A Visit to Molly's

 

                      Fig (1)  Molly's Cafe, looking like an artist's impression.  Friday 14th                                                            May 2021

                                                    

I have written quite a bit on here about the Marquis of Lansdowne.  This was the pub that was the childhood home of myself and my siblings.  One of my (many) outstanding research tasks is to complete a short article about the history of the pub – but that is for another day.  The battle to save the pub for demolition has also been well documented by others.

On Friday 14^th May 2021 I had cause to be in London, a rare thing as we move out of lockdown.  I had seen on the internet that the refreshment room for the Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum) was to open for external customers (eating establishments  will be able to re-open properly on Monday 17^th May).  I tweaked my arrangements and found myself standing outside the new entrance in Geffrye Street at opening time (10-00).  I was the first customer, which pleased me in a childish way, and was given a warm welcome by Rob and his team who operate the place.  If anything can truly represent the gentrification of Shoreditch it is the transformation of the Marquis of Lansdowne from derelict east London pub to modern café and apartments.  It is also a far cry from the wooden structure stuck on the side of the museum which functioned as a tea room for many years.

To be frank, there isn’t a lot left of the pub.  The whole of the interior has been ripped out and only the original  façade is intact.  The dodgy rear extension (with the perennial crack) has gone and the back yard is now occupied by a terrace and ‘canteen’ area.  A small block of flats is attached to the top and side of the building.  The flats are not especially attractive (although they look good in comparison to the 1960s efforts nearby) but I suspect that that their inclusion is what made the project financially viable.  A quick look at RIGHTMOVE shows that it is an eight flat development and that a 2 bed flat is selling for £850,000.  How anyone can afford such prices is beyond my puny economic imagination. 

                                                 Fig (2)  View from Cremer Street showing the flats

The café is known at Molly’s and is named after a pioneering curator of the museum who worked to encourage education programmes in the 1940s and beyond. All the hours spent tramping around the museum in the company of other inmates of Randal Cremer School, worksheet in hand, are the result of her efforts to show that museums can engage the interest of young people.

The refurbishment is of a very high standard.  The external terrace was a pleasant place to sit (my table was roughly in the area formerly occupied by the old outside Gents toilet – I think I detected a whiff, but this was the product of olfactory memory rather than archaeological persistence).  Inside is an open kitchen and tables and the former bar area is a very characterful dining room.  It has been designed and furnished to echo the origins of the building as an early Victorian pub.

The plan is for Molly’s to open in stages.  Soon it will offer high quality evening meals as well as daytime food.  A far cry from the very limited catering on offer in the pub during the Trendall era!  When the museum re-opens next month I expect that the café will become very busy during the day.  It shares the entrance to the Museum opposite Hoxton Station.  In the hour I was there is attracted a lot of interest. 

                                      Fig (3) The terrace occupying the area of the former pub's back yard and                                                               showing the entrance gate in Geffrye Street

The people working there were most welcoming.  The tea was good and I had a first class bacon roll.  All good signs for the future!  I am looking forward to going back soon.

 

Philip Trendall

May 2021

 

(1)    Rightmove (as at 16/05/2021):  https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/106863968#/

(2)    Molly’s: https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/visit-us/molly-s-cafe/

 

Animated Photographs

 

The latest craze on social media – well on the old photos bit of social media at least – is for animating old photographs.

‘My Heritage’ is a US Family History site that has become popular because they offer a simple photo enhancement tool as part of their subscription package.  I posted some photos that have been through this process, a few months ago.

The latest animation software is very clever.  By using a series of algorithms it can turn a still picture of a face into a short animation.  Of course the animation can bear no relation to the actual mannerisms of the person depicted so the utility of this software is not significant.  In fact It can be misleading.  We don’t know what our long dead ancestors were like when they smiled or blinked.  In most cases we don’t even know if they smiled at all!  The algorithms seem to use the original perspective of the photograph and this can distort the final image.  See example one below which is an enhanced picture of my Aunt Ruby.  Note the eyes especially.

The second photograph is an enhanced and coloured version of a photograph of my Mother, Jean Duncan TRENDALL (previously TRENDALL, previously PALMER, nee McGAVIN).  This works quite well but the computer generated movement is, in my opinion, just a gimmick.

In short this technology is little more than a parlour game.  One commentator has described it as ‘creepy’.  The technology will improve as they iron out the glitches.The movements will appear more natural.  To me this will make it creepier still.

What do you think?

Photo One:  https://myhr.tg/1530xZpN

Photo Two:   https://myhr.tg/1UnYZMV5

Philip Trendall

Bramfield

7^th March 2021

TRENDALL: NAME DISTRIBUTION

 

Figure 1:  Heatmap:  1841 Census Showing the Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant

As excitement builds around the next UK census later this month (21^st March 2021) I have been looking at the ‘big data’ around my own surname.  Excitement is of course a relative concept!

