NEWSLETTER Volume 4 Issue 01 Summer 2015 Vine Tavern, Mile End Road, photo Boucas Brothers (see page 5) CONTENTS Editorial Page 2 Bethnal Green Library & Gardens 9 Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park 2 Letters and Research 10 Programme 2015 -16 -Information 3 William Brandon 12 Notes and News 3 Hector Gavin in Bethnal Green 15 East End Photographers No. 19- Boucas 5 Book Shelf 19 Brothers Sir John Baddeley 7 ELHS Newsletter Winter 2014-15 ELHS Newsletter Summer 2015 ELHS Newsletter Winter 2014-15 Editorial Note: The Friends of Tower Hamlets Editorial Note: The FriendsCemetery of Tower Park Hamlets Cemetery Park Philip Mernick, Chairman, Doreen Kendall, The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Secretary, Harold Mernick, Membership, Philip Mernick, Chairman, Doreen Kendall, Theare Friends on a mission of Tower to discover Hamlets moreCemetery about Park First Secretary,David Behr, Harold Programme, Mernick, DoreenMembership, Osborne, World War Casualties who are buried or Sigrid Werner and Rosemary Taylor. are always seeking to augment their store of David Behr, Programme, Sigrid Werner and informationcommemorated on the in burials Tower in Hamlets the cemetery, Cemetery and Rosemary Taylor. any(Bow history Cemetery). related to We the want area. to reveal All queries regarding membership should be previously untold stories that emerge from Alladdressed queries regarding to Harold membership Mernick, 42 should Campbell be people's family albums, diaries and other Road, Bow, London E3 4DT. If you have information or memorabilia you addressed to Harold Mernick, 42 Campbell wouldmemorabilia. like to share 'If we or don'tallow do the this FTHCP now theto Road, Bow, London E3 4DT. copy,people please who contact are able [email protected] to help us will no longer Enquiries to Doreen Kendall, 20 Puteaux be with us and their memories and stories will House, Cranbrook Estate, Bethnal Green, or contact Diane Kendall c/o The Soanes Enquiries to Doreen Kendall, 20 Puteaux Centrebe lost Southern forever.' Grove London E3 4PX. House,London Cranbrook E2 0RF, Estate,Tel: 0208 Bethnal 981 7680, Green, or Philip Mernick, email: [email protected]. Check London E2 0RF, Tel: 0208 981 7680, or Philip JoinTower Doreen Hamlets and Diane was heavily Kendall bombed and assist during in Mernick,out the Historyemail: [email protected] Society’s website at. Check the First World War. Were your ancestors www.eastlondonhistory.org.uk. recording monumental inscriptions in Tower out the History Society’s website at Hamletskilled orCemetery injured byon thethe Zeppelinsecond Sunday raids? of www.eastlondonhistory.org.uk. each month, from 2-4 pm. The Newsletter is edited and typeset by Did your ancestors die in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918? It is thought to have killed TheRosemary Newsletter Taylor is ed withited assistanceand typeset of by Philip All volunteers welcome. Mernick, and an editorial team comprising, from 30 to 100 million people worldwide. Rosemary Taylor with assistance of Philip About 228,000 British died and millions more Mernick,Doreen andKendall, an editorial David Behr,team comprising,and Doreen Osborne. Coverwere sick, Picture and ironically , as if youth had not Doreen Kendall, David Behr, and Doreen sacrificed and suffered enough, this virulent Osborne. (SeeSpanish article flu, on contrary Boucas toBrothers, form, killed by David a Webb,disproportionate page 4) number of people in their 20s and 30s. Pregnant women had the highest Indeath October rates. 1903, the historic Vine Tavern in Mile End was facing demolition, and BoucasIs a member Brothers, of your who family had their commemorated studio at on 120the Mile war Endmemorial Road or were died called in action on toand take is a numberburied ofelsewhere photographs and commemorated before it on a disappeared.private memorial Fortunately, stone? these have survived, and show that Boucas lined up severalIf you dozenhave information of the local or inhabitants, memorabilia you EnjoySeason's your GreetingsSummer Holidays! to all our includingwould like a large to share number or allow of childrenthe FTHCP for to addedcopy, interest. please contact [email protected] Members. or contact Diane Kendall c/o The Soanes Centre Southern Grove London E3 4PX. Join Doreen and Diane Kendall and assist in recording monumental inscriptions in Tower Hamlets Cemetery on the second Sunday of each month, from 2-4 pm. All volunteers welcome. 