East End Photographs and Drawings

[Paddy Goose]

Good picture, Mark. This one may be a tad clearer - Paddy

[Paddy Goose]

Must have been noisy when the trains went over.

I'll say! Wonder if the dwelling under the arch is still there?

Limehouse station in the late 60's

[Stephen Thomas]

Wonder if the dwelling under the arch is still there?

Hi Paddy

Probably, though it's likely to be a lock-up full of stolen goods these days.

I've never visited Limehouse but there seems to be nothing interesting there today if views from the Docklands Light Railway are anything to go by.

Lots of soixante neufs on that railway ticket I see.

Westminster Council is in the process of closing down London's present day Chinatown in Soho you may have heard.

[Sam Flynn]

Lots of soixante neufs on that railway ticket I see...

...that's what I call service!

[kezia]

I really love these old pictures, some of my own ancestors lived in roads like these in London. Thank you for sharing them.

I have been looking for ages for a photo,drawing or even map of Worley Court - which was somewhere off of The Minories. I wondered if anyone had ever found it?

[m_w_r]

I have been looking for ages for a photo,drawing or even map of Worley Court - which was somewhere off of The Minories. I wondered if anyone had ever found it?

Hi Kezia -

I think Worley Court may be written as Morley's Court on the 1873 OS Map:



and Worley's Court on Horwood's 1799 Map:



Here it is in its more obvious context, north(ish) of the Tower, and east of the southern foot of the Minories.



Regards,

Mark

[kezia]

Thank you so so much for this Mark, that is great.


Now next time I walk around there I will go and see if anything remains.

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Mark. The pub name has never been mentioned in any book I've seen that used the image and I think that might be one of the main reasons we left it out of ours - because we didn't know where it was. I think you'll find it mentions the chap's name as being Hooky Alf in the Thomson reprint (which also is the source of that VERY famous image of an old lady crouched on a doorstep).

Paddy - shame on The Museum of London - the image is printed back to front (or else all the other ones I've seen are).

Stephen - nothing in the area of Limehouse?! What about The Ragged School Museum just round the corner in Copperfield Road?!

PHILIP

[Limehouse]

And St Anne's Church?

[Stephen Thomas]

Philip, Limehouse

Thanks, I really must go and have a proper look down Limehouse way.

[Cubitt]

Westminster Council is in the process of closing down London's present day Chinatown in Soho you may have heard.

I didn't know that. What's the council want there instead? I'm surprised as that's a lot of businesses in that area. Where's China Town moving to?

I did notice that the Swiss Square building on the edge of China Town has been torn down, and no bad thing. At the moment there's a huge space that opens up Leicester Square beautifully and exposes some great buildings at the bottom of Wardour Street.

One in particular is amazing, labelled the Atlantic Building, it's covered in purple tiles, looks very Art Deco and it's roof area looks amazing. I did take a piccie but don't have it handy. Shame it'll only be briefly viewable until they hide it again with whatever concrete monstrosity is replacing Swiss Square. Does anyone know what that will be?

Sorry, went off topic a bit there!

[Observer]

Three of Bucks Row








all the best

Observer

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Observer

It might be the grim weather, but though I've seen these angles countless time, your shots above really evoke the feeling of the 1938 William Stewart shots.

Here's something a little different.

The original Aldgate East tube station was opened in 1884 between Petticoat Lane and Goulston Street facing Whitechapel High Street, and shut on October 30th 1938. The branch line from Liverpool Street had to angle a little too sharply at this location, so it was moved 100 yards east to its present location.

In all the years I've been Ripper guiding or visiting the sites before that, I had never seen this site open. It has always been surrounded by hoardings. However, a couple of weeks back they came down and fences were put around the site. I presume it's going to be built on. There's currently huge drops and hundreds of tons of years of rubbish on the spot, but there are tiles and doorways extant to give you a very confused view of something we've not been able to see for 70 years :


This is where the tube line ran, parallel to the main street.


Looking NW.


Looking directly north from the eastern end, showing some old doorways in situ.


Looking north from the western end, showing original tiles on the walls.


Looking NE from Whitechapel High Street.

PHILIP

[George Hutchinson]

Looking directly east.


Looking SE from Middlesex Street.

PHILIP

[Mike Covell]

Nice pictures Observer, it is strange to see the road works and difference in tarmac. Could the original cobblestones have been tarmacked over?

In Hull one of the victorian streets was recently relaid, and I managed to get several shots of the original cobblestones.

The undergound railway station looks like an explorers paradise, but the rubbish looks awful, like some kind of modern art from the Tate or something!