At The Shops With Tony Hall
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In the sixties and seventies when these pictures were taken, every street corner in the East End that was not occupied by a pub was home to a shop offering groceries and general supplies to the residents of the immediate vicinity. The owners of these small shops took on mythic status as all-seeing custodians of local information, offering a counterpoint to the pub as a community meeting place for the exchange of everybody’s business. Shopkeepers were party to the smallest vacillations in the domestic economy of their customers and it was essential for children to curry their good favour if the regular chore of going to fetch a packet of butter or a tin of custard, or any other domestic essential, might be ameliorated by the possibility of reward in the form of sweets, whether there was any change left over or not.
Yet, even in the time these photographs were taken, the small shops were in decline and Tony Hall knew he was capturing the end of a culture, erased by the rise of the chain-stores and the supermarkets. To the aficionado of small shops there are some prize examples here – of businesses that survived beyond their time, receptacles of a certain modest history of shopkeepers. It was a noble history of those who created lives for themselves by working long hours serving the needs of their customers. It was a familiar history of shopkeepers who made a living but not a fortune. Above all, it was a proud history of those who delighted in shopkeeping.
Photographs copyright © Estate of Libby Hall
Images courtesy of the Tony Hall Collection at the Bishopsgate Institute
Noting one poster ad for Guinness above one corner shop highlighted, and reminded me, that as in areas of Newcastle upon Tyne that I lived in during tge 1970s and 1980s (before Thatcher era deregulation?), none sold alcohol. Tgat was the preserve of the offie, the off- licence, which were I take it closely regulated, with effectuvely a monopoly in tgeir local area …. save for any off-sales for suitably licensed pubs …
“Fantastic!” What great photos.
Although the shops would be grubby by todays standers…. I love em!
Thanks for your marvellous blog, I read it every day, have done for years now.
Mark
thank you….all these photos are so evocative of [my] London childhood – sixties, west London, rather than the east end, but not so different…the fishmongers shop with all the fish laid out on white ceramic slabs…the advertising signs for cigarettes – woodbine and senior service …the faces of people that perhaps the photographer saw on a daily or weekly basis. It is great that Bishopsgate Institute has these rich collections of images of the life – lives – once led in London.
Evocative, yes .. but I do think our hygiene standards have really advanced since then!
Thank you .I wish I could ho into those small neighborhood shops .Village shops where owners lived above their shops, they remembered their customers names. They were precious time in space..Modern world doesn’t care now. They only care about taking selfie’s of their own self centered faces.
I had favs i saw in the shops list. I especially loved the little Post Office and tiny car. Thank you so much.
Debra
So many people do all their shopping online, including the weekly food shop, but if we don’t use our local shops they will ALL disappear, and worse, there will be ‘No Community At All’, therefore many people, especially the older generation, will become isolated and have the dangers that brings with it. We’re social humans, and that needs nurturing through many channels.