A Hoxton Childhood
Terry Jasper, son of A S Jasper, has organised a reading of dramatised excerpts from his father’s celebrated autobiography A Hoxton Childhood at Hoxton Hall next week, on Thursday 16th October at 6pm. Admission is free and Terry will talking about his father after the reading. Meanwhile, you can read my interview below with Terry from 2013.
Albert Stanley Jasper
“The initials stand for Albert Stanley, but he was always know as Stan, never Albert,” admitted Terry Jasper, speaking of his father when we met at F. Cooke’s Pie & Mash Shop in Hoxton Market. A.S. Jasper’s A Hoxton Childhood is one of the classic East End childhood autobiographies, acclaimed since it was first published in 1969 when The Observer described it as “Zola without the trimmings.”
“In the late sixties, my mum and dad lived in a small ground floor flat. Looking out of the window onto the garden one morning, he saw a tramp laying on the grass who had been there all night. My dad took him out a sandwich and a cup of tea, and told him that he wouldn’t be able to stay there,” Terry recalled, “I think most people in that situation would have just phoned the police and left it at that.” It is an anecdote that speaks eloquently of Stan Jasper’s compassionate nature, informing his writing and making him a kind father, revered by his son all these years later.
Yet it is in direct contrast to the brutal treatment that Stan received at the hands of his own alcoholic father William, causing the family to descend in a spiral of poverty as they moved from one rented home to another, while his mother Lily struggled heroically against the odds to maintain domestic equilibrium for her children. “My grandmother, I only met her a couple of times, but once I was alone with her in the room and she said, ‘Your dad, he was my best boy, he took care of me.'” Terry remembered.
“There are a million things I’d like to have asked him when he was alive but I didn’t,” Terry confided to me, contemplating his treasured copy of his father’s book that sat on the table between us, “My dad died in 1970, he was sixty-five – It was just a year after publication but he saw it was a success.”
“When he was a teenager, he was a wood machinist and the sawdust got on on his lungs and he got very bad bronchitis. When I was eight years old, the doctor told him he must give up his job, otherwise the dust would kill him. My mum said to him that this was something he had to do and he just broke down. It was very strange feeling, because I didn’t think then that grown-ups cried.”
Stan started his own business manufacturing wooden cases for radios in the forties, employing more than seventy people at one point until it ran into difficulties during the credit squeeze of the fifties. Offered a lucrative buy-out, Stan turned it down out of a concern that his employees might lose their jobs but, shortly after, the business went into liquidation. “He should have thought of his family rather his workers,” commented Terry regretfully, “He lost his factory and his home and had to live in a council flat for the rest of his life.”
“My dad used to talk about his childhood quite a lot, he never forgot it – so my uncle said, ‘Why don’t you write it all down?’ And he did, but he tried to get it published without success. Then a friend where I worked in the City Rd took it to someone he knew in publishing, and they really liked it and that’s how it got published. When the book came out in 1969, he wanted to go back to Hoxton to see what was still left, but his health wasn’t good enough.”
Terry ‘s memories of his father’s struggles are counterbalanced by warm recollections of family celebrations.“He always enjoyed throwing a party, especially if he was in the company of my mother’s family. It wasn’t easy obtaining beer and spirits during the warm but somehow he managed to find a supply. He was always generous where money was concerned, sometimes to a fault, and he had a nice voice and didn’t need much persuading to get up and sing a song or two.”
A.S. Jasper’s ‘A Hoxton Childhood’ is an authentic and compelling story of survival and of the triumph of a protagonist who retains his sense of decency against all the odds. “He said he would always settle for the way life turned out,” Terry concluded fondly.
Terry Jasper at F Cooke in Hoxton Market
Cover design for the first edition of A Hoxton Childhood drawn by James Boswell
William Jasper – “His main object in life was to be continually drunk”
Lily Jasper – “I asked her what made her marry a man like my father”
Stan (on the right) with his brother Fred
Stan and his wife Lydia
Terry as a boy
Terry in 1960
Terry with his dad Stan
Stan and his sister Flo
Stan
Terry with Stan & Lydia at Christmas
High jinks at a family Christmas party
A S Jasper – “So, out of so disastrous a childhood, I am now surrounded, in spite of poor health, with love and happiness.”
