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Malcolm Tremain’s City & East End

April 2, 2016
by the gentle author

Complementing Malcolm Tremain’s photography of Spitalfields in the early eighties, here are his pictures of the City of London and other locations around the East End, published  for the first time

George the newspaper seller at Tower Hill

Inside the cafeteria at Old Broad St Station

Facade of Old Broad St during demolition

On Old Broad St Station

In Sun St Alley

In Cloth Fair

In Cloth Fair

Supports from World War II standing in an alley off Cloth Fair

Alley near Copthall Avenue

Nat West Tower seen from Bishopsgate

Castle Snack Bar, City of London, at Christmas

Kossoff Bakery at the rear of Liverpool St Station

Coleman St Ward School

In Bishopsgate

Looking through an alley from Durward St to Whitechapel Market

Looking through from Whitechapel Market to Durward St

In Durward St, Whitechapel

In Durward St, Whitechapel

Fordham St, Whitechapel

Off Mile End Rd

Off Mile End Rd

Off Mile End Rd

Off Mile End Rd

Regent’s Canal, Bow

Regent’s Canal, off Mile End Rd

Regent’s Canal, Ben Jonson Rd

Regent’s Canal, Bow

Photographs copyright © Malcolm Tremain

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Malcolm Tremain’s Spitalfields

12 Responses leave one →
  1. LYNNE ELLIS permalink
    April 2, 2016

    Fantastic photos . This is my East end . I used to walk along those type of alleys and cut throughs on my way to work during the late 70’s and early 80’s. When the NatWest tower was the tallest building . That Kossoff’s bakery and also Grodzinskis bakers in Whitechapel Rd were favourites of mine , biegals and cheesecake. I used to peer warily down the ‘Jack the Ripper’alley at Whitechapel, or going to the corner shop in Eric Street at Mile End buying a quarter of liver sausage to go in my lunchtime roll …Blink and now it’s almost all gone without us realising, but for fifteen minutes this morning I’m a 16 year old loving the freedom of our wonderful city. Thank you Malcolm Tremain and Gentle Author.

  2. April 2, 2016

    Wonderful, atmospheric photos. Valerie

  3. April 2, 2016

    I really liked these . Broad Street Station seems barely remembered now though I used it regularly to get to the City from Dalston Junction in just 3 minutes !No public transport provides that service today.

    Hope you are going to consider a future publication of these images?

  4. Gill permalink
    April 2, 2016

    I knew George! I used to chat to him on the way home from work…. sometimes for so long that I’d miss my train!
    Thank you for these pictures.

  5. Lesley permalink
    April 2, 2016

    Coleman St Ward School, spent a term(?) there in 1965/1966. The school had already closed. I went to Sir John Cass but a problem with some classroom ceilings (?) meant our class moved out for a while. Loved it, only class in the school, open fires, making tea for our teacher! Lol

  6. Patricia Celeveland-Peck permalink
    April 2, 2016

    Wonderful pictures- especially his use of reflections and shadows. These images of long-gone places always fill me with a deep regret that I’ll never be able to see them as they were.

  7. Ros permalink
    April 2, 2016

    More beautifully composed photos from this man with an eye. Thanks.

  8. pauline taylor permalink
    April 2, 2016

    Malcolm Tremain certainly has an eye for catching an eerie view, there is almost an air of foreboding in some of these to me, and I think he must have been very patient in waiting for just the right moment to press the shutter. Is that a wheatsheaf on the corner of the building in Durward Street? Perhaps it was a pub at some time?

  9. April 4, 2016

    great photographs good to see more images of my younger life ,we played in Liverpool street station one end and Victoria park the other end and every place in between ,its sad that my east end has gone now but I have my memories .my one regret was not having much money so I could not afford much film ,but I did take some photographs in the 1970s and 1980s ,if you were around in tower hamlets then have a look at my website you may see yourself or someone you know ,and if you like it please leave a nice comment.
    thanks paul

  10. Darryl Baker permalink
    March 21, 2017

    I lived on Winthrop Street in the mid 1960’s, I often used the passageway in your photograph. The locals had another name for it (P*ss Allie) due to the ever present pungent odour of urine having been used by countless men who had been taken short after frequented one of the many pubs on Whitechapel Road.

  11. Caroline Martin permalink
    May 20, 2019

    I used to work at City Gate House in Finsbury Square from 1978-83 and get the train into Liverpool St station. I used to walk along Sun Street ally sometimes and remember passing a lot of old derelict Peabody type tenement buildings. I used to go to the Kossoffs bakery at lunchtime to buy rolls, they were the best value with lots of fillings and they used to do a lovely slab of bread pudding for about 30p. The Nat West tower was the tallest building at the time and I remember seeing the cranes on the top when they were building it. I moved from London 30 years ago and go back to visit my sister but the one time I went back to my old haunts around Finsbury Square I didn’t recognise the area. My memories are frozen in time from when I used to work there which is when a lot of these photos were taken.

  12. Ian Brent permalink
    March 21, 2021

    Hello. Many thanks for all of these photographs. I worked at 78 Old Broad Street during the early/mid ’80s, and well remember the breathing problems we had there from all of the dust generated by the demolition of Broad Street Station :-((

    Like Caroline Martin, I also remember Kossoffs and their bread pudding, a substantial lunch for impecunious me! In response to Pauline Taylor, a wheatsheaf carving can denote a pub or a bakery.

    Again, thank you, Mr. Tremain, for stirring the memories.

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