Phil Maxwell’s Kids On The Street
Dr Daniel DeHanas, Author of London Youth, Religion & Politics: Engagement & Activism from Brixton to Brick Lane, will be giving a lecture as part of the Immigrants of Spitalfields Festival on the subject of The Children of Immigrants: The Religious & Cultural Lives of Young East End Bengalis this Sunday 19th June at 1pm at Hanbury Hall, E1 6QR. Click here for tickets
Phil Maxwell’s BRICK LANE photo exhibition runs at The Archers, 42 Osborne St, E1 6TD from 26th June until July 10th. You are all invited to the opening on Sunday 26th from 1pm onwards. Please RSVP clara@theculpeper.com to attend.
East End Film Festival is hosting a screening of Phil Maxwell’s films on Sunday 26th June at 4pm at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green Rd, E1 6LA. Click here for tickets
In Spelman St
Spitalfields Life Contributing Photographer Phil Maxwell – who has taken more pictures on Brick Lane than anyone else over the past thirty years – selected these vibrant images of children running free upon the streets of Spitalfields from his vast personal archive. “Most of these pictures are twenty to thirty years old.” he admitted to me, “There aren’t any contemporary photographs because I don’t take pictures of kids these days, not least because there aren’t so many on the street anymore – they are all at home playing on their computers.”
Phil’s lively photographs are evidence that – not so long ago – the streets of Spitalfields belonged to children, offering them an extended playground, including the market, waste land and derelict houses, where they roamed without adult supervision.
“When I first started taking photographs in Liverpool, the children in the street would demand that I take their photographs but that wouldn’t happen today.” Phil recalled, “In those days, children were a constant presence upon the streets in every city, playing their games and enjoying themselves. In the East End in particular, a lot of children played on the street because they lived in restricted conditions – so the street was the space where they were free to run around and discover things.”
In Swanfield St
On Brick Lane
On Brick Lane
In Commercial St
On Brick Lane
In Hanbury St
On Brick Lane
In Cheshire St
In Bethnal Green Rd
On Brick Lane
On Whitechapel Rd
On Brick Lane
In Buxton St
In Arnold Circus
In Cheshire St
On Brick Lane
Photographs copyright © Phil Maxwell
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Phil Maxwell & Sandra Esqulant, Photographer & Muse
More of Phil Maxwell’s Old Ladies
Brilliant photos- I used to teach many of those children in the 80s at Christchurch Primary on Brick Lane. Noorjahan, Shueb & Sadiq etc- where are you now?
Wonderful photographs from Phil Maxwell. There are nuances of his predecessor, Horace Warner. Please keep them coming
Times that won’t come back …
Love & Peace
for JO COX (1974-2016) — R.I.P.
ACHIM
The perfect antidote to a week of horrible news. I hope that these now-grown-up young people will have the opportunity to see these wonderful, spirited photos of themselves. These images provide such insight into a child’s world, and how it feels to “inhabit” a community as a young person. To me, each young face communicated a sense of “this is my home”.
I love reading your stories every day Gentle Author also seeing the photos of Brick Lane but they are always taken E1. My grandmother had a newsagents in 266 Brick Lane and both my parent grew up in Brick Lane but it was Brick Lane E2. Any chance of photos from E2?
Wonderful photos, children are the hope we have for the future. Valerie
Great pictures Phil, as always.