Lannette Edwards, Machinist at Burberry 1991

I have collaborated with photographer Sarah Ainslie twice in the course of my writing, both occasions were creating portraits of local cafes: Paul Rothe & Sons, near Daunt Books in Marylebone where I work, and Beppe’s Cafe in Smithfield Market near where I live. I was delighted that these pieces were published here by The Gentle Author.

In addition to writing Spitalfields Life, The Gentle Author also produces books, so I was very excited to learn that Spitalfields Life is running a crowdfunding campaign to publish a book of Sarah Ainslie’s portraits of women at work, accompanied by an exhibition of the photos. I was curious to find out how this came about, so last week I met Sarah for a chat about her life as a photographer. I began by asking her when she started taking photographs.

‘When I was ten I had a little box brownie, I think it was called a Brownie 44a and it had two different exposures, a twelve and a thirteen, so you could just press the button. I took pictures of animals and family, things like that.’

Sarah wasn’t interested in the professions suggested to her by her headmistress. ‘I think I always wanted to go into the arts. I had my portrait painted with my brother when I was nine and it was such a visceral experience. I remember thinking at the time, ‘I absolutely love this’. It was the smell of paint. We had these plums to eat and we would just sit there. My brother hated it. It wasn’t a great painting because my brother really didn’t like doing it but it was a pivotal moment for me, being in a room where someone is painting – the smell of it – very physical, and that’s the thing I love about photography and being in the dark room.

I wasn’t very good at painting or drawing so I went to Derby Art College to do photography. It was very male, there were only three of us girls in our year. We shared a dark room and we were doing quite wacky stuff, while the guys were doing pictures of cars and things. Of course, we weren’t interested in anything like that. We were painting emulsion on paper and being experimental. The three of us are still in touch. One is Canadian and I am going to be part of a show with her next year in Canada.

Then I went on a course in printmaking in Oxford, doing etching and lithographs, and I worked with two tutors as their assistant, printing editions. I had never done it before.  That’s what brought me to London, the tutors rented a printing studio and asked me if I would come and be their assistant, printing their editions. That would have been in the late seventies.

We decided we needed a space for the etching press, so I was wandering around the East End looking for studios and found myself down in Wapping where I found a studio which we used to do the printmaking. Then I took on another floor which was about 4,000 square feet and divided it up into studios. I did most of it myself, apart from the electricity and plumbing. It was right on the river, an incredible place. Today it is a gated community but it was still a working industrial building then. There were masses of artists in all these buildings and I wanted to have my own space, and I lived there. It was very raw.

I got involved with taking photographs for theatre companies as well as doing my own projects, Brick Lane, Smithfield Meat Market and Shoreditch, at night. I was working mainly in fringe theatre, I really enjoyed working with the Women’s Theatre Group, Shared Experience, Theatre de Complicite and the Almeida.

I built my first darkroom in Wapping. There were six of us and I rented it for a tiny amount of money and then sublet the space. I got to know artists who were living there as well and met a couple of filmmakers Sally Potter and Jo Ann Kaplan, and started working with them. I was working on The Gold Diggers, it was night shoots in the middle of the city and was amazing, filming in all these little hidden alleys around Bank.’

The more we talk, the more fascinated I become with how Sarah found her connection with the city and the area she has loved for so long. ‘I did quite a lot of work with City Limits. They had no money, so when they asked you to do something you got paid hardly anything, but they published my theatre pictures which was helpful for me because it meant other theatre companies saw my work.

When we were thrown out of the building in Wapping, three or four of us got together and found this other building off Columbia Rd. At that time, the whole area was all about furniture and furniture restoration. It had no electricity or running water so we had to put all that in. Friends said this was a mad place to be buying, but it’s where I am now and where I have been since the mid-eighties.’

I tell Sarah that it is no wonder that she feels embedded in the East End, but then she tells me how she worked in South Africa, a fundamental experience in shifting her photography away from theatre. ‘I wanted to get more involved with other projects and be more collaborative,’ she confirms.

