Mallin, Hester (1926-2018) photographer, watercolourist and gardener

Administrative/biographical history

Photographer, watercolourist and gardener Hester Mallin (1926-2018) was a lifelong resident of Stepney in London’s East End. Born to Russian émigré parents Maurice Smolensky and Rachel Salzburg (her father was a baker), she attended Raynes Foundation School where she discovered an early felicity for drawing. She left school at 13 and worked for Stepney Borough Council, and taught herself photography in her spare time. Realising the houses in her neighbourhood were all being torn down post-war, she began photographing them. Later she created watercolours of the images in the photographs.

She retired from Stepney Council at age 60 to concentrate on painting and gardening. She had a balcony garden that drew media attention and led to exhibitions of her gardening. Her photographs are held in collections at the London Metropolitan Museum, Imperial War Museum and Bishopsgate Institute.

Scope and content

Watercolours by and photographs of Hester Mallin (1926-2018), [1969-2003].

Includes:

• Three black-and-white photographs of Hester Malllin tending her balcony garden, [1981]
• Two black-and-white photographs of Hester Malllin tending her balcony garden, taken by Tony Bock, [n.d.]
• Three black-and-white photographs of Hester Malllin tending her balcony garden, taken by Denis Jones, [July 1984]
• Black-and-white photograph; on the reverse is written, ‘Bethnal Green area Library, Foreign Languages Section, L(eft) to R[ight] Bill, Hester, Keith’, [1969]
• Colour photograph; on the reverse is written, ‘at the wheel of S S Uganda Falkland Islands’, [04 March 1985]
• Colour photograph of Hester and an unnamed man; she is holding a clipboard and pen and there are brick containers of carnations and other flowers behind them, [n.d.]
• Black-and-white photograph of Hester Mallin; the photograph is in a frame and a caption in ink says ‘Jan 74 World Trade Center’, [1974]
• ‘Hessel Street leading to Commercial Road E1’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 40cm width x 25cm height, [1997]
• ‘Entrance to Langdale Street’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 17x24cm. On the reverse is a watercolour and ink sketch of a cotrage with trees in the background and lawn in the foreground, [1996
• ‘Wicker Street Flats’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 41x28cm, [1995]
• ‘Cannon Street Road E1’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 36x28cm, [1999]
• ‘The Hill emply flats’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 19x30cm. On the reverse is a scene in watercolour of a beach with palm trees and a small block of flats, [n.d.]
• ‘Reverse of Morgan Houses Hessel Street’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 33x26cm, [1998]
• ‘Burslem Street shops’. Unfinished work by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 26x35cm, [2000]
• Untitled work by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 18x26cm, [n.d.]
• ‘Burslem Street E1’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and India ink, 27x19cm. On the reverse is written, ‘My mother’s butcher shop’, [1995]
• ‘Hessel Street Demolition’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 38x29cm, [2002]
• ‘Langdale St’ by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 36x30cm, [2000]
• ‘Old Montague Street, London E1’. Unfinished work by Hester Mallin. Watercolour and biro, 58.5x48.5cm, [2003]

Quantity

1 box.