So Long, Dorothy Rendell
I feel touched and privileged to have been given the eleventh hour opportunity last year to interview Artist Dorothy Rendell who died yesterday. It is a matter of regret that she did not receive the recognition she deserved for her painting earlier in her life, yet I take consolation that she died with a copy of my interview at her bedside and she took great delight in the many appreciative comments she received for her work, regarding this late public acknowledgement as vindication of a kind.
Self portrait by Dorothy Rendell
In recent months, I enjoyed visiting Dorothy Rendell to hear her stories, admire her paintings and share her company. At ninety-four years old, Dorothy was taking her ease, relaxing in the warm with a glass of red wine and a cigarette while contemplating the winter sunlight in the garden of her tiny cottage at Mile End Place. Blessed with magnificent cheek bones and a profile worthy of Edith Sitwell, Dorothy was a natural raconteuse who possessed the hauteur of another age, tempered by an endearing, caustic sense of humour.
Studying at St Martin’s School of Art during World War Two, Dorothy began her career as an artist with a studio in Kensington where she encountered the likes of Henry Lamb, Carel Weight and Orovida Pissarro. Yet it was in Stepney working for more than forty years at Harry Gosling School that she discovered the joyful expression of her abilities and here she undertook a series of portraits of pupils that spanned her career.
Just a handful of unexhibited oil paintings bear witness to a significant talent which might have made Dorothy famous if she had received the recognition she deserved. Instead it led her to the East End – by way of Italy – and ultimately to a modest life of fulfilment as an inspirational and passionate art teacher.
“Very few people really say what they think and say it bluntly and openly regardless, they couch it round with tact, but I am not like that. At ninety-four, I do not belong to any age. When I think ‘fifty years ago today,’ it does not seem all that time ago to me.
I had to give up my art work because I had no money and I could not find anywhere to paint. I had a huge studio at the back of a house in Warwick Gardens, Kensington, which was freezing cold and falling down, the rain would drip in. It had once belonged to Jacob Epstein. It was the most romantic studio. People used to love coming round and I had constant visitors. I used to paint there but I wasted an awful lot of time working to make money when I should have been painting. I exhibited at the Leicester Gallery and at the Royal Academy, but I never had a solo show. I just put things up here and there. I muddled through life really, but I have had an interesting life.
I came to the East End because I could not get a job anywhere else, people were terribly against women artists. They still are in this country. I used to go for teaching jobs and I had very good credentials, including references from Henry Lamb, Vivian Pitchforth and Mr Dickie who was an Inspector of Schools, but I never got the job because some man would come along and swipe it. This used to infuriate me because I knew that I was better and I was better at teaching too. I never thought I would own a house and when I came to live in Mile End Place, people said, ‘You’re crazy, you’ve bought a load of rubble, but I think it’s marvellous!’ All of my life has been flukes like that.
I started drawing very early on, at ten years old. Dorothy Rushforth, my mother, came from the north of England and went to art school, she was quite advanced for her time. My father came from a long line of gentleman farmers in Devonshire and he was a bit of a villain. His family lost all their money through one of them being a gambler. So he travelled the world on luxury liners doing doubtful business deals and brought people back and my mother had to entertain them and cook for them. They just frittered away their lives.
My mother encouraged me to draw and when I was eighteen I got a prize for the best artist in the school but nobody mentioned it and nobody took me to prize giving. It is most extraordinary when I think about it now! Of course, the war was on and one was whisked from here to there.
I came up to London in wartime and I was by myself, I did not know a soul. I got one room in an attic in Pembroke Sq, Notting Hill Gate. There were lots of interesting people and a very good cinema there, with marvellous French films, I had never seen anything like them. It was exciting. Then I got into St Martin’s School of Art through doing evening classes because I had to work in the day to earn money. At art school, I met Vivian Pitchforth who was a well known draftsman and if you were taught how to draw by him, it was a great honour. Somehow, he noticed me. I do not know how because I never said a word to anyone.