‘I went to South Africa with a company called Theatre Nomad and met a woman who asked if I would I like to visit a township. ‘I work with a group of women there and I’m really happy to take you in,’ she said, ‘I’m always asking people to come but no-one ever does.’ So we went and met some of the women, and I did some portraits. Then I realised I want to go back and do more, but I had to consider how I could do that because I am not part of that world. I came up with the idea of giving the women disposable cameras so that they took pictures and then I could make portraits of them.’

At the same time Sarah began a project focussing on striptease in the East End. ‘It happened after an exhibition at Shoreditch. The guy who ran the gallery asked ‘Do you think you would be interested in taking pictures of the strippers? I was keen because the photography I had done before had been in the street but I was keen to be within a community.

Lara, one of the strippers, was trying to organise a fanzine. She wanted to have the strippers’ words and some pictures of them, and pull it all together. A lot of the clubs were closing at that point so I felt it was important. There was one on the Hackney Rd and all the strippers worked in four or five different pubs down towards Bishopsgate.  Because she trusted me, Lara took me in and I worked in the way I had worked with the women in Africa. I hung out in the toilets and the back rooms while they were changing. There was a camaraderie between the women, they looked after each other in the same way as the women in South Africa did. This project became the book, Baby Oil & Ice.’

In 1992, Sarah was commissioned by Hackney Museum to document the working lives of women in Hackney and she has continued to photograph women at work ever since, including through her work as Contributing Photographer for Spitalfields Life.

During the hour and a half we spent together I became totally drawn into Sarah’s working life as a photographer. I am amazed by how these projects have taken her into so many different worlds. To Sarah, this is her daily work but to me it is extraordinary. It reminds me of a friend’s catchphrase ‘be bold and proceed.’ When I told Sarah this she said, ‘It’s funny because I never think of myself as being bold at all.’

Sarah Ainslie and The Gentle Author have worked together on many stories over the past sixteen years. In their commitment to supporting and recording lives in their community they are perfectly matched. I wish them every success in reaching their goal of publishing Women at Work: East End Portraits 1992-2025.

Stephen & Paul Rothe. ‘I said look at each other and, of course, what happens is that when they turn back to the camera they relax a bit and smile.‘

Portrait of Daniela and her cousin Sergio outside Beppe’s Cafe in Smithfield

‘Working in this area in the eighties, I was fascinated by Brick Lane market, a surreal place where dramas were being played out in the streets. There was so much chaos, life and energy, with people displaying their personal possessions to sell on the pavements.’

‘Smithfield Market had a strange subterranean feel, where the darkness and glowing lights lit rows of animals hanging off their hooks, reminding me of a Rembrandt. This world I explored has now completely transformed into something much more clinical, losing the soul and humanity of the place it once was.’

Portrait of Rosie in her home in the Grahamstown Township, South Africa

Photos by participants in the Grahamstown project. ‘I had to think of a way of collaborating rather than just going in, taking the pictures and leaving. It was amazing. I went two or three times over a year and then we had an exhibition – part of the Grahamstown Festival. The township had never been part of the festival. It was a great project.’

Dawn, Stripper

‘I was invited to photograph women who worked in the strip pubs in Shoreditch in 1999, it was an invitation into another world. In the very intimate area of the toilets and changing rooms I heard stories about their lives, laughter, banter, boredom, drinking, glamour and camaraderie. I was there when the outfits were chosen for each strip…and there when they returned naked holding their discarded clothes and still wearing their heels.’

Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie

Click here to support publication of Sarah Ainslie’s WOMEN AT WORK

Thanks to the contributions of 68 supporters we have raised £7,174 in the first two weeks but we still have quite a way to go to reach our target of £25,000.

If you have not yet contributed please consider doing so now.

