THE — UNLIMITED EDITION ISSUES I — II III IV Many thanks to all our contributors This issue of The Unlimited Edition has for their hard work been printed locally by Aldgate Press, with recycled paper by local Published by supplier Paperback We Made That www.wemadethat.co.uk www.aldgatepress.co.uk www.paperback.coop Designed by Andrew Osman & Stephen Osman www.andrewosman.co.uk www.stephenosman.co.uk THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE I — SURVEY — AUGUST 2011 2 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE I — SURVEY — AUGUST 2011 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE I — SURVEY — AUGUST 2011 3 is to record and explore the familiar, the transitory nature of the area for the High Street 2012 Historic Buildings Officer and to celebrate and speculate on the present day commuter. for Tower Hamlets Council, also gives possibilities that lie in its future. Expanding outwards from this critical us his personal perspective on some of In our first issue, ‘Survey’, we focus on highway, articles from Ruth Beale and the restoration works that form part the existing nature of the High Street. Clare Cumberlidge reveal the tight mesh of the wider heritage remit of the High Olympic Park Our contributors have been invited from of social, cultural, ethnic and economic Street 2012 initiative. Whitechapel Market a wide range of disciplines: they have fabric that surrounds the High Street in may hold new delights for you once you Holly Lewis, We Made That watched, read, analysed, photographed Aldgate and Wentworth Street. Such have imagined the stallholders as part of and illustrated the High Street to bring to hidden links and ties are further elaborated a life-sized ‘Happy Families’ card game, Stratford Welcome to Issue I of The Unlimited you a collection of articles as varied, by Esme Fieldhouse and Stephen Mackie, as Hattie Haseler has done, or considered Ω Ω Edition. Welcome to the A11, to Aldgate, detailed and enjoyable as the area itself. who weave a mysterious fiction involving a locally guided bus tour. Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel Historian, Derek Morris, describes two characters both intertwined and As with any survey, something is Road, Mile End Road, Bow Road and to for us the scene that would have awaited fundamentally separated by the fabric bound to be missed: the photo you just Stratford High Street. Welcome to High an eighteenth century traveller arriving of the High Street. didn’t take, a dimension you didn’t realise Ω Stratford High Street Street 2012. to the area. Some aspects are still With this paper we hope to draw your you would need. We can not hope to This stretch of road is an arterial familiar – The Grave Maurice pub having attention to aspects of the High Street accurately map the High Street, but we Victoria Park route for many Londoners and visitors. kept its name for over 250 years. Others, that you might otherwise have missed. do hope that this issue of The Unlimited STRATFORD Millions travel along it, and for over 300 such as a local 40 acre fruit nursery that Artmusic have provided us with just such Edition will represent a fragment of the Pudding Mill Lane Ω HIGH STREET years it has been an important route to was supplier to King Charles II, are more a diversion, a survey of local bells, whose diversity of this vibrant route. We hope and from the capital. The Unlimited Edition surprising. Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad’s pervasive nature might cause you to think you will agree that it is a worthy subject is a super-local newspaper focused purely fascinating part-documentary, part-fiction twice next time you pass the renowned for your attention, and deserves more on this strand of London. The intention image on page 8, updates depictions of Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Ben Pearce, consideration than a just fleeting visit. Three Mills Green Ω Bow Church Ω Bow Road Bromley-by-Bow Ω Mile End that used to be a manufacturer Ω Mile End of plastics; the pound-store in Whitechapel BOW ROAD that used to be a boys club and a lecture hall; the corner building in Aldgate many Stepney Green Ω assumed was always white-rendered was MILE END ROAD revealed to be bright red brick underneath; the ‘historic edge of a common’ that Whitechapel Ω was actually an ornamental garden; the department store that was once the Royal London Mile End Aldgate Hospital Park ‘Selfridges of the East’… East Ben Pearce, Historic Buildings Officer, Many small shops tell me they face a Ω WHITECHAPEL ROAD Tower Hamlets Council fight for survival. It is quite understandable sometimes that business owners say that WHITECHAPEL High streets are real places – resilient, the historic nature of their building is a HIGH STREET adaptable, and a living story of the different burden that they can ill afford to keep up. communities that live