I met with that well-known player on the stage of life, Mr Edward Mosse NT, this October first. Our destination: that popular Poplar precinct Chrisp Street Market, home to a bustling covered bazaar of household goods, fruit and veg, a pease pudding and faggots outlet and – not one, but – two pie and mash shops.

As we enjoyed a pre-pie amble we were spotted by longtime friend of the club Alan Smith, wearing his customary sunshine shorts.

Eastenders was our chosen lunch location whither we were joined by Ray Goldstone and Doug Bedford for the traditional and stodgy foodstuffs which bind together this association of people from all walks of life. The summer ’al terrazzo’ dining area was no longer operational; within, we found little change from visits dating back to when the shop was called ‘Traditional’ – aside from white plastic booth partitions and a wall-mounted telly.

Edward went for his usual ‘one of all’ which included apple crumble and custard afters. Mine was the tri-pie platter you see on the far right.

A man of markets like myself, I met Alan Smith by chance one recent Sunday in Chapel, where he expounded at length on the frustrating impossibility of getting back to his cabin in New Zealand last autumn. Overwintering in Kings Cross would surely call for a longer trouser?

For a Friday it was a bit quiet, but that gave the assembled crew opportunity to expand into the feeding pods for relaxed after-dinner chat.

As you can see the place is maintained to a high sparkle.

Mashcalibur.

There’s a framed montage of vintage local scenes on the west wall, grouped around the banner ‘Greetings from Poplar’. Was it ever a place whence card was posted with the epithet ‘Wish you was here?’

Well if it was me, I would dash one off extolling the virtues of this East End locale, which stands with one foot in the 1960’s, looking south towards the glittering futurist structures of the financial citadel at the Isle of Dogs.

Chrisp Street Market has bogs, helpfully tagged with ‘Lilly’ and ‘Gravy’ for ease of gender identification. Actually, that’s probably ‘Gary’.

On the west side of the market we found a friendly and traditional East End boozer called The Festival Inn – named in commemoration of 1951’s Festival of Britain.

Right now Poplar stands at a temporal and geographical crossroads. For that reason it’s worth your visit, as the social and structural make up of the area is likely to change as dramatically over the next two decades as it did between 1945 and 1965. For an in-depth look at this subject, read ‘Balfron 2.0’, an article written by Tim Burrows for the Guardian.

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