Stepney to Wapping. So much to see.

Here are some pics from a few weeks ago when I walked from Whitechapel High Street to The Prospect of Whitby pub on the Thames Path. It's an area I like a lot and every time I pass through I spot something I hadn't noticed last time. Here goes. 

Heading first to Stepney Farm, I decided rather than walk via gorgeous Stepney Green, as is often my default route, that I'd use White Horse Lane. It's a mix of old and new housing and then there's this with this strange construction at No.39a bearing the date of 1928 in very badly-rendered numbers!

Here was the Ideal Garage at street level with Goldstein Marks, mantle manufacturers (ladies' coats) upstairs. Indeed, in the 1930s, most of this street was occupied by Jewish garment manufacturers intermingled with btchers, bakers, tobacconists etc. The windows are clearly UPVC replacements and it's fair to assume that they would have originally been metal frames. I wonder what the building looked like in 1928 and what it was used for.

On the opposite side of the road I noticed a street with a beery name and pondered if I could make a collection of other street names after alcoholic beverages. Short answer: No!

I wandered through the farm, perused the farmers' market and designer-maker stalls and went to say hello to some of the animals. I then crossed the road and admired the chunky railings around the churchyard in Belgrave Street with their multiple layers of peeling paint.

Via a dogleg around the almshouses, this then becomes White Horse Road – note White Horse Road not Lane – surely this was all one name before and alluded to a White Horse pub. I will look at old maps and update this later. 

Just before Wakeling Street I spotted some Mercers Maidens high up on the social housing block that I never noticed before., even Though I was already aware of the one at the rear of The Old Ship on the same block, round the corner here – an excellent proper locals' pub btw. Strange that I hadn't previously wandered arund the whole perimeter to see if I could find any more 

A quick snap of the wonderful elaborate doorway to what is now The Half Moon Theatre, built in the 1860s as Stepney Borough Council's public health offices. Then across Commercial Road and into Cable Street for a little detour to hunt out some other Mercers Maiden markers I had spotted a while back.

At the corner of Hardinge Street sits the Old Ship public house, now converted into flats. There are some words between the windows:

It reads "Nine feet eight inches eastward is one of the boundaries of the parish of St George, Middx 1823". Nice. it refers to St George's in the East which is one of the magnificient Hawkmoor churches in this area. Around the corner on the left, near the DLR line, there's The Convent of Mercy and Coburg Dwellings, both bearing markers that show this is Mercers Company land.

A quick peek at pre-WW2 directories shows that there used to local shops all the way along the opposite side of the street. I haven't looked into whether the demolition was due to bomb damage, but it's likely considering the amount of buildings that were affected here.

Mercers Maiden mission accomplished, so I headed due south to Shadwell Basin via Glamis Rd and Wapping Wall. First into the market there which is open every Saturday and offers a good selection of handmade wares plus food and beverages of all kinds around tables at the centre. I was glad to bump into an elderly and fascinating local man I know who lives nearby. Good chats over beers and then to the Go East Vintage Flea Weekender which is occasionally within this old hydralulic pumping station. These pics are from my last visit in March and show how it's not just the items for sale that makes it worth the £3 entry fee:

I stopped for a chat with my friend Rusty who sells a wonderful range reclaimed items of all sizes, from glass ink wells to huge pub mirrors. I was particularly interested by this salt glazed vessel: 

It depicts Thomas Dartmouth as Jim Crow. I've never heard of him or the character before. Nor have I ever seen a bottle of this style before. I'll have to keep my open for others. 

And so to the Prospect of Whitby for a pint and a a bit of boat watching from the back window. 

A nice afternoon well spent.

