Eleanor Crow’s East End Bakers
Beigel Shop, Brick Lane
Illustrator Eleanor Crow sent me this richly-hued baker’s dozen of watercolour paintings of favourite East End Bakers, which set my stomach rumbling just to look at them . “I live in a bakery-free part of the East End and popping out for decent bread usually involves a cycle ride,” she admitted to me, “So I’m always on the lookout for good bakers and I wish we still had a proper bakery in every neighbourhood like they do in the rest of Europe.”
In common with Eleanor, I also plan my routes around the East End using the bakers’ shops as landmarks – so that I can take consolation in knowing the proximity of the nearest one, just in case the desire for something tasty from the bakery overtakes me.
“One of my regular bus routes has The Baker’s Arms as its final destination and close by is a beautiful set of almshouses, built by the London Master Bakers’ Benevolent Institution in the nineteenth century,” Eleanor informed me, elucidating bakers’ lore, as she took the first bite of a freshly baked Hot Cross Bun still warm from the oven.“Luckily people always want bread, so the traditional bakeries can still thrive alongside new businesses – but I do recommend sampling the goods a few times in each one, just to be sure which is the best…”
Robertsons, Lea Bridge Rd
Novelty Bakery, East Ham
Jesshops, Newington Green
Rinkoff’s, Vallance Rd
Goswell Bakeries, Canning Town
Akdeniz Bakery, Stoke Newington
Star Bakery, Dalston Lane
Fabrique Bakery, Hoxton
Raab the Bakers, Essex Rd
Percy Ingle, Lea Bridge Rd
Anderson’s, Hoxton St
Daren Bread, Stepney Green
Drawings copyright © Eleanor Crow
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At The Settlement Synagogue
Contributing Photographer Jeremy Freedman & I paid a visit to The Settlement Synagogue in Beaumont Grove, Stepney, on Saturday. Originally founded a century ago by Basil & Rose Henriques as The St George’s Settlement Synagogue – where there was once a congregation of over a hundred, today we found just a handful of old friends who convene here weekly. Yet we received a generous welcome from some sprightly nonagenarians who still carry the living spirit of the Jewish East End.
Clara Nathanson
I am Italian, born in Naples, and I came here forty-five years ago. It’s over twenty years since I lost my husband and I have been a member of this shul for thirty years. I live in the Caledonian Rd but I used to work in a Jewish clothing factory in the East End. I like it here because we are all friends and have been on holiday together. In my heart, I hope this synagogue never closes.
Ralph Burns
I live in Bow and I’ve been part of this congregation for fifty years. I just never left it. I was born in Stepney and went to Stepney Jewish School. I served in the Royal Navy on the corvettes and ended up in the Far East. I moved to Bow after the war, I was bombed out twice. I was a fur cutter and I worked in Harrods – I was head of the department. My daughter lives in South End and my son lives in Loughton. I have no family left in the East End.
Barry Gordon
I’m from Whitechapel, Mile End Rd, about five minutes walk from here. I’ve been attending services here since 1995 when my father died, before that I came in the seventies with my fiancé so she could convert to Judaism. Then, around the time of my father’s death, I experienced seven coincidences which made me want to come back. I’m a dance teacher – I have a studio in Brixton and I teach classes, and people also come to my place in Whitechapel and I teach them here. When I was married, I moved out of Whitechapel but, once I got divorced, I moved back again – so I’ve been in Whitechapel continuously except 1978-94. We all come here regularly to the synagogue because if the numbers drop, they’ll close it.
Marie Joseph
I’m ninety-one. I was born here and I’ve lived my life in Stepney, until twelve years ago. My children all moved to Loughton and they found me a little house there. Originally, the synagogue was part of the Oxford & St George Settlement but we moved out of the building across the road to this new place thirty years ago. We used to have over eighty members … I’ll always come back here because it feels like home. I belong here.
Cecil Leighton
I was born in Pedley St, Spitalfields, but I lived most of my time in the East End in Commercial Rd near Watney St Market. I’m a computer accountant, retired twenty-eight years. I’ve been coming to this synagogue for sixty years. Originally, I was a member of the Oxford & St George Youth Club. The synagogue is ninety-three years old and the youth club celebrates its centenary next year in March. It’s friendly here, wholesome, and they have all the old tunes that I can remember and I am able to join in.