2 2 2 2 ELHS NewsletterNewsletter Winter Summer 2014-15 2015 East London History Society NOTES AND NEWS Lecture Programme Golden Anniversary Our 2014/15 lecture series has ended The London Borough of Tower Hamlets and we are working on 2015/16. celebrated its 50th anniversary in style with the staff cutting a special cake designed by Details will be supplied in the next Cakes and Gateaux in Brick Lane. The council newsletter, in time for the September has invited residents to share photos, start. memories and views and views of the borough. To find out more or to send in pictures, works Suggestions and ideas for future topics and words, visit www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/50 and/or speakers for our Lecture Programme are always welcomed. If A Shameful Anniversary you can suggest someone or indeed if you would like to give a talk yourself, While we are happy to celebrate please get in touch with David Behr, the 50 years of Tower Hamlets our Programme co-ordinator, either at (and Hackney and Newham) here one of our lectures or, alternatively, is another less welcome email our Chairman Philip Mernick with your comments and suggestions. anniversary. It is five years since Email: [email protected] the Queen Ann styled former Labour Exchange in Burdett Road, ELHS Record and Newsletters. You can now was demolished. With its unique download from our web site (no charge) PDFs character and George Lansbury of all issues of East London Record and the last three series of Newsletter (1992 to 2013). connections, Tom Ridge fought a They can be found on our publications page long battle with developers and together with indexes to aid selection. We have Tower Hamlets planners to have it sold all hard copies of our Mile End and Wapping books but PDF copies can be converted rather than demolished. supplied for £6 each – contact us for details. However due to the developers All of the PDFs can be searched for specific claim that the site was urgently words. We also have older Newsletters (from 1962) scanned but the quality of printing needed for housing, it was means that the PDFs can not be searched. If demolished. Guess what, five you have any Newsletters from the 1950s or years later the empty site is still 1960s please let us know, I am sure we are missing some issues. fenced off! The Right Move The Museum of London which is situated in the Barbican, is making plans to move to Smithfield, the empty General Market building, by 2021. 3 3 ELHS Newsletter Summer 2015 ELHS Newsletter Winter 2014-15 The move would increase the size of the National Maritime Museum, V& A Museum museum from 17,000 square metres to more and the London Metropolitan Archives. than 27,000 square metres, enabling them to Archivists at these museums will be on hand display thousands of hitherto unseen relics and to guide the volunteers and direct them artefacts. Some of the more interesting items towards the relevant records. include a stone from AD160 with the first inscription of the word 'London', and a vest The project will result in a book of short Charles I was believed to have been wearing stories, information on a website, and a when he was beheaded in 1649. heritage literature festival at the London Metropolitan Archives, to celebrate the work. The museum is planning a fundraising drive for the estimated £70 million cost of the move, For further information about the project, in collaborating with the City of London contact Brick Lane Circle on 07914 119282 ot Corporation and the Greater London Authority. email [email protected]. The move will be great news for many visitors, From Matthew Rosenberg: who like me, spent hours searching for the entrance! Although I have made several visits I work for an arts and educational charity to the museum and have worked closely with called digital-works. I am emailing to see if them on our project on the East London you might have some contacts, workers or Suffragettes, it was always a challenge to find volunteers who might like to help with an the right way into the museum! educational project we are running exploring, recording and celebrating the history of the The move will most certainly be welcomed by Thames Lightermen. historians in East London, who are sure to take full advantage of the proximity of the museum. Basically we are looking for older or retired lightermen who might like to come into Researching The East India schools and talk about their work lives to Company London primary school children. In addition to The community group Brick Lane Circle has coming into the schools we have a boat trip been awarded a £47,000 grant from the planned on which lightermen will teach Heritage Lottery Fund to research the impact children the skills they used in work and talk the East India Company had on Asian and about their history. We are working with the British lives over more than two centuries. The Museum of London, Docklands, the National period they will be focusing on covers the Maritime Museum, Waterman’s Hall and years between 1600 and 1858. schools across London. the main focus of the project will be on the Eventually the children, with training from us, lives of people and institutions associated with will also record interviews with the lightermen.