The art school was in Charing Cross Rd then, it was lovely. I inhabited all those dumps in Old Compton St where you got cheap meals for tuppence ha’penny. We all used to go to them, I am quite sure we were eating horseflesh! There were lots of little cafes, it was wonderful. Robert Beulah who was a Royal Academician, his mother ran a cafe there and she quite liked me, she thought I was quiet and well behaved – so we had a little clientele there. It was very good. I loved my years in Soho, living in that awful attic in Notting Hill Gate which is probably worth a fortune now! How life changes.
I met Henry Lamb, the artist, and I thought he was marvellous, he was very quiet and very scholarly. He became my friend and he followed my work when I left art school, and he used to write to me over the years. I never earned any money as an artist, I had not got the gift of making money, I would always belittle my work. I do a picture and think, ‘That’s quite good’ but then I would think ‘That bit there needs changing.’ I remember doing a painting of lemons, I was quite pleased with it. I did it in my father’s bank which was open on Sunday, so I put all these lemons on the counter with a cauliflower and I painted them. I did not think much of it yet years after I put it in an exhibition and people said, ‘You’re brilliant!’ It means a lot when you are eighteen but there you are, what does it matter now? I enjoyed doing it.
I tried getting my work exhibited by galleries but it was an awful fag, I made a living by doing odd jobs. I travelled a lot and I read a terrific amount because I was too shy to talk to people – and that was a good thing because I got a wide vocabulary. I travelled all over Italy, you did not hitch then but I got lifts somehow and I used to draw in cafes. I found that this was terribly popular and I could draw because of my marvellous tuition. It was wonderful.
When I first went to Florence, somebody sent me there and said, ‘Try and make a go of it!’ I did not have any money, if I had a few quid I was surprised. I shared a house with extraordinary people. One or two very wealthy, one or two officers in the army, a Spanish girl, various other people, and me. I used to go out and draw in the evening because I love watching Italian life outdoors. Those drawings are scattered all over Italy. It was fun, I loved drawing ordinary people sitting around chatting. They did not mind where I came from. I loved it. I would love to be Italian.
Eventually, I came to the East End and I had to go round awful schools. I was not used to these East End types of all nationalities but I stuck it out – I think I must had a bit of character – and I eventually got a job at Harry Gosling School where they had a remarkable headmistress. She was astonishing, she became my best friend instantly. She was called Sybil Mary Parry. She got me going on life really. She got some brilliant results. She was a state scholar, which means she was the best eighteen year old taking exams in the county. She was very intelligent and she had a big clientele of boyfriends, who all played rugby for Wales. I can still hear here shrieking across the room when the television was on and Wales were playing.
The school was in a very poor part of the East End and I could see that for the children it was life or death to get a good education, and she saw to it that they did. She was very eccentric, she would talk to people all the time and even go round to the betting shop herself to put her ten bob on the Derby. Sibyl used to keep a bottle of sherry in her filing cabinet. She was a marvellous character. She is not forgotten.
She used to publicise my children’s art and I became quite well known with the inspector. He really loved this school and he used to come every week or so just to see it. What a school! It turned out some marvellous people and I still hear from them. Old people get in touch and say, ‘You used to teach me.’
You are dropped in, and you either survive or you die – but I survived.”
Orovida Pissarro, Camille Pissarro’s granddaughter. “I met her through Carel Weight whom I encountered in Warwick Gardens, he had a studio down the road. One day, I was looking outside a junk shop in the Earl’s Court Rd and he asked me, ‘What are you wanting?’ I said, ‘I’m going out to buy a chair because I have a quartet coming to practice in my studio and I have not got four chairs.’ He said, ‘Come with me, I can give you a chair.’ So he took me to his house and we became friends.
