Sarsparilla & Mineral Water Sellers
By coincidence, two readers – Christine Osborne & Janice Oliver – both sent me photographs of their ancestors who produced and sold soft drinks in the East End – Brandon’s Mineral Waters of Virginia Rd, Bethnal Green, and Moody’s Sarsaparilla of Rathbone St Market, Canning Town
William Brandon and his mineral water business, 112 Virginia Rd, Bethnal Green c.1887
“William Brandon is my great-great-great uncle, born 10th August 1840 in Bethnal Green as the youngest of seven children. In 1881, he was living with his wife Matilda and their nine children at 112 Virginia Rd where he was a Mineral Water Manufacturer.
I am fascinated by the large framed photographs hanging up on the outside of the building – the one in the centre might be an advertisement as it looks like it says ‘W. Brandon’ and I can even make out ‘Brandon’ stamped on the crates under the table. If you look at the sign at top right of photograph it shows a picture of a bow tie and I believe this is his trademark, as I have obtained an old bottle dug up from a Victorian dump in Stratford with the name ‘Brandon’ and a bow tie symbol.
When William died in 1905 he left £2,343 and Matilda took over the business. A newspaper obituary referred to “William Brandon, who was a mineral water manufacturer of note” and recorded his funeral “was of an imposing character.” He was a self-made man who lived all his life on the edge of the Old Nichol, but he must have had a good life compared to most people living there.” – Christine Osborne
Annie Moody of Moody’s of Rathbone St Market, Canning Town c.1910
“My grandfather, George Moody, was born in Ramsgate in 1879 into a long line of seafarers, and became an Officer in the Navy and travelled the world. After marrying my grandmother, Annie Andrews who was born in Broadstairs, they moved to Canning Town in 1909 where he opened a Herbalists in Rathbone St and started making potions for everyday ailments, using knowledge of herbal medicine he had acquired on his travels. He also offered Homeopathy and local people came for consultations. I remember as a child helping to put ‘Rathbone’ skin ointment into tins, and there was also ‘Rathbone ‘ cough mixture and various other concoctions.
Soon he formulated a recipe for making a Sarsaparilla drink – sarsaparilla is a medicinal root which is reputed to help purify the blood. This was sold outside the shop from a stall which was equipped with barrels of the cordial and a water urn. It was served hot in the winter and huge blocks of ice were put into the water barrel to chill it in summer.
As a girl I used to ‘wash’ the glasses, which merely entailed dunking them into a bucket of cold water after use and leaving them upturned to drain. My mother told me that a famous drinks firm had offered money for the recipe but my grandfather would not part with it and I still have it until this day. So many people have requested it but it remains a family secret. My grandfather George died in 1945, but my mother and then an uncle continued with the business until the late seventies.” – Janice Oliver
Vera Moody of Moody’s of Rathbone St Market, Canning Town
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London Street Signs
Alistair Hall, author of LONDON STREET SIGNS published by Batsford, introduces a few local signs and reveals some of the background to these often overlooked and unappreciated pieces of typographic design which are so familiar as to be almost invisible.
This cartouche on the corner of Sclater St and Brick Lane reads ‘THIS IS SCLATER Street 1778’ though the lettering is hard to decipher after so many years. Dan Cruickshank notes that it was probably built for the distiller Daniel Delacourt.
Around Spitalfields you find a set of Bengali nameplates which sit alongside English ones. The Bengali signs were put up in the nineties and are set in Linotype Bengali designed by Fiona Ross and Tim Holloway around 1978.
An old cast iron nameplate has been camouflaged with paint and a contemporary Tower Hamlets sign sits above it.
A cast iron plate dating from before 1917 when numbered postal districts were introduced in the city, it is unusual for being constructed out of two separate plates.
A creative paint job on another cast iron plate matching the lettering to the surrounding wall.
On the outside of The Old Rose, a former Wapping dockworkers’ pub established in 1839. This has been called Chigwell Hill since before 1746.
