Rory Stewart Declares His Support To Save The Whitechapel Bell Foundry
‘An imaginative planner, in fact anyone with any imagination seeing the possibilities here, could not possibly turn this down’ says Rory Stewart
Independent Mayorial Candidate for London, Rory Stewart, came to the East End on a damp wintry day this week to offer his support for our campaign to Save The Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a proper working foundry.
Last week Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, issued a Holding Order preventing Tower Hamlets Council proceeding with granting permission for change of use to the developers who want to turn the Whitechapel Bell Foundry into a boutique hotel, while he decided what to do.
Now the election is over and Robert Jenrick is back as Secretary of State, we are waiting to hear if he is going to call in the planning application and hold a Public Inquiry. So Rory Stewart’s declaration of support for the campaign this week is opportune timing and we hope this will encourage the Secretary of State to call in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
At East London Mosque, Rory Stewart met Steven Musgrave of UK Historic Building Preservation Trust who outlined their plans to reopen the foundry as a proper working foundry and make it viable again, just as they did at Middleport Pottery in Stoke. Then Sufia Alam of the London Muslim Centre spoke on behalf of the mosque and the local community in support of the campaign, explaining Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s immense cultural significance in terms of local pride of place and the opportunity that a renewed foundry offered for apprenticeships, training and education.
Then it was time to head out from the Mosque into the rain where local campaigners had gathered outside the front door of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry to greet Rory Stewart.
Speaking of his enthusiasm for the potential for a renewed bell foundry marrying old and new technology, and with a strong relationship to the local community, he declared, “All of this in one of the most interesting parts of our city – so an imaginative planner, in fact anyone with any imagination seeing the possibilities here, could not possibly turn this down. This is a challenge of courage, it’s a challenge of joyful imagination and of adventure, and we need to let the bells ring forth!”
Rory Stewart in conversation at East London Mosque with Sufia Alam of East London Mosque and Stephen Musgrave of UK Historic Building Preservation Trust
Charles Saumarez Smith welcomes Rory Stewart to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Rory Stewart declares his support for our campaign outside the foundry
“This is a challenge of courage, it’s a challenge of joyful imagination and of adventure, and we need to let the bells ring forth!” – Rory Stewart
Rory Stewart at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Photographs copyright © Andrew Baker
These are three key reasons why the Secretary of State should call in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and hold a Public Inquiry
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The Secretary of State steps in
A Letter to the Secretary of State
The Fate of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Nigel Taylor, Tower Bell Manager
Four Hundred Years at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Pearl Binder at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Dorothy Rendell at Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Hope for The Whitechapel Bell Foundry
A Petition to Save the Bell Foundry
Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
So Long, Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Fourteen Short Poems About The Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Streets Of Old London
Piccadilly, c. 1900
In my mind, I live in old London as much as I live in the contemporary London of here and now. Maybe I have spent too much time looking at photographs of old London – such as these glass slides once used for magic lantern shows by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute?
Old London exists to me through photography almost as vividly as if I had actual memory of a century ago. Consequently, when I walk through the streets of London today, I am especially aware of the locations that have changed little over this time. And, in my mind’s eye, these streets of old London are peopled by the inhabitants of the photographs.
Yet I am not haunted by the past, rather it is as if we Londoners in the insubstantial present are the fleeting spirits while – thanks to photography – those people of a century ago occupy these streets of old London eternally. The pictures have frozen their world forever and, walking in these same streets today, my experience can sometimes be akin to that of a visitor exploring the backlot of a film studio long after the actors have gone.
I recall my terror at the incomprehensible nature of London when I first visited the great metropolis from my small city in the provinces. But now I have lived here long enough to have lost that diabolic London I first encountered in which many of the great buildings were black, still coated with soot from the days of coal fires.
Reaching beyond my limited period of residence in the capital, these photographs of the streets of old London reveal a deeper perspective in time, setting my own experience in proportion and allowing me to feel part of the continuum of the ever-changing city.
