Celebrate One Year with Cath and Mel
In 2010, the freelance photographer Cath Harries was out on a job snapping pictures of pubs around London when she realized that most of her photographs were of doors. Fifteen years later, on 21st November 2024, she published Doors of London with the house historian Melanie Backe-Hansen. To celebrate, we are holding an anniversary special sale.
When Cath first approached us with the idea of publishing a book, she had no less than 3,000 photographs of doors in her portfolio. Were we interested? Of course! We commissioned Mel to write the main text and got down to selecting pictures and laying out the chapters. After an interruption caused by Covid-19, we sent the book to press in August 2024 and began preparing for the launch.
London History Walks
Our publicists Read Maxwell had a meeting with Maddy Fletcher at You Magazine, the colour supplement for The Mail on Sunday, and discovered she loved doors, so they arranged for Cath and Mel to take her on a walk through one of their favourite parts of London to give her a feel for the subject. That’s when Maddy took these photographs.
It was the first time Maddy had been to Spitalfields, close to Liverpool Street Station. As she said, one minute you’re walking among steel and glass office blocks and the next you’re in the 18th century. It was a revelation. Cath and Mel were able to fill her in on the history of the area, tell how Huguenot refugees from France moved in and plied their trade as silk weavers in the attics and explain why a house might be numbered Eleven and a Half.
One possible reason is that superstition deterred people from numbering a house 13. Another is that if a house was added as in-fill after a street had been numbered, it would be styled as ½ to avoid renumbering the whole street. However, that is unlikely here, since the houses all seem to be of the same date.
After her tour of Spitalfields with Cath and Mel, Maddy Fletcher wrote a highly engaging article in You Magazine, the colour supplement for The Mail on Sunday, telling how Doors of London came about, picking a dozen of her favourite doors as illustrations and laying them out across two double-page spreads. ‘Now this is how to make an entrance…’ she declared in her heading.
Other magazines and newspapers wrote glowing reviews including The London Magazine, The Telegraph, the Camden New Journal and Best of British, followed by online reviewers from around the world.
“Harries and Backe-Hansen: a match made in architectural heaven.” – Maddy Fletcher, You Magazine, The Mail on Sunday.
“Entrances used by the literati and glitterati stand proud in a lavishly illustrated book.” – Maggie Gruner, Camden New Journal
“An exquisite book, with beautiful photographs and fascinating text.”
– Erach08, Amazon verified customer
“Here is armchair tourism at its apogee.” – The New Criterion
Last-Minute Rush to the Shops
Days before Christmas, a friend of Cath’s walked into Foyles on Charing Cross Road and spotted a pile of Doors of London just inside. The book had not only arrived but was being given pride of place by the checkout. Cath and Mel celebrated with a beer in a local pub.
Anniversary Flash Sale
This week, we are celebrating the first anniversary of publication by offering UK customers 30% off the published price with free gift-wrapping and shipping. If you order directly from us by Monday 24th November, you will get Doors of London for £17.50 (reduced from £25), wrapped and delivered. Click here to order.
More articles about Cath and Mel and their book Doors of London:
Cath Harries in Country Life Podcast │ Evening Talk on Doors │ Launch Day for Doors of London │ Unload Our Books! │ Meet the Door Detectives │ Knock Knock │ No Minimalism Here