Vine Tavern, Mile End Road, Stepney, London

Edwards, a lawyer by training, was inspired to become an etcher by the French artist Henri Fantin-Latour, whom he first met in Paris in 1861. He decided to pursue art and soon installed a press at his home and he and his wife, Ruth, became skilled at printing. Edwards’s subjects were mainly views in the south of England, especially Devon and Cornwall. He was well connected within European artistic circles, befriending and being encouraged in particular by Alphonse Legros and James McNeil Whistler. He documented the old inns of England in an illustrated three volume set. This work shows The Vine Tavern, which was situated on Mile End Road in East London. The pub, which was thought to have been in existence since the 17th century, closed, and was demolished around 1911.