Aug-Sep 2017

East End Vernacular
Roland Collins
Born in 1918, Roland
Collins first came to the
East End in the 1930s
in the footsteps of
James McNeill Whistler,
drawing riverside
scenes, returning after the
war to paint the Hawksmoor
churches. “I’ve always been interested in that
area," he confided wistfully at 94, "I remember
one of my first excursions to see the French
Synagogue in Fournier Street.”
A remarkable talent of modest demeanour,
Collins was an artist who quietly followed his
personal enthusiasms, especially in architecture
and all aspects of London lore, creating a
significant body of paintings while supporting
himself as a designer throughout his working
life. “I was designing everything,” he declared,
searching his mind and seizing upon a random
example, “I did record sleeves, I did the sleeve
for Decca for the first long-playing record ever
produced.”
Copies of East End Vernacular, Artists who painted
London’s East End Streets in the 20th Century can
be pre-ordered from spitalfieldslife.com for £25.
Reproduced courtesy of Museum of London
Above: Snow in Rounton Road, Bow and ,
Painting of Brushfield Street, Spitalfields,
below, Old Houses, Bow, by Henry Silk
by Roland Collins
22 LOVEEAST