Spitalfields Life

The author of A LONDON INHERITANCE (A private history of a public city) is one of the many luminaries among the alumnii of my blog-writing course and I am delighted to present his most recent post about the tiles at Bethnal Green Tube Station.

A few places are available for my next course HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ on 19th & 20th May. Join me for a weekend in an eighteenth century weaver’s house in Fournier St, enjoy delicious lunches from Leila’s Cafe, eat cakes baked from historic recipes at Townhouse, discover the secrets of Spitalfields Life & learn how to write your own blog!

I have no idea how many times I have walked along the Central Line platforms at Bethnal Green. Yet in all these years, I cannot say that the tiles on the walls have drawn a second glance from me or that I have appreciated the purpose behind their design – until now.

A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time walking up and down the platforms, studying the designs of the illustrated tiles interspersed among the plain ones and photographing them. Subsequently, I have tried to discover the inspirations for these designs which represent London landmarks and heraldic symbols for the counties served by London Transport. Many contain the initial ‘S’ for Harold Stabler who was the designer. Originally, Stabler was asked by Frank Pick, Managing Director of London Underground and first Chief Executive of London Transport, to design a rabbit mascot for the country buses run by London General in 1922.

Born in 1872, Stabler was a skilled designer working in a number of materials including precious metals, and one of his most famous commissions was the Ascot Gold Cup. In 1936, he was appointed by the Royal Society of Arts as the first Designer for Industry, consulting on design for industries and public bodies. He was involved in the creation of Poole Pottery who manufactured the tiles for the Underground. Although his eighteen tile designs were executed in the thirties, Bethnal Green station did not open until 1946 since work on the Central Line extension was delayed by the war.

The first tile represents of London Underground’s headquarters at 55 Broadway and my photograph below shows how accurate the representation is.

The swan been used as a heraldic badge since medieval times and it was adopted by the 2nd Duke of Buckingham and then by the County of Buckinghamshire, also being incorporated in the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Railway. The Dunstable Swan Jewel in the British Museum is an example of this symbol in the form of a brooch, made around 14oo and found on the site of a Dominican Priory in Dunstable in 1965. (photograph ©Trustees of the British Museum)

In this representation of the Palace of Westminster, there are two crowns and a bowler hat representing the Monarch, the Lords and the Commons.

The following tile shows five maidens which represent the County of Berkshire.

Another tile has five birds flying over water, representing the River Thames.

This design is of the Crystal Palace, however this tile does not have the ‘S’ to be found on all the other tiles, so it may not be one of Stabler’s originals.

The number five appears a common theme for the tiles. In this design, there are five birds with two pairs of parallel lines between them. This tile is one of several held by the Victoria & Albert Museum and their record identifies this design as “five martletts – the arms of the City of Westminster.”

This tile illustrates the coat of arms for the County of Middlesex as shown below.

The following design is a bird of prey representing the County of Bedfordshire.

This tile shows a crown above oak leaves with acorns from the coat of arms for the County of Surrey.

This tile has the design of a rearing horse from the coat of arms for the County of Kent.

This winged griffin was the original symbol of London Transport.

This tile above is a representation of the coat of arms of the County of London.

I hope I found all the different designs at Bethnal Green, I spent some time walking up and down, photographing the tiles. There are multiple copies of each of these designs on both platforms.

In 2006, many of the plain tiles along the platform were replaced with replicas. There are still some original panels of tiles and I understand that the decorated tiles are original. Yet the Crystal Palace tile may be a reproduction as it does not include Stabler’s trade mark letter ‘S’ and has different finish to the rest.

Stabler’s decorated tiles were also installed at St. Paul’s, Aldgate East, St. John’s Wood and Swiss Cottage Underground stations. I believe they are still to be seen at Aldgate, but I am not sure of the other stations – something to check when I next visit.

Harold Stabler died in London in 1945 but his designs live on at Bethnal Green.

Photographs copyright © A London Inheritance

HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ  – 19th & 20th MAY

Spend a weekend in an eighteenth century weaver’s house in Spitalfields and learn how to write a blog with The Gentle Author.

This course will examine the essential questions which need to be addressed if you wish to write a blog that people will want to read.

“Like those writers in fourteenth century Florence who discovered the sonnet but did not quite know what to do with it, we are presented with the new literary medium of the blog – which has quickly become omnipresent, with many millions writing online. For my own part, I respect this nascent literary form by seeking to explore its own unique qualities and potential.” – The Gentle Author

COURSE STRUCTURE

1. How to find a voice – When you write, who are you writing to and what is your relationship with the reader?
2. How to find a subject – Why is it necessary to write and what do you have to tell?
3. How to find the form – What is the ideal manifestation of your material and how can a good structure give you momentum?
4. The relationship of pictures and words – Which comes first, the pictures or the words? Creating a dynamic relationship between your text and images.
5. How to write a pen portrait – Drawing on The Gentle Author’s experience, different strategies in transforming a conversation into an effective written evocation of a personality.
6. What a blog can do – A consideration of how telling stories on the internet can affect the temporal world.

SALIENT DETAILS

The next course will be held at 5 Fournier St, Spitalfields on 19th & 20th May. Each course runs from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 11am-5pm on Sunday.

