Baba Yaga's Hut, Bethnal Green (now lost)

This wall pops up all the time, too...

Just demolished, can't believe it. I'm still slightly in denial, this was a true landmark and a great East London icon. See the House On Stilts group for photos from people inspired by the merest glimpse of this structure (the London Eye had nothing on it):

www.flickr.com/groups/396081@N24/

[Original caption conserved below because I do not demolish things willy-nilly]

In response to mondoagogo's call for London-alt clichés:

www.flickr.com/photos/mondoagogo/267085147/

but this also contains another graffiti cliché.

This signal box is also in Guess Where London's Hall of Fame - it's been submitted three times. Only geotagged twice, though, including this one.

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Comments

Moxette says:

Oh, very nice. Even better, it's new to me :)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

Well, it's funny you know. Posting a lot to London groups, I often veto even uploading things because they seem too obvious, but people do find things through contact lists (as you did), tags and now geotagging too. Might look back and see what I've missed out...

(And sometimes I don't upload them because someone I was with took almost the same pic, which is also true in this case.)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

Unbelievable. This is not posted to any groups and it just went to 99 views just like that. Everyone loves this signal box, that's for sure. It should have a group of its own...
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Moxette says:

Cool :)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

GeorgieR says:

Snap

Taken from Pedley Street Shoreditch.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

Lovely. Maybe we should have that group...

It's funny, though, how so many people call this area Shoreditch, when it's actually Spitalfields. I used to have to explain that Shoreditch station (now closed) was not actually in Shoreditch, not even close (Liverpool Street anmd Old Street are much closer). Maybe London Transport thought that 'Spitalfields' sounded a bit yukky.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

GeorgieR says:

Sorry Fin, I just copied what it said on the map, which I now see is the name of the station. Spitalfields is marked in capitals just below. (I used the best value map of London available - Transport for London Cycle Guide 10 - *free*.
My photo was taken in Nov 2005, this box appears to have been done up since then.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

I wasn't getting at you, Georgie, just a wry note in passing. In London, it's a combination of the station name (which is utterly understandable) and the accursed estate agents (who need to be sent en masse to special re-education camps in the Pennines forthwith).

(Shoreditch is the name that sells, so I have been noticing that properties not just in Spitalfields but well into Whitechapel are being sold as 'Shoreditch'. 'Shoreditch' will just become a synonym for East London at this rate. Grrr. Ooops, rant, sorry...)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

elias(london) says:

Shoreditch definitely seems to be the most favoured name at the mo for anything within a few miles of the high street... Not sure I would call it Spitalfields either though... isn't that further west? This seems to be one of those locations right on the boundary of several "neighborhoods" – Shoreditch, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Stepney (even Whitechapel – and "Brick Lane" has of course also now become a popular name for the entire area. Personally I would have thought the structure falls under "Stepney", although old Bishopsgate Goodsyard (on top of which the structure sits) is itself the area's most defining boundary.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

I can't go with Stepney (unless one is referring to the old borough of the same name, in which case this would have been just about on its border with the old borough of Bethnal Green, but the *district* is east of Whitechapel). And absolutely and utterly utterly definitely not Shoreditch - at least we can definitively say that that is a Hackney district.

Apart from that, I think you are broadly right, this signal box is indeed at a debatable location, it is effectively on the intersection of Spitalfields to the west, Bethnal Green to the north and, yes even Whitechapel to the south, pick any one and it's OK.

(Now, if we were to go by the A-Z, the two nearest place names are Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, but I don't want necessarily to invoke that. Even I think it's placed Shoreditch a bit far north - and Whitechapel a bit far southwest.)

Tower Hamlets is a bit of a nightmare for this sort of thing, same happens when you get down to Wapping/Shadwell/Limehouse and their northern boundaries. But truly I don't mind that much, it's just the Shoreditch thing that peeves me...
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Alastair Rae says:

I feel the urge to make a pilgrimage to this cliché shrine.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

I think we could easily start a Shoreditch and Spitalfields cliché tour business, I can just imagine the route. Could easily take in about a score of them in a couple of hours...
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Joey Harrison says:

I feel like I've wandered into a strange, strange world. What is a London-alt cliche? And what does #378b (and #379) signify?

Confusion aside, I love this building. It would be my perfect London pied a terre.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

We have a group called London-alt, for alternative, (well, there are other similar ones too) that focuses on the decidedly non-touristique aspects of the city (your urban spelunking shots in Detriot would qualify, for example - if it were Detroit-alt). This signal box has become a cliché on the group, because it pops up all the time. The numbers are just my little joke, I'm just following on sequentially as a response to a pic of mondo's.

But, yeah, we all love this. It's just that people rediscover it all the time and feel they must tell the world...
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Joey Harrison says:

Thanks for indulging the confused Yank.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

ivanoleg - osa says:

we've done some work on this house
it's nice to find it again and again...
check out the video:
www.osa-online.de/video/intact/intact.htm
and some more on our website
www.osa-online.net
www.i-n-t-a-c-t.org
osa - office for subversive architecture
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )

GeorgieR says:

I tried all those links but no joy - they all seemed blank.
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )

malinkychild says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called House on Stilts, sadly its just been demolished. it inspired so much creativity and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

Fin Fahey says:

Added. And no-one seems to have posted this to Lost London, so I'm doing it now. I cannot believe this has gone, it's so iconic. I could get depressed if I were in the mood for it....
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

malinkychild says:

hey you call it baba yaga's hut too! that's good. the whole area is now a building site and there are a few memorials to the flying house, near by.
Posted 24 months ago. ( permalink )

roll the dice says:

great 1
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

hammond381 says:

great
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

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Taken on October 8, 2006
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Baba Yaga's Hut, Bethnal Green (now lost)

Comments

Moxette says:

Fin Fahey says:

Fin Fahey says:

Moxette says:

GeorgieR says:

Fin Fahey says:

GeorgieR says:

Fin Fahey says:

elias(london) says:

Fin Fahey says:

Alastair Rae says:

Fin Fahey says:

Joey Harrison says:

Fin Fahey says:

Joey Harrison says:

ivanoleg - osa says:

GeorgieR says:

malinkychild says:

Fin Fahey says:

malinkychild says:

roll the dice says:

hammond381 says:

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