Commemorative plaques and woodblocks in Langley Street, Covent Garden

My first job after leaving school in 1980 was as junior in the design and artwork studio of Lennart Advertsing, 7a Langley Street, Covent Garden, WC2. I was immediately fascinated by the area and most lunchtimes my workmate Debbie and I wandered about looking at how it was all being renovated, changing from a zone of fruit and veg and tradesmen to become the popular shopping and entertainment district we see today. Neal Street back then was a building site. The piazza was almost completely refurbished and we enjoyed seeing some of the entertainments. Actually, enough of that, I'll park all the memories for now and save them for another day, otherwise I will never get to the point.

The tall buildings in Langley Street, Shelton Street and Earlham Street were all built to store fruit and veg. Hence the name of Pineapple Dance Studio and all the other fruity references you might see as you wander about. For such a short road, Langley Street, has a lot to offer. Not only is this street where Yours Truly first worked*, but there are also plaques in the street that commemorate other things. 

For instance, on Saturday 11th May this year, I attended a small ceremony for the unveiling of a red plaque to remember lives lost fighting an awful fire in the same very building back in 1954, a horrible incident that I had no previous knowledge of. 

I'd seen the event listed on the London's Fire Brigade's site (I subscribe for updates) but I was surprised and a little disappointed to see so few people in attendance. It was mostly relatives of the deceased as well as wives and colleagues related to the organisers or people participating. There was a speeches by dignitaries and the local priest blessed the plaque.

The firemen are here standing outside Pineapple Dance Studios in front of their vehicle, looking magnificent but obliterating a couple of things I hadn't noticed before. 

Two days ago, on Saturday 12th August, I was leading one of my walking tours when I noticed that in the middle of this recently resurfaced street, there is a man hole cover which contains woodblocks in one of its segments!

At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, how had I never spotted this before?! 

I wondered if it might have been moved here from elsewhere, but no, Google Streetview shows it in 2008:

There's something else of interest here, and I don't just mean the demolition of those smaller buildings on the right which now form an open space in front of Stamfords that leads through to Mercers Street, I am looking at the scaffolding that is boxed in. Today there is a metal gate that was mostly obscured by the fire truck in my pics above.  

I have often admired it as being a good modern example of well-crafted metalwork – one of those things that I make a mental note to find out about another day. Well, it turnes out that I didn't have to look hard because all the information is there! 

 

A metal panel to the side of the gate is hard to read but it tells us that this was installed in 2021 on behalf of the Mercers Company which owns this swathe of land. The gate is the work of Bex Simon AWCB, artist and blacksmith, and was forged and fabricated by CB-Arts Ltd. Indeed this information can also be found within a tiny panel at the bottom left of the gate itself:

I looked again at the man hole cover and pondered whether I should wander the nearby streets to see if I could find any more remnants of woodblocks, but it was a hot and sticky day and the area was busy with shoppers people out having a good [noisy] time, so I thought better of the idea, for now, and caught a tube home instead. 

For more wood blocks, see my A-Z here. 

Ooh... I've just remembered another thing in Langley Street – I am always delighted to see that Café Pacifico, London's first Mexican restaurant, is still trading. It opened in 1982 and must be one of only a handful of businesses that have stood the test of time. Again, I will return to this idea of then and now in due course.

*there ought to be a plaque for this too!

Free Lectures at Gresham College, Holborn

Earlier this month I went to the London Historians' annual lecture at Gresham College, a stone's throw from Chancery Lane underground station.
I got there early and found the doors weren't open yet so I had a look around the outside spaces at the rear and noticed a modern Mercers Maiden on both sides of the archway to a modern office building.

Sorry for the appalling quality of these snaps – I only had my phone with me and the light was not good.

The stylised modern maiden is shown top left, above. Close to her within the courtyard there is another maiden which looks more like the ones in Covent Garden. Another colourful maiden can be found just as you enter the lecture hall.
In the courtyard there are also carved plaques and date stamps for Watney and Baden Powell.
Go and check them out for yourself when you attend on of the excellent free lectures.
Mercers maidens are the mark of the Mercers Livery Company and can be spotted all over London in some very strange and unexpected places – I must put a collection together soon.