Spitalfields Life

Charles Chusseau-Flaviens’ London

February 11, 2017

by the gentle author

Petticoat Lane

Photographer Charles Chusseau-Flaviens came to London from Paris and took these pictures, reproduced courtesy of George Eastman House, before the First World War – mostly likely in 1911. This date is suggested by his photograph of the proclamation of the coronation of George V which took place in that year. Very little is known of Chusseau-Flaviens except he founded one of the world’s first picture agencies, located at 46 Rue Bayen, and he operated through the last decade of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century. Although their origin is an enigma, Chusseau-Flaviens’ photographs of London and especially of Petticoat Lane constitute a rare and precious vision of a lost world.

Petticoat Lane

Sandys Row with Frying Pan Alley to the right

Proclamation of the coronation of George V, 1911

Crossing sweeper in the West End

Policeman on the beat in Oxford Circus, Regent St

Beating the bounds for the Tower of London, Trinity Sq

Boats on the Round Pond, Kensington Gardens

Suffragette in Trafalgar Sq

Photographs courtesy George Eastman House

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The Kiosks Of Whitechapel

February 10, 2017

by the gentle author

Mr Roni in Vallance Rd

As the east wind whistles down the Whitechapel Rd spare a thought for the men in their kiosks, perhaps not quite as numb as the stallholders shivering out in the street but cold enough thank you very much. Yet in spite of the sub-zero temperatures, Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie & I discovered a warm welcome this week when we spent an afternoon making the acquaintance of these brave souls, open for business in all weathers.

I have always marvelled at these pocket-sized emporia, intricate retail palaces in miniature which are seen to best effect at dusk, crammed with confections and novelties, all gleaming with colour and delight as the darkness enfolds them. It takes a certain strength of character as well as a hardiness in the face of the elements to present yourself in this way, your personality as your shopfront. In the manner of anchorites, bricked up in the wall yet with a window on the street and also taking a cue from fairground callers, eager to catch the attention of passersby, the kiosk men embrace the restrictions of their habitation by projecting their presence as a means to draw customers like moths to the light.

In Whitechapel, the kiosks are of two types, those offering snack food and others selling mobile phone accessories, although we did find one in Court St which sold both sweets and small electrical goods. For £1.50, Jokman Hussain will sell you a delicious hot samosa chaat and for £1 you can follow this with jelabi, produced in elaborate calligraphic curls before your eyes by Jahangir Kabir at the next kiosk. Then, if you have space left over, Mannan Molla is frying pakora in the window and selling it in paper bags through the hatch, fifty yards down the Whitechapel Rd.

Meanwhile if you have lost your charger, need batteries or a memory stick in a hurry, Mohammed Aslem and Raj Ahmed can help you out, while Mr Huld can sell you an international calling card and a strip of sachets of chutney, both essential commodities for those on-the-go.

Perhaps the most fascinating kiosks are those selling betel or paan, where customers gather in clusters enjoying the air of conspiracy and watching in fascination as the proprietor composes an elaborate mix of spices and other exotic ingredients upon a betel leaf, before folding it in precise custom and then wrapping the confection into a neat little parcel of newspaper for consumption later.

Once we had visited all the kiosks, I had consumed one samosa chaat, a jalebi, a packet of gummy worms and a bag of fresh pakora while Sarah had acquired a useful selection of batteries, a strip of chutney sachets and a new memory stick. We chewed betel, our mouths turning red as we set off from Whitechapel through the gathering dusk, delighted with our thrifty purchases and the encounters of the afternoon.

Jokman Hussain sells Samosa Chaat

Mohammed Aslem sells phone accessories and small electrical goods

Jahangir Kabir sells Jalebi

Raj Ahmed

Mannan Molla sell Pakora

Mr Duld sells sweets and phone accessories in Court St

Mr Peash

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Markéta Luskačová At Leila’s Shop

February 9, 2017

by the gentle author

Photographer Markéta Luskačová has been taking pictures in the East End since 1975 and will be in conversation about her work with Curator Andrew Dempsey at Leila’s Shop, Arnold Circus, E2 7JP, next Monday 13th February, 6:30pm. Markéta will also be signing her new book TO REMEMBER – London Street Musicians 1975-1990 which has an introduction by John Berger and copies are available for sale at Leila’s Shop. Email info@leilasshop.com to book your ticket.

