A World Apart: East End 1970-1976
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Lady in her Sunday best, Brick Lane Market, by Ron McCormick 1970
Opening at Four Corners Gallery in Bethnal Green this Friday 24th October, A World Apart: Photographing Change in London’s East End 1970-76 captures a unique moment in the East End.
Rarely seen photographs document a now-disappeared world where Bengali migrants lived side-by-side with elderly Jewish shopkeepers, dockers still socialised in Wapping clubs and pubs, while neighbours and children celebrated at the raucous E1 festival.
A young generation of photographers were drawn to record people’s lives at this moment of rapid transition and to advocate for social change. A World Apart features photographs by Ian Berry, John Donat, Exit Photograph (Nicholas Battye, Diane Bush, Alex Slotzkin & Paul Trevor), David Hoffman, Jessie Ann Matthews, Ron McCormick, Dennis Morris, Val Perrin, and Ray Rising.
Man on his way to the Sunday Market, Club Row, by Ron McCormick 1971
Brick Lane by Ron McCormick 1971
Clockseller in Cheshire St by Ron McCormick 1971
Spitalfields by Ron McCormick 1971
Schmaltz herring shop, 35 Old Montague Street, Ron McCormick 1971
Clothing sweatshop in Whitechapel by Ron McCormick 1973
Watch repairer in Black Lion Yard by Ron McCormick 1973
Kays Hair Fashions by Jessie Ann Matthews c.1973
In Settle St, Whitechapel, by Ron McCormick 1971
Jalalia Stores, 79 Hessel St, by Ron McCormick 1971
Zysman’s Delicatessen & Pickle Shop, 49 Hessel St, by Ron McCormick 1973
One of the last remaining shops in Hessel St by David Hoffman c. 1972
The bulldozers move in on a shop in Hessel St by David Hoffman 1972
Child playing in tenement courtyard by David Hoffman c. 1972
Laura Buckley dancing with a friend at the E1 Festival by David Hoffman 1975
E1 Festival steel band by Diane-Bush 1973
E1 Festival Dockland Developer Dunk by Diane Bush 1973
Wapping family at a window by Paul Trevor 1973
Young people with a derelict building by Diane Bush 1973
Demolition at Colonial Wharf by Exit Photography 1973
Wapping Pier by Exit Photography 1973
© All photographs copyright of the respective photographers
A World Apart: Photographing Change in London’s East End 1970-76
Friday 24th October – Saturday 6th December, 11am – 6pm Wednesday – Saturday
Four Corners, 121 Roman Rd, Bethnal Green, E2 0QN
Click here to order a signed copy of ‘Endurance & Joy’ by David Hoffman
A time in my head and the rest of me .
Thank you .
Andy
Tough life. Tough community, but each individual strong and resourceful. I applaud them all.
The last photograph, Wapping Pier, is haunting, poignant.
I started commuting from SE London to EC3 in 1975. I used to walk around Aldwich East and Whitechapel even up to the Worship Street and Curtain Road area, but even then I hardly remember many scenes like this. The shop closures were all already mostly completed. I knew nothing of the actual East End or even Spitalfields which fast disappeared in the few years immediately before my presence.