Historical Elements of the Lane

As discussed before, the lane is full of historical elements from every century. I chose to focus on three points in time; the Huguenots, the Jewish community coming over in the 1800s and the Bangladeshi immigrants coming over in 1970s. For this type of drawing I decided to do more detailed drawings rather than just quick sketches or textural drawings. Alongside this, they are going to be more individual motifs than fully formed drawings that can layered on top of my prints and more textural drawings. On a research trip in January, I went around the lane trying to see some of the historical elements as well as researching certain elements online too. 

 My particular favourites have to be the blue tile designs from Huguenot inspired tiles by Paul Bommer. While these designs are direct copies of his work, I think I could use these in a way that is unique to my project. I could do this by changing the colour of the blue line as well separating certain elements on Photoshop. 

 My favourite drawing out of this were the sketches of the shoe lasts. Brick Lane has a shoemaking history behind it which is why I decided to draw the shows. However, these lasts are more significant to me as they were from my grandad’s shoemaking business. My family has history in the cobbler business, so it was important to me to include these in this project. They are important to my immigration journey and work alongside the history of the lane too.