there, trade there Their buildings and shops have been and shop there. Buildings that were once purchased as places of commerce, and ALDGATE loved are now dilapidated and have lost though individuals might be interested in ‘Proposition’ respectively. The papers their sense of identity; but sometimes local history from a personal perspective, are intended to reveal surprising aspects buildings that spent years being bland the fact that they are old buildings of the existing and explore enjoyable and unnoticed have been restored to their remains a drawback. opportunities for the high street. A former glory; as businesses have come final issue in June 2012, ‘Collation’ will and gone. combine the previous papers into a I believe unravelling the history of “The history and set that together will form a unique the high street is key to its future success. documentation of the local area. Why do people go to the high street any heritage of This newspaper, The Unlimited Edition, is We have invited a wide range of more? Is it still that convenient? Isn’t it our high street part of the High Street 2012 Initiative. High guest writers, artists, urban designers better to go a mall, get it all in one place, Street 2012 is an ambitious programme and community members to contribute convenient and sheltered? I don’t believe should be its to enhance and celebrate the ribbon of creative snapshots to these papers. it is – and I believe that the historical biggest asset” London life that connects the City at Through this open and collaborative nature of our high streets is the integral Aldgate to the Olympic Park at Stratford. method of content collection, The reason people want to go there. The project combines a series of area- Unlimited Edition encourages you to look The A11 is a series of historic town based initiatives that respond to specific again at the familiar, at a route that is so centre high streets that have gradually Even with the offer of building grants, places along the route with street often travelled and so rarely celebrated. become one – bringing together a wide some people will not want to take part. actions that cover the whole stretch to The Unlimited Edition is curated range of commerce on a key trading route Indeed many owners see any works to create a coherent thread that unites the by We Made That. All three initial issues between the city and the east, the central their buildings as a potential disruption to intersecting high streets. of the paper will be distributed for free and the docks. their trade and therefore a potential Over the summer months of 2011 we on High Street 2012 in late summer 2011. As industries have become obsolete, cost to themselves. The Historic Buildings are publishing three issues of this paper Full sets of all four issues: ‘Survey’, demand has changed, old communities Conservation Scheme, as part of High specifically dedicated to High Street 2012. ‘Speculation’, ‘Proposition’ and ‘Collation’ moved on and new ones taken their place, Street 2012, aims to change this view. © All rights reserved. No part of this publication Each issue is focused around one of will also be available to order from these high street hubs have been adapted The benefit of looking after historic may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or the themes ‘Survey’, ‘Speculation’ and June 2012 at www.wemadethat.co.uk a huge number of times, sometimes well, high streets ‘I think’ needs to be seen in the by any means without prior permission in writing from the editors. Every possible effort has been sometimes badly. With the emphasis on long term and not the short term – every made to locate and credit copyright holders of successful trading original shop-fronts, small contribution and bit of care to the the material reproduced in this publication. architectural features and nuances have high street helps it stay robust in the face The editors apologise for any omissions or errors, been lost over time. We now have a of increased competition from out of town which can be corrected in future issues. The views unique chance to put some of these back. malls and internet shopping. The history expressed in this paper are those of the individual authors and do not represent opinions of the Care and repair of buildings reveals and heritage of our high streets should be editors or funders of this project. Whitechapel High Street, © Tower Hamlets Local History & Archive Library many hidden stories. The grocery store in its biggest asset not its biggest hindrance. 4 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE I — SURVEY — AUGUST 2011 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE I — SURVEY — AUGUST 2011 5 Helen Ottaway, introduces the project we use it for prayer, for celebration, for been out on the High Street checking out and tells us what to expect in the coming mourning – and bells make music.