J.H. & M. Fischer outside their umbrella shop, Spitalfields

This photograph of Juda Hersz Fiszer (Fisher) and his wife Malka was taken outside their umbrella shop in Spitalfields on 19 November 1919. Juda and Malka moved to London from Warsaw, Poland, in the early years of the 20th century. He was a skilled umbrella-maker and, in 1907, established an umbrella business in the heart of the Jewish East End at 45 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Although the family anglicised their name to Fisher soon after their arrival, Juda and his wife Malka kept their Polish nationality. During the First World War, the Fishers moved to the more desirable area of Hackney and set up home at 123 Victoria Park Road. Their son Morris Fisher continued the family business but, by the 1930s, the Hanbury Street shop had closed. The premises were taken over by a tailor. Morris became a market trader operating a stall in the Whitechapel Road selling, rather than manufacturing, umbrellas, walking sticks and handbags.