East End Photographs and Drawings

[Archaic]

1930 Pathé News: East London Road Signs

This should be right up everyone's alley!

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/east-london-road-signs/query/whitechapel

Archaic

[Limehouse]

This should be right up everyone's alley!

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/east-london-road-signs/query/whitechapel

Archaic

Wow! That last clip featured Dalston Lane. My father lived in Dalston Lane - in Navarino Mansions - from aged 4 - about 19 years of age! Navarion Mansions was one of the '4 percent' mansion blocks built for Jewish Artisans.

[Archaic]

4%?

Hi Julie.

What does "4%" mean? Doesn't it have something to do with finances and rents; I think the rate of profit the builders/donors had agreed to accept?

In other words, didn't they agree to create affordable housing and to not become "slum landlords" who continually raise the rents as high as the market would bear?

Thanks,
Archaic

[Limehouse]

Hi Julie.

What does "4%" mean? Doesn't it have something to do with finances and rents; I think the rate of profit the builders/donors had agreed to accept?

In other words, didn't they agree to create affordable housing and to not become "slum landlords" who continually raise the rents as high as the market would bear?

Thanks,
Archaic

That's it precisely Archaic. There were blocks in Spitalfields, mentioned in quite a few JtR books - but Navarion Mansions was a little further north east. My father lived there until the family moved out to Chingford - which in 1936 was still in 'the countryside' but is now part of the urban sprawl of east London.

I am not sure how my grandparents secured an appartment in Navarino Mansions. My grandfather was born in Westleton in Suffolk. My grandmother was from Strood in Kent. Grandfather joined the navy in WW1 and stayed in until 1923. He apparently met my grandmother in Chatham (Kent) during the war and my father was born towards the end of the war.

When grandfather left the navy they settled in Hackney and my grandfather worked for the post office. Grandfather was not Jewish, but there is some speculation that my grandmother may have had some Jewish connections. However, my father and his siblings were raised in the established Christian church.

My mother's side of the family have long-established east end connections, having been marine engineers based in Limehouse and Poplar. However, they had Dutch origins and were seasoned travellers, one branch ending up in Odessa (where some of them still live) whilst others settled in Constantinople. Others were resident in Dutch Guyana and it is said that my great, great, great gradfather was named George after Georgetown, the capital of then Dutch Guyana.

[Rob Clack]

Hi Julie.

What does "4%" mean? Doesn't it have something to do with finances and rents; I think the rate of profit the builders/donors had agreed to accept?

In other words, didn't they agree to create affordable housing and to not become "slum landlords" who continually raise the rents as high as the market would bear?

Thanks,
Archaic

Hi Bun,

Here you go

http://www.jewisheastend.com/fourpercentdwellings.html

Rob

[Archaic]

4%

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that great link.

4% must have been considered a decent rate of interest throughout most of the 19th Century, because Jane Austen mentions that same rate of interest in books like 'Pride and Prejudice', which was written in 1797 and published in 1813.

Whereas in today's economy we often see an inflation rate of 3-4% over the course of a single year, so "4%" investments wouldn't leave much of a profit margin, would they?

Thanks Rob.
Archaic

[Phil H]

During my absence from Casebook, I went through an old "scrapbook" I kept on JtR. I found these photos of Durward St/Bucks Row and Mitre Square which may be of interest to some. They are dated summer 1984 (so just prior to the centenary).

[Rob Clack]

Very nice Phil.

Rob

[WARSPITE]

Those ones of Durward St are corkers Phil. Have you been exploring since 1984? This was just how I remember it in 1988, and preferred it then.

[WARSPITE]

superb photos Hutch. I dint even know about the Crossbones Graveyard! Whereabouts is it exactly?
Ive always been haunted passing Lolesworth Close; as if the end bit of Flowery Dean lingers on as a reminder of bygone days.
MJKs grave looks like its subsiding;is that new turf on the right?

[Phil H]

I have been to the sites a few times since 1984 - though the changes meant that I found them less atmospheric. I also went first in the late 70s (when I moved to London in late 1975 I lived in Hackney for a while) but did not then have a camera alas.

29 Hanbury St had long gone by then (I do have a poor photo which I'll scan in and post), but I think I missed the houses in Durward St by only a few years. Essex Wharf was still there. I have often wondered whether the paving stones in my pics were still the ones on which Polly lay when found... anyone know for sure?

I moved from London to Birmingham in 1997 and have not visited the East End since then.

Phil

[Phil H]

The other photo I found of Hanbury St looking east - the brewery (site of No 29) is on the left where there is a boring concrete wall.

For those interested, and to explain the bit of drawing stuck over the photo, I attach the page from my old scrap book for context.

Phil

[yen_powell]

I have often wondered whether the paving stones in my pics were still the ones on which Polly lay when found... anyone know for sure?

Those slabs in the photos of Durward Street look like ASP (artificial stone paving) in other words concrete, probably dating from the 60s/70s. More chance that the kerb stones are a lot older, they are granite and are re-used continually if undamaged and damaging them is quite difficult.

[Phil H]

Thanks Y-P.

It would seem odd to me that the paving stones near the former stable entry would have been replaced, unless when the site was used as a garage.. You and others may know better though.

Thanks again,

Phil

[Rob Clack]

The entrance to the stable yard had changed at least twice since 1888. Once around 1920 and again in the mid 1960s.
When I visited the site in 1986, this was what the site looked like.



Rob