I used to cook for Orovida at her home in Redcliffe Gardens, she was a great gourmet. She was Jewish but she loved roast pork. After the meal, she would go to sleep and I would be painting away. She had no children, she was hermaphrodite. I realised that very quickly. She had lovely things and she would get out bundles of letters from Zola. I loved going to see her but she was eccentric and very demanding, she liked daft things on the television like Doctor Finlay’s Casebook. She used to have a birthday party every year with a lot of interesting people and I went along with Carel Weight, and we would have a feast of roast pork. She was a very good painter and her paintings were quite interesting. Orovida liked being painted and it was a marvellous interior with lovely things round her. I knew her for years until she died.”
Wapping – “I got a window from a pub beside Wapping Pier Head and it took me weeks. I did drawings and squared it up. I am not one of those who does quick ones.”
Wapping, View from an upper window at Wapping Pier Head in spring
View across Mount Pleasant from Doughty St -“I had a friend who had a flat there, next door to Dickens’ House. I had many a meal there and stayed the night. She was a teacher and a writer, but she was always having affairs in Paris. With her job and boyfriends, the crises she put me through. A good friend.”
One of Dorothy’s pupils at Harry Gosling School
“This little boy was one of the pupils I taught. A little horror! He’d been badly behaved – so the head teacher told me, ‘Take him and make him sit for you!’ So he had to sit still for about two or three days. I think I did a painting of him too”
“This is a nice little girl who had a terrible life. She was pretty and I liked her, so I drew her. I think I probably went to her house. It was squared up for a painting but I don’t know what happened to the painting. Children are very good to draw as long as they are not commissioned, when they are commissioned they are hellish. One mother came to me and wanted a portrait of her daughter. She looked a nice kid and I didn’t charge very much. She wore jeans, but when she turned up she was all dressed up – it was awful!”
“I used to give them their drawings. They used to beg me for them and were so persuasive that I used to hand them over, until one day a boy took my drawing and folded it up in half and put it in his pocket. I nearly screamed! They never did that in Italy, they treasure their drawings there.”
“This is Harry. Miss Parry, the head teacher, she adored this drawing. Harry was really thick and he used to look at you with that blank expression, but he was marvellously funny and he made a tremendous effort. Somebody who used to work with me said, ‘I’m going to bring Harry to Miss Parry’s funeral,’ and I said, ‘But he’ll be middle aged now.’ She found him and he came to the funeral. I couldn’t believe it. He was a lorry driver for Charringtons.”
“This was a little Afghan girl, I thought she was beautiful. She was a vain little girl who would sit for hours in the art room. Miss Parry thought it was better for pupils to sit with me than to sit and do nothing, so she would send the badly behaved ones to the art room and I would draw them. They liked being drawn, they were flattered by it.”
“I never had any absentees from my art classes, they were always very keen. As my head teacher used to say, ‘They’ll always go to art with you!’ They enjoyed doing it. There were always a certain number who could not draw, who found it very difficult. I would get them started making patterns but they would think they could not do that. So I would say, ‘Yes you can.’ I would get something like an electric light bulb and say, ‘Make some patterns from what you can see with that.’ – repeating and so forth. And they would come up with some marvellous things. Then they got keen. You have to think up strange things to get children really interested.”
“This little girl, I got to know her mother and father, and she went on to grammar school. The children of immigrants always did much better than the English ones because their parents wanted them to work.”
“This was in the doctor’s waiting room. Quite a well known doctor round here invited me to draw there.”
“When I started teaching I thought I would teach in the West End but they would not take women, so I had to move to the East End – but I don’t regret that at all because I got so wrapped up in it and there were all these places where I could go and draw.” Dorothy Rendell (1924-2018)
Paintings copyright © Estate of Dorothy Rendell
Portrait of Dorothy Rendell at ninety-four © Lucinda Douglas Menzies
A Letter To Crest Nicholson
This is the text of my letter that was emailed to Crest Nicholson yesterday. A hard copy was also sent by guaranteed delivery to arrive at their corporate headquarters in Surrey today.
17th January 2018
To
It has come to my attention that you have used my photograph of the Bethnal Green Mulberry tree without my permission on your leaflets and in an exhibition for your proposed development of the former London Chest Hospital.
