The Last Porters Of Billingsgate Market
I am giving my last lecture about the astonishing East End photography of David Hoffman this Sunday 8th December at 2:45pm as the finale of the Bloomsbury Jamboree at the Art Workers’ Guild.
In the week after the City of London Corporation voted to close Smithfield and Billingsgate Markets for good, we publish Claudia Lesinger‘s portraits of the last porters of Billingsgate who were abolished in 2013.
John Schofield, porter for thirty years
The fish porters of Billingsgate Market were abolished a decade ago and now the market itself is to be closed. On 28th April of 2013, one centuries-old way of life came to an end as the porters who had been in existence since Billingsgate started trading in 1699 had their licences withdrawn by the City of London Corporation. Long-established rights and working practises – and a vibrant culture possessing its own language and code of behaviour handed down for generations – were all swept away overnight to be replaced by cheaper casual labour.
Thus, a cut in economic cost was achieved through an increase in human cost by degrading the workforce at the market. The City recognised the potential value of the land occupied by the Billingsgate fish market at the foot of the Canary Wharf towers, and the abolition of the porters was their first step towards moving it out and redeveloping the site.
While the news media all passed this story by, photographer Claudia Leisinger took the brave initiative herself to be down at the market continuously throughout the last winter, documenting the last days of this historic endeavour, and taking these tender portraits of the porters in the dawn, which record the plain human dignity they have shown as their livelihood and identity were taken from them .
“My interest in the Billingsgate porters’ story stems from a fascination with the disappearance of manual labour, work generally considered menial by our society, yet carried out with a great deal of pride and passion by those small communities involved.” Claudia told me, and it is to her credit that in a moment of such vulnerability these men trusted her to be their witness for posterity.
Bradley Holmes, porter for twenty years.
Nick Wilson, porter for twelve years.
Micky Durrell, porter for forty-five years.
Jeff Willis, porter for twenty-five years.
Gary Simmons, porter for thirty-three years.
Dave Bates, porter for twenty-two years.
Conor Olroyd, apprentice porter.
Three generations – Edwin Singers, porter for fifty-three years, with his son, Leigh Singers, porter, and grandson, Brett Singers, porter.
Steven Black, porter for twenty years.
Tony Mitchell & Steve Martin, both porters for over thirty-two years.
Martin Bicker, porter for twenty-four years.
Andy Clarke, porter for two years.
Laurie Bellamy, porter for thirty-one years.
Alfie Sands, shopboy.
Gary Durden, porter for thirty-one years.
Jack Preston, porter for two years.
Dicky Barrott, porter for twenty years.
Alan Downing, porter for forty-five years, with his grandson Sam who comes down on Saturdays.
Dave Auldis, porter for six years.
Colin Walker, porter for forty-six years.
Brett Singers, shopboy for three years.
Bobby Jones, porter for thirty years.
Basil Wraite, porter for thirty-one years.
Steve Sheet, porter for fifteen years.
Steve Jones, porter for thirty years.
Greg Jacobs, porter for thirty-two years.
Chris Gill, porter for thirty-two years.
Photographs copyright © Claudia Leisinger
See more of Claudia Leisinger’s Billingsgate pictures and hear the voices of the porters by clicking here
You may like to read these other Billingsgate stories
Simon Costin, The Museum Of British Folklore
Simon Costin is giving a lecture at the Bloomsbury Jamboree, next Sunday 8th December at 1:30pm. Click here for tickets.
When I first came across a reference to Simon Costin’s notion to create the Museum of British Folklore, I knew it was a stroke of genius. So you can imagine my excitement when I visited him and his benign round face appeared behind the door, like the full moon emerging from a cloud.
Growing up Devon, I was always captivated by the romance – Dare I say it? The magic – of the folk traditions (like the Ottery St Mary tar barrel rolling) that surrounded me. Experiences coloured by my mother’s reminiscences, recounted to me of her own childhood in Cornwall in the nineteen thirties, and the cherished moment in our family history when my grandfather as bank manager in Helston was chosen to lead the Floral Dance in and out the houses. Consequently, these inexplicable social rituals have always delighted and fascinated me with their egalitarian poetry. Mostly unsanctioned by the church or the state, they are the celebratory culture of the working people.
