Celebrating Local Shops and Shopkeepers

Wood Street’s shops and the people who run them are the subjects of a major new exhibition at the Vestry House Museum this June.  Katherine Green’s photographs are a timely celebration of the traders at the heart of the community.

These days it’s rare to find a greengrocer’s shop, a cobbler’s or a tailor’s.  Yet Wood Street has them all and much, much more besides.  It’s packed with independent, local businesses, many of whom have been run by the same family for generations.

There’s Colvin’s the DIY shop, for example, where I’ve been buying my paint for over 13 years.  I love going there - the shop’s on a human scale, they’ve got a beautiful garden at the back and sometimes the grandchildren are running around.  Most importantly, I get value for money and a personal service from people who know their business.

On my way for paint, one time, I stumbled across Wood Street Indoor Market – a labyrinth of shops featuring such rare delights as antiquarian books, natural baby products, hard-to-find records,   and even an artist’s gallery.  It’s an oasis of originality and community spirit—well worth a browse.

Then, of course, there’s the distinctive weather-boarded Second Nature where you can buy whole-foods and organic fruit and vegetables.  (They even deliver them to your door.)

 If you need a rest and refreshment, there’s a great range of café’s and restaurants to choose from including a Pie and Mash shop.  And, for entertainment, the Plough Inn has a year-round programme of live music and theatre that has a reputation London-wide as well as being the home of Walthamstow Folk.

It’s independent traders like these that are the focus of the exhibition at the Vestry House Museum this summer.  Katherine Green’s series of intimate and haunting portraits were taken over a period of three months and she subsequently collaborated with Waltham Forest Oral History Workshop (WFOHW) to record the shopkeepers’ stories.  Katherine, a designer and photographer, was born and brought up in Walthamstow where she still lives.  She studied photography at Central Saint Martins.  Katherine says: “Wood Street is full of colourful characters, interesting stories, family histories, mine included, and I wanted to preserve these, as well as celebrate the diversity and independence of spirit.”

Her work with WFOHW, one of the oldest oral history projects in Britain, has resulted in over 20 recordings of personal histories. These will be playing in the gallery alongside the photographs. Robert Wilkinson of WFOHW says ¨Viewing a slide show of these current and historical images whilst listening to these amazing stories, really brings these histories to life.¨

Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road, Walthamstow, E17 9NH

Tel: 020 8509 1917

Open

Monday - Friday:

10 - 1 and  2 - 5.30

Saturday:

10 - 1 and  2 - 5.00

Admission is free.