Cheers,
This email is about TODAY. I’ve bolded the word today because I’ve so many emails to write about Christmas Day and the days that followed right up until this minute! Christmas Day several cruisers walked to The Captain Kidd for a glass of cheer. Boxing Day Randal, Singkey and I walked the hour to Surry Quay Mall and then back. The 27th I walked to the Whitechapel Pound Store with Sue while Randal and Singkey kept the home fires burning. Yesterday Singkey and I climbed The Monument (I’ve now two certificates) and looped our way back over London Bridge and Tower Bridge to prepare dinner for Singkey’s Chinese University teacher Jessica and her husband. Somewhere in all of this activity Singkey makes time for her research papers due January 6th. Glad those assignment days are over for me.
On our Christmas Day walk to the Captain Kidd Pub we passed by the Turks Head Café. Intrigued by its connection to the local community we made a plan to return for lunch one day. Today we did just that. We walked along the canals to Shadwell Basin and then stopped for lunch at the Turk’s Head meeting and having a lovely conversation with the woman who runs it, Leyla/Leila Ycr from Antalya, Turkey. The Turkish dish Kofte was on the menu and I asked about it which lead to a trip down memory lane of our time in Turkey. What fun! We’ll definitely return to try some of the many dishes and visit more with Leyla. And to learn more about the charity connected with this historic building.
Ru
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Turk’s Head Café on the corner of Scandrett St and Greenbank. Hours: Monday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Tuesday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Wednesday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Thursday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Saturday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Sunday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm “The TurksHead Cafe can be found at 1 Green Bank (previously Bird St) on the corner with Tench St. It can be accessed from Wapping High St via Scandrett St, which is between the Town of Ramsgate pub and Wapping Police Station.” http://malcnhg-londonramblings.blogspot.co.uk/ “The Turk’s Head Company was established in 1992. It is an independent registered charity dedicated to improving Wapping. The charity is housed in a former pub, which has been rebuilt several times since the eighteenth century. Its name comes from a type of decorative knot and not a decapitated Turk. During World War 2, its eccentric landlady Mog Murphy kept the pub open all hours for service personnel and their families. The pub survived the Blitz and remained open until the 1950s and like much of Wapping was derelict for many years. Before the charity bought the building it was a storage depot for the parks department under the Greater London Council (GLC). A fire reduced it to more or less a shell of a building and by the1980s following the demise of the GLC, it was inherited by Tower Hamlets Council. In 1992 after years of disrepair the Turk’s Head was brought back into use. A sustained and spirited local campaign raised £500,000 to acquire and renovate the building. Its supporters and patrons included Tower Hamlets Environment Trust, Bishops Victor Guazzelli and Jim Thompson, Councillors Albert Lilley and Moulana Abu Syed, Sir Alan Shepherd of Grand Metropolitan Wharf and George Walker of Brent Walker. Its real movers and shakers, however, were local mothers. Since the 1970s they had been fighting for their children to live in a safe environment. Post- war Wapping suffered from poor and unrepaired housing and following the closure of the docks, derelict warehouses and wharves. The women challenged this sense of abandonment and became advocates for residents who felt frustrated and displaced. They not only raised the money for the Turk’s Head, but ensured that it was for community benefit. Known as the “wild women of Wapping” and led by Maureen Davies, it was through their derring-do and steely determination that the Turk’s Head has survived. WHAT WE HAVE DONE The Turk’s Head Charity is proud of its successes to date, most notably of securing the landmark building the Turk’s Head. The charity played a major role alongside the Civilians Remembered Trust in a bitterly fought battle against Berkeley Homes to gain the Hermitage Memorial Park on the Thames waterfront. This was established to gain recognition for the 30,000 civilians killed in London during World War 2. More recently, the charity has run the annual Wapping Summer Shindig, a day when history comes alive, of music, dancing, local talent and home cooking. We have • Renovated and managed the Turk’s Head as a community asset • Campaigned to stop a major road being driven through Wapping • Secured the civilian memorial park at Hermitage Wharf • Organised and funded the Wapping Summer Shindig • Created the community food garden at the Turk’s Head Café • Paid for 16 local residents get a Level 2 food hygiene certificate • Financially supported other charities in the area WHAT WE DO Once the building was acquired from the council, the café was established and the upper floors became managed work space. The incomes from the café lease and office rental are put to charitable purposes within the community. |
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Maureen Davies “Heroine? A little over the top you think. I would disagree. Maureen was a key organizer in the battle to save the Turks Head and stop a road being ploughed through the Green Bank estate. If that had been allowed to happen Wapping would have been lost forever. As we walked Maureen and other members of the History of Wapping Trust shared just some of their memories of the battles to save Wapping from developers and a disinterested council, which apparently included lying down in the road to stop works at one point.” Text about and photo of Maureen Davies from the website below |
