Dan Cruickshank’s Spitalfields Photographs
Dan Cruickshank took these photographs – many of which are published here for the first time – between 1969 when he first came to Spitalfields and 1977 when he led the campaign to stop British Land destroying Elder St. “I did it to document the buildings that were here then,” he explained to me in regret, “but sometimes you’d go back the next Saturday and there’d be virtually nothing left.”
Barrowmakers in Wheler St
Baker in Quaker St
Quaker St and Railway Dwellings
Junction of Bethnal Green Rd & Redchurch St
Weaver’s House at the corner of Bacon St & Brick Lane
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, now demolished
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, only those in foreground remain
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, now demolished
Corner of Sclater St & Brick Lane
Houses in Hanbury St, now demolished
Houses in Hanbury St, now demolished
Old House in Calvin St, now demolished
Elaborate doorcase in Wilkes St, now gone
Brushfield St
Brushfield St, buildings on the right now demolished
Brushfield St, buildings on the right now demolished
Buildings in Brushfield St, now demolished
Brushfield St, buildings on the left now demolished
Looking from Brushfield St towards Norton Folgate
Selling Christmas trees in Spital Sq
Spital Sq with St Botolph’s Hall
Folgate St with Dennis Severs’ House in the foreground, houses in the background now demolished
House in Folgate St, now demolished
5 & 7 Elder St during squat to prevent complete demolition by British Land
Partial demolition of 5 & 7 Elder St
Rear of 5 & 7 Elder St during partial demolition
Inside 7 Elder St
Douglas Blain of Spitalfields Trust reads a paper in the loft of 7 Elder St after the roof was removed
Alleyway off Folgate St
Photographs copyright © Dan Cruickshank
You may also like to take a look at
I could hardly bear to look at these photos. What a tragic waste – such awful cultural vandalism.
Wonderful photos but sad to see the words ‘now demolished’ under most of them. Thank you.
The houses in Hanbury Street, when would they have been built?
Through family on my father’s side we had connections to many of these streets. I couldn’t bear to look at all the photos as I realized so much had been lost. It made me feel so sad, a deep sense of loss came over me even though they are only brick and mortar, the history cried out but wasn’t heard.
Breaks my heart, still going on.
Thoughtless vandalism.
Its not all cultural vadalism. So many of the houses were no longer fit for human habitaion. I remember where my father lived as a child in Raven Row behind the London Hospital . We would visit his mother who lived there until the mid 60 ‘s . All you could do with them was knock them down and rebuild . Naturally took this as the green light for everything. Give them an inch and they took miles
Design legend Alexander Girard said:
“I believe we should preserve the evidence of the past, not as a pattern for sentimental imitation but as nourishment for the creative spirit of the present.”
Even in their diminished condition, these vintage buildings provide so much nourishment; and (in theory) should inspire current-day urban designers. Yet, we end up with soul-less towers and disposable architecture.
Thanks for always shining a light, GA.
Great pics.
Jack the Riipper stalked these streets followed by Joe Orton stalking labourers.
So sad to see lovely old buildings that perhaps could have been restored were instead demolished. I spent a couple of years working in Spitalfields at the tail end of the 90s and have fond memories of the area’s vibrancy and friendliness, I would have loved to have been able to live there.
“I knew well that ghosts can cling stubbornly to life and that sometimes they are more present than the living.”
Philippe Claudel, ‘Brodeck’s Report’ (2009)
Brushfield St – walked through there every day on way to and from school in Spital Square. How sad to see it looking so desolate. Even though it’s all now rebuilt, mostly with glass edifices reaching for the sky, the beautiful old buildings are sorely missed.
Incredible images taken by Dan C, but heartbreaking to know how much of it has been demolished. Criminal!
Heartbreaking
So glad for your foresight in taking these wonderful photos.
Susan Taylor’s question about the age of the houses in Hanbury St really addresses a key question: whether due to natural decay and disintegration it is inevitable that an area like Sptalfields should fall into ruin and be reconstructed in a new form — the fate befalling various parts of it at present (e.g. the British Land rebuild) and bemoaned by many, including me.
I do not know the answer. Evidently some premises have been revitalised, but it is not clear whether or (espec. financially) how a larger area could be rescued and rebuilt.
I wish that some authoritative opinions could be expressed here. They might either save a lot of needless anxiety or else point out a secure way forward.
… a bit too far East for Joe I reckon.
How sad to have lost so much. Louis Phillips’ shopfront was a good example of the early Victorian era. Dickens would have recognised it.
Very sad, but what a champion for the area Dan has been. Inspirational.
How could ‘they’?
Thank you Dan.
My Great Grandfather had a paper shop just up the road at No 71.
‘Further west up Hanbury Street at number 71 was a bookshop and newsagent run by an anarchist couple,the Rudermans , both born around 1865-6 in the Russian Empire (at Haradok, now in Belarus). Baruch Ruderman, known sometimes as Barnett Ruderman in British newspaper reports and censuses, had been a student at the Yeshiva (Talmudic school) at Volozhin, in what was then Lithuania and is now Belarus. It was the most prestigious Yeshiva within the Russian Empire. After some of his fellow students introduced him to secular studies and to Russian and German books, he had “severe clashes with his fanatically religious parents he broke with Judaism. He arrived in London at the end of winter 1882 ( other sources say 1884) and two years later moved to socialism. He was a pioneer of the Jewish workers movement in London and one of the founders of the Arbeter Fraint Club. Ruderman branched out from bookselling to publishing in the following years, being the first to publish radical books in Yiddish in England. Among these were several additions of the writings of the anarchist poet David Edelstadt (1892, 1900 and then 1911) as well as works by Gorky, many of these publications appearing under the imprint of Rudermans Folḳs Bibliyoṭheḳ.’
I wonder if anyone has a photo?