Click here to support publication of WOMEN AT WORK

Denise Martin, Street Sweeper, Hackney 1992

Annette Wakerley, Locksmith, Roman Rd 2018

Ivy Harris & E Vidal, Cleaners, Homerton Hospital, Hackney 1992

Sarah Pillar, Senior Midwife, Barkantine Birth Centre, Isle of Dogs 2012

Jane Harris, Carpenter, Hackney 1992

Janet Savage, Funeral Director, Bethnal Green 2022

Judy Benoit, Musician/Producer, Omni Studio, Hackney 1992

Mrs Mustapha, Manager Nazal Dry-Cleaners, Hackney Rd 201o

Karen Francis & Carol Donovan, Rubbish, Collectors, Hackney 1992

Perdi Finn, Gardener, Bethnal Green 2022

Lilly Claridge, Volunteer, Age Concern, Hackney 1992

Dr-Anu-Kumar, GP Elsdale Surgery, Hackney 2023

Rosemary More, Architect, Hackney 1992

Lynda Oazer, Campaigner, Solidarity Britannia Food Bank, Bethnal Green

Eileen Fischer, Domestic Violence Police Officer, Hackney 1992

Kelly Wood, Carer (with Kitty Warden) Silk Court Care Home, Bethnal Green 2022

Mrs Sherman, Dentist, Hackney 1992

Mother Erin Clark, Rector, St Matthews Bethnal Green 2022

Liz Hollingsworth, Firefighter, Shoreditch Fire Station, 1992

Frances Mayhew, Saviour & Director of Wiltons Music Hall, Wapping 2010

Donna Wood, Postwoman, Emma St Sorting Office 1992

Donna Wood, Postwoman, Emma St Sorting Office 2022

Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie

Click here to support publication of Sarah Ainslie’s WOMEN AT WORK

Click here to book for my Tour of Spitalfields

Over the last quarter century, Photographer Paul Anthony Gardner (not the famous paper bag seller of the same name) has been recording the diverse architectural heritage of the East End. In the intervening years, some buildings have been cherished while others have been neglected and too many have been destroyed, but thanks to Paul we have these atmospheric photographs as evidence.

Timber Merchant, Whitechapel, 1998

Path under Railway Bridge, Limehouse 2008

Christ Church, Spitalfields 1996

Former Dispensary, Stratford 2009

Abbey Mills Pumping Station, Stratford 1997

East India Dock Rd, Limehouse 2008

German Lutheran Church, Alie St, Aldgate 1996

Baptist Chapel, Grove Rd, Bow 1997

House Mill, Three Mills Island, Bromley by Bow 1997

Lift Bridge, Shadwell Basin 2000

Princelet St Synagogue, Spitalfields 1996

Warehouses at the Bishopsgate Goodsyard, 1999

Council Chamber, Shoreditch Town Hall 1998

Puma Court, Spitalfields 1998

St Botolph’s Hall, Aldgate, 1996

Shoreditch Town Hall, 1996

Princelet St Synagogue, Spitalfields 1996

London Tramways Shed, Shoreditch 1998

Trinity Green Almshouses, Whitechapel, 1998

Hydraulic Pumping Station, Wapping, 1996

Undertakers. Limehouse, 2007

Wilton’s Music Hall, Cable St, 1996

Photographs copyright © Paul Anthony Gardner

You may also like to take a look at

John Claridge’s East End

This weekend we launched our crowdfund and have raised £2,714 towards our target so far.

Click here to support our crowdfund to publish Sarah Ainslie’s WOMEN AT WORK

Sarah took these black and white portraits of women in Hackney between 1990 and 1991 as a commission for Hackney Museum. “I was aware there were a lot of women in the workplace but mostly in behind the scenes roles,” Sarah explained to me, “I wanted to give them visibly and also show the variety of work that women were doing.”

