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In this issueArmani and Trotsky
Torture in the Town Hall
Martin Rowson
Pa' Flanagan
Diane Abbott
News in Brief
A Very Personal Message
Festival News
The Cannabis Debate
Stokey's Baroness
Risk and Restaurants
Matthew's Gospel
Music Listings
Gifts for Green Fingers
Things For Kids to Do
Hackney Crisis
Speak Out!
Here Comes The Sun
Angry Brigade
Listing to Port
Our Man in the North Bank
X-word

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'Pa' Flanagan

personality of the month

 Take a stroll down Church Street and you’ll see quite a few shops selling second-hand stuff. The one place that stands out for colour and size is just around the corner in Marton Street It’s known as ‘the Yard ‘More than a junk shop, it’s an emporium of bought and sold; the long-forgotten, the cast-aside and bargains. Its outside wall is covered with graffiti - professionally done - not the kind of hunted spraying often seen on railway embankments and bridges.

The man who runs this Aladdin’s Cave is 63 year old Patrick Flanagan, ‘Pa’ to his friends. A stocky, good-natured man who describes his appearance as ‘rugged,’ he could be called a rough diamond. Born in County Limerick, in a family of fourteen and with seven brothers, he came to London when he was twelve. After attending school at the Sacred Heart, Eden Grove, near the Holloway Road, he left at fifteen to work for 3 years at the Star Brush Works, next to the school, making shoe brushes and brooms.

He then became a porter at Spitalfields market and later a boy from the black stuff, smashing up blocks of tar to be melted and laid as asphalt. National Service in the Enniskillen Fusiliers was not to his liking and he and the regiment parted company after only 12 weeks. His memory becomes a little vague about the next few years and he describes his activities as mainly ‘ducking and diving.’ He did know the Krays and from time to time still bumps into a few other ‘faces.’ These days drinking is out of the question, his doctor and liver won’t permit it.

Pa started the Marton Street site 20 years ago this Christmas as a garden centre. His first year was great, the second terrible. A bad summer, he says, ‘knocked me bandy.’ He came into the junk business by accident. A bloke asked him to clear his house of some lovely stuff and Pa decided to sell it on.

Those were the good times. He ran two pubs and three other places. One of the pubs was the Army & Navy in Matthias Road. His antique shop is now the Helsinki fashion outlet, a greasy spoon caff became the Anglo-Anatolian, and his restaurant with an after-hours drinking club downstairs is now the Barracuda. He says it was the best time of his life. After about 13 years he sold up to concentrate on the junk business. He was well-known around east London but his wife Flanagan was even more in the public eye. She was one of the first ‘Page 3’ girls and a topless model. Although now divorced, they stay in touch and are good friends. Pa remembers bouncing Samantha Fox on his knee (she was only a baby) and her Dad was a mate.

People travel from around London and as far away as Birmingham and Southend to visit the shop and quite a few well-known actors, particularly from ‘Eastenders’, come and buy. Pa’s two brothers Noel and Chris are actors and his son Reese (‘you couldn’t get a better grafter’) works with him in the shop.

The multi-coloured graffiti on the wall is well worth a look. It was created by a friend called Mike who also did the mural for the last Festival. Local schoolkids visit to admire this modern street art. It’s cool. In over three months there have been no attempts to deface it, which must be something of a record in Hackney. The vividly-coloured delivery van also catches the eye, even on a wet day in Stoke Newington.

Pa is often found outside the shop talking to customers. Inside, you’ll find CDs, LPs, videos, suitcases, office furniture, ironing boards, a piano, fans, crockery, TV sets, golf clubs, mirrors, kettles, sofas, fridges and much more. Some of it is not immediately identifiable to the untrained eye. There’s also some good-looking pine furniture. He has a tiny office at the back of the building, the walls covered with maps, pin-ups and photos of his pals from the old days. He says he ‘makes a living’ but is unhappy about the prices in Church Street, mentioning the expensive cups of coffee and tea as examples.

He intends to carry on for the foreseeable future or at least ‘until I get fed up.’ Reese will then take over. Characters with useful businesses like Pa help to keep alive the spirit of any community and visiting his shop is certainly more fun than spending a morning in John Lewis.

Pa and Reese are specialists in house clearances. Visit them at 121 Marton Street or ring 020 7254 9941.

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