Dan Cruikshank’s Spitalfields Photographs
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Dan Cruickshank took these photographs between 1969 when he first came to Spitalfields and 1977 when he led the campaign to stop British Land destroying Elder St. “I did it to document the buildings that were here then,” he explained to me in regret, “but sometimes you’d go back the next Saturday and there’d be virtually nothing left.”
Barrowmakers in Wheler St
Baker in Quaker St
Quaker St and Railway Dwellings
Junction of Bethnal Green Rd & Redchurch St
Weaver’s House at the corner of Bacon St & Brick Lane
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, now demolished
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, only those in foreground remain
Weavers’ houses in Sclater St, now demolished
Corner of Sclater St & Brick Lane
Houses in Hanbury St, now demolished
Houses in Hanbury St, now demolished
Old House in Calvin St, now demolished
Elaborate doorcase in Wilkes St, now gone
Brushfield St
Brushfield St, buildings on the right now demolished
Brushfield St, buildings on the right now demolished
Buildings in Brushfield St, now demolished
Brushfield St, buildings on the left now demolished
Looking from Brushfield St towards Norton Folgate
Selling Christmas trees in Spital Sq
Spital Sq with St Botolph’s Hall
Folgate St with Dennis Severs’ House in the foreground, houses in the background now demolished
House in Folgate St, now demolished
5 & 7 Elder St during squat to prevent complete demolition by British Land
Partial demolition of 5 & 7 Elder St
Rear of 5 & 7 Elder St during partial demolition
Inside 7 Elder St
Douglas Blain of Spitalfields Trust reads a paper in the loft of 7 Elder St after the roof was removed
Alleyway off Folgate St
Photographs copyright © Dan Cruickshank
You may also like to take a look at
Philip Marriage’s Spitalfields
[youtube UMQBhsJCU7Y nolink]
Tower Hamlets Council Planning Committee will make a decision on Norton Folgate on 21st July so you have until then to object. Click here for your guide to how to object.
The group of young people who squatted, including Dan, were very much unsung heroes. Thanks for sharing his photos of a very different era
Those images resonate with me because my aunt Ray and my mother, Sarah, found refuge thereabouts in the early years of the 19th century. Ray and her husband, and growing family made their long-term home at 61 Wilkes St until the war made it expedient to move to Hendon. Even then Ray’s husband carried on his furrier’s business in the very glassy top floor. I think that the glass survived all the bombing, amazingly. So I remember visiting, and the brewer’s drays and the great horses in the street outside. And the voice-pipe and whistle by which uncle Wolf could communicate with his wife and children downstairs.
90 years old now; there cannot be many who still remember homes in that area as it once was. And I was born in a nursing-home nearby.
Thank you, such a pity they couldn’t all have been lovingly preserved as was Dennis Severs’, instead of left rotting away – cursedly being so close to the City’s ‘high flyers’ backyard..
Sad that such lovely old buildings fell into dereliction and had to be demolished. When I worked at Spitalfields I used to like walking along Brushfield Street, it just seemed to have a nice feel to it.
Walked through Brushfield St and the then Spitalfields Market every day on my way to and from school (Spital Square). We didn’t appreciate those old buildings and the warm atmosphere of the market porters throwing us an apple as we stepped over the detritus of a busy day in the market. My grandfather and/or uncle picked up their supplies every morning at 4 am. They had a market stall in Watney St.
You don’t know what you have got, until it’s gone. It is very true of buildings and the environment. We don’t need to keep building from new. It’s a tragedy that so many of these historic buildings have been lost. As others have said, those folk who tried to prevent their loss have been proven correct. Elder St is a remnant of what once was, loomed over by the ugly monstrous towers of hipster Shoreditch.
By the way, and I am sure that your readers are aware, Dennis Severs’ House are fundraising for urgent chimney repairs. Please do help if you can. Maintenance of this type is essential and also expensive. Thank you.
My father and his family lived in Princelet Street off Brick Lane. The houses were in decay, but I loved to wander the streets of Spitalfields during the 60’s and 70’s, on my way home from school, and admire the faded beauty of the peeling paint, and crumbling facades, whilst imagining the lives of people that had lived there in the past. Much to my mother’s dismay, I would mooch about Club Row and Brick Lane on Sunday mornings, then over to Petticoat Lane via Spitalfields. Dan’s photos transport me back to that moment in time. Whilst my grandparents house has been renovated in recent years, my old school, Central Foundation School for Girls in Spital Square, has not been so lucky! All that remains of the building is the school hall that is now a restaurant.