Lunch will be catered by Leila’s Cafe of Arnold Circus and tea, coffee & cakes by the Townhouse are included within the course fee of £300.

Accomodation at 5 Fournier St is available upon enquiry to Fiona Atkins fiona@townhousewindow.com

Email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com to book a place on the course.

Everyone in East London knows KTS The Corner, Tony O’Kane’s timber and DIY shop. With Tony’s ingenious wooden designs upon the fascia and the three-sided clock he designed over the door, this singular family business never fails catch the eye of anyone passing the corner of the Kingsland Rd and Englefield Rd in Dalston. In fact, KTS The Corner is such an established landmark that it is “a point of knowledge” for taxi drivers.

Yet, in spite of its fame, there is an enigma about KTS which can now be revealed for the first time. “People think it stands for Kingsland Timber Service,” said Tony with a glint in his eye, “Even my accountant thinks it does, but it doesn’t – it stands for three of my children, Katie, Toni and Sean.” And then he crossed his arms and tapped his foot upon the ground, chuckling to himself at this ingenious ruse. It was entirely characteristic of Tony’s irrepressible creative spirit which finds its expression in every aspect of this modest family concern, now among the last of the independent one-stop shops for small builders and people doing up their homes.

On the Kingsland Rd, Tony’s magnificent pavement display of brushes, mops and shovels, arrayed like soldiers on parade, guard the wonders that lie within. To enter, you walk underneath Tony’s unique three-sided clock – constructed to be seen from East, South and North – with his own illustrations of building materials replacing the numerals. Inside, there are two counters, one on either side, where Tony’s sons and daughters lean over to greet you, offering key cutting on your left and a phantasmagoric array of fixtures to your right. Step further, and the temporal theme becomes apparent, as I discovered when Tony took me on the tour. Each department has a different home made clock with items of stock replacing the numerals, whether nails and screws, electrical fittings, locks and keys, copper piping joints, or even paints upon a palette-shaped clock face. Whenever I expressed my approval, Tony grimaced shyly and gave a shrug, indicating that he was just amusing himself.

Rashly, Tony left his sons in charge while we retired to his cubicle office stacked with invoices and receipts where, over a cup of tea, he explained how he came to be there.

“I’m from from Hoxton, I went to St Monica’s School in Hoxton Sq. To get me to concentrate on anything they had to tie me down, but, if anything physical needed doing, like moving tables and chairs, I’d be there doing it. My dad did his own decorating and my mother wanted everything completely changed every year or eighteen months, so he taught me how to hang wallpaper and to do lots of little jobs. After Cardinal Pole’s Secondary School, I did an apprenticeship in carpentry and got a City & Guilds distinction. Starting at fifteen, I did four years apprenticeship at Yeomans & Partners. Back then, when you came out of your apprenticeship, they made you redundant. You got the notice in your pay packet on the Thursday but on Saturday you’d get a letter advertising that they needed carpenters at the same company. They wanted you to work for them but without benefits and you had to pay a weekly holiday stamp.

I went self-employed from that moment. At the age of nineteen, I started my own company. I covered all the trades because I learnt that the first person to arrive on a building site is a carpenter and the last person to leave the site upon completion is a carpenter. Nine out of ten foremen are ex-carpenters and joiners, since the carpenter gets involved with every single other trade. So, over the years, I picked up plumbing, heating, electrics. When I started my company, I wouldn’t employ anyone if I couldn’t do their job – so I knew how much to pay ’em and whether they was doing it right or wrong.

This was in 1973, and Hackney Council offered me a grant to do up a building in Broadway Market. I just wanted an office, a workshop and a warehouse but they said you have to open a shop. So, as I was a building company, I opened a builders’ merchants and then, twenty years ago, I bought this place. When I bought it, it was just the corner, there was no shopfront. I designed the shopfront and found the old doors. I used to come here with my dad when we were doing the decorating for my mum, because they made pelmets to order here but, as a child, I never thought I’d own this place.”

Tony is proud to assure you that he stocks more lines than those ubiquitous warehouse chains selling DIY materials, and he took me down into the vast cellar where entire aisles of neatly filed varieties of hammers and hundreds of near-identical light fixtures illustrated the innumerable byways of unlikely creativity. At the rear of the shop, through a narrow door, I discovered the carpentry workshop where resident carpenter Mike presides upon some handsome old mechanical saws in a lean-to shed stacked with timber. He will cut wood to any shape or dimension you require upon the old workbench here.

Tony’s witty designs upon the Englewood Rd side of the building are the most visible display of his creative abilities, in pictograms conveying Plumbing & Electrical, Joinery, Keys Cut, Gardening and Timber Cut-to-Size. When Tony took these down to overhaul them once, it caused a stir in the national press. Thousands required reassurance that Tony’s designs would be reinstated exactly as before. It was an unexpected recognition of Tony’s talent and a powerful reminder of the secret romance we all harbour for traditional hardware shops.

Tony with his sons Jack and Sean.

A magnificent pavement display of brushes, mops and shovels.

The temporary removal of Tony’s wooden pictograms triggered a public outcry in the national press.

In the Kingsland Rd, you may also like to read about

William Gee Ltd, Haberdashers

Arthur’s Cafe

At the Geffrye Almshouses