“Is this your life’s work?” I asked Simon, broaching the burning question as soon as our conversation had settled down sufficiently for it not to be impertinent. And he broke into a wide emotional smile to reply with the answer I was hoping for, murmuring under his breath,“Yes.” Although Simon is a serious fellow with an distinguished career in design including five years as Alexander McQueen’s Art Director, he showed me the face of a child. Specifically, a boy who went on holidays to Cornwall and fell in love with a museum in St Ives that displayed Staffordshire Figures and Corn Dollies, awakening a lifelong passion for our vernacular culture.
As an adult, delighting in the folkloric traditions and travelling the country to participate in many of these seasonal events, especially the Jack in the Green Festival in Hastings, Simon discovered that in spite of all the cultural imports – especially from America – which might appear to homogenise our country, the native culture is thriving. When Simon first attended the Jack in the Green Festival , there were two thousand people but last year the crowd numbered over twenty thousand. And so, frustrated by the lack of any central focus to research and learn more about this culture, Simon was inspired to create the Museum of British Folklore with the purpose of celebrating and recording the indigenous culture of these Isles, and afford it the dignity it deserves. This was when his life changed.
“I’ve always loved museums,” declared Simon, casting his eyes around his house, crowded with all manner of intriguing and charismatic curios, “primarily as repositories of knowledge. You can take what you will and interpret it how you please.” At first, he visited curators of existing museums with folklore collections to learn the lie of the land, but soon he realised he needed to create a presence at the festivals, as a means to hear the response from those in the fields and byways – “to learn the language of our intangible heritage,” as he put it.
So Simon decided to set out touring the country in a caravan, and with the help of luminaries from the worlds of folklore and fashion, he spent six months planning an elaborate party for five hundred guests at Cecil Sharpe House to raise the funds. Then with his caravan painted with fairground scrolls and in an outfit consisting of a stove pipe hat designed by Stephen Jones and a long coat designed by Gareth Pugh, he set out on an eight month quest to meet the dyed-in-the-wool folkies of Britain.
“How do you manifest folk culture?” he asked rhetorically, proposing the central dilemma,“It’s the challenge with all these things, that’s why these events can be neglected, because there are no artifacts.” Simon’s solution is to involve the participants in these festivals working alongside visual artists and photographers, using his acute eye and experience as an Art Director to bring the language of contemporary art to the representation of these elusive phenomena.
“We’re looking for material,” Simon announced to me, recklessly inviting contributions to the museum. But this is such a huge subject – which has barely been tapped – that I think he will find himself inundated with wonders for inclusion in the Museum of British Folklore, though I guess that is exactly what he wants.
The Burry Man, Queensferry, second Friday of August.
Barrel Burning, Ottery St. Mary, November 5th.
Bampton Morris, 29th May
Soul-Cakers, Antrobus
Mock Mayor of Ock St, Abingdon, June
Castleton Garland Day, 29th May
Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, 14th – 16th January.
Minehead Hobby Horse, May 1st
Winster Morris, Derbyshire.
Stained glass © Tamsin Abbott
Photographs of festivals copyright © Doc Rowe
Portrait of Simon Costin copyright © Tim Walker
Bloomsbury Jamboree Lectures
Design by Rob Ryan
You are invited to our annual BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE which runs from 10:30am-4:30pm next weekend, Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th December at Art Workers’ Guild, 6 Queen Sq, WC1N 3AT.
We are showing the work of our favourite makers and are proud to present these accompanying lectures. Tickets are £10 which includes entry to the Jamboree.
PETER PARKER, SOME MEN IN LONDON – QUEER LIFE 1945 – 1967
(Winner of The Times History Book of the Year)
Author and biographer Peter Parker will be discussing his new, highly acclaimed two-part anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer men in London, from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of decriminalisation in 1967.
Peter explores what it was actually like for queer men in London in this period, whether they were well-known figures such as Francis Bacon, Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams, or living lives of quiet – or occasionally rowdy – anonymity in pubs, clubs, more public places of assignation, or at home. It is rich with letters, diaries, psychological textbooks, novels, films, plays and police records, covering a wide range of viewpoints, from those who deplored homosexuality to those who campaigned for its decriminalisation.
Click here to book for Peter Parker’s lecture at 11am on Saturday 7th December
Photograph by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies
RUPERT THOMAS, A YEAR AT DENNIS’ SEVERS HOUSE
For 22 years Rupert Thomas was editor of The World of Interiors, but in January this year he took up the role of Director of Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields.