This photograph was first published on my blog www.spitalfieldslife.com on 24th April 2015.
Here is the link: https://spitalfieldslife.com/2015/04/24/the-oldest-tree-in-the-east-end/
I have appended a copy of the picture alongside a scan of your leaflet.
I am furious that a large company like Crest Nicholson should take my property with such brazen disregard for the law of copyright. There is no excuse for this disingenuous behaviour on your part.
I would never have given permission if you had sought it, but I cannot stop the use that has occurred and for that you should pay me a fee.
You will find my invoice for this usage accompanying this letter and I require confirmation from you on the following points:
1. You will cease circulating the leaflet with my photograph on it and destroy remaining copies.
2. You will remove my photograph from your exhibition.
3. You will make no further use of my photograph or reproduce it again in any medium.
Please understand that I take this breach of copyright very seriously and if I do not receive assurances from you on the three points above and payment in full within ten working days, I shall have no choice but to pursue action against you.
Yours sincerely
The Gentle Author
The Gentle Author’s photograph of the Bethnal Green Mulberry taken in April 2015 before Crest Nicholson purchased the London Chest Hospital
The Gentle Author’s photograph as reproduced without permission by Crest Nicholson in their leaflet and exhibition for their proposed London Chest Hospital development
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Here We Go Round The Bethnal Green Mulberry
A Plea For The Bethnal Green Mulberry
Lucinda Douglas-Menzies At Billingsgate Market
Contributing Photographer Lucinda Douglas-Menzies took these photographs, published for the first time today, just before old Billingsgate Market closed for good on 17th January 1982 – thirty-six years ago – capturing the last flurry of activity at the ancient market which had been operating almost unchanged for centuries next to London Bridge.
“I was working as a photographer’s assistant at the time and, knowing that the market was about to close its doors, went one morning very early around 5:00am, shown round by my friend Julian Birch who bought fish for restaurants. I remember metal chests of drawers with water dripping through them containing live eels squirming in each drawer and the ice house with years and years of ice built up on the walls where giant fish were stored, their tails standing up, frozen stiff. The porters in their grubby white overalls and leather hats for carrying heavy cold boxes of fish on their heads, displayed quick wits and innate humour despite the harsh working conditions.” Lucinda Douglas-Menzies
‘I get mucking fuddled’
… a moment later
Porter with a box of crabs
The man on the left is ‘Big Greg’
The Boss
Looking towards Tower Bridge from Billingsgate
The Toll Office corridor at Billingsgate
The ice house at Billingsgate
Billingsgate Market, c. 1910
Billingsgate 1809 by Thomas Rowlandson & Augustus Pugin
Photographs copyright © Lucinda Douglas Menzies
Archive images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may like to take a look at these other Billingsgate stories
John Gillman’s Bus Tickets
John Gillman, 1964
Look at this bright young lad in his snazzy red blazer with his hair so neatly combed, how he radiates intelligence and initiative – trust him to come up with a smart idea, like collecting every variety of London bus, trolley and tram ticket so that people might wonder at them half a century later in the age of contactless! Here John Gillman explains his cunning ploy –
“This album has followed me around for more than fifty years and survived house moves, down-sizings and other clear-out initiatives. Unlike other collections of mine (such as stamps & coins), that have long since disappeared, there was something about it that I believed to be important.
I had not looked at it for many years until The Gentle Author suggested the Bishopsgate Institute might like to add it to their archive, which – to my delight – they have. This prompted me to look at it again with a more considered gaze and what I found was quite surprising.
It was a slightly disconcerting but nonetheless enjoyable encounter with my younger self. The album contains a number of tickets that I bought between the ages of eleven and thirteen, along with an eclectic mix of older miscellaneous examples. So it is a like a diary of my youthful journeys taken.
In 1961, some friends and I discovered that there was enjoyment – and occasionally excitement – to be had by buying Red Rover bus tickets. These entitled you to unlimited travel at the weekend and there are seven examples in the album. We would head off as soon after the ticket became valid at 9:30 in the morning and return in the early evening for dinner. Occasionally, we would take a packed sandwich lunch but we would also eat out – usually fish and chips or, on one occasion, pie and mash with liquor in the East End.
