In all the years that we have lived in East London, I have – shamefully – never been to the Ragged School Museum which is normally open only two days a week, apart from the first Sunday of the month. Today is the first Sunday of the month.
The warehouse was apparently built in 1872 for a lime juice merchant, but was taken over in 1876 by Dr. Barnardo as one of his ragged day schools, which offered church services, Bible and sewing classes to the local poor. His Sunday School was said to be attended by 1500 children, with the added incentive of ‘lentil or pea souo and bread varied occasionally by rice and prunes or haricot beans’. Not long afterwards he bought the local pub and turned it into a Coffee Palace.
It was packed:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Just a few doors up the street, Copperfield Road, was [until 23 April] the pioneering Matt’s Gallery run by Robin Klassnik founded in 1979 well before the East End became full of lively contemporary galleries.Robin’ s dog. Matt E Mulsion provided the name.The gallery moved from Martello Street, London Fields to Bow in 1993. It still offers a fascinating programme.It is to move to Nine Elms far away south of the river in 2019. Above it is one of the blocks of artists’ studios run by Acme. The gallery now has a temporary home south of the river at Unit 2, 65 Decima Street, Bermondsey
Dear Martin, I hadn’t realised Matt’s had closed. A sign of the times, I suppose. Charles