East End Photographs and Drawings

[DVV]

Thanks for this, Observer,
I'm a De Quincey fan, yunno!

Amitiés,
David

[Observer]

No problem David, "The maul and the pear tree", is a great read, everything you want to know about the Ratcliff Highway murders, can be found in there.

all the best

Observer

[DVV]

Just back from Amazon.
Apparently it's available in English and German, but not in French.
I vote English.

Thanks again,
David

[George Hutchinson]

Regarding the Williams burial site - mad! I've known of it for years but had never been there and always planned to... and now, some years down the line when the names Cable Street and Cannon Street Road mean something to me, I realise I've been there LOADS of times in the past few years!

PHILIP

[Observer]

Hi Philip, when I took the photograph I had no idea that Williams was buried beneath that crossroad recently I have been reading the maul and the pear tree again, and then realised that I had a photo of the spot

all the best

Observer

[Stephen Thomas]

Thanks for this, Observer,
I'm a De Quincey fan, yunno!

Hi David

Yes, a wonderful essay indeed.

One of my favourite passages in all literature is the account of his relationship with the young prostitute 'Ann of Oxford Street' in Confessions of an Opium Eater. The house is still there, I believe.

Hi Limehouse

Thanks for that picture. 'The Maul and the Pear Tree' is a super book which I reckon should be read by anybody interested in the JTR case. I once went looking for the gravestone of the victims as described in the book but it's not there. A stake through the heart and buried at a crossroads, not in Transylvania but in London not that long ago eh? Amazing stuff. I wonder what happened to the skull that the landlord of that pub appropriated.

[Observer]

Hi Stephen

If you look at the photo again, the block which includes the pub is built on the site of St Georges churchyard. Indeed the area on the east side of the road, (the pub side that is) as far south as the Highway, the modern name for Ratcliffe Highway was the graveyard, the church was set back about half way down Cannon Street Road. The victims were buried in St Georges in the East graveyard, I don't know if the above Saint Georges, is the St Georges in question though

all the best

Observer

[DVV]

Hi David
Yes, a wonderful essay indeed.
One of my favourite passages in all literature is the account of his relationship with the young prostitute 'Ann of Oxford Street' in Confessions of an Opium Eater. The house is still there, I believe.

Oh yes Stephen,
my dear Stephen,
it's just something that JUSTIFIES literature,
and that some men can understand.
I could say more Stephen, about Ann and Thomas, about Vivi and I, but I hope we'll see each other in London next winter and have a drink.

Amitiés,
David

edit: Stephen, when TDQ missed the appointment and... oh! 10 rounds for me when we meet.

[John Bennett]

Some pictures. As is my want.

Steward Street, Spitalfields about 1900, junction with Artillery Lane.


Steward Street again, 1975. Tramp city!


Cheshire Street 1971, by Kerbela Street.


Code Street, 1956. It still runs off Buxton Street but is only about 20 yards long now.

[Suzi]

Bit good them moi babes!!!

[The English Gardener]

Hi, I was working my way through this long & fascinating thread, and when I came to Post #1545 with the "Buck's Row" School Class Photo, it occurred to me that it was a c.1914 pic because of the inclusion of the photos of the military leaders. A page or two later I saw that Warspite has in fact identified them as General French & Admiral Jellicoe along with King George V... Which reinforces my initial idea that at least some of those little boys in the class photo must have had

Fathers, older brothers, and neighbors off fighting in France- hence the patriotic photos of the military leaders were given "pride of place".

I found it particularly interesting that the photo of the King was not in the center, and that spot was instead given to the leader of the British Expeditionary Forces. (Or ought the King to be on the right-hand side for reasons of protocol?)

What do you think- was the School still open in 1914? And were they likely to have taken Class Photos in the Autumn, when the War would have been in its early stages? -Thanks!

Hi, Archaic-
I may be wrong in this instance - and George might be were he is for a completely different reason. I have a pretty scant knowledge of military history... scant but not completely lacking! In traditional military terms, the position of dignity was on the right hand side. I'm probably wrong, as I say, to assume that this is the reasoning for George's placing to the right of the group, but you would be correct to say that there was an established practice with regard to prerogative.
Regards,
Al

[Stephen Thomas]

it's just something that JUSTIFIES literature,
and that some men can understand.

That post was just for you David. I suspect that nobody here knows what the hell we were talking about, but that's life.

Errrr. Is there a French phrase for 'that's life'?

[Bailey]

I think "that's life" is actually the English phrase for "C'est la vie."

B.

[DVV]

Hey, Bailey,
you're fluent ...
Just like Tana.

Many thanks, Stephen!

Amitiés guys,
David

[Archaic]

Hi, English Gardener; thanks for the response. In American protocol, our flag is always supposed to be on the far right side (sounds awfully Republican, I know!), but I thought maybe the King was more "diplomatic", and so would be placed in the center of the photo. (Funny if all leaders insist on being at the far right!)

And Stephen, hello. I enjoyed your 'Confessions' post, and just wanted to assure you that I also am literate, though an American! One of my absolute favorite passages in all Literature is in the very same work, under point "IV" on the subject of Memory and 'the secret inscriptions of the mind': "Just as the stars seem to withdraw before the common light of day- whereas, in fact, we all know that it is the light which is drawn over them as a veil, and that they are waiting to be revealed, when the obscuring daylight shall have withdrawn".

"The obscuring daylight"... I love that! -Cheers, B.