Marie Leighton
We were both members of the Oxford & St George Youth Club, and we met when I was about thirteen and Cecil was twenty. We were always meeting because we both lived off Commercial Rd, and now we’ve been married fifty-eight years. I was a medical secretary – I started off at St George-in-the-East Hospital, then moved to Mile End Hospital and ended up working at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. We’ve lived in Chigwell since we got married – but we come back because we like it here, this is more of a community than a congregation and we’ve all know each other a long time.
Maire & Cecil Leighton met at the youth club and have been married fifty-eight years.
Photographs copyright © Jeremy Freedman
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The Hollyhocks of Arnold Circus
The majestic hollyhocks of Arnold Circus are one of the highlights of the horticultural year in the East End – thanks to Andy Willoughby, the gardener whose hard work and imaginative planting made everyone recognise the beauty of the bandstand at the heart of the Boundary Estate after decades of neglect. Andy is supported by the Friends of Arnold Circus who engineered the recent renovation of the park and, although this process involved the temporary uprooting of many of the plants, last summer the gardens were restored to their former beauty with the hollyhocks soaring above all else.
Ever ingenious at seeking ways to improve the environment of Britain’s first council estate, the Friends invited sculptor Rachel Whiteread, who lives nearby, to create a limited edition print that could be sold to support the maintenance of the gardens. Fresh from producing her golden foliate designs upon the facade of the Whitechapel Gallery, Rachel Whiteread made a print inspired by the shape of the hollyhock seeds that Andy Willoughby gathers each year to propagate seedlings for the coming spring.
Launched last December, the edition of one hundred and twenty five prints is already half sold, ensuring that Andy can continue gardening for another year and now, with spring approaching, packets of hollyhock seeds have been produced including Rachel Whiteread’s design. Yet these are no common or garden seed packets, but hexagonal origami contrivances designed by Masaki Miwa at Åbäke in Hackney which echo the shape of the octagonal bandstand at Arnold Circus.
Spitalfields Life Contributing Photographer Patricia Niven followed the whole process from the harvesting of the seeds, through the folding and filling of the packets, involving a whole host of local people. And now we just need your help – to buy these packets of seeds, thereby assisting the flourishing of the gardens at Arnold Circus and, at the same time, adorning the East End with thousands of hollyhocks in the summer of 2013.
Hollyhock seeds gathered at Arnold Circus.
Rachel Whiteread signs her print inspired by the hollyhock seeds.
Rachel Whiteread’s hollyhock seed screen print, produced in an edition of one hundred and twenty-five.
The launch of the print at Leila’s Cafe last year.
The design for the seed packet by Masaki Miwa at Åbäke incorporating Rachel Whiteread’s print.
Arnold Circus gardener Andy Willoughby gets to grips with folding the origami seed packetss.
Andy Willoughby & Alice Herrick, project curator, show off their folded seed packets.
Hollyhock seeds from Arnold Circus.
Jean Locker, resident of Arnold Circus, filters the seeds she gathered with Andy Willoughby.
Hannah sorts the seeds.
The seed packing production line at Leila’s Cafe last week.
Jean Locker, Rose Pomeroy, Leila McAlister, Hannah & Tulsi sorting and measuring seeds, filling and sealing packets.
Approximately one hundred seeds go into each of the three hundred packets.
Tulsi and Annegret Affolderbach-Dlamini with a finished packet.
Hollyhock hexagons are on sale now at Leila’s Shop for £5 in aid of the gardens at Arnold Circus.
Grow the majestic hollyhocks of Arnold Circus in your garden this summer.
Top photo of hollyhocks © Andy Willoughby
Last photo of hollyhocks © Alice Herrick
All other photographs copyright © Patricia Niven
Copies of Rachel Whiteread‘s limited edition silkscreen print can be bought online from Galerie Simpson. Prints and the packets of seeds are on sale at Leila’s Shop, 15-17 Calvert Ave, E2 7JP. Please come to celebrate the launch of the seed packets at Leila’s Shop on Monday 25th March 5-8pm.
