‘Many of these paintings were made in kitchens, the heart of any house, café or restaurant. Places that are often a repository of things we have collected, things that have been handed down to us and ...

For years, Viscountess Boudica wrote an autobiography – absurd, bawdy and magical by turns – in daily installments. Entitled There’s More to Life than Heaven & Earth (sadly now discontinued), it was ...

Henrietta Keeper (widely known as “Joan”), the vivacious octogenarian ballad singer who used to perform at E.Pellicci in the Bethnal Green Rd on Fridays, once invited me to round to her tiny flat to ...

The Leopard is the symbol of the Goldsmiths’ Company. Whenever I walk through the City to St Paul’s, I always marvel at the great blocks of Hay Tor granite which form the plin ...

My father was born in 1914 in Fort Street, which ran across that site and was demolished to make way for the “new” Spitalfields market. It is strange that the Roman remains we ...

Andy Strowman, poet of Stepney, sent me these photos and the stories which accompany them. Uncle Dave came to visit us from time to time. Maybe my mum knew in advance, it was like having royalty come ...

George Dodd came to Spitalfields to write this account for Charles Knight’s LONDON published in 1842. Dodds recalls the rural East End that still lingered in the collective memory and described the ...

One of my great delights of 2024 was introducing Farokh Talati, Chef at St John Bread & Wine to Chris Gorgay, Grower at Spitalfields City Farm with the result that fresh produce from the farm has ...

George Dodd came to Spitalfields to write this account for Charles Knight’s LONDON published in 1842.Dodds recalls the rural East End that still lingered in the collective memory and described the ...