And then there is artist Rob Ryan, with actual papercuts and some very funky Staffordshire dogs. I would love to buy this for my husband for our wedding anniversary.

Artist Laura Knight deconstructs familiar china patterns like blue willow…

…in her mixed media illustrations.

She even reimagines pink lustreware…

…which you already know is dear to my heart.

Justin Knopp‘s letterpress print is graphically riveting, but it is his printing studio that I am swooning over.

The exhibition features many other artists and details can be found here and here – it is really worth taking a look!

Personally, I am not familiar with the Spitalfields neighborhood, but it has rocketed to the top of my next time in London list (which will be this summer) as it is full of 18thc Georgian buildings, like this one on Fournier Street…

…the precursors to the Federal homes, built in the 1820s in New York City, on King Street…

…Charlton Street…

… and Vandam Street.

The district is so consistent as the majority of the remaining homes were erected in roughly the same period on the grounds of the former 26 acre Richmond Hill estate, which had been built in 1767 with a view over the Hudson River. George Washington and Vice Presidents John Adams and Aaron Burr all had turns living there but it was Burr who saw the economic opportunity in the changing residential tides of the city and planned to sub-divide it. He named the streets Burr for himself; King for Rufus King, a fellow U.S. senator; and Vandam for Anthony Van Dam, a wealthy importer and city alderman. Forced to leave the city after his duel with Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor took over the property, paying Burr handsomely for it. Burr Street was re-named in memory of Dr. John Charlton, former president of the New York Medical Society and a trustee of Columbia University, who had died months earlier.

As the Landmarks Preservation Commission report states: The old houses on these streets are all that remain of a city plan, conceived and mapped in 1797, but almost completely developed between the years 1820 and 1829. The boundaries of this neighborhood were, originally, from the Hudson River (then at Greenwich Street) to MacDougal Street, and from Vandam to King Streets. This small enclave was a piece of “instant city” developed from one large country estate, by the great real estate operator of the day, John Jacob Astor.

The development of these streets in common gave them a continuity and homogeneity which still survives today not only visually, but in spirit as well. This is not Greenwich Village; this is not “downtown”; this is the Charlton-King-Vandam area.

In contrast to the almost pristine preservation of Charlton Street and a bit of grittiness on Vandam, the Landmarks Preservation Commission said it best: King Street has a different sort of charm; it has an infinite variety, the unexpected juxtaposition of Federal houses, Greek Revival houses, Anglo-Italianate, Roman Revival and eclectic buildings of the late Nineteenth Century. The early apartments and the public school still have a certain grandeur while the little Federal houses look cozy by comparison and the Greek Revival houses maintain their own distinct dignity.

Built in 1886-1887, my beloved Queen Anne style interloper at 29 King Street was once Public School Number 8 and served an absolute melting pot of immigrant nationalities. The rumour in the building was that it had become a school for wayward girls in the 1950s and in researching this post I found that to be true (I can’t wait to tell my girls – I think they’ll get a kick out of that). In the early 1980s the building was converted to condos and we were lucky enough ten-odd years later, to be at the right place at the right time at the bottom of the last major downturn in the real estate market, which was a long time ago now. To this day, older visitors will often call from the street, lost, asking where our apartment is in relation to the school building.

While the link between Spitalfields and the C-K-V Historic District is tenuous, in my head they became woven together, as both are places where the past informs the present. Funnily enough, Ben Pentreath lived in New York for five years, much of that time right down the block from us on King Street, although I never had the good fortune to meet him. As he said in a recent article in The Financial Times, his apartment there was the place where he “first experimented with a few strong fabrics and some contemporary furniture alongside old brown tables and chairs, and loved the results.” Here’s a tiny view of said apartment. In the face of so many eschewing traditional “brown” furniture these days and painting everything, I still love some of the old-fashioned brown stuff in the mix and I find it reassuring that he does too.

I am hoping for more views – or at least a bigger photo – in his brand new book English Decoration: Timeless Inspiration for the Contemporary Home, which I have seriously put on my holiday list. All the reviews have been just as good as I would expect (like the one here) and I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

If you are interested in reading more about the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District there is so much information out there and I used the following sites in preparation of this post: The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, 1966 NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Historic District Designation Report, The Story of Charlton Street, and the amazing Daytonian in Manhattan, including this, this and this.

All artist’s works via Ben Pentreath and Spitalfields Life.