Bethnal Green and around Britain.
Joined: 19 Apr 2012, 9:01am
Postby Drake » 16 Mar 2018, 11:52am
Does anybody on this forum live in Bethnal Green, if so, can they tell me if Columbia Square is still there, or has it been redeveloped.
Secondly. Who was the first person to cycle around the coastline of Britain, and was there a book written about it ?
Many thanks if anyone can help.
Joined: 23 Apr 2007, 11:07pm
Re: Bethnal Green and around Britain.
Postby NUKe » 16 Mar 2018, 12:33pm
In answer to your first question take a look here
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.52842 ... 312!8i6656
second NO idea sorry
Postby mercalia » 16 Mar 2018, 3:18pm
whats so special about it?
My memory map A_Z ( 2015) only finds a columbia sq in south london, mortlake
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm
Postby pete75 » 16 Mar 2018, 5:05pm
mercalia wrote: whats so special about it?
Not a lot. Looks a fairly unpleasant area.
Mike Carter has written a book One Man and His Bike about his ride around the coast. No idea if he was the first or thousand and first but it's a good read.
bovlomov
Joined: 5 Apr 2007, 7:45am
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Postby bovlomov » 16 Mar 2018, 7:41pm
Are you thinking of this?
It was built (I mean paid for) by Baroness Burdett Coutts. Completed in 1861 and demolished in 1958.
Maginificent!
There is still a flower market on Columbia Road.
Postby mercalia » 16 Mar 2018, 11:52pm
why on earth was that knocked down? what a shame I would have thought there were less worthy places to demolish
Postby bovlomov » 17 Mar 2018, 12:17am
mercalia wrote: why on earth was that knocked down? what a shame I would have thought there were less worthy places to demolish
According to Spitalfields Life,
As a market, it was a spectacular failure and the housing element hardly fared better. Purposely built with ill-fitting doors and no glass in the corridor windows, they were an icy, inhospitable series of dwellings. The basement and other parts of the structure were damaged by bombing in World War Two. It was certainly salvageable yet, despite protests at the time, the entire complex of buildings was demolished in the nineteen-sixties.
It would have been a perfect building to house the type of hipster enterprises that happen in that neighbourhood. No sarcasm intended.
Postby Drake » 17 Mar 2018, 8:09am
Nothing per say
About two months ago, I bought a small book from a charity shop called "The London Nobody Knows" by Geoffrey Fletcher.
No photos in this book, just some quite nice pen and ink sketches, a medium I dabble in albeit not very successfully.
In said book was a sketch of Columbia Square. Don't ask me why cause I can't answer, this sketch intrigued me.
My son and myself are going to London in a couple of weeks, and we were going to go to Bethnal Green to see if the square was still there. No point now it's been pulled down.
bovlomov wrote: Are you thinking of this?. . . . [img]
Yes that looks like it.
I completely agree with you there. Historically alone, I would have thought this building and square were worth preserving. As I understand it, these buildings were an early social housing scheme, but I could be wrong there.
There did seem to be, in the 50's and 60's, a lot of buildings that were demolished that perhaps today would not be.
bovlomov wrote:
Your right. I believe in post war Britain there were a lot of buildings that could have been salvaged and put to other uses. Not to sure what style those buildings were, Gothic perhaps ?
pete75 wrote:
Many thanks. I will try and hunt that book down.
Postby pete75 » 17 Mar 2018, 9:09am
It would have been demolished because for much of the mid 20th century there was avery low regard for Victorian architecture. This started to change in the seventies but even as late as 1975 some were proposing demolition and replacement with something modern for Leeds Town Hall. Now it's regarded as the finest Victorian town hall in teh country.
bikepacker
Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 7:08pm
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Postby bikepacker » 17 Mar 2018, 9:55am
Drake wrote: Secondly. Who was the first person to cycle around the coastline of Britain, and was there a book written about it ?
Don't know who was the first but I know someone did it on a penny farthing in the early 20th century. One of my favourite books on going around the coast is: Postcards from the edge of Britain by Peter Mann. He gives a very good account of the ups and downs in such a journey.
There is your way. There is my way. But there is no "the way".
Further along Columbia Road is a bit more scenic.
I first came across pictures of Columbia Market in Lost London - A Century of Demolition and Decay, by Hermione Hobhouse. As you can imagine, it's a depressing read. So depressing that the local public library sold it to me for a quid.