In Search Of Roman London
Roman London is still under construction
From Spitalfields, you have only to walk down Bishopsgate to find yourself in Londinium, since the line of Bishopsgate St follows that of Ermine St which was the major Roman road north from London Bridge. Tombs once lined the path as it approached the City, just as they did along the Appian Way in Rome.
The essential plan of the City of London was laid out by the Romans when they built their wall around Londinium at the end of the second century, after Boudica and her tribes burnt the settlement. Eighty years earlier, the Romans had constructed a fort where the Barbican stands today and, in their defensive plan, they extended its walls south to the Thames and in an easterly arc that met the river where the Tower of London stands now.
A fine eighteenth century statue of the Emperor Trajan touts to the tourists at Tower Hill, drawing their attention to the impressive stretch of wall that survives there, striped by the characteristic Roman feature of courses of red clay tiles, inserted between layers of shaped Kentish Ragstone to ensure that the wall would be consistently level.
Just fifty yards from here at Cooper’s Row, round the back of the Grange City Hotel, is an equally spectacular stretch of wall that is off the tourist trail. Here you can see the marks of former staircases and medieval windows cut through to create a rugged monument of significant height.
Yet, in the mile between here and the Barbican, very little has survived from the centuries in which stone from the wall was pillaged for other buildings. It is possible to seek access to some corporate premises with lone fragments marooned in the basement, but instead I decided to walk over to All Hallows by the Tower which has a little museum of great charisma in its crypt. Here is part of the tessellated floor of a Roman dwelling of the second century and Captain Lowther’s splendid model of Roman London from 1928.
At the Barbican, a stretch of wall that was once part of the Roman fort is visible, punctuated by a string of monumental bastions which are currently under restoration. Walking up from St Paul’s, you come across the wall in Noble St first, still encrusted with the bricks of the buildings within which it was once embedded. Then you arrive at London Wall, an avenue of gleaming towers lining a windy boulevard of fast-moving traffic, which takes it name from the ancient edifice.
I was lucky enough to be permitted access to a secret concrete bunker, beneath the road surface yet above the level of the underground car park. Here was one of the gateways of Roman London and I saw where the wooden gate posts had worn grooves into the stone that supported them. At last, I could enter Roman London. In that underground room, I walked across the few metres of gravel chips that now cover the ground level of the former roadway between the gate posts, where the chariots passed through. Long ago, I should have been trampled by the traffic if I had stood there, just as I should be mown down if I stood in London Wall today. We switched out the light and locked the door on Roman London to emerge into the daylight again.
In the gardens of the Barbican, the presence of foliage and grass permits the bastions of the City wall to assert themselves, standing apart from the contemporary built environment that surrounds them. From here, I turned west to visit the cloister of St Vedast in Foster Lane, which has an intriguing panel of a tessellated floor mounted in a frame, and St Bride’s in Fleet St, where deep in the crypt, you can lean over a wall to see the floor of the Roman dwelling that once stood there, reflected in a mirror. The reality of these items stirs the imagination just as their fragmentary nature challenges it to envisage such a remote world.
By now, it was late afternoon. I was weary and the sunshine had faded, and it was time to make tracks quickly back to Spitalfields as the sky clouded over – yet I was inspired by my brief Roman holiday in London.
Eighteenth century bronze statue of Trajan at Tower Hill
Model of Roman London in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower. Made by Captain Lowther in 1928, it shows London Bridge AD 400 – Spitalfields appears as a settlement of Britons beyond the wall.
