Signs of Brick Lane

A Sunday stroll down Brick Lane is always a pleasant way of spending an autumn morning and even more pleasant when you find a few photos on your camera a few months later. Which is very handy as I haven't had much opportunity recently for Faded London jaunts recently.


The three street signs

First up is this interesting group of street signs on the corner of .... as you can see...Sclater Street. Evolution in progress as we start of with the very ornate 19th century effort (or earlier?), the more functional and visible modern street sign and what I presume is a local translation of the street name for the benefit of the local population. Although I suppose it must be a transliteration rather than a translation as I'm not sure how you'd translate 'Sclater'.

I don't know what Page & Co were specialists in but their little factory unit is still there, tucked away in a sidestreet just off the main drag

This looks like it might have been owned by the Lewis family but although there are new owners there seems to have been a continuity in the use of the store. Still a newsagent and still selling cigarettes.

Talking of the street signs in other languages, here's a reminder of a previous influx of immigrants who also settled in the Brick Lane area. CH N. Katz was a twine and string merchant, a fairly specialised area of work I'd of thought, and it seems as thought the business only closed down a few years ago.

Middlesex ,Street EC1

And finally, just at the top of Petticoat Lane the removal of an advertising hoarding - last seen advertising the Monty Python musical Spamalot - reveals the remains of a car park sign lurking beneath. Not particularly old or exciting, but it couldn't pass it by without the courtesy of a mention, especially as it's probably been recovered by now.

Having stumbled accross these pictures I think it's about time I checked to see what other gems I have tucked away in obscure folders!

A Brick Lane Coalhole... OR IS IT???

Or is it indeed....! I was visiting the Brick Lane area a couple of weeks ago and of course had half an eye out for anything of interest that might take its fancy. As it happened, just by the mosque, something did - a very unusual coal-hole which when viewed from one side didn't seem to make much sense, but if you took the trouble to walk around it - voila! a perfect little planet Earth in miniature

 All the World's a Coalhole! - Brick Lane

I couldn't help but be more than a little suspicious though. It was the right size for a coal-hole, it was the right shape for a coal-hole, it was even in the right place for a coal-hole but to be honest it looked a bit too arty to be a coal-hole. Certainly none of that symmetrical 'design made on a wheel' look about it that's typical of the true ironmongers coal-hole.

There was nothing else around to give any clues as to what else it might be though, so I had to wait until I was home to find out what it was I'd actually stumbled over.

What I found after a bit of searching was that it wasn't a coal-hole but something called a 'Spitalfields Roundel', one of a series of 25 individual images by local artist Keith Bowler that were created and placed as the result of the Bethnal Green City Challenge in 1995. This was a five year regeneration project for the Bethnal Green area and the roundels were one aspect of much of the work that took place in the area. The roundels were cast in iron locally and depicted scenes and images of importance locally. The globe outside the mosque was there to signify the historic  importance of immigration to the area

The 'Know Your London' website has lots more information on them including some nice sepia photographs. One thing that I did wonder and which wasn't clear on the website, was whether these roundels were sited in existing coal-holes or were they in effect plaques embedded in concrete? What I also find quite surprising and a little sad is that of the 25 roundels put in place in 1995, only 12 are still known to be in existence. Presumably the others have fallen victim to pavement repairs or rebuilding and their fate is not known. With 13 gone within 15 years you'd better get looking quick if you want to see any of the rest!