The big burly blokes who make infinitely precise pointe shoes by hand

Pauline, Petrova or Posy? Which Fossil sister are you? Or, rather, which Fossil sister did you hope to be when you first read Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes? It has to be Posy. The third and last adopted Fossil arrives in a basket with a note — ‘This is the little daughter of a dancer’ — and tiny slippers. For any girl who has ever imagined taking the stage in pointe shoes, the Freed factory in Hackney is a dream of pink satin.

Frederick Freed was a shoeman and showman. Ninety years ago, Mr Freed was the star-maker at Gamba, which only made shoes in one width. Then Mr Freed had the idea of adapting the shoe to the dancer, rather than the dancer cramming into the shoe. Mrs Freed was a milliner. Fred did the architecture, Dora the trimmings. Their first factory was in Covent Garden. In the 1960s Freed moved to E9 and here it has been ever since.