Brick Lane, 1978

Bishopsgate, 1980

Commercial St outside Christ Church, 1979

‘The first street musician I ever met was at the horse fair in the West of Ireland on a cold autumn day in 1973 – an old man playing a violin between the horses. It was like an epiphany. A few years later I started to live in London close to Portobello Rd Market. Street musicians played there frequently and the feeling of being in the presence of something precious stayed with me. The street musicians themselves were often quite lonely men, yet their music lessened the loneliness of the street, the people in it and my own loneliness.’ Markéta Luskačová

Commercial St outside Christ Church, 1987

Cheshire St, 1990

Cheshire St, 1982

Yard off Cheshire St, 1986

‘It takes me back eighty years to my childhood (in the thirties), when I was disturbed and spellbound by the street musicians I passed and stopped to listen to and watch. The word play had a double-sense for me. They played instruments or they sang in the street in the hope of getting money, survival money, from the passersby. And I played games in order to escape and feel that I was elsewhere.’ John Berger

Cheshire St, 1979

Cheshire St, 1976

Cheshire St, 1979

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A Lost Corner Of Whitechapel

February 8, 2017

by the gentle author

The land at the rear of Whitechapel Station is now a construction site for Crossrail but Photographer Philip Cunningham recorded the vanished streets and yards that once occupied this lost corner

Winthrop St

“I first started taking photographs of Winthrop St and Woods Buildings in Whitechapel in the mid-seventies. I remember the first time I went to Winthrop St on a cold frosty morning with a bright blue sky. A woman came out of one of the houses and asked what I was doing. ‘Photographing the streets,’ I said. ‘You’d better hurry up they’re coming down!’ she replied. She was right, within a few months they were gone.

‘Comprehensive Development’ was the only philosophy pursued by the London County Council and Greater London Council for rebuilding London after the war. Their planners complained that too much pre-war building was left, making comprehensive planning really difficult. Yet it would not have taken much imagination to have incorporated streets like these within any new development, creating a richer and more diverse urban landscape.

Even Mile End Place, where I lived in my grandfather’s house, was designated for demolition in 1968 to become a car park for Queen Mary College. Fortunately, the council did not have enough money to build flats for us to be decanted into so our street was saved.”

Winthrop St

Durward St School was built in 1876 and eventually restored by the Spitalfields Trust in 1990

Winthrop St

Woods Buildings looking towards Whitechapel Market

“Woods Buildings was a subject I photographed over and over, it always held that feeling for me of Dickens’ London. To the left, as you approached the arch under the buildings, was a urinal and when I climbed the wall to take a look, it appeared to be for public use but had been bricked up. It must have been quite intimidating to pass through that passage at night.”

‘We live here, it’s not a toilet’

Entrance to Woods Buildings in Whitechapel Market

“By 1984, the land opposite Woods Buildings on the north side comprised a combination of wasteland and sheds where a boot fair would be held every Sunday. It was licensed by the Council and very popular. One Sunday, I observed a group of Romanians selling secondhand clothes just outside the compound which did not go down well with the gatekeepers as they had not paid a fee. There followed a quite violent fracas, although fortunately no one was seriously hurt and only a little blood spilt. I felt sorry for the children, it must have been frightening for them. Those were desperate days!”

Durward St

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Philip Cunningham at Mile End Place

A Petition To Save Our Shopkeepers

February 7, 2017

by the gentle author

With excessive increases in Business Rates threatening an imminent wipe-out of independent shops and small businesses across London, the East End Trades Guild has launched a petition to challenge this destructive policy – accompanied by the statement below. Click here to sign their petition.

Last December, Margot James, Minister for Small Business, congratulated Paul Gardner, fourth generation proprietor of Gardners’ Market Sundriesmen in Spitalfields and founder of the East End Trades Guild, on being chosen as one of Britain’s Top 100 Small Businesses.

Last summer, Prime Minister Theresa May said, “From dynamic start-ups to established family firms, our small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our country. I want to build an economy that works for all, and that means working with, and listening to, smaller firms.”

Now thousands of these small and medium firms across London face an uncertain future under the Government’s plans to hike their business rates, in many cases by more than double.

The Capital’s thriving and enterprising business communities are at risk of sliding into stagnation: employment replaced by unemployment, and vibrant streets replaced with empty shops and closed shutters.

We are calling on Government to listen to London’s businesses and halt implementing the new valuations until they have committed to:

● Further increase the rates relief for small businesses and introduce a new relief system for medium businesses.

● Devolve the operation and setting of London’s business rates to London’s government so they can better suit the challenges of the capital.

Paul Gardner was invited to Downing St in recognition of the one hundred and forty-seven years his family business has been serving customers in the East End. He listened to the Minister speak about how important small businesses like his are to the economy and said, “I was very honoured that I was invited. It was a defining moment in my life, going to 10 Downing Street. I think my mum will be very proud of me.”

Gardners Market Sundriesmen is one of thousands of independent businesses who are facing a huge rise in Business Rates from April. This is because the Government has revalued rates based on property prices, which have more than doubled in parts of London. Many businesses now face closure by virtue of their postcode. Making it worse is that many businesses previously classed as ‘small’ will become ‘medium,’ meaning they will not be eligible for Small Business Rates Relief.

The rateable value of Gardners Market Sundriesmen is rising from £18,000 to £40,500. Paul Gardner revealed, “It means not much of a future for my business. Most people who run a small business are just keeping their heads above water, but if they have another £300 a week to find that will be the end.”

Specialist printers & envelope makers Baddeley Brothers, which has been in business in East London for one hundred and fifty seven years, has seen its rateable value rise from £60,000 to £156,000. It has a proud history of hiring and training local people, and currently employs twenty-five. Director Charles Pertwee admitted, “With this sort of increase, we’re talking peoples’ jobs. As a family business in its sixth generation this is not something we wish to consider. It will make us consider whether Hackney is a viable location to continue a light manufacturing businesses.”

Len Maloney, Hackney born-and-bred, runs JC Motors in Haggerston. His business works with a local charity to provide job opportunities and mentoring for young people. Now Len has to find the extra £10,000 added to his rates bill. He said, “This has gone way, way over the top. I am so stressed because I see no hope for the business. Ministers should come down to ground level to see what businesses like ours do for our local communities.”

Please join us in taking a stand against the Government to protect independent businesses like Paul’s, Charles’ and Len’s – ‘the backbone’ of London’s economy – by signing our petition.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

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Paul Gardner of Gardners Market Sundriesmen

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Baddeley Brothers

Len Maloney of JC Motors in Hackney (photograph by Sarah Ainslie)

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Paul Pindar’s House

February 6, 2017

by the gentle author

House of Sir Paul Pindar by J.W. Amber

If William Shakespeare passed along Bishopsgate around 1600, he might have observed the construction of one of the finest of the mansions that formerly lined this ancient thoroughfare, Sir Paul Pindar’s house situated on the west side of the highway beyond the City wall next to the Priory of St Mary Bethlehem.

Paul Pindar was a City merchant who became British Consul to Aleppo and subsequently James I’s Ambassador to Constantinople. Although he returned home from his postings regularly, he did not take permanent residence in his house until 1623 when he was fifty-eight and between 1617-18 it served as the London abode of Pietro Contarini, Venetian Ambassador to the Court of St James.

Who can say what precious gifts from Sultan Mehmet III comprised the inventory of Ottoman treasures that once filled this fine house in Bishopsgate? Pindar’s wealth and loyalty to the monarch was such that he made vast loans to James and Charles I who both dined at his house, as well as contributing ten thousand pounds to the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral. Yet Charles’ overthrow in 1649 meant that Pindar was never repaid and he died with huge debts at the age of eighty-five in 1650. What times he had seen, in a life that stretched from the glory days of Elizabeth I to the decapitation of Charles I.

Remarkably, Paul Pindar’s house survived the Great Fire along with the rest of Bishopsgate which preserved its late-medieval character, lined with shambles and grand mansions, until it was redeveloped in the nineteenth century. His presence was memorialised when the building became a tavern by the name of The Paul Pindar in the eighteenth century.

Reading the correspondence of CR Ashbee from the eighteen-eighties in the archives of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in Spital Sq, I was astonished to discover that, after Ashbee’s successfully campaign to save the Trinity Green Almshouses in Whitechapel, he pursued an ultimately fruitless attempt to rescue Paul Pindar’s house from the developers who were expanding Liverpool St Station.

In his poignant letters, arguments which remain familiar in our own time are advanced in the face of the unremitting commercial ambition of the railway magnates. CR Ashbee reminded them of the virtue in retaining an important and attractive building which carried the history of the place, even proposing that – if they could not keep it in its entirety – preserving the facade integrated into their new railway station would prove a popular feature. His words were disregarded but, since Paul Pindar’s house stood where the Bishopsgate entrance to Liverpool St Station is now, I cannot pass through without imagining what might have been and confronting the melancholy recognition that the former glories of Paul Pindar’s house are forever lost in time, as a place we can never visit.

The elaborately carved frontage, which concealed a residence much deeper than it was wide, was lopped off when the building was demolished in 1890 after surviving almost three hundred years in Bishopsgate. Once the oak joinery was dis-assembled, it was cleaned of any residual paint according to the curatorial practice of the time and installed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington when it opened in 1909. You can visit this today at the museum, where the intricate dark wooden facade of Paul Pindar’s beautiful house – familiar to James I, Charles I and perhaps to Shakespeare too – sits upon the wall as the enigmatic husk of something extraordinary. It is an exquisite husk, yet a husk nonetheless.