A Clapham haberdasher's reveals a slice of British émigré history in a new exhibition

Jim Grover’s beautiful photos of retailer Maurice Dorfman illuminate a rich life beyond the shop counter. Here, the photographer reflects on the enduring story of one south London family…

On Christmas Eve 2019, Maurice Dorfman flipped the sign on his haberdashery shop door to 'closed', just as he had many Christmas Eves before. This time he would never flip it back. Five days later he was admitted to hospital and he died two months later, at the age of 87.

His death marked the end of an era: for 60 years he and his family had served the community from Jeannette Fashions, the longest surviving independent retailer on Clapham High Street.

I first met Maurice in 2016 when I photographed him in his shop as part of my photo-story 48 Hours on Clapham High Street. After that, whenever I passed, I’d pop in for a chat. After he died, it felt important to mark his death, so I filled his shop windows with my photographs of him. Someone emailed me: “Every morning and evening when I walk past the shop, there are people staring at the photographs and reading the story. Some in silence, some sharing stories. It really is rather beautiful.”

I realised that there was an important story to be told and wanted to celebrate a man I respected, admired and was fond of.

I embarked on an 18-month voyage of discovery. With the help of over 60 contributors who knew Maurice, genealogical research, and photographs, documents and the few possessions that escaped his extensive decluttering, I have been able to piece together Maurice’s story.

And it’s some story. It’s taken me to Ukraine and Australia, embraced tales of life in London’s East End at the turn of the 19th century and encompassed traditions of Jewish tailoring. It’s touched on National Service in the 1950s; leisure activities in the 1960s and 1970s; and highlighted a time when many women made their own clothes and excitedly looked forward to each new season’s dressmaking patterns.

The story begins with Maurice’s grandparents, Hyman and Sarah Dorfman, who fled Ukraine, then a part of Russia, to escape pogroms at the end of the 19th century. They arrived in London’s East End as refugees in 1902 with two children. Hyman was a journeyman tailor and found work in a local workshop.

In 1928 David, Hyman’s 20-year-old second son, made the month-long journey to Australia on RMS Otranto. Soon after arrival, he met and married Jeanette Levy, a corseteer and daughter of Jewish émigrés Barnett and Eva, who were also steeped in the tailoring tradition. In 1931, David, now a tailor’s cutter, returned to the East End with his wife and young son, Hyman. The following year, Maurice was born.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, David worked at a garment manufacturing business in Colchester, Essex, which had been set up by his elder brother Nathan. During World War II, it supplied clothing for the British Forces. In 1951, following financial collapse and bankruptcy, the family moved to south London where they took up dressmaking. By the end of that decade the family of four occupied 20-22 Clapham High Street, which would be home for the business and family for the next six decades.

Around 1973, the company was converted to a haberdashery shop, Jeannette Fashions, meeting the needs of the many local seamstresses, dressmakers and needleworkers. Following the death of his mother in 1982, with his father in his 70s and his elder brother having returned to Australia, Maurice left his job as a cutter in the West End to run the shop until his death.

At the heart of this multifaceted account was a private, modest and quiet man. An intelligent and cultured man, who loved music and ballet and who was universally recognised for his kindness and generosity. He was a talented sailor and dancer, and he found love, at least twice, but never married.

Those who discovered Maurice later in his life and found an old man living alone in an enormous and decaying shop-cum- home could have had little appreciation of the full and varied life that he and his family had lived.

Words and photos by Jim Grover

Behind the Shop Facade: The Life of Maurice Dorfman runs until Saturday 30 April at Clapham Library, SW4 7DB. A book of the same name, priced £40, is also available. Visit behindtheshopfacade.com and jimgroverphotography.com for more.

This article appears in the Spring 2022 issue of JR.