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How Raymond’s Shop became Leila’s Shop
Tony Bock’s East Enders
Clock Winder at Christ Church, Spitalfields
Here are the East Enders of the nineteen seventies as pictured by photographer Tony Bock in the days when he worked for the East London Advertiser – the poncey dignitaries, the comb-over tories, the kids on the street, the market porters, the fascists, the anti-fascists, the shopkeepers, the sheet metal workers, the unions, the management, the lone dancers, the Saturday shoppers, the Saturday drinkers, the loving family, the West Ham supporters, the late bride, the wedding photographer, the clock winder, the Guinness tippler, the solitary clown, the kneeling politician and the pie & mash shop cat.
Welcome to the teeming masses. Welcome to the infinite variety of life. Welcome to the exuberant clear-eyed vision of Tony Bock. Welcome to the East End of forty years ago.
Dignitaries await the arrival of the Queen Mother at Toynbee Hall. John Profumo kneels.
Children playing on the street in Poplar.
On the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.
National Front supporters gather at Brick Lane.
Watching a National Front march in Hackney.
Shopkeepers come out to watch an anti-racism march in Hackney.
A family in Stratford pose in their back yard.
Wedding photographer in Hackney – the couple had been engaged many years.
West Ham fans at Upton Park, not a woman to be seen.
Sports club awards night in Hackney.
Dancers in Victoria Park.
Conservative party workers in the 1974 electoral campaign, Ilford.
Ted Heath campaigns in Ilford for the General Election of 1974.
Ford workers union meeting, Dagenham.
Ford managers, Dagenham.
Press operator at Ford plant, Dagenham.
At Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park.
Mr East End Contest at E1 Festival.
The shop cat at Kelly’s Pie & Mash Shop, Bethnal Green Rd.
At the White Swan in Poplar.
Enjoying a Guinness in the Royal Oak, Bethnal Green.
Boy on demolition site, Tiller Rd, Isle of Dogs.
Brick Lane Sunday Market.
Clown in Stratford Broadway.
Saturday morning at Roman Rd Market.
Saturday night out in Dagenham.
Spitalfields Market porter in the workers’ club
Photographs copyright © Tony Bock
You may like to see these other photographs by Tony Bock
The Oranges & Lemons Churches
Upon an inspired suggestion from one of my dearly-beloved readers last week, I set out to photograph those churches featured in “Oranges & Lemons” and here you see the results of my endeavour.
St Clement’s, Eastcheap
“Oranges and lemons,” say the bells of St. Clement’s.
Site of St Martin Orgar, Martin Lane
“You owe me five farthings,” say the bells of St. Martin’s.
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate
“When will you pay me?” say the bells of Old Bailey.
St Leonard’s, Shoreditch
“When I grow rich,” say the bells of Shoreditch.
St Dunstan’s, Stepney
“When will that be?” say the bells of Stepney.
St Mary Le Bow, Cheapside
“I do not know,” says the great bell of Bow.
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Soerditch by Dant (Chapter Three)
It is my pleasure to publish this week’s instalment of Contributing Artist Adam Dant’s cartoons from SOERDITCH, Diary of a Neighbourhood, satirising the culture of our dearly-beloved Shoreditch – each one a beautifully rendered view of the neighbourhood , captioned with a clueless thing overheard on the street.
“This place is amazing – first it was used by the Huguenots, then the Methodists, then the Jews, then the Muslims & soon the Scientologists move in!”
“It depends what you want to eat really – right is yuppie, left is chavvie …”
“I’m sorry kids, I’d like to let you past but, as you can see, we’ve got very important fashion shoot going on here!”
“Can we go back to Croydon soon? All this creepy, peely painty vibe round here’s beginning to freak me out!”
“Sorry love, I’ve got to stay at the agency until we get the design of the ‘Z’ in the new ‘JeanZ’ logo right.”
“To Kensington” … “Kennington? … ” No, Kensington!!!” … “Canning Town?”
“I was just going to pop into the library for a little afternoon nap!” … “Don’t you mean the ‘Idea Store?'”
“Don’t be stupid, of course it’s safe to walk around Shoreditch at night in evening dress. Haven’t you see those old pictures of the Kray Twins? They were from round here and they were always in black tie.”
“I saw this Eastenders show … so unrealistic, the people, the food, the houses, the english, everything …”
“Do you think Shakespeare would live in Shoreditch if he came to London nowadays?” … “He’d stay in Stratford, the theatre’s better now.”
“English bloody Heritage sneaked into our squat while we were at Wimbledon and gave it an effing Grade I listing …”
“Well, there’s another pub we won’t be visiting for a while.”
