84, Bishopsgate, London. Is it an old building?

[Keith Sherwood]

Shaun,
No I don't, but obviously that would be the thing to do to clear up this strange mystery…
Keith

[ShaunJ]

In the 1901 census, William and Clara Gilbert and their child Dorothy are visitors in the household of Ruben Burton in Erdington, Warwickshire. 

William (30) is a clerk from Nottingham, Clara (31) from London, Dorothy (1) born London.

Looking at later census data it seems likely that this is Clara Leoffeler and husband William James Gilbert.

[Keith Sherwood]

Shaun,
All I can speculate in the light of all this is that the person officiating at that 4th September 1865 baptism of Clara LEOFFLER was drunk, and entered the wrong parents' names, or that Albert's English was not very good and someone else took it upon themselves to offer the names of the parents; or that Albert was not there at the baptism, and a stand-in called Henry was there, and nobody realised that Sarah Ann was now officially a LEOFFLER and not a SANDERS any more.  Did I misread somewhere on Ancestry that the birth registration for Clara was at a slightly different time.  Will look that up again, and add it on here.
Mysterious indeed, unless I've missed something obvious…
Keith
No, it was 1865, as it should have been, got distracted by a Clara LEFFELLER(sic), born in Earls Court in 1869...

[Malcolm33]

    I must have walked past it a thousand times.   From August 1954 (after demob from the RAF) to February 1956 I worked at the Chartered Bank of IAC at 38 Bishopsgate.   I usually took the Metropolitan Line train from Rayners Lane to Liverpool Street and walked down Bishopsgate to the Bank.   Great memories and now horrified at the destruction I see in Google Street View.

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Malcolm,
How very interesting to hear this - is it possible that you have any recollection about what specifically number 84 might have looked like 60 years ago, whether it was a shop still.  I still have my diary from exactly 50 years ago and reading through it I discover details of London in 1964 written down and thus preserved - details I have since totally forgotten about.
As you will have noticed, the thread had slightly morphed into an ancestral trail involving/following members of the family who lived and worked at 84 for a while, with Shaun and I in particular chewing the fat.  But some wonderful photographic images have been posted on here earlier in the thread by kind Rootschatters that bring the old Bishopsgate vividly to life again.
Regards, Keith

[ShaunJ]

Just to recap on numbering, 84 Bishopsgate Street Without in the 1890's would be number 268 in modern-day Bishopsgate.

[ShaunJ]

J W Stutter  were at 268 Bishopsgate for much of the 20th century - the first directory entry I can find for them at that address is 1912.

Here is a photo http://spitalfieldslife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Shop.jpg

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/05/31/j-w-stutter-cutlers/

[Keith Sherwood]

Shaun,
Thanks very much for reminding us and keeping us on the ball!  You do indeed mention this earlier in the thread...
One thing I've been wondering about since I last posted was: who was the Clara LOEFFELER who was a witness to Albert and Sarah Ann's 1864 marriage?  It was obviously a favourite/popular name within the family, with their first child being given this forename.  Could she have been a sister, or an aunt, or even his mother come across the North Sea to shed a few tears into her handkerchief at her son's wedding.  Maybe there were initially quite a lot of the LOEFFLER clan in South London at first, certainly there were still two of them living with the young family in the 1871, with that so far indecipherable (presumably German) birthplace.  I've actually got a friend working on that place name, he's married to a German lady and speaks pretty good German and visits the country a great deal...
Keith

[ShaunJ]

Clara the marriage witness writes her name as Loffeler, while Albert writes his as Loeffeler, all of which suggests to me that the name was originally LÖFFELER. Albert may have changed the spelling to Leoffeler so that it would be pronounced more correctly in an English environment.

The placename looks like Lonn am Pif?i?  - a town called Lonn on a river Pif....