Roman City Wall at Tower Hill
At Tower Hill
At Cooper’s Row
Lines of red clay tiles were inserted between the blocks of stone to keep the wall level
Tessellated floor in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower
Timber from a Roman wharf preserved in the porch of St Magnus the Martyr
In the cloister of St Vedast Alias Foster
In the crypt of St Bride’s, Fleet St
Foundation of a Roman Guard Tower in Noble St
Outside 1 London Wall
Part of the entrance gate to Roman London in the underground chamber
Model of the north west entrance to Roman London
A fragment of wall in the underground chamber
Bastion at London Wall
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At The RHS Harvest Festival
Over in Victoria yesterday, the pupils of Westminster School were enjoying sport in the autumn sunshine upon the superior grass of Vincent Sq. While, inside the Lindley Hall that overlooks the square, immaculate fruit and vegetables lined the tables of the Royal Horticultural Society Harvest Festival, illuminated by that same October sunlight descending in shafts through the decorative Edwardian vaulted glass ceiling to majestic effect. It has been a wonderful summer but now the time is come and the fruit and vegetables are gathered for us to savour.
I arrived at opening time to encounter the fragrance of ripening apples filling the hall, where judges were still deliberating over produce and growers still tweaking their impeccable displays. In hushed tones, I heard the accents of the English regions exchanging excited comments of anticipation, as our nation’s leading horticulturalists examined their competition respectfully and took each other’s photographs with their magnificent vegetable specimens. All year, through the spring and summer they had tended their beloved charges and now the moment of reckoning was upon them.
There is an undeniable surrealism to these superlative fruits, the longest leeks, carrots and parsnips, the largest onions and heaviest pumpkins. Yet the innocent delight these glorious monsters draw from bystanders who come here to wonder is an expression of the universal human affection for all the fruits of the earth that sustain us, and a visit to the Lindley Hall to see the Harvest Festival is a joyful experience of religious intensity for anyone who cherishes vegetables – such as myself.
The puzzling irony for the casual visitor is the table of rejects, each example labelled with their particular incriminating flaw while simultaneously possessing the redeeming appearance of high class produce in every other respect. As mere mortals, disregarding the professional pedantry of the judges, I think we may forgive these trifling imperfections in the light of their other admirable vegetable qualities.
Winners of the Heaviest Pumpkin Contest 2014
Judges confer
A proud winner
Checking the marrow
Chelsea Ladies admire the veg
Scrutinising the onions
Perusing the onions
Judging the onions
Assessing the beetroot
Peering at a parsnip
Studying the leeks
A majestic display
Leeks in competition
Investigating the runner beans
Considering a cauliflower
Admiring the apples
Perfect carrots
Seeking fault
RHS London Harvest Festival Show continues today until 5pm at the Lindley Hall, Elverton Street, SW1P 2PE
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When John Claridge Met Tommy Cooper
“I’m on a whisky diet . . . last week I lost three days!”
It has to be the ultimate comedy exit – to collapse and die onstage in front of millions of viewers, as Tommy Cooper did on 15th April 1984. The failed magic trick which unexpectedly turned out right had become such a familiar element of his act that, when he fell to the floor at Her Majesty’s Theatre live on national television, the audience cracked up with laughter until they realised the tragedy of the moment. “Just like that!” – to quote his most famous catch phrase.
Yet Tommy Cooper had always displayed a disquieting mixture of mania and studied incompetence in his performances, endearing him to audiences who laughed in recognition at his barely-concealed sense of despair. It was an act honed over relentless years playing in the merciless crucible of the variety circuit. The joke was on Tommy, he was a virtuoso at self-humiliation and a fierce parody of his own self-parody, and the poignancy of it was heart-breaking.
In 1967, Dennis Hackett editor of Nova, commissioned John Claridge to photograph Tommy Cooper for the magazine. “He called me up and said, ‘We’re doing a thing on Tommy, could you take some photographs at Thames TV?'” John recalled fondly, “So I took my Hasselblad along in case I had some spare time and, once I had done the colour pictures, I asked Tommy, ‘Have you got a moment, I’d like to do some serious photographs?'”
“When he looked at me, it was very difficult not to break into laughter. We did three rolls of film and it was getting intense, quite serious. He said, ‘This is serious, isn’t it?’ and then he went ‘Aha!’ and I was in fits of laughter.”
