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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Adam Dant’s Map Of Iconoclastic London
In these strange days, Contributing Cartographer Adam Dant has drawn a map of iconoclastic London to remind us all that this is a city which has always been in a state of flux
Click map to enlarge
ADAM DANT INTRODUCES HIS ICONOCLASTIC LONDON MAP
‘Whether due to conquest, protest, dogma, lunacy, obsession, righteous anger, prurience – or just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time – London’s statuary, monuments and works of art have often found themselves the subject of all manner of deliberate, destructive actions.
Even my depiction of ‘Iconoclastic London’ has been the target of a wanton map-tearer who has peeled back the fabric of my chart to reveal London’s various encounters with iconoclasts, in just the same way that acts of destruction are often recognised as a liberating deeds deployed to reveal truth and expose stagnant or corrupt belief systems.
Who knows what it was about Frank Dobson’s sculpture, ‘Woman with Fish’ on Cambridge Heath Rd, that made it the target for acts of vandalism ? Or why the figure of a woman from 1797 above the entrance to the former Huguenot Soup Kitchen in Brick Lane was chipped off with a chisel ? In 1769, when a sailor attacked the statue of Queen Anne outside St Paul’s Cathedral he was simply whisked off to the madhouse.
A story discovered too late for inclusion on map is that of the Match Girls who in 1888 went on strike over poor pay and exploitative working conditions at Bryant & May. Each year, their descendants paint the hands red of the statue of Gladstone in Bow as an act of perpetual iconoclasm. As long he is there and they continue to do so, we will know why.’
Adam Dant’s Iconoclastic London Map was commissioned by The Critic
CLICK TO ORDER A COPY OF MAPS OF LONDON & BEYOND BY ADAM DANT
Adam Dant’s MAPS OF LONDON & BEYOND is a mighty monograph collecting together all your favourite works by Spitalfields Life‘s Contributing Cartographer in a beautiful big hardback book.
Including a map of London riots, the locations of early coffee houses and a colourful depiction of slang through the centuries, Adam Dant’s vision of city life and our prevailing obsessions with money, power and the pursuit of pleasure may genuinely be described as ‘Hogarthian.’
Unparalleled in his draughtsmanship and inventiveness, Adam Dant explores the byways of London’s cultural history in his ingenious drawings, annotated with erudite commentary and offering hours of fascination for the curious.
The book includes an extensive interview with Adam Dant by The Gentle Author.
Adam Dant’s limited edition prints including the ICONOCLASTIC LONDON MAP are available to purchase through TAG Fine Arts
The Townhouse Open Exhibition
Back in the spring, I announced the Town House Gallery‘s inaugural Open Exhibition of paintings on an East End theme. This show opens next Saturday 12th September at Town House in Spitalfields and runs until 25th October (Wednesdays to Sundays). Please email fiona@townhousespitalfields.
The selection committee was Fiona Atkins, David Buckman, Doreen Fletcher & The Gentle Author, but in the happy event all thirty pictures submitted are being hung which makes it a truly open exhibition.
Below I have picked out a few works to show you, some of which are by familiar names and others by artists who are new to me. Casting my eyes over these works, I am delighted that the century-old painting tradition of East End Vernacular flourishes to this day.
Callegari’s Restaurant, Commercial Rd, by Doreen Fletcher
‘This facade is an echo of the days when independent coffee bars proliferated in London, run mainly by Greek or Italian families. I first came across Callegari’s in the eighties, then one day in the early nineties the wire grille remained in place and a handwritten sign said ‘Gone on holiday’. Ten years later the grille and the note were still there. It had faded in the sunlight to the point of illegibility and I wondered what had happened to the owner. He was Italian, perhaps Sicilian.’
Interior of Leila’s Shop by Eleanor Crow
‘I am embarking on a series of interiors in East London. The display of wares in Leila’s Shop, backlit by daylight falling onto the ranks of containers and display of cheeses, the rolled pats of butter on a slate slab, the upended bottles on a French rack, and the recent arrivals of produce still in their cardboard boxes, exude a calm, quiet beauty.
East London, that part ‘beyond the Tower’, offers many glimpses into its past, through shops, houses, businesses and architecture. By focussing on the interiors, I want to record some of the timeless qualities of this region of London, despite perpetual change.’
Arnold Circus by Melissa Scott Miller
‘I discovered Arnold Circus about forty years ago when I was a student at the Slade and wandered around that area when I was going to Brick Lane on Sundays.
As lockdown was easing I started to think about painting there, timing it so I would catch the hollyhocks in flower. On the first day, a white cat strolled across the path and I put him in.
