An Old Tin Badge
Over recent months, I have spent a lot of time studying the photographs of the people who lived in the yards beside Quaker St that Horace Warner took around 1900, in order to write my introduction for the book of Spitalfields Nippers which is to be published on 1st November. The sharp focus of these pictures permits me to examine them closely and they reward attention because the plethora of detail can reveal unexpected things.
I especially like this photograph of a girl holding scrap timber. It fascinates me that her clothes and jewellery demonstrate such pride in her appearance, even while her hands are dirty and she is collecting firewood. It is obvious that Horace never asked his subjects to smile, instead he granted them the space for self-possession and she presents herself on her own terms, with composed equanimity and preoccupied in her world.
James McBarron who grew up in Hoxton in the thirties and, as a child, knew Celia Compton – portrayed in another of Horace’s photographs – explained to me the practice of wood-chopping for pennies. “We kids chopped firewood to make money. The boys and girls used to go around collecting tea-chests and packing-boxes from the back of furniture factories, and say ‘Can we take it away, Mister?’ We chopped it up into sticks and made bundles, and we’d sell them for a penny or a ha-penny.”
I am fascinated by the variety and individuality of clothing in Horace’s photographs, which belong to an age before the industrialised mass-production of clothes we know today. These were garments that went through many owners, handed down through the family, altered, patched and refashioned until they fell apart. The ancient Houndsditch Rag Fair existed just a mile to the south, until it was closed permanently to prevent the spread of smallpox, and this may explain the presence of so many elaborately-detailed garments in antique designs – such as the dress in this photograph – which could have been acquired cheaply in the market and cut down to size.
In particular, I grew curious about the badge that this girl wears upon her decorative collar and, in close-up, I could see that it was King Edward VII & Queen Alexandra. Another of Horace’s photographs show boys holding up newspaper hoardings announcing the end of the Second Boer War in June 1902 and, since the Coronation of Edward & Alexandra took place in August 1902, this gives us an indication of the date of this photograph.
Imagine my surprise, when walking through Spitalfields Market, to see just such a badge – slightly different because it shows Alexandra without Edward, but in all other respects the same and around the size of a pre-decimal penny. My pal Bill, whose stall it was, told me that they were given away free at the time of the Coronation. “It’s such a cheap thing, just a scrap of paper stuck on a piece of tin, that it’s amazing it has survived,” he said, holding it up to examine it. When I told Bill the story of the badge in the photograph, he presented me with it as a gift and I agreed to bring him a copy of the book in exchange in a few weeks time.
When I read about Alexandra, I discovered that she had a scar on her neck from an operation that happened when she was a child, which led her to wear high collars and elaborate necklaces. Consequently, this style became a fashion and, when I looked back at the photograph of the girl, I wondered if she was trying to emulate Alexandra in the way she wore her necklace over the dress with its decorative collar.
If it were not for Horace Warner, I should not have looked twice at this old tin badge in the market but, thanks to his photograph, it has become a wonder to me.
Tin badge from 1902 given to me by my pal Bill, dealer in the Spitalfields Thursday Antiques Market
Tin coronation badge of King Edward & Queen Alexandra
The reverse of the badge.
This is my pal Bill, a dignified market stalwart who deals in coins, whistles, badges, gramophone needles, souvenir thimbles, magic lantern slides, trading tokens, small classical antiquities and prehistoric artifacts. “I sell quite a few things, but on a low margin because it’s more interesting to have a quick turnover.” he admitted to me, speaking frankly, “I’m here more for enjoyment really – quite a few friends I’ve made over the years. I was a shy person before, but it’s made me confident having a stall. I’ve become an optimistic person.” Bill comes to Spitalfields each week with all his stock in a backpack and large suitcase – practical, economic and an incentive to sell as much as possible.
(Pen portrait with photograph by Jeremy Freedman originally published July 22nd, 2010)
All Publication Rights in these Photographs Reserved
Click here to pre-order a copy of SPITALFIELDS NIPPERS by Horace Warner
My SPITALFIELDS NIPPERS lecture at the Bishopsgate Institute on 4th November is sold out. I shall also be showing the photographs and telling the stories at WATERSTONES PICCADILLY on WEDNESDAY 19th NOVEMBER at 7pm. Admission is free to this event and tickets are available but must be reserved piccadilly@waterstones.com
You may also like to read about
At The Lion Sermon
Door knob at St Katharine Cree, Leadenhall St
Each year the Lion Sermon is preached upon 16th October at St Katharine Cree in Leadenhall St in the City of London. This ancient church was established in 1280, emerging from the Priory of 1108 founded by Queen Matilda, and is the only neo-classical church to survive the Great Fire. Its lurching arcade in the nave, embellished with Corinthian capitals, is indicative of the unlikely blend of classical and gothic which characterises this appealingly idiosyncratic structure of 1628-30, traditionally ascribed to Inigo Jones.