Ludgate Hill, c. 1920
Holborn Viaduct, c. 1910
Woman selling fish from a barrel, c. 1910
Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd, c. 1920
Throgmorton St, c. 1920
Highgate Forge, Highgate High St, 1900
Bangor St, Kensington, c. 1900
Ludgate Hill, c. 1910
Walls Ice Cream Vendor, c. 1920
Ludgate Hill, c. 1910
Strand Yard, Highgate, 1900
Eyre St Hill, Little Italy, c. 1890
Muffin man, c. 1910
Seven Dials, c. 19o0
Fetter Lane, c. 1910
Piccadilly Circus, c. 1900
St Clement Danes, c. 1910
Hoardings in Knightsbridge, c. 1935
Wych St, c.1890
Dustcart, c. 1910
At the foot of the Monument, c. 1900
Pageantmaster Court, Ludgate Hill, c. 1930
Holborn Circus, 1910
Cheapside, 1890
Cheapside ,1892
Cheapside with St Mary Le Bow, 1910
Regent St, 1900
Glass slides copyright © Bishopsgate Institute
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Remembering Scars Of War
Last week, Tower Hamlets Council gave permission for the demolition of part of the Chamber St railway arches for a hotel extension, ignoring the fact that the best preserved wall of World War II shrapnel damage in the East End is part of the site.
An appeal has been made to the developers, Marldon, to consider integrating the wall into their new hotel. Meanwhile, I am including the link to apply for listing, in case any of my readers have the wherewithal to pursue this at Historicengland.org.uk
Next year is the eightieth anniversary of the Blitz and below I publish my photos of the few remaining examples of shrapnel damage still visible in Central London.
This wall of shrapnel damage at the junction of Mansell St & Chamber St from World War II is threatened by a hotel extension
Shrapnel pock-marks upon Southwark Cathedral from February 1941
Damage at St Bartholomew’s Hospital from zeppelin raids on 8th September 1915 and on 7th July 1917
Damage at St Bartholomew’s Hospital from zeppelin raids on 8th September 1915 and on 7th July 1917
Damage at Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, from a bomb dropped on Wednesday 18th December 1917 at 8pm
Damage at Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, from a bomb dropped on Wednesday 18th December 1917 at 8pm
Repair of shrapnel damage from September 194o at University College London, Zoology Museum, Gower St
Damage at St Clement Dane’s in the Strand from 10th May 1941 when the church was gutted
Damage at St Clement Dane’s in the Strand from 10th May 1941 when the church was gutted
Sphinx on the Embankment with damage from the first raid by German aeroplanes Tuesday 4th September 1917
Cleopatra’s Needle with damage from the first raid by German aeroplanes Tuesday 4th September 1917
Damage at Victoria & Albert Museum from two bombs in Exhibition Rd during World War II
Damage at Victoria & Albert Museum from two bombs in Exhibition Rd during World War II
Damage at Tate Britain from September 16th 1940
The hotel extension in Chamber St that will replace the wall of shrapnel damage with the location of the existing wall marked
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Julie Price’s Christmas Cards
Julie Price is in thrall to the romance of old Spitalfields at Christmas and has painted a series of greetings cards on this theme
Dennis Severs House, Folgate St
A Gold, Brushfield St
Leadenhall Market
Wilkes St
Wiltons Music Hall
Dennis Severs’Door
Spitalfields Door Knocker
Elder St
Spitalfields Door Knocker
Christ Church, Spitalfields
Spitalfields Door Knocker
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Paintings copyright @ Julie Price
Julie’s Christmas cards are available from Townhouse Spitalfields and her website www.passionforpaint.net
Some Old London Trade Cards
I discovered this selection of old London trade cards by rummaging down the back of a hypothetical sofa and searching under a hypothetical bed. Especially noteworthy are the cards for Lacroix’s and Peter De la Fontaine which are the early work of William Hogarth.
