The Hand Book, 5th January 2011
My maternal grandparents lived in Hanbury Street (a few doors away from where Jack the Ripper's 2nd victim was found) and right behind, though with its entrance in Brick Lane, was the Trumans Brewery.
It was announced last summer that after more than two decades in mothballs, brewing is to recommence there - I can still smell that distinctive scent in my mind, which brings back the tall, narrow house in vivid detail: Grandpa Max's tailoring work-room, with its dummies which scared my 3-year-old self - during WWII he made knickers out of parachute silk! Nanna's kitchen with its black-leaded stove and scrubbed table: it was a family joke that if you shredded apple and let it go brown then you'd cooked it!
Upstairs was a room with a sloping ceiling, peeling wallpaper and a tin bath - how times have changed!
The last occasion I was down there on a nostagia trip my niece was about 14, and she's in her 30s now..........
Poppies looks worth a visit, though!
http://www.poppiesfishandchips.co.uk/
