Tony Bock’s East Enders
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Clock Winder at Christ Church, Spitalfields
Here are the East Enders of the nineteen seventies as pictured by photographer Tony Bock in the days when he worked for the East London Advertiser – the poncey dignitaries, the comb-over tories, the kids on the street, the market porters, the fascists, the anti-fascists, the shopkeepers, the sheet metal workers, the unions, the management, the lone dancers, the Saturday shoppers, the Saturday drinkers, the loving family, the West Ham supporters, the late bride, the wedding photographer, the kneeling politician and the clock winder.
Welcome to the teeming masses. Welcome to the infinite variety of life. Welcome to the exuberant clear-eyed vision of Tony Bock. Welcome to the East End of forty years ago.
Dignitaries await the arrival of the Queen Mother at Toynbee Hall. John Profumo kneels
On the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral
National Front supporters gather at Brick Lane
Watching a National Front march in Hackney
Shopkeepers come out to watch an anti-racism march in Hackney
A family in Stratford pose in their back yard
Wedding photographer in Hackney – the couple had been engaged many years
West Ham fans at Upton Park, not a woman to be seen
Sports club awards night in Hackney
Dancers in Victoria Park
Conservative party workers in the 1974 electoral campaign, Ilford
Ted Heath campaigns in Ilford for the General Election of 1974
Ford workers union meeting, Dagenham
Ford managers, Dagenham
Press operator at Ford plant, Dagenham
At Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park
Brick Lane Sunday Market
Saturday morning at Roman Rd Market
Spitalfields Market porter in the workers’ club
Photographs copyright © Tony Bock
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Stunning photos gentle author thank you .
The recent East End “anti-racism” counter-protests had their own quiet curiosities. In Whitechapel, the crowd of masked men in coordinated black looked less like a festival of tolerance and more like a very committed dress rehearsal. The chanting and the theatrics carried a certain… atmosphere.
And, in a small twist of irony, it was rather striking to see the gentlemen adopting the sort of dress code they usually insist upon for the women in their families. Progress of a sort, perhaps.
I imagine those who stood at Cable Street long ago would watch all this with raised eyebrows. They opposed bullying and dogma in any costume; they didn’t expect to see it return wrapped in the language of anti-racism.
How these images take me back to my youth! Very evocative!
Wonderful scenes from everyday life. Alongside demonstrations, protests and speeches, there is always — LIFE. And right in the middle of it all is Prime Minister Edward Heath. When I asked an elderly gentleman in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s what EC accession had brought, I can still see his defensive raised hands: ‘“Incredible! The price of bread has doubled!”’
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Wonderful scenes from everyday life. Alongside demonstrations, protests and speeches, there is always — LIFE. And right in the middle of it all is Prime Minister Edward Heath. When I asked an elderly gentleman in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s what EC accession had brought, I can still see his defensive raised hands: ‘“Incredible! The price of bread has doubled!”’
Love & Peace
ACHIM