Yesterday I attended the 365th Anniversary of the Lion Sermon, commemorating the life of Sir John Gayer (1584 -1649). A Cornishman who became Lord Mayor of London, he was a Governor of the East India Company and briefly imprisoned in the Tower for his Royalist sympathies. The story goes that he became separated from the caravan while travelling on a trading mission in Arabia – modern-day Syria – and was stalked by a lion. Yet the creature spared him, on account of his devout prayers and vows of charity, and his friends discovered Sir John sleeping in the desert next morning surrounded by the footprints of the lion.
I arrived in Leadenhall St to discover the porch of Katharine Kree unexpectedly occupied with bellringers, summoning the congregation, and walked around to the other entrance in Creechurch Lane. To my surprise the church was full with the curious and the devout, waiting in expectation of the Lloyds Choir and Rev Oliver Ross, who processed into the church with Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the preacher designated to deliver this year’s Lion Sermon.
The event would seem no more than a quaint custom celebrating a remote myth, if it were not for the presence of James Gayer – the current descendant of the Gayer lineage – who attended the service on behalf of his family and read the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Afterwards, James told me that he came to read every year and that it was a duty passed down through his family, undertaken by the eldest son of each generation.
Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin was formerly Vicar at the Church of Holy Trinity in Dalston where they have the Annual Clowns’ Service and has now graduated to become Chaplain at the House of Commons. Her sermon explored the notion of deliverance – as Sir John was delivered from the Lion’s clasp – and she gave us an account of her personal journey from a childhood in Montego Bay, revealing the obstacles she had overcome which shape her character today.
Just as we all began to ponder the lions that we had each overcome, metaphorically, we were brought back to the Jacobean church by an anthem of Henry Purcell performed by the Lloyds Choir which Rev Oliver Ross informed us had been composed by this greatest of English composers, inspired by a visit to St Katharine Cree and the musical possibilities of its organ of 1686.
Once the service was concluded with spirited versions of some favourite hymns and the congregation was tucking in to a hearty buffet lunch, I took the opportunity to visit Sir John Gayer, whose memorial brass is concealed behind the altar. He looked at me askance, frustrated perhaps to reside eternally in such an obscure location yet grateful to be remembered still after all these years – delivered from oblivion by a lion.
Bell ringers in the porch
The organ played by Handel and Purcell
Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin preaches the 365th Lion Sermon
Memorial brass to Sir John Gayer behind the altar
Sir John Gayer, as portrayed on his memorial brass
Thomas Bewick’s Lion
Rev Oliver Ross & Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin
Counting the collection after the service. The font is embellished with the Gayer arms
St Katharine Cree, on the corner of Leadenhall St and Creechurch Lane
You might also like to read about
At the Pearly Kings & Queens Harvest Festival
At the 65th Annual Grimaldi Service
At the Ceremony of the Lilies & the Roses
David Hoffman Down The Roman Rd
Tonight, Contributing Photographer David Hoffman opens an extraordinary exhibition, happening in four Roman Rd cafés simultaneously. You are all invited to attend the opening from 7-9pm this evening at Muxima café and you can also join David for a cafe crawl on Saturday at midday. Here is a selection to give you a flavour of this exuberant work and David introduces the show in his own words.
“I took these photographs thirty to forty years ago – they are all from the East End, mostly around Whitechapel and Spitalfields.
I was born in the East End, but my parents’ upward mobility whisked me out to suburbia and it was only in my twenties that I gravitated back to my roots. I was immediately entranced by the atmosphere of joy and dilapidation. It was the spirit of the people you see in these pictures that lifted my spirits and showed me the direction which my career has followed ever since.
These café exhibitions are my thank you to all the people who have made life in this part of London so interesting, exciting and always rewarding.” – David Hoffman
Photographs copyright © David Hoffman
David Hoffman’s Roman Rd Café Crawl is at The Roman Rd Art Café, 357 Roman Rd, The Zealand Coffee Bar, 391 Roman Rd, Vinarius, 536 Roman Rd, & Muxima, 618 Roman Rd until 27th November. Private View tonight at Muxima.
David Hoffman will be at The Roman Road Art Café on Saturday 18th October at noon, talking about his photographs, and you can join him on the Roman Rd Café Crawl.
