WHITECHAPEL ROAD

 

       This being Banglatown, there’s more HFC (Halal Fried Chicken) than KFC. Fish and chips at Jack the Chipper is also an option. But lunch has to be a curry at the Brick Lane Brasserie …

 

     With lockdown but a few days away, I’m surprised there’s no queue outside Jack the Clipper. I’m sure quite a lot of people know this (© Michael Caine): the traditional red & white barber’s pole refers to bandages and blood. This stems from the days of blood letting, with the pole representing the staff patients gripped to encourage blood flow during the procedure.

    The usual addition of blue stripes to poles in the USA is maybe just patriotic – or could represent arterial blood – or a barber who can’t decide which way to vote. Topical stuff, huh?

    At the time of its closure in 2017, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was the oldest manufacturing company in Britain, having been founded in 1570. They made the Liberty Bell and Big Ben. (Pedants note Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the clock ….. or the tower which is the Elizabeth Tower).

    The Whitechapel Bell Foundry also designed, but did not cast, the bell rung by Bradley Wiggins to open the 2012 Olympics. It now stands in the Olympic Park.

      When Cornell was murdered the Blind Beggar jukebox was playing The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore). The gunshot caused the needle to stick, repeatedly playing the word 'anymore'.

When the Kray twins were sentenced to life in 1969 the sentencing judge said they had only told the truth twice in the whole trial - once when Ronnie said the judge was biased and once when Reggie called a barrister a 'fat slob'.

     It is also remembered as the site, in 1865, of William Booth’s first open-air sermon leading to his founding of the Salvation Army. 

   

       

1957

Wickhams was once a huge department store. A long parade of shops were purchased to build it. But jewellers Spiegelhalter refused to sell up so there was a discontinuity which is still there today despite the fact the Wickham building has once again been divided up into individual stores. Both Wickhams and Spiegelhalter have long gone. But the Spiegelhalter facade remains.

2022

I finish the day at the Genesis Cinema. This is a bit of a cheat as it’s on Mile End Road which is a continuation of Whitechapel Road. But they are showing The Painter and the Thief, an excellent documentary about artist Barbora Kysilkova who befriends a man who stole her paintings.

    This small cinema dates back to 1912, although it’s only been known as the Genesis since 1999. It’s on the site of the Paragon Theatre which dated back to 1885. 

Finally ….

                           

 …. Wombling free? I think I’m correct in saying that Whitechapel is the only place where the Overground runs under the Underground. To clarify, the Underground is over the Overground, the Underground not being under the ground at all but at ground level. OK?

Two down, 27 to go - 26 if I can avoid going to jail. This is fun and I will definitely continue when it’s again legal to do so.