Comments on: David Hoffman In Cheshire St Market

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:05:32 +0000

I remember it much like this. Coming down to London and Whitechapel in the early 70s. Fascinating and a little shocking.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 13:52:35 +0000

I’m really humbled by the fact people were determined not to give up. Back in 1970 there wasn’t the welfare system that exists now, so people had to budget and find ways of managing. My dad lost his job when the mine he worked in closed, it was Victorian, waterlogged as it was under the sea and very dangerous. He was entitled to claim unemployment benefit for himself and a small supplement for me (I was 9 in 1970). However there was no assistance with things like rent so my mum had to get a part time job cleaning a local school to cover this as my dad was unemployed for 9 months and by then in his 50s. I was entitled to free school meals but my parents were horrified by this, if you couldn’t feed your children however bad your circumstances were it was like being a failure. They grew up in big families with the means test and no NHS treatment and as young adults had to serve their country during WW2.

Whilst I realise and accept a lot of families are struggling, they have a much better safety net now than ever and I sometimes wonder what they would make of generations like my late parents and how they coped.

By: achim

achim — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 12:44:05 +0000

The more I look at the photographs of the wonderful David Hoffman, the more I realize how much he has captured the human drama of existence in all its facets. I admire his work!

It’s wonderful that his work is now documented in a great book.

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 11:16:35 +0000

The working class selling their pitiful belongings to keep their heads above water. Although places like these were quiet life affirming with not a hint of self pity. Everybody smoking and laughing. Jumble sales I particularly relished as a quality jacket could be found cheaply, probably put in by the wife of a recently deceased gent. Happy days. Great pics, ta.

By: Pete M

Pete M — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 08:33:25 +0000

I remember the market and fly pitchers round there very well, and bought some great stuff ( largely interesting junk! ) over the years. A truly excellent way to spend a Sunday morning . Always got my Dr Martens boots from Blackmans down there too.
I was agreeably surprised that it lasted into the 2000s in more or less the same form, of course there was the inevitable disappointment the last time I visited, after a bit of a gap, to find it’d disappeared without trace, the buildings tarted up and everything “respectable”

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 08:13:02 +0000

The irony this is all gone .
Sadly, also nearly everyone I knew well .
This leaves an inert loneliness .
The one place left for me to go is a place in Stepney Green .

By: George Kearse

George Kearse — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 07:22:38 +0000

In my formative years I lived on Patmore Estate, Wandsworth Road one end, Battersea dogs Home and Battersea Power Station the other. The surrounds were Nine Elms, Vauxhall, Kennington, Elephant and Castle, Walworth, Camberwell, Brixton, Streatham, Tooting Bec, Wandsworth and all things central ‘Battersea’ contained within Battersea Park and Clapham Common.
Surrounded most times with bomb-sites, the other most memorable were the street markets one stumbled across here, there and everywhere. Yuppification has deemed many to disappear or be absorbed moved under cover.
Some famous ones of course still spring to mind but it’s the likes of Brick Lane which many may not realise is a collective name for a number of London markets centred on Brick Lane, Cheshire St Market being one of them.
There was no tools such Google Search and Wikipedia [to mention but two] we could reach for to learn of this detail relying on ‘word-of-mouth’ and a ‘listening ear’ to be informed.
What makes these blogs so special is that wonderful mix of descriptive written word backed with amazing photographs of the times; 279 words 1,569 characters backed with 29,000 words in photographic form.

By: Tony Hollington

Tony Hollington — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 06:25:24 +0000

This is a fantastic site with such great content. Please keep up the great work. Thank you.