We also held aspirations to purchase a Green Rover ticket one day which allowed access to country buses but, since I do not have one in the collection, I must presume we never did this. We planned to head off into Kent and visit Pratts Bottom – mainly because we found the name hilarious and wanted to see it on a signpost.
What strikes me most today are the detailed notes I wrote. Much of it is in my very best handwriting and, in some cases, I used a typewriter (although I have no idea where I gained access to one). I clearly undertook a lot of research and some items I still find fascinating. The ‘Workman’s Ticket,’ for example, with – as I noted assiduously – ‘unusual punch holes.’ And the special editions, such as those for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and Last Tram Week in 1952. Some are even earlier, issued before 1933, as indicated in my meticulous notes. There is also a collection of 1963 Christmas tickets in gay colours. I remember that the yellow version was particularly rare and the one in my album had obviously spent some time on the floor of the bus.
Each morning, on the way to school, we added up the digits that made up the ticket number – and, if they totalled twenty-one, it was going to be a lucky day. Some people believed that the initials next to the number on the older tickets foretold the initials of your future wife, which proved to be something of a challenge if it was just an ‘X’.”
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
(click to enlarge and study the tickets in detail)
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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Charles Hindley’s Cries Of London
A prized acquisition in my Cries of London collection is a second edition of Charles Hindley’s ‘History of the Cries of London, Ancient & Modern’ from 1884. My predecessor had the same idea to collect images of the Cries and trace their development over time and, in his book, he reprints many wood blocks from earlier chapbooks, including the set below. Originally just the size of a thumbnail, these anonymous finely-observed prints evoke the circumstance and demeanour of hawkers and pedlars in early-nineteenth century London with startling economy of means.
The Rabbit Man – Buy my rabbits! Rabbits, who’ll buy? Rabbit! Rabbit Who will buy?
New Cockles – Buy my cockles! Fine new cockles! Cockles fine and cockles new!
Banbury Cakes – Buy my nice and new Banbury Cakes! Buy my nice new Banbury Cakes, O!
Mulberries – Mulberries, all ripe and fresh today! Only a groat a pottle – full to the bottom!
Capers, Anchovies – Buy my capers! Buy my nice capers! Buy my anchovies! Buy my nice anchovies!
Lavender – Buy my lavender! Sweet blooming lavender! Sweet blooming lavender! Blooming lavender!
Mackerel – Live mackerel! Three a-shilling, O! Le’ping alive, O! Three a-shilling,O!
Shirt Buttons – Buy my shirt buttons! Shirt buttons! Buy shirt buttons! Buttons!
The Herb Wife – Buy rue! Buy sage! Buy mint! Buy rue, sage and mint, a farthing a bunch!
The Tinker – Maids, I mend old pots and kettles! Mend old pots and kettles, O!
Buy fine flounders! Fine dabs! – All alive, O! Fine dabs! Fine live flounders, O!
You may also like to take a look at these other sets of the Cries of London I have collected
More John Player’s Cries of London
More Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London
Geoffrey Fletcher’s Pavement Pounders
William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders
H.W.Petherick’s London Characters
John Thomson’s Street Life in London
Aunt Busy Bee’s New London Cries
Marcellus Laroon’s Cries of London
William Nicholson’s London Types
Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana of 1817
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana II
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana III
Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Tree
Nurses dance round the ancient Bethnal Green Mulberry in the grounds of the London Chest Hospital, 1944 (Courtesy of the Royal London Hospital Archives)
Regular readers will be familiar with the argy-bargy over the ancient Bethnal Green Mulberry at the former London Chest Hospital. Developers Crest Nicholson want to dig it up to plonk a block of luxury flats on the site, even though there is plenty of room in the grounds to move their proposed building and save the Mulberry which is subject to a Tree Protection Order. Subsequently, more than five thousand people have signed a petition asking Crest Nicholson to spare the tree.
