I was listening to a heated debate on LBC radio yesterday. It was about the Queen’s Speech and the proposal requiring supermarkets to charge 5p for every plastic bag. Something, I might add, I am in favour of. LBC’s callers were more of a mixed – ahem – bag. One lady pet shop owner phoned in to ask what it would do to suppliers of plastic bags, and she cited the long-established London firm of Donovan Bros. Who they?

Well it turns out they are a family business who, though now based in Kent, have their origins in Spitalfields. Jeremiah  O’Donovan came to London from Dublin in the 1830s, and the business selling paper bags to the city’s thriving markets was set up in Crispin Street (above), with later premises in Commercial Street, Borough and Deptford.

Wonderfully, the painted signage in Crispin Street is still a part of the Spitalfields city-scape today. Of course the full story of the family firm is eloquently told on the mega-blog Spitalfields Life in an interview with current Donovan Bros ‘governor’ John Onley.

So while the pet-shop owner’s call gave me pause to think about such plastic bag suppliers going out of business, further research gives me hope that the paper bag part of the business will rise again and reap the rewards.