Terrie Alderton, Bus Driver

Loretta Leitch, Electrician

Rosemary More, Architect

Fontanelle Alleyne, Environmental Health Officer

Hackney Regristar of Births, Marriages & Deaths

Jenny Amos, Heating & Ventilation Engineer

Carol Straker, Dancer

Annie Johns, Sculptor

Sue Hopkins, Doctor at Lawson Practice Baby Clinic

Lilly Claridge, Age Concern Charity Shop Manager

Karen Francis & Carolyn Donovan, Dustwomen

Helen Graham, Street Sweeper

Denise Martin, Truck Driver

Judy Benoit, Studio Manager

Luz Hollingsworth, Fire Fighter

Diane Abbott, Member of Parliament

Dionne Allacker, Joanne Gillard, Winnifred John, Clothing Warehouse Supervisors

Lanette Edwards, Machinist

Nora Fenn, Buttonholist

Jane Harris, Carpenter

Eileen Lake, Chaplain at Homerton Hospital

Dr Costeloe, Homerton Hospital

Ivy Harris & E Vidal, Cleaners at Homerton Hospital

Sister Ferris Aagee, Homerton Hospital

Joan Lewis, Homerton Hospital

Sister Sally Bowcock

Valerie Cruz, Catering Assistant

K Lewis, Traffic Warden

Gerrie Harris, Acupuncturist

WPC Helen Taylor

Mary, Counter Assistant at Ridley’s Beigel Bakery

Mandy McLoughlin & Angela Kent, Faulkners Fish & Chip Restaurant

Terrie Tan, Driver at Lady Cabs

Maureen McLoughlin, Supervisor at Riversdale Laundrette

Anna Sousa, Hairdresser at Shampers

Jane Reeves, Councillor

Carolin Ambler, Zoo Keeper

Mrs Sherman, Dentist

Eileen Fisher, Police Domestic Violence Unit

Yvonne McKenzie, Jacqui Olliffe & Dirinai Harley, Supervisors at Oranges & Lemons Day Nursery

Jessica James, Active Birth Teacher

Di England, Supervisor at Free Form Arts

Sally Theakston, Chaplain, St John’s Hackney

Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie

Photographs courtesy Hackney Museum

Yesterday I launched our crowdfund and we raised £1,288 on the first day.

Click here to support our crowdfund to publish Sarah Ainslie’s WOMEN AT WORK

Sarah celebrates the contribution of female labour in exuberant portraits that capture the passion and struggle of the working life. Drawn from Sarah’s personal archive and her sixteen years as Spitalfields Life Contributing Photographer, this is a panoramic survey of social change over four decades.

Today we preview a small selection of Sarah’s portraits.

“It means so much to me and will be an important recognition of all the women I have photographed over the years for this book to be published by Spitalfields Life Books, a perfect home for it.”

Sarah Ainslie

Merle Curtis, Sultana Begum, Armagan Middlemast & Husna Begum, Tower Hamlets Food Bank

Afa Simpson, Painter, Decorator & Clown

Donna Wood, Postwoman, Royal Mail

Claire Carmelo, Customer Service Assistant, Bethnal Green Station

Kelly Wood, Carer, Silk Court Care Home

Kellyan Saunders, Manager, Oxfam Shop

Lucinda Rogers, Artist

Maria & Anna Pellicci,  E Pellicci

Nafisa & Marlene, Newmans’ Stationery

Rachel Hippolyte, Education Manager, Spitalfields City Farm

Anita Patel, Tesco

Sue Venning, Proprietor, G Kelly Pie & Mash, Roman Rd

Iflet, Garage Mechanic, Three Colts Lane

Anjum Ishtaq, Heba Women’s Project, Brick Lane

Mrs Mustapha, Nazal Dry Cleaners, Hackney Rd

Sandra Esqulant, Publican at The Golden Heart, Spitalfields, and Molly

Shakala, Customer Assistant at Favorite Fried Chicken

Fatima Chowdury, Jumara Noor Eli and Sumsun Nahar Shirna at Mahir Sarees in Bethnal Green

Arful Nessa, Home Machinist, Spitalfields

Laura Porter, Powerlifter, Bethnal Green

Carol Burns, Manager, C.E. Burns Waste Paper Merchants, Spitalfields

Chloe Robertson, Electroplater at Margolis Silver, London Fields

Photographs copyright © Sarah Ainslie

Today I launch a crowdfund to publish a book of the magnificent portraits of WOMEN AT WORK taken by Spitalfields Life Contributing photographer Sarah Ainslie since 1992.

Please click here to learn more

Sarah celebrates the contribution of female labour in exuberant photographs that capture the passion and struggle of the working life, forming a panoramic survey of social change over four decades.

“My pictures are a testament to the indomitable spirit of women whose work is often unrecognised, whether in factories, working from home or caring for the vulnerable – tradeswomen, community organisers, garment workers, faith leaders, artists, firefighters, shopkeepers, transport workers, cleaners and NHS staff, women who are catering, and many more who sustain and bind together communities with their warmth, labour and fellowship.

The process of searching and building relationships with the women who participate has been an adventure, and these photographs are a celebration of the generosity of these women who welcomed me into their working lives.

