Spitalfieldslife.com Website Review

in the midst of life i woke to find myself living in an old house beside brick lane in the east end of london. and visit these enduring sentinels of the east end. yet i found myself disappointed upon my journey by the recent loss of characterful landmarks, even as i took consolation from those that survive. the old rose is the last pub standing in the ratcliff highway charismatically idiosyncratic sketchy line has stayed with me ever since. only recently have i learnt that fritz wegner was born into a jewish family in vienna and severely beaten by a nazi-supporting teacher for a caricature he drew of adolf hitler at the age of thirte*n. to escape, his family sent him alone to london in august 1938 where he was offered a scholarship at st martin’s school of art at fourte*n years old, even though he could barely speak english. and 1983 in limited editions, which i acquired for almost nothing. they are crudely produced, not unlike those ceramics sold in copyshops with photographic transfers, yet this cheap mas*-produced quality endears them to me and i set them out on the dresser every christmas let it be said that if anyone in the east end knew how to keep the spirit of christmas, it was the viscountess boudica transformed into a secret winter wonderland where the visitor might forget the chill of the gloomy streets outside and enter a realm of magic, fantasy and romance in which the viscountess held court like a benevolent sprite or fairy godmother, celebrating the season of boudica had already been at work for weeks when i arrived with my camera to capture the christmas spectacle for your delight, yet she was still putting the finishing touches to her display even as i walked through the door. “you see these bells?” she said, reaching up to add them to the colourful forest of paper decorations suspended from the ceiling, “i bought them in woolworths  in tottenham for 45p in 1984. when i think of all the people they have looked down upon – if only these bells could talk, they’ve seen it all!”