Comments on: Moyra Peralta’s Spitalfields

By: The Idle 'Prentice

The Idle 'Prentice — Sat, 20 May 2017 22:08:52 +0000

That is the very same corner that Don McCullin took some of his photos I believe. Those sad shambling figures can still be found haunting doorways and alleyways in Spitalfields today or begging change from the beautiful young things and tourists posing for selfies outside the Ten Bells or The Golden Hart.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Sat, 20 May 2017 14:30:49 +0000

These are great photographs. They have a human touch without the lacerating darkness and anger of Don McCullin’s legendary images of Spitalfields. These have a much closer relationship to the people they depict and are all the better for it.
I knew the area well at the time these were taken and I remember the Dickensian squalor and hopelessness that these men and women lived in. The night shelter in Providence Row – and others like it around London, provided by the great philanthropists, like Rowton, Peabody and Jewish charities – are now all closed down, swept away, along with those unfortunate souls who needed them, by developers greedy for the land in what are now prime locations. It’s as if the poor don’t exist anymore.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Sat, 20 May 2017 12:19:23 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, very moving photos – thanks. Reminds me that in 2014 I spent 10 nights at the Strand Palace near Trafalgar Square. The first night I went to the LSE to hear Thomas Piketty discuss his book CAPITAL IN THE 20TH CENTURY, a cast of thousands and I was glad to get a ticket. Returning to the hotel, I slipped into an alcove off the lobby with three computers for “business use.” I started chatting with a woman on the next computer. I began sputtering about Picketty and this woman knew quite a bit about him. CAPITAL was a sensation that year.

Then I noticed that she was looking around furtively and chucked, “I am not supposed to be here.” I noticed her several other nights. Looking more closely, I noticed she did look rather “rough.” I believe there was a shelter nearby. This gal had obviously had a better life at one time but still retained her intellectual curiosity. My last night I looked for her to slip her a £20 note and say, “That’s for knowing who Piketty is,” but she was not there. I often think of this person…

By: Bailey Jones

Bailey Jones — Sat, 20 May 2017 09:44:13 +0000

Poignant and evocative. There for the grace of God.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Sat, 20 May 2017 07:28:09 +0000

It’s a great shame the Providence Row Night Shelter closed as there is such a huge need for it now.

By: Jim McDermott

Jim McDermott — Sat, 20 May 2017 01:01:17 +0000

I read or heard somewhere that we’re all just two pieces of misfortune from ruin. In an age in which food banks are expanding robustly, the gentle, quiet efforts of people like Moyra should shame our grandstanding politicians, but they don’t. Wonderful photographs