It means so much to me and will be an important recognition of all the women I have photographed over the years for this book to be published by Spitalfields Life Books, a perfect home for it.”

Sarah Ainslie

Please help us publish a handsome 200 page hardback to honour the work of these women who shape the fabric of our lives. We are organising a major exhibition of these portraits at the Four Corners photography gallery in Bethnal Green to coincide with publication of the book this autumn.

Please click here to learn more

Loretta Lietch, Electrician 1992 & Evie Spray, Firefighter 2022

Claire Camelo, Bethnal Green Tube Station 2022

Sabeh Miah, Mahmuda Jaigirdas, Cooks 2011 & Sister June, Sister Pam, Cooks 1992

Lanma Horton, Smithfield Market 1992

Lannette Edwards, Machinist 1992 & Hafsa Diallo, Publican, DJ 2022

Sue Venning, Kelly’s Pie & Mash 2011

Click here to book for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS

Shall we take a walk around Brick Lane with Photographer Fran May on a Sunday in 1976?

Photographs copyright © Fran May

You may also like to take a look at the earlier selection

Fran May’s Brick Lane

Click here to book

Boy, E7 1961 – “He was the son of  a friend of my father’s – Peter, an electrician who worked down the docks. To find out if anything was live, he’d stick his finger in the socket!”

Eaten up by the consumption of chocolate, this lad is entirely unaware of the close proximity of photographer John Claridge‘s lens. And, judging from the enthusiasm with which he is sticking the chocolate in his mouth, it looks like he took after his father when it came to poking fingers into holes.

These vibrant photographs reveal the range of John’s approaches to portraiture. “Most of the time I ask,” he admitted to me, “and sometimes people ask me to take their pictures, but at other times you just see something and grab it. I’ve no single way of doing it.”

“I talk to them and it is through talking that you can open a door,” he continued, ” if you’ve known someone for a while, it is very different from if they only have ten minutes to give me their soul.  So I never set people up to look foolish, I treat them with dignity because I need to win their trust.”

Offering a variety of moods and contrasted energies, these portraits share a common humanity and tenderness for their subjects. In particular, John’s self-portrait fascinates me. He says he took it in a semi-derelict toilet “for the hell of it,” but, in retrospect, it is emblematic of his extraordinary project – he was a photographer in a world that was spiralling down.

The body of work from which these photos have been selected – of which I have published hundreds in weekly instalments over the last few years – is believed to be the largest collection of images by any single photographer covering this period in the East End. In their quality, their number, and their range, they will come to represent the eye of history – but it makes them especially interesting that they were taken by an insider. When he took these photographs, John Claridge was an East Ender looking at the East End. John was taking portraits of his own people.

Clocking Off, Wapping 1968 – “He was a neighbour and I arranged to meet him down at the warehouse after work.”

Boxer, E16 1969 – “A chap putting on his wraps at Terry Lawless’ gym in Canning Town. I walked in and I was talking to the guys – and I just took the picture.”

Man at Booth House Salvation Army, Whitechapel 1982 – “I printed this picture for the first time the other day. They guy is somewhere else, but I didn’t notice until this week the man with the camera taking the picture on the television.”

Children at the Salvation Army Care Centre,  Whitechapel 1970s – “Some children were permanently in care and others were just there for the day. I can’t tell which these were. People only came in these places if there was a problem, if their dad was in the nick or their mum couldn’t take care of them.”

Worker at the Bell Foundry,  Whitechapel 1982 – “You expect a man who works lugging bells around to be brawnier than this, but he’s got his cardigan on and he looks like a watchmaker.”

Antiques Dealer, E6 1962 – “He sold everything, penny farthings, paintings, cigarette cards … everything. I used to go down there and see him, and have cup of tea and poke around.”

My Dad in the Back Yard, E13 1961 – “He had a deck chair and he sat in the garden with a cup of tea. I said to him, ‘Just sit and don’t do anything,’ and he’d just laugh. Great times! There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about him.”

Mates in Wapping, 1961 – “I think we were going down to the Prospect for a drink. I was seventeen years old, so everyone’s seventeen. It was Sunday and everyone’s got polished shoes. I haven’t been in touch, but they’re still around – I haven’t seen them for years.”