You may also like to take a look at
David Hoffman at Fieldgate Mansions
B Lambert’s Spitalfields, 1806
Let us take a brief stroll around the neighbourhood in the company of B Lambert, author of the ‘History & Survey of London’, 1806. This is the latest in my occasional series of antiquarian surveys that includes John Stow in 1598 and John Entick in 1766.
To the south of Shoreditch is Spitalfields, which derives its name from having been built upon the fields and grounds belonging to St Mary’s, Spital, which stood on the east side of Bishopsgate St. When, by revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV compelled his Protestant subjects to fly to foreign lands, for shelter and protection, a considerable number of them sought refuge in this country – the greater part of whom settled on this spot and established here the manufacture of silk in all its branches – and the neighbourhood is still, in a great measure, peopled by their descendants.
Spitalfields was originally a hamlet belonging to the parish of St Dunstan, Stepney, but from the great increase of the inhabitants, it was, in the year 1723, made a distinct parish and the church is one of fifty ordered to be built by Act of Parliament.
This building is situated on the south side of Church St. It was begun in 1723 and finished in 1729, and, from being dedicated to our Saviour, is called Christ Church, Middlesex.
It is a very handsome edifice, built of stone with a very high steeple, in which is a fine ring of bells. The body of the church is solid and well-proportioned. It is one hundred and eleven feet in length and eighty-seven in breadth. The height of the roof is forty-one feet and that of the steeple, two hundred and thirty-four feet.
At the west end of the church is a neat brick building in which are two charity schools, the one for girls, the other for boys, erected in 1782 and supported by voluntary contributions.
A short distance to the north-west of the church is Spitalfields Market, for the sale of all sorts of provisions, but principally vegetables.
To the east from Spitalfields is Bethnal Green, which was also one of the hamlets of St Dunstan’s, from which it was separated by an Act of Parliament passed in the thirteen year of his late Majesty. The church which is dedicated to St Matthew was erected in the year 1740. It is a neat commodious edifice, built with red brick, coped and quoined with free stone.
The old mansion at the south-east corner of the Green, now called Bethnal Green House, and traditionally reported to have been the residence of the celebrated Blind Beggar, was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by a citizen of London, named Kirby and is called in writings belonging to it, Kirby Castle. It has long been appropriated to the reception of insane persons.
The old Roman way from London led through the hamlet and being joined by the military way from the west, they pass on together to the ferry of the River Lea at Old Ford.
At Mile End, is an hospital belonging to the corporation of Trinity House. It was found in 1695 for twenty-eight decayed or ancient seamen who have been masters or pilots of ships and for their widows, each of whom receive sixteen shillings a month, besides twenty shillings a year for coals, and a gown every other year. This is a very handsome edifice, consiting of two wings with a chapel which rises considerably higher than any other part of the building. Within the gate is a fine area covered with grass and in the centre is a statue of Captain Robert Sandys with a globe and anchor at his feet and his right hand upon a bale of goods.
In this parish is one of the most extensive charitable foundations in the kingdom. The building is situated on the south side of Whitechapel Rd and was formerly called the London Infirmary, but now the London Hospital. This excellent charity ws instituted in the year 1740 for the relief of all sick and diseased persons, particularly manufacturers, seamen in the merchants’ service and their wives and children. It was at first kept in a large house in Prescot St, Goodman’s Fields, but that being found too small, a more capacious edifice was erected in the present airy situation.
At the west end of the hospital was a considerable hillock called the Whitechapel Mount, which owed its origin to rubbish deposited there after the Fire of London. This mount has been lately removed for the purpose of forming a row of houses on the site of it.
The parish of St Mary, Whitechapel, extends as far as Goodman’s Fields and Rosemary Lane. Goodman’s Fields was actually a farm belonging to the nunnery of St Clare, or Minoresses, who gave their name to the adjoining street, called the Minories. Rosemary Lane is better known by the name of Rag Fair, from being the grand mart of the metropolis in old clothes, which however contemptible the trade may be considered is a source of immense wealth to those who embark upon it.
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may also like to read about
A New Home For Old Photographs
Photograph by O. Baumgard, 12 Little Alie St
It fills me with dismay to see old family albums for sale. And boxes of loose family photographs, all mixed up together, are one of the saddest sights you could encounter in the market.
Countless times, I have leafed through these books of photographs, often painstakingly captioned, that were once cherished and are now discarded, and I find it hard to resist the urge to buy them all just so that I can keep them safe on behalf of their former owners. I stand and pay my respects to the tender images of the holidays and family celebrations of strangers, as if my close attention might revive the lonely spirits of these lost souls. Yet, as much as I would like to, it is beyond my capacity to become the guardian and collector of all the stray photographs in the world, and so I must pass them by in regret.
