I went in to Hatchard’s art department today to sign some more copies of East London for Christmas. It always gives me a slight frisson because it is where Romilly was working when I first met her in December 1973, nearly 45 years ago. In those days, there were three people working in the Art Department: Maureen Boland, a spinster who always wore a nylon overall and went on to publish Old Wives’ Lore for Gardeners jointly with her sister; Baron Nicolas van den Branden de Reeth, a very well read Belgian baron who lived with Terence Davis, the architectural historian, in a grand flat in Cornwall Gardens; and Romilly, who got the job by walking in off the street.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
It’s very good news that Hatchard’s not only stock, but promote, EAST LONDON. Hurray ! I’ve never achieved such heights !
John was the architect for the refurbishment of Hatchard’s in the late 90’s. Very difficult to get a lift in – and it is tiny but it works. He spent countless hours on the staircase details.