Man and Mannequin, Spitalfields 1965 – “This was just off the market. He’s listening to a portable radio on earphones. It looks like he has a mate with him and their bellies are almost touching.”

Edward and Mrs Simpson,  Spitalfields 1967 – “Another kind of portrait. I love the military jackets for sale and Edward’s got one on, while Wallace is hiding and pointing him out.”

Caretaker at Wilton’s Music Hall, Wapping 1964 – “It said, ‘Please ring for caretaker.’ So I rang for the caretaker. I said, ‘Are you the caretaker?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I said, ‘May I take a photo of you?’ and he gave me this lovely smile.”

Self-Portrait, E14 1982 – “It was an old toilet in Poplar, in use but at the end of its day. The mirror was still there. People asked me if I ‘d done self-portraits, so I thought I’d do one down there for the hell of it.”

My Mates, 1961 – “We all went out from the East End for the day somewhere. It might have been Southend, Brighton or Clacton, but I remember it was freezing.”

Man in a Knitted Hat, E17 1964 – “This was at Walthamstow Town Hall. He’d finished his fight, had a shower, put his hat on to keep warm, and we were chatting over a cup of tea. He was a visiting fighter from the States and his shirt says, ‘The Big Apple.'”

Woman in Her Kitchen, E12 1969 – “She had no home and a young family, and was staying in a building that was derelict. The council didn’t want people to use it, so there was barbed wire outside. It was a shelter, and they asked me to go down and take pictures to show how people were living there.”

Tony Moore and Joe Gallagher, Wapping 1970 – “Tony was an ex-heavyweight boxer and Joe was my ex-father-in-law. They look like they’re about to sort somebody out.”

My Friend JB, E14 1972 – “We met when we were both fifteen years old and working at McCann Erickson. We were both Eastenders. He was an incredible designer. He had a wonderful sense of humour. He died of a heart attack. He looked like a villain, and one day we went to New York together, and were in Little Italy in a restaurant, and this guy came in and said, ‘I remember you!’ I said, ‘We’d better get out of this place.'”

My Son, Spitalfields, 1982 – “I went along on a home visit with the Salvation Army and I saw this picture on the sideboard. I said, ‘Is that your son?’ and she said, ‘Yes, he was killed in the war.'”

Headless Bear, E2 1964 – “I just came across it. He had his head burnt off. He was lying there at the edge of a bomb site.”

Photographs copyright © John Claridge

You may also like to take a look at

John Claridge’s East End

Along the Thames with John Claridge

At the Salvation Army with John Claridge

CLICK HERE TO BOOK

A contemplative moment at the Tower

Rummaging through the thousands of glass slides from the collection of the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, used for magic lantern slides a century ago at the Bishopsgate Institute, I came upon these enchanting pictures of the Tower of London.

The Tower is the oldest building in London, yet paradoxically it looks even older in these old photographs than it does today. Is it something to do with the straggly beards upon the yeoman warders? Some inhabit worn-out uniforms as if they themselves are ancient relics that have been tottering around the venerable ruins for centuries, swathed in cobwebs. Nowadays, yeoman warders are photographed on average four hundred times a day and they have learnt how to work the camera with professional ease, but their predecessors of a century ago froze like effigies before the lens displaying an uneasy mixture of bemusement  and imperiousness. Their shabby dignity is further undermined in some of these plates by the whimsical tinter who coloured their uniforms in clownish tones of buttercup yellow and forget-me-not blue.

As the location of so many significant events in our history, the Tower carries an awe-inspiring charge for me. And these photographs, glorying in the magnificently craggy old walls and bulbous misshapen towers, capture its battered grim monumentalism perfectly. Today, the Tower focuses upon telling the stories of prisoners of conscience that were held captive there rather than displaying the medieval prison guignol, yet an ambivalence persists for me between the colourful pageantry and the inescapable dark history. In spite of the tourist hordes that overrun it today, the old Tower remains unassailable by the modern world.