The availability of census data for the period 1841-1911 means that it should be easy to map the movement of families around England and Wales.  The National Trust used to have this information in map form – I am not entirely sure why and the site is no longer available.  At last I have found replacement ‘heatmaps’ that show how my family (TRENDALL – without sub variants) has grown and moved in this timeframe.  Of course this is never a 100% accurate.  A slip of the enumerators pencil can leave surnames unreadable, and certainly during the 19^th century spelling of names was much more casual than it is now.  But the data, which is broken down by county, is very interesting.

In 1841 193 Trendalls appeared in the Census. Many of these were to be found in the Thames Valley (Oxon/Bucks/Berks) (67), and (71) in London and Middlesex,  with a sizable number (19) in Cornwall and Kent (8).  Just one spent Census night in Sussex and one in Hampshire.  Very low numbers are a reminder that the Census was a snap shot of one night in the decade.  In this case 6^th June 1841.  People visiting family and friends or working away from home are recorded where they spent the night, although it is not unusual to see people appear twice on the same Census, indicating that not everybody understood the recording rules which were not updated until 1931. I know that my branch of the family moved from Oxon/Bucks to London at the end of the eighteenth century so there are no surprises here.

Fifty years later in 1891 there are 495 Trendalls in the Census.  The Thames Valley counties remain a stronghold for the surname (125) but London and Middlesex (which included large parts of what we now regard as London) still had the largest concentration (160).  The surname had spread more widely but still was rare in the northern parts of England with the exception of Lancashire (22).  There were no Trendalls in Wales on the night of Sunday 5^th April 1891.    The number in Cornwall had declined over half a century to only (6).

Figure 2: Heatmap: 1891 Census Showing the Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant 

The 1911 Census is the last one we can access (but see below).  The twenty years since 1891 had seen many developments but for the Trendalls the changes were steady.  The spread of the surname continued and the for the first time Cornwall had nobody bearing the name.  London and Middlesex claimed (201) Trendalls and the Thames Valley Counties of Berks, Bucks and Oxon had (143).  The Surrey branch grew to (75) and in Kent the number increased to (45).  In the North) name bearers were to be found in Yorkshire (31) and (13) in Lancashire.  The move to the Eastern Counties is marked with (28) Trendalls in Essex, compared to (10) in 1841 and clusters in East Anglia and Lincolnshire.  Again, the Essex numbers are inflated by the fact that much of modern east London was in Essex in 1911.

Figure 3: Heatmap: 1911 Census Showing Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant

We must remember that these figures and maps are produced by computer algorithms that are dependent on things such as the human transcription of hand written paper records.   I have checked some of the low concentration areas and have found discrepancies. However, in general, trends shown in the maps certainly reflect the generality of the name distribution.

The next Census that will become available to view is the 1921 Census. This will be opened for inspection in early 2022.  It will be an exciting day for family historians as it will be our first opportunity to get detailed data from the post Great War era.  It is also important because it will be the last Census that we can study for many years.  The 1931 Census (or at least the parts relating to England and Wales) was destroyed by fire in 1942.  No Census was taken in 1941.  We do have the 1939 Register with is very useful but the next census that we will be able to view will be that from 1951 which should be published in 2052.  I hope to update this blog for the 2022 release but I will probably leave the 2052 results to someone else!

Philip Trendall

7^th February 2021

Bramfield

A few interesting web links

 

                                            Geffrye Street London E2, 1960s.  Copyright Hackney Archives and taken                                                 from  https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/02/16/the-haggerston-nobody-                                                        knows/

I am currently working on a post about the Marquis of Lansdowne.  It is taking me longer than I anticipated, as these things always do.

As part of my research I have looked again at the Spitalfields Life website.  An excellent resource and full of interesting material.  Some will recall that it was the focus of a lot of the campaigning to save the pub and included an article by George BARKER (1931-2019).  One of the posts about the area started a long thread about the local area and the purpose of this post is to draw the attention to some of the comments and to the excellent photographs.

I do not remember Nicols Square but I do recall the building of Fellows Court.  I don't know a lot about architecture but the photos suggest that some fine buildings were lost.  The pictures of  Nichols Square, Ormsby Street and Geffrye Street  are particularly haunting I think.  

In the thread there are lots of posts about the 1963 film A Place to Go.  Although the story was based in Bethnal Green it was actually filmed in Appleby Street.  The film is worth watching for the atmosphere alone and for the sight of many familiar actors.  It available in full on Youtube (links below).

Quite a few of the people posting on the thread were pupils at Randel Cremer School.  One recalls the 'Trendall twins', another makes mention of 'Rubber Dinghy'.  The latter was the rather horrible nickname given to a disabled chap who pushed a cart around the area.  Shamefully I remember the name calling that he suffered and which, as a young child, I participated.  People describe the shops near the school (including Sid the barber) and the museum of course.  Some of the school staff are mentioned including Miss Ambler.

The Spitalfields Life website is the best of its kind.  An amazing collection of stories and images.  We are lucky to have it.

Philip Trendall

January 2021

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/02/16/the-haggerston-nobody-knows/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYsieGxDHU0

#spitalfieldslife