Extra-condensed lettering on a pre-1917 nameplate. Despite having more condensed lettering, this sign style has some similarities to those of the N.E. postal district.
A fine blue enamel nameplate featuring the Patent Enamel Company’s manufacturer’s mark, a monogram of PEC, in the bottom right hand corner.
A milk glass nameplate from the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green which was abolished in 1965. Milk glass permitted lettering to be etched into the surface of the sign which was filled with paint.
The enamel nameplate above sits on the outside of The Lauriston, formerly known as The Alexandra, established in the eighteen sixties.
A two-panel ceramic nameplate with enjoyably rudimentary lettering.
Tower St was renamed as Martello St in 1938 as part of a city-wide renaming of streets whose names were repeated elsewhere. The top sign here is from the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney, which ceased to exist in 1965, so the sign dates from some time between then and 1938.
A stone tablet with incised lettering on Rhondda Grove E3. The street, originally named Cottage Grove, was another of those renamed in the thirties.
These tiled signs were once standard throughout the City as far back as the 1870s. This one does not show a postal district – they were introduced in 1857 – so it may be earlier. Ball Court is the home of Simpson’s Tavern established 1757, the oldest chophouse in London.
A hand-painted sign on the outside of St Mary Abchurch which has stood here since the twelfth century although the medieval building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren’s office between 1681 and 1687. There is a curious informality to the ‘Leading to …’ text and the lower case ‘g’ is eccentric.
This is a rare beast, one of only a few in this style left in the City of London. The rest were replaced by the Corporation of London in the eighties and many of the old signs were sold off in 1991, together with certificates of authenticity. This style features a pleasingly simple identity, though the lettering and spacing of the street names is wildly haphazard. This street below Fenchurch St Station, is named after Sir Thomas Savage’s garden which occupied the site in the seventeenth century.
A trio of signs here just off Myddleton Sq. Up top is a die-stamped nameplate from the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, featuring the MoT Compressed alphabet which dates from before 1965. Below is a small enamel plate which lists the un-numbered postal district. The postal districts were introduced in 1856 and the numbered districts introduced in 1917, so this is from somewhere in between. Below is lettering which is incised into the stucco of the house which was built in 1829 by William Chadwell Mylne who gave his family name to the street. Mylne was surveyor of the New River Company, founded in the early seventeenth century by Sir Hugh Myddleton to bring fresh water to London along an artificial waterway.
Just north of Old St, this elegant tablet is at the junction of Pear Tree St and Central St.
A great example of how the background to a nameplate can make a huge difference to its visibility. The black painted bricks make the nameplate stand out and emphasise the black letters.
An enamel sign on the outside of the Peabody Trust’s Clerkenwell Estate built in 1884 after the slum clearances of the late 1870s. The architect was Henry Darbishire.
A beautiful nameplate on the outside of the Eagle in Farringdon Rd, tragically this sign has vanished since it was photographed in 2016.
Condensed serif lettering in white on a black background here at a gated entrance at the junction of Strand and Fleet St. The entrance leads to Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court to which all barristers must belong.
Photographs copyright © Alistair Hall
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Outtakes Of A Press Photographer
When Libby Hall was a press photographer in the sixties, based in Clerkenwell and travelling back and forth from her home in Clapton, she occasionally photographed her immediate surroundings as a diversion from her daily work. Yet half a century later these almost inconsequential outtakes have transformed into a powerful evocation of a lost era.
