Spitalfields Life

This is one of my favourite blogs, and when Liz asked where I would like to go on Wednesday morning, I suggested we went off to Leon in Spitalfields, used up some of my free breakfast vouchers, then had a wander round a lovely part of old London. Particularly Norton Folgate, before the friends of Boris destroy that part of our heritage [please, please, don't let the developers win!]  It is six years since Liz arranged our visit to Dennis Severs House - home of a Spitalfields Weaver. Do check that out here. Anyway, back to this week. We began by Liz giving Rosie a hearty breakfast at home, then we boarded the bus, with the buggy, in the rain, and set off...

Porridge of the Gods [with chocolate and banana] for me, and Egg and Bean Pot for Liz - and Carrot, apple and Ginger drink for both of us.

Spitalfields is a hotbed of non-conformity - Hanbury House has belonged to almost everybody down the years - but currently owned by the lively C of E 'Christchurch Spitalfields' and run as a coffee shop and meeting place

The roundel in the pavement shows that this is where Annie Besant [plus Eleanor, daughterof Karl Marx] helped the match girls form a trade union to protect themselves from their exploitative employers who cared nothing for their health and safety.

We also saw the house where John Wesley's mother was born

Great architecture- both ordinary and elaborate

I bought fresh bagels to take home to Bob - plain ones. I couldn't face a technicolor torus - they look too much like swirled up lumps of Plasticine! 

 

Liz took me to The Cross Keyes for coffee - built on the site of an old coaching inn. In Tudor times, the inn was licenced for the production of plays, and James Burbage, the Elizabethan actor and entrepreneur [involved in building The Globe came here] The inn was demolished 100 years ago and rebuilt as the HQ of the HSBC and is now a rather opulent Wetherspoons - with glorious marble pillars, beautiful polished wooden bar, and very swish mirrors in the Ladies Washroom!

And then back on the bus to Elephant and Castle, and few more hugs with Rosie who had woken up for her lunch. Just about time for a quick cuppa, and down the Motorway to Dorset.