Comments on: Ron McCormick’s Spitalfields & Whitechapel

By: Chris Hall

Chris Hall — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 17:45:54 +0000

The woman in an alley off Quaker Street, is actually Lucy Parker in Tailworth Street off Spelman Street E1

By: Nigel Grizzard

Nigel Grizzard — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 10:25:00 +0000

What great photos. I was a student at QMC from 1970-1973 and this is the area as I remember it.
Rundown, filthy and decrepit but with great character!

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 20:48:16 +0000

Thanks again for publishing more photographs from Ron. They are an extraordinary and beautiful record of the East End.

By: Sheila Spivack (nee- Cohen)

Sheila Spivack (nee- Cohen) — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 16:34:15 +0000

I would like to purchase a few copies of ‘Shoe Shop’ Wentworth Street, where Jack Cohen, my father, is outside the shop, pointing out shoes to a customer.

Would you kindly let me know if this is possible.

Many thanks

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 09:53:24 +0000

Thank you all above for your encouraging comments, they are greatly appreciated.
Thank you especially Ronnie Cohen for the telling story about your mother and the foundations of the business. I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me have the names of your mother and father so I can update my information on the photograph. many thanks in anticipation, R.
You can email me via communimedia@virginmedia.com

By: Ronnie Cohen

Ronnie Cohen — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 21:59:37 +0000

Dear Gentle Author, Thank you so much! The photo labelled ‘Shoe Shop, Spitalfields’ shows my father outside 58 Wentworth Street showing the shoes in the window to a lady customer. I have never seen this photo before! Around 1910 the shop had originally been rented by his mother who decided to sell shoes. She had no stock nor money, but persuaded a nearby shoe manufacturer to “lend” her a pair of children’s shoes which she displayed in the window. The shoes were sold within hours and she triumphantly made her way back to the manufacturer to pay for the shoes and borrow a further two pairs. Once the business was established, it did a brisk trade and my grandparents managed to bring up 11 children above the shop. Due to a redevelopment in the 1970s, the shop was forced to move to Middlesex street but continued trading until 1991 when, after 81 years selling shoes, it was sold to a jeweller.

By: bellehelen

bellehelen — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 18:35:56 +0000

Wonderful photos. Spitalfields had so much more character then even if it was scruffy.

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 15:41:11 +0000

Beautifully composed and every picture truly does tell a story. Brilliant.

Do children still skip nowadays? If not perhaps it would be good idea to reintroduce it, it is a very enjoyable way to keep fit and, for some of those that I have seen recently, to lose a bit of weight as well. Fat children do not seem to appear in these photos.

Thank you as always GA.

By: Murray Batley

Murray Batley — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 08:16:39 +0000

Wonderful empathy in these shots, best of the genre I’ve seen. Thank you Ron Mccormick

By: Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 08:16:22 +0000

Such evocative photographs