East End Photographs and Drawings

[Bulldog]

Hi Bulldog. What Rob is saying is that the fence you can JUST see curving around to the left in the distance, beyond the archway in the photo on the right, is the very same fence filling up half the image in the photo on the left. Not only the angle, but the shades of the sheets of corrugated iron, their widths and the height of the planks above suggest the same to me.
PHILIP

Gotcha!

Bulldog

[Rob Clack]

With some help from Debs, we've identified Shovel Alley as Mayfields Buildings which ran from Cable Street to Princes Square.
Debs came across this:

Mayfield Buildings were not a "buildings" in the normally understood sense, but a short terrace of two and three story houses. approached by an archway from Cable Street and sandwiched between there and St.Georges Street, now The Highway. It was also know as "Shovel alley", but not only to the inhabitants, as the enumerator of the 1891 census, also makes note of this fact. The court as it was also known was adjacent to Princes Square , which could be seen at an angle from the windows of No. 13.

The photo lines up very well with the 1873 O.S. Map



Rob

[Rob Clack]

Hi Bulldog,

Swallow Gardens never had a bend on it. You could see from Chambers Street right through to Royal Mint Street.
I hope this helps, I've lined it up as best I could.

Abels Buildings from 2006 and 1930s



Rob

[The Grave Maurice]

That is just excellent work, Rob. Thanks very much.

[Bulldog]

Hi Rob,

That's great. Thank you very much.

Regards,

Bulldog

[George Hutchinson]

OK, here's some you mostly won't have seen before.

They're from the fairly scarce 'Some Notes On The Ward Of Aldgate 1500-1904' by Richard Kemp (1904). I bought a copy in the hope we might find some gems for the book, but they weren't gemmy enough.


Looking back towards the City on Aldgate High Street, 1904.


Looking down Leadenhall Street from Aldgate, 1904.


Here's a nice one - the school on the edge of Mitre Square before it was demolished and replaced with the current Edwardian building.


An old engraving of St James' Church, Duke's Place before demolition in the 1870s.


The interior of The Great Synagogue, St James' Place.

PHILIP

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

I am very late on the uptake here, since I haven't had time to indulge in this thread for some time.

I just wanted to congratulate John Bennett for the ravishing photo of the back of George Yard Buildings, which was brough to my attention thanks to a telephone call from Fisherman.
What an incredible find!

Just one question: I don't know that much about how English tenement blocks were constructed in those days, and I am a bit puzzled by the actual stairs on the picture. The construction looks a bit odd to me - what are those round wall structures to the right of each stair?
Are the outside stairs continuing inside the building, and if so, can we be sure of that there aren't any landings on the inside as well as on the outside?

All the best

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Glenn

I don't know where John's photos would be in this thread now - somewhere way back - so I'll have to just comment on what I can.

It's unlikely there would be a landing in the interior of the building unless it is a turn in the staircase. Rob obtained Winston Ramsey's series of photos ostensibly of GYB as used (and some not) in his huge EAST END THEN AND NOW book and established that, although the building WASN'T GYB at all but St George's House next door, that the two buildings were indeed very similar. From the images we have of inside St George's House (which was the next building down in the direction of Whitechapel High Street for those who don't know) it's very unlikely that a landing was anything other than the narrow outside walkway.

PHILIP

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Philip.

Thanks - interesting. I just asked because it doesn't look like the stairs are turning and so I couldn't make out why there wouldn't be any landing inside and I admit I am still a bit confused. I also thought the stairs look kind of strange (or rather, the wall construction surrounding them).
Do there exist any plans from the these buldings?

The picture is seen first time on page 23 on this thread, by the way.

All the best

[Rob Clack]

I think there was most likely an internal landing about halfway between floors and where the stairs turn. Martha Tabrams murder site was more than likely on the landing outside as if I remember correctly a witness said her body was about 10 feet from his door (going by memory here), so that would rule out the internal landing.

Rob

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

I see Rob. Thanks!

So on these types of buildings all apartment doors would be those we see on the outside and there would be none inside?

All the best

[Rob Clack]

Hi Glenn,

They did vary, but it is clear from Johns photo that the entrance to the apartments were on the outside along the galleries. Wentworth Model Dwellings I would think (after seeing the back of the building) were just off the staircase.

All the best

Rob

[Monty]

Hi Bulldog,

Swallow Gardens never had a bend on it. You could see from Chambers Street right through to Royal Mint Street.
I hope this helps, I've lined it up as best I could.

Abels Buildings from 2006 and 1930s

[ATTACH]2878[/ATTACH]

Rob

Rob,

Finally sorted that damn lens cap out eh?

Swallow gardens isnt as long as Abel Buildings passage.

And Bulldog, as far as I can tell, (and thanks to Debs again) the hoarded side of Swallows Gardens was used by Ruben Cull & Son. They were tilers and based out Enfield way (or Barnet, Im purely working from memory) and basically used this area as a storage facility.

Monty

[George Hutchinson]

Glenn - thanks for the page reference so I could check up on the photo again.

The strange anomaly around the arches is, I am fairly sure, a kind of hooded projection. If you look on the first floor you can see a lot of lines running up the left-hand edge. I think that the arch comes forward to make some kind of shelter. I can't see it having any practical use, though.

Now - this is where things get more interesting. Alfred Crow lived at Room 35 on the first floor, right? The body was about 10 feet from his door. John Reeves lived at Room 37 on the same landing.

OK - thus an observation and a very quizzical question. From the image, it would suggest that the first window and door left of the archway are thus Room 35 and, by default, the window and door on the far left of that floor must be Room 37.

This would then give rise to my big question : How the Hell do we have 35+ flats by the time we reach the first floor?!

PHILIP

[Stewart P Evans]

George Yard Buildings

This 1943 drawing of Charles Booth House (George Yard Buildings) gives a view of what the upper floors and roof looked like.