Libby Hall’s desk In Farringdon Rd
‘These photographs were mostly just lens tests, or moments of light that appealed to me on my journeys back and forth to work as a press photographer. The bookstalls were immediately across the street from the newspaper I worked for. I do miss those wonderful bookstalls even though they used up a considerable chunk of my then meagre wages. It was impossible to pass by without having a look – but then what treasures there were to be found!’ – Libby Hall
Looking down onto Farringdon Rd
Looking across to Turnmills St, Clerkenwell Session House and Booth’s Gin Distillery
Bookstalls in Farringdon Rd
Farringdon Station
Liverpool St Station
Clapton Station
Photographs copyright © Libby Hall
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The Departure of Andy Willoughby
Andy Willoughby is stepping down as head gardener after more than fifteen years creating the spectacular gardens at Arnold Circus on the Boundary Estate. The Friends of Arnold Circus are seeking a replacement. Click here for details
Andy Willoughby
Over recent years, I have always made the detour up the steps through the park whenever I walk through Arnold Circus, in order to admire the planting. I like to see the native flowers on the slopes here, especially the bluebells, cowslips and foxgloves that combine with the tall trees arching overhead and the ivy garlanding the ironwork to create the effect of a piece of woodland transported to the city.
Most intriguing is the inclusion of non-native species, particularly a fine range of diverse hellebores, which complete the planting in a garden alive with detail at every season of the year – clearly the product of a sophisticated horticultural sensibility. So it was a pleasure to meet Andy Willoughby, the shrewd gardener responsible for the lyrical planting that has enriched this corner of the neighbourhood so attractively.
When we shook hands in Arnold Circus, I immediately noticed Andy’s intense steel-blue eyes, trademark guernsey sweater and direct manner, which is disarming at first because he requires you to connect with him at the same level of open-ness that he shows to you, but which quickly establishes a mutual understanding that allows an ease of discourse without requirement for small talk. The latter is especially useful when there is a job of work to be done and permits dialogue to be restricted to, “Are you warm enough?”, “Take this coat”, “Pass me the fork” and “Hold this bag.”
It is impossible not to respect the strength of character and physical constitution of a man who works fifty to sixty-hour weeks in all weathers outdoors from Easter to Christmas, and keeps very busy with other tasks in between.
“About twenty-five years ago, I was at a bit of a loose end,” revealed Andy quietly, as he worked, introducing his brief account of how gardening came to take over his life. At first, he did grounds maintenance work and cut lawns, but then a job gardening at a hospice for the terminally ill offered the chance to show more creativity. “I learnt most at St Joseph’s Hospice – they liked to keep everything neat and tidy. A friend was a gardener there, so I worked with her and took over when she went on maternity leave. I have no qualifications as a gardener, I learnt from observation – and, by looking up in books, I learnt how things grow.” Andy told me.
Nowadays, as well as his duties at Arnold Circus, Andy gardens at couple of schools, Blue Gate Fields in Cable St, Bangabandhu in Bethnal Green, plus at children’s nurseries, George Green on the Isle of Dogs and Harry Roberts in Stepney, as well Lady Mico’s Almshouses in Stepney and another senior nursing home in Rotherhithe. Andy spoke passionately of his work with children, “They come and help, because they see me doing the work and I explain to them what I do. It is very important that children get an education in plants, otherwise they trample them without knowing what they are doing,” adding, “My mother had a garden and she liked plants,” in explanation of his earliest education in horticulture and revealing the origin of his own green fingers.
It is apparent that Andy loves gardening, derives fulfilment from it and is held in great esteem too. So I was completely astonished when, as we said our goodbyes, he casually revealed all his other previous jobs and accomplishments that filled his life before he arrived at that loose end fifteen years ago – including being a trained nurse, a Buddhist monk, a qualified carpenter and joiner, a bricklayer, a musical instrument-maker specialising in early woodwind, a dustman, a bicycle courier and a skilled rock climber and mountaineer who scaled peaks in the Rockies, the Cascades and the Alps. Travelling widely, Andy was the last European to catch smallpox in India before it was eradicated forty-five years ago and has the scars to prove it, when I had merely assumed that his ruddy complexion was the result of years weeding in East London.
Now I understood something of the source of the natural authority that Andy possesses and his insight that sees right through you. I recognised that he carries a wealth of experience which he chooses not to tell, and I was fascinated that gardening brought him into contact with people at all stages of life, from the youngest children at nursery school to senior nursing homes and the dying. Although into his seventies now, I have never met anyone more vitally and physically present in their body than Andy Willoughby, who after experiencing a great deal of life has discovered happiness in cultivating plants.
