I went to a tea ceremony in Arnold Circus to celebrate the erection of a sign to mark a cherry tree which was planted two years ago to commemorate Leon Kossoff, whose father came from Ukraine and ran Kossoff’s Bakery on Calvert Avenue, nearly opposite Leila’s. Kossoff apparently came back several times towards the end of his life to see the neighbourhood where he had spent so much of his childhood, including attending Rochelle School on the other side of the Circus, and he made drawings of the Boundary Estate, alongside his great series of paintings of Christ Church, Spitalfields:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
At some point the family moved to Willesden as my father in law was very friendly with two of Leon’s brothers. Leon’s father was so worried about the financial security of his son the artist that he left him the family house to him in his will . I think he may have always lived there ? I did ask my father in law why he had never bought any of Leon’s work and his response was we didn’t buy art.
Last week when I was in Kentish Town I noticed a new bakery called Kosoffs which seems to have been set up by a grandson of the original Kossoff bakery.
Didn’t Auerbach sometimes help out with Leon in the bakery ?
I don’t know the Auerbach story, but it’s certainly possible as they are long-standing friends. And yes, they moved to Willesden. Charles
It was nice to spot a Kossoff depiction of Arnold Circus plus various other prints by him in the dining room of Leathersellers’ Hall during its recent opening for London Open House.