Dennis Severs’ House is both an extraordinary survival and a complete fantasy. As the presentation of historic open-houses become increasingly sanitised, the unique qualities of Dennis Severs’ House allow a more charismatic and thought-provoking way to present the past.
In this illustrated talk, Rupert will discuss the challenges of remaining true to Severs’ maverick spirit of theatricality and immersion, and of offering visitors something beyond the norm.
Click here to book for Rupert Thomas’ lecture at 12:15pm on Sunday 8th December
Photograph by TimWalker
SIMON COSTIN, THE MUSEUM OF BRITISH FOLKLORE
Simon Costin is an internationally respected art director and curator. In this illustrated lecture, Simon outlines how his life-long passion for Folklore has resulted in the creation of the Museum of British Folklore celebrating the UK’s rich folkloric heritage.
“Folklore is a vibrant element of our living cultural heritage; these beliefs, customs and expressions link the past to the present and help us understand our specific communities and cultures, as well as our shared humanity. Far from being static or an ageing genre, it remains relevant by adapting to new circumstances, with the ‘Folk’ (people), and the ‘lore’ (stories) continually informing and influencing each other.” – Simon Costin
Click here to book for Simon Costin’s lecture at 1:30pm on Sunday 8th December
Photograph by David Hoffman
THE GENTLE AUTHOR, ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971 – 1987
The Gentle Author will show photographs of Whitechapel in the seventies from David Hoffman’s new book. David’s bold, humane photography records a lost era, speaking vividly to our own times.
When he was a young photographer, David came to live in a squat in Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel and it changed his life. Over the following years, he documented homelessness, racism and the rise of protest in startlingly intimate and compassionate pictures to compose a vital photographic testimony of resilience.
Thanks to the courage and determination of the squatters who stopped the demolition, Fieldgate Mansions still stands providing invaluable housing to families in Whitechapel today.
Click here to book for The Gentle Author’s lecture at 2:45pm on Sunday 8th December
Design by Marion Elliot
Bloomsbury Jamboree 2024
In gleeful collaboration with Tim Mainstone of Mainstone Press and Joe Pearson of Design for Today, I am hosting our annual BLOOMSBURY JAMBOREE, a festival of books and print, illustration, talks and seasonal merriment next SATURDAY 7th & SUNDAY 8th DECEMBER from 10:30am until 4:30pm.
It takes place at the magnificent ART WORKERS GUILD, 6 Queens Sq, WC1, which was founded in 1884 by members of the Arts & Crafts movement including William Morris and C R Ashbee. These oak panelled rooms lined with oil paintings in a beautiful old house in Bloomsbury offer the ideal venue to celebrate our books, and the authors and artists who create them.
There will be book-signings and a programme of ticketed lectures and readings plus we have invited our talented friends to exhibit, including print and paper makers, small press publishers, toy makers, potters, craft workers and importers for food by small producers. We present a selection of the work of some of our exhibitors below.
We need volunteers all day Saturday and Sunday. We offer bags of books and other goodies as rewards – if you can help us, please email hello@inkpaperandprint.co.uk
Click here to book for our talks and lectures
Design by Rob Ryan
Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
Le Lapin by Mark Hearld printed by Penfold Press
Tea towel by Marion Elliot
Wooden decoration designed by Elizabeth Harbour
Hand cut decorations by Printed Peanut
Cats by Lesley Barnes
Hand printed cards by Starch Green
Produce from small producers imported by Sail Cargo
Affordable solar-powered house made of boxes from Whitechapel Market by Robson Cezar
Patterned by papers designed by Enid Marx, Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden published by Judd St Papers
Cat Decorations by Printed Peanut
Fratelli Camisa, Soho, by John Griffiths 1959, published by Mainstone Press
Toy Theatres by Pollocks Toy Museum
Card by Pressed & Folded
The Fishing Lodge by Emily Sutton published by Penfold Press
The White Horses of Wiltshire published by Pressed & Folded
Plate by Rena Gardner from Portrait of Dorset published by Design For Today
Affordable solar-powered house made of boxes from Whitechapel Market by Robson Cezar
Silver bracelet by Anna Lovell
Wooden decoration designed by Elizabeth Harbour
Endurance & Joy In The East End 1971 -1987 published by Spitalfields Life Books
Tea towel by Marion Elliot
Eric Ravilious Seen Through The Eyes Of His Contemporaries published by Mainstone Press
Beauty & The Beast published by Design For Today
Figures by Lesley Barnes
Map of Maigret’s Paris published by Herb Lester
The Wicker Man by Catherine Anteney
Textile work by Doris Dyke Halliwell (1908-88)
From Meet the Typographer published by Design For Today
Pop-up book by Chisato Tamabayashi
Ceramic trees by Beth Morrison
The Life & Times Of Mr Pussy published by Spitalfields Life Books
A Memorable Meal, print by Amanda Ribbans
Design by Marion Elliot
The Closure Of Smithfield Market
In the week that the City of London voted to close Smithfield Market for good after more than 800 years of trading, I publish the work of photographer Orlando Gili who has been down at the market, documenting the last generation of butchers to work at this ancient site.