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may like to see my original selection
At Burley Fisher Books
We are delighted to collaborate with our friends at Dalston’s independent bookshop BURLEY FISHER BOOKS to host a festive Authors’ Evening at which Eleanor Crow, Dan Cruickshank, Reuben Lane & The Gentle Author will be presenting contrasted views of London, next Thursday 19th December from 6:30pm.
Eleanor will be showing her watercolours of shopfronts including some in Kingsland Rd from her book SHOPFRONTS OF LONDON. Dan will be celebrating the joys of exploring London on foot, guided by his new book LONDON, A PORTRAIT OF A CITY IN THIRTEEN WALKS. Reuben will be telling the story of six months spent on the edge of homelessness in London from his book FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT. The Gentle Author will be showing some notorious East End examples of THE CREEPING PLAGUE OF GHASTLY FACADISM.
Schrodinger will be otherwise engaged on Thursday night
Graffiti At The Tower Of London
Once the tourists grow scarce and the trees are bare, it suits me to visit the Tower of London and study the graffiti. The austere stone structures of this ancient fortress by the river reassert their grim dignity when the crowd-borne hubbub subsides, and quiet consideration of the sombre texts graven there becomes possible. Some are bold and graceful, others are spidery and maladroit, yet every one represents an attempt by their creators to renegotiate the nature of their existence. Many are by those who would otherwise be forgotten if they had not possessed a powerful need to record their being, unwilling to let themselves slide irrevocably into obscurity and be lost forever. For those faced with interminable days, painstaking carving in stone served to mark time, and to assert identity and belief. Every mark here is a testimony to the power of human will, and they speak across the ages as tokens of brave defiance and the refusal to be cowed by tyranny.
“The more affliction we endure for Christ in this world, the more glory we shall get with Christ in the world to come.” This inscription in Latin was carved above the chimney breast in the Beauchamp Tower by Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel in 1587. His father was executed in 1572 for treason and, in 1585, Howard was arrested and charged with being a Catholic, spending the rest of his life at the Tower where he died in 1595.
Sent to the Tower in 1560, Hew Draper was a Bristol innkeeper accused of sorcery. He pleaded not guilty yet set about carving this mysterious chart upon the wall of his cell in the Salt Tower with the inscription HEW DRAPER OF BRISTOW (Bristol) MADE THIS SPEER THE 30 DAYE OF MAYE, 1561. It is a zodiac wheel, with a plan of the days of the week and hours of the day to the right. Yet time was running out for Hew even as he carved this defiant piece of cosmology upon the wall of his cell, because he was noted as “verie sick” and it is low upon the wall, as if done by a man sitting on the floor.
The rebus of Thomas Abel. Chaplain to Katherine of Aragon, Abel took the Queen’s side against Henry VIII and refused to change his position when Henry married Anne Boleyn. Imprisoned in 1533, he wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1537, “I have now been in close prison three years and a quarter come Easter,” and begged “to lie in some house upon the Green.”After five and half years imprisoned at the Tower, Abel was hung, drawn and quartered at Smithfield in 1540.
Both inscriptions, above and below, have been ascribed to Lady Jane Grey, yet it is more likely that she was not committed to a cell but confined within domestic quarters at the Tower, on account of her rank. These may be the result of nineteenth century whimsy.
JOHN DUDLE – YOU THAT THESE BEASTS DO WEL BEHOLD AND SE, MAY DEME WITH EASE WHEREFORE HERE MADE THEY BE, WITH BORDERS EKE WHEREIN (THERE MAY BE FOUND) 4 BROTHERS NAMES WHO LIST TO SERCHE THE GROUNDE. The flowers around the Dudley family arms represent the names of the four brothers who were imprisoned in the Tower between 1553-4 , as result of the attempt by their father to put Lady Jane Grey upon the throne. The roses are for Ambrose, carnations (known as gillyflowers) for Guildford, oak leaves for Robert – from robur, Latin for oak – and honeysuckle for Henry. All four were condemned as traitors in 1553, but after the execution of Guildford they were pardoned and released. John died ten days after release and Henry was killed at the seige of San Quentin in 1557 while Ambrose became Queen Elizabeth’s Master of the Ordinance and Robert became her favourite, granted the title of Earl of Leicester.