So you can imagine my delight when Stefan Dickers, Archivist at the Bishopsgate Institute, told me that he is offering a home to all the unwanted albums and family photographs, where they can be kept safely for perpetuity and take their rightful place in the grand narrative of history. It is to be called the London Family Photo Archive and the beauty of it is that you can also contribute digital copies of photographs if you wish to keep the prints.
“We are looking for family and personal photos of everyday life, no matter if you have lived in London since birth or are a recent arrival to the city,” Stefan explained to me, “We are also looking for photos that depict Londoners on day trips and holidays outside of the city.”
If you might wish to contribute albums or pictures and would like to know more please contact library@bishopsgate.org.uk
Stefan Dickers’ grandparents Win & Doug enjoy a drink at Dirty Dicks’ in 1958
Lucy feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Sq in 1981
Stephen with mum & dad, c.1955
Stephen with dad in the backyard at Canning Town, c. 1965
Joan & Bill Naylor celebrate in Bellevue Place in the sixties
Joginder Singh in 1968
Photograph by Oscar Baumgart, The Empire Studio, 118 Commercial Rd
A family Christmas in Elder St 1968 – Neville Turner sits next to his father at the dinner table
John & June getting married in Ealing in 1953
Bob Mazzer & his dad ‘Mott’ in 1950
Michelle at a party in Peckham in 1991
Family portrait at a studio in Vallance Rd, 1980. From left to right – Arful Nessa (mother), Haji Abdul Jalil (father), Hafsa Begum (sister), Rahana Begum (sister), Faruk Miah (cousin), Shiraz Miah (cousin) and Delwar Hussain.
Marie & the girls from McCloskeys on a beano in Strype St in 1955
Gwen Bullwinkle holds up her daughter Mavis in Hanbury St in 1933
Dolly & pals on a day trip to Brighton, c. 1950
Lesley & Linda Keeper (on left) playing with friends in Cranberry St, c. 1955
Mohammed, Deena & Elizabeth Omar on holiday at Land’s End in 1974
Susana on a day trip to Wimbledon in 2013 by Jorin Buschor
The Gentle Author’s mother Valerie in 1933
Photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
Sam Middleton & Jasmine Stone, Campaigning Stratford Mothers
Jasmine & her daughter Safia
No-one could fail to respect the courage shown recently by the young mothers of Stratford who, after eviction from the E15 Focus hostel, took possession of a pair of vacant council houses on the Carpenter’s Estate next to the former Olympic site. So last week Contributing Photographer Colin O’Brien & I went over to meet two of the protagonists – close friends Sam Middleton & Jasmine Stone – and hear their story in their own words.
Their audacious gesture ignited a flashpoint in current social policy, both in this Olympic borough and nationwide, as councils seek to balance the books by selling off housing stock to those wishing to exploit the commercial potential of these assets upon the open market. The outcome is a shortage of accommodation and, in this equation, developers’ profits come at the human cost of those most in need of a place to live.
“When I heard the Olympics were coming to Stratford, I was happy and I felt optimistic because I thought there would be lots of jobs, and maybe I’d be able to get a job and a house,” Sam Middleton admitted to me, “But when the Olympics came, I was unable to find a job and it was while I was living in the hostel that I found I was pregnant.”
“The athletes’ village was supposed to become social housing, but then they swapped that idea for ‘affordable’ housing, which is 80% of the market rate,” added Jasmine with a wry grin.
The distinguishing quality of this pair is that, although they have found themselves on the rough end of policy, they have stubbornly refused to become of victims of the circumstance. The two young mothers have forged a bond of friendship, acquiring a confident political awareness and articulacy that is startling to encounter.“We met at the hostel and we’ve been best friends ever since. I think we could easily win the three-legged race,” Jasmine assured me.
“19th October last year was the date of my eviction from the E15 hostel and 20th October was the due date for my baby, but he was a week late,” Sam explained, “It was only because we made the front page of the papers that they extended our eviction notices and we got short-term accommodation in Newham.”
“They said, ‘Wouldn’t you like to go to the seaside?’ and they offered me accommodation in Margate, Birmingham or Manchester, but I could never leave London, I want to be near my family” Jasmine told me, “My nan was born here and my mum was born here, and I’ve never lived anyone else but Newham.”
