Ron McCormick’s Spitalfields & Whitechapel
Today it is my pleasure to publish a third installment of Ron McCormick’s fine photographs of Spitalfields and Whitechapel taken in the seventies when he lived in Princelet St
Carrying bicycles over Pedley St bridge
Street musician in Brick Lane market
Faces in the crowd, Commercial St
‘The boys’ pass time on the steps of the Great Synagogue, Fournier St
Costa cobblers, Hanbury St
Engineering works, Heneage St
Engineering works, Heneage St
Bottling girls in the Truman Brewery
Mother and toddler, Buxton St Holiday Club
Street scene, Whitechapel
Flower seller, Whitechapel
Shoe shop, Wentworth St
Mr & Mrs Ali with their children, Brick Lane
Bakery, Whitechapel
Leaving Spitalfields, Artillery Passage opens onto Middlesex St
Family playtime in streets off Whitechapel Rd
Cheshire St market
Girl and her grandmother, Great Eastern Buildings, Quaker St
Rooftop playground, Great Eastern Buildings, Quaker St
Roof of Great Eastern Buildings, Quaker St
Tenement buildings, Spitalfields
Street singer, Brick Lane market
Diamond merchants, Black Lion Yard
Woman with dogs in alley off Quaker St
Photographs copyright © Ron McCormick
Cafe Royal Books have published two books of Ron McCormick’s photographs of Whitechapel and Spitalfields. Click here to order copies
A new expanded hardback edition of Chris Searle’s Whitechapel Boy, a reading of the poetry of Isaac Rosenberg including a photoessay by Ron McCormick is now available. Click here to order
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Woke as usual in far away Nicosia to find your absolutely wonderful photography..
It brought back so many memories from the past, good bad and ugly and it will certainly stay with me for some time to come..Thank you
Such evocative photographs
Wonderful empathy in these shots, best of the genre I’ve seen. Thank you Ron Mccormick
Beautifully composed and every picture truly does tell a story. Brilliant.
Do children still skip nowadays? If not perhaps it would be good idea to reintroduce it, it is a very enjoyable way to keep fit and, for some of those that I have seen recently, to lose a bit of weight as well. Fat children do not seem to appear in these photos.
Thank you as always GA.
Wonderful photos. Spitalfields had so much more character then even if it was scruffy.
Dear Gentle Author, Thank you so much! The photo labelled ‘Shoe Shop, Spitalfields’ shows my father outside 58 Wentworth Street showing the shoes in the window to a lady customer. I have never seen this photo before! Around 1910 the shop had originally been rented by his mother who decided to sell shoes. She had no stock nor money, but persuaded a nearby shoe manufacturer to “lend” her a pair of children’s shoes which she displayed in the window. The shoes were sold within hours and she triumphantly made her way back to the manufacturer to pay for the shoes and borrow a further two pairs. Once the business was established, it did a brisk trade and my grandparents managed to bring up 11 children above the shop. Due to a redevelopment in the 1970s, the shop was forced to move to Middlesex street but continued trading until 1991 when, after 81 years selling shoes, it was sold to a jeweller.
Thank you all above for your encouraging comments, they are greatly appreciated.
Thank you especially Ronnie Cohen for the telling story about your mother and the foundations of the business. I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me have the names of your mother and father so I can update my information on the photograph. many thanks in anticipation, R.
You can email me via communimedia@virginmedia.com
I would like to purchase a few copies of ‘Shoe Shop’ Wentworth Street, where Jack Cohen, my father, is outside the shop, pointing out shoes to a customer.
Would you kindly let me know if this is possible.
Many thanks
Thanks again for publishing more photographs from Ron. They are an extraordinary and beautiful record of the East End.
What great photos. I was a student at QMC from 1970-1973 and this is the area as I remember it.
Rundown, filthy and decrepit but with great character!
The woman in an alley off Quaker Street, is actually Lucy Parker in Tailworth Street off Spelman Street E1