a living scrapbook

Wallpaper from the 1690s found in a house on Fournier Street in East London

If you love scraps of history, old wallpaper designs and tiny, amazing windows into the lives of real people over the last three hundred years, go immediately to the Gentle Author's blog at Spitalfields Life and read this wonderful, magical, humbling, inspiring post. Then have a browse and get lost in the maze of posts, and read some more. I love this blog.

6 comments:

Frances said...

Hello Sue, it's Wednesday! And just before I open my sketchbook and get started on making some Valentines, I wanted to tell you that I also really love the Spitalfields blog. The variety of the posts is astonishing.

Must sign off quickly now, and get the pencils, paints, brushes out.

xo

Jane Housham said...

I love the scrap of wallpaper. Have you seen this website?: http://www.threadsoffeeling.com/ It was created by a visiting professor at the Uni where I work and records scraps of fabric which were left with babies at the Coram Fields foundling hospital so that if the mothers came back to claim children years later they could match up the fabric with the other half that they had kept and thus validate their claim. It's beautiful and fascinating. Sorry for such a long comment.

Gigibird said...

I have scraps of wallpaper from my house - only built in the mid 20's but still fascinating to look at and wonder at what it has witnessed...
I plan to make some kind of 'art' from them hopefully before I die.

Unknown said...

When we moved the radiators in our victorian house we found a treasure of wallpapers - it was like travelling through time looking at the fashions of the different eras. I love that feeling of being part of something continuous. Maybe one day scraps of our lives will be found and mulled over. I find that somehow peaceful.

Acornmoon said...

had no idea that wallpaper of that kind existed so far back. I thought it was a much newer invention, extraordinary!

Gilly said...

What a wonderful blog! Spitalfields has fascinated me ever since I saw a TV programme about it.

And the wallpaper is amazing! I love the wild roses one.