Looking beyond her own situation, Jasmine explained to me that one hundred and eighty vulnerable young people were evicted from the E15 hostel without any support and four who are known to her are now living on the street. Meanwhile, Newham Council has four hundred vacant council homes including three almost unoccupied tower blocks on the Carpenter’s Estate in the centre of Stratford. Many have been boarded up for years with the upper windows open to accelerate decay. She believes that the council were awaiting the opportunity to sell the estate to a developer to build luxury flats while local people are deprived of homes. “It’s the gentrification of London,” she confided to me.
The fortnight’s occupation of two of these houses by a group of the young mothers, which is now over, was a protest against the injustice of this state of affairs that succeeded in winning widespread public support.
As we were talking, Jasmine received a phone call with the unexpected news that the council is now refurbishing forty houses on the Carpenter’s Estate to open up for the use of those in need. It was a cathartic moment for the pair and a validation of their protest which brought this about. “If they’re opening up forty houses, they can open up the rest of them,” she exclaimed in joy, exchanging a triumphant smile with Sam.
“I didn’t have a political bone in my body, until I was pregnant and I got handed the eviction notice and I woke up to this whole world of corruption.” Sam confessed to me, flushed with delight. “I think it’s changed us for the better because we’ve learnt that you can get your voice heard. You don’t just have to take things, you can stand up for your rights,” Jasmine continued victoriously, “It’s not just us that have nowhere to live, it’s people across the country. We’ve learnt not to give up and I don’t see myself turning back now. We’re going to go on fighting. We don’t want to be the Mayor of Newham, we want to be the Mothers of Newham!”
Sam Middleton – “We just want somewhere safe and secure we can call home”
The recent occupation of the empty houses on the Carpenter’s Estate
Photographs copyright © Colin O’Brien
You can follow the progress of the Focus E15 Mothers on facebook
In The Crypt Of Christ Church, Spitalfields
For the first time in three centuries, the crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields may be seen with all the dividing walls removed, just as Nicholas Hawksmoor designed it, and last week I was granted the opportunity to photograph this rare vision.
Now the subtlety of Hawksmoor’s geometry is apparent, presenting barrel vaults receding in each direction and proposing a seemingly rational ordered space. Yet a closer examination reveals that the vaults are far from regular and that, as much as the structure of space gives the impression of declaring itself to you, it also conjures a sense of mystery, enfolding you in a forest of columns. The effect is comparable to that of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, disorienting the visitor with the feeling you may have entered a labyrinth of infinite recession.
This crypt was filled with the mortal remains of the residents of Spitalfields for centuries. It was not built as a charnel house, but the clergy soon discovered they could capitalise upon the space by renting it out for the storage of the dead, safe from resurrectionists and the travails of time until the day of reckoning. Thus the bulk of the crypt was packed with human remains safely bricked up for eternity.
The remaining space became a refuge for local residents, sleeping there in safety in the company of their forebears while bombs came raining from the sky in the last century. In 1965, it was put to use as a shelter for the homeless and outcast poor who have always gravitated to Spitalfields. This initiative became the Spitalfields Crypt Trust which moved to Shoreditch in 2000, where it continues to offer support and rehabilitation to those in need.
Meanwhile, prior to the restoration of Christ Church, the crypt was excavated and the bodies were transferred to the Natural History Museum, where they remain one of the most significant collections of human remains in forensic and evolutionary studies. In recent years, the crypt has served the parish as a space for meetings, exhibitions and storage for the food bank.
Yet now all the walls accreted over time to serve these purposes have come down and the space has been emptied out – after three hundred years it is now a vacant space again, awaiting new life.
“The crypt at Christ Church has been a place of hospitality, rest, learning and the arts for most of its life in one way or another. The newly developed crypt that will emerge in the Spring of 2015 will continue to be a place of hospitality, rest, learning and the arts. A new lounge, a new hall, gallery spaces and a public refectory open throughout the week will ensure Christ Church Spitalfields is a place of welcome to those who visit from the local community and from the international community. Our prayer is that they would feel welcomed in and blessed by God on their journey through life.” – Andy Rider, Rector of Christ Church
Eighteenth century shroud discovered during the excavations in 1984-1986
Archaeological excavations in the crypt, 1984-86
The crypt was used as a bomb shelter in World War Two
The dormitory of the homeless shelter in the crypt
The cafeteria of the homeless shelter
Recent art installation by Nicholas Feldmeyer
An East End family shelters from the London Blitz in the crypt of Christ Church
Shroud & Excavation Image © Natural History Museum
Archive Images courtesy Christ Church Spitalfields
You may also like to read about
A Brief History of London Crypts
The Secrets of Christ Church Spitalfields
Midwinter Light at Christ Church Spitalfields
A View of Christ Church Spitalfields
Irene Stride Remembers Spitalfields