“He was courteous to me and, when I said I loved Laurel & Hardy, he started doing impressions of Oliver Hardy until I had tears running down my face and I had to stop him. I think the pictures tell the story, there’s some fun photographs and some serious photographs – I know he had his demons, but I found him a lovely man, very gracious.”
“I said to the chef, ‘Why have you got your hand in the alphabet soup?’ He said, ‘I’m groping for words!'”
“Two cannibals were eating a clown – one said to the other, ‘Does he taste funny to you?'”
“My doctor told me to drink a bottle of wine after a hot bath, but I couldn’t even finish drinking the hot bath!”
“Gambling has brought our family together. We had to move to a smaller house.”
“I sleep like a baby . . I wake up screaming every morning around 3am.”
“Never tell people your troubles. Half of them are not interested and the other half are glad you’re getting what’s coming to you.”
“I went to a fortune teller and she looked at my hands. She said, ‘Your future looks pretty black.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ve still got my gloves on!”
“Last night I dreamt I was eating a ten pound marshmallow. When I woke up, my pillow had gone.”
“What do you call an out-of-work jester? Nobody’s fool!”
Photographs copyright © John Claridge
John Claridge’s exhibition TOMMY COOPER runs until 31st March 2015 at the Museum of Comedy, The Undercroft, St George’s Church, Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2SR. A few copies of the limited edition book of the portraits are available here
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John Claridge’s Boxers (Round One)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Two)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Three)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Four)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Five)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Six)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Seven)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Eight)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Nine)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Ten)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Eleven)
John Claridge’s Boxers (Round Twelve)
and
John Claridge’s Clowns (Act One)
John Claridge’s Clowns (Act Two)
John Claridge’s Clowns (The Final Act)
and
and these other pictures by John Claridge
Along the Thames with John Claridge
At the Salvation Army with John Claridge
A Few Diversions by John Claridge
Signs, Posters, Typography & Graphics
Views from a Dinghy by John Claridge
In Another World with John Claridge
A Few Pints with John Claridge
Some East End Portraits by John Claridge
Sunday Morning Stroll with John Claridge
An Auricula For Thomas Fairchild
Spitalfields Life Horticultural Correspondent Patricia Cleveland-Peck investigates the link between a modern flower variety and the celebrated Hoxton Gardener who died two hundred and eighty-five years ago next week, on 10th October
Thomas Fairchild (1667–1729)
The Hoxton Nurseryman and Gardener, Thomas Fairchild, is best remembered as the originator of hybridisation. Previously, it had occurred in the wild but Fairchild was responsible for the first man-made hybrid by crossing a Carnation and a Sweet William. Subsequently known as the Fairchild Mule, nevertheless it led to the development of the many hundreds of thousands of flowers and plants which adorn our gardens today.
In Fairchild’s time, the act of ‘tampering’ with Nature raised a controversy comparable to that over Genetic Modification in our own age. It was suggested that, by this undertaking, Man was usurping the role of God The Creator and Fairchild attempted to appease his guilt by leaving the sum of twenty-five pounds for an annual sermon upon ‘the wonderful works of God in the creation’ to be preached at his Parish Church of St Leonard’s, Shoreditch – known as the Vegetable Sermon.
Recently, Derek Parsons, one of the great Auricula hybridisers has created a Show Auricula by the name of Thomas Fairchild as a counterpoint to Fairchild’s Mule by which he is currently remembered. The Auricula is an appropriate species, since these plants have long been associated with East London. It commonly believed they were brought by Huguenots who kept them in pots in their weaving lofts. It is not unlikely that Auriculas would have been cultivated in Fairchild’s Hoxton nursery
It was Derek Parsons who, together with plant breeder Allan Hawkes, was responsible for recreating the Striped Auricula, a type which was beloved of early Florists (meaning collectors and breeders, rather than flowersellers) but which had disappeared over the centuries. It was a painstaking task, undertaken by looking for signs of striping in any Auricula, whatever the quality of hybrid, and breeding them together and then, as more stripes appeared, selecting the best and breeding from those.
