Spitalfields In Kodachrome
March 25, 2023
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Photographer Philip Marriage took these pictures on 11th July 1984
Crispin St
Widegate St
White’s Row
Artillery Passage
Brushfield St
Artillery Passage
Brushfield St
Fashion St
Widegate St
Artillery Passage
Gun St
Brushfield St
Gun St
Brushfield St
Parliament Court
Leyden St
Fort St
Commercial St
Brushfield St
Photographs copyright © Philip Marriage
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6 Responses
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There is a sharpness with “real film” that is missing from my smartphone snaps. I find myself thinking: ” What was I doing on 11th July 1984?” I’d just finished, or was finishing, my PGCE at the Institute of Education in Russell Square so didn’t tend to head East that much at that point in my London life. It was in my early teaching career that I did and I applied for jobs all over the area and ended up in Dagenham.
It’s been interesting to match these photos to my own, much more recent ones. The streets look tidier but I am sad about the gentrification of Spitalfields, and other areas, that have driven out small businesses and families. Still a very special place and one of my happy places, thanks GA
I can almost smell these photos. (The odour of the market was pungent in those days!)
This is exactly as I remember the Spitalfields, when I started my first job in Heneage Street in 1983 or ’84.
I find it shocking to see how much street litter there is in almost all of the photos, it makes 21st century streetscapes look pristine.
Kodachrome was a 35mm format, so why are all these images square format? Great colour quality that has stood the test of time, and due for a revival, if only the processing chemistry wasn’t so complex. Good to see these.
Lovely crisp photos , almost there yourself. I hope some of these streets have at least survived although I’d imagine those that have would almost certainly of been swallowed up by developers and corporate investors .
In answer to Brian’s question (above) these pictures were taken using a 1950-1960s German Stereograms Iloca 3D camera so you are only seeing one ‘chip’ of a 3D pair. Like all stereo cameras it has two lenses, taking two images of each view (each 23 x 24mm) a slight distance apart, giving 28 stereo pairs on any regular 35mm film. Each pair has to be viewed using a stereoscope or with special glasses to be seen in 3D with the left eye seeing only the left image and the right eye seeing only the right – the brain then combines this into a stereo view (as it does all the time).
During Lockdown I spent some time processing each of these pairs for viewing in different 3D formats on screen and cropped each to be exactly square. I have donated a disc of these pairs to the Bishopsgate Institute and the Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives including a pair of cardboard red-green glasses for anaglyph viewing if you happen to be passing and wish to be transported back to 1984.