Despite this, Crest Nicholson have submitted their planning application to Tower Hamlets for permission to uproot the Mulberry Tree and go ahead with their overblown development, which includes hideous ‘heritage-style’ additions to the listed hospital building and a disappointingly small amount of ‘affordable’ housing. Readers are strongly encouraged to write objections before the closing date of Tuesday 16th January and below you will find a helpful guide to how to object effectively.
In their haste – before they had even submitted their application for the development – Crest Nicholson obtained permission last spring to dig up the tree from Tower Hamlets Senior Arborcultural Officer, Edward Buckton acting ‘under delegated powers’ without any consultation of councillors, until it was quashed at Judicial Review in the High Court in a judgement confirming the waiver was granted unlawfully.
Over the past year, Crest Nicholson have contrived some ingenious attempts to discredit the history of the tree which is widely believed to have been planted by Bishop Bonner in the garden of his Bishop’s Hall that occupied the site of the Chest Hospital in the sixteenth century.
The first misdirection was a report commissioned from planning consultants ‘Tree: Fabrik’ who conveniently dismissed any notion that the Bethnal Green Mulberry is a veteran tree, suggesting instead that it is a more recent planting which might easily survive being dug up and moved out of the way.
Local heritage campaigner Tom Ridge paid for legal action at the High Court out of his own pocket and commissioned Chartered Arboriculturist Julian Forbes-Laird, expert witness in matters arborcultural and the technical editor of the British Standard for tree protection, to make his own survey of the Bethnal Green Mulberry.
Forbes-Laird’s report as submitted to the High Court makes compelling reading. “I identify the Mulberry as a veteran tree,” he wrote, “I cannot understand how any reasonable arboriculturist could conclude otherwise.” He quotes Gascoigne’s map of 1703 confirming the location of the Bishop’s Hall and describes the commemorative inkwell kept at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. Dating from 1915, this inkwell has a brass plate explaining it was made from a branch of the Mulberry beneath which Bishop Bonner sat while deciding which heretics to execute, confirming that the tree was already considered to be ancient over than a century ago.
In response to a feeble claim by the developer that concrete found among the roots proves the recent origin of the tree, Forbes-Laird points out that the Romans used concrete to build the Pantheon. He confirms, “there is no evidence that the Mulberry stands upon modern made ground, meaning that it could, indeed, be as old as is believed.”
Most sobering is Forbes-Laird’s conclusion, “Overall, I consider that the intended tree works offer very little chance of the tree’s survival.” Thankfully, Tom Ridge won his Judicial Review and, in a Consent Order sealed by the High Court in July, the permission was quashed.
Nevertheless, Crest Nicholson have persisted in their campaign of misinformation. At their exhibition last summer, they produced a leaflet discrediting the history of the Bethnal Green Mulberry and – demonstrating astonishing arrogance and disingenuousness – they reproduced my photograph of the tree without permission in their publication and on their display panels.
In this leaflet, Crest Nicholson report the results of another ‘scientific’ survey they have commissioned, this time Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) which again – surprise, surprise – delivers their desired conclusion, claiming the earth was not disturbed prior to 1855. However, they ignore an illustration in the Illustrated London News of June 28th 1851 which shows the fully grown Mulberry tree.
Yet it is Crest Nicholson’s justification for digging up and moving the tree because it is in ‘poor quality soil’ which plumbs the depths of nutty desperation. If the Mulberry has flourished for centuries, what could be the problem with the soil? Have Crest Nicholson and their expensive horticultural consultants never heard of compost? The developers helpfully assure us they have taken cuttings to replace the Bethnal Green Mulberry if they kill it by digging it up, which is a bit like the British Museum saying they have bought new pots to replace their ancient Greek vases if they get broken. ‘Never mind, it was only an old one!’
