The Coalholes Of Spitalfields

Ceramicist Simon Turner will be giving a talk exploring the history of London’s coal hole covers at the Bloomsbury Jamboree tomorrow, Sunday 15th November at 3:15pm, revealing the foundries and designs behind them, and where some of the most interesting examples can be found. Click here to book Since I wrote about sculptor Keith Bowler’s Roundels, describing how he set new manhole covers into the pavements of Spitalfields with motifs to commemorate all the people, cultures and trades that have passed through, I have been noticing the old ones that inspired him in the first place. This one from the eighteen-eighties in Fournier St is undoubtably the most snazzy in the neighbourhood with its dynamic sunburst and catherine wheel spiral. So much wit and grace applied to the design of a modest coalhole cover, it redefines the notion of utilitarian design. In Bath, Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh, I have seen whole streets where each house has a different design of coalhole cover, like…

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