To contact the owner of old pictures of Hackney.

Uncategorised

In about 1967 there was an old second hand bookshop between hackney Baths and Clapton Square. called Jermyn or something like that. It was a few doors away from the Trickshop. It had an open recess at the front which you could walk into even when the shop was closed. In the middle of this recess stood a large glass case so the whole thing formed a sort of covered gallery you could walk round looking at the books on display in the windows. It wasn’t very big. But when the shop was open, the inside was like an Old Curiosity Shop full of piles and heaps and glass cases of dusty books everywhere.A friend of mine went in and asked the very old man who ran it if he had any old pictures of Hackney. This old chap perhaps realising that his days were numbered and appreciating my mate’s interest just gave him a huge boxful.I’ve lost touch with this chap now but his name was Bill Clarke or Clark and he lived in Alcester Crescent near Mountpleasant, Clapton. He was quite stocky and had fair hair.  I think he went to either Joseph Priestley or Brooke House school near Lea Bridge Road and was a member of 53 squadron Air Training Corps in Mare Street opposite the Town Hall. He had a brother who was a curtain fitter. He eventually got a job on the London underground.I bet he still has those pictures though, wherever he is. He was very keen on history.  He had a mate, Colin Paine who was art editor for a transport magazine and possibly later at  Flight International.  We all went to an evening class at Upton House to do with the History of London.I have lost touch now but maybe someone out there knows him.  It would be great to scan and share those pics with other like minded people.

4 Comments

  1. @kenjacobs or @chrisdb1 any chance either of you know the person in question?

  2. @lincsgent or @chrisdb1 any chance either of you know the person in question?

  3. Bill ClarkHere is a photo of the man in question  he looks a bit serious in this shot as I think he was concentrating on docking the boat.  This photo was taken around 43 years ago so he would look a fair bit different now.Other key info is that he went to Brooke House or Joseph Priestley school somewhere in Clapton. Lived in Alcester Crescent and had a mate called Colin Payne who lived in a block of flats in Mount Pleasant Lane. Plus it’s thought that he worked on the London Underground later.”

  4. No sorry folks I can’t help you with this one.

    I’ve been trying to contact Peter Kurton to show him a photo I have from my glass negative collection, which was taken of the original Hackney Power Station at the bottom of Millfields Road, in about C.1925.

Comments are now closed for this post.