Comments on: Val Perrin’s Empty Brick Lane

By: Ijaz

Ijaz — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:41:19 +0000

Yes fay , that is friend peter holt the blonde boy, helping my brother up the wall

By: Shaheena

Shaheena — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:28:30 +0000

The lad climbing the wall is my brother – Sohail Hussain

By: Shaheena

Shaheena — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:26:01 +0000

And not only is my mother in the shots but you’ve also captured my brother. The young lad climbing the brick wall… on what looks like the ruins of the building we lived opposite in Bacon Street/Brick Lane – Sohail Hussain. Fantastic.. thank you for invoking faint and forgotten memories of what living in Brick Lane at the Bethnal Green end was really like….

By: Shaheena

Shaheena — Sun, 31 May 2020 21:20:13 +0000

The woman looking out of the window is my mother. Not Bengali but first generation Pakistani. She was very lonely. She was also the chef of Shalimar Restaurant and my home – 141 Brick Lane.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 17:48:37 +0000

Amazing photos! I’m doing a project looking at how these buildings have changed over the years, and Kismet Stores is one of them! If anyone had any information about this store, how long it was in operation for and perhaps was existed there before hand, if would be great to hear from you. The same for The Seven Stars Pub and the old Jolly Butchers building at 157 Brick Lane.

Best, Daniel

By: Bill Piggott

Bill Piggott — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:36:09 +0000

I am so pleased that at last these superb pictures have been allowed to escape from the boxes under the photographer’s bed where they have been for upwards of 40 years ! For almost as long I have thought that these pictures were quite good enough to merit proper public exposure yet the photographer was too modest to push them forward in any way. In the past few years my daughter has had custody of some of the prints and has been trying to interest without much success various galleries and museums…..however, when I picked up a copy of the Spitalfields Life book I finally realised that maybe this was the way to get the pictures “out there”, and so it has proved…I am so pleased that they are giving such pleasure to people, and I know that Val himself is equally delighted…..Val Perrin and I have known each other since we started school together in Ealing when we were 5 and we had many joint expeditions around London between the late 50’s and the early 70’s, including a couple of times when I was with him whilst he was taking these wonderful shots….he frequently would “shoot from the hip” so as not to upset or antagonise the subjects and on more than one occasion incurred the wrath of an unwilling subject when they realised that they were being captured for posterity….it was all worth it though, for unrepeatable “living history” is now available for all to see…..
There is surely a book to be distilled from these prints, and others as yet unseen….maybe even a “then and now” type volume? Bill Piggott

By: Lorna Stodell

Lorna Stodell — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 21:54:19 +0000

Photos brought back so many memories of living in Bacon Street.

By: Fay Cattini

Fay Cattini — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:53:47 +0000

I’m sure the little boy shown in 2 photos (in one he is straddled on the wall and in the other is helping up another boy) is Peter Holt, the youngest of 4 children. His father had a workshop in Wheler St and made and mended the long, flat market barrows (you can see some in the photos). Mr Holt retired when the market closed. Peter was and still is best friends with my stepson. It was Council policy for many years to let the part of Brick Lane between Buxton St and Bethnal Green Rd become derelict as they designated it for light industrial use. They even knocked down one side of Sclater St to make a lorry park – it was a disastrous policy and blighted that part of Brick Lane. But you need people to make a place living. I watched the old Bishopsgate Goodsyard burn down and that was left to rot too. Let’s hope the planners can do something with that site to bring the life back into that part of Spitalfields.

By: Elizabeth cornwell

Elizabeth cornwell — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 19:12:07 +0000

They are very evocative,but could you show them as they appear now,to see how its changed?

By: Janet M

Janet M — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 18:57:12 +0000

I love the cold splendor of these black and white photos. They’re beautiful.