Comments on: A Book Of John Claridge’s EAST END

By: Pete Denton

Pete Denton — Sun, 29 May 2016 09:57:45 +0000

Look forward to receiving John’s new book.

Please say hi to him from me.I’m the yorkshire art director who went all over Ireland with him on a shoot in the ’80’s.Great fun,great shots.
Keep smudging John! Daft not to.Regards Pete

By: Peter Holford

Peter Holford — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 21:09:32 +0000

Extraordinary. I struggle to equate what I see in these photos with going to visit my Nan in the East End through the 1960s. As a boy I obviously didn’t see the poverty. My home area of Putney was very different. I think it just shows how much young people accept the surroundings and are uncritical – but then it was Dad’s and Nan’s home.

By: Graham Cornthwaite

Graham Cornthwaite — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:10:33 +0000

An absolute joy to finally get to see some of this work. I have known for some time of it’s coming, and it is no surprise how wonderful it is.
Such an important document up there with the work of Mr Frank, Mr Brandt and Mr Eugene-Smith.
John is the original cockney sparra’ with the eye of an eagle.
As an art director in the late 70’s I worked with him in India for the Indian tourist board, he was one of very first people who encouraged me to take my own humble photographs.
I remember his words wisdom……….
” Just F8**ing do it ” East End Zen.
So I did, I quit Art Directing, bought my first Leica and moved to Italy for ten years.
Thank you John. Love you, Love your work, God Bless you.

By: Moyra Peralta

Moyra Peralta — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 02:10:30 +0000

Do so love the Flower Seller…

By: jeannette

jeannette — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 18:36:31 +0000

just finished *our mutual friend*, dickens last, most magnificent, novel. if he had had a photographer, this would be the one. old man river just keeps rolling along.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 12:08:12 +0000

These pictures of long lost communities are very thought provoking.
It is sometimes worth remembering that, whilst much is made of the evils of big business and big money redeveloping commercial properties, it was the socialist councils that cleared these areas and rehoused people in concrete blocks

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 11:56:31 +0000

Wonderful photographs. I will certainly buy the book.
There is an almost mythical quality in these images of a time and place that may only have existed in distant memories. I am a born and bred east ender and about the same vintage as John Claridge, but my visual memory is different. There were terrible fogs, this is true but the docks, which I lived among, were places I found exciting and colourful. The great ships coming up the Thames, escorted by terrier-like tugs; the ballet of cranes lifting loading and unloading, their skeletal jibs dipping and rising like prehistoric creatures feeding on a carcass; the tumult of men on the docks unloading cargoes from all around the world: the colours were vibrant and never looked grey to me.
The streets were never dirty, neither were the houses. The people were always friendly – except Alf, the butcher, who was always shouting at his son Geoff. I used to stand and watch Alf when he hung a pig in the doorway of his shop and split it down the middle with a great big cleaver. That was entertainment! I can still smell the sawdust and meat of his shop.
The late 60’s saw the demolition of the terraced houses and the building of grim estates of flats and maisonettes. The people I knew were moved out and strangers moved in, mostly from Islington and the surrounding areas. North Londoners were a different species to me and I didn’t understand them at all. Strange, grubby, unruly boys who seemed to have no respect for anything at all and who took great delight in smashing everything around them. They were hard and were forever starting fights.
The east end I knew didn’t become a place of decay and despair until the 70’s by which time the docks were all but finished, and when the docks died, the community, which was driven by the industry and jobs, died too.
John Claridge’s photographs are wonderful images that deserve to be seen.
You walk a certain walk.

By: Vicki Lovell

Vicki Lovell — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 11:42:50 +0000

These photographs make me feel so sad. I have mentioned before that my mother’s family came from the East End, but to Australia (only a couple of them) in the late 1800’s and my dad’s family came here from Kent in 1839. Even though Adelaide had issues at first, as a brand new colony, in the 1960’s I was already 8 years old, and I remember the beach and the sunshine, and hot days, green trees and neat clean streets. It is gut wrenching to see how people still lived there, even in the 1960’s. I know how crowded and difficult it was from researching the 1800 and 1900’s but didn’t realise it was still like this. I visited the East End briefly in 2008 and saw old buildings combined with new buildings and people from many cultures, and it is a place that fascinates me. I guess I am not used to a country and city that is so crowded. Their faces seem so sad, their lives must have been so hard. But the photographs are beautiful in their own evocative way.

By: Gerry King

Gerry King — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 11:33:13 +0000

I am so grateful that people like John took time to record these people and places.

By: Achim

Achim — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 11:19:18 +0000

Impressive Photographs from ancient Life …

Love & Peace
ACHIM