Always on
This project successfully funded on 17th April 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
The Gardners Book Project
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
£1,284
raised so far
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Aim
A book celebrating 150 years of the Gardners’ shop on Commercial Street EC1. All profits from sales will go to The East End Trades Guild.
Pre-order a book, buy a reward or contribute what you can to help us print 'Gardners' the book.
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On January 4th 2020, Gardners‘, a 150-year-old, family-run paper-bag shop in Spitalfields, closed its doors for the last time and relocated to Leyton after a huge increase in rent and associated rates made it impossible for the business to remain in the area.
A business for other businesses, Gardners‘ has always had a reputation for lending a friendly ear and offering advice and encouragement. When it was first hit in 2013 by an unprecedented increase in rent and associated rates, friends and supporters of the shop rallied together behind Paul to help the business continue. This effort led to the group co-founding the East End Trades Guild under the banner “Together we are stronger”.
The book brings together photographs and interviews from Kate Rogers' 2005 short film about Gardners (link below), and the further material that Kate with designer Andy Altmann and photographer Lee Mawdsley, worked with Paul Gardner to collect as he began to pack the shop up for the move.
A visual feast of boxes, bags, stickers, scales and hand drawn signs, the shop serves as is a remarkable archive. Typographical sketches and printed sundries produced in-house by previous generations of the family as well notes and records of day-to-day trade with local shopkeepers and suppliers dating back to the late 1800s.
We are raising money to get this lovely collection of stories and material printed and out into the world. Following Paul‘s lead and creating something positive from the shop having to relocate, all profits from the sale of the book will be donated to the East End Trades Guild.
The book will be dedicated to Andy Altmann who passed away at the end of last year. He is greatly missed.
The brief we've set ourselves is for the to book to fit perfectly into one of Gardners’ best-selling 10x10 paper bags, and following Gardners‘ lead, we will cram as much content as possible into the space that gives us! The book currently running to 128 pages and there will be extra Gardners‘ sundries slipped in where we can. (The title and other cover matter will be printed on ready-to-apply stickers).
The publication will feature photographs by Lee Mawdsley alongside Paul’s stories from the family’s years on Commercial Street. A range of sundries from the shop will be explored, and the book concludes with interviews from some of Paul’s longest-standing customers, with portraits taken by photographer Annick Wolfers. We are deeply honoured that the foreword will be written by The Gentle Author, a long-time friend of Gardners‘ who has been documenting the shop on the blog Spitalfields Life for over 15 years. (spitalfieldslife.com/2020/01/02/150-years-in-commercial-st/)
Our Target
Our original funding target was £6,500 to complete the book and send it to print. This covered the involvement of designers, writers and copy-editors, pre-press processes and licenses and 500 copies of the finalised book. We are hoping to print the book with East End Trades Guild members, Calverts in Bethnal Green. (www.calverts.coop). We have had some incredible supporters so far, as well as generous offers of help and materials from within the printing industry (more details to follow) and are now able to go to print if we can raise just over £2000!
We understand that at the moment even a small contribution can feel like a lot, and we’re truly grateful for anything you’re able to give. As a token of our thanks, the names of all supporters will be printed in the book.
We are hoping to get near enough to our target by spring 2026 in order to have the book printed and sent out by summer. Once published, the book will be available to buy over the counter at Gardners‘ new shop in Leyton, as well as other independent shops in the East End. We will be publishing a list of further stockists as it firms up!
For more about Gardners‘ and the East End Trades Guild:
https://gardnersbags.com/
https://eastendtradesguild.org.uk/
Please keep an eye for updates on our Instagram @sundriespress
Sundries Press
You can follow this project's progress on Instagram: @sundriespress
Sundries Press publishing venture was founded by three designers Cathi Nippe, Julie Van Severen and Kate Rogers. Our name references the Gardner family’s printing press, which Pauls’ grandfather originally set up in the basement of 139 Commercial Street.
Sundries Press aims to serve as an open platform for research and community-focused endeavours. We are particularly interested in printing and archival practices and methods, as well as skill-sharing and community engagement in these fields.
Thank you for your support!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made