Spellbound in Spitalfields The ‘Gentle Author’ writes a blog every single day about his life in the heart of London. We join him on a visit to a magnificent Spitalfields home, lavished with a collection of natural history specimens, old masters, architectural and religious artefacts. Welcome to Malplaquet House PHOTOGRAHS: PHILIPPE DEEBERST
majestic four storey mansion (completed in 1742 by Thomas Andrews). Here I recognised a moment of anticipation comparable to that experienced by Pip, standing at the gate of Satis House before being admitted to meet Miss Havisham. Let me admit, for years I have paused to peek through the railings, but I never had the courage to ring the bell at Malplaquet House before. Ushered through the gate, up the ▲
16 March-April 2016 Antiquexplorer
WALKING EAST from Spitalfields down the Mile End Road, I arrived at the gateway surmounted by two stone eagles and reached through the iron gate to pull on a tenuous bell cord, before casting my eyes up at Malplaquet House. Hovering nervously on the dusty pavement with the traffic roaring around my ears, I looked through the railings into the overgrown garden and beyond to the dark windows enclosing the secrets of this
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