Oh my God I love painting! I love designing how a space works too! Thanks to Emma Farren and Sarah, my assistant it seems to be working and a good, peaceful energy flowing. I’m sooo happy!
Me and Emma paint the kitchen area People Tree blue!
Safia designing the new People Tree office space
Huguenot Place - with the City of London and Gerkin building back drop
Where better to be than Huguenot Place, off Brick Lane in Spitalfields? We’ve only moved 10 mins from where we were but this is just off ‘Bangla town’ the largest Bangladeshi population in London, Arty Spitalfields and a past home to the Huguenots and amazing textile history too!
The Huguenots were slaughtered in their thousands, 25,000 were massacred in Paris alone on 3rd October 1572, because of their Protestant beliefs and their King wanting to befriend the Pope. They hid themselves in hay and jumped on boats, 70,000 arriving in London in Spitalfields and Soho. The news of the massacres overseas made them welcome in Britain.
What I like about the Huguenots is that they questioned the power structures that kept people poor although they believed in hard work, thrift and self-discipline. They set up winding and reeling thread and silk hand looms and worked to make their communities prosperous. Our Fair Trade partners in Bangladesh and India would be excited to see our new home.
Around our new office are streets with French names like Fournier Street, Nantes Passage and others have good textiles names like Fashion Street, Silk Street, Loom Court and Shuttle Street.
So, wow that’s the history of our new office neighbourhood…and today we have AMAZING neighbours too! (actually we launched People Tree 9 years ago at Polly Hope an artist friend’s house two doors down – I’ll introduce you to our neighbours in future blogs. Watch this space – you’ll love them too!
The move?
3 days of painting, moving boxes and organising. Thanks to an amazing team that worked late into the night - namely Tom and James Minney, George Gardiner, Inventive Consultants and volunteers Emma Farren and the most incredible neighbour Silas who founded the Rag Factory. Who made the most difficult things happen – and then some of the team came in on Sunday to set up ready for Monday, the busiest day at People Tree.
The Minney brothers unload our street van and unload the furniture
Watching Silas and Fabiano, 8 metres up on the scaffolding putting up the blinds
Silas, capable of anything - founder of the Rag Factory
- George Gardiner of Inventive Consultants – “I moved People Tree 3 years ago – good to see Fair Trade fashion growing so fast”
- Sarah – Planning and Projects, builds furniture
- Julia and Misato from design and buying sort out their studio
- Aurelie – Wholesale sales, rollers her walls white
ANYONE WHO’S EXPERIENCED IN FENG SHUI. PLEASE DO COME AND CONSULT. WE CAN PAY YOU IN ORGANIC AND FAIR TRADE FASHION!
Wooooow I can’t wait to visit the new office. I wish I had been there to help, while eating countless bags of dry mangoes…
Congratulations!!!
Miki
You are right about the positive energy of the new office, and the amazing and helpful neighbours. Wishing People Tree all the best here for a fun time producing beautiful clothes for our customers and creating sustainable incomes for our producers.