viscountess Boudica
Viscountess Boudica’s Domestic Appliances
Viscountess Boudica’s Halloween
Viscountess Boudica’s Christmas
Viscountess Boudica’s Valentine’s Day
Viscountess Boudica’s St Patrick’s Day
Read my original profile of Mark Petty, Trendsetter
and take a look at Mark Petty’s Multicoloured Coats
Mark Petty returns to Brick Lane
At Mavis Bullwinkle’s Birthday Party
Click here to book THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOURS for June & July
Mavis at Dennis Severs’ House
The Spitalfields Trust hosted a ninetieth birthday party for Mavis Bullwinkle in the Drawing Room at Dennis Severs’ House recently. Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie & I were privileged to join such a prestigious gathering of old friends in honour of one of Spitalfields’ most senior residents.
Sharp as a blade and glowing with vitality, Mavis embodied effortless nonagenarian glamor in a ruffle-necked blouse made for the occasion by her niece, complemented by a vintage skirt from Spitalfields Market embellished with scenes of London. Cocktail sandwiches were taken followed by a delicate sponge cake layered with fruit and fresh cream baked by Ai Murata.
Beginning the tributes, ‘Mavis is our queen,’ announced Pauline Causton, ‘without failure she makes me laugh.’
‘I was born here, but most people who come recently play a competition about how long they have been here. Those who came in the seventies will be sniffy with someone who came in 1985. It’s a little bit silly, but I must admit I play his game myself. Mavis never does, which is remarkable because she has been here forever.’
‘I remember, just a few years ago,’ recalled Vanessa Saward with a wry smile of recognition, ‘Mavis was having cappuccino with us after church, when we got talking with a couple who had attended church but were not from this part of London. This gentleman turned to Mavis and asked ‘And how long have you been living in Spitalfields?’ Mavis took a deep breath, looked at him straight between the eyes and announced, ‘Eighty-six years!’ We all clapped.’
‘Mavis is from Spitalfields, she was born here, and thank God she was!’ declared Pauline to universal affectionate applause.
Mavis’ birthday cake
In the Drawing Room at Dennis Severs’ House
Mavis arrives at her birthday party
Mavis greets Martin Lane
Fay Cattini shows Mavis her card from The Gentle Author
Mavis, Fay Cattini, Geena Hamo and Vanessa Saward
Marianna Kennedy chats with Vanessa Saward
John Dewhurst, Jacqueline and Pauline Causton
Martin Lane chats with Jan Dewhurst
High jinks and hilarity ensue
Mavis counts her blessings
Mavis’ blouse was made by her niece, worn with a vintage skirt from Spitalfields Market
Mavis, radiant on her ninetieth birthday
Mavis blows out her candle and makes a wish
Mavis cuts her cake
Large slices of cake for everyone
Mavis is congratulated by Claudia Suckling and Heloise Palin, Administrators of the Spitalfields Trust
Mavis shares a joke with Marie Harper, Housekeeper at Dennis’ Severs House
Mavis and Fay Cattini
Mavis and Pauline Causton
Mavis and Martin Lane
Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie
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Carters Steam Fair For Sale
Bookings are open for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR until the end of July
Learning the sad news that 2022 is to be the final season for Carters Steam Fair led me to recall when photographer Colin O’Brien & I went along to meet Anna Carter, who started the fair with her husband John more than forty years ago and runs it today with her sons and their families. Now it is up for sale and maybe somebody reading this would like to buy it? Britain’s only vintage steam-powered fair, Carters is a national treasure containing a magnificent array of traditional fairground rides of historic importance all in full working order.
Colin & I discovered the fair already set up on the grass in Victoria Park waiting for the crowds to arrive and resembling your dream of what a fairground should be – immaculately cared for, dripping with light bulbs and garnished with flamboyant lettering, and every surface shining with neat paintwork in the dominant colours of butter and oxblood. The rides were arranged around the enormous merry-go-round which is the proud centrepiece, while splendid vintage lorries in tip top condition stood between the gleaming attractions and, at the fringes of the encampment, we found the personal caravans of the Carter family.
When we arrived, Anna was holding court at a council meeting of her extended family, like a general preparing for battle, but, once the conference was over, we were privileged to sit outside her old caravan with its handsome leaded windows and take tea, while she told us the story of Carters Steam Fair – a family business on a grand scale with three generations involved and travelling the country twenty-eight weeks of the year.
“My late husband collected things,” revealed Anna with spectacular understatement, when I asked her how the fair started, “he collected slot machines, horn gramophones, 78 records, enamel signs and American cars – anything interesting. And one day, we made some money and he said we could buy a house or we could buy the gallopers. So we opted for the gallopers.”
‘Gallopers’ is the proper but less-well-known term for a merry-go-round, and the gallopers in question sat across the grass from us as we sipped our tea. Swathed in a green tarpaulin concealing the decorated horses within, only the painted conical top was visible and it looked for all the world like some enormous cake, just waiting to be unwrapped. “We bought it off an amusement park in 1976 and it fell apart on the way home, “ Anna recalled fondly, “It had been built in 1895 and we even managed to buy the steam engine that had been taken off it, three miles down the road.” She and her husband restored the gallopers together, with John rebuilding the structure and mechanics and Anna recreating the authentic paint finishes.
“He was the son of a policeman and I was the daughter of a chef,” she explained, “My father had some land and used to let John hold stock car races on it. He was five years older than me and he was leaving Maidenhead College of Art when I left, so we never met then but got together later after we both had failed marriages and were divorced.” The couple had three sons together, making a family of six children including offspring from their previous marriages.
Already, John and Anna had been organising steam fairs, air shows and vintage car rallies, and it was possible to show their gallopers at these events but, within a couple of years, they acquired a chairoplane, some sideshows and juvenile rides and were doing tiny village fairs in their own right. Before long, Carters Steam Fair was playing twenty-eight different locations each summer and the routine of the travelling became established, moving each Tuesday to a new location.
It was was John’s unexpected death at fifty-eight that was the catalyst for Anna to take the running of the fair upon herself – yet by then she had grown-up sons involved. “When John died, I sat down with the boys and said what do you want to do?” she confided to me, “It was a unanimous decision that we carry on.” Today, Seth runs the dodgems, the octopus, the skid and the coconut shy, while Joby runs the gallopers, the steam yachts, the swing boats and the jungle thriller ark. “We do respect each other’s space but the grandchildren run everywhere and are little pests,” she informed me with pleasure, “when my children were young all their friends used to work in the fair, and now my children’s children’s friends work here whenever we need extra staff.”
“It’s my baby,” Anna confessed to me in summation, casting her eyes around at the magical fairground that has been the focus of her family endeavour for so many years. With extraordinary stamina and strength of personality, Anna has kept the show on the road, negotiating labyrinthine regulations and red tape. Yet as much as she is an astute hard-working business woman, Anna is a romantic in love with the romance of the fairground, and it is thanks to the vision she shared with John that Carters exists today as Britain’s last steam fair, keeping traditional rides working which would otherwise be destined for the museum or the scrapheap.
“We’re not interested in modern rides, we love the winter months when we do the restoration – there’s always something tatty and in need of repainting,” she revealed to me, “By October, you are sick of being on the road, it’s muddy and cold and you think how nice to go home – but then when spring comes you always want to go off again. This is my life and I don’t want to do anything else. It means so much to me, we live and breathe it.”
“It’s my baby”
Anna Carter with her dog, Saffy the Staffy
Photographs copyright © Estate of Colin O’Brien
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