Even with recent revisions, this is a vast overblown development which damages the Victoria Park Conservation Area, offers a disappointing low level of ‘affordable’ housing and makes crude alterations to the listed Chest Hospital building. Crest Nicholson need to pay attention to the wishes of local people by saving the Mulberry tree and reconsidering their whole development.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION IF YOU HAVE NOT YET DONE SO
This engraving of the completed London Chest Hospital published by the Illustrated London News on June 28th 1851 shows the fully-grown Mulberry tree to the left of the main building (Courtesy of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives)
The Bethnal Green Mulberry
In spite of bomb damage in the Second World War, the Bethnal Green Mulberry flourishes
The Gentle Author’s photograph reproduced without permission by Crest Nicholson in their leaflet and exhibition discrediting the history of the Bethnal Green Mulberry
Design by Paul Bommer
This is a simple guide to how to object effectively to the Crest Nicholson Application to redevelop the former London Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green.
Although the deadline is 16th January, Tower Hamlets Council will accept emails and letters until the Hearing of the Application, which is likely to be in March. Please send comments as soon as possible to be sure they are included in the planning officer’s report.
It is important to use your own words and add your own personal reasons for opposing this development. Any letters which simply duplicate the same wording will count only as one objection.
Be sure to state clearly that you are objecting to the application.
If you do not include your postal address your objection will be discounted.
Points in bold are material considerations and are valid reasons for Councils to refuse Applications.
Planning application PA/16/03342/A1
1. SOCIAL HOUSING
The level of social housing is below 28%, too far beneath the Mayor’s target of 50%.
2. THE LISTED BUILDING
The application proposes to demolish the Grade II listed 1860s south wing, causing harm to the designated heritage asset, and would therefore fail to comply with Paragraph 66 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990; National Planning Policy Framework paragraphs: 126, 131, 132, 133 and 134; as well as Tower Hamlets Local Plan Policy SP12.
The proposal would see the roof structure of the listed buildings unnecessarily rebuilt with new materials, involving the loss of original historic fabric when the applicant’s own survey notes that the chimneys are in ‘good condition’, and that the roof is ‘in a sound condition’. As such National Planning Policy Framework paragraphs: 126, 131, 132, 133 and 134 should be applied.
3. THE VICTORIA PARK CONSERVATION AREA
The development will damage the Victoria Park Conservation Area. The conservation area appraisal notes that: ‘Landmark institutional buildings generally sit within their own landscaped gardens, in keeping with the open character and setting of Victoria Park. The London Chest Hospital, opened in 1855, is the most significant of these buildings, in terms of its presence in the urban environment’.
The construction of large blocks beside the London Chest Hospital will deprive a landmark listed building of its open landscaped space and destroy the character of the conservation area. Paragraph 72 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and National Planning Policy Framework paragraphs 137 and 138 should therefore be applied when considering this application.
4. THE MULBERRY TREE
Deep concerns exist over the proposed digging up of the ancient Mulberry Tree and the unlikelihood of its survival if it is moved. No credible evidence has been put forward that this tree, which is subject to a Tree Protection Order, is not a veteran tree.
Paragraph 118 of National Planning Policy Framework 2012 states that ‘planning permission should be refused for development resulting in the loss of … aged or veteran trees found outside ancient woodland, unless the need for, and benefits of, the development in that location clearly outweigh the loss’
Paragraph 197 of The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 states that local planning authorities, ‘must ensure, whenever it is appropriate, that in granting planning permission for any development adequate provision is made, by the imposition of conditions, for the preservation or planting of trees’.
WHERE TO SEND YOUR OBJECTION
Letters and emails should be addressed to
planningandbuilding@towerhamlets.gov.uk
or
you can post your objection direct on the website by following this link
You will need to register to comment
Quote application: PA/16/03342/A1
Town Planning, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG
Crest Nicholson’s proposed redevelopment of London Chest Hospital
You may like to read my other stories about Mulberries
A Plea For The Bethnal Green Mulberry
Henry Silk At Abbott & Holder
Join me for the opening of Henry Silk & East End Vernacular at 6pm next Thursday 18th January at Abbott & Holder in Museum St, Bloomsbury, to view a room of watercolours from the thirties by Henry Silk that have never been exhibited before. These are complemented by a room I have curated of paintings from my book East End Vernacular, Artists who painted London’s East End streets in the 20th century. Below you can read my profile of Henry Silk, a favourite artist of mine.