Soerditch is the old name for Shoreditch, quoted by the historian John Stow in his Survey of London 1598, as “so called more than four hundred yeares.” It means sewer ditch, in reference to the spring beside Shoreditch Church, once the source of the lost River Walbrook which flowed from there towards the City of London.
Drawing from a pair of unlikely inspirations, namely Giles‘ cartoons for the Daily Express and Hiroshige‘s ‘One Hundred Famous Views of Edo,’ Adam Dant pulls off an astonishing sleight of hand – simultaneously portraying the urban landscape of Shoreditch with spare lines and flat tones that evoke the woodcuts of Hiroshige, while also satirising the manners and mores of the people through witty social observations in the manner of Giles.
The exhibition runs at Eleven Spitalfields Gallery until 26th April and all one hundred and twenty-five cartoons are published in an album with an introduction by Jarvis Cocker, produced in the style of Giles’ celebrated annuals and available to buy online from Spitalfields Life Shop.
Click here to buy your copy of SOERDITCH by DANT – Diary of a Neighbourhood (125 Views of Shoreditch) – while stocks last!
Cartoons copyright © Adam Dant
Adam Dant is represented by Hales Gallery
You may also like to see these earlier selection of cartoons by Dant
A Walk Through Time in Spitalfields Market
Once upon a time, the Romans laid out a graveyard along the eastern side of the road leading north from the City of London, in the manner of the cemetery lining the Appian Way. When the Spitalfields Market was demolished and rebuilt in the nineteen-nineties, stone coffins and funerary urns with copper coins were discovered beneath the market buildings – a sobering reminder of the innumerable people who came to this place and made it their own over the last two thousand years. Outside the City, there is perhaps no other part of London where the land bears the footprint of so many over such a long expanse of time as Spitalfields.
In his work, Adam Tuck plays upon this sense of reverberation in time by overlaying his own photographs upon earlier pictures to create subtly modulated palimpsests, which permit the viewer to see the past in terms of the present and the present in terms of the past, simultaneously. He uses photography to show us something that is beyond the capability of ordinary human vision, you might call it God’s eye view.
Working with the pictures taken by Mark Jackson & Huw Davies in 1991, recording the last year of the nocturnal wholesale Fruit & Vegetable Market before it transferred to Leyton after more than three centuries in Spitalfields, Adam revisited the same locations to photograph them today. The pictures from 1991 celebrate the characters and rituals of life within a market community established over generations, depicted in black and white photographs that, at first glance, could have been taken almost any time during the twentieth century.
In Adam Tuck’s composites, the people in the present inhabit the same space as those of the past, making occasional surreal visual connections as if they sense each others presence or as if the monochrome images were memories fading from sight. For the most part – according to the logic of these images – the market workers are too absorbed in their work to be concerned with time travellers from the future, while many of the shoppers and office workers cast their eyes around aimlessly, unaware of the spectres from the past that surround them. Yet most telling are comparisons in demeanour, which speak of self-possession and purpose – and, in this comparison, those in the past are seen to inhabit the place while those in the present are merely passing through.
Although barely more than twenty years have passed since the market moved out, the chain stores and corporate workers which have supplanted it belong to another era entirely. There is a schism in time, since the change was not evolutionary but achieved through the substitution of one world for another. Thus Adam’s work induces a similar schizophrenic effect to that experienced by those who knew the market before the changes when they walk through it today, raising uneasy comparisons between the endeavours of those in the past and the present, and their relative merits and qualities.
Brushfield St, north side.
Lamb St, south side.
Brushfield St, looking east.
In Brushfield St.
In Gun St.
Brushfield St, looking south-east.
Looking out from Gun St across Brushfield St.
In Brushfield St.
Market interior.
Northern corner of the market.
In Lamb St.
Lamb St looking towards The Golden Heart.
Photographs copyright © Mark Jackson & Huw Davies & Adam Tuck
Mark Jackson & Huw Davies photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may like to look at more of Adam Tuck’s work
A Walk Through Time in Spitalfields
and Mark Jackson & Huw Davies pictures of the Spitalfields Market
Spitalfields Market Portraits, 1991
Night at the Spitalfields Market, 1991
Mark Jackson & Huw Davies’ Photographs of the Spitalfields Market