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Randal and Leyla Ycr, manager of the café who actually is from Antalya, Turkey, Just one reason why Leila Ycr is a Wapping Hero By Mark Baynes May 14, 2013 You all probably know Leila who runs the Turks Head cafe. That doesn’t really do Leila and her team justice, they do far more than run a café; they look after people. What you might not know is that every day Leila and her cousin Jan drive all the way from Enfield where they live to Wapping. Which is about 13 miles away. Quite a drive. (I guess it is for Londoners but not many of us Americans.) Anyway today the Wildlife Rangers were on patrol as usual when it started to rain. So being a bunch of lightweights they immediately retreated to the Turks Head cafe for breakfast. One of the Wildlife Rangers was having a chat with Leila as he had not been in to the Turks Head for a while and so took the opportunity to catch up. Somehow the conversation turned to the weather and the really bad snow London and most of the south east suffered three years ago. London was at a halt, no public transport, roads impassible, no nothing. Most people took the day off work. Not Leila. Apparently Leila and Jan walked all the way from Enfield to Wapping to open up the Turks Head. That’s 13 miles in thick snow. They left at 6 am and got to Wapping at around 11.30 am. I was amazed but not surprised by this dedication. I asked Leyla why she didn’t just stay at home like everyone else? “Because I needed to open the cafe because people would need nice hot chocolate!”she replied. Which says it all really. Thanks Leyla.
Photo and article about Leyla from the website below |
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“The Turks Head Inn supposedly held a license to serve the last quart of ale to the condemned pirates on their final journey from Newgate prison to Execution Dock. Execution Dock, where Wapping Underground station is now, was the official place of hanging. The criminal was hung from a rope and left for three tides, then the body was covered in tar and hung in the streets as a warning to others. The notorious Captain William Kidd was hanged there in 1701. The last men to be hanged at Execution Dock were George Davis and William Watts, who were hanged for murder and mutiny on the High Seas on the 17th December in 1830. http://www.shadwatch.co.uk/wapping_history_01.htm |
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Community food garden at the Turk’s Head Café just next to it behind the fence. (The hands on the clock of St John’s never move.”) Turks Head Cafe – Resident Reviewed Among the all-day breakfasts are traditional English plus variants including vegetarian, eggs Florentine or Benedict, and my particular favourite, smoked salmon and eggs scrambled just the way I like them. For lunch there is a wide choice of sandwiches, baguettes, panini or ciabattas egg avocado and bacon, brie and cranberry, various salads, and a few Mediterranean/Turkish options, hot or cold. Kofte or kebab and rice are two regular daily specials. Ingredients are nice and fresh and vegetarians well catered for; I recommend the cold mixed mezze plate. (Discussing Kofte is how we met Lyla and learned she was from Turkey. That led to a much longer discussion about our stay in Turkey. ) There is also a children’s menu and a take-away service available. The café provides a range of coffees and teas to accompany cake or muffin desserts. Décor is sunny and pleasantly plain, with old local photos and maps on the walls. Most newspapers are available for diners, making this the perfect brunch stop. If weather permits, you can eat at tables in the garden, a little oasis adjacent to Wapping Gardens. A vegetable plot was recently established here, so before long there will be very fresh greens. A child-friendly approach makes this a valued meeting place for parent and baby groups. From time to time the Turk’s Head further fulfils its role as a community enterprise by hosting events for the History of Wapping Trust, whose books and Christmas cards are also for sale here. The upper floor of the building has been converted into small business studios with the delightful name of Happiness at Work. This is certainly demonstrated by the café staff downstairs, whose service with a smile can occasionally slow down at very busy times. |
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Former St John’s charity school, just down the street from the Turk’s Head. There were 50 girls and 6o boys according to the description etched into the stone. It was started in 1760. Over some of the doors are the words girls, boys, and infants. Scandrett St is also the location of the former St John school. Now converted for residential use, the building has a very fine pair of Blue Coat figures over the doorway. |
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St John’s Old School Although founded in 1695 – a year after the parish of Wapping itself – the building you see now dates ‘only’ to 1765. (The date on it says 1760) These are two of the finest Bluecoat statues in London, with the costume details outstanding. The separate boys and girls entrances are clearly marked. These distinctive figures mark a charity school, many dating back to the mid-16th century, with the costumes being normal school attire of the period. Blue was used for charity school children because it was the cheapest dye available for clothing. Socks were dyed in saffron as that was thought to stop rats nibbling the pupils’ ankles. (We saw some of these figures in Rotherhithe across from the St Mary’s where the BBC was filming an episode of New Tricks which is now one of my favorite shows and you can watch in on youtube.) |
