Stuart Goodman in Broadway Market
John Sims
Take a walk through Broadway Market in March 1982 with Photographer Stuart Goodman, when it was quite a different place to the fashionable destination of today.
A former Fleet St Photographer & Picture Editor, Stuart sent me these pictures. “They were first shown in 1983 at an exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall, organised by the Greater London Council,” he explained, “which was ironic really because the GLC had a massive 1000-property compulsory purchase scheme to construct a nightmare version of the Westway through East London, that included the market.”
“I first found Broadway Market by mistake in 1976 and fell in love with the place, the cobbles, the people and the Cat & Mutton pub. By 1977, I was a partner in Hot Shots, a short-lived screen printing extravaganza, and I lived in an exceptionally squalid flat above and below the shop at number 52. I met both my wives there too, though – thankfully – not at the same time.
Although I lived in Broadway Market for a few years, I only photographed it once, wandering around for a couple of hours. Now I live in Norwich but I still have connections with the place, my sister-in-law was the ladybird book lady, running a stall opposite where I once lived, and my brother sells vinyl in the upmarket bit up the road.
I miss the place, not the squalor, the outside loo, the cold – but the people, the community and, somehow, the optimism. In those days, there was not a gastro pub in sight and no-one had ever heard of a buffalo burger. ”
Photographs copyright © Stuart Goodman
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I’m not a drinker but I’d have to have a drink in a pub called The Cat and Mutton!
Wonderful!
That the photographs were taken one day, just over a couple of hours, give the photographs a feeling of being submerged in the market in a way that is now powerfully nostalgic.
How much better I liked Broadway market as it was then. (And Chatsworth Road market – and …..)
So much I miss from those days. So much that was actually happier, and more content than now.
Beautifully photographed images. I think seeing people as they go about their everyday lives a fascinating observation.
Incredible photos, my favourite is the one of the launderette.
I remember it well ! I had my first Saturday job in Foxes Chemist shop opposite the Cash Wash when I was about fifteen . I remember Mr Carr of Carrs pet shop where my siblings and I bought white mice and would sell back the babies to Mr Carr for 6d each . Mr Sims the florist , Tidimans butchers and John with the fruit and veg stall were all familiar faces . Its great that there is a record of the market as it was . Beautiful photos and I do remember you too when you were living opposite the Lee Arms ( now also gone ). Thank you for bringing back the memories.
What Amazing Pictures of the Broadway Market and its area. A sad place, but Good people who worked hard. Thank You for this history.??❤??????
Lovely, nostalgic photographs – thanks for these. We lived nearby in the early ’70s in a tiny top-floor so-called ‘furnished’ flat (a bed and chair!) and did some shopping in the market at the weekend. I remember particularly the laundrette which was up at the canal end. We’d leave our laundry here in the morning and collect it, washed and dried, on the way home from work.
Thanks for this article.
I remember the Broadway looking like this in the 1980’s.
Pollards now that’s an old shop that I remember going in with my parents and Nan.. Also we used to get our fruit & veg from the guy on the stall outside Percy Ingles – happy days
Having lived for many years in the old postcodes E8 and E5, that is Hackney and Clapton I can’t recall this market. I suppose street markets are at not top of the list for a young man whose daily journeys were to school and then work in the city. My local street market was Chatsworth Road and Ridley road and the Dalston Waste which I remember very well. Shopping then involved a frequent compulsory visit to any one of these markets for essentials and other items as there were no supermarkets at all. It is no coincidence that Stuart accidentally stumbled upon the Broadway Market. A street market was a shopping attraction only for those who lived very near it . It was something that brought together the local community.
Nowadays I do my shopping at the local supermarket but I have to use my car when I shop for my family especially when my children are at home. It is basically the only reason why I need to keep my car and not use public transport. Have we actually thought it through about having so many supermarkets for our daily needs and for the enviriomnet that we live in. Is there a better way of organising our lives? Old fashioned street markets may be disappearing but that does not mean that the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater.
Wonderful — 1982 was one of those Years when I spent my time in London Town. And then in Scotland too!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
I like the hair salon called ‘Curl Up and Dye’ !!
Great photos of a bygone age, lived off the Broadway from 1965 to 1977! Happy Days!
Lovely photos. Is that an Austin Maxi with the windscreen bashed in. I used to drive one. Very reliable. I don’t know but I think I prefer the squalor to how London looks now. Thanks Stuart Goodman!
Thanks for publishing these marvellous photographs. It’s incredible that they were all captured in one go. As Stuart says “not a gastro pub in sight and no-one had ever heard of a buffalo burger. ”
Lovely photo of the child at the “Winalot” shop.
Stumbled across this and brought back many memories. I lived in the Cat & Mutton where my mother was Bertha the landlady. We eventually left in 1977 or thereabouts but I have many happy memories of going to London Fields school and growing up as a barrow boy in the market. We used to put the barrows away in an old yard where the rag and bone man lived with his horses in Dericote St.
Some nice shots and remember having my barnet done in Curl up and Dye!!