The Ceremony of the Keys, c.1900

Salt Tower, c. 1910

Byward Tower, c.1910

Bloody Tower, c. 1910

The Tower seen from St Katharine’s Dock, c.1910

Tower Green, c.1910

View from Tower Hill, c, 1900

Upon the battlements, c. 1900

View from the Thames, c. 1910

Bell Tower, c.1900

Bloody Tower, c. 1910

Courtyard at the Tower, c.1910

Byward Tower, c 1910

Yeoman warders at the entrance to Bloody Tower, c. 1910

Vegetable plot in the former moat adjoining the Byward Tower, c.1910

Byward Tower, c. 1900

Water Lane, c 1910

Rampart, c 1900

Yeoman Gaoler – “displaying an uneasy mixture of bemusement  and imperiousness.”

Middle Tower, c. 1900

Steps leading from Traitors’ Gate, c. 1900

Steps inside the Wakefield Tower, c. 1900

The White Tower, c. 1910

Royal Armoury, c. 1910

Beating the Bounds,  c. 1920

Cannons at the Tower of London, c. 1910

Queen’s House, c. 1900

Elizabeth’s Walk, Beauchamp Tower, c. 1900

Yeoman Warder, c. 1910

Tower seen from St Katharine’s Dock, c. 1910

Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

Residents of Spitalfields and any of the Tower Hamlets may gain admission to the Tower of London for one pound upon production of an Idea Store card.

You may like to take a look at these other Tower of London stories

Chris Skaife, Raven Keeper & Merlin the Raven

Alan Kingshott, Yeoman Gaoler at the Tower of London

Graffiti at the Tower of London

Beating the Bounds at the Tower of London

Ceremony of the Lilies & Roses at the Tower of London

Bloody Romance of the Tower with pictures by George Cruickshank

John Keohane, Chief Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London

Constables Dues at the Tower of London

The Oldest Ceremony in the World

A Day in the Life of the Chief Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London

Joanna Moore at the Tower of London

The Gentle Author’s Tour of the City of London: Meet me at 2pm on EASTER MONDAY on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral for a tour of sightseeing and storytelling, rambling through the alleys and byways of the Square Mile in search of the wonders and the wickedness of the City. (Also booking for Spring Bank Holiday Monday 4th May)

CLICK HERE TO BOOK

A costume fitting

In the late seventies, Contributing Photographer David Hoffman documented the religious drama enacted upon the streets of Stepney around Easter time, recording astonishing images of magical realist intensity which feel closer to the medieval world than to our own day.

Gordon Kendall who played Jesus wrote this memory of his experience.

‘On a cold wet and depressing evening in April 1980, well over 100 actors, production crew and 2000 people lived through the experience of Our Lord’s Way Of The Cross enacted in the streets and estates of Stepney.

The excitement and challenge of playing Jesus really began on the Sunday before the event. Some of the actors were trying out their costumes and they looked very impressive.

Half way through the rehearsal, I needed to visit the toilet and so excused myself from the bodyguard of soldiers in costume. I knocked at the door of a flat. A lady came out and I requested the use of her toilet. She looked at me very oddly – she was a elderly lady – and she asked me who I was. I replied I was playing the part of Jesus and she flashed me a look which revealed she did not believe me, but she said ‘Come in.’

As I went through the flat I could see someone sleeping on the sofa in the lounge. When I closed the bathroom door, I could hear the woman waking up her friend and saying, ‘Nell, there’s a man in the toilet who says he’s Jesus.’ Then I heard some rapid movement and I could only wonder at the thoughts of this woman, struggling to her feet.

There was a knocking at the front door as I came out of the toilet  and the two women opened it to be confronted by a fierce Roman Centurion in full regalia, asking if Jesus was in the flat. Fortunately, they relaxed into joyous smiles and it was kisses and handshakes all round as we departed.’

Roman soldiers

Jesus in flares

The arrest of the two thieves

Preparing for the crucifixion

A Roman legion marching

Pilate speaks

Roman soldiers at St Dunstan’s

Jesus consoles Mary

Bespectacled Jesus

Roman Centurion in regalia

Jesus gives himself up

The march to the crucifixion

The soldiers stripping Jesus of his raiments

Crucifixion courtesy of Whitbread

Behold, Jesus is risen in St Dunstan’s Church!

Photographs copyright © David Hoffman

You may also like to take a look at

David Hoffman at Fieldgate Mansions

Click here to order a copy of David Hoffman’s Endurance & Joy in the East End 1971-1987