In honour of my visit to Norton Folgate, we watched an archival programme, dating from 1985, about the middle-class settlers in Spitalfields. It shows Dennis Severs expounding his philosophy of historical reconstruction, Dan Cruickshank describing the original circumstances of construction of Elder Street, and Eric Elstob talking about moving into Fournier Street, but, best of all, it has Douglas Blain describing the origins of the Spitalfields Trust, which involved a squat in Elder Street in 1977 and the occupation of the offices of British Land until they allowed the sale of two of the original Elder Street houses. Blain says that one day people will be grateful for the work of the Spitalfields Trust in preserving historic properties. We are, Douglas, we are.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Dear CharIes, I enjoy your pithy blogs. These recent ones about Spitalfields make no reference to the Gentle Author and I want to check that you know about him and get his daily wonderful blog “Spitalfields Life” .
Best wishes
Pen
Dear Pen, Yes, I do know about them and reviewed the book and sometimes, but by no means always, read them (I did read the one about Norton Folgate). Charles
We watched the same thing a month or so ago…time travel and memory!
Yes, it feels quite recent, but thirty years ago. Charles