In his monograph for the National Auricula & Primula Society Derek describes in detail the procedure by which the pollen-bearing and the seed-bearing parent plants were brought together in clean surroundings, the seed ripened, and the pods cut off and put into small envelopes to finish ripening before being harvested. The resulting seed is sown the following January. This part is not especially difficult but the skill lies in the understanding of genetics and in the critical selection process that comes later, as the plants develop, and whch can result in thousands of rejected plants.
For Derek, a true modern Florist, the best are those specimens which will do well on the show bench and hybridisation for this purpose is a very narrow field with specific highly defined targets, of which there are two types – that of perfecting existing Auriculas and that of creating new ones.
To create the new Thomas Fairchild Auricula,Derek used as parents the romantically-named Amore and Romeo’s Bird. Auriculas are divided into several types (Edges, Selfs, Fancies, Stripes, Alpines, Doubles and Borders) and, with the exception of Borders which are not judged so vigorously, for show purposes each type has a particular standard of perfection towards which the breeder aspires. Both Thomas Fairchild and its parents fall into the Fancy category. A plant pivotal to many in this category is an Auricula by the name of Fleecy which is a grandparent on both sides of the Thomas Fairchild lineage.
We shall have to be patient because the Thomas Fairchild Auricula is unlikely to be available commercially for several years. Yet it is a wonderful remembrance of the Hoxton Gardener who was the first to propagate through hybridisation and is one of Derek Parson’s great heroes, explaining the choice of name for this new variety.
The technique of plant breeding has developed a long way since Thomas Fairchild created his simple Mule but it was he who invented the notion of hand-pollinating plants for which he has received very little recognition for many years. So I have no doubt he would be overjoyed to see his name carried forward into the twenty-first century by such a delightful flower.
Fleecy, grandparent of Thomas Fairchild
Romeo’s Bird, parent of Thomas Fairchild
Amore, parent of Thomas Fairchild
Thomas Fairchild
Thomas Fairchild’s tombstone in St Leonard’s Graveyard in the Hackney Rd
Patricia Cleveland-Peck is the co-author of the definitive book on Auriculas, entitled Auriculas Through the Ages: Bear’s Ears, Ricklers & Painted Lades with paintings by botanical artist Elisabeth Dowle, from which I publish a selection below.
Oban
C W Needham
Walton Heath
Basuto
Walton
Hinton Fields
Green Shank
Cinnamon
Maureen Milward
Rowena
Serenity
Argus
Fanny Meerbeck
Chorister
Dusky Maiden
Wye Hen
Nocturne
Winifred
Kircup
Sirius
Paintings copyright © Elisabeth Dowle
You make like to visit the artist’s website www.elisabethdowle.co.uk
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Modern London, 1888
“The attention of our readers is now directed to the history of the rise and progress of leading business houses of London. We have endeavoured to give a review of those firms whose honourable dealings and straightforward methods, irrespective of the magnitude and class of their of operations, make them worthy of the mention they have received” – from Modern London, The World’s Metropolis, 1888
J G Ingram & Son, The London India Rubber Works, Hackney Wick – The business dates back in its foundation over forty years and was established originally by Mr Ingram in Hoxton, before – owing to its rapid development and the necessity for increased accommodation – the present factory was built fifteen years ago.
D H Evans & Co, Silk Mercers, Drapers & Outfitters, Oxford St – Within a comparatively short period of time, this notable concern has developed, through the energy and perseverance of its proprietary, from one shop of average size to one of the largest drapery establishments in London.
John Ward, Patentee & Inventor of Invalid Chairs, Carriages etc, Tottenham Court Rd –This notable business was formed upwards of a century and a half ago. Mr Ward is engaged in this very scientific industry upon a very extensive scale and his productions for the relief of the invalid are esteemed all over the world.
