Comments on: Philip Cunningham’s Portraits

By: Bailey Jones

Bailey Jones — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 11:28:15 +0000

What a treasure trove of photographs. I love the sense of community activistism that permeates these images, as well as their quality.
A wonderful archive. Will there be a book, I wonder?

By: Amos Julien

Amos Julien — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 20:42:50 +0000

Some good photos here especially the ones in relation to Kingsley Hall. Its a reminder of how ease and innocence can reach out to the most remotest part of our own selves in that memories remain undimmed by the passage of time.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:08:35 +0000

Love the pic of the kids with Eddie Marsan in the middle, that little lad has gone on to become one of Britain’s best actors.

By: Di Corry

Di Corry — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 20:19:47 +0000

Born in Bethnal Green and having lived near Victoria Park long before it became renamed Victoria Park Village, these photos remind me of those happy days and the characters that lived there.
I remember John the Greengrocer in Globe Road, kids playing on bomb sites and yes, Mile End Waste and all it’s attractions…. happy days.
How lovely to see that great actor and East End boy Eddie Marsan in his superman outfit!

By: John Venes

John Venes — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:49:22 +0000

Just to endorse these comments and add a thought, if I may.
Like lots of us here I lived in the area until 1975 when I got married and joined the eastward drift to Essex…
But, anyway, all the scenes and people look so familiar yet it’s all changed beyond recognition and the old folks gone.
I have great memories of growing up in Bethnal Green but do feel a sense of melancholy looking at these photos and what we have lost.

By: Lesley Bown

Lesley Bown — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:02:05 +0000

Lovely pictures. Out here in the sticks we still have shops that sell everything including paraffin!

By: Jeanne Kasten

Jeanne Kasten — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:01:39 +0000

Wow, I never expected to see someone I know about in the pictures! That’s a wonderful picture of Michael Rosen, I wonder if he knows about it?

By: David S

David S — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:31:02 +0000

I found this which contains a bit more info about the band…

https://steveshone.tripod.com/#earlyyrs

By: achim

achim — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:13:11 +0000

Scenes from a time when I was in London, England and Scotland for the first time. The photos capture this atmosphere wonderfully. And, amazingly, flared pants are back after 45 years — surprise!

Michael Rosen has become a wonderful children’s book author. There are no limits to his fantasies — I admire him!
https://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/videos/

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Christine Swan

Christine Swan — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:59:46 +0000

What wonderful memories! Thanks dear GA and Phillip. Funnily enough, the latter ones cut across the very start of my teaching career which started in East London too. In fact, I remember the teachers’ strike because I was still at university but we went to the match and rally. If you worked in a tough school, you forged friendships for life. I am still in regular contact with ex-colleagues. Schools were/are special places that can give kids a chance. Some didn’t want it, but we tried nonetheless. Great to see a youthful Michael Rosen here – how amazing to have been taught by him!
I also remember smoke in the staffroom so thick, you could not easily see from one side to the other, Friday pub lunchtimes ( would never happen now!), and teachers shouting from the staffroom window for volunteers to go to the local pie and mash shop as an early version of Deliveroo. Payment was also made through the window a few minutes later. Times were simpler back then. Gosh I feel old.