Dusty Corners In The City Of London
St Andrew by the Wardrobe
The dust is gathering in the City of London. I used to visit at weekends to seek solitude in the empty streets but now the streets are always empty. In a misplaced gesture, pavements have been widened to permit more space when office workers return but the truth is they are never coming back. Corporations have learned they can function without the office and save a lot of money. No-one knows what happens next. If this is the slow death of the City of London, what will become of all the office towers? Meanwhile I walk the streets of the City and photograph my favourite dusty corners as the tumbleweed blows down Cheapside.
Amen Corner
St Andrew’s Hill
St Andrew by the Wardrobe
Greyfriars Garden
Charterhouse
Charterhouse Sq
Cloth Fair
Cloth Fair
St Bartholomew’s
Bartholomew Close
Watling St
College Hill
College Hill
Dowgate Hill
Abchurch Yard
Lawrence Pountney Hill
Lawrence Pountney Hill
Lawrence Pountney Lane
Reflection of St Margaret Pattern
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More Hounds Of Hackney Downs
Yesterday, the second instalment of Hackney Mosaic Project’s splendid series of portraits of the dogs of Hackney Downs was installed under the presiding genius of Tessa Hunkin. Immediately, proud owners were lining up to identify their pets immortalised upon the wall.
When I asked Tessa how it was possible to find so many different ways of portraying dogs in mosaic, she replied that it was simple – the infinite variety of the dogs provided the inspiration.
The mosaic can be visited any day in the park and look out for a celebration later this month when all the dogs will gather for an unveiling ceremony.
THE HACKNEY MOSAIC PROJECT is seeking commissions, so if you would like a mosaic please get in touch hackneymosaic@gmail.com
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The Mosaic Makers of Hackney Downs
The Award-Winning Mosaic Makers of Hackney
Stepney Old People’s Welfare Association
Roger Preece, Master of the Royal Foundation of St Katharine invited me to Limehouse recently to explore the archives, where I found this wonderful album of photographs documenting the activities of the Stepney Old People’s Welfare Association from the decades after the war.
The Welfare Association was the enlightened brainchild of John Groser, Master of the Foundation from 1947. For its first fifteen years, the Association was run from the Foundation and these photographs date from that era. As well as social events, the Association offered a meals on wheels service and home visits, developing a pattern that was widely adopted by other similar organisations across the country. It continues today as Tower Hamlets Friends & Neighbours.
An Australian by birth, Groser was appointed curate in Poplar in 1922 but dismissed in 1927 for his left-wing views, before moving to Christ Church, Watney St, where he also served as President of the Stepney Tenants’ Defence League. He stayed in the East End for his whole working life and his progressive initiatives at St Katharine’s were the natural outcome of his beliefs as a Christian and a Socialist.
There is so much joy in these glorious pictures, which acquire a certain poignancy when you realise that these people were born in the nineteenth century, lived through two world wars and the blitz in the East End. The fortitude in their faces is tangible as is their desire to have a good time, whether a card game, a dressing up contest or an egg and spoon race. These were years of austerity but they all have pride in their appearance in warm coats and hats, tailored suits and flowery dresses. Their physical expressions of affection and delight in collective activities speak eloquently of a strong sense of community forged through hard times.
Celebrating the Coronation
A beano
Podiatry
Caretaker at St Katharine
Queen Mother intervenes in a game of bridge
Queen Mother visits St Katharine’s Chapel
Dressing up contest
Morris dancing
Egg and spoon race
Speech by the Mayoress
Recipient of a bouquet
High jinks at St Katharine’s
Father John Groser
The Royal Foundation of St Katharine and the Yurt Cafe continue to serve local needs through the Limehouse Aid voluntary network, the foodbank and providing space and retreats for community groups and individuals.
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