History of a house

Our house was built sometime around 1905, I think I got this from the Homebuyer's Survey - it certainly doesn't appear on maps before 1911. Here is my living room lampshade made from a reproduction map of Upper Clapton from 1911 (map purchased here; lampshade kit here).

Using the UK census records on Ancestry.co.uk, I did some (enjoyably nerdy) detective work and pieced together the following:

Our house wasn't built at the time of the 1901 census but was owned in 1911 by Mr George Hall, Mr Hall was born in Ludlow, in Shropshire and, in 1911, was a concert hall steward. I'm guessing this might mean music hall as there were a couple in Walthamstow: the Palace Theatre on the High St - which opened in 1903 with a Fred Karno show and hosted performances by stars such as Marie Lloyd - and the Victoria Hall on Hoe Street, which later became the site of the Granada, frequented by local boy Alfred Hitchcock, which itself became the EMD Cinema, subject of the “Save Walthamstow Cinema” campaign. Mr Hall lived here with his wife Elizabeth (a Londoner, born in Cockfosters) and two sons, one of whom was a polisher in a furniture works and the other was an engineer in a fitters’ workshop. The youngest was born in "The Grapes" in Bermondsey in 1893: in the 1901 census, George Hall is described as an "unemployed publican" so maybe he had been the landlord or barman of a public house called something like The Grapes, but a trawl through Pub History turned up no results.

A lovely reminder that we “own” houses only in a temporary sense, holding them in trust for future generations.

St James Street, Walthamstow, c1912 | via postcardsthenandnow

One other cool bit of local history geekery: a friend unearthed in her back garden a fragment of enamelled metal reading "E AMBER ALE" and "BROTHERS", and some hasty Googling suggests it must have come from the Collier Brothers brewery which was a steam-powered brewery next to St James Street station, known for it's "Pale Amber Ale". The brewery changed its name to Essex Brewery around 1871, so the sign must pre-date that. (Source material here.)

Thank goodness for the interwebs and nice people sharing their meticulous research!

Right, I'm off to see what talks are on at the Walthamstow History Society ...

Winter

Making the most of the snowy weather and living near the marshes and canal:

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Ghost sign: Printing Works, Walthamstow

Obsessed, moi?

Walthamstow School of Shorthand & Typewriting

More lovely ghost signs of E17

Illegible

Nice ghost sign in Walthamstow, near the William Morris Gallery.

I played around with it in Photoshop in an attempt to make it legible but to no avail...

While we were peering at the sign, the owner stopped in his car and wound down the window, to see if we'd deciphered it. He thought it had been a barbers or beauty parlour. This building stands alone on this corner of Forest Road, amid sixties council estates, lone survivor of what must have been pretty devastating blitz damage.

Any ideas what it says? Please post in the comments if you can make it out!

Ne Me Quitte Pas

There was a whole lot of love for Jacques Brel in the 'Stow last night, where we went to watch the fantastic deadbelgian play at Ye Olde Rose and Crown.

The singer has an intensity of vocal and emotional power that is compelling and we loved the flat-cap wearing, red-wine drinking accordian player, the versatile guy who swapped effortlessly between uke, flute, clarinet and sax, and the wisecracking drummer.

The best bit, though, had to be the collective sigh that ran through the audience when 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' was announced: it certainly lived up to the anticipation, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. See for yourself on the YouTube vid above - if you can zone out the annoying chatter of the audience. Or you can listen to more songs, including 'Amsterdam' and 'Jacky', on MySpace.

[http://www.thisbutterflymind.blogspot.com]

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Wonderful day of thrifting in the charity shops of South Woodford and Walthamstow yesterday. The Boy had the "quakening" good'n'proper and his sixth sense for junk and treasure was proven, accurate as ever.

One charming Hornsea Pottery "Bronte" pattern tea caddy: I am leaning more and more towards 70s retro kitchenware, perhaps because they're so satisfyingly chunky and the glaze so thick and opaque? I found this for sale online for £15 so I reckon £1 is a bargain ... don't worry, just justifying it to myself!

A Rolf Harris record: just look at the shirt Rolf is wearing, is that Liberty? Very stylish. And the blueprint style drawing of the Stylophone is fantastic, what a wonderous futuristic piece of technology!

A set of stencils like you had at Primary School: I like the speech bubble, and the almost-serif font of the numbers in the blue one.

And I've saved the best for last:

Are they schoolboys or sailors? I love that each has an assigned spice and an individual facial expression. Not sure what I'm going to with them...

I love the thought that thrifting means bestowing a new lease of life on things, rescuing items with history from languishing unloved and unwanted as unconsidered trifles - almost as if they got lost on their life journeys and strayed in to a cul-de-sac. Too whimsical? Well, it is raining today so I reserve the right to wistfulness and whimsy.  I relish giving them back their "belonging" status.

We stopped to re-fuel too, of course. Coffee and excellent Portugese custard tarts at The Windmill.

Plenty of "reuse" and "recycle" - but sadly not so much "reduce" as we collect more clutter than we get rid of! I like to think of it as a conscious design ethic, "eclectic shabby chic" or some such. Keep an eye out for this new design movement in the lifestyle mags, and remember you saw it here first!

In praise of Fifties architecture

On a bright sunny day - cold but crisp and clear, I found myself waiting at the bus-stop outside this fine example of municipal architecture.

Once, it was the telephone exchange for Walthamstow, but now it lies derelict.  I love the clean lines, the blocky font, the moulded concrete.  The bright blue sky and skeletal wintry trees help.

Looking at it, I feel nostaglic for a world that probably never really existed. A world where Skylon was the vision of the future and the everyday looked something like a Ladybird book illustration:

Image from Flickr: cardstore
Originally uploaded by --Marcus--

Now, here's a nice pipe dream: imagine rescuing the building and turning it into a house, full of long white walls, bright sunlight and Mid-Century Modern furniture. And maybe a roof terrace with bamboo and a deck.  Ah, well, I can dream...