I had chats with the gardeners and there was a great feeling of camaraderie amongst them. I love the red brick blocks of flats and schools. I go into a reverie when I am painting outside and think about the past and the present, and I hope all that goes into my painting.’
The Lipton Building, Shoreditch, by Louise Burston
‘My grandparents lived in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, during the twenties, where my grandfather was a manager on a large tea estate. Thomas Lipton purchased his own tea gardens there, where he packaged and sold the first Lipton tea. Built in 1931, The Lipton Building still dominates the junction of Shoreditch High St and Bethnal Green Rd.’
View from the 242 Dalston Lane by Jes Liberty
Star of the East by Julie Price
‘My family is originally from the East End and I have worked next to Spitalfields for over thirty years. I am interested in the history and conservation of the area and am passionate about painting buildings that tell stories about times gone by.’
Bell Lane, Spitalfields by Bridget Strevens Marzo
‘Seizing colour and movement on paper in real time is a kind of sport for me. What will get me going on slower-paced watercolours of buildings, like those in Bell Lane, is the play of light across coloured surfaces. Then, as I work, I will sense a story behind the traces that people have left there. Something as commonplace as the marks on an old shop front, a shuttered window, street furniture and graffiti can take on a depth as intriguing and mysterious as a sculpture on a cathedral porch.’
Man in the Window by Trevor Burgess
‘I have been painting the East End for nearly twenty years and find an endless source of subject matter in the streets, markets and public places. I am interested in ordinary life, what is going on around me as I walk about the city. Then came the lockdown and we were all trapped in our houses. So this is an unusually empty painting of a guy sitting in the window of a house in Hackney.’
Limekiln Dock, Limehouse by Stewart Smith
Stewart Smith was born in Hackney and is a painter and sometime stone carver and printmaker. Recently Stewart painted a series of East End views, exploring the old and the new in quiet spots away from the slums, tower blocks and underpasses.
De Walvisch at Hermitage Wharf, Wapping by Peta Bridle
‘De Walvisch means ‘The Whale’ and she is a Dutch sailing clipper boat from 1896 that delivered eels along The Thames. There is so much to draw and inspire me in London and I keep a sketchbook of ink drawings that I make on the spot when I visit.’
The Black Horse by Jonathan Madden
‘I was born in East London but have lived and worked in many different parts of the city. The main subject in my work is the overlooked spaces and buildings that fall victim to the developer and the bulldozer. Many of these are pubs, so I started painting them back in 2014, representing them as they appear now, often ignored but still culturally relevant.’
Ezra St by Marc Gooderham
‘I have always lived and worked in London. The city is my main source of inspiration with our capital’s unsettled skies creating the perfect backdrop. I paint the streets around me, predominantly the East End. Concentrating on the city’s decaying, unique architecture I try to capture buildings that hold an attractive melancholy, those that have been neglected and fallen into disrepair as the living city continues to evolve around them.’
Liverpool St Station by Nicholas Borden
‘I work from life, my subjects are usually local and I prefer to find a perspective that is from above and afar. I am drawn to activity and a sense of busyness, so these are reoccurring themes in my paintings.
I want to depict a truthful visual world but my compositions are not photographic, instead I seek a personal vision without contrivance. Being known for having an original vision of my own is what is important to me.’
Building Site, Folgate St, Spitalfields by Jane Smith
‘I have lived and worked around East London for over twenty-five years as an artist and illustrator. I have a love of architecture and the built environment.’
The Last Pie by Sarah Brownlee
‘This depicts the final days of the pie & mash shop F Cooke on Broadway Market. I produced studies towards the end of last year but completed the painting when F Cooke closed its doors for good this year. It was an East End institution, I was desperate to capture a moment there before we lost it forever.
I love scenes from everyday life, mostly people in their favourite places. This can be anywhere from Hackney, where I live, to Northumberland, where I am from.’
Brick Lane Memory 1973 by Tony Norman
‘I work with the rejected, the neglected and the washed up. I am interested in the forgotten faces of a past era. I try to combine this and the materials with respect and a little gentle humour.’
Christchurch, Spitalfields, seen from 3 Fournier St by Suzanne McGilloway
‘I am an Irish painter from Derry in the North West of Ireland. With a love of Georgian architecture, I am moved to record and explore the urban landscape of Spitalfields. I am drawn by the distinctive quality of the place, its continuity and its ever changing landscape, working to capture a contemporary interpretation of the streets and its inhabitants.’
Town House Gallery, 5 Fournier St, Spitalfields, E1 6QE
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