Greg Lawrence Junior and Greg Lawrence Junior Junior, Owners of G Lawrence Wholesale Meat
‘I arrived at Smithfield in the dead of night to photograph London’s renowned meat market which is set for permanent closure. The last pubs had long closed and it was a few hours before tube station shutters were wrenched open.
Walking towards the market, you are met by a wave of sound, beeps and wheels dragged over tarmac, bearing the weighty chunks of meat wrapped in plastic. Emitting at a different frequency is the grumble from a line of white lorries and vans, punctuated by shouts and low pitched chatter. Smithfield is very much alive and in full operational mode at this time. Within minutes of arriving, I am dressed in white overalls and deep inside the bowels of the market, photographing blood splattered butchers, and dodging lines of dead animals hanging from hooks.
Experiencing Smithfield at night is to uncover a secret parallel world that operates in the shadows while the rest of London sleeps. There is a sense of frenetic energy and unpredictability. Forklifts whizz past men in long jackets hunched over neatly stacked boxes, punching numbers into calculators and fielding phone calls. Inside the tall Victorian halls, behind large glass windows, carcasses are hacked into pieces at literally breakneck speed. It is a physical analogue space with a masculine atmosphere. There is a strong sense of camaraderie and familial spirit, many of the businesses are family run.
I returned on early mornings to develop a portrait series that celebrates the people behind the market. Night workers provide an under-appreciated role in modern cities. They risk significant damage to their health to meet the demands of the 24/7 city. According to a long-term US study of nurses, night shift workers are up to 11% more likely to die early compared to those who work day shifts.
The closure of Smithfield Market ends over 800 years of trading meat in Central London as part of a wider trend to sanitise inner cities with less palatable aspects of urban life kept out of sight.’
Orlando Gili
Mark, Chicken Salesman
Horatio, Driver
Moro, Butcher
Harry, Shopman
Simon, Salesman
Ian, Chicken Salesman
Greg, Beef Salesman and Sean, Cashier
Jonny, Butcher
Elijah, Salesman
Tony, Retired Boxer, Trader and Restaurant Distributor
Roger, Fork Lift Operator
Dave, Salesman
‘Pig Ear Tony’, Pig Meat Salesman
Charlie, Salesman
Aaron, Butcher, Marcus, Salesman and Mark, Shopman
Luca, Production
Adam, Butcher
Kye, Unloader
Pav, Butcher
Russel, Butcher
James, Sales Manager
Grant, Butcher
Photographs copyright © Orlando Gili
Dan Jones At Bethnal Green Library
Click to enlarge Dan Jones’ painting of St Paul’s School Wellclose Sq, 1977
Photographer Chris Kelly and I went along to join Dan Jones when he paid a visit to his splendid mural from 1977 of children and their rhymes in the playground of St Paul’s School, Wellclose Sq, which is installed at the Bethnal Green Children’s Library.
The Children’s Library is on your right as you enter the building and from the lobby you can see the huge colourful painting at the far end of a long room with windows facing onto the Green. Once I reached this point, I could already hear “The wheels on the bus go round and round…” sung by an enthusiastic chorus of toddlers and their mothers led by a librarian.
