In 2009, The Gentle Author looked around their community and made a pledge – to write a story a day, documenting the multiplicity of strange histories, extraordinary characters, century old industries...
In 2009, The Gentle Author looked around their community and made a pledge – to write a story a day, documenting the multiplicity of strange histories, extraordinary characters, century old industries and unusual customs that form the unique borough of London that is Spitalfields. Three years on, over a thousand posts have been written and the project, a blog entitled Spitalfield’s Life, has garnered passionate followers from across the world, who return day on day to read more and marvel at the rich and varied portraits depicted. The author, who preserves their anonymity even to the extent of not divulging their gender, is an unparalleled guide to this microcosm of London life. Here we speak to them about the embryonic beginnings of the blog, the key characters they have met along the way, and the impact of the global show of the London Olympics on their world.
What motivated you to first start Spitalfields Life? And why Spitalfields?
It is a matter of grief to me that people’s stories get lost when they die, so I decided to devote my talent as a writer to record as many stories of people as I could for the rest of my life. I realised I can only do one a day and twenty-seven years and four months takes me to the age that both my father and mother died - this gives me 10,000 days and so it is my ambition to write 10,000 stories. Spitalfields is where I live, so these are the people that are on my doorstep.
How would you describe what Spitalfields Life essentially is to someone who hadn’t read it?
Every single day I write a story about my life here in Spitalfields at the heart of London. How can I ever communicate to you the exuberant richness and multiplicity of cultures in this place? This is both my task and delight.
How challenging has it been to write a daily post?
I have written over a thousand stories now, so I think I have earned the right to call myself the Sheherazade of Whitechapel. I am a slow writer who finds it hard to write so it is only through a daily deadline that I can actually get anything done. It sounds strange to say that I have not had a day off in over three years but this is my life, and I make no distinction between my life and work. I write every day because that is who I am and I mean to do it until I die. It is the best possible life I could imagine for myself, so I consider myself very lucky.
How do you go about finding your stories and how selective are you?
Every day, I get up and go to find someone to interview, then write it up and publish it it. To begin with, it was hard to get people to take me seriously and even now people commonly say "no", but people who I interview recommend me to their friends and, since my book, I have a reputation, so it gets easier. When it comes to choosing, I select those people and subjects which give me most delight. Doing the book was very hard because I worked each night writing the next's day's story until midnight, and then I had to work on the book until five in the morning - and this went on for months! But now that I have recovered, I am very proud of it and the reception has exceeded my wildest expectations.
Since moving to Brick Lane and starting Spitalfields Life what changes have you experienced in the area?
My first job was here in 1981 and I have seen the big fruit and vegetable market move out and the brewery closed down. I remember when the area emptied of activity and it is my delight to see how it has come back to life again. Spitalfields exists at the boundary with the City of London and historically it is where the rich of the City met the poor people living outside the walls, which has given the neighbourhood a long-standing identity as a refuge and as a meeting place, creating the culture of markets and small businesses that continues today. It takes its very name from the fields of the Hospital established for poor people in the eleventh century and over time "hospital fields" became "Spitalfields." In over a thousand interviews, the one thing that everyone has said to me is that Spitalfields has changed, but given its position at the meeting point of two worlds, you might say that this endless reinvention is its constant quality.
"Everyone has said to me that Spitalfields has changed, but given its position at the meeting point of two worlds, you might say that this endless reinvention is its constant quality."
What has been your favourite post so far and why?
My favourite story is that of Maurice Franklin, the 93 year old wood turner who has been working at his lathe in the Hackney Rd since 1933. He is an inspiration to me as an example of a life well-lived, pursuing a modest activity and becoming expert at it. He is my role model. But also, I have to confess I had a great night out at the Bunny Girls Reunion in Limehouse. Also, walking through London all night on Christmas Eve when it was a deserted city was an unforgettable experience, and opening Tower Bridge was the most terrifying thing I have ever done!
Are there any “dream” stories you wish to cover but haven’t yet?
People often ask me, "What are you going to when you run out of stories?" but even as I cross names off the top of my list it grows ever longer, so that I acquire a feeling of vertigo at all the possibilities. I plan to follow the people I have been writing about with reports on their progress through life over the next quarter century, so it will be my dream if I can fulfil that.
If you could recommend one place for someone to visit in Spitalfields
where would it be and why?
No-one can really say they have been to Spitalfields unless they have shaken the hand of the legendary Paul Gardner, fourth-generation paper bag seller at Spitalfields’ oldest family business Gardners’ Market Sundriesmen, where they have been trading since 1870. This place incarnates the spirit of the place and Paul embodies it, so you had better go in and say “hello” to him.
What is the weirdest thing you have discovered?
In the crypt of Shoreditch Church, there are coffins from the eighteenth century that have broken open over time to reveal they contain only bricks because the undertaker stole the corpses to sell them for dissection.
How would you describe the community in Spitalfields?
The topography of Spitalfields means that it will always be a volatile, lively place where people of different incomes and different ethnicities meet, but at the moment the big question is how the independent shops and family business, as well as the vibrant markets that define this area can survive alongside the chain stores pushing up rents. So now the small traders have grouped together to form the East End Trades Guild to fight for their survival. There is an indomitable spirit here and even after all the changes and movement of people, there are still plenty who carry the history of the place, like Mavis Bullwinkle who has lived here eighty years or Molly the Swagman whose grandfather was a Swagman in Petticoat Lane and lived to be 99.
"There is an indomitable spirit here and, even after all the changes and movement of people, there are still plenty who carry the history of the place..."
Are you excited about the Olympics coming to the East London area?
I would like to get excited but I couldn't get any tickets and neither could anyone else in the East End that I know. It's a complete swizz!
What kind of a host do you think East London will be for the Olympics?
Generations of migrants, from both overseas and the eastern counties of Britain, have commingled with the current wave of youth culture in the East End to create a territory that is unmatched in London for the infinite variety of life to be discovered. We have an age-old tradition of hospitality here and anyone that comes may be assured of a handsome welcome.
Please explain your anonymity?
The subject of my work is the people that I write about, not me, and so I choose to leave myself out so that readers can concentrate on the personalities that I feature. I believe in the virtue of modesty and I would never seek to become known publicly.
The book Spitalfields Life is out now, published by Saltyard Books. The Spitalfields Life blog features regularly on the AnOther Reader.
Interview by Lucia Davies