Charles Taylor, The Depository, Southwark, Opposite The Elephant & Castle – There are very few business establishments whose names are more familiar to the general public of London than the name of The Depository, as a monument to Mr Taylor’s vigorous ability and progressive spirit.
George Wright & Co, Billiard Table Manufacturers, Westminster Bridge Rd – During the time it has been in existence, this notable firm has led the way in inventions and improvements, thereby extending and improving the popularity of the game of billiards as a universal pastime for gentlemen.
Whittard, Crisp & Co, Leather & Hide Factory, Market St, Bermondsey – This is a house that occupies a very prominent position in the factoring trade of Bermondsey, and its name and commercial principles are well known and highly esteemed by a widespread circle of valuable connections.
Thorley & Co, Cattle Food Manufacturers, Caledonian Rd, Kings Cross – Thorley’s Cattle Food is the first production of its kind to achieve a recognised position among agriculturalists and must be regarded as one of the great discoveries of a period that has been particularly prolific in great inventions.
P B Cow & Co, Patentees & Manufacturers of India Rubber & Waterproof Fabrics, Cheapside – It is now about forty years since Mr Peter Brusey Cow succeeded Mr Mackintosh, the inventor of the remarkable waterproof garment, in the control of this gigantic commercial concern.
W Walker & Sons, Cabinet Manufacturers, Bunhill Row – The history of the firm dates back to 1848 when the concern was founded by Mr W Walker and during the whole of the forty years that has elapsed since then the growth of the business has been continuous. A visit to their superb showrooms in Bunhill Row will reveal the very acme of artistic achievement in this branch of the industry.
W H Willcox & Co, Manufacturers & Merchants in Engineers’, Mill & Railway Furnishings & Supplies, Southwark St – Founded fifteen years ago by Walter Henry Willcox, the firm are in a position to supply everything in the way of engineers’ requisites – from a bolt to a steam engine.
Robert Adams, Patentee, Manufacturer & Specialist in Improved Builders’ Ironmongery & Building Appliances, Newington Causeway – The business in question was established in 1870 and has acquired the most eminent reputation in the special departments of mechanical industry and hardware supply to which its undertakings apertain.
W Wilfred Head & Mark, News & General Printers, Lithographers & Engravers, Fleet Lane, Old Bailey – This eminent firm was founded upward of a quarter of a century ago and carried on business in Johnson’s Court, Fleet St, taking the name ‘Dr Johnson Press’ which it still retains and under which it is widely known in the printing world.
Avern, Sons & Barris, Cork Merchants & Manufacturers, Minories – One of the principal house engaged in the great London Cork Trade, their corks obtained a medal in Paris in 1878 and find favour with bottlers all over the world.
Conrad W Schmidt, Varnish Manufacturer, Carpenters Rd, Stratford – There is probably no larger firm of varnish manufacturers in the United Kingdom or, for that matter, anywhere than that of Mr Conrad W Schmidt.
Grovers & Rockley, Musical Instrument Warehouse, The Grove, Stratford – This is the only establishment in the East End that embraces all departments in connection with the musical instrument trade. It was founded in the Kingsland Rd many years ago and was long since removed to its present location.
John Burgess & Son, Italian Warehousemen, Strand – Nowhere in London is the art of conservation, as practically applied to the preserving of certain classes of comestibles, more perfectly exemplified in some of its higher forms than at this famous old establishment at the corner of Savoy Steps.
Samuel Haskins & Brothers, Engineers, Manufacturers of Shop Fronts, Revolving Shutters Etc, Old St – This eminently reputed house originated in the year 1784 under the auspices of the grandfather of the present principals and has been conducted uninterrupted from that day to this by members of its founder’s family.
S E Norris & Co, Curriers, Leather Merchants, Belting Manufacturers, Shadwell High St & St Paul’s Works – This notable concern is one of the oldest in the trade and first came into especial prominence as far back as 1775, and, in the character and quality of their curried leather, this firm takes rank with the first in the kingdom.
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
The Gasometers Of Bethnal Green
Behold the mighty gasometer looming against the sky!
