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Message |
    
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1420
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 6:12 pm: | 
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N Brill - Hairdresser - 29 Hanbury Street
How often have we seen the well known pics of 29 Hanbury Street and seen the shop board announcing "N. Brill - Hairdresser"?
But who was he?
His name was Nathan Brill and he was born in Russia in 1874. His wife was Esther Brill (born Esther Kockanski) and the couple moved to England some time prior to 1895.
In 1901 he was already living in Hanbury Street, albeit at a different address, and was working as a hairdresser.
The family listing for 1901 is as follows:
1Hanbury Street, Spitalfields
Head:
Nathan Brill aged 27 born Russia (Naturalized) - Hairdresser
Wife:
Esther Brill aged 27 born Russia (Naturalized)
Children:
Harry aged 6 born Whitechapel
Mark aged 3 born Whitechapel
Leah aged 1 born Whitechapel
Hannah aged 8 months born Spitalfields
(The birthplaces of the children show that Nathan and Esther moved to Hanbury Street from elswehere in Whitechapel in 1900)
Mother in Law:
Zoe(?) Kockanski (Widow) aged 70 born Russia
Boarders:
Harry Kutchinski aged 17 born Russia - Hairdresser
Sam Kuseviere (?) aged 20 born Austria - Hairdresser |
Brad McGinnis
Inspector
Username: Brad
Post Number: 193
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 7:50 pm: |
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Hair dresser? Did he invent Brillcream? |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1421
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 2:53 am: |
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Hi Brad
Fraid not - it was around before him:-)
The name is a trade corruption of "brilliantine". a type of men's hairdressing cream
Chris |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 3124
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 4:01 am: |
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Hi Chris
I suppose his son must have carried on the business - I think I can remember Colin Wilson saying somewhere that he met a Mr Brill when he visited the murder site.
Robert |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1422
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 7:16 am: |
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Hi Robert
That rings a bell - though which son I dont know
Chris |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1423
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 7:20 am: |
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Robert
For some further details, Andy Aliffe writes this in his dissertation A Cut Throat Business -
The now very familiar picture of Annie Chapman's murder site at 29 Hanbury Street shows the front view of a hairdresser's shop owned by a certain N Brill. In fact 29 Hanbury Street had been continuously used as a barber's shop since 1895. When Mrs Amelia Richardson vacated the building the lease was taken over by Morris Modlin, who traded as a hairdresser until 1905. The trade and premises was then let to Nathan Brill who conducted his business from 1906 up to 1951 when Maurice Stanton is listed at the address from 1952 until 1957, although he traded with the same shop-front displayed by Nathan Brill, which remained until eventual demolition began in April 1970.
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 3127
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 7:31 am: |
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Hi Chris
Thanks for that. Forty-five years at the same shop! It's a pity we can't interview Mr Brill.
Robert |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 3129
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 11:20 am: |
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Chris, bit odd this : in "A Lifetime in Ripperology" (part of the Mammoth book) Colin Wilson writes :
"Ritual in the Dark appeared in 1960, received some good reviews, and sold well. I also wrote a series of five articles on the Ripper in the London Evening Standard from 8-12 August 1960 and went around the sites with a press photographer. The barber - a Mr Brill - who ran the shop at 29, Hanbury Street, where Annie Chapman was murdered, allowed us to go into the back yard where her body was discovered. There was a lavatory in the yard, and Mrs Brill told me how, one day, a visiting friend had asked to use the toilet, and had been sitting there placidly, chatting to Mrs Brill (who stood outside), when Mrs Brill pointed to a spot a few feet away, and remarked that Jack the Ripper's second victim had been found right there. The lady gave a shriek, leaped to her feet, and ran indoors without pausing to pull up her knickers. It was an amusing example of how much fear the name of the Ripper could still inspire more than 60 years after the murders."
Robert |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1424
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 12:52 pm: |
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Odd that the dates don't fit - Wilson says he met the Brills in 1960 but the dissertation says Brill cased trading at 29 Hanbury Street in 1951.
Odd indeed
Chris
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Bob Chapman
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 7:22 am: |
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Hi this is my first post although I have enjoyed reading the various threads for some time. Just as a matter of interest regarding Hanbury street. London had its annual open day a week or so back when many of the large buildings as well as some private residences were open to the public, finding the queues for the larger buildings like the Gherkin ( the Brits will understand ) too long we wandered down Hanbury street & found that no 26 a private residence was open & we went in, i am guessing that it must be opposite or opposite but one from no 29, of course it has now been gentrified but going in to the corridor from the front door with the stairs to the left & rooms of to the right was very evocotive of the description of no 29, it led into a small back yard with a similar layout, The basement & all the rooms on the other floors caould all easily be imagined as single dwellings in previous years & I am wondering if this is the nearest we could find to no 29. on the way out I considered bringing the Ripper connection up with the owner but guessed that he would have heard all that many times.
Cheers Bob |
Jon Smyth
Inspector
Username: Jon
Post Number: 295
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:08 am: |
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Welcome Bob.
Yes I believe the houses on both sides of Hanbury St. were identical, all weavers houses originally, the floorplans were pretty much the same.
Hey, if you can muster up some internal photo's I bet there's a Whiz-kid on this site who could doctor them up to look 'period', if you know what I mean (dingy, dirty, dusty).
It would give the members a feel for the locality.
Chris wrote:
"The now very familiar picture of Annie Chapman's murder site at 29 Hanbury Street shows the front view of a hairdresser's shop owned by a certain N Brill. In fact 29 Hanbury Street had been continuously used as a barber's shop since 1895."
Anyone familiar with the Sweeney Todd folktale must see a sick irony in there somewhere..
Regards, Jon
(Message edited by Jon on October 04, 2004) |
Andrew Spallek
Chief Inspector
Username: Aspallek
Post Number: 606
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 11:19 am: |
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Hi Bob --
I have stood in front of the site were No. 29 once stood and looked across the street imagining that this was representative of the look in 1888. That's why we shouldn't merely dismiss the experience of "being there" just because an actual building has been demolished. You had a wonderful opportunity to gain a visual reference to what most of us can only imagine in our mind's eye. And, quite right about not mentioning the murders -- the Ripper Walk doesn't even take you down Hanbury Street any more owing to the complaints of residents.
Andy S.
PS -- Although I'm not a Brit, I do appreciate the reference to The Gherkin. A rather interesting landmark, that.
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 5020
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 11:32 am: |
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I don't know whether this has been on Casebook before, but between us Debra and I found this pic of Hanbury St 1944 on the Moving Here site. No. 29 is on the extreme right. You can see the left hand door.
Robert |
Robert Clack
Chief Inspector
Username: Rclack
Post Number: 648
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 2:48 pm: |
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Hi Robert,
Thanks to you and Debra for posting that picture. It's not one I've come across before.
All the best
Rob |
Richard Brian Nunweek
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 1472
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 4:05 pm: |
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Thanks Robert,
Very atmospheric and a good sighting of number 29,
also right next door a very Jewish name Abrahams, i wonder how long that business was in the family' another jewish connection mayby..
Richard. |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 5023
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 4:23 pm: |
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Hi Richard
The wording shows Mr Abrahams to have been a "wholesale clothier" and "general warehouseman."
On the pdf image zoomed in you can see a shopping basket through the window above No. 25!
Robert |