Edward Smalley was the servant of a Member of Parliament who was imprisoned for one month for non-payment of a fine for assault in 1576. Thomas Rooper, 1570, may have been a member of the Roper family into which Thomas More’s daughter married, believed to be enemies of Queen Elizabeth. Edward Cuffyn faced trial in 1568 accused of conspiracy against Elizabeth and passed out his days at the Tower.
BY TORTURE STRANGE MY TROUTH WAS TRIED YET OF MY LIBERTIE DENIED THEREFORE RESON HATH ME PERSWADYD PASYENS MUST BE YMB RASYD THOGH HARD FORTUN CHASYTH ME WYTH SMART YET PASEYNS SHALL PREVAIL – this anonymous incsription in the Bell Tower is one of several attributed to Thomas Miagh, an Irishman who was committed to the Tower in 1581 for leading rebellion against Elizabeth in his homeland.
This inscription signed Thomas Miagh 1581 is in the Beauchamp Tower. THOMAS MIAGH – WHICH LETH HERE THAT FAYNE WOLD FROM HENS BE GON BY TORTURE STRAUNGE MI TROUTH WAS TRYED YET OF MY LIBERTY DENIED. Never brought to trail, he was imprisoned until 1583, yet allowed “the liberty of the Tower” which meant he could move freely within the precincts.
Subjected to the manacles fourteen times in 1594, Jesuit priest Henry Walpole incised his name in the wall of the Beauchamp Tower and beneath he carved the names of St Peter and St Paul, along with Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory – the four great doctors of the Eastern church.
JAMES TYPPING. STAND (OR BE WEL CONTENT) BEAR THY CROSS, FOR THOU ART (SWEET GOOD) CATHOLIC BUT NO WORSE AND FOR THAT CAUSE, THIS 3 YEAR SPACE, THOW HAS CONTINUED IN GREAT DISGRACE, YET WHAT HAPP WILL IT? I CANNOT TELL BUT BE DEATH. Arrested in 1586 as part of the Babington Conpiracy, Typping was tortured, yet later released in 1590 on agreeing to conform his religion. This inscription is in the Beauchamp Tower.
T. Salmon, 1622. Above his coat of arms, he scrawled, CLOSE PRISONER 32 WEEKS, 224 DAYS, 5376 HOURS. He is believed to have died in custody.
A second graffito by Giovanni Battista Castiglione, imprisoned in 1556 by Elizabeth’s sister, Mary, for plotting against her and later released.
Nothing is known of William Rame whose name is at the base of this inscription. BETTER IT IS TO BE IN THE HOUSE OF MOURNING THAN IN THE HOUSE OF BANQUETING. THE HEART OF THE WISE IS IN THE MOURNING HOUSE. IT IS MUCH BETTER TO HAVE SOME CHASTENING THAN TO HAVE OVERMUCH LIBERTY. THERE IS A TIME FOR ALL THINGS, A TIME TO BE BORN AND A TIME TO DIE, AND THE DAY OF DEATH IS BETTER THAN THE DAY OF BIRTH. THERE IS AN END TO ALL THINGS AND THE END OF A THING IS BETTER THAN THE BEGINNING, BE WISE AND PATIENT IN TROUBLE FOR WISDOM DEFENDETH AS WELL AS MONEY. USE WELL THE TIME OF PROSPERITY AND REMBER THE TIME OF MISFORTUNE – 25 APRIL 1559.
Ambrose Rookwood was one of the Gunpowder Plotters. He was arrested on 8th November 1606 and taken from the Tower on 27th January 1607 to Westminster Hall where he pleaded guilty. On 30th January, he was tied to a hurdle and dragged by horse from the Tower to Westminster before being hung, drawn and quartered with his fellow conspirators.
Photographs copyright © Historic Royal Palaces
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