St James’ Rd, Old Ford
The earliest knowledge we have of Henry Silk (1883-1948) as an artist is that he was already sketching while serving in the First World War, when he would draw on whatever came to hand. Born on Christmas Day 1883, Henry worked for his uncle, Abraham Silk at his workshop in the Bow Rd making fruit baskets that were in great demand by porters, costermongers and greengrocers.
“He was a kind-hearted man who always looked older than his years. He was, I think, affected by his horrendous experiences in the First World War,” recalled fellow artist Walter Steggles fondly, “He used to work for three weeks at basket-making and spend the fourth in the pub.”
Of the various artists who were to form the East London Group, Henry Silk’s work was the most personal, executed in a plain style that often resolved forms into flat areas of colour. Yet a close examination of these paintings reveals close attention paid to the relative proportions of the separate elements of the composition, which were brought to vivid life by dramatic choices of colour. The consummate nature of this distinctive poetic vision suggests it was evolved by an artist working in isolation.
In fact, Henry had already been painting for many years when he attended classes at the Bethnal Green Men’s Institute and exhibited in the Art Club’s debut show at the Bethnal Green Museum in 1924. Reporting on their 1927 exhibition, the Daily Chronicle highlighted Henry’s paintings which depicted “Zeppelins and were bought by an officer ‘for a bob.’”
Henry was a prolific artist who contributed several works to the East London Art Club show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1928, remained a significant exhibitor in all the East London Group shows over subsequent years, as well as showing paintings with the Toynbee Art Club and at Thomas Agnew & Sons. Works were purchased by Joseph Duveen and Charles Aitken, Director of the Tate Gallery. Henry’s talent was quickly recognised as far away as the United States and when the second East London Group show was held at the Lefevre Galleries in December 1930, the Daily Telegraph revealed that, in addition to home purchases, the Public Gallery of Toledo, Ohio bought his Still Life for six guineas.
The following year saw Henry’s debut solo show at Walter Bull & Sanders Ltd in Cork St, Mayfair. This small exhibition of twenty-three watercolours was characterised by luminous still lifes and interiors, reflecting Henry’s bachelor existence lodging in his sister’s family home in Rounton Rd, Bow.
The green interior of Henry’s sparsely furnished room and the view over the tracks from the rear of this dwelling, situated at the junction of three different railway lines, served as the inspiration for many of his pictures. In 1928, a writer for the Studio observed that he often saw “a perfect design from an unusual angle, and he has a Van Goghian love of chairs and all simple things.”
Suggesting that these works were entirely consistent with a modest nature, Lilian Leahy who married Henry’s nephew Elwin Hawthorne recalled he was “generous to others but mean to himself. He would use an old canvas if someone gave it to him rather than buy a new one.”
Henry continued to show his work, even after the East London Group held its final show at the Lefevre Galleries in 1936, until his death at sixty-four in 1948.
At Henry Silk’s Uncle Abraham’s basket shop in Bow
Henry Silk at his room in Rounton Rd, Bow
Thorpe Bay
Old Houses, Bow (Walter Steggles Bequest)
My Lady Nicotine
Snow (Walter Steggles Bequest)
Still Life (Walter Steggles Bequest)
Basket Makers (Courtesy of Dorian Osborne)
Boots, Polish and Brushes
The Bedroom
Bedside chair (Courtesy of Dorian Osborne)
Hat on table, 1932 (courtesy of Doncaster Museum)
Henry Silk and his sister
ABBOTT & HOLDER, 30 MUSEUM ST, BLOOMSBURY, WC1A 1LH
If you would like to attend my gallery talk on Thursday 25th January, please call 020 7637 3981 for further information.
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