“In 1970, I was a youth worker and I ran a youth club in the hall on the right of the painting. I used to have two hundred kids dancing in there!” recalled Dan fondly, “And so most of the children in the school were known to me.” Living close by in Cable St, Dan, who began collecting rhymes in 1947, has followed the shifting currents of playground culture over all this time. “Some of these rhymes in the painting are still to be heard in the playground there,” he told me, “But others they don’t do anymore, or only sporadically.”
A local plasterer coated three boards with a fine coat of plaster to give a smooth finish for Dan to paint on and, inspired by Bruegel’s “Children’s Games,” Dan set to work upon the dining table in his front room, painting individual portraits of the children with their rhymes inscribed alongside. It took over a year’s work and Dan framed the life of the playground with the architecture of the school, including its weathervane in the shape of tall ship and Tower Bridge looming on the horizon – all portrayed beneath a distinctively occluded London sky. And now that most schools wear primary coloured shirts, it is fascinating to observe the wide variety of characterful clothing – reflecting the styles of the time – displayed by these children.
Astonishingly, the painting caused great controversy when it was first displayed, with the Daily Telegraph accusing Dan Jones of turning East End youth against the police force, because he included the rhyme – “There’s a cop, cop, copper on the corner, all dressed up in navy blue. If it wasn’t for the law, I would sock him on the jaw. And he wouldn’t be a copper any more, more, more…” A rhyme which Dan had simply recorded along with all the others in the playground.
At first, the mural graced the London’s Children’s Centre and for years it filled the narrow hallway of Dan’s house, but in the Children’s Library it fits perfectly as if it had been painted for this space. Dan’s picture hangs above the library corner, where children can play or sit on the floor and read books, casting a benign spell upon this favoured spot.
More than forty years have passed since Dan made his picture – the first of several on this subject and at this scale that he has done in subsequent years – yet it remains as fresh and immediate as the day he completed it in 1977.
Breuegel’s “Children’s Games,” 1560 – Dan’s inspiration.
Dan’s recent self-portrait
Dan Jones with his grandson Rumi
Photographs copyright © Chris Kelly
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Chris Kelly & Dan Jones in the Playground
The Streets Of Old London
Piccadilly, c. 1900
In my mind, I live in old London as much as I live in the contemporary London of here and now. Maybe I have spent too much time looking at photographs of old London – such as these glass slides once used for magic lantern shows by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute?
Old London exists to me through photography almost as vividly as if I had actual memory of a century ago. Consequently, when I walk through the streets of London today, I am especially aware of the locations that have changed little over this time. And, in my mind’s eye, these streets of old London are peopled by the inhabitants of the photographs.
Yet I am not haunted by the past, rather it is as if we Londoners in the insubstantial present are the fleeting spirits while – thanks to photography – those people of a century ago occupy these streets of old London eternally. The pictures have frozen their world forever and, walking in these same streets today, my experience can sometimes be akin to that of a visitor exploring the backlot of a film studio long after the actors have gone.
I recall my terror at the incomprehensible nature of London when I first visited the great metropolis from my small city in the provinces. But now I have lived here long enough to have lost that diabolic London I first encountered in which many of the great buildings were black, still coated with soot from the days of coal fires.
Reaching beyond my limited period of residence in the capital, these photographs of the streets of old London reveal a deeper perspective in time, setting my own experience in proportion and allowing me to feel part of the continuum of the ever-changing city.
Ludgate Hill, c. 1920
Holborn Viaduct, c. 1910
Trinity Almshouses, Mile End Rd, c. 1920
Throgmorton St, c. 1920
Highgate Forge, Highgate High St, 1900
Bangor St, Kensington, c. 1900
Ludgate Hill, c. 1910
Walls Ice Cream Vendor, c. 1920
Ludgate Hill, c. 1910
Strand Yard, Highgate, 1900
Eyre St Hill, Little Italy, c. 1890
Muffin man, c. 1910
Seven Dials, c. 19o0
Fetter Lane, c. 1910
Piccadilly Circus, c. 1900
St Clement Danes, c. 1910
Hoardings in Knightsbridge, c. 1935
Wych St, c.1890
Dustcart, c. 1910
At the foot of the Monument, c. 1900
Pageantmaster Court, Ludgate Hill, c. 1930
Holborn Circus, 1910
Cheapside, 1890
Cheapside ,1892
Cheapside with St Mary Le Bow, 1910
Regent St, 1900
Glass slides courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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