Christmas At The Salvation Army

If you fancy a bracing walk as a respite from the forthcoming festivities, tickets are available for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS on New Year’s Day.

Click here to buy GIFT VOUCHERS for The Gentle Author’s Tours – the ideal present for friends and family – and I will send a handwritten greetings card to the recipients

Photographer David Hoffman took these pictures at the Salvation Army Christmas Day lunch in Cambridge Heath Rd in 1975

“On Christmas Day 1975, I was squatting in Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel and it was a bit boring because all my friends were away for the holiday. The shops were shut and I was looking for something interesting to do with the day. I had seen that the Salvation Army were holding an open Christmas lunch at Sigsworth Hall in Globe Rd so I rocked up there with my camera and, without any formality, I just started to take photographs.

It was terribly dark. I had no flash and I had to work hard in the darkroom to coax these images from the horribly under-exposed and heavily over-developed film. The prints I made at the time were flat and grey but, now that I have been able to convert them to digital files, they do look a bit better and remind me of a very different era, now lost without trace.” – David Hoffman

Photographs copyright © David Hoffman

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David Hoffman at Fieldgate Mansions

David Hoffman at Smithfield Market

David Hoffman down the Roman Rd