Just as Rome has the Coliseum, New York has the Empire State Building, Paris has the Eiffel Tower and Cairo has the Pyramids – in Bethnal Green, we have the awe-inspiring pair of gasometers towering over the canal. Like the Coliseum, they possess an elegant curvaceous geometry, like the Empire State, they punctuate the skyline with their familiar silhouette, like the Eiffel Tower, they remind us of the engineering achievements of the nineteenth century and, like the Pyramids, there is a lesser (1866) and a greater one (1889) of differing ages.
In common with all these famous landmarks, the gasometers are also an integral part of the distinctive identity of their place – offering intricate three-dimensional patterns against the sky that frame our ever-changing northern cloudscapes to spectacular effect. Yet look beyond the epic romance of their towering presence and you discover their history is intimately bound up with the creation of the urban landscape they inhabit.
In the eighteen-fifties, the site of the gasometers was established as a holding station for the Shoreditch Gasworks nearby, built by the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company in 1823 on land that is now Haggerston Park, capitalising upon the facility to deliver coal by barge along the Regent’s Canal which opened in 1820. Today, only the original retaining walls of the gas works, which traverse and enfold the park, remain as evidence of this particular vanished industry.
The smaller of the pair of gasometers, possessing the decorative ironwork, was completed in December 1866, designed by Joseph Clark, chief engineer at the gasworks, and constructed by Westwood & Wright’s of Dudley. It has sixteen classical columns, ascending from the Doric to the Corinthian in style.
The larger gasometer is twice the height, towering over its little brother, at one-hundred-and-forty-six feet. This was designed by George Trewby, chief engineer of the Gas Light & Coke Company, which had taken over its predecessor to become the largest gas company in the world. Built in 1888 and 1889, it is constructed of elegant tapering iron lattice-work columns. Two hundred feet in diameter, the structure descends fifty feet below ground – demonstrating a classical equilibrium of design in which the height is equal to the diameter.
Nestling side by side, the old pair compliment each other nicely. Poised on the canal bank, they are the industrial equivalent of that popular variety double act, Little & Large. They are fine examples of the two main types of nineteenth century gasometer and the only surviving pair of gasometers in London, which was the birthplace of the gas industry.
When I learnt that both gasometers are to be decommissioned and the site is to become a park at the centre of a housing scheme, it was obvious that this presents the ideal opportunity to preserve these gasometers and enliven the newly-created green space with their dramatic sculptural forms. Disappointingly, the National Grid seeks to demolish both structures and sacrifice any possibility of a future life for these magnificent towers which have been integral part of the cityscape in Bethnal Green for generations.
Similarly in Poplar, a handsome gasometer of 1876-8 faces demolition when it could also be integrated into a new park. Designed by Robert Jones and his son Harry, of the Commercial Gas Company, and constructed by Samuel Cutler & Sons of Milwall, it is a graceful structure with many claims to significance in the history of engineering and industrial design. It has one of the earliest concrete gas-holder tanks in the world, while the lower girders with their unique box-lattice form are the only surviving examples of this design.
At this moment, we might needlessly lose these beloved old gasometers that have been part of the fabric of the East End for well over a century and which – fortuitously situated beside water – permit such endlessly fascinating and beautiful reflections.
Click here for the petitions to preserve the Bethnal Green & Poplar Gasometers
The larger Bethnal Green gasometer was built 1888-9, designed by George Trewby
The smaller Bethnal Green gasometer was completed in 1866, designed by Joseph Clark
Decorative iron work designed Joseph Clark
Tiers of classical columns upon the smaller gasometer in Bethnal Green
Tapered lattice work columns of the larger gasometer in Bethnal Green, designed by George Trewby
Poplar Gasometer, designed by Robert & Harry Jones in 1876 and built by Samuel Cutler & Sons
The elegantly structure of the Poplar gasometer with its unique box-lattice girders
Poplar gasometer upon the bank of the River Lea
The Bethnal Green gasometers viewed from Mare St
Photographs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 copyright © Malcolm Tucker
