East End Photographs and Drawings

[Observer]

Hi Philip, the resemblence to Stewarts shots probably owes something to the fact that I employ a very wide angle lens. Stewarts camera in all likelyhood was a point and shoot camera with a wide angle fitted.

Fascinating fotos of the former Aldgate East Station. I'd keep a close eye on the site as Underground memoribilia is worth a few bob, there's bound to be the odd tin or enamael sign knocking about ,not to mention old Codd, and ginger beer bottles, tin and enamael signs in general, in short anything which has a bit of age to it.

Again great fotos

all the best

Observer

[Observer]

Hi Mike thanks, Id say the original stones are definately under the tarmac, it is the done paractise throughout the Country to use whatever is in situ as a firm base when laying tarmac.

all the best

Observer

[Observer]

PS If you look at the third of the fotos and look at the right hand pavement the pavement with cracked flag stones you'll see that the kerb is almost flush with the road. This would not have been the case in 1888, I think this is proof that the tarmac was pored onto the top of the existing road surface.

all the best

Observer

[Observer]

Hi again Mike here is a blow up of Durward Street, you can see where years of traffic has indented the road, reavealing the outline of the cobbles underneath



all the best

Observer

[Mike Covell]

My name is Mike Covell, and I am addicted to Cobbles!! There I have said it,
The three colour images are taken in East Hull, just 1 street away from mine. The black and white image is a picture taken outside Wilberforce House, birthplace of William Wilberforce, which is situated in the High-street.

[Limehouse]

Thanks to all of you who have been posting photographs on this thread. It is always so exciting to open the thread and see some more. I was especially taken with the photo of little houses built inside railway arches in Limehouse. Incredible that people were expected to live in such places and yet very quaint when you see it.

Also, great pictures of the old Aldgate East Station site.

Thanks again.

[Stephen Thomas]

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

Hi Philip

I second that emotion. Observer definitely has the knack.

[Stephen Thomas]

Thanks to all of you who have been posting photographs on this thread. It is always so exciting to open the thread and see some more. I was especially taken with the photo of little houses built inside railway arches in Limehouse. Incredible that people were expected to live in such places and yet very quaint when you see it.

Here's the fine Wikipedia entry on Limehouse......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limehouse

[Observer]

Hi Stephen thanks for that, it gives those who can not visit the area a little bit of idea of what it looks like. Here are three more

The present Bishopgate Street police station, is it situated anywhere near the original?

Junction of Cable Street, and Cannon Street Road

St Botolphs Aldgate

[George Hutchinson]

Observer - is that Jamie Bell in the brown jumper walking past Bishopsgate?! (Yeah, I know it's not, but I did a quick double take).

Now, all - cobbles. COBBLES?! Aaaargh - these are SETTS. Cobbles are the rounded stones you only see in quaint little villages. There's no doubt the setts are still there all over the East End. The road works being done around Whitechapel High Street recently have been turning up the originals all the time when they've been resurfacing. I saw them at the front of Old Castle Street a few months ago. Check out when they are digging holes in the road. You can easily see the different layers of how it has been built up, so although we walk the same roads the Victorians were largely walking a few inches lower than us.

Old bottles? I have a big box full of them excavated from the site of the London Hospital in a lock-up near me (no, no heads in jars in the back of cars in there...) which I got on eBay for about £20 a few years back.

As for the site of the police station, Rob can be precise (as can several others with Goads maps, I dare say) but it's in the same position as the previous one, although it's NOT the one from 1888.

The one worked in by George Hutt dated from 1865 and the one we see is from 1939, though it was very badly damaged by bombs in WW2.

PHILIP

[The Grave Maurice]

...here is a blow up of Durward Street...

You do very good work, Observer. Please keep on showing us your photos. But I'm sorry to see that the little bush by the pillar at the corner of the wall has been removed. It always seemed to me to be sort of a tribute to Mary Ann.

[Paddy Goose]

Artillery Lane, one of the oldest shop fronts in London, built c1757.
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Rob, I think that is 56 Artillery Lane. Some folks speak of it on a website. Their family ran a store there.

http://www.senioryears.com/jack.html

Observer, there is a man in long coat in several of your photos. A fellow detective perhaps?

Paddy

[Observer]

Hi Phil

Are any of the bottles embossed London hospital?

Have a few more to show Maurice.

And yes Paddy the man in the coat is a fellow dectective...hehehe

all the best

Observer

[Stephen Thomas]

Talking of the London Hospital, anyone know what this is?

[Sam Flynn]

Talking of the London Hospital, anyone know what this is?

...I'm not sure, Stephen, but I'd hate to have been the poor sod they extracted it from.