Administrative/Biographical History

Author, architect and Punk drummer Suresh Singh was born and bred in Princelet Street, Brick Lane. His father Joginder Singh came to Spitalfields from Nangal Kalan Hashiarpur in the Punjab in 1949; Suresh’s mother Chinnee Kaulder joined Joginder in 1952.

Joginder was a shoe-maker by profession but could only find work as a shoeshine at Liverpool Street Station, where he worked for 21 years. He then worked as a labourer and died in 1986, aged just 56. Their house at 38 Princelet Street was the family home for over 70 years.

Suresh was the youngest son, born in 1962 at Mile End Hospital and brought up in the house in Princelet Street. He came of age in the 1970s, embracing Punk and becoming drummer with the band Spizzenergi and touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees. As a student at City & East London College in 1979 he was given a project to record his neighbourhood: he set out with his camera and photographed the streets of Spitalfields.

He was also a self-employed carpenter and joiner, working on the restoration of Christ Church, Spitalfields for his close friend Eddie Stride, Rector of Christ Church. This led to studying architecture at UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and a career as an architect, restoring a number of Georgian houses in Spitalfields.

Suresh’s book A Modest Living: Memoirs of a Cockney Sikh is published by Spitalfields Life Books. The first London Sikh biography, it tells the story of Suresh and his parents.

Scope and Content

Family archive of Suresh Singh, including extensive photographs, documents and printed material, along with slides taken by Suresh in Spitalfields as a student (c1930-2020)

Quantity

4 Boxes and oversize items