Doreen Fletcher has been recording the architectural history of the East End since the mid 1980s. She did this for her own pleasure and has only recently been “discovered”.
She saw this shop in Canning Town in 1991 when it was a going concern. When she went back a couple of months later to paint the shop it had closed. Her gritty architectural portraits are exhibited at the Nunnery Gallery in Bow until 24th March. I suspect she will be taken up by a West End gallery and become a hot ticket.
Meanwhile, in west London corner shops are having a tough time. I remember when this was a shop in the 1980s.
This may be a corner shop again.
This is the sort of frontage that attracts Doreen. It is the hotel in Bow where two Russians stayed last year with novichok in a sponge bag.
