Malcolm Tremain’s Spitalfields, Then & Now
Yesterday I took a walk with my camera in the footsteps of Malcolm Tremain to visit the locations of his photographs from the early eighties and discover what changes time has wrought …
Passage from Allen Gardens to Brick Lane
Spital Sq, entrance to former Central Foundation School now Galvin Restaurant
In Spital Sq
In Brune St
In Toynbee St
Corner of Grey Eagle St & Quaker St
In Quaker St
Steps of Brick Lane Mosque
In Puma Court
Corner of Wilkes St & Princelet St
In Wilkes St
Jewish Soup Kitchen in Brune St
Outside the former night shelter in Crispin St, now student housing for LSE
In Crispin St
In Bell Lane
In Parliament Court
In Artillery Passage
In Artillery Passage
In Middlesex St
In Bishopsgate
In Wentworth St
In Fort St
In Allen Gardens
At Pedley St Bridge
Black & white photographs copyright © Malcolm Tremain
You may also like to take a look at
Andrew Scott’s East End, Then & Now
Dan Cruickshank’s Spitalfields, Then & Now
Val Perrin’s Brick Lane, Then & Now
There’s quite a lot well-preserved and well cared for – that’s good to see.
And Bina Shoes are still there!
Those photographs were from the 80’s not the 60’s, yet, even so, hasn’t it cleaned up beautifully (in most cases)?
Only one or two show no improvement, visual or otherwise.
But, of course, they are all small-scale & “local”, not the result of grand redevelopment schemes, which should tell us something …..
That was fascinating to look at. Two things are apparent, the impact of gentrification and the rise of tall office and residential towers have made a major impact on the East end. And I suspect it’s still an ongoing process.
Thank you for doing this. One can study them for hours!
I really liked this blog. I love to see the changes, but more, I like to see the places that have remained the same or been truly improved, not just developed.
For once, change for the better! Great photos ga, love street scenes.
I don’t see the images as a sign of “progress” but rather that poverty has, to be some extent, been displaced away from the gaze of the encroaching city.Small shops and cheap homes have been replaced by premises dealing with a different demographic.
I also note – as I am sure you did – the absence of unaccompanied children breaking from images (and the reality ) of children’s experiences in Spitalfields going back decades -as you noted, for example, in your publication of Warner’s photographs.
Fascinating. Thanks for trudging around to revisit these places. I tried, unsuccessfully in most cases, to do the same using Google’s Street view when you first published the originals.
As a person who usually views your photo entries with Google Streetview open in another window so I can compare the present with the past, this was heaven for me. And a pleasure to see that many of the places remain and have even been restored. Thanks for the hard work!
GA, quite a bit of footwork on your part. Very interesting. I am happy to see that Donovan’s Paper Bag establishment has survived and been brightened up. Thank you for your efforts….
So interesting to compare.
Some better…. some worse!
Absolutely fascinating, I love the comparisons, how clever of you to align the new to the old so precisely.
Wonderful.
it has changed so much . one thing I cannot stand is the graffiti everywhere I like a brick wall to be a brick wall .thanks for showing us the photos I had a great upbringing in Bethnal green we would run wild in the streets and on the dumps till tea time great days ..
Thank you GA. It is hard to know what to say as, on the surface everything, well almost everything, looks so much cleaner and smarter, but now it could be anywhere in any town or city, so, whilst I would not want to return to the overwhelming sense of poverty in the black and white photographs, something else has been lost as well, and I think that it is a sense of identity.
I agree with the comment about the lack of children, but, sadly, this applies everywhere now, children may be much better off materially, but they are virtually all deprived of the fun and games outside that we enjoyed. I find that very worrying as that freedom that we had helped to build character and to make us individuals, I don’t think that today’s children have that. Deprivation comes in all sorts of guises and today that deprivation is a lack of freedom to play and explore. Very sad.
Fascinating. Well done.
The children are still here but they don’t play in these streets anymore. The community that existed around these streets has virtually disappeared, swept away by money, business and people with beards who sell bowls of cereal for £5 to other people with beards and too much money to spare.
Whitechapel, Aldgate, Spitalfields and Shoreditch are the last places in central London where greedy developers can get their hands on land – thanks to Boris Johnson’s dictatorship – to build their hideous carbuncles of glass that nobody except the rich can afford to buy. Norton Folgate is hanging by a thread and when it’s gone, these people won’t stop, they’ll keep demolishing and building until London is no more than an imitation of Dubai or Shanghai or even Disneyland. Take the opportunity to walk around these streets before they’re lost forever.
Great photos and very interesting to see the comparisons.
I must say I prefer the older version of the doorway in Fort Street!
Surprising to see so many buildings haven’t been trashed and even looking as though they have been lovingly renovated. If only British Land would take this approach on board.
For what it’s worth, I have the shutters from Leon’s shop which I converted into a cupboard- the other set were used by my colleague at Spitalfields Farm as window frames for his flat on Hoxton Street.
They had been ripped off and were left lying in the road so popped them onto the horse cart as we passerby as it seemed a shame to see them thrown.
We also salvaged the lamp post shown in Allen Gardens when the construction workers removed